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recipes

Aubergine to Zucchini

Now that I’m back in England I’m having to revive my English vocabulary. Aubergine not eggplant. Courgette not zucchini. Bicarbonate of soda not baking soda. Chips not fries.

So for lunch yesterday we had one of my favourite soups, which is either Zucchini and Rosemary or Courgette and Rosemary depending on which side of the Atlantic you eat it. It’s equally good on both, a pretty green colour and very warming on a winter’s day. A handy recipe to have in case your guests include vegetarians or the wheat/gluten-intolerant, as it can be made with vegetable broth or cubes and is self-thickened with potato.

Courgette/Zucchini and Rosemary Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive or other oil
1 large onion, chopped, or equivalent number of shallots
2 cloves garlic, sliced (or 1 tsp garlic granules, or 2 tsp freeze-dried chopped garlic)
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock (1-1/2 UK pints water plus 6 Oxo chicken or vegetable cubes)
1 large potato (russet or King Edward – a floury rather than waxy one), peeled and sliced
3 medium courgettes/zucchini, chopped or cubed

  • Melt butter with oil in heavy large saucepan over medium high heat. Add onion; cook until translucent but not brown, about 5 minutes.
  • Mix in garlic and rosemary and stir well.
  • Add stock and potato; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, until potato just done.
  • Add sliced zucchini; simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.
  • Working in batches, puree in blender. Season with salt and pepper.

Coconut cake

I found a very good recipe to use up some coconut I found in the back of my cupboard – relic of a failed macaroon initiative I suspect. It seems a pretty perfect cake to me: everything can be mixed up quickly, you don’t need to ice it and it won’t dry out by morning! I reduced the quantities from the original recipe (which makes a 9×13 version) and it was excellent — and perfumed the house nicely to boot. The oil and the syrup should ensure it keeps well for several days, although it does not seem destined to last that long.

Middle Eastern Coconut Cake (Harissah)

Syrup
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Harissah
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 cups unsweetened coconut (I used dessicated) (- if you use sweetened, reduce sugar to about 3/4 cup)

  • Boil the water and sugar together 5 to 10 minutes until nearly consistency of pancake syrup. When syrup has cooled a few minutes, carefully add vanilla (do not add it immediately to the scalding syrup unless you want to experience a volcano effect on your stovetop).
  • Mix sugar, eggs, oil, milk, vanilla and lemon juice until blended. Add flour and baking powder to mixture and blend well. Stir coconut into batter, and pour mixture into greased and floured 8×8 square cake pan.
  • Bake 40 minutes at 325 F until set and top is a light/medium golden brown.
  • When cake is done and still hot, and still in the pan, poke holes with a skewer or toothpick and pour the syrup evenly over the top.
  • Let cool, then cut in squares or diamonds.

Raspberries and Bakewell Tarts

Haven’t had much time for poetry lately, but a poet still needs to eat, and I’m still trying to empty my cupboards and freezer of perishables.

I had a little lost jar of ground almonds begging to be used, and ditto a bag of frozen raspberries, so I conferred with Nigella who suggested a Bakewell Tart with Fresh Raspberries (from How to Eat). Bakewell tarts are usually a kind of jam tart with ground almond batter (frangipane) on top; they are equally nice as pies or individual tarts or plumped into cakes, and often to be found in English bakeries. Haven’t seen them in Canada, but maybe it’s because I don’t frequent bakeries so much.

Being surrounded by boxes and chaos I dispensed with Nigella’s home made pastry and pulled out a frozen pie shell which worked perfectly well, although because the shells are smaller than what the recipe called for, there was about a cup of batter left over. And since I was using frozen raspberries, they were quite juicy, so I drained off some of the juice (to save for my morning yogurt of course!) and mixed them with a dollop of jam rather than putting, as the instructions said, a layer of jam on the base. I managed to scorch the topping by adding the flaked almonds from the start of baking as instructed, but other recipes suggest adding the flaked almonds later on and I hope that will work better. So here’s my easy version with North American measurements.

Raspberry Bakewell Tart

1 frozen pie shell
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
2 tbsp (or to taste) raspberry or blackberry jam
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup sugar
3-4 tbsp flaked almonds

  • Heat the oven to 400f.
  • Mix the raspberries and jam together and partially drain, so it’s a jam-like consistency. Prick the pie shell.
  • Melt the butter and set aside. Beat the eggs and almonds together and add the melted butter.
  • Spread the raspberry mixture in the pie shell. Pour almond mixture over the berries.
  • Bake 20 minutes, and then sprinkle the flaked almonds on top and bake for 15-20 minutes longer, until puffed and golden.
  • Cool and serve either warm or at room temperature.

Pumpkin season

For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.

–Pilgrim verse, circa 1630

Please please please don’t waste your pumpkin by just using it for a candle holder: it is an edible and excellent food! I weep annually in this country for the pumpkins rotting in the fields on November 1st, when, as we must still repeat and repeat, there are people starving elsewhere in the world. Instead of meditating on such bad behaviour, why not reward yourself with a good meal of pumpkins? Such cheap food at this time of year, and easy to freeze as a puree.

Make your own equivalent to canned pumpkin from scratch, by baking it (like most squash it’s watery, so needs to be baked: boiling or steaming it will get you into trouble). Seed and cut the pumpkin in half or big chunks, without peeling, and bake it cut side down on a lightly oiled baking sheet at 350 F for about 30-40 minutes, until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Either mash, or puree in small batches in a blender. Freeze it in 1 cup containers if you can’t cope with anything more after all that effort.

Spices of wife, especially cardamom

As I was cleaning out my spice drawer — ok, thinking about cleaning out my spice drawer — I made an ill-advised visit to my computer and happened upon a Blogcrictics posting about the health benefits of spices. Almost shocking to come across an article like this that doesn’t mention turmeric.

Of course the king of spices himself must be Michael Ondaatje for his enduringly fragrant poem, The Cinnamon Peeler, featuring another most healthful spice.

The blogger does go on about cardamom though, which I’m definitely in favour of. I love it in kheer and I have a recipe for Cardamom Lime Cheesecake which was an old favourite (- just think of the comprehensive nutritional benefit you get from that one: vitamin C from the limes, calcium from the dairy, protein from the eggs, and eternal life from the cardamom!)

Cardamom Lime Cheesecake (8-10 servings)
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 tbsp sugar
1-1/4 c graham crumbs
2 envelopes gelatin
1-1/4 c sugar
1 c milk
grated peel of 3 limes
1-8oz pkg cream cheese
2 c large curd cottage cheese
1/3 c lime juice
1 c whipping cream, whipped
3/4 tsp cardamom

  • Press butter, 1 tbsp sugar and graham crumbs into a 9″ springform pan and bake 5 minutes at 350f. Set aside.
  • Combine gelatin and sugar in a double boiler and stir in milk and eggs. Cook over boiling water, stirring until mixture starts to thicken (15 minutes or so). Remove from heat, stir in peel and chill mixture until syrupy.
  • Whirl smooth in a food processor or blender the cream cheese, cottage cheese, lime juice and cardamom. Stir in the gelatin mixture and fold in whipped cream. Pour into springform and chill at least 4 hours.

Garlic prawns and then apple lightning cake


Last night’s chow was garlic prawns with orzo, that clever little pasta that imitates rice, with a few zucchini slices and slivers of red pepper so I wouldn’t have to make vegetables.

Followed by yet another variation on our dear friend the Lightning Cake, this time featuring a sliced apple topping, sprinkled with juice of half a lemon, about half a cup of brown sugar and a pinch of cinnamon (I’ve made it with blueberries and ginger as well – terrific). I ladled into the cake batter about half a cup of raisins – which had wallowed some weeks in leftover hooch – sherry? brandy? who knows – until plump. The result was gooey and crispy and perfect with Udder Guys Ice Cream (maple walnut this time). And it held up well overnight: a delicious breakfast.