Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Berries
This very simple recipe is a nice way to use a smallish quantity of strawberries. You can dress it up by serving with ice cream, or create a version of Eton mess by folding the berries and raspberry sauce into some lightly-whipped cream and crushed meringue.
Strawberries and Blueberries in Raspberry Sauce
Serves 4
Ingredients
200g raspberries (frozen is fine but thaw them first)
1-2 tablespoons icing sugar
250g strawberries, hulled
250g blueberries
a few leaves of fresh basil or mint, shredded (optional)
Preparation
Purée the raspberries in a blender (standard or stick) and then push the purée through a sieve to remove the pips. Sweeten to taste with the icing sugar. You want this to retain a hint of tartness.
Slice the strawberries into thick slices and toss with the raspberry sauce into a serving bowl. Stir in the blueberries and add the shredded herbs if you wish to use them. Leave to sit at room temperature for about an hour so that the flavours blend.
Recipe adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Fruit Every Day! (2013).
21st June 2018
Recipe of the Week: Spiced and Roasted Beets
This week’s recipe comes from share member, Judit Juhasz, with lovely warming spices as a delicious addition to a winter staple – ideal for anyone who has an abundance of winter roots! Thanks for sharing it Judit!
Roasted beetroot and apple in balsamic vinegar
This recipe is inspired by Jamie Oliver, but I’ve changed it around a bit to my liking. It is also very versatile because instead of apples you could use other root veg like celeriac or parsnips and carrots. You can also change the amount of the beetroot and apples if you want to make less or more.
Ingredients
400 g beetroot
400 g apples (on the sour side, it complements the sweetness of the beetroot)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of salt
25 g butter
300 ml balsamic vinegar
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas 4. I make this in my cast iron pan as it makes it easier to transfer to the oven straight away, but you can sauté the veg in a pan and than transfer it into an oven dish to roast it in the oven.
Peel the beetroot and cut it into wedge sized chunks, roughly the same size as your apple wedges. I use the whole apple, as I like it rustic and the peel also protects it from the heat, but you can peel and core the apples if you’d like. Cut the apples into wedges.
Melt the butter in the pan and sauté the beetroot and the apples for 5 minutes. Add the spices and the salt, mixed it well and sauté for another 5 minutes until apples start to become soft.
Pour over the balsamic vinegar, toss the veg in it and transfer it to the oven or to an oven dish to roast. Roast it in the oven until the vinegar becomes a thick sauce, the apples are mushy and the beetroot is soft. You can test the beetroot with a fork or knife for softness.
It’s a perfect side dish to accompany your roast next to some spuds and with the spices it is also quite Christmassy. Enjoy!
Recebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Apple Cake
Moist and satisfying. You don’t need to use the glaze if it all seems a bit much. (This recipe uses US cup measures; a US cup is equivalent to 8 fluid ounces.)
Don Farmer’s Fresh Apple Cake
Ingredients
Cake
2 cups sugar
1.5 cups oil (use a neutral oil such as sunflower)
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 cup wholewheat pastry flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
3-4 cups chopped apples
1 cup chopped walnuts
Caramel glaze
4 tablespoons double cream
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons white sugar
4 tablespoons brown sugar
Preparation
Preheat oven to 165C.
Butter the inside of a bundt or tube pan, and sprinkle it with flour to stop the cake from sticking. Set aside while you prepare the batter.
Whip the sugar and oil together in a large bowl for several minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
Mix together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg-oil mixture.
Fold in the apples and walnuts.
Turn the batter into the cake pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out dry.
Remove the cake from the oven and let cool. Once it is cool, remove it from the pan, and place on a plate. Then prepare the glaze:
To make the Glaze: melt all the glaze ingredients together in a saucepan over gentle heat. Bring to the boil and boil for one minute. Pour this over the cake and let cool.
(Recipe adapted from James Beard, The New James Beard, 1981.)
Rebecca’s Recipe of the Week: Grandmother’s Plum Cake
My Austrian grandmother was a rather difficult person, but an excellent cook. Here is her recipe for plum cake. It is easy and very tasty, and you can use other fruits in place of the plums. My friend Lizzie has invented a delicious variation that uses fresh pears and ground almonds (add half a cup along with the flour). This makes a small cake but the recipe can easily be doubled.
Pflaumkuchen (Plum Cake)
This recipe uses US cup measures, which equate to 8 fluid ounces.
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
zest of one lemon
3 egg yolks
1 cup flour
3 (unbeaten) egg whites
as many plums as you like, cut in half. You can also use other fruit in place of the plums.
icing sugar, for dusting on top
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 190C.
Grease and flour a 20cm cake pan.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Stir in the lemon zest, egg yolks and flour.
Add the unbeaten egg whites and spoon the mixture into the cake pan.
Place the halved plums on top, cut side up. ‘Do not push in’, says the handwritten recipe from my grandmother. You can place them close together or far apart, as you prefer.
Bake at 190C for 30 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 180C and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Dust with icing sugar when it is cool.