Greens, chickpeas and tamarind

I'd been looking at this recipe for a while - caraway and tamarind are two of the ingredients I am most into at the moment.  But hadn't had that much chard recently.  Used a mixture of chard, beet greens, kale and a little large-leaf spinach, since that was what I had in the fridge / in the plant pot on the balcony, crying out to be used before we leave on Thursday.  Apart from that I mostly stuck to the ingredients, although played pretty loose with the method and quantities.

4 tbsp seedless tamarind
400g swiss chard (stems and leaves), cut into 1cm slices
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp whole caraway seeds
1½ tbsp olive oil, plus extra to drizzle
1 tsp tomato paste (didn't have, so used extra tinned tomatoes and reduced more)
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
350ml water
1½ tbsp caster sugar
400g cooked chickpeas
1½ tsp whole coriander seeds, toasted and ground to a powder
salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 big handful coriander leaves

Put the onion, caraway and olive oil in a large, heavy-based pan and sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the onion is soft and golden.  Add the tomato paste (if using) and cook, stirring, for about a minute.  Add the tomatoes, water, sugar, tamarind and ground coriander, and season.  Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, adding chickpeas after 10 minutes and greens after 20min.  Adjust consistency and seasoning.  Finally, add the lemon juice, and serve with rice and coriander.


Is good.  The tamarind gives nice depth of flavour, while the caraway is surprisingly subtle... yet exciting!  Chickpeas, tomatoes and greens are otherwise quite a tried-and-tested combination.

Berberé Stew

Liked the simplicity of this recipe, and the sound of the spice mix.

Berberé spice mix:
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp paprika (used red pepper flakes instead)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/8 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground sea salt

Stew:
1 small onion, chopped
1 1/4 cup red lentils
2 1/4 cups water
1 garlic clove, crushed
1-2 tbsp berberé spice mixture, above (used entire quantity made above)
1 800g can crushed tomatoes

Mix lentils with water, garlic, onion, and spices.  Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat, for 20 minutes or until the lentils have softened.  Watch carefully and add water if it starts to dry out.  Add the tomatoes and heat at least 15 more minutes.  Eat with rice or bread or on its own as a soup-stew.


Warming, and very rich in flavour.  Spice combo not a million miles from the ras el hanout I made not long ago.  This is a time for comforting, spicy, tomato-y, pulse-y stews.  I am sure whenever I eat fenugreek I can smell it coming out of my pores a day afterwards.  Or does fenugreek just smell like sweat?

Fresh ginger cake

Andrea's birthday today.  Decided to make a cake to bring to lab tomorrow.  Last year she had ginger cake (not made by me), so I decided to make a ginger cake.  Had my eye on this recipe.

115g piece fresh ginger, peeled and thinly sliced (4oz)
250ml golden syrup (1 cup mild molasses)
200g sugar (1 cup)
250ml vegetable oil (1 cup)
350g plain flour (2 1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
250ml water (1 cup)
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 6 tbsp hot water

icing sugar, lemon juice and crystallised ginger to decorate

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F.  Grease the bottom and sides of a 23cm springform or round cake tin with 5cm sides and line the bottom with a circle of parchment paper.  Chop the ginger until very fine, and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the golden syrup, sugar, and oil.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, cloves, and pepper

In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, then stir in the bicarbonate of soda.  Whisk the hot water into the golden syrup mixture, then add the chopped ginger.

Gradually sift the flour mixture over the golden syrup mixture, whisking to combine. Add the eggs and whisk until thoroughly blended.

Scrape the batter into the prepared springform or cake tin and bake until a skewer comes out clean, about 1 hour.  Leave to cool completely.

Run a knife around the sides of the cake to help loosen it from the tin. Invert the cake onto a plate, peel off the parchment paper, then re-invert onto a plate


I followed the recipe really carefully (apart from the egg substitution), as since I am going to share it with many people I wanted to try and avoid disaster.  Even down to tracking down golden syrup in Shaw's (no great hardship: now I can have porridge like it should be).  Then, while waiting for the cake to bake, realised that since the recipe author is American the original recipe was also likely to be American and this a British-ised version.  Yep, the original is here.  So I've added the original quantities above.  Crucially, I was wondering about the absence of treacle / molasses (the cake looked rather light with only golden syrup, and ginger cake without treacle seemed weird), and sure enough the original had molasses in it, and not the golden syrup.  So we'll see how this one tastes, but I think if I make this again it will be with some proportion of molasses.

The cake keeps well for a few days to a week.  I decorated it with water icing made with icing sugar and lemon juice (no water) on top.  I also made some crystallised ginger for decoration: boiled thinly sliced ginger (~200g) in water for 10 min, drained, repeated.  Added a cup of water and a cup of sugar and boiled til the consistency of thin honey.  Cooled a touch, then fished out pieces of ginger, spread on paper on a baking sheet and put in warm dry place overnight.  This kind of worked.  The sugar solution went a bit hard when it cooled, but the bits I'd spread out were OK, and looked quite nice when arranged.

Fried lettuce

I've never really experimented with cooked lettuce.  But last night I discovered it is awesome.  You need a Romaine or a Little Gem - something with both bite and tenderness, and sweetness.  I chopped the outer leaves and fried them in olive oil with salt and pepper, and I cut the heart in half and fried on both sides in the same pan.  The cooking brings out the sweetness; crunch is maintained in the stems but the leaves go floppy and absorb the seasoning.  Yum.  An especially good idea if the leaves have been in the fridge a bit long and gone a bit floppy.