Apple, apricot and walnut loaf cake

This is a Delia classic, as well as being a Sher classic and the first cake S ever made for me. I can't quite believe I didn't write it out on here but it looks like I haven't... It is simple, although it does take a little time to prepare the ingredients (nut toasting, chopping fruit etc), and a fairly long time in the oven (up to 2 hours). But it's very versatile (lots of fruit, nut, flour, sugar variations possible), and a great way of using one or two old apples. This time I actually used some marzipan instead of about 2/3 of the nuts (did not toast, obv), and that was well tasty. I also added marzipan to apple crumble topping last week (I had a whole marzipan pig begging to be eaten), which caught a little but I think is in principle an excellent and delicious idea.

For the cake:
175 g pecan nuts (used walnuts)
110 g wholemeal flour
110 g plain flour
pinch of salt
1½ tsp baking powder
2 rounded tsp ground cinnamon
110 g spreadable butter
175 g light brown soft sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
3 tbsp milk (plus a little extra if needed)
175 g ready-to-eat dried apricots, each chopped in half
175 g Bramley apples, cored and cut into 1 cm chunks with the skin on

For the topping:
2 tbsp demerara sugar
¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Heat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 2 lb loaf tin. When the oven is ready, spread the nuts on a baking sheet and toast for about 8 min. Remove them to a chopping board, let cool a bit, then chop roughly.

Meanwhile sift the flours, salt, baking powder and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Then add the rest of the ingredients except the fruit and nuts. Using an electric hand whisk, beat slowly then increase the speed to mix everything thoroughly til smooth. Fold in the apricots, apples and pecans. When everything’s folded in, add a drop more milk if necessary to give a mixture that drops easily off the spoon when you give it a sharp tap. Pile the mixture into the lined tin and level the top. Combine the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl, then sprinkle over the cake.

Bake the loaf in the centre of the oven for about an hour, then cover loosely with a piece of foil and leave to bake for a further 15–30 min or until the cake feels springy in the centre and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 15 min before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

Beetroot and horseradish dip

This is very simple, but really surprisingly tasty. I don't know if it was a fluke, but the amount of horseradish came out just perfect: fiery but softened by the earthy beet and creamy yoghurt.

approx. 4 medium beetroots
3/4 cup skyr
2-3 1 cm cubes of peeled horseradish
lime juice
salt

Boil the beets whole until tender, then let cool (do this in advance if you like). Peel (the skins should just slip off) and chop into large chunks. Blend together with the remaining ingredients, adding skyr/yoghurt until the consistency is as you like it, and adding salt/lime juice to taste. Eat with veg sticks or crackers or bread.

Sunchoke (jerusalum artichoke) and white bean soup

This is the first time I cooked with sunchokes in ages. They are much more easily available in shops  here than in the UK or the USA. I always thought maybe you didn't see them in shops much because they don't store well, but I guess that is wrong. When I was a kid we had them in the garden, and later L and I had them in our allotment... And they are unkillable (!), so I have eaten plenty of them in the past. I knew them as jerusalem artichokes then, but sunchokes is a better name I think - they are related to sunflowers and nothing to do with Jerusalem, after all. They lend themselves very well to soup. I kept this one simple: sunchokes have quite a distinctive but delicate taste and I didn't want to overpower it / thought they'd play well with white beans.

olive oil
1/2 a large onion, peeled and chopped
4 large sunchokes, well-cleaned and chopped into chunks
500 ml veg stock
1 1/2 cups cooked white beans or butterbeans
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
more olive oil to serve

Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion and saute for 5-10 min on a low-medium heat, until softened. Add the sunchokes, cover and cook for 10 min or so more, stirring often. Add the veg stock, bay leaf and beans. Simmer for 20-30 min, until the sunchokes are thoroughly cooked and tender. Blend until smooth. Add more water if necessary, and season to taste. Serve with a sprinkling of tasty olive oil, salt and pepper on top.

Roasted butternut squash with cardamom and black onion seeds

This is Ottolenghi, by way of our friends S and N who have been staying with us these last few days. They are the first to test our 'spare' room, which we haven't really worked out what to do with yet. The squash was really delicious: the spices were perfect, and they made it with wild rice mix, which soaked up the wonderful juices really well. It is a surprisingly straightforward recipe for Ottolenghi: basically just squash and some stuff we always have in the cupboards.

20 g unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, peeled and cut into 1 cm thick slices
1 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3 cm pieces
salt
30 g pumpkin seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds (black onion seed / kalonji), plus extra to garnish
½ tsp each ground cumin and coriander
¼ tsp ground turmeric
4 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 green chili, halved lengthways
1 tbsp caster sugar
200 ml vegetable stock
100 g Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Heat the oven to 200C/400F. Put butter and oil in a large pan, and fry the onion for eight min over medium heat until soft. Add the butternut, turn the heat up to medium-high and cook for 10 min, stirring occasionally, until it starts to colour.

Remove from the heat and add half a teaspoon of salt, the seeds, spices, chili and sugar. Mix and transfer to an ovenproof dish large enough to hold everything snugly. Pour in the stock and roast for 30 minutes, by which point the butternut should be tender and all the liquid absorbed or evaporated.

Serve warm with yoghurt spooned on top, a sprinkling of chopped coriander and a few nigella seeds.


Note: This other butternut squash Ottolenghi recipe looks good too. I really ought to buy one of his books.

Dry kale and coconut curry

I can't get enough coconut at the moment, and kale and beetroot have been very regular fixtures in our veg bag. So when I came across these recipes for beetroot and kale curries I was dead set on making them asap. Not least because they reminded me very much of the delicious coconutty food I'd eaten in Tamil Nadu and Kerala in southern India many moons ago.

I made the kale one first, and it is great. I was totally going to follow it with the beetroot one (I have  a guilty beetroot mountain in the fridge - much though I love the stuff I have not been getting through it quickly enough!) but the site was down when I looked on Friday... So I made this beetroot soup instead. Very much intending to do the beetroot one soon too though (yes, I do still have more beetroot in the fridge)!

½ cup / 45 g desiccated coconut
½ cup / 125 ml coconut water (didn't have - just used water)
4 cups / 130 g shredded kale
1 small red onion (used white), sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
¾ tsp fine sea salt, plus more for garnish
1 green chilli, if desired (used a bit of red), finely chopped
juice of ½ lime, plus extra for garnish

Mix desiccated coconut and coconut water in a small bowl and let soak for about 30 min. Prepare veg while you wait.

In a large pot over medium heat, add the onions, salt and cumin. Stir often, letting the onions soften in the pan. Add a couple tablespoons of the liquid from the soaking coconut if the pot becomes too dry (reserve as much liquid as you can, however). After about 8-10 min, add the kale and the coconut mixture. Stir to coat, and quickly cover the pot with a lid so that the kale steams inside. Wait just 30-60 sec (or a bit longer if your kale is tough) – the kale is ready when it is bright green and tender. Remove from heat and squeeze in the lime juice. Season to taste.

Note: I ended up with loads of liquid at the end. I evaporated it with the pan tilted to avoid overcooking the kale, but it's probably smart to avoid adding extra water as much as possible, and to make sure the kale is well dried after washing.