A cake to make me less narky: Barefoot Contessa's Apple Spice Cake

So, I am justifying the inclusion of this truly wonderful cake into my ‘do things better’ agenda for the following reasons: It has apple in it, so surely must be one of my five a day. It is made with vegetable oil and not butter so that has to make it a ‘better’ cake, whatever that is. It is packed with spices and of course they have oodles of medicinal qualities, and lastly, a bit of what you fancy does you good, and the opportunity to sit down with a slice of this with a cuppa turns a narky Stella into a less narky one. Only one slice mind…

If you want a really really reliable, decadent, frankly scrumptious cake, you open a Barefoot Contessa book and turn to the section marked ‘desserts’. There you will find cake heaven. And it was in her ‘Make it Ahead’ cookery book that I found this. Don’t be put off by the amount of spices; go buy them if you haven’t got them because you will be making this cake more than once. I promise.

I very rarely alter a Barefoot Contessa recipe because they are usually perfect. However, I have made a couple of alterations, mainly due to the fact that I didn’t have any golden raisins, but I did have some pretty jewel like sultanas which did the job just nicely. I also didn’t have the exact size pan as indicated in the recipe, so I split the mixture between two smaller pans.

If you don’t fancy my chosen way of eating this, with a cuppa, then serve some slightly warm with some ice cream. And swoon…

APPLE SPICE CAKE from ‘Make It Ahead’ by Ina Garten

serves 12

An American recipe, so uses cup measurements (which I quite like…)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pecans, chopped

1/2 cup rum

1 cup golden raisins (I used sultanas)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown (Muscavado) sugar

3 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp grated orange zest

2 1/2 cup plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/8 tsp ground cloves

3 (large) to 4 (small) Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and 1/4 inch diced

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x13x2 inch baking pan, or a pan(s) that will take the amount of mixture.

Toast the pecans on a baking sheet for 5 to 10 minutes. Watch the nuts like a hawk. They burn in the blink of an eye. Set aside.

Add the rum and raisins to a microwave-safe bowl and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap; microwave for 1 minute, then set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla, and orange zest on medium speed.

Once combined, add the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves; mix until smooth. The batter will be very thick.

Drain the raisins before adding them to the batter. Drink the rum.

Add the apples and pecans too, then use a rubber spatula to fold them all into the batter.

Spread this batter in your prepared pan, smoothing it out.

Bake the cake for 35 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let the cake cool until it’s barely warm or room temperature before cutting into squares.

Enjoy!

The tart that makes you look pretty damn good when really you're just well read, resourceful and in a hurry: French Apple Tart (Tarte aux Pommes)

 

 

I know I would be a far better cook if I made my own puff pastry but the fact is, I am, essentially, lazy. And I buy loads of that lovely all butter French stuff when I go to France so why on earth would I bother? And, I wouldn't have been able to knock out this tart in the five minutes it took, if I had to spend God knows how long folding, rolling and resting, folding, rolling and resting....

 

I had a small two concerns: Is it wise to make a dessert that is more nuts than I am? I didn't think there was a major chance of anaphylaxis amongst our Sunday afternoon meal crowd (more like a Sunday soiree crowd in the end: note to self, don't open that wine you've been saving and drink two glasses of it without checking that you have actually put the oven on 'oven' instead of 'grill') and sometimes, people just don't like nuts, so I decided to have a reserve. And this was it. Once you've prepped the apples, five minutes will probably do it and with an apricot jam glaze, it looks like it's come straight out of a French patisserie window. And it tastes, and smells, sublime.

 

This was essentially sourced from Michel Roux Jnr's 'My Life in the Kitchen', which is current bedside reading, though there are a couple of little Lola and Finn's Mum twists, namely instead of creating an apple compote, I finished off a jar of apple sauce laced with calvados from Christmas that had been lurking at the back of the fridge by spreading it on the base of the tart. I then sprinkled a little sugar and cinnamon over the top of that before piling the apples neatly on top. With a bit of a flourish to adorn the surprisingly neat job I had made of the apples, I sprinkled a little more cinnamon over the top after I had brushed them with melted butter.

 

This was such a joyous dessert; and amazingly easy to assemble make. And apples, sugar and flaky pastry is never, ever wrong. If you find yourself in a bit of a dessert bind, free yourself with this beautiful thing...

 

French Apple Tart, adapted from 'My Life in the Kitchen' by Michel Roux Jnr

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum, Dad and four others

 

Ingredients:

 

1 box of ready rolled all butter puff pastry

2 to 3 tbsp. of apple compote/apple sauce

1/2 - 1tsp of sugar to taste.

1/4 tsp cinnamon

3 to 4 cox or Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced very thinly (put the slices into acidulated water whilst prepping the pastry to prevent the slices turning brown).

20g melted butter

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

beaten egg, to glaze before baking.

2 tbsp. of apricot jam, warmed, to glaze the tart

 

Method:

 

 

 

Unroll the pastry and cut a circle, using a dinner plate to cut around. Crimp the pastry to create an edge and then turn the pastry over. Apparently according to Michel Roux Jnr, this helps the layers to puff better, and let's face it, if anyone is going to know, it's him.

 

Dock the pastry with a fork.

 

 

 

Spoon the compote/sauce over the base of the pastry, leaving about a centimetre around the edge of the pastry.

 

Sprinkle over the sugar and the cinnamon over the compote.

 

 

 

Arrange the apples in neat circles on top of the compote, maintaining the centimetre around the edge of the tart.

 

 

 

Brush the apples with melted butter and sprinkle a little more sugar and cinnamon over the apples if desired. (I tasted the apples to see how they were sour they were; that determined my decision).

 

Brush the edge of the tart with the egg wash and place on the preheated tray. Bake in the oven for about 20/25 minutes until the pastry is puffed and golden, the apples yield easily to the tip of a knife and are starting to colour a little.

 

pre glaze!!

 

Leave to cool somewhat, then glaze with the warmed apricot jam.

 

 

 

I served this with homemade vanilla ice cream because I like to show off.

 

 

 

 

 

A work in progress - Apple, Cinnamon and Star Anise Vodka

 

 

I hate to mention the 'C' word, so at this moment I won't, but I have in mind for this a certain evening in December, when the house has become quiet because excitable children have finally given up and gone to bed, the fairy lights are twinkling on the tree and the fire is roaring. Unfortunately, that is where my utopian vision ends. Since we moved, we have one of these pretend things rather than the real thing, and though I really don't miss the dust and the dirt, I do miss that once in a while situation, usually when it is cold and dark outside, where a roaring fire is a necessary detail. Anyway, if I can't get warm in the way I might like, I am hoping that this little experiment will turn into something that will warm the cockles instead, but, I will have to wait to find out.

 

 

 

Because of the weird obsession I have with fruit trees, September and October are filled with fruit tree spotting.  It is a pastime which makes my return to work for the worst half term of the whole year a little more bearable, as with every passing year I discover another random fruit tree blooming with fruit. What's that? Yes, you're right. I should be keeping my eyes on the road, but in case you're interested and are vaguely in the north Liverpool area,  you might be surprisedto learn that the East Lancs road contains quite a few fruit trees, as does the Northern Perimeter Road at Netherton, the M57 between Switch Island and Kirkby and then there is the Rainford Bypass, which is where these apples are from. Lola, Finn, Phill and I went along three weeks ago and stripped the lower branches of a random tree, and then Phill lifted Finn, ever the daredevil, so we could get to those round, rosy ones at the top of the tree. Scrumping has not lost its appeal, and has probably provoked a life long memory for Finn, who seemed to have the best time.

 

I usually make blackcurrant vodka, but decided to try apple this time. I was thinking apple pie when I threw the cinnamon and star anise in. Due to the tartness of the apples, I did throw about 50g of sugar into the mix to hopefully take away anything too sour, and I used the cheapest vodka I could get my hands on. Don't be using 'Grey Goose' for this; get down to Lidl. The other thing I did was sterilise the jar and the spoon I used to push the apples into the jar, to hopefully prevent anything weird starting to grow.

 

Apple, Cinnamon and Star Anise Vodka

 

Serves me, all through Christmas, hopefully.

 

Ingredients

 

1litre of cheap vodka

Two star anise

1 large cinnamon stick, broken up

50g sugar (optional, depending on the tartness of your apples)

About half a dozen medium size apples, cut into quarters.

 

Method:

 

 

 

Once you have sterilised a suitable jar, put the spices, the sugar if using and the vodka into the bottle. Don't fill all the way up to the top because you have to put the apples in which will displace the load.

 

 

 

Put the apples in. They will float, so you will need something to push them down with. I used a serving spoon as it had a long apple and also helped to stir the mixture a little. Put in as many as you can. Once full, seal the jar.

 

Keep the bottle in a dark place. Mine is under the sink. Theoretically, the vodka would become infused after about a fortnight, but I am leaving mine until the week before Christmas, when I will decant it into a pretty bottle I bought from Range.

 

To be continued...

 

 

Easy does it! Ottolenghi Chicken with Caramelised Onion and Cardamom Rice.

 

 

Easy. Often things aren't are they? Though there are those annoying types who think that somehow something being easy isn't enough of a challenge and that something that doesn't test your perseverance is somehow not worth bothering with. It's a bit like that 'if it isn't hurting, it isn't working' adage that gets trotted out every so often by those who are probably well meaning but extraordinarily irritating. And whilst these people always seem to be atop of everything, I refuse to believe that there isn't a part of their lives which is as chaotic and stupid as mine, so even they would be appreciative of something that was as effortless as this recipe.

 

This 'effortless' thing, however, is all relative. There requires some involvement: some rudimentary chopping skills, the opening of a packet of rice and a requirement to be in or around the kitchen whilst the thing cooks, but other than that, it is something you can 'knock up' (not the greatest phrase ever) whilst doing something else, like sorting out a small amount of the chaos that is your life maybe, if you happen to be me.

 

I have waxed lyrical about my love of all things Ottolenghi elsewhere on this blog. This recipe, unsurprisingly, does not disappoint on any level. Yum!

 

Ottolenghi Chicken with Caramelised Onion and Cardamom Rice, adapted from 'Jerusalem' by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

 

Serves Lola, Finn, Mum, Dad and one other

 

Ingredients:

 

4 tbsp olive oil

2 medium onions, finely sliced (250g in total)

1kg chicken thighs, with bone and skin, or 1 whole chicken divided into quarters (I used chicken thighs)

10 cardamom pods

⅓ tsp whole cloves

2 long cinnamon sticks, broken in two

300g basmati rice

550ml boiling water

1 chicken stock cube (my addition)

 5g parsley, chopped

5g dill, chopped (I omitted this, as I don't like it really and as a result, didn't have it)

5g coriander, chopped

100g Greek yoghurt, mixed with 2 tablespoons of olive oil (optional)

salt and black pepper

 

Method:

 

 

 

Heat half the olive oil in a large sauté pan for which you have a lid over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion has turned a deep golden brown. Transfer the onion to a small bowl and wipe the pan clean.

 

 

 

Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl and season with 1½ teaspoons each salt and black pepper. Add the remaining olive oil, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon and use your hands to mix everything together well. Heat the frying pan again and place the chicken and spices in it. Sear chicken for 5 minutes on each side and remove from the pan (this is important as it part-cooks the chicken). The spices can stay in the pan, but don’t worry if they stick to the chicken.

 

Remove most of the remaining oil as well, leaving just a thin film at the bottom.

 

Add the rice, caramelized onion, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper. Add the currants. Stir well and return the seared chicken to the pan, pushing it into the rice.

 

 

 

Pour the boiling water (in which I dissolved a stock cube) over the rice and chicken, cover the pan, and cook over very low heat for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

Take the pan off the heat, remove the lid, quickly place a clean tea towel over the pan, and seal again with the lid. Leave the dish undisturbed for another 10 minutes.

 

 

Instagram

 

 

Finally, add the herbs and use a fork to stir them in and fluff up the rice. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

 

Serve hot or warm with yogurt mixture if you like.

A little ditty about my kitchen and how I like to entertain: Afghan Meatballs #kitchentales

 

 

I think my kitchen is the heart of my home. It's not just about the cooking and eating; you can find me sat at the table marking a set of exercise books; it's the place where Lola and Finn's homework is completed, along with the metaphorical tearing out of hair when you try to explain in simplistic terms how division actually works to a bored six year old, and as my kitchen encompasses a dining area, it's the place where I can not only cook, but I can indulge myself with a bookshelf housing too many cookbooks, and a shabby chic armoire, procured from a hairdresser's shop in Manchester, once used for housing alsorts of sprays and potions, but now the place where I keep my 'posh' stuff and the special stuff: it's on show, but literally only used on high days and holidays.

 

 

 the armoire

 the bookshelf

the armoire with fairy lights 

Russian dolls

 Grandma's Willow Pattern tea set

 Lola, colouring and posing!

 Finn - engrossed in FIFA

 Roast dinner! Dig in!

 

But mainly it's about the cooking, the eating, the drinking, the banter; those special times when everyone is around, putting the world to rights. We haven't lived in this house long - a mere six months - but already the kitchen has established itself as the heart of the home. The recent 40th birthdays of Phill and I meant a kitchen full of people, with the sound of chatter, simple good food served in a 'dig in, your at your granny's' type of way, all helping yourself, the sound of wine sloshing into the glass. The kitchen was alive. This is this type of cooking that I adore - eating in the kitchen, great trays full of family food, often on the worktop, sometimes on the table - and there for everyone to take as little as much as you want. Eating in the kitchen lends itself to that type of informality. And then you put it all in the dishwasher (if you're me), put in a Fairy Platinum dishwasher tablet and finish off that bottle of Chablis.

 

Here's a recipe ripe for the family style treatment. It was served last weekend, amidst a flurry of hands, the clatter of forks and spoons and the chatter of children, loading up tortillas with some rice, some salad and these amazingly subtle but complex tasting Afghan meatballs, loosely based on the recipe from Sally Butcher's book, 'Persia in Peckham'. It encompasses the methodical and therapeutic making of meatballs, the chopping and slicing of fresh salad, the hum of the oven and the bubble of the water cooking the rice to eventually produce something quite fitting for the kitchen that I want my home to have.

 

Afghan Meatballs, adapted from 'Persia in Peckham' by Sally Butcher

 

Ingredients:

 

1 chopped onion

500g minced lamb

2 -3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp chilli powder (or more if you like a kick)

11/2 tsp cumin

1 1/2 tsp coriander

half a dozen coriander stalks

2 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

tinned tomatoes

chopped coriander

 

To serve, salad vegetables such as spring onion, leaves, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, chopped coriander leaves, drizzled with a little lime juice

 

Tortillas, warmed in the oven

 

Boiled rice

 

Method:

 

Preheat the oven to 180c

 

 

 

Fry the chopped onion until it becomes translucent.

 

 

 

In a food processor (or of course, by hand!) combine the sautéed onions, the lamb, the garlic, the spices, the eggs and the seasoning. You might be surprised at how much salt meatballs need to avoid tasting bland. You can be judicious at first and add to taste but to ultimately check the seasoning, mix the ingredients together, break off a tiny piece of mixture and fry it in the frying pan you fried the onions in, and then taste it once it is cooked.

 

 

 

Once you are happy with the amount of seasoning, dampen your hands and roll the mixture into even size balls. Mine were a couple of centimetres in diameter, or so. Place them into an ovenproof dish or pan.

 

 

 

Put the meatballs into the oven and cook for about 15 - 20 minutes or so or until the tops are brown. At this point, take the meatballs out, scrape away any excess fat that has seeped from the meatballs, if you like. Then, turn the meatballs over. Pour in the tinned chopped tomatoes around the meatballs and return to the oven for another 15 minutes or so. The tomatoes will cook down a little and thicken, creating a sauce infused with the taste of the meatballs.

 

 

 

Once done, take out of the oven and scatter with some chopped coriander. Serve at the table with the accompaniments mentioned above.

 

 This post is an entry for the “My Kitchen Story” Linky Challenge, sponsored by Fairy Platinum. You can find information on Facebook.