Pumpkin, orange and fresh cranberry cornmeal muffins

When I started making the carrot and lentil soup, I started thinking about making something with the fresh cranberries we had in the fridge: something that wasn't cranberry sauce.  This is what I decided upon.

1 1/4 cups plain flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 6 tbsp boiling water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped
zest of one large orange

Heat oven to 350F.  Mix linseed and hot water in a mixing bowl.  Beat in sugar, oil, vanilla and pumpkin.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, baking soda, ground ginger and salt, then add and mix in the orange zest.  Add pumpkin mix to dry mix and stir until just combined.  Finally, mix in the cranberries.  Spoon into a prepared muffin tin.  Bake for ~45 min, until a skewer comes out clean.


These were very good but rather sweet - more of an afternoon teatime snack than a breakfast snack.  The fresh cranberries were lovely - offsetting the sweetness somewhat with a whole lot of zing (way more zing than the pre-dried ones, although the taste was obviously similar).  I realised these were a very American combination (pumpkin, cranberries, cornmeal) - perhaps a reaction to the Scottish-ness of yesterday?

Carrot and Lentil Soup

On my way back from aerials with a tiny bit of a hangover, on a beautiful night for biking, I was turning over what I wanted to eat: I had a yen for soup.  Spicy Asian-flavoured soup.  Vietnamese?  Tom Yum?  Some kind of dhal?  But I didn't feel like going out for dinner...  I enjoyed the mixture of carrots and red lentils in the haggis yesterday, and this is what I came up with when I got home:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
~1 in chunk ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp red pepper flakes
5 medium carrots, peeled and grated
~ 2/3 cup red lentils
2 cups veg stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp maple syrup
1 tbsp rose harissa
1 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp coriander, chopped
salt+pepper

Heat the oils in a medium saucepan.  Add the onion, garlic and ginger, cover and sweat until well softened.  Add the cumin seeds, chili and red pepper flakes, and cook and stir for a few minutes.  Add the grated carrot and red lentils, and stir and cook for a few more minutes.  Add the veg stock, cover and simmer for ~15 min until the lentils and carrots are cooked.  Add the soy sauce, maple syrup, rose harissa and lime juice, taste and season with salt and pepper.  Add chopped coriander to serve.


Mmmm, exactly what I wanted.  Warming, slightly spicy, full of earthy taste.  Seb loved it too, and it went very well with thinly sliced vollkornbrot from Clear Flour.

Burns Supper: Scotch Broth, Bannock, Vegetarian Haggis, Clapshot

veggie haggis, all tied up and ready to cook

No one seemed to know who Burns was, and January is always a good time for random events to distract you from the dark days, so I decided it could be funny to host a Burns Supper. Obviously I am not authentic: I grew up in East Lothian but my parents are English and I never picked up an accent.

Oh, and the small matter of vegetarianism - I have never tasted real haggis. But still, I thought it might be funny.


Scotch Broth

I made this once before when S brought home Scotch Broth mix from Lidl, then decided he didn't like it very much...  Thought it was worth another try.  I adapted this recipe.

250g/8oz carrots, peeled, diced
250g/8oz turnips, diced (couldn't find turnips, used parsnips instead)
2 onions, peeled, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 leek, white part only, sliced
75-125g/3-4oz pearl barley
125g/4oz dried peas, soaked in water for 4-5 hours, drained (used yellow split peas instead, poured boiling water over and left for about 2 hours)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2.3litres/4 pints veg stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat all of the ingredients in a large saucepan until boiling.  Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 2-3 hours, until the peas and pearl barley are soft (nearer 2 is better I think).  Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve with pieces of bannock.


Bannock

Was daydreaming about days spent on Orkney, and how much I like bere bannocks.  No chance of finding beremeal, but I did have pearl barley...  I liked this authentically Orcadian-sounding recipe.

8 oz pearl barley, ground into meal with my spice grinder
8 oz plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
water (about 100ml), to make a soft dough

Mix the flours, salt and baking powder in a bowl.  Working quickly, add the water and mix to make a soft dough.  Divide into two, and roll out (use a rolling pin) into a circle about 1/2 inch thick.

Heat a girdle or heavy frying pan over a medium-high heat.  Put one round onto it.  Cook about 5 min on one side, then turn over and cook about 5 min on the other side.  Allow to cool a bit, then cut up, before eating.


Vegetarian (/vegan) haggis

I wanted to make a haggis-shaped haggis - felt like the ceremony of having a big fat thingy to cut open was a big part of it.  Wasn't sure what could be used as casing instead of a sheep's stomach, then stumbled upon this recipe and I had an answer: yuba (beancurd sheet).  I found some frozen in Super 88.  I mainly referred to that recipe and to this one from the Guardian, adapting it a little to my own thoughts on how a veg haggis should taste.

1 1/2 tbsp fake butter
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms
good pinch cayenne pepper
~1/2 tsp ground allspice
~1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
3 carrots, peeled and grated
3/4 cup red lentils
~500 ml veg stock
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped rosemary leaves
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tbsp chopped sage leaves
1 1/2 cups cooked red kidney beans, mushed up with a fork 
1 cup pinhead oatmeal or steelcut oats (I hoped the latter would be the same as the former, they weren't, but they were what I had so I used them anyway and it was fine)
salt+pepper
optional splash of whisky

2 large circular sheets of yuba (beancurd sheet)
kitchen string

Heat the oil and butter in a large, lidded saucepan.  Add the onions and garlic and sweat, covered, until soft.  Add the mushrooms and cook until browned and wet.  Add the spices and cook for a few more minutes.  Add the carrot, lentils, vinegar, soy sauce and stock (enough stock to just cover the other stuff).  Simmer until the lentils are cooked (about 15 min).  Add the mashed kidney beans, oatmeal, rosemary, thyme and half the parsley.  Cook until the oatmeal has softened and puffed up, and most of the liquid has been absorbed (about 15-20 min).  Add the chopped sage and the rest of the parsley  (and whisky if using) just before the end.  Taste to check seasoning - add salt and pepper, and more vinegar or soy sauce if it needs it.

Allow the mixture to cool completely, then divide in two and shape the mixture (which should be thick and malleable) into haggis shapes.  Open out one sheet of yuba on a board, then place one of the blobs of haggis mixture in the middle.  Roll it up into a sausage shape, then twist around the ends (in the style of a boiled sweet wrapper), and secure with string.  Trim the ends to give a neater, more haggis like appearance (see picture).  Repeat with the other yuba sheet and the other half of the haggis mixture.

Lightly oil the inside of a lidded baking dish.  Heat the oven to 350F.  Put the haggises inside the baking dish, put the lid on, and put them in the oven for about 30 min (really just to heat through).

Serve piping hot, with ceremonial address to the haggis, and clapshot.


Clapshot

5 large tatties (potatoes), peeled
equivalent volume of neeps (= turnip in Scotland, swede in England, rutabaga in America), peeled and chopped into large chunks (couldn't find turnip so used butternut squash instead)
salt+pepper
nutmeg
fake butter
fake milk
1 1/2 spring onions, finely chopped (or chives, if you have)

Put the potatoes in a pan of salted water and bring to the boil.  Boil until they are easily pierced with a fork (~20 min).  Do the same with the turnip / squash - I did them in a separate pan as I suspected the cooking times were different, with practice could do them together.  When done, put in the same pan and mash, adding butter, milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg to give the desired consistency and taste.  Finally, add the spring onions, and reheat gently.


Everything was eaten!  So I guess it must have tasted OK (I think it did: I was especially pleased with the haggis - it looked the part and was tasty).  I hope there was enough food...  I was thinking of making ginger shortbread too, but S decided to make deep-fried Mars bars (Milky Ways in American), so I thought that would be enough.  He also deep fried kit kats, snickers and, towards the end of the night, shortbread and bannock, on the balcony using our Belgian friend Ward's deep fat fryer (originally bought for making perfect Belgian fries - you can't buy them anywhere here, W says, and it's a precise process involving frying at two different temperatures consecutively).  And we had plenty of whisky, including a nice bottle of single malt that H+O brought.  Perhaps new food experiences, for a cross section of the great people we've met over these last few years: Hannah, Orion, Angela, Brian, Alvin, Carly, Jason, Anna, Remy, Nick, Nate, Meghan, Greg.  Now I can feel myself start to think about pancake day...

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

the last piece - saved for S

I quite like putting vegetables in cake.  Carrot cake is so ubiquitous that I find it surprising that more veg don't find their way into cake form.  In the past I have caked courgettes, pumpkin (both fairly widely used), parsnips, sweet potato, and beetroot.  As is becoming increasingly obvious through these last few posts, I love beetroot, in no small part because of its awesome colour.  But also because of its sweet-earthy taste, robust texture, and versatility...  In previous cake experiments I had used the beetroot raw and grated, which gave pleasing little pops of pink, but I hoped for something more eye-catching.  I wondered if cooking and pureeing first might be the answer, and liked the idea of combining it with chocolate and dark berries.  This was for another work birthday - Nik.  Which also seems to be marking a year of vegan baking (since this one).

I veganised this recipe, and used this icing, adding creme de cassis to thin it instead of fake milk.  The icing was a tactical decision - I knew it worked awesomely before, and that it could be used to cover up minor cake-shape problems.

85 g dark chocolate
3 tbsp ground linseed, mixed with 9 tbsp boiling water
300 g sugar
240 ml vegetable oil
300 g cooked, pureed beetroot
1 tsp vanilla essence
30 g cocoa powder
200 g flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 350F.

Melt the chocolate. In a separate bowl, whisk together the linseed-water mix, sugar and oil. Slowly add in the cooked beetroot puree, melted chocolate and vanilla. Beat until just combined.

Mix the cocoa, flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt with a fork in a separate bowl. Add this to the beetroot batter. Fold until just combined.

Spread a teaspoon of oil over the surface of a springform cake tin. Sprinkle some flour all over, and tap out the excess. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin. Bake for about 50 minutes, or till a skewer comes out clean.

When the cake is done, cool it on a wire rack (remove the ring after 15 min or so to allow better cooling.


When the cake was completely cool I cut it in two so that I could sandwich fill it with this icing (made while the cake was baking, then refrigerated til needed and thinned to a spreadable consistency with creme de cassis). I also covered the top and sides with icing, and then decorated the top with natural coloured cherries and red baker's crystals.

It came out as a dense, brownie-like cake.  It sank a little in the centre, but I was able to hide that with the filling and frosting.  Quite a good cake, although I was a bit disappointed that the beetroot colour didn't come out more - in fact the chocolate was quite overwhelming - the cinnamon came out slightly but the creme de cassis was quite hidden too.  I don't think anyone guessed there were beets in the cake or that there was tofu in the icing!  Also, note that I think this icing should be used just before serving - I iced it a couple of hours in advance and the icing had started to crack slightly by the time we ate it.

Beetroot and orange relish

Got lots of beetroot - was really in the mood for it.  I made this relish once, a while ago, and I remember it being really good - the recipe is on a scrap of paper, thought it would be good to write it down before I lose it.

1 lb beetroot
1 lb onions, chopped
2 oranges, grated rind and juice
1 tsp salt
6 star anise
1 tsp fennel seeds
350g / 3/4 lb sugar
570ml / 1 pint pickling vinegar

1) Put beetroot in large pan and cover with cold water.  Simmer until tender.  Drain, peel and chop roughly into small pieces.

2) Put all other ingredients into a large pan and bring slowly to the boil.  Simmer until it reaches a good consistency.  Test for seasoning.  Pour into sterilised jars.


Edit: yummmm, this is just as good as I remembered - the beet/anise/orange/sweet/acid combination is a party in the mouth...  The colour was different than I remembered - I think I must have used some fancy vinegar when I made it before - this version was very very pink and looks like jewels or sweeties.  Made a fantastic sandwich with Romaine lettuce, tahini and dry tofu, on olive and sesame bread.

Tomato Borscht

This is an old favourite, taken from the New Covent Garden Soup Company cookbook my stepsisters gave me for a long-ago birthday (1999, they wrote an inscription).  I love beetroot, and this recipe is quick, easy and cheap yet really exciting to eat.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
225g (8 oz) beetroot, peeled and grated
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 400g tin tomatoes
570ml (1 pint) veg stock
1 tbsp soy sauce
salt + pepper

Heat the oil and then add the onion, garlic and beetroot and cook gently in a covered med-large saucepan for 10 min, without colouring.  Add the cumin, cinnamon, tomatoes and stock.  Cover, bring to the boil and simmer gently for about 15 min until the veg are tender.  Add the soy sauce and taste for seasoning.  Cool a little, then puree in a liquidiser until very smooth.  Reheat gently.


We ate it with some gnocchi, and it was just as good as I remembered: a wonderful mix of sweet and earthy, and of course it is bright pink so lots of fun.  S loved it too.  It was really cold these last few days (-14C with windchill), and I had to bike around a lot, so soup was definitely on my mind.

Coconut macaroons

I always have my eye out for potentially gluten-free recipes, since a fair proportion of the baking I end up doing is to take to garden events, and a few of the garden gang are gluten intolerant.

I dropped by H+O's for tea in December and H had some macaroons...  then I saw this recipe and realised that macaroons are in fact the perfect unintentionally-GF baked item.

3 oz extra firm silken tofu, like mori-nu (1/4 of the package)
1/3 cup veg oil
2 tbsp fake milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup GF oat flour (TJ's GF oats ground in a coffee grinder)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut


Heat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with paper.

Put tofu, oil and milk in a blender and blend til smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt until well incorporated. Mix in coconut until a stiff dough forms.

Spoon in tbsp-sized blobs onto a baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 min, until the bottoms are lightly browned and the tops are lightly coloured.

Let cool on sheets for 2 minutes or so, then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.


These were definitely one of my more successful vegan-GF baking experiments: not noticeably either, and thumbs-up from various omnivores.  The outer coconut goes nice and crisp, the inner remains slightly gooey: just what you want.  Thinking of using the same mix to make some chocolate-cherry-coconut stuff.

Gomier's, Belize

I had a feeling veg food in Central America might be mostly about beans, rice and plantains (these I love, so no real problem).  Our first few meals in Belize seemed to confirm this hunch.

So I was excited to go to Gomier's in Punta Gorda (PG).  Gomier is a characterful, slender Rasta, who runs an all-veg place (used to be pure veg, now includes seafood to appeal to more travellers) and makes his own tofu.  We wandered along Front Street looking at sea and pelicans and trying to find it - it's not hard to find really: on the outskirts of the town centre, by the main road going North, with a view to the Caribbean.  We sat at one of his outside tables, drinking fresh fruit juice (starfruit or orange that day), waiting for the food (it takes a while), watching the world and the sea, and felt at home in Belize.  I had his fried tofu with curry sauce, S had the same with barbecue sauce.  BBQ sauce is usually nasty, but Gomier's was incredibly good - sweet and spicy.  The fried tofu was different from any I'd had before - large pieces, with a very firm texture, and some kind of crispy breadcrumb-like coating - also very good.  Both came with vegetable rice and salad.  It was so good we went back, and the second time I tried his tofu balls - the same tofu but in balls the size of king marbles.  Similarly great, and this was the only place we found in Belize really focused on making veg food (although I heard about a Chinese place in Belmopan).

Not to say we didn't eat well basically all the time - also in PG we had an awesome Belizean breakfast at our guesthouse Nature's Way - prepared by the mother of the family that ran the place - hot ginger tea for me / first real coffee in Belize for Seb, and a plate piled with scrambled eggs, fried plantain, beans, toast, and fresh fruit (papaya, banana and pineapple) - home cooked and tasty as anything.  And Marian's Bayview was good too: faster food and more space than Gomier's; canteen style, good choice, servers behind smoked glass - green beans, some kind of veg, ubiquitous rice, killer hot sauce.

Other highlights were coconut curry (at Habanero's) in Caye Caulker; all kinds of Marie Sharp's hot sauce everywhere; fry jacks; new fruits - Belizean pear (red, pear-shaped but with a stone, tart-sweet and slightly pear-like taste) and Belizean plum (green or yellow and plum shaped; very tart and juicy, with fibrous parts towards the middle - served on the bus in a plastic bag with chili sugar mixed in) and old ones (wonderful pineapple, papaya, watermelon; orange plantations and banana trees everywhere); spicy palm hearts freshly foraged from the rainforest and prepared by a Mayan mama; cacao; tacos from ladies by the lake in Flores...

Pupusa ladies, San Ignacio market, Cayo

We had an especially good food time in San Ignacio: Flayva's, Sweet Ting and Hannah's were good (the first a great spot to hang out).  A place called Martha's was lauded by all the guidebooks, and rightfully so, as we ate dinner and breakfast there and had nothing but great, simple food.  S had a chaya burrito and it blew my mind: chaya (a Mayan green a bit like spinach) cooked with onions, wrapped in a thick flour tortilla and served with a scoop of coconut rice and a plantain.  Also, in San Ignacio market I at last managed to get my paws on a pupusa: they were being rolled by an older lady who didn't speak English, so a younger woman in a long dress and bonnet (her granddaughter?) translated for me.  Beans stuffed in a thick flour bread-pancake, griddled and served piping hot, with hot sauce and pickled cabbage to go on top: finger-scorchingly magnificent.

pupusa!

San Ignacio is very close to the Guatemalan border, so the food there was relatively Hispanic-influenced (as in Flores, obv), whereas PG was kinda Rasta/Caribbean/Garifuna, with lots of Mayans around there too (although not running restaurants, sadly). And Caye Caulker felt like pure Caribbean, with the coconut and curries reminding me of Jamaican food.

Chia pudding

I tried my first chia pudding in a hippy corner of Hawaii, and I wasn't convinced.  Nonetheless, I became intrigued by the thickening properties of the stuff (especially following my attempts at vegan and gluten-free baking), and so ended up buying a packet of seeds to make an Amazon order up to free shipping.  I've been using them ground in baking, and adding them whole to my muesli mixture, but yesterday I finally decided to bite the bullet and make something all about chia - following this recipe, with a few tweaks here and there to fit my store cupboard.

1/2 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups fake milk
1/3 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cacao or cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinches nutmeg, allspice
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
pinch sea salt

Mix the chia seeds and coconut in a bowl. Put the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend til smooth.

Add the wet mix to the seed mix and stir. Wait 15 minutes and stir again. Then put the pudding into glasses or containers and refrigerate - ideally for at least 2-3 hours. Makes about 4 servings.


Simpler version
(2 servings)

1/4 cup chia seeds
2 tbsp shredded dried coconut*
1 cup fake milk
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp cocoa powder
few drops vanilla essence*
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon*
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg*
little pinch of sea salt*
* = optional

Mix chia seeds and coconut in a small bowl. In a bigger bowl, whisk together the milk, maple syrup, cocoa, vanilla and spices. Add the chia and coconut to the milk mixture and beat together a little. Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.


This was actually really good, I was surprised.  Although then not, since all the added goodness (cocoa, spices, coconut) does a good job of drowning out any taste the chia might have, and I usually do seem to like weird gelatinous things... The chia is amazing - just half a cup in 2 cups of liquid swelled up and stuck together so fast! Ends up with a consistency a bit like frogspawn, and surprisingly more-ish. I ate some after about half an hour's fridge time and it was fine, I think the only thing that changes with more time is it loses the crunch of the middles of the seeds.

Making boiled veg interesting

Boiling veg seems to be a basic part of British cookery, but I've never understood it.  Why take crunchy, sweet, flavour-filled carrots and turn them into dull-coloured mush?  Why boil tatties when you can bake them, mash them, roast them or fry them?  I think I am getting it now though: the cooking time has to be spot on or it all goes wrong.  Although I still find plain boiled veg a little dull.

Over Christmas, Bella, Seb and I stayed in a wee cabana on a Caribbean island, Caye Caulker.  For the only time during our Belize trip we had a basic kitchen.  Especially since Bells and I decided that a key Christmas Day tradition we must preserve was a big home-cooked feast, we really put it through its paces.  Produce available on the island / condiments etc in our kitchen were limited, but there were a few Chinese supermarkets and a couple of decent fruit and veg stands.

We ate jicama, radish and hibiscus petal salad (similar to this one), green beans, tomato and cucumber salad, refried beans, rice, tomato-garlic sauce, hot sauce, and boiled carrots.  We made the carrots interesting:


Boiled carrots with honey, ginger and coriander

Peel and chop 4 large carrots and boil until just done / still with some crunch (10-15 min, taste to check).  Finely chop a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, and 2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves.  When the carrots are done, drain them, transfer to a bowl and add 2 tbsp honey, plus the ginger and coriander.  Mix and serve warm.


Yesterday I boiled some little russet potatoes, primarily because I wanted the potato water for an experiment (more on that soon, if it works).  That meant I had a clutch of perfectly boiled little potatoes waiting in the fridge for me to do something with them.  I decided to fry:

Fried boiled potatoes with garlic, rosemary and thyme

Slice the cold boiled potatoes (about 8 fairly small ones; skin on if poss) into discs about 2 in across and 1/2 in deep.  Finely chop 2 cloves garlic.  Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and add the garlic.  Fry for a minute or two until starting to soften and brown.  Add the potatoes and a good pinch of rosemary and another of thyme, and season well.  Fry on medium heat until the cut sides of the potatoes are nicely crisped and browned (I managed to burn them a little - watch it), taste for seasoning, and eat with a dollop of something saucey and good (baba ghanoush, in this case, since I made some at the weekend).

Cacao

young cacao pod

Our first stop in Belize, and something I was definitely excited about, was Punta Gorda, in the cacao-growing area of Toledo.  There is a considerable Mayan population there now (probably the biggest proportion of the population of any region of Belize), but of course there were many more back in the day.  Cacao was incredibly important to the Ancient Maya - they used it as currency.  After the mysterious Mayan collapse it seems like cacao in the region went a bit underground, with Mayan communities continuing to grow it and to drink hot cacao on special occasions, but little or no trade.

nearly-mature cacao pod

 Then Hershey's came along and imported their hybrid cacao plants and grew them in Belize during the American years (I was surprised they actually put cacao in their sick-flavoured 'chocolate').  And now there are three or four small-scale producers, placing an emphasis on maintaining the connections between farmers, chocolate manufacturers and consumers.  Near PG there is Cotton Tree Lodge (owned by Americans), and Cyrila's (owned by an entrepreneurial, local, Mayan family).  We took a tour of Cyrila's farm and they showed us the process of making chocolate, as well as letting us taste everything from the raw pods through roasted beans to hot cacao, cacao wine and finally chocolate.  The roasted beans were especially wonderful, and watching them turn into chocolate as you worked the grinder somewhat magical.

I started thinking about the idea that things that grow together taste good together.  I guess chocolate tastes good with about anything, but the flavours they were selling - chili chocolate, coffee chocolate, orange chocolate - seemed like such hard-and-fast, classic combinations...  I brought home some roasted cacao beans / nibs, and wanted to make something good with them.  Inspired by this recipe, I decided to combine the cacao with another crop important in Central America / the Caribbean: lime (where would guacamole or Cuba Libre be without lime?).


Cacao-Lime Cookies

Makes about 16.

1/2 cup fake butter
3/8 cup brown sugar
3/8 cup white sugar
1/2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 1 1/2 tbsp hot water
1 1/4 tsp fake milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
7/8 cup flour
3/8 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/8 cup cacao nibs
zest of half a lime


Heat the oven to 350F. Beat the butter and sugars until well mixed and light. Mix in the linseed mix, fake milk and vanilla.

Mix with a fork the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Add this to the butter mix gradually. Finally, mix in the cocoa nibs and lime zest.

Take small spoonfuls of the dough and roll into one inch sized balls and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


These have gone down a bit too well with S already - I intended to take them to Ladies' Drawing Club tomorrow, since the whole cacao aspect of the trip was partly catalysed by meeting Sam (who is currently working at Cotton Tree Lodge) through Andrea - but S has been making good inroads into the cookie pile: maybe I should have made double after all...

Red Cabbage

We got back from Belize / Guatemala and I was expecting a completely empty fridge.  I was pleasantly surprised when I opened it to find forgotten whole red cabbage, huge butternut squash and a few baby potatoes.  This should keep us going til the weekend!  Seb made a run to TJs and so apples and onions were added to the range of possibility, along with the garlic, citrus and storecupboard already present.

I decided to tackle the red cabbage last night.  I like red cabbage a lot - the sweet/peppery, crunchy, colourful juiciness really does it for me. But I hardly ever buy it as a whole cabbage always seems like a lot to deal with.  But it had survived a few weeks in the fridge quite happily - I should really do it more...  In all it was about 3lb of cabbage so I made a couple of things with it (not least because the whole lot would have overflowed my only lidded baking dish...).


Braised red cabbage

This felt like the right thing to do - nice and wintry (almost christmassy) flavours, I'd never done it before but found the recipe in Delia's veggie collection - there is no one I'd trust more with a holiday classic when feeling a bit rusty in the kitchen than her.


2/3 a 3lb cabbage
1/2 a huge onion, chopped into small pieces
1 large apple, cored and chopped into small pieces
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 a nutmeg, freshly grated
salt and pepper
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
~10g butter

Heat oven to 300F.

Remove and discard the outer leaves from the cabbage.  Cut the remainder into quarters and remove the hard stem.  Shred as finely as you can.  Prepare the apple and alliums.

Put a layer of cabbage into a lidded baking dish.  Add a layer of apple and onion.  Mix the garlic, sugar, spices and seasoning and then add a layer of the spice mix.  Repeat until all in.  Add the vinegar and butter, put on the lid and put in the oven.

Cook for ~ 2 1/2 hours, checking and stirring a couple of times during that time.

Red cabbage salad

1/3 a 3lb cabbage, prepared as above
1 tbsp onion, very finely chopped
1/3 cup dried cranberries
2 tbsp peanut butter
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp maple syrup
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Put the shredded cabbage, onion and cranberries into a bowl and mix.  Put the remaining ingredients into a small bowl and mix with a fork until well combined, to make the dressing.  Add the dressing to the cabbage and mix well.  Put in the fridge for a few hours or overnight so that the flavours and juices can meld.


Both are good.  For some reason I thought peanut butter, cabbage, cranberry and acid would be a good combination and they are - very more-ish.  The braised cabbage is nice and comforting and seasonal, although I love the raw texture of cabbage so much it does seem a bit of a shame to cook it.