Chocolate Lime Flourless Cake

I love this time of year because it gives me a reason to experiment with recipes I wouldn't normally try because there would be no one around to eat them other than me.  So, this year I made a Christmas cake using a packaged mix.  It had Delia Smith's name on it and followed her famous recipe!  It was great fun to try out and I can see the attractions of a mix, which has everything measured out for you and with the fruit pre-soaked in brandy.  I only tried the cake yesterday though I had made it in mid-November.  I have been adding a bit of sherry each Sunday.  I'm not keen on brandy and have always used sherry instead.  This cake was a bit of a mixture, with brandy soaked fruit and a regular top up of sherry but it did taste wonderful.

Today I decided to try a new recipe, a chocolate lime cake made without flour.  It was wonderful in its own way.  Light and rich with chocolate.

Ingredients:

150 grams (g) dark chocolate chopped
150 g of unsalted butter (though I used salted and it was fine)
6 eggs, medium
250 g caster sugar
100 g ground almonds
4 teaspoons (t) best quality cocoa powder
zest and juice of a lime
icing sugar, for dusting the cake


Oven temperature:  180 C
Pan: 23 cm spring form cake pan, cover the bottom with parchment paper and butter the sides

1. Melt the chocolate and butter together.  I used a pyrex bowl suspended over a saucepan of boiling water.

2. Beat the eggs and sugar together until they are pale yellow and frothy and have increased to 3 times the original volume.

3. Mix together the ground almonds and cocoa powder.  Fold into the egg mixture.

4. Next fold in the slightly cooled chocolate and butter, followed by the zest and juice of the lime.

5. Pour into the prepared cake tin for 40 to 45 minutes.

6. Check your cake after 35 minutes.  I tested mine with a tooth pick and it came out clean at this point.  It is possible my oven was too hot, though I did use an oven thermometer.

7.  I served it with cream with sugar and lime beaten in but I think that in future I would use plain cream or ice cream since the cake is very rich.

Salt dough Christmas decorations

Things You'll Need:

• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of salt
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

1. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and knead well.

2 Once you have kneaded it, you will need to roll out the dough. To make this easier, it helps to either use wax paper under the dough when you roll, or to lightly coat the counter with flour before placing the dough on it. Roll out dough to a 1/4 inch thickness.

3. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Use a toothpick to put a hole for a string in the top of the shape. 

4. Place shapes on a baking sheet and place in a preheated oven at 300F degrees. Bake for 45 minutes. Before removing from oven, ensure there are no soft spots, if so you can bake until they are gone. 

5. Once your decorations have cooled, they are ready to paint. Any acrylic craft paint will work. Once painted, you will want to seal them to keep out moisture by putting on at least one coat of clear varnish, polyurethane or even clear nail polish. 

Christmas Card

Christmas Card

Oatmeal Shortbread for Christmas

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz) butter
3/4 C brown sugar
2 t (teaspoons) vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1 cup rolled oats

1. Cream together butter and sugar; blend in vanilla.  Gradually work in flour and oats, using spoon or fingers.  Chill for about 20 minutes or until firm enough to roll.

2. Roll out on lightly floured surface, to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut into 2-inch rounds.  Place on ungreased baking sheets; prick with fork.

3. Bake in 325 F (160C) oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.  Makes about 48 cookies.

Cranberry mincemeat

Homemade Cranberry Mincemeat

500g dried fruit (heavy on currents and raisins with 75g of dried cranberries)
3 dessert apples, peeled, cores and finely chopped
Zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
the juice of 1 small lemon
3/4 teaspoon each ground cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon
150 g dark soft brown sugar
125 ml of Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry
300 g cranberries
1 tsp vanilla

1.Mix all the ingredients except the vanilla, together.
2.Simmer for 20 minutes until everything looks pulpy and has absorbed most of the liquid. You may need to mush up the cranberries with the back of your wooden spoon.
3. When it has cooled somewhat add the vanilla and stir.
4. Spoon into sterilized jars.

Dumplings!

I made dumplings last night for the first time in years! I had forgotten how great they are and very filling. Here's the recipe I used but I'm sure there must be variations. Ideas any one?

Sieve together:
2 cups of flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt.

Add enough milk to make a stiff dough. Drop spoonfuls into boiling broth and leave the lid on for ten minutes! They were delicious with our beef stew.

Roasted Olive and Grape Tapenade

Here'a a quick and easy recipe for a spread/topping. It was in the free magazine our local grocery store, Raleys, distributed last fall. Makes a nice gift when put in jar with tag.

Roasted Olive and Grape Tapenade

1 1/2 c pitted Kalamata olives, halved
2 1/2 c red grapes, halved
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

Preheat oven to 350F.
Stir together all ingredients on large rimmed baking sheet.
Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes
Serve warm or room temperature with goat cheese and baguette slices.
Will keep refrigerated for about 2 weeks.

Yields about 1 cup. May be doubled.

Zucchini Egg Foo Yung

Just had this for supper to use up the multitude of zucchinis we have this year! Wonderful!

Grate coarsely
4 medium unpeeled zucchini

Mix in
3 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup (2 fluid oz in a measuring cup) plain flour
1/4 t (teaspoon) garlic powder
1 t salt
1 onion, grated

Fry by tablespoonfuls in hot oiled skillet, turning once when golden brown. Arrange on platter and top with sauce.
Combine in saucepan
1 cup chicken broth (8 fl. oz)
2 T. (tablespoons) soy sauce
1 T. cornstarch

Cook and stir over low heat until thickened. Serve with rice.

Options:

Add fresh bean sprouts with grated zucchini.

Switch from Chinese to Italian meal by topping with tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. Serve with spaghetti.

A recipe for left-over chicken

Chicken Julienne

Ingredients

serves 4

175 g (6 oz) long grain rice
3 Tbsp (40 g) butter
3/8 cup (40 g) plain flour, sieved
1 1/4 cup (300 ml) 1/2 pint chicken stock
1 1/4 cup (1/2 pint) 300 ml milk
350 g (12 oz) cooked chicken, cut into long narrow strips
2 tbsp (30 ml) lemon juice
4 oz (100 g) green beans, cooked
pinch of dried thyme
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp (15 ml) chopped fresh parsley
4 oz (100 g) carrot, peeled, cut into julienne strips and blanched
1/4 cup (25 g) 1 oz flaked almonds, toasted

Method

1. Cook the rice in a saucepan of boiling salted water until tender, but not soft. Set aside and keep hot.

2. Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour and cook gently for 1 minute, stirring. Remove pan from the heat and gradually stir in the stock and milk. Bring to the boil and continue to cook, stirring until the sauce thickens.

3. Gently stir in the chicken, lemon juice, green beans, thyme and seasoning and cook for 5 - 10 minutes until heated through.

4. Add the parsley to the cooked rice and toss lightly. Make a border of rice on a serving dish and spoon the chicken into the centre. Decorate with carrot and almonds.

Italian Sponge Cake

I rather like the sound of this cake. It is used in a recipe for Tirame-Su (Pick me up cake) which is found in Venetian restaurants.

Pan de Spagna (Italian Sponge Cake)

5 eggs, yolks and whites separated
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups white cake flour, sifted
1 t vanilla essence
1/2 t grated lemon rind

Put the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat till lemon coloured. Add the sifted flour, a little at a time, mixing in well. Add the essence and rind.

Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry and fold into the flour mixture.

Butter and flour a cake tin about 10"/25 cm in diameter. Pour in the cake mix and bake in a moderate (350F/180C) oven for 40 minutes.

Turn out on to a cake rack and cool

To make Tirame-Su using Italian Sponge Cake, use the following instructions:

1 Italian sponge cake (baked in a 14"/35cm pan)
1/2 cup strong black coffee
3 1/2 fl oz / 100ml kirsch or Tia Maria or any other favourite liqueur
1lb 2oz / 500 g cream cheese sweetened with icing sugar to takst
unsweetened cocoa powder

Cool the sponge cake and split in half. Mix together the liqueur and coffee and carefully sprinkle half over bottom half of cake. Spread some cream cheese over this half and place the second half on top of this. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the rest of the liqueur and coffee and spread the rest of the cream cheese over the top and sides of the cake. Sieve a thickish layer of unsweetened cocoa powder over the top and transfer to a serving plate. This cake should only be about 2 in/5cm in height and should be fairly moist without crumbling inside.

Venetian cooking

I was in the local Oxfam shop yesterday and discovered a copy of Taste of Venice: Traditional Venetian Cooking by Jeanette Nance Nordio. I bought it for a number of reasons. I love reading the books of Donna Leon with her wonderful descriptions of meals en famille in Venice, the book was beautifully illustrated and finally, I am looking for new recipes to enliven our mealtimes. So far, I have been rewarded with a recipe for a tomato sauce and one for Italian sponge cake, both of which I will make today! I have looked on the Internet for Jeanette Nance Nordio but it seems that Taste of Venice is the only cookbook she has written. What a shame!

Tomato Sauce

500g unskinned jam tomatoes (plum?) or 14 oz/400g tinned, peeled tomatoes
1 clove
1 small onion
1 small carot
1 stalk celery
3 T (tablespoon) parsley
2 T basil
20 g butter
1 t (teaspoon) olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

In a copper or earthenware pot melt the butter and oil and add the celery, carrot, onion and parsley finely chopped together. cover the pot and cook over a moderate heat for a few minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the tomatoes, cut into large pieces, the basil and the garlic and recover the pot and allow to cook over a low hear for 15 minutes. Add the salt, sugar and pepper and blend or sieve the sauce.

Return to a low heat and gently simmer for another 25 minutes until the water from the tomatoes has been consumed and the sauce has thickened. Do not overcook as it will tend to become acid in taste.

This sauce may be bottled and sealed like jam to be used when needed.

Update on sponge cakes

I made the sponge cake recipe I posted the other day and was a little disappointed. In part the underwhelming size of the cake. I used an 8" size and should have used a sponge cake tin, which I think must be at least a 7".

Instead I will post the recipe for the first sponge I made. I was much more pleased with that one.

Madeleines

I still haven't managed to make the sponge cake I said that I would in the last post but I did finally make madeleines. I went to Paris in 2005 and one of the items I brought back was a madeleine tin. In all those intervening years I have never used that tin! But I have now. Twice!

I used Rick Stein's recipe but checked another recipe after I made the first batch and they didn't come out quite as I expected. Rick Stein suggests that you put the batter in the fridge for 15 minutes before baking. In Paris Sweets, they suggest that you wait a minimum of 3 hours and that you can keep the batter for up to two days. My second batch worked much better than the first so I would suggest waiting.

I had to go to Paris for my tin because at the time they weren't sold in the UK. However, you can now get them at Lakeland for only £7.95. Certainly less expensive than a trip to Paris, though perhaps not as interesting!

Today I promise to make one of the sponges and report back tomorrow!

Sponge Cakes

It has been a long time since I posted here. I seem to have ground to a halt on my writing, which includes my blog writing. I had never made a sponge cake until late May of this year, when I saw a recipe by Hugh Firnly-Wittingstall in the Guardian weekend magazine. I've made it 3 times since and really like it but it isn't as light as I have heard that sponge cakes should be so I am in search of the perfect recipe. Here is my first and I shall make it tonight.

Sponge cake recipe ingredients: Serves 4

100g butter
100g caster sugar
100g self raising flour
Vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
2 medium eggs

Sponge cake recipe cooking instructions:

1. Preheat oven to Gas mark 190°C.

2. Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy.

3. Beat the eggs in basin or cup and add to the mixture a little at the time, with the flour keeping the same smooth and creamy consistency.

4. Making sure the mixtures does not get too wet or dry as you go when you have used all the flour and the eggs.

5. Add the vanilla essence and a pinch of salt, mix for a few minutes.

6. Divide into two lined, or non-stick sponge tins, put into a moderately hot oven, middle shelf.

7. Put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (it is important that the oven is well heated).

8. Put to cool on a rack to cool.

9.When cool put one upside down on a plate spread with jam, you can also put fresh cream in at this stage, put the other piece on the top and dust with icing sugar.

I rather like Delia Smith's instructions for her sponge cake so I will try that one later in the week. Now I just have to decide who to give these cakes to so that I don't eat them all myself!!

Orange and Apple Cake

I thought this sounded good and when I get some marmalade, I will make it. In fact, I think I'll ask Cliff to buy some tomorrow.

220 g of butter at room temperature
210 g brown sugar
4 eggs
250 g whole wheat flour
1 1/2 t of baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon
200 g apples
100 g raisins
125 g marmalade
finely grated zest of orange
Demerara sugar

Cake Tin: 20 cm round cake tin, with removable base

160C / 1hr 15

1. Cream butter and sugar until light.

2. Whisk the egs.

3. Sift together flour, baking powder and cinnamon.

4. Core and roughly chop the apples. Apple sizes should be less than 1 cm square.

5. Add raisins to apples and then mix in the marmalade.

6. Add egg mixture to creamed butter and sugar a little at a time.

7. Gently fold in the flour.

8. Fold in the fruit mixture along with the orange zest.

9. Spoon in to cake pan and sprinkle demerara sugar on top of cake.

10. Bake for 1 1/2 hours or until skewer come out with no cake attached.

11. Cool before serving.

Eco balls and microfibre cloths

I had a look around after reading Mary Jane's post on cleaning products and thought that I would post some links to some of the products I use. The first is 'Eco Balls", a way of washing your clothes without using any detergent. How could that be, you may ask! I asked the same question four years ago but decided to try them and we have been using them ever since!

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/ecoballs!REG/F/keyword/laundry/product/21756

Next, I discovered microfibre cloths from the same supplier during this summer just gone by. I thought that if the ecoballs work why not try the cloths. Again, you don't need to use detergent with them. And yes, we are still using them 6 months later:

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/F/keyword/microfibre%20cloths

About Today's Lunch from Leftovers

To make today's lunch, used leftover turkey chili from the freezer, baking potato from the dark cupboard, spinach from the crisper drawer and low fat sour leftover from New Year's Eve.

Defrosted the leftover chili and kept in warm on stove.

Baked the potato in microwave. Cut it in half and scooped out the white. Mixed it with the sour cream, celery salt, garlic powder and black pepper. Mounded potato back into both skins, making a little trough-like indentation down the centre.

Returned the two potato halves to microwave to warm up.

Mixed some baby spinach leaves with a very light dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar and seasonings.

Put a thin bed of spinach on each of two plates. Set half a potato on the spinach. Spooned warm chili along the trough and then on top of the trough. Sprinkled on some grated Parmesan, chopped fresh cilantro and chopped green onion. Then gave each plate a good grating of black pepper.

We liked it..seemed to suit a wintery Saturday.

About Leftover Basic Black Beans

There's a recipe for Basic Black Beans in a post dated a few days ago. In today's post are some notes about two ways to use leftovers from that recipe. Fr both recipes, you start by pureeing the beans in a blender or food processor.

Then...

Black Bean Soup
Add the purred beans to a few cups of good chicken, beef or veg eatable stock. Season to taste with cilantro, ground cumin and salt. If you've sour cream, a dollop onto the soup in the bowl is a good garnish.


Black Bean Dip
Add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil per cup of pureed beans. As with soup, season to taste with cilantro, ground cumin and salt. Serve with oven baked corn or flour tortillas chips. A lager is a nice accompanying beverage.

About Pico de Gallo

We like the Black Beans (recipe in previous post) with flour or corn tortillas, Pico de Gallo (recipe below) and some very finely chopped jalapeno pepper on the side.

Pico de Gallo

2 or 3 ripe but frim tomatoes, roughtly chopped
!/2 whote onion, roughly chopped
3/4 cup or so of roughly chopped fresh cilantro leaves
juice os 1/2 a lime
salt to taste.

Mix above together and enjoy with the beans. We like our Pico de Gallo to be made within a few hours of eating it, enjoy the freshness.

About Basic Black Beans

Basic Black Beans

Rinse a bag of dried Black Beans, also called Turtle Beans, I think they're ususlly about one pound bags.

Toss the rinsed beans into the crock pot along with a chopped whole onion and 2 or 3 cloves of copped garlic. Cover with water. Cook on high for 1 to 2 hours.

Check water, keep it just barely above the top of the beans, not too much as you dont' want to end up with too much "sauce".

Add about 1/4 cup of ground cumin and 1 T cocoa. Continue cooking for 1 hour or so more. It depends on how fresh your beans are.

When beans are soft, add about 2 T cup of chili powder, 2 t cumin seed, 1 t hot pepper flakes and salt to taste. About 2 tsp salt might taste right, it depends in part on how much salt is in your chili powder.

You may want to add more cumin at this point, depending in part on the quality of your ground cumin.

Continue cooking on low for at least 1/2 hour more.

We use these beans as base of burritos and dips. They freeze very well.

About white vinegar

I am confident someone else will soon show up here. In the meantime, I will try to keep my resolution to post here three times per week...so far, so good.

Okay, this is another, and likely final, post about household cleaning products.

What do you do with white vinegar?

- Mike thinks it gets sweat stains out of workout shirts so soaks his gear in it from time to time

- I think it gets rid of bad smells. Put out a dish and your home smells like white vinegar, not paint of cooking odoure or smoke.

- I know it removes calcium build up in kettles and from around taps

- What else...???

I know some people use it to wash windows. I don't. To wash windows, I use a spray bottle of water, just tap water and a aqueegie and nothing else. I think anything else in the spray bottle contributes to streaking may be wrong on that.

I think I've reached the bottom of my well of knowledge about household cleaning products.

About cleaning products

How many different cleaning products do we need?

Here's what I think we have on hand right now:

All purpose spray cleaner
Liquid dish detergent
Powdered dishwasher soap
Scouring powder in a can
White sponge..I think it's called an eraser
Spray carpet spot cleaner
Liquid laundry soap
Spray spot remover for laundry

With exception of "eraser", scouring powder, carpet cleaner and laundy spot remover, I think all are "green" or "greenish".

Suggestions for improving my list are welcomed? What do you have?

About Oatmeal Plus

I've been eating the same thing for breakfast for the best part of four years and it may be time to name it. I think I'll call it Oatmeal Plus.

Put 1/3 cup regular oats into a microwavable bowl with 2/3 cup water. Microwave on high while you slice a banana and get out the plain, low fat yoghurt. Remove bowl of oats from microwave and give it a stir. Plop about 1/4 cup of yoghurt atop the oats. Toss the banana slices on top of the yoghurt and there you have it: Oatmeal Plus.

Mike likes his without the yoghurt and banana and with raisins and semi-thawed frozen blueberries. I think I'll call that version Oatmeal Plus for Him.

Any breakfast alternate suggestions? Any Oatmeal Plus alternate ideas?

About too many ripe bananas....

Okay....I resolve to post here 3 x per week or should that be I'll try to post her 3 x per week......we'll see Here goes:

Yes we had too many bananas....too many ripe bananas.

Just removed three soft and blackened bananas from the fruit basket, peeled off the skins and popped the mush into a ziploc bag.

I now have 1 1/2 cups of ripe banana on hand. More precisely, I have 3 cups of ripe banana on hand as there was already a bag of bananas in the freezer. (Note to self: go back to freezer and mark which bag of bananas in oldest.)

I've a quick and easy "low fat" banana bread recipe but I think I'll postpone making it. Even though low fat, it is high in calories when you snack on it all day.

...and that brings me to my annual weight loss resolution which seems to fit well with this blogs title" "Live More with Less".

Normandy sausages

This was absolutely wonderful!

Ingredients:
450g of sausages
3 dessert apples
1 T calvados or apple brandy
200 ml cider
100 ml cream
butter
oil


Slowly fry the sausages in butter or oil for around 20 minutes or until they are cooked.
Meanwhile add butter to a second pan and fry the apple pieces until they are golden brown
Remove the sausages from the pan and keep warm. Add the cider to deglaze the pan. Stir, bring to a boil and reduce the cider for a few minutes. Add the calvados and cream, reduce the heat and let this bubble for 30 seconds. Check seasoning and pour the sauce over the sausages and apples. Serve with mashed potatoes

How to work out quantities for a large meal

I found this site just before Christmas and then lost it again just in time for our Christmas feast. Here it is to help others when their next big meal comes up:

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions