Devon Apple Cake

Ingredients

500 grams of Bramley Apples, peeled, cored, diced
175g slightly salted butter, softened
175g light muscovado (brown) sugar, plus 3 T(tablespoon)
2 medium eggs, beaten
250g self raising flour
1t (teaspoon) baking powder
1 t ground mixed spice
1 t ground cinnamon
100 g sultanas (raisins)

1. Make apple sauce from apples and 2 T of water. Cool.
2. Pre heat oven to 160 C (325F)
3. Grease a 20cm loose-base cake tin or a spring form tin and line with grease proof paper.
4. Beat together butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Gradually beat in the eggs. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices and add half to the bowl. Stir in. Stir in apple sauce and sultanas. Stir in remaining flour.
5. Put mixture into tin and then sprinkle remaining sugar on the surface.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Moroccan style stew

Having eaten lamb for Easter dinner we had lots left over. What to do with it, which would also let us use up other things in the fridge. I did buy a courgette (zucchini) to add a little variety to the root veggies we did have but besides that everything was already in the house.

Ingredients

2 carrots, cut into small pieces
1 large sweet potato, cut in to medium sized pieces (so that it doesn't disintegrate or turn to mush in the cooking process)
2 medium to large potatoes, diced
1 courgette (zucchini), sliced or diced and put in 10 minutes before the end of the cooking time
1 onion, chopped
1 container of chopped tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 t (teaspoon) paprika
1-2 t mild chilli powder
1/2 t fennel seeds
1 t cinnomon
1 t cumin (powder)
pepper and salt to taste
3/4 c (6 fl. oz) white wine
1 cup stock
left over cooked lamb (if you don't have any, buy some stewing lamb and cook it in a pressure cooker by itself for about 17-20 minutes or stew it on the stove until it is tender)
Couscous for 4

Serves 4

1. Fry onions until fragrent and soft.  Just before it it ready, add the garlic.
2. Add the vegetables (except the courgette), lamb, and liquids and simmer until the vegetables are almost tender.
3. Add the courgette, and cook for 10 minutes more
4. Check seasonings, and add salt, pepper and any other seasoning as necessary.
5. Serve with couscous.

If there are any ingredients which you don't have in the cupboard, improvise.  

Goulash...yum!

Goulash:  We had this for dinner on the Saturday before Easter.  It was simple to prepare, fairly inexpensive and tasted wonderful!  I forgot the cream but it didn't matter.

Ingredients

•  * 2 tbsp olive oil
• * 500g pork tenderloin, cut into chunks
• * 30g plain flour
• * 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• * 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• * 2 of red and green pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced
• * 2 tbsp tomato purée
• * 2 tbsp paprika
• *1 can chopped tomotoes
• * 75ml dry white wine
• * 300ml beef stock, home-made or shop-bought
• * black pepper

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a casserole dish or heavy-based saucepan.
2. Coat the pork with the flour and brown well, in batches, in the hot casserole dish. Set the browned meat aside.
3. Add in the remaining olive oil. Add in the onion, garlic, pepper to the casserole dish and fry until softened, around 5 minutes.
4. Return the pork to the pan with the tomato puree and paprika. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
5. Add the tomatoes, white wine and beef stock. Cover and cook it on the hob on a gentle heat for about an hour, removing the lid after 45 minutes.
6. Check seasonings and add salt and freshly ground pepper as needed. Stir in the sour cream and serve.