PPN Creamy Spinach Walnut Pasta

After Sylvia and I had our outing in the Botanic Gardens on Friday, I came home to deal with a spell of her tears and then, once she calmed down, she had her first bath in the big bath. No more small baby bath on the kitchen table for this big girl.

I didn’t have much energy once it was time for dinner. The freezer was very tempting but I had ingredients for Ashley’s Penne with Creamy Spinach Walnut Sauce. I would have given it a miss if it had not seemed so easy. Cook some pasta and blitz the other ingredients in the food processor.

As always things took me a little longer than they should have. I toasted the walnuts and microwaved the spinach. E looked after Sylvia. But it was quicker than many of my meals. The sauce was quite substantial. It was a little like a pesto but creamier and packed full of more green vegetables. It needed company, as it was quite intense alone. Ashley suggested serving it with broccoli but it was carrots I had in my fridge. Besides I liked the colour contrast. If I was more organised I would like this with more vegetables. For example, it would go very nicely with a plain salad of tomato and cucumber with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Then yesterday, we went to see the A Day Pompeii Exhibition at the Museum. It was one of the busiest exhibitions I have been to and we slowly shuffled through it in the thick of the crowds. Fortunately, we had organised to meet my friend Kathleen so we were able to catch up with each other in the slow periods. I find some of the archeological finds can leave me cold – rusty fish hooks aren’t really my thing – but I did enjoy some curiosities such as the carbonised loaf of bread. Most evocative were the plaster casts of the people huddling from the fury of the volcano. By the time we got home I was glad we had leftover pasta sauce for dinner.

Today we were all out of the sauce but we move furniture around, banged the dust out of rugs and I had a bike ride. I would have had the pasta again but instead I finally got a dal out of the freezer for dinner. Sylvia slept 11 hours last night so she had decided she doesn’t need any sleep today. Hence it feels like we haven’t had much time.

I would love 48 hours in the day but, failing that, I am glad to have discovered an interesting and quick pasta dish. The main change I made was to substitute mustard and lemon juice for fresh basil. This is my winter version of the dish but when summer comes I might just try it with basil. I have also thought it might be a good sauce to try in a pasta bake or lasagna.

I am sending this to Psychgrad of Equal Opportunity Kitchen who is hosting this week's Presto Pasta Night (#126), an event founded by Ruth of Once Upon a Feast.

Creamy Spinach Walnut Pasta
Adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites via Eat Me Delicious
Serves 4-5

250g fresh spinach
½ cup toasted walnuts,
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese
1 garlic clove, crushed
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1½ tsp seeded mustard
juice of ½ a small lemon
¼ tsp salt
ground black pepper to taste
500g dried pasta
4-8 carrots, cut into matchsticks (or other vegetables)

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil for the pasta and prepare carrots.

Meanwhile, place washed spinach in a plastic bag or tub in the microwave and cook on high for about 2 minutes or until just wilted (or you can cook the spinach in a pot of boiling water). Place walnuts then spinach then remaining ingredients in the food processor and blend til smooth.

When water is boiling, cook pasta according to instructions and add carrot sticks about 2-3 minutes before pasta is cooked.

Drain pasta and carrots. Toss with spinach sauce and serve with a little extra Parmesan cheese grated on top and some fresh cracked pepper.

On the stereo:
Ruby: The Killjoys

Carrot Cake and the Lost Sock

This morning Sylvia wasn’t sleeping and so I put on her floral hoodie and the hat with bear ears and we took a little trip in the car to the Botanic Gardens. I had particularly wanted to visit the gift shop which is one of the nicest around Melbourne tourist spots. I purchased a few things I needed (including a new pot holder you can see in the photos) and then we had a look at the café.

E and I had visited the café last year and been disappointed. I looked at it today and the food looked nice but the prices seemed a tad high. The carrot and orange cake looked impressive with loads of icing and nuts and fruit for decoration. But at $8 a slice, it seemed a lot to pay when I had carrot cake at home. I unwisely chose a cheap cookie which tasted like cardboard.

Never mind, I thought Sylvia and I could have a walk in the gardens. We started out for the herb garden because I had noticed it had samphire there. The naked branches of the winter trees looked spectacularly spooky. But it was windy and I worried about Sylvia being cold. Then I noticed one of her socks had disappeared. They were both there when we got out of the car because I remember checking. So we retraced our footsteps but never found the missing sock.

By then, her little foot was cold and the idea of a walk was no longer so appealing. But I felt quite good as I headed back to the car. I remembered that there was homemade soup waiting for me at home as well as the carrot cake I baked yesterday.

I baked the cake because I had a lot of carrots and it has been a long time between carrot cakes. This was one of the standard cakes we used to have when I was young. Carrot cakes were also ubiquitous in cafes in the 1990s when they were served with lashings of cream cheese frosting. They typically are made with lots of nuts and dried fruit and oil rather than butter.

While my cake had butter and no frosting, it was chock-full of walnuts and raisins. I didn’t have any raisins but I had some cranberries and dates. I forgot to add the vanilla. The recipe called for white sugar which I used but then thought brown sugar would be nice so I added a bit of treacle. I decided this was a good opportunity to use up my spelt flour. There wasn’t quite enough so I used a little soy flour to keep it wheat-free but a plain or wholemeal wheat flour would be fine in this recipe.

This is a cake that is superb eaten hot out of the oven. It is every bit as moist and soft as you would want with the added flavour and texture from nuts and dried fruit. E got home and was disappointed there was no icing. I showed him the picture in the cookbook with carrot cakes topped with cream cheese frosting and the recipe I used which had no icing. He told me the cake was quite rich for him. When I offered it to him tonight, he said that he liked that sort of cake in the afternoon with a cup of tea but not at night. There’s nowt so queer as folk!!!

I loved the recipe and, although there are many carrot cakes I would love to make, this one is a good everyday one that I want to make over and over. Much more satisfying than I suspect the botanic gardens one would have been. So the moral of the story today is that the gift shop at the Botanic Gardens is well worth a visit but you might as well give the café a miss and bake your own carrot cake (and hold onto your socks in this wind)!

Moist and nutty carrot cake
Adapted from the Australian Women's Weekly Cakes and Slices Cookbook

125g butter
⅔ cup caster sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp treacle
2 eggs
2 cups grated carrot (about 4 medium carrots or 2 large)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dates, chopped
1¼ cups wholemeal spelt flour
¼ cup soy flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg

Cream butter and sugar. Add golden syrup, treacle and eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in carrot, cranberries, dates and walnuts. It will look curdled but this will be fixed once flour is added. Gently stir in flours, baking powder and spices till just combined. Spoon into greased and lined loaf tin (13 x 25cm) and bake in moderate oven (180 C) for 1¼ hours. Check it after ¾ hour – I found by then that my cake was quite brown on top and needed to be covered. I reduced the heat to 150 C and put my cake on the bottom rung of the oven after an hour. It is done when a skewer comes out cleanly. Sit in tin 5 minutes and then cool on a wire rack.

On the stereo:
iselectBowie (The Sunday Mail Freebie) – David Bowie

Surprising Sprouts in Risotto

We eat Brussels Sprouts quite often in our house. E even encouraged me to serve a dish with them the other day and I commented on how he had changed since I met him. Back then, it was a family tradition for him and his dad to complain about the sprouts each Christmas. But he explained that he never had sprouts cooked like I do them. I microwave them so they are still a lovely green or roast them to bring out their lovely flavour.

Sprouts converts as we are, neither of us had ever had sprouts in a risotto until recently. I was making a feta and sweet potato risotto that was inspired by finding the term entered as a search item in my stats. Great combination, I thought, I might just try it. When I came to trying it, I planned to serve it with sprouts on the side. But then I thought, why not add them into the mix. And so I did.

A bold move, indeed, but one that paid dividends. I think they were better on the first night but still quite tasty with the leftovers the next night. This was a delicious risotto with lots of unusual flavours and textures. E particularly liked the walnuts. I was most impressed with the sprouts. I always like new ideas for getting green vegetables into my dinner so I will be trying this one again.

Sweet Potato, Brussels Sprouts and Feta Risotto
Serves 4

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 tsp stock powder
350g sweet potato, peeled and chopped
oil spray
300g Brussels sprouts, shredded
1 extra tbsp olive oil
½ cup white wine
4-5 cups boiling water
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
100g feta, crumbled

Place sweet potato in large baking tray. Spray with oil and toss so chunks are evenly coated. Roast at 220 C for about 30 minutes or until just soft. Then add Brussels sprouts, 1 tablespoon oil and toss to mix. Roast for an additional 10 minutes or until sprouts are just cooked.

Heat oil and butter in large saucepan. Fry onion for about 5 minutes till soft but not browned. Add garlic and rice and stir for about 3 minutes. Pour in white wine and stir frequently till almost absorbed.

Meanwhile boil kettle. Add half a cup of boiling water and stock powder, keeping the mixture simmering (on about medium heat but fiddle with heat to keep at even simmer) and stirring frequently. Once most of the liquid is absorbed. Repeat with half cups of boiling water until rice is soft. This should take about 20-25 minutes.

When rice is soft, add lemon juice, sweet potato, sprouts and feta. Stir til combined and heat for a few minutes if roast veg have cooled. Serve with chopped nuts on top.

On the stereo:
Sylvia Suite from the Best of French Ballet by Delibes

GYO Paradise banishes the Chutney Fear

On the weekend I whipped up a chutney while watching tv and feeding Sylvia. It burnt a little but was not so badly that I couldn’t rescue it. It seemed quite easy. Then a wonderful thought occurred. I think I have overcome my chutney fear.

There are all sorts of fears in the kitchen. I am not talking about the fear as your favourite plate teeters on the edge of the benchtop and threatens to shatter into pieces nor the fear as a knife falls perilously close to your toes. Rather it is the fear of difficult recipes. Those that challenge us to go outside our comfort zone. I used to fear risotto but thankfully got over that one. I still fear lots of things: jams and pastry and my cookie press. But there is still time for change. They say that familiarity breeds contempt but it also gives a certain reassurance

Yesterday I read an insightful essay by Michael Pollan called Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch (thanks to Kathryn’s quicklinks). He talked about the USA becoming a nation of armchair cooks who would prefer to watch cooking on the telly than do any in the kitchen. Television, he argues, ‘has succeeded in turning cooking into a spectator sport.’ He suggests that cooking might become a weekend recreational activity rather than an everyday necessity.

The bad guys, as usual, are the corporations who are trying to persuade Americans to let them do the cooking for them. For a price! Cookery shows are about selling products rather than encouraging cooking. (When I watched Masterchef recently, I wondered how many people would run out to buy the sausage making machines the contestants used, only to have it sit in the cupboard gathering dust.)

The good guys are those who dare. Not today’s celebrity chefs who fly through a recipe with the greatest of ease and then dare the viewer to be able to master it based on that demonstration. No, the hero of the essay is Julia Child (who is not a household name in Australia). She took the fear out of the cooking for housewives of the 1960s. He has a lovely description of how she showed the ‘courage to flip’ a potato pancake despite it failing (falling) miserably. I loved it how she told housewives, ‘if you’re alone in the kitchen who is going to see’.

Anyone who knows how to cook knows the value of practicing a recipe until you are comfortable with it. I learnt this from watching my mum. I know it from my own experience. There are dishes I cook over and over – cakes, soups, cookies, salads, pastas, risottos etc. I often make different ones but follow the same methods, and go back to favourite flavour combinations.

So last year when Rosie and Pixie held their Putting Up event I wanted to participate but was nervous about making any sort of preserves. When it came to preserving, I immediately thought of jam. My mum makes lovely jam – in fact she gave me some of her own marmalade this week – and I would love to follow her example. Scones and homemade jam seem essential accomplishments for any domestic goddess. But I wasn’t quite ready for such dizzy heights of achievement. Instead I tried Rhubarb Relish. I made a small amount so I didn’t have to confront the dreaded task of sterilising jars.

My desire to make jam was somewhat satiated earlier this year when I made peach and pineapple jam. However, there is still a jar of the stuff in the pantry because I don’t eat jam that much and when I do, I love the St Dalfours jam which is pleasingly tart. But the chutney I made last night was the fifth chutney I have made this year. Each one has been eaten as though there is no tomorrow. I love them with cheese on toast, with vegie sausages, with a burger or nutroast. I have realised that it is far better to put my energies into chutney than jam.

What scared me most was sterilising the jars. But even that doesn’t seem as frightening any more. Last night I gave Sylvia to E and quickly boiled some water to pour over a couple of jars and filled them up (using tongs to avoid burning my paws). I sometimes boil them 10 minutes but not if time is scarce. I haven’t kept any chutney for months and months but this method seems fine for my needs. (I probably should heed Nigella’s advice that chutney is best after a month but I am too impatient.)

The practice is helping, and so is the blog. I find it helpful to go back to chutneys I have previously made to check what spices I liked and what quantities. It has even helped reduce the nerves about sterilising. Going back over how I did it last time has given me more confidence.

My most recent chutney goes by the charming name of Paradise Chutney. My list of thanks reads like a Oscars acceptance speech. Firstly I wish to thanks Lysy who recently mentioned that Nigella had many quince recipes. As soon as I saw this I checked How to Be a Domestic Goddess for ideas, given that I had quinces in four guises in the house (more about these later).

I found the Paradise Chutney recipe which used apples, quince, cranberries, oranges and lemons. The apples came from the tree of friends of my brother Dave. My mum brought e a generous bag of them and I didn’t fancy eating them because the skins were quite tough – although they were quite nice peeled. Nigella called for raw quince which is to be cooked as part of the process. My mum had brought some of her poached quinces that had been in the fridge long enough and needed to be used. The oranges came from E’s work colleague. The lemons, sad to say, were from the supermarket but were just filling the gap between the lemons from our tree and the lemons from my sister Fran’s partner’s parents’ tree.

So this chutney seems like a gift from many people. The smell of cooking quinces is so evocative for me because my mum makes quince jelly regularly. I love putting in lots of lovely spices and was inspired by the Moosewood Cookbook which I was pleased to discover had an apple chutney recipe. The other fruit in Nigella’s Paradise Chutney was fresh and dried cranberries. Fresh cranberries are as rare as hen’s teeth in these parts but I used a generous amount of dried cranberries. The chutney was fantastic - sweet and spicy and fragrant with quinces. I've been loving it with cheese on sourdough bread, with a pasta bake and a cheesy tart.

As you can see, I made quite a few changes to the recipe. And this is where I discovered I am over my chutney fear. I was pleased to be able to adapt the chutney to what I had in the house. This is the joy of chutney. It is not about rushing out to buy every ingredient to follow a recipe to the letter. Rather, it is about preserving what is about the kitchen and making a recipe work for you. I now can’t wait for summer to make more chutneys.

I am sending this post to MomGateway for Grow Your Own Event, a blogging event founded by Andrea of Andrea’s Recipes for recipes made with produce from bloggers gardens or gifted to them from others gardens.

Paradise chutney
Adapted from Nigella and Moosewood
Makes 2 medium jars

½ cup poached quince
¼ cup quince poaching syrup
650g apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 onion, finely chopped
140g dried sweetened cranberries
4 cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp mustard powder
juice and zest of 1 orange
juice and zest of ½ lemon
⅔ cup vinegar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
½ tsp salt

Stick the cloves into a small orange or a piece of rind. If cinnamon sticks are flaky, place in muslin bag or a tea infuser. Place with all ingredients in large saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 30-60 minutes, stirring frequently. The chutney is ready when most of the liquid is gone and the apples are soft. Remove cloves and cinnamon stick and discard. Bottle chutney while still warm.

On the stereo:
Little Earthquakes: Tori Amos

Mexican Rice Soup

Oh the irony of making a recipe from a cluster of avocado recipes only to find that the avocado, specially ripened in the fruit bowl for that dish, had past its best. The Mexican Rice Soup from Vegetarian Times seemed to be crying out for the green creamy avocado. Not to be thwarted, the next day I headed to a good fruit and veg shop and bought a perfectly ripe avocado to serve with leftovers. It was worth it.

My other ‘oops!’ moment was when I decided to use up the rest of the chilli paste from the jar but swishing a little water in the jar and tipping that into the soup. As I did it, I knew I would regret it. Indeed the soup was far spicier than I can handle. So I had to turn the vegan soup into a dairy-laden soup by adding the rest of the yoghurt and grated cheese from my fridge. If you are not careless with the chilli, this soup could make a very good dairy-free meal.

On the other hand, I made it a gluten-free soup by using corn tortillas rather than wheat. They were baked in the oven in strips with a bit of oil and were a fantastic addition. Even when a bit crisp the second night, they were deliciously crispy in the soup.

As usual, I used less water than recommended so it was quite thick. E was most impressed. He would love it even more with fresh coriander (cilantro) but I didn’t have any, nor any spring onions. Next time I have to try it with both. I will just have coriander in the broth but he will have it as an uncooked garnish too. I didn’t follow the recipe exactly which instructed to make a separate broth and strain it. But I didn’t see the sense in straining away the onion and garlic.

We had the soup in the depth of winter but I would highly recommend it as a summer meal. The tomato and corn, together with chunks of avocado are look so cheerful and taste so fresh.

It might be a wet winter day here but I am happy to share a cheerful sunny soup today because I have had a good day. I resubmitted a journal article, heard a whisper that there will be good news on funding at work, I shared a delicious sourdough fruit toast with my mum without incurring a parking ticket, and, most importantly of all, I managed to bring in the washing before the rain came on. In addition, I am happy that Sylvia is sleeping. She might not sleep when we head out to dinner this evening, but at least she is more likely to be smiling.

Mexican Rice Soup
(adapted from Vegetarian Times, September 2008)
serves 4 as main meal

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
650ml vegetable stock
150ml white wine
200ml water
1 tsp chilli paste
¼ cup fresh coriander, chopped (I didn’t use)
zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tsp dried oregano
½ cup white short grain rice (I used basmati)
4 tomatoes, chopped
kernels of 2 cobs of corn
2 spring onions (I didn’t use)
6-8 small corn tortillas (about 15cm diameter)
1 avocado diced
¼ cup yoghurt (optional)
couple of handfuls of grated cheese (optional)
handful of parsley or extra fresh coriander, chopped

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Fry the onions for 5-7 minutes or until softened. Stir in garlic and fry 1 minute. Add stock, wine, water, lime zest, chilli paste, oregano and coriander (if using). Simmer for 5-10 minutes.

While soup is simmering, spray tortillas with cooking oil, cut into strips and spread out on a baking tray. Bake for 10 – 20 minutes. (The first night I cooked mine 20 minutes and they were just right, the second night they were a little browner than I intended but they kept their crunch in the soup, which was quite nice.)

Add rice to soup and simmer about 10 minutes (or till rice is just soft). Then add tomatoes, corn and lime juice. Simmer for about 3-5 minutes to warm them through. Remove from heat and stir in yoghurt (if using). Stir in the remaining fresh parsley or coriander.

To serve, ladle soup into a bowl and arrange taco strips, spring onions and avocado chunks on top. Sprinkle with a grated cheese if desired.

On the stereo:
Best of Bob Dylan

Queijadinhas

Earlier this week I tried a new gluten-free bake that I found at Sugar Nut. They are a Brazilian sweet treat, called Queijadinha and pronounced kay-jah-dee-ña. I couldn’t think of any Brazilian foods but they are posted by Renato who is a Brazilian himself and says that the cookbook where he found them is by Brazil’s answer to Julia Child – maybe that is Australia’s Margaret Fulton. (If you want more Brazilian recipes, you should check out his avocado cream pots.)

Renato says the queijadinhas are a cross between coconut macaroons and cheese popovers. I don’t have a good sense of what popovers are. When I looked them up on Wikipedia I discovered they are quite similar to Yorkshire puddings. Now you are speaking my language! I had always thought popovers were like little pastries. Yorkshire puddings are quite eggy and light. Macaroons are dense and chewy. These queijadinhas are eggy and light but laden with coconut so the edges are quite chewy. I was partly attracted by the addition of cheese but I didn’t think them very cheesy.

I found the recipe via Climbing the Walls’ Sugar High Friday Gluten Free Round Up and was interested in them as a different sort of gluten free treat. It are one of those recipes that has a negligible amount of flour so it doesn’t matter too much if you substitute something like soy flour or a gf flour mix. Mine made a lot so I took some to a friends and sent some home to my gluten free sisters house and kept some for us.

They were nice little snacks. More like macaroon cupcakes to me. Not overly sweet but more eggy than I would usually choose. I used some very small mini muffin papers and so they were just a wee bite. Renato was right that they were much better at room temperature than straight out of the oven, and they were even better the next day. They were a bit fluffy and tasteless when hot out of the oven but became more chewy and flavoursome when given some time to sit. The other benefit to letting them cool is that they are much easier to get out of the cupcake papers.

If I made them again I would think about giving them some additional flavour. White chocolate chips and lime zest was top of my mind but I even wondered about some cocoa to make them chocolatey. Perhaps a savoury version with yoghurt and creamed corn instead of the condensed milk and some herbs and chilli and maybe some cornmeal. There are many possibilities but here is the original from Renato.

Queijadinha (Macaroon Cupcakes)
(Adapted from A Cozinha Maravilhosa de Oféliais via Sugar Nut)
Made 58 mini muffins, if very small

200g shredded coconut,
200ml coconut milk
4 eggs
1 can (400g) condensed milk
1 tbsp. butter, room temp.
6 tbsp. grated tasty cheese
3 tbsp. soy flour (or GF flour or wheat flour)
1 tsp. baking powder

Soak the shredded coconut in the 200ml coconut milk for 30 to 60 minutes. (Hey, I don’t remember doing this!)

Pre-heat oven at 200C / 430F. Line mini muffin tins with cupcake papers (I would not recommend baking these without papers because they were so hard to get out of the papers when warm).

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, condensed milk and butter, until well combined. Add the cheese, flour and baking powder, and stir to combine. Add the shreded coconut and coconut milk, and mix until combined. The mixture will be quite sloppy.

Spoon into mini muffin tins (or greased ramekins if you want them big) and bake for 30-40 minutes. They are ready when puffed up and golden brown.

On the Stereo:
Earth Covers Earth: Current 93

Apple and date cake

My mum brought me a generous wedge of an apple and date cake that she had made a few months back. She likes apple cakes more than I do but we both agree that this one is glorious! Soft, moist, dark and covered with a caramel and coconut topping, I wanted to eat it all at once. It was so good that I kept asking for the recipe till she remembered to bring it on one of her visits. I am sorry to say I didn’t get the name of the magazine that produced such a superb recipe.

I have made it twice over the last couple of weeks. It is the sort of cake that you want to pull down the blinds and refuse to answer the door so you don’t have to share it. And leaving the house when it is fresh out of the oven is very very hard. I made it just before having to go out and I left reluctantly. But it was probably just as well, because otherwise I might have been tempted to just keep on eating. And returning home to this cake is a joyous moment.

Think of just how soft and satisfyingly sweet sticky date pudding is. Then imagine mingling apples with the dates to soak up the caramelly goodness. Now instead of a toffee sauce that has to be prepared separately, there is a topping baked on. The topping is its crowning glory. It is crispy, crunchy, chewy and sweet. I actually left mine to bake a bit more because it looked uncooked but I think it actually cooks enough and will continue to cook as the cake cools. However I was told by E and Yav and Chris that it was deliciously crunchy.

E loved it too. Much better than my chocolate cakes, he said. He preferred it warm with cream. But I just loved it soft and falling apart in my hand. It keeps quite well for a few days. Beyond that I can’t tell you. The first time I made it simply because it was just so delicious. I ran out of both castor sugar and plain flour when making it. I liked it so much with raw sugar and some wholemeal flour that this is the way I made it again last weekend.

I had offered to make a cake to take to visit Yavanna and Chris, who had invited us to lunch. I made the cake the day before and exercised great self control in not sampling a piece before leaving home. We had a delicious lunch of quiche and salad and the best baked potatoes I have had for ages. Then, seated with a cuppa and a piece of cake, Yavanna and Chris were charmed by Sylvia playing on the rug. Meanwhile, Yavanna and Chris’s gorgeous cat, Mignon, charmed us. Isn’t she a bright eyed and bushy tailed sweetie! The cake was praised by everyone.

It was a pleasant and relaxing afternoon, catching up with friends. We left most of the cake with Yav and Chris, and returned home with a wedge that didn’t last long. I’d like to say that Zinc was as alert as Mignon, but she spent most of the evening curled up sleeping in a new spot, on the back of an armchair.

Apple and date cake
(adapted from a recent magazine)

2 green apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
1 cup pitted dated, chopped
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 cup boiling water
125g unsalted butter
1 cup raw sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup plain white flour
½ cup plain wholemeal flour

Topping:
60g unsalted butter
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed*
2 tablespoons milk*

Place dates, then apples in a small mixing bowl or large measuring jug. Sprinkle with bicarb soda. Pour the boiling water over them, cover and leave to cool. This took me about 1½ hours.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until pale and creamy (I did this by hand but you could do it with electric beaters). Beat in egg and vanilla essence. Fold flours and apple mixture into the creamed mixture in two lots.

Spoon into a greased and lined 23cm round cake tin (I used a 22cm round springform tin) and bake in a moderate oven (180 C) for 45-50 minutes.

Five minutes before the cake comes out of the oven prepare the topping. Mix all topping ingredients together in a small bowl and microwave for 1 minute. Or mix ingredients in a small saucepan over gentle heat til butter has melted and sugar has dissolved.

Remove cake from oven and spread the topping over the cake. Return to the oven for 15-30 minutes or until cake is cooked (when a skewer is inserted and comes out clean). The recipe says to cool in the tin. Apart from lack of self-control where a freshly baked cake is concerned, I found that the topping stuck to the sides of the tin and it helped to run a knife around the sides to loosen it soon after it came out of the oven. If you use a springform pan, you can carefully loosen the sides while it is still warm.

*Update: alternatively use half a cup of condensed milk, 60g butter and 2/3 cup of shredded coconut in topping to make lumberjack cake.

On the Stereo:
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic: The Sundays