Butterscotch Bounty from Ricki

Some weeks ago, I was heading out to take Sylvia to the doctor and on the way I checked my mail box. There was a parcel from Ricki of Dessert Diet and Dogs. I was too impatient to wait to open the parcel and found myself oohing and aahing in the waiting room. The doctor had to call Sylvia's name twice to get my attention. Ricki had not only sent gorgeous clothes for Sylvia but also a packet of butterscotch chips for me.

Ricki had kindly remembered Sylvia's birthday and found a wonderful card with a giraffe on it. I have never seen such a fantastic birthday card that doubled as a memory book with little sections to fill in information about the birthday. No doubt this will be something that Sylvia will love to look back on when she is little older.

Ricki also sent a little clothes package for Sylvia's birthday. I am sure she will proudly wear her Canadian clothes as soon as she fits into them. And isn't the denim jacket gorgeous!

Most exciting for me was the packet of butterscotch chips. I have read of them on blogs but never encountered them in Australia. Having a partner who is constantly asking for butterscotch in baking means I am constantly coming across recipes using them. I was so excited I had to use them that very night.

We all know the feeling of seeing every recipe requiring a particular ingredient when it is not available and once you have it in your hands, all these recipes disappear. Fortunately the butterscotch chips gave me a double opportunity to show Ricki some appreciation of her generosity.

Which brings me to my shame file! A long time ago I received another parcel from Ricki with a Whole Foods shopping bag, a Canadian t-shirt and a cookbook titled Toothsome Recipes & Historical Sketches. The bag has been filled many times, the t-shirt has been worn and loved, and, while I have spent many happy hours pouring over the book, I have never cooked a recipe from it. It was time to make amends!

Let me tell you a little about the book. It is a scrapbook of recipes from historic collections. I love some of the names like Cut and Come Again Cake, Blueberry Pandowdy, Slippery Jacks and Pumpkin Jam. The recipes are often delightfully vague and incomplete in the way of cooks who knew their methodology so well that they only needed scraps of information to make a cake or batch of cookies. If only I was so well versed in baking as our foremothers.

But I like using recipes as a crutch, even if I often change them depending on whim and availability. I found a recipe for banana choc chip muffins and decided it would be a good one to start cooking with butterscotch chips. I seem to always have bananas around the house now that Sylvia eats (and rejects) them far more than E or I ever have. I also had buttermilk and used brown sugar to increase the caramel flavour.

The butterscotch chips had been in the mail box for most of a warm autumn day. When I opened the packet I seemed to have a butterscotch sludge but if you looked beyond that, many of the chips had kept their shape despite the Australian heat. Some butterscotch chips for the muffins and a few melty ones clinging together for me.

When the butterscotch banana muffins came out of the oven, they smelt amazingly good. Rich, buttery, caramelly, sweet and delicious. In fact they were so good that I think it is probably just as well I don't have them at my beck and call in the supermarket just down the street. E also was very partial to the muffins. Not only did they smell heavenly but the texture was also just the right softness. These muffins would have been excellent without the butterscotch and it has crossed my mind that it would be worth trying them with regular chocolate chips.

Even Sylvia was quite fascinated by them and quite disappointed that she couldn't just shove them in her mouth when she helped me photograph them on her new rug. I thought that Ricki would have appreciated the muffin moose on the rug!

I thought that the rest of the butterscotch chips should be used in something full of chocolate. I found a generic rich brownie recipe and substitute butterscotch chips for walnuts. They were good - you can see from the photo how dense and fudgy the brownies were - but not as good as the banana muffins.

The few remaining chips then disappeared quietly and quickly - and not just into me. I am now torn between begging Ricki to send more butterscotch chips and sternly admonishing her never to send me such sweet temptations again. I am very grateful for the chance to try them and wish life was as simple and sweet as a bag of butterscotch chips.

Butterscotch banana muffins
Adapted from Corinne Thimot of Amie de Grand Pre in Toothsome Recipes and Historical Sketches

• 1¾ cup plain white flour
• ½ cup brown sugar
  
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
  
• ½ cup butterscotch chips (or choc chips)
  
• 1 egg
  
• ¼ cup cooking oil
• ¼ cup buttermilk (or milk)
  
• 1 cup mashed bananas (3 medium bananas)
  

Preheat oven to 200 C and line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cups. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butterscotch chips in a large bowl. Beat egg, oil, buttermilk, and bananas. Make well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients. Stir til just combined. Batter will be lumpy. Fill muffin cups to three quarters fill. Bake 20-25 minutes or until tops are golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out cleanly.

Brownies with butterscotch chips
Adapted from Chrissy Freer, Delicious magazine, August 2003, via taste.com.au

• 200g dark chocolate
  
• 140g unsalted butter
  
• 200g brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 egg yolk
  
• 85g plain flour
  
• 100g walnuts, lightly toasted, chopped (I used butterscotch chips)
• Sifted cocoa powder, to dust
  

Preheat oven to 160 C. Grease and line an 18cm square cake tin (or if like me you don’t have cake tins of every size use a round 20cm cake tin – it seemed the closest in size among the ones I own).

Melt chocolate and butter together. (I did this in the microwave.) Stir in the sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Whisk in the eggs one at a time and then add the egg yolk and flour. Beat well until smooth. Fold in the walnuts (or butterscotch chips).

Pour batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs attached – ie it does not need to be cooked dry but should not be too gooey. It can be cooled in the tin or turned out onto a cake rack to cool after about 15 minutes. If desired you can dust with cocoa before serving (but I didn’t’). Keeps for 2-3 days in an airtight container or freeze up to 2 months.

On the stereo
John Denver’s Greatest Hits

PPN Mee Goreng

I made Mee Goreng last week. It literally means fried noodles so if you search the net you will find bazillions of recipes, all different. I had seen Steph make it a while ago and I loved the look of her red sauce. I agree with her observation that noodles are comfort food. No doubt this explains why I love going to another trusted local source: Taste.com for ideas. Between the two recipes, I found something that was my idea of comfort food and pleased the whole household.

Making the mee goreng reminded me of Mollie Katzen's guide to stir fries in The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. She groups vegetables into slow, medium and quick cooking. I think this is where I learnt to cast my eye over vegetables and decide which take the longest to cook and which cook in the blink of an eye. If you have that principle in mind and chop your vegetables before starting cooking, it is easy to bring it all together quickly with vegetables only cooked as much as they need.

It seemed a quick recipe but I think it took around an hour. Sylvia hanging onto my leg definitely can slow me down, especially when I need to stop every few minutes to check what she has put in her mouth. I could do this meal faster with a wok. My lack of is not a because I am a minimalist like Jules. We just don't have the room. Some might argue that living in a small house is a minimalist lifestyle choice though we clutter ours up as much as is possible. I am still looking around to see if I can squeeze a wok somewhere but haven't found the space yet.

With a wok, this meal could be much quicker because it could be cooked on a higher heat than my large scanpan frypan allows. But sometimes I suspect it is the chopping up the vegetables that slows me down and I love lots of vegies. (I did find I had too many carrots and cabbage but I put some aside and they were great in my beetroot curry.) It is the sort of recipe where you could use whatever vegetables were around - others that I might use on another day or another season include snow peas, green beans, spinach, bok choy, red capsicum, asparagus, broccoli, bean sprouts.
The flavours are simple ones I usually have around the house. I wanted the red tomato glow for my sauce but I wasn't so keen on tomato sauce so I just used tomato puree. I don't always have kecap manis but some soy sauce with a little sugar would substitute for these easily. Plain tofu can be substituted for smoked tofu. It is one of those flexible recipes that I love but are hard to write down because they change every time.
However I was pleased that I got it right this time. Sylvia loved it (though I toned down the spiciness for her and the crispy smoked tofu wasn't quite her thing) and so did E. It was great for dinner and just as good for lunch the next day. The vegetables shrink and seem to play second fiddle to the noodles but it is delicious and comforting, and you know there are lots of healthy veg in there somewhere. This is a recipe I plan to return to again and again!

I am sending this to Daphne of More than Words who is hosting this week's Presto Pasta Night (#159) which was founded by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast. (oops forgot to send email and am not in round up - check it out anyway)

Mee Goreng (Fried noodles)
Inspired by Taste.com and Steph
serves 3-4

• 2 tbsp canola oil
• 300g smoked tofu, diced*
• ⅛ cabbage, shredded
• 1-2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
• 1 green capsicum, thinly sliced
• kernels of 1 cob of corn
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 inch knob of ginger, finely grated***
• 500g fresh hokkien noodles
• 4 medium button mushrooms
• handful frozen green peas
• 2 tbsp unsalted tomato paste
• 2 tbsp kecap manis**
• 1 tsp chilli paste***
• ½ cup water or as needed
• 2 spring onions, chopped

Heat the oil in a large frypan over medium high and fry the tofu for about 15-20 minutes or until the tofu is crispy and golden brown.

Now begins the stirfry when you will need to be stirring frequently and have the vegetables ready. Add the carrot and cabbage to the pan and stir fry about 10 minutes or til starting to wilt a little. Add the capsicum, corn, garlic and ginger. Stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Add noodles, mushrooms, peas, tomato paste, kecap manis, chilli paste, and enough water to make sure the sauce coats the vegetables. Stir fry for about 5 minutes or until the noodles are dry and sticky but not dried out.

Stir the spring onions through and turn off the heat. Steph says that fried shallots are usually used as a garnish but this seems a bit fancy for me and I would just use a few fresh chopped spring onions for garnish.

Notes:
* or use plain tofu and marinate it in some of the flavours of the dish – you can use firm tofu without frying it, esp if serving to babies – Sylvia wouldn’t eat the smoked tofu but loves it plain and raw** or use 1½ tbsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar*** leave til last if serving young kids, serve theirs and then stir this in

Update August 2015 - now Sylvia is so much fussier about her food.  I served her this tonight and she loved the noodles and tofu but was wary about all the veg and ended up only eating peas and corn.  I left out the ginger and chilli paste and just served ours with sriracha.  I didn't have cabbage or spring onions but I cooked some leek with the carrots.  Still love making this recipe!

 

On the Stereo:
The Back Room: The Editors

Sappho Bookstore Cafe - for the literati who lunch

Let me cast my mind back to a few weeks ago when E, Sylvia and I were having a sightseeing day in Sydney. I have so often eaten substandard food during my travels that I decided to do my homework this time. When my sister, Francesca, lived in Sydney many years ago, I always loved visiting Glebe so I decided we would lunch there. I checked out Lisa's recommendations but it was at Not Quite Nigella that I made my decision where we would go.

So it was that we walked from Central Station to Glebe Point Road in search of Sappho Bookstore Cafe.

It is not a long stretch of cafes and stores but I love all the old terrace houses and the cafes spilling out onto the street. They take me back to when I was a young student keen on sketching old buildings.

We passed Badde Manors Cafe which I remember from all those years ago. My memory is too blurry to remember if I ever ate here. The fantastic decor beckons a passerby inside but I was looking for shelves and shelves of books as well as quirky decorations.

Sappho Books is next door to Glebe Books. I remember visiting the latter too but don't remember a bookstore next door. How could I have forgotten such an enticing window seat that is perfect for a spell of people watching over coffee.

We passed the bookshelves, ordered at the counter and made our way to the leafy courtyard out the back where the tables and chairs are. Being a midweek afternoon it wasn't too busy but I imagine it would be hard to get a table on a weekend. It really is a wonderful space to sit and while away the time.

The Sappho Books website mentions that this building used to be a youth centre and when it became a bookstore, the graffiti was retained. It adds a touch of grungy chic to the space. The only thing that surprised me was that down the very back were some smoking tables. I thought this was illegal these days but maybe that is just in Victoria and not New South Wales.

Lorraine of NQN had mentioned that the most sought after seat is in among the science fiction books overseeing the courtyard. So when I saw it was vacant, I nabbed the table. E said it that seeing all the sci fi made him feel like a teetotaller in a bottle shop.

Then began the comedy of errors that was our order. E's ham and cheese sandwich arrived without incident but I had ordered Sylvia some toast, cheese slices and cherry tomatoes. This was not on the menu but I have found myself needing to be creative to cater for her limited diet. The young guys who had taken the order were really sweet and helpful.

They brought out Sylvia's cheese and tomato artistically arranged on the plate with garnishes of twirls of ham! Oh dear, I think they are artists trapped in a waiter's body! I hate having to say I can't eat that and now I am having to say she can't eat it either. The waiter understood that I wasn't comfortable to just take off the ham so he made up a fresh plate with no meat. Then I had to ask for butter and once it appeared, I had to ask for a knife.

Once Sylvia's food was sorted I turned to my salad. I had ordered the roasted sweet potato with feta cheese & walnuts. Ordering salads when eating out is always a bit hit or miss. This salad was really really good. And that was before I realised that there were no walnuts. I told my friendly waiters and they helpfully brought me out some walnuts in a small bowl. E told me that I was a difficult customer and they would be glad to see the back of me, but they never made me feel uncomfortable for asking for help.

If I lived in Sydney I would return just for the salad. It had a light but flavourful dressing and lots of leafy salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, roasted sweet potatoes as well as the feta and walnuts. It is unusual to find a salad full of good vegetables and protein. The sweet potato could have been cooked just a tad more but this is a personal preference of mine. This was substantial and satisfying enough to eat as a meal. I would confidently say that this is one of the best salads I have eaten in a cafe for a long time.

I enjoyed the salad so much that I had to try the sweet food. I had a chocolate muffin with cheesecake topping. It was warmed through a little too much but was very nice. E had a macaron which was a bit dry and disappointing. However, this was not enough to dampen our enthusiasm for the place.

As for Sylvia, she ate some of the food, though never as much as I would like. Then she needed to stretch her legs so I helped her walk out to the bookshop where she was fascinated by the knobs on a Marshall amp that was being used as a shelf for a book display. But when she became interested in getting her grubby little mitts on the books it was time to go, even though I wished for more time to browse!

Sappho Cafe
Sappho Books
51 Glebe Point Road, Glebe
Sydney NSW Australia
Phone: 02 9552 4498
http://www.sapphobooks.com.au/cafe.html

SOS KC: Beets, Greens and Chickpea Curry

Last week I had one of those days. A sleepless baby, pointlessly idiotic blog comments, a stopped watch, busy workload in the office and some difficult conversations. Fortunately I had made dinner the previous night and was able to come home to a huge pot of beetroot curry.

It is a dish I have long wanted to try, ever since ordering one in Darwin, only to find that it was full of fiendishly hot dried chillis. And who doesn't love beetroot! It features frequently in many of my recipes. What glorious crimson colour it brings to our dinner plates! But it is not just me. Beetroot seems to be everywhere I look right now.

This morning E, Sylvia and I went to Collingwood Children's Farm Farmer's Market. One of the first stalls I saw had amazing bunches of beetroots. They were so big that they dwarfed my fist. Honestly! I took a photo and considered coming back later to make a purchase but they were gone. I am reading The girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson and the hero was eating sausages, beetroot and potatoes in a recent scene. There are also posters around Melbourne for a Creamfields Festival in Australia and the headlining act is the Bloody Beetroots.

So it was no surprise to see, when my friend Ricki of Dessert, Diet and Dogs and her friend Kim of A Living Affair announced a new monthly Sweet or Savoury (SOS) Kitchen Challenge event, that the first month's theme would be beets (or beetroots to my fellow Aussies). I was only too happy to participate.

Both bloggers have been following special diets and intend this event to help direct others on with dietary restructions to find lots of wonderful dishes. Hence they are asking that we make recipes that are vegan, use whole grains, natural sweeteners and other whole foods. This is a challenge to me in baking but a cinch when it comes to savoury dishes. The beetroot curry is effortlessly vegan and gluten free but might not quite make it within the guidelines of Kim's Lyme Disease diet though I think Ricki could eat it on phase II of her Anti Candida Diet.

Blog events are often about embracing the new and going outside our comfort zone. While beetroot makes regular appearances in my recipes, I have yet to embrace beet greens. I firstly went to a recipe from Lisa's Kitchen but, in search of a recipe using less chillis and more vegetables, I stumbled across beet curry recipes and found one that also had chickpeas and beet greens.

I didn't even know you could eat beet greens before I started blogging. Since then I have learnt that they are a nutritional powerhouse but have never enjoyed them when I have tried them previously. The idea of using them in a curry was new but intriguing. They were so good in the curry that I am waiting for another opportunity to use them in this way. If you are looking for a simple, easy, painless way to eat your beet greens, this is it!

The curry was fantastic though not terribly spicy. (E doused his with tabasco sauce.) I made it the evening before while Sylvia was being unsettled so I was too distracted to look at times for the recipe. I served it up to Sylvia with some rice, expecting that I might need to add more vegetables to reduce the spiciness but she loved it. It was her first encounter with beetroot but she was chomping away at it like it was her favourite vegetable. The chickpeas also were a huge hit with her. Don't think that this means that the curry was bland. Far from it! It was full of flavour but not a lot of heat in it.

The one disadvantage of beetroot is that it is not shy when it makes a mess. You should have seen Sylvia's face by the time she had finished. Of course, it was a night when she had to use her fingers rather than let me feed her with a spoon. The floor was also studded with crimson offerings. Beetroot is no friend when it comes to the laundry either but a bib kept Sylvia's clothes mostly clean.

So I highly recommend to you the beetroot curry recipes for a tasty way to enjoy beetroot and the beet greens. It is far better with brown rice than white and cold leftovers are excellent in a sandwich. I would also recommend you have a look at Ricki and Kim's event and think about submitting a dish (by 20 April if you want to participate this month) or drooling over the dishes that are in the round up at the end of the month.

Beetroot, Greens and Chickpea Curry
Adapted from Cheap Health Good and Lisa's Kitchen
Serves 4-5

• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1 tsp whole mustard seeds
• small handful of curry leaves
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bunch of small to medium beets (I had about 5 medium), peeled and cubed
• 1 carrot, cut into matchsticks and 2 cups of shredded cabbage, fried for about 10-15 minutes (I had done this on a previous night for a stir fry and had some leftover but you could just cook them a bit earlier in the curry if your aren't already cooked)
• 1 inch of ginger, finely grated
• 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 green chill, finely chopped
• 1 small (165ml) tin of coconut milk
• 400g tin of diced tomatoes
• 400g tin of chickpea, rinsed and drained
• beet greens from the beetroot bunch, roughly sliced
• 1 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp chili paste
• ½ tsp salt

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Cook until the mustard seeds turn grey and begin to pop. Toss in the curry leaves, stir once and then add the onion to the pan. (I stirred the curry leaves in after onion because I wasn't concentrating.) Stir and fry until the onion softens and turns translucent.

I then added the beetroot and gently cooked this while I chopped up the ginger, garlic, and chilies. (if your carrot and cabbage aren't already cooked for a bit then add them now.) I then stirred these into the beetroot mixture and fried it another 2 minutes. (Though if you looked at the recipes I was following they put in the garlic, ginger and chilis before the beetroot.)

Add carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, coconut milk and chickpeas. At this stage I turned off the heat and looked after Sylvia for a while. Then I returned the saucepan to the heat and added the beet greens, cumin, chilli paste and salt. Stir and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for about 40 minutes or until your beetroot is soft.

It is best to leave it overnight but can be served straight away. Serve with brown rice or bread.

Update: I made this again and still loved it (have posted updated photo at the top).  I added a tin of brown lentils this time which I think made it less lurid but still yummy.

On the stereo
Andre Zeiten (Brown edition) - Various Artists

WHB Easter nut roast and reflections

On the Friday night before Easter Sunday, I suddenly wondered if I should make a nut roast for Sunday lunch at my mum and dad's. I rang my mum and decided I would bring one. I hadn't planned to go to the supermarket until the next week so I had to look around at what was in the house before. I had lots of pumpkin but no eggs so a vegan pumpkin nut roast suggested itself.

I looked up a vegan nut roast with parsnip that I had made a couple of years back and used the recipe as a guide but I substituted roast pumpkin for the parsnip, almonds for the cashews and used some different flavourings. It wasn't the prettiest of nut roasts but it tasted great and Sylvia loved it. Actually most of my family had some with their Easter lamb roast.

I needed some fried onions for a tomato sauce I was making for dinner so I fried up a few onions together and took out what I needed for the nut roast. I cut my large wedge of pumpkin into dice, drizzled it with olive oil, added a generous pinch of salt. I roasted it in a very hot oven for about 30-40 minutes. The tomato sauce was just onions, garlic and tomatoes. At the last moment I decided to add the leftover roasted pumpkin and it was very good.

Easter lunch was full of delicious food. My mum did lots of roast vegetables and a meltingly delicious eggplant and tomato bake. We had sponge cake with cream and strawberries for dessert complete with candles as a late celebration of my brother Paul's birthday. Sylvia was quite partial to some sponge cake though not into cream or strawberries. I preferred Susie's gf chocolate layer cake.

The day could not pass without hot cross buns. Before I left home my mum asked me to bring some yeast because hers had run out and the shops were shut for Easter. Hers were fluffy and delicious this year, with some thanks to her bread maker. You can see the batch she whipped up on Sunday in the photo.

The pleasantly sunny weather saw us spending time outside with the mosquitos and Woody, my mum and dad's dog. I mention the mosquitos first because they clamoured for attention with their constant biting. Woody, on the other hand, is an old dog who is content to mostly lie in a corner and sleep. Being black she melts into the shadows. In fact, when she was a pup we lost her once and finally found her asleep in a shadow between the house and the back door step!

My mum's hen's are growing and will soon be laying eggs. Apparently my nieces can tell them apart. They are amusing to watch when out of their hen house. The sound of their clucking is quite relaxing.

While my mum is busy with her hens (and loving feeding them all the food scraps), my dad has been busy creating a yellow brick road for my nieces. He always relishes a challenge in the garden.

Of course Emerald City is at the end of the yellow brick road. I just love this little set up by the compost bin. I have not yet sampled the mud pies so unfortunately I cannot review this enticing cafe.

E, Sylvia and I stayed overnight. Dinner was a fantastically simple but tasty open sandwich of tomatoes, cheese and leftover nut roast. It went down very nicely, accompanied by an episode of Midsomer Murders.

Lunch was an impressive batch of pakoras that my mum made. They were excellent, especially with a dollop of my nanny's wonderful tomato chutney, made with a glut of tomatoes from her garden.

Sylvia had a wonderful time, especially playing with her cousin Grace on Monday, who also slept over. They played at the toy kitchen, sorted the doll house and ran/crawled up and down the hallway. But Sylvia's favourite new toy was this little trolley that she loves to push about. She is not quite walking but can walk quite well if she holds onto the handle. We brought it back with us on loan for a while. Mum also gave me some fantastic pumpkin and ricotta cannelloni so we had dinner sorted on our arrival back home. A great way to end a relaxing and delicious Easter weekend.

As this is another great way to use pumpkin, I am sending this post to Prof Kitty of The Cabinet of Prof Kitty for Weekend Herb Blogging #228. WHB is a weekly blog event started by Kalyn and now coordinated by Haalo. It is an opportunity for bloggers to showcase ways to use different herbs, spices, fruit and vegetables.

Pumpkin Nut Roast
adapted from my parsnip nut roast
Serves 4

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 100 g ground almonds
• 150 g (1½ cups) dry breadcrumbs
• 2 tbsp soy flour
• 1 heaped cup of roasted diced pumpkin, lightly mashed with a fork (see above if you want to see how I roasted it)
  
• 1 tbsp fresh herbs (I used rosemary, sage and chives), finely chopped
• 2 cups water
• ¼ tsp stock powder
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• dash of cayenne pepper
• Salt and pepper to taste (I didn’t use)

Preheat oven to 180°C ( 350°F, gas 4). Fry onions in the oil until brown and caramelised. Stir together all ingredients and spoon into silicon loaf pan (about 13 x 22cm). Smooth top with the back of your spoon. Bake for about 50 mins til top firms up. Cool in pan. Reheat in pan in oven with roast dinner (ie at the heat the oven needs for the other food). Or serve straight away!

On the Stereo:
Thunder Perfect Mind: Current 93

Apocalyptic Dreams, Hot Cross Buns and Banana Nutella Cake

The hot cross buns have been baked. My Easter nut roast is cooked. The baby is sleeping. The SBS movie (This is England) is on the telly and the computer is on my lap. I have a little time to share a chocolate recipe and some reflections so even if you don't celebrate Easter, you can share a little joy with me!

I had a strange dream last night. It was the end of the world. Everyone was gathering at some huge multistory hotel. I got separated from E and Sylvia and was looking for them. Instead I ended up with some bloggers. Dinner was served. We looked at each other and decided we should take a photo of the food just in case we got back to our computers. When I woke I laughed at the dream but I was intrigued by it.

Good Friday makes me remember the nuns telling us how important it was that Christ died on the cross for us. I come from a culture where it makes sense that all the shops are closed. The world seems to be in mourning. Death feels like the end of the world in our own little private realms but Good Friday gives us a glimpse of the deserted streets and cityscapes of the apocalypse. No wonder I was dreaming about the end of the world

But there are signs that life is changing. I was surprised to see petrol stations open yesterday when I was on the road. I was on my way to visit my friend Yaz to bake hot cross buns. It was his first time. We arrived at lunchtime and ate first. I had chickpea wraps, cheese and biscuits, and lattice cheesecake. Sylvia had baked beans and watermelon. I had brought some banana nutella bread but we saved that to have for afternoon tea with rice bubble and date slice.

Baking with yeast is a leisurely activity that has the right pace for Good Friday. Sylvia sat on Yaz's bench while we kneaded the dough and she discovered a love of sultanas (the dried fruit type rather than the wives of sultans). We sat in the garden while the buns rose. Eating ripe figs from overhead. Sylvia swinging in the hammock. Watching Yaz's partner, Mindy, doing some gardening.

Yaz worried the buns weren't rising enough and was a bit dubious about my flour and water crosses. He was in flavour of pastry crosses, especially when my cross mixture was too thick and we were virtually coaxing it into place with our fingers. Fortunately the second batch of flour and water was better and worked as it should. The buns were excellent. Quite dense with slightly chewy crosses and sticky sweet glaze. Yaz conceded the crosses had a rustic charm about them.

Unfortunately the hot cross buns came out of the oven just as we were ready for dinner. Not great timing but no reason to stop to us tasting them hot out of the oven. So so good. Meanwhile Mindy and Yaz had been busy in the kitchen making dinner. Grilled portobello mushrooms in a burger bun with smoked cheese, accompanied by pear, parmesan and rocket salad, rice salad, patatas bravas. All delicious. I left with buns, fig jam and fresh figs.

So much good food. I was glad I had brought some cake. It was inspired by some old bananas, a jar of nutella and E's love of treacle scones. I had been saving the nutella to make pumpkin and chocolate scrolls based on these recipes. However, the bananas were needy, the yeast seemed too challenging and the nutella had been in the pantry too long.

I told E I was going to make banana and nutella cake. He wanted me to make treacle scones. I compromised and told him I would put treacle in the cake. But first I had to get him to taste golden syrup and treacle to check he really did want treacle.

The dark intense treacle and some spices added to the cake made it taste a bit like gingerbread. The nutella didn't swirl cleanly but got mixed up with the batter and was soft like a chocolate custard. I can highly recommend the cake. My offering yesterday didn't last long. We still have a few pieces left here. I might just take them to my parents when we go there for Easter dinner tomorrow. Hope you have a nice Easter or at least enjoy some chocolate and some good food.

Banana, Treacle and Nutella Cake
Inspired by David Lebovitz, mum’s banana cake and Bleeding Espresso

• 2 tbsp (55 g) softened butter (salted or unsalted)
• ¼ cup treacle
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 3 mashed bananas
• 1 egg, at room temperature
• ½ cup (125 ml) yoghurt
• 1 cup white Self Raising flour
• ½ cup wholemeal Self Raising flour
• 1 tbsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tbsp sugar and ½ tsp vanilla essence)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1 cup nutella

Grease and line a 23cm square cake tin or two loaf tins. Prehead oven to 180 C (350 F).

Mix butter, treacle and golden syrup in a large mixing bowl. Add egg, mashed bananas and yoghurt and mix well. Add flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and sugar. Mix till just combined.

Spoon batter into prepared tin(s). Spoon nutella on top and use a skewer to swirl in. (I wondered if this would be better if I put in half the batter, nutella, and then the remaining batter. I might try this next time.)

Bake for about 40 minutes or til cake has become golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out cleanly or the centre feels light and springy. (I used only one loaf tin and it was a bit high so the cake took over an hour and still was a little soft.) Cool in the tin for at least 15 minutes and turn onto a wire rack to cool.

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