Pickled Beets Recipe INGREDIENTS 1 bunch (4 or 5) beets 1/4 cup cider vinegar 1 Tbsp sugar 1 Tbsp olive oil 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard Salt and pepper METHOD 1 Remove greens from beets, save for future use (see beet greens recipe). Cut beets to uniform sizes so they will cook evenly. Steam or boil around 30 minutes or until done. (Alternatively, you can roast them by wrapping them whole in foil and cooking them in a 350°F oven for about an hour.) A fork easily inserted into the beet will tell you if the beets are done or not. 2 Drain the beets, rinsing them in cold water. Use your fingers to slip the peels off of the beets. The peels should come off easily. Discard the peels. Slice the beets. 3 Make the vinaigrette by combining the cider vinegar, sugar, olive oil, and dry mustard. Whisk ingredients together with a fork. The dry mustard will help to emulsify the vinaigrette. Adjust to taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Combine beets and vinaigrette in a bowl and allow to marinate for a half hour at room temperature. Serves four.

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.