Ruining myself with mother's little helper or helping myself with mother's little ruin!

It has been known as 'mother's little helper' and/or 'mother's ruin' but gin has always been one of my favourite drinks. How fortuitous that I should find myself living in a country where they make the most wonderfully aromatic gin and it only costs $6 a bottle!

Unless you have been to Malawi you are unlikely to have come across Malawi Gin but it is a truly superb little number and whether 'ruining' or 'helping' it makes for a nice end to the day.

Gin and tonic has always been popular in places like Africa and India. The gin was good for killing off nasty bugs in the gut and the tonic, which in older times actually did have quinine in it, was good for killing off malaria. Absolutely medicinal was G&T and I think it still is.

It has been a less than productive week with no progress on power points, overhead fans, air conditioners or generators. Well, not much progress and certainly nothing material. Although we have had material success on the curtain front.

We met Peggy at Akbanies at 2p.m. on Friday and stood in the heat waiting. A young woman with a baby strapped to her back wandered past, wandered back, wandered past and then stood to one side. I suspect it was the Malawi way of begging where you just hover and hope.  She made no gesture and so I just smiled which is what I would have done anyway had she asked for money.

It did not take long for Peggy to remember that Zaeem, the young man who runs Akbanies, was Muslim which meant that the rest of Friday afternoon was pretty much a write-off. The Muslims and Jews seem to be on the same page in terms of end of week piety: Shabbat and Jumu'ah effectively shutting down most business.

So we went home and agreed to meet the next morning at ten. We had already chosen quite a few fabrics but Peggy had more experience and dismissed a couple because the fabric was prone to flaws.  We also had to check how far the 'dirt' went given that a lot of the rolls were very dirty on the edges where they had been sitting on the floor.

We pretty much started again other than the brown, lightly patterned fabric we had chosen for the main living room. Once selected we had to find out if Zaeem had enough of each fabric. Of course he didn't so it was back to the rolls for second and third choices for all of the other rooms.

With a final selection available in adequate quantities it was on to block-out fabric. This is a must in the bedrooms but we thought it would also be good, because of the heat, in the other rooms. Busily measuring out a white block-out we were then told that Zaeem had forgotten that the American Embassy had ordered all of his blockout and he had none to sell.

'They needed it,' he said, 'to try to keep out the light at night, floodlit as the embassy was.' Pretty much like all American embassies in a world where they are not much liked and have to live in brilliantly lit compounds where they feel more protected. It's not that they have such a problem in Malawi in particular or Africa in general but there is a large mosque in Lilongwe and I am sure there is a general rule for all American embassies no matter how benign the country may be.

LEFT: The mosque in Lilongwe.

But Zaeem had a solution. He had some blockout backed fabric... in this case the colour of mulberry... which he would sell for the same price. Peggy gave the okay and as it turned out I think we are going to have a better blockout effect than we would have done with the American's choice.

However, we were not there yet. After a bit of measurement it was clear that there was only enough for the master bedroom. Did I see Zaeem shaking his head from side to side as he talked in that 'yes/no' way that Indians have? Probably.

We could wait a week and a half, he said, when he would have some more. But in Africa it pays to make use of the moment and not rely on future promises. We would settle for the ordinary lining for the other rooms so that Peggy could get to work and we would have our curtains in a week. In truth, we are not likely to have a lot of visitors and if we do they are not likely to stay for long periods so early mornings will just be the way of things for anyone sleeping in the spare bedrooms.

Our/my needs had been met and that was what mattered most of all. So, fabric should be in Peggy's hands by Monday and on our windows a week later. When, if all goes well, we might have our goods.

Maxwell rang from Stuttafords on Thursday to say that the goods had been cleared in Beira but there was a backlog in terms of documentation. That might take a few more days to be presented; then the goods would take 2-3 days to get here and then they would have to be cleared and then they could be delivered.

That means we have a week or two to get the air conditioner, overhead fan and extra power points sorted. The generator is likely to take longer.

Otherwise it has been a quiet week. Greg spent four days up at the mine in Karonga; came back with a colleague who stayed the night and there we were, at the end of our fourth week in Lilongwe.

I managed to keep up with my baking, generally avoiding power cuts mid-cake so to speak. I have a few recipes now which are quickly made and which cook within an hour so if the power goes off midway the heat in the oven will generally see the cake cooked.

I would of course be absolutely stuffed if the power went off five minutes after the cake went in but I am not going to go there. At that point I would probably need a gin and tonic no matter what time of day it was.

One of my most successful cakes is Banana Cake. In Malawi, the land of bananas, where they sell complete hands of bananas on what feels like most street corners, I invariably have a heap of very ripe bananas every week.

I hate ripe bananas and always have.  I can't stand the smell of them and while I am happy to dole some of them out to the guards, gardener and Limited and Mbwe, the Virgo in me wants to put things to practical use.

Funnily enough I don't mind banana cake as long as it doesn't taste too much of bananas. Anyway, my hatred of very ripe bananas comes, I believe, from being hospitalised when I was one with pneumonia. Apparently I nearly died so must have been in a pretty bad way; no doubt more traumatised by the fact that my parents had just disappeared and I had been left with strangers who 'tortured me.' I use the word torture because I am sure to a small child the medical processes do feel like torture.

And, in those days, and for a few decades beyond it, the view was that parents were best kept away from sick children and so the child was delivered to the hospital and did not see her or his parents until he or she was collected. Barbaric of course and not the way it is done today once more enlightened views took hold.

 What does it have to do with bananas you might ask? I was eating one, standing in my cot, my mother told me, when she came to collect me. Babies are always given very ripe bananas to eat as opposed to less ripe and I am sure, as I stood there, eating this very ripe banana, seeing the mother I am sure I thought was dead or certainly never going to return, the synaptic connection snapped into place: ripe bananas mean trauma and the thought of them makes me want to be sick.

I have to say, very ripe bananas is one of my few dislikes in food and the only one I have never managed to overcome. I still hate the smell but can hold my nose long enough to make a cake.  And I think it is easier with this particular cake because the bananas are mashed into melted butter.

I alternate adding nuts, sultanas and cinnamon or mixed spice to vary the basic recipe. I have typed this recipe up for Limited. He is very interested in my cake-making and I thought I could teach him to make some simple cakes which require few ingredients and no electrical kitchen equipment - other than the oven that is.

BANANA CAKE

Grease cake tin with butter and line bottom with greaseproof paper.

5 ripe bananas

1 ½ cups plain flour

120 grams butter

¾ cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Half cup walnuts (or sultanas)

Pinch of salt

Melt butter. Mash bananas with butter.

Add beaten eggs, vanilla essence, salt and bicarbonate of soda.

Add flour and mix until combined.

Put mixture into tin and smooth top.

Bake in centre of oven at 180C.

Cool in tin. Run knife carefully around edge of cake before turning out.

My other favourite is this version of boiled fruit cake. If you make twice the mixture it also converts into an easy Christmas Cake. Just decorate the top with blanched almonds. It won't last as long as a traditional christmas cake (see below) but it can be made at the last minute and will certainly last for a couple of weeks.

BOILED FRUIT CAKE

375grams mixed dried fruit (you can just use sultanas or raisins)

100g soft brown sugar

110g caster sugar

1 cup water

2 eggs

50g butter

2tabs brandy (optional)

1 tsp vanilla essenc3

2 tablespoons golden syrup (heat the spoon to make measuring easier0

300g (two cups) self raising flour

80 g (half cup blanched almonds)

Heat oven to 180C.

Grease loaf pan or round pan with butter and line bottom with greaseproof paper.

Place dried fruit, brown sugar, caster sugar, water and butter in saucepan. Bring to boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for four minutes. Leave to cool.

Add golden syrup, vanilla essence and almonds. Then add flour and beaten eggs and mix well.

Bake in oven for about an hour until cake moves from edge of pan or a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.