blackberry cake

Blackberry Cake

Serves 8
Prep 20 minutes
Cook 1 hour

140g butter softened (I put 85g)
140g sugar (I put 85g)
140g ground almonds
140g self-raising flour (I used normal flour + baking soda)
1 egg
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I left this out cause I'm not sure the Frenchies would like it, they always say its too strong)
2 tsp vanilla extract
225g blackberries (I put in 300g cause I luuuuurve blackberries)

Heat oven to 180C. Grease & line the base of a 23cm springform tin. Put the butter, sugar, almonds, flour, egg, cinnamon and vanilla in a mixing bowl and beat well. Spread half the mixture into the prepared tin.
Sprinkle the blackberries and dot over the remaining cake mixture so it covers the fruit.
Bake for about an hour until golden and springy. Leave to cool in the tin. To serve sprinkle some cinnamon and powdered sugar over the top. Serve with coffee and/or marscapone.

I think this recipie is from this book: La Dolce Vita. My colleague brought in this cake and I loved it so much I got her to photocopy the recipe for me.

Peach Pie

Peach Pie
Taken from The New Best Recipe

2 pie crusts
6-7 medium sized peaches (about 7 cups sliced)
1 tbsp juice from 1 lemon
1 cup sugar (I put 1/2 cup)
pinch cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch salt
3-5 tbsp potato starch (depending on how juicy the peaches are)

Place the bottom crust in the pie pan and refrigerate until ready to bake. Cut the second pie crust into strips and prepare the lattice on a flat surface. Freeze for 15 minutes or refrigerate until ready.
Preheat the oven to about 250C - which is how high my mini-oven goes - or 500F
In a bowl combine the sliced peaches (pealed of course) with the other ingredients. Pour into chilled pie crust and lay the lattice work on top. Pinch to close off the edges of the pie. Reduce oven temperature a bit (to 450F) and bake for 25-30min until crust is golden brown. Rotate in the oven and reduce the temperature again to 375F or about 200C and bake until dark brown and the juices bubble through the lattice, about 25-30min. Take out and cool at least 2 hours on a wire rack.
Serve a la mode ;-) with vanilla ice cream.

chocolate & sweet potato cake

Chocolate & Sweet Potato Cake

(on the left is the original recipe from Bushveld Banquets, on the right is my heavily modified recipe)


180g butter at room temperature (100g)
360g brown sugar (50g)
4 eggs
450g cake flour (120g rice flour, 30g corn starch)
100g cocoa powder (50g)
15ml baking powder
180g dark chocolate
400g sweet potato, cooked, peeled and grated/mashed
400ml buttermilk (25ml normal milk)

Ganache (I didn't make)
20ml instant coffee powder
400ml cream
300g dark chocolate
120g butter

Cream butter & brown sugar together in a large bowl until smooth. Beat in the eggs one by one. Sift together the flour, cocoa & baking powder and fold into the creamed mixture. Fold in the melted chocolate, sweet potato and then buttermilk and mix well. Pour batter into a greased tin (or 2 if you're making a layer cake) and bake at 180C for 30 min until tester comes out clean (mine was a loaf pan and much thicker, I baked it for about an hour with aluminum foil on the top to keep it from getting too dark). Cool on a wire rack.

Ganache
Combine coffee powder, cream, chocolate and butter in the top half of a double broiler. Heat over simmering water until the ingredients have melted to a smooth mixture, stirring occasionally. Cool and then cover the sides and top of the cake.

mac & cheese

Homemade Mac & Cheese
(2 servings)

* Cook and drain pasta for 2 people
* Saute 1/2 an onion in 1 tbsp butter
* Grate 2 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese (mine was white cheddar but either one works)

Set all the different components to the side.
* In a saucepan:

Mix 1/2 liter of milk
2 tablespoons of corn starch (maizena)
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch of pepper
pinch of nutmeg

Over low heat continuously stir until the white sauce (bechamel) thickens and if you run your finger over the back of the spoon the sauce is thick enough to stay off to the sides.
Quickly mix in the cheddar and the onions. Stir until the cheddar is melted and smooth then pour onto the pasta and mix all together. Serve with a pinch of paprika on top.

galettes de sarrasin

Galettes de Sarrasin

Here is the recipe I used for my batter for 2 people (2.5 galettes each)

* 125g farine de sarrasin (buckwheat flour)
* 1 egg
* salt
* about 50cl water

I started with a little less water and then kept adding some until the batter was the right consistency (should run a thin ribbon when poured with a spoon or ladle and swirl around easily inthe hot pan.)
Then we flipped them once and then filled them with ham, cheese and a cracked egg on top, (or anything else you want!) YUM!

chicken stock

Chicken Stock

1 chicken carcass (or 4 or 5 big legs, several wings etc) with the leftover meat and skin on
1 onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
parsley/thyme etc
salt/pepper

Put the chicken in a big pot, fill with enough water to cover the bird. Add all the veggies roughly chopped and skins/leaves included. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let cook for several hours until the chicken has basically fallen apart, meat off the bones etc and all the veggies are very soft. Drain through a colander or cheesecloth saving the water and discarding the veggies. Use as is or bring to a simmer and reduce even further. As it cools it will gel and the fat will rise to the top, you can skim it off (my chicken seems to be very lean and there isn't much to skim off) or leave it in for flavor.

Freezes very well, in mini Tupperwares or ice cube trays. You can use any veggies you want or have lying around, I've also added bell peppers, garlic, potato skins etc Just make sure they're washed.

This is a great way to use up chicken that you normally would be throwing away for future soups, risottos and anything else that calls for chicken stock. It has FAR less sodium than bouillon cubes or prepackaged stock and tastes delishous! ;-)