morning and afternoon apple

Enticed by its big welcoming sign (“Apples! Quinces! Pears!”, or something like that), we decided to check out a local apple orchard and immediately found ourselves pacing down a row of fruit-heavy apple trees leading in from the road.  Even on that gusty grey day, we could smell the apple in the air, and were very excited to bring home a big bag of granny smiths and quinces for a little bit of orchard-goodness at home.  This weekend we had an apple-baking bonanza, and I want to recommend two excellent recipes if you might be in a similar apple-baking mood.

First, there was  Molly’s apple tart-cake. The golden glow you see in this photo is from the glorious morning sun that decided to come out yesterday just at apple cake photo time.

This cake is something that you can pull together from everyday ingredients, and, with the help of a food processor, is straightforward to make.  The amazing thing is the tart-cake base, which starts out being crumbly and mealy: but somehow, during cooking this base mixture both sets at the bottom and bubbles up to fill the nooks and crannies of the apple slices up above.  Who knows how a base mixture can know to do both things?  And in terms of technique, no special cake making skills are here required.  Once  you press the tart-cake crumbs into your tin, then just you need to really pack in the apple slices on top (as prettily as you please), and then do the topping stage.  I pretty much decided to follow Molly’s recipe so won’t repeat it here.  (Though next time I make this one, I will take up some of the suggestions in the comments to reduce the sugar in the base from 1 cup to 3/4 cup.)

Second, my husband requested apple pie.  Cindy led me to a recipe for old-fashioned apple pie by Martha Stewart, which uses a fabulous pate brisee recipe for the pastry that I had tried with great success in the past (eg for beetroot and feta tart).  This recipe is the real deal, and has a very simple idea for the filling (just sliced apples tossed in lemon juice, sugar and spices with some flour and butter).  I have never made apple pie from scratch before so followed the recipe closely, but I would like a bit more of the spice flavour next time.  But I admit I was a little daunted by the prospect of making a pie that uses 1.8kg of apples, so decided to make a half quantity.  Here’s the resulting golden pie, in the rather less golden glow of the afternoon sun by our window.  While the pie here looks like it is bathed in mysterious cool blue light, the photo is taken in the same spot as the apple tart-cake was the previous morning.  I promise you that the pie was as appropriately bronzed and burnished as a sugar-crusted apple pie should be!

(And because even with half the amount of apples I could not fit them in, this is the little ramekin-pie I made with the leftover filling and pastry scraps.)

 

Sort of swiss

A recent work trip to Switzerland provided the ideal opportunity to conduct some sideline research on something which the Swiss can fairly claim authority: muesli.  I set out to try a different kind of bircher muesli every day, and very nearly succeeded:  I was given some on the aeroplane, then I had some from the local bakery, a few different kinds from the corner supermarket, and some from the hotel breakfast bar too.  All very tasty, but I can report that the highlights were one with stewed rhubarb, and another made with a strawberry yoghurt base.

Another branch of my muesli research centred on the muesli bar.  This was something I had already been preoccupied with back home, in an attempt to find something tasty,  easy to make and healthy for my son.  Many of the supermarket-bought varieties here seem to contain about 1/3 of their weight in sugar, which is far from ideal.  Unfortunately, my Swiss supermarket research yielded much the same results (except that they did also have my favourite flavour – pear!).

So when I returned I resolved to have another go at home-made.  These turned out a tasty, chewy mix – which I loved and so far my son seems to take to as well – but I think the key to this recipe lies in your mixture of dried fruit.  I used 1/3 dried apple, 1/3 turkish dried apricot, 1/3 dried figs, and the end result turned out to have a dominant apricot flavour.  I guess the end result was only very vaguely Swiss, so maybe I should just try to hunt down some dried pear to make a healthy version of those delicious pear muesli bars…

Rustic Muesli-Bar-Bites

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup dessicated coconut
2 weetbix, crushed (or 1/2 cup wheatgerm)
1/2 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
400g mixed dried fruit, chopped (see notes above)
1/2 cup currants or sultanas
2 eggs
1/2 cup fruit juice
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180C, and line 2 trays (25cm x 17cm) with baking paper.

In a large bowl,  combine the dry ingredients, including the dried fruit.  Stir to mix well.

In a small bowl, stir together the wet ingredients.  (Don’t worry if the honey doesn’t mix through properly at this point.)

Tip the wet ingredients into the dry, and stir very well to mix through.  Press the mixture into the baking trays, making the tops as smooth as you can.

Bake for 35-35 minutes, until the tops are just golden and the mixture has shrunken away slightly from the sides.

Cool in the tins until the bars are cool to the touch, then cut into whatever size bars or squares you like.

Yield: Depends on the size of your bars, but I got out 42 bites from a batch.

 

get back into gnocchi

Just a very quick post to report on an improbably tasty discovery: pan-fried gnocchi.  I have long been wary of supermarket gnocchi, and have never made it with any success from scratch at home, so when I chanced on a few internet recipes that descibed a method of cooking them straight from frozen, I was intrigued.   I’m sure you could transform this many different ways with whatever vegetables you have on hand, so let me know how you go.  I’m totally back into gnocchi with this cooking technique.  And even though you could make it into a truly decadent dish by upping the butter quantity to make something more like a burnt-butter sauce, for a weeknight meal that can be on the table in 20 minutes and that uses just one pan and just one big spoon of butter, I’m sold.

Pan-fried gnocchi with spinach and mushrooms
Adapted from Vegetarian Times

375g ready-made gnocchi (from the fridge, or I used frozen)
150g mushrooms, sliced
150g baby spinach
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 generous tablespoon butter

Melt the butter in a large frying pan, and heat on medium-high until the butter is sizzling.  Tip in the gnocchi all at once and fry, stirring well to coat in the butter.  When bronzed on all sides, remove from the heat and set aside.

Return the pan to the medium heat, and add in the mushrooms.  Fry till just softening, then add the garlic and spinach.  Turn the vegetables over well to wilt the spinach.  When all the spinach is just wilted, return the gnocchi to the pan to heat through.  Season with salt and pepper.

Yield: serves 2-3 for a main

 

cream and more cream

For his birthday dinner this week, my cream-and-dairy-loving husband requested creamy spinach pasta.  I was happy to oblige with this old favourite, and when trying to think about what might go best for a simple but celebratory dessert, a chocolate fudge sauce I’d seen in Nigella Express came to mind as an ideal vehicle for the remaining double cream.

Now, this isn’t a meal for everyday, and isn’t a meal for when you’re counting calories.  But, in its defence, the pasta sauce does use a vast amount of English spinach leaves (2 bunches!), and does feed 4 ravenous people.  It really is a very simple idea, and the spinach puree-sauce provides a wonderfully tasty coating for the pasta.  If you’re pressed for time, I would say that semi-dried tomatoes could substitute really well for these oven roasted ones.

There’s really no way to think of any healthful defence of this chocolate fudge sauce (which I think is like a sublime version of the trashy thrill of Reece’s peanut butter cups), unless you count the fact that it is so rich and delicious you won’t need more than a couple of spoonfuls of it over your favourite icecream.  (I don’t know what Nigella was thinking in saying that this recipe serves 4:  I would say this quantity of fudge would top 10-12 regular-sized sundaes generously.)

Creamy Spinach Pasta
Adapted from Vegie Food

Note:  the original recipe calls for fresh spinach fettucine.  I couldn’t find that this time, and instead used this pretty (dried) egg fettucine with a single ruffled edge.  Up to you.

6 roma tomatoes, cut into wedges
40g butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, chopped
500g English spinach leaves (about 2 bunches worth)
250mL vegetable stock
1/2 cup double cream
400g pasta (see note above)
shaved parmesan, to top

Roast the tomato wedges tossed in a bit of olive oil at 220C for about 30 minutes, until softened.

Put the pasta on to cook.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a large pan, and good the garlic and onion over medium heat until the onion is soft.  Then add the spinach, stock and cream, and push down the spinach to wilt.  Bring to a boil and simmer rapidly for 5 minutes.  Allow to cool slightly, then puree with a hand blender or in a food processor.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside until the pasta and tomatoes are ready.

When everything is cooked, tip the creamy spinach sauce into the drained pasta and toss well to coat the pasta.  Serve into bowls, and top with the roasted tomato and parmesan shavings.

Yield: 4 generous servings.

Chocolate peanut butter fudge sauce
Minor adaptations from Nigella Express

175mL double cream
100g milk chocolate, chopped
100g smooth peanut butter, chopped
2 tbsp golden syrup

Place all the ingredients into a saucepan and stir over low heat to melt and to combine all the ingredients.  In 2-3 minutes the sauce will be ready.

We had this with vanilla and caramel icecream, with some chopped salted peanuts on top.  Delicious.  Go crazy with it and let me know what you suggest.

Yield: enough for 10-12 sundaes.  Keeps in a jar in the fridge, and reheats just fine with a gentle burst in the microwave.

 

at home with zucchini

A month or so of travelling for work and with family has meant that food-wise, things have been fairly up and down.  Certainly, I’ve enjoyed some great food while travelling, but I do always find myself somehow missing my kitchen, and especially missing the simpler foods that I feel so used to in our everyday fare.  This recipe was something I made a few weeks ago, inspired by a friend’s question about new ways with zucchini. Though this isn’t exactly new – it is just a bit of a take on the classic zucchini bake – in bite-sized bits it was somehow both delicate and substantial at once, tasty and healthy, and totally picnic-ready.

This recipe doesn’t come from just any zucchini bake recipe:  it’s from a very special book of recipes that was given to me by my women friends and family before I was married.  Instead of a bridal shower gift, everyone contributed a recipe that they wanted to share.  Each page is decorated, and some recipes have little stories with them.  It’s the kind of book that lives in a special box on a special shelf, and that I have to put way over on the kitchen table when I’m using  it to keep it far away from the risk of spatters and other cooking mess.  This zucchini bake recipe came from my mum’s cousin and her family.  I have made the version as it is written – with bacon – which is very tasty, but here I substitute corn kernels and I think it works really well too.

I think that as far as vegetable-to-non-vegetable ratios go in recipes, this one comes out pretty well.  The bulk of the volume of ingredients is zucchini and corn.   (To make it even lower in fat – if this is your aim – I’m sure you could reduce the cheese or use reduced fat cheese.)  Also, I experimented with shapes and used half the batter in mini-muffin trays and the other half in a shallow loose-bottomed tart tin.  While the tart tin is pretty, I think the texture of the mini-muffin shapes worked best (and, I should add, are easier for little fingers such as my son’s to get a grip on).  It’s a pretty forgiving mix so see what works for you.

So while I’m a homebody again I look forward to the chance to reconnect in some small way through these special recipes, and at the same time get a bit more of that good old veg.

Zucchini and Corn Bites
Adapted from a family recipe

500g zucchini, grated
6 shallots (green part only), chopped
130g can creamed corn
1/2 cup corn kernels (frozen is fine)
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese, plus an extra handful for the top
3 eggs
2 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180C and prepare your trays: I used a 12-hole mini-muffin tray plus a shallow 20cm tart tin (see text above for more info).  The cooked mixture is lighter and less cohesive than a muffin mixture or a quiche mixture, so I used a tiny bit of cooking spray on my silicone trays to help coax the little bites into staying all in one piece.

In a large bowl, combine zucchini, shallots, creamed corn and corn kernels.  Stir in flour and cheese.  Make a rough well in the centre of the mix, and add the eggs and the oil there.  Stir from the inside out, bringing everything together loosely.  Season well with salt and pepper.

Spoon into your trays, smooth the tops and scatter over a bit of the extra cheese if using.  Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top is just golden.

Yield: about 12 mini-muffin sized bites plus one tart.

 

gone a-picnicking

A confluence of random factors led me to this happy experiment: what to bring for sweets at a picnic, when the day is forecast to be just hot enough to numb the mind and slow the senses, which could be eaten with fingers only, which would be robust enough to survive transportation on the back of a push-bike, and which could make use of my mostly-full tub of sour cream?

These little bites were salvaged from the leftovers to show you just how sturdy they are.  And yet, the effect is still somehow light-tasting and strangely delicate with the drizzled icing.  This cake is largely a variation of this recipe for a “blueberry bake” but I opted for raspberries because I just love the way they mush into whatever they are baked into and yet  retain their amazing colour.  The original recipe calls for walnuts but I was aiming for a kid-friendly version here:  if that’s not a concern, I’d try pistachios or almonds.

Raspberry sour cream tray cake
Adapted from Cuisine

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon each bicarbonate of soda and baking powder
200g sour cream (reduced fat is fine)
1 tbsp lemon juice
250g raspberries (frozen is fine)

For the icing
3/4 cup icing sugar
zest of half a lemon
2-3 tbsp hot water

Preheat the oven to 175C, and prepare a 30×21cm shallow baking tin.  (I used a silicone one that was unfortunately a bit too small, so there was some overflow, but that didn’t hurt the rest of the cake.)

Beat the soft butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl with electric beaters until pale and creamy.   Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

Into another bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.  Get your sour cream and lemon juice ready.

Fold in half the flour mix into the butter mixture, then alternate with half the sour cream, then the remainder of the flour, and finally the remainder of the sour cream and lemon juice.  The mixture will be quite stiff.

Spread out the cake batter into your prepared tray and smooth out the surface until even.  Scatter over the berries (still frozen is fine) – don’t worry if they sit on top as they will sink in later.  Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.  Cool completely in the tin.

When you are ready to ice, mix all the icing ingredients with a spoon, and drizzle over the cooled cake.  Cut into squares (I cut 24 out of mine) when the icing is completely set.

Yield: about 24 small pieces.

 

crunch!

A recent lunchtime visit to a favourite cafe on the South Side meant just one thing for me:  the crunchy salad, please!  I was so taken by the idea of this salad that I was inspired to try a version at home a bit more suited to our tastes (ie not only chicken-free but celery-free!).  I’m pleased to say the result will be a keeper, judging by the giant amounts that we polished off that day.  I love all the colours in this salad, and the combination of all the different kinds of crunch together with the tangy-sweet creaminess of the dressing binding it all together.

It’s essentially a coleslaw-based salad (the coleslaw dressing is adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe), tossed with green salad leaves to lighten it, with a few other bits and pieces added just for fun.  I love caramelised pecans in a salad, but if you are pressed for time or it’s just too hot to turn on the oven, just regular pecans will do fine.  And the crunchy noodle bits?  Well, there’s no real reason why they should work in a coleslaw, but trust me: they’re worth a try here.

Crunchy salad with apple and caramelised pecans

For the dressing
100g whole-egg mayonnaise (about 1/2 cup)
3 tbsp buttermilk
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp apple or cider vinegar

For the salad
1/2 cup caramelised pecans*
1/4 red cabbage, shredded
1 medium carrot, grated
2 spring onions, sliced finely
125g mixed salad leaves
1/2 red apple, thinly sliced and tossed in a little lemon juice
1/3 cup crunchy noodle pieces (ready-to-eat, from a packet)

* To make basic caramelised pecans, spread the nuts on a tray lined with baking paper.  Sprinkle over 1 tsp icing sugar, and roast in at 200C for about 10 minutes, checking frequently.  They should be done when the nuts are slightly darker in colour and smell wonderful.  Set aside to cool before using.

In a medium bowl, mix together the dressing ingredients till well combined.  Then throw in the shredded cabbage, grated carrot and spring onions, and turn well to coat the vegetables evenly in the dressing.

In a large serving bowl, mix together the salad leaves, cabbage mixture, apple slices, pecans and noodle pieces.  Serve immediately.

Yield: about 3-4 meal sized servings

 

alchemy, or, that’s gold!

There’s a vague memory somewhere of a high school science class in which we wore pinafores and made honeycomb over bunsen burners and gauze mats, and let the golden mass harden in misshapen trays on the benchtops.  It must have been quite a sight to see!  A quick search on the web tells me that in terms of the science, the magic of honeycomb is that once you add bicarbonate of soda to the hot toffee mixture, the bicarb breaks down to release carbon dioxide gas into the toffee, causing it to foam up.  How ’bout that.  Well, in terms of its culinary worth, I’d have to rate honeycomb right up there as one of my favourite sweets, for its dense syrupy sweetness and its hard yet airy, crumbly-chewy texture.  Delicious.

I’m aware that making sweets in January is probably not strictly necessary, given the excesses of December and all.  So here’s a recipe for the honeycomb in the context of an otherwise extremely healthful yoghurt-based dessert idea.  We’ve already given some away to friends to help us eat through the batch, but I’m quietly hoping that our stash of little golden chunks and the dust will last us just a bit longer.

Passionfruit and honeycomb yoghurt with fresh fruit
Inspired by Nigella’s Hokey Pokey

For a single serve of the yoghurt
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
Pulp of half a passionfruit, a bit reserved for the top
Fresh fruit (I used nectarines)

For the honeycomb
100g sugar
3 tbsp golden syrup
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

To make the honeycomb, first line a tray with baking paper or foil.

In a large, heavy saucepan, heat the sugar and golden syrup until all the sugar has melted (takes about 3-5 minutes).  Stir as little as you can.

When the toffee is the colour of maple syrup and bubbling well, take off the heat and whisk in the bicarbonate of soda.  Immediately tip onto your prepared tray.  Leave until completely cool and set, and break into many pieces with a rolling pin (or I used a tin of baked beans!).

To assemble the dessert:  Stir together the yoghurt, 1/2 passionfruit and 1 tbsp of honeycomb crumbs until mixed.  Dollop over your fresh fruit of choice, and scatter over a bit more passionfruit and honeycomb.  Yum!

 

spicy dates

Apart from being tasty and high in fibre,  dates – I recently was glad to learn – are a fairly decent source of iron.  So that’s just another reason to recommend this easy and flavoursome date loaf.  It’s a melt and mix kind of thing, doesn’t need any fancy equipment, and you’ll soon have afternoon tea sorted and lunchbox treats for the next day too if you’re lucky.   I snaffled some for work and think it was even better than fresh out of the oven.

Perhaps it had something to do with the special mysterious goodness that came from the German lebkuchen spice mix that I used here: the cinnamon, cardamom and clove flavours complemented the dates really well.   In the absence of the spice mix you could probably substitute your own blend of those ground spices – maybe even a half-and-half combination of cinnamon and ginger, which I’d be keen to try next time – or you could skip the spices altogether for a satisfying, simple fruit loaf.

Spicy date loaf
Adapted from the Sanitarium website

1 1/2 cups chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp margarine or butter
1 cup water
1 egg
1/2 cup each of self raising white and wholemeal flour
2 tsp lebkuchen spice mix, or other spice mix of choice

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a shallow loaf tin (14 cm x 21 cm) with baking paper.

Place the dates, sugar, margarine and water in a small saucepan.  Bring to the boil, then simmer lightly for 2 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

When the date mixture is just cool enough to tough, add in the egg and stir through the flours and spices.  The loaf  batter doesn’t melt much while cooking so if you want a loaf with a nice neat top, smooth out the top of the cake batter now.

Yield: 1 loaf, about 12-14 slices.

 

leftovers, again

First leftover haloumi, now leftover roast vegies….. This year I’m determined to make a better attempt at being creative with the bits and bobs in our kitchen – whether they be in the fridge or pantry.  So in that spirit, here’s a quick post to tell you about this salad.  The idea of it is based on a recipe originally given to me by a friend (thanks Edwina!) which involved roasting up the vegies from scratch, and including red capsicums and zucchini in the mix.  You can use whatever mix of vegetables you like, but I tend to think that the pumpkin and sweet potato worked best here, and we probably could have done with a bit less normal potato.  But that’s leftovers for you, and all in all it was a reincarnation much enjoyed.

Roast vegetable and couscous salad with basil and balsamic dressing
Adapted from a recipe from Edwina

About 500g mixed roast vegetables (I recommend pumpkin, sweet potato, parsnip)
1/2 cup instant couscous
2 large handfuls baby spinach

For the dressing
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
6-8 basil leaves, cut into strips

In a small bowl or jug, pour 1/2 cup boiling water over the couscous, cover and let sit for a few minutes.  Stir through with a fork to separate the grains.

Then, mix all the dressing ingredients in a jar or cup, and season with salt and pepper.

Tip the roast vegetables into a large bowl, and pour over about 2/3 of the dressing.  Taste, and add more dressing if needed (I find that the amount of dressing needed seems to vary according to the vegies).  Then stir through the couscous.

Plate up the baby spinach, and tumble the roast vegetable and couscous mix on top.

Yield: serves 3-4 as a main