Risengrød + Risalamande

When I asked s what he would like to have for Christmas dinner, he said risengrød (rice pudding). He's had it as school lunch a few times. It always sells out if they have it as one of the two options! They serve it with cinnamon sugar and butter on top, but it is served as their main course.

 

This actually perfectly coincided with one of my own Christmas food wishes, which was to make risalamande (literally: rice with almonds), my style. It is a mixture of rice pudding and whipped cream and toasted slivered almonds, served cold with cherry sauce as Christmas dessert. It is definitely my favourite Danish Christmas food that I have found so far - but I hate cream, so the best ones I have had were plant-based. So my idea was to make my own version and experiment with what to add to the cold rice pudding to make a good taste / texture - perhaps greek yoghurt, perhaps plant milk or coconut milk, or a mixture of those. I had even already bought the pudding rice...

 

I looked at the recipes for risengrød and risalamande on the back of the packet of pudding rice, and realized that the Danish version of rice pudding is actually unsweetened - just pudding rice, salt, water and milk. So then I thought perhaps we could eat it like we do pancakes on pancake date - have a savoury round then a sweet round, and just have the plain rice pudding as the main thing (like a risotto), with lots of optional toppings / mix-ins for both rounds.

 

For the savoury round, I slow-roasted some cherry tomatoes, idea being that these and some grated cheese could be a good combo. We also had some surprisingly successful salt-baked root vegetables, so we didn't eat much of this in the end.

 

For the sweet round, we mixed up the risengrød and risalamande combos - so we had skyr (usually have this in the fridge, don't usually have greek yoghurt), toasted slivered almonds, cherry sauce (bought in a little tetrapak - easy but I am sure you could make a nicer one with real cherries!), and cinnamon sugar.

 

For the risengrød:

200 ml pudding rice 

250 ml boiling water

1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste)

1 litre milk

 

For risalamande, my way: 

Skyr (I think Greek yoghurt might be preferable but haven't tried it yet)

Slivered almonds, toasted (I used 100 g total to make about 3 portions of risalamande)

cinnamon sugar

cherry sauce 

To make risengrød, put the rice in a big saucepan, add the boiling water and simmer for 2 min. Add the milk, bring to a boil, and simmer gently for approx. 35-40 min, stirring frequently. Add salt to taste. Let cool completely if using for risalamande - or reheat as needed.

To make risalamande, take a good amount of risengrød, mix with about 2/3 the volume of skyr or greek yoghurt, lots of toasted slivered almonds, and a bit of cinnamon sugar to taste. Chill for at least an hour, and serve cold with cherry sauce and cinnamon sugar.

Amaranth granola

At Easter, we met a bunch of Germans in a house by a lake in northern Germany. Three boys who went to school together, and their partners, and their sons - one each, aged 5-7. One partner was missing though - the Swedish opera singer had to stay in Berlin to do Wagner. But she provided us with lots of goodies, including a jar of delicious granola based on popped amaranth. Which made me realize it could be time to mix up my granola game - I've been making variations on the same recipe using oats since forever - I love it, but this one was good too! Granola is great in general - simple and tasty and good to eat alone or sprinkled on top of almost anything... I asked L for her recipe but she wasn't sure if she had one, so I used this one for guidance/inspiration.

I was feeling lazy and tried to order the amaranth already popped. But when it arrived it turned out it was just the seeds. So first thing I had to do was try and pop it (I looked to here for help)... which actually, it turned out, was quite fun - the seeds are tiny (only about a mm diameter), but they pop just like popcorn! So cute...

2 cups puffed amaranth (I think I popped about 10-12 tbsp of seeds to get this much - but do a bit too much, it should store OK)

1/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts (or use pecans)

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tsp cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground vanilla

3 tbsp coconut oil 

1/4 cup maple syrup

First pop the amaranth. You could do this in advance and keep until needed. Heat a big high-sided metal pot (dry) until pretty hot, then put in one tbsp of amaranth seeds, give it a few seconds, shaking it a bit, until it all pops - then tip out into a big bowl. If it doesn't pop and burns instead, the pan isn't hot enough - discard, let it heat up a bit more, then try again until you hit the right temperature. Keep going, 1-2 tbsp at a time (should not be more than a single layer in the pan), until you have enough. Let cool before putting in a storage jar or going right ahead to make the granola.

When ready to make granola, heat oven to 180C and line a big baking tray with baking paper.

Mix dry stuff (excluding the dried fruit) in a big bowl. In a separate bowl, warm the coconut oil gently until it is liquid (if it is not already), then mix with the maple syrup. Add wet to dry and mix well. Spread out evenly on the baking tray, transfer to the oven, and bake for c. 15 min (try less next time) until lightly toasted. Remove from the oven and let cool 20-30 min before putting in a storage jar.

 

I love this stuff, a really interesting taste / texture. Maybe a bit too much salt and syrup - could reduce next time. Also maybe a tiny bit too long in the oven - try 12 min next time. Also wasn't very clumpy - consider adding some psyllium husk next time?

Now I am wondering what else I can use popped amaranth for! Also, what else can I pop - quinoa, perhaps?

Plain stovetop rice pudding

It was the last day of børnehave in s's normal place on Friday, before they move to the summer situation next week. I think everyone had picked up early - he was the only kid left when I got there. As we were leaving, one of the teachers came running after us with two full cartons of milk - she gave them to us, saying we should take them, otherwise they go in the bin. So we did. We don't usually have normal milk in the house (oat milk and powered milk), and milk doesn't keep well, so we've been on a mission to use up all the milk ever since... We're doing quite well! I have been making s lots of milkshakes (milk blended up with banana and other fruit)... and then S had the idea of making rice pudding... Which, the more I thought about it, seemed like a good idea! I roughly followed this recipe, adding more spices but otherwise keeping it quite plain. 

120 g pudding rice

800 ml milk

200 ml water

2 tbsp maple syrup

3/4 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

Put all ingredients in a big pan, mix, then heat gently, stirring occasionally, for c. 45 min - until thick and creamy but still with a tiny bit of bite in the rice. 

We ate it with the options of (1) chopped fresh mango (the great pakistani honey mango season is still upon us!); or (2) summer fruit compote with mainly cherries, apple, blueberries and pink currants. It was surprisingly good - although s refused to eat it.

 

Kid-friendly coconutty ‘flapjacks’

I stumbled upon this 'flapjack' recipe and it sounded really like something small S and I would both like - not too sweet, lots of tasty stuff. It took me a while to get around to making it but when I did I discovered that I was so right: we both love it! I've been making a half quantity in a loaf tin (I don't have a bigger square or rectangular baking tin) and that lasts us about a week. We have been developing a little tradition of baking snacks together on Sunday mornings that small S can eat after vuggestue through the rest of the week. We've made these a couple of time now. Also, I have discovered that I love pretty much every Anna Jones baking recipe I have tried so far - she uses all my favourite things!

4 tbsp chia seeds
200g rolled oats
150g dried fruit (used a mixture of dried apricots and raisins)
1 medium carrot
1 apple
100g desiccated coconut
100g pumpkin seeds
6 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger
70g coconut oil, melted

Heat the oven to 200C and line a 20cm × 30cm baking tin (or large loaf tin for a half quantity) with greaseproof paper. In a small bowl, soak the chia seeds in four tablespoons of water, then set aside (did 2 tbsp chia in 3 tbsp water for half recipe - the chia mixture felt too thick the first time).

Put the oats in blender and blend until you have a scruffy flour, then tip into a large bowl. Put half the dried fruit into blender and blend until broken down and a little mushy. Scrape into the bowl with the oats.

Grate the carrot and apple (no need to peel them... also ok with double apple no carrot or double carrot no apple, depending on availability) into the bowl, and add the remaining dried fruit, coconut, chia mixture, pumpkin seeds, maple syrup, vanilla, spices and melted coconut oil. Mix well.

Spoon into the tin, smooth the top with the back of a spoon, and bake for 40–45 minutes (c 30 min for half quantity), until golden brown. Leave to cool a little in the tray, then turn out on to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Slice into pieces.

Hummingbird 40th birthday balloon cake

Oh my oh my S is 40 today! As his birthday present he got to pick me up from an overnight stay in hospital... But he also gets a cake! I was thinking of doing a good old coffee and walnut cake, but that seemed a bit unoriginal, plus we'd run out of garden walnuts and I couldn't find any in Lidl and it just felt like the world was telling me I should try something different... So anyway, I wanted to use pecans instead, and was dreaming about good combinations with pecan - cinnamon seemed like a good fit... something creamy... maybe caramelly... Then I stumbled across a Hummingbird cake, and wondered why I'd never tried it - with pineapple, pecans, cinnamon, banana, sounds like just our kind of thing (S has a long running pineapple juice addiction). It's apparently a Southern (USA) thing, but I felt like a Europeanized recipe might work best for us... In the end I decided to follow the Hummingbird Bakery recipe (the name match seemed too good, plus they gave weights for the fruit so I hoped it'd be foolproof) - although it had a bit less pineapple than other recipes I looked at, maybe more pineapple would be nice... And I freestyled some mascarpone icing, with Jamie Oliver inspired lime zest in it... And some appropriate decoration: it's supposed to look like 4 and 0 balloons: since there's also a balloon card and a baby who loves balloons around, a theme emerged... I made the cake and icing a couple of days ago and stored the cake wrapped in clingfilm and the icing in a tub in the fridge ready to assemble today.

For the cake:
270 g peeled bananas, mashed (approx 3 large bananas)
300 g caster sugar (used golden sugar, blended up a little to make it more caster-y)
3 eggs
300 ml sunflower oil
1 tsp cinnamon
250 g flour
50 g desiccated coconut
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp vanilla powder
100 g tinned pineapple, chopped into small pieces
100 g pecans, chopped

For the icing:
c 3 tbsp golden sugar blended to a powder
c 50 g butter, at room temperature
1 tub (250 g) mascarpone
zest of 1 lime
1 tsp cinnamon

Decorations:
Remaining pineapple rings
Toasted chopped pecans

Heat the oven to 170C. Line the base(s) of round cake tin(s) with baking paper (I only have one, springform tin so used that - ideally this would be 2-3 layers though). Mash the banana in a medium bowl with a fork, then mix in the sugar, eggs, oil, and cinnamon. In a separate, large bowl, mix the flour, coconut, bicarb, salt and vanilla with a fork. Add the wet mixture to the dry, and mix until combined, adding the chopped pineapple and pecans towards the end. Scrape into the prepared baking tin(s), spread evenly, and bake until a skewer comes out clean - for one big cake this took about an hour and 15 min; for 3 layers this ought to take 20-25 min. Let cool slightly in the tin(s) before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

While the cake is baking / cooling, make the icing and decorations. For the icing, cream sugar and butter together, then add the mascarpone, lime zest and cinnamon. Beat together until smooth and creamy. Store in the fridge until needed.

When ready to assemble, slice the massive cake in half horizontally, then layer with half the icing in the middle, along with some chopped pineapple and toasted chopped pecans. Then spread the rest of the icing smoothly on top and decorate with 4-0 pineapple rings and some chopped pecans.


It was good, although I think I'd have liked it more with less oil, less banana and more pineapple - perhaps future experiments required... maybe this one?

Banana and oat baby biscuits

Since I was making chocolatey adults-only treats, I figured baby S needed some treats too. He enjoyed some baby biscuits I'd bought for him recently, so I'd been thinking of making him some kind of sugar free biscuits. I was thinking banana and oat, so decided to start with this recipe.

(note that the quantities are a bit cumbersome because I was converting from Aussie/NZ cups and tbsps)

(makes approx. 20)

1 tbsp + 1 tsp (20 ml) chia seeds (or 1 beaten egg)
2 tbsp + 2 tsp (40 ml) water (or milk)
350 g fruit puree (ended up using 3 small bananas plus half a cup of apple puree this time - should work with wholly either, so long as the apple is not too liquidy)
1/2 tsp vanilla (or cinnamon)
310 ml oats
125 ml flour

Heat oven to 180C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Mix the chia seeds with the water/milk and let sit for 10-15 min. Meanwhile mash the bananas or prep other puree in a medium bowl. Add the chia mix and vanilla to the bananas and mix. Then add the oats and flour and mix some more - it will be moist and sticky. Scoop tablespoonfuls onto the tray, then bake for 25-30 min, until golden brown on bottom but still soft inside. Let cool. Store in the fridge or freezer.


He seems to like them! I tested them first and they tasted good to me too. And I don't feed bad giving them to him as the ingredients seem pretty wholesome... Think apple+cinnamon or banana+vanilla would be good combos - just didn't have enough bananas and wanted to use banana for this time.

Sweet potato and red kidney bean chilli

The day after baby S's first birthday, a Sunday, he and I went up the road to the airbnb house that Dad, S and sisters were staying in. S made us dinner. It was lovely. It suddenly felt like a long time since I'd had a proper home-cooked family dinner, and it was soooo nice. She made a chilli based on this one (with reduced chillis to make it baby-friendly) with tortillas and sour cream and she made guacamole too, and it felt a bit like being back home. It was really tasty, I loved the sweet potatoes and the kidney beans - and so did baby S - he ate loads, and revelled in being the centre of attention while everyone sang and made a fuss of him. And I saw how much he gets out of being around family. And anyway, I am making this again now, to try and stave off anxiety about my surgery tomorrow, and to make sure we have something nice and nourishing to keep us, especially me, going through the next few days.

500 g sweet potatoes (1 massive one or 2 normal sized ones), peeled and chopped into big chunks
1 level tsp cayenne
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
1 level tsp cinnamon
olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 red bell peppers (or 1 red and 1 yellow), chopped into big chunks
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 bunch coriander, chopped with stalks and leaves approximately separated
1 red chili and 1 green chili, deseeded and finely chopped (skipped this to make it baby-friendly)
2 x 400 g tins red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 x 400 g tins chopped tomatoes
salt+pepper

Heat oven to 200C. Put sweet potato chunks onto a baking tray, sprinkle with pinches of cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, sea salt and black pepper, drizzle with olive oil and toss. Roast for 40 min, until golden and tender. Remove when ready and set aside until needed.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan, medium-high heat. Add onions, peppers and garlic and cook for 5 min. Add the coriander stalks, chillis if using, and the rest of the spices, and cook for 5-10 min. Add drained beans and tinned tomatoes, stir and let simmer for 25-30 min until thick and reduced. Stir in sweet potato chunks and coriander leaves, taste and season, and scatter a little coriander on top before serving.


Thinking about making cornbread to go with it.

Apple galette with walnut pastry

This was one of those ideas that crystallized suddenly, and I just had to figure out how to do it. I wanted a galette, with a sticky apple filling and a crisp walnut pastry. I based the pastry on this recipe, and the filling on this one. I love a galette just now, a pie without needing a pie dish, brilliant.

(makes one galette - approx 4 portions)

For the pastry:
30 g walnuts, toasted
120 g flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
23 g chilled butter, cut into small cubes
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
c 3 tbsp cold water

For the filling:
8 small apples
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

Grind walnuts until finely chopped. Mix with flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Add butter and rub in until the mix resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in oil, then stir in water 1 tbsp at a time until it comes together. Gather into a ball, flatten into a disc, then wrap in cling film and chill for at least an hour.

While the pastry is chilling, prepare the filling. Peel, halve and core the apples, then slice crosswise c 1/4 in thick. Keep the good slices whole, and chop the ends and broken pieces, so about half the amount of apple is slices and the rest chopped. In a separate, small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon.

When ready to assemble, first heat the oven to 210C / 420F. Roll out the chilled pastry on a piece of baking paper and transfer to a baking sheet. Spread the chopped apples over the pastry, leaving about a 2 in border around the edges. Drizzle with honey. Arrange the sliced apples over the top, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and dot with pieces of butter. Fold the edges over, and brush with egg (or milk, or nothing). Bake for approx. 45 min, until golden brown and pastry is crisp - cover with tinfoil if it starts to catch.


We ate with custard and it went down very well. The pastry was delicious and crisp, but the walnuts gave more texture than taste - another time maybe I'd try increasing the walnut content... and could potentially add half as much apple again and pile it high, too.

Pulled jackfruit

After one of my chemo appointments, Seb and I went for lunch at a vegan place in Nørrebro. I ate something with jackfruit and wasn't that into it - whether it was the preparation or just how I was feeling that day. But Seb was intrigued, and he later returned from the shops with a tin of it - after we'd spotted the fresh stuff at the Thai supermarket in Vesterbro and resisted... So it was a mission for him, to convince me to like it. He made a classic pulled jackfruit, following this recipe. And I did like it! It was sweet and salty but the texture of the jackfruit was really tender and delicious. More experients may be in order!

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp chipotle Tabasco
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp BBQ sauce
200 g can chopped tomatoes
2 x 400g cans young jackfruit in salted water

Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion until very soft, for around 10-12 mins. Add the cinnamon, cumin and paprika to the onions and cook for a further 2-3 mins. Next add the Tabasco, vinegar and bbq sauce and mix well before adding in the tomato, the drained jackfruit and 200ml water. Leave to simmer gently, covered, for 30 mins stirring every 5-10 mins to help break down the jackfruit, then take the lid off and cook a further 10 minutes.

Once cooked, use a fork to make sure all of the jackfruit is well shredded. Check seasoning and add another tbsp of bbq sauce if necessary for extra stickiness.

Sage's First Birthday Cake (cinnamon-cream cheese icing)

We had a party for Sage's first birthday! I made a huge banana cake as a sheet cake. I wanted to make it without refined sugar, not really sure why it just felt like the right thing to do. I used this recipe (without nuts or chocolate, and using maple syrup instead of honey) as (1) I'd tried it before and (2) I remembered it being delicious. Something went wrong though - either I didn't use enough raising agent or it was just not the kind of thing that scales well... because it was pretty solid. Tasted OK though, and the small one seemed to like it! I made a cream cheese and cinnamon icing, which is usually where I go wrong - improvising the icing - but this time that part was the successful part...

Basic icing:
3/4 pack of butter, softened
3 tubs cream cheese, at room temp
c 3 tbsp maple sugar (ground up maple candy)
2 tsp ground cinnamon

For cake decoration: 
pumpkin seed butter
fresh raspberries and blueberries

Cream butter, then beat together with the cream cheese, maple sugar and cinnamon. Chill until needed.

To decorate, I mixed about 3/4 cup of the icing with some pumpkin seed butter to make it green (didn't come out as bright as I'd have liked but never mind). Then iced the cake with the non green icing, piped the words and stars with the green stuff, and added raspberries and blueberries.

Apple muffins

Our apple tree started dropping apples already, so I wanted to make a start on some apple recipes to use them up. I fancied making muffins, even though they are not the most efficient way to use up apples. I liked the sound of this recipe, with grated, diced and sauced apple in it, and decided to give it a go even before I realized it's also a great baking-with-honey recipe - I especially like that it takes into account honey's tendency to dry out / burn.

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup oats
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup grated apple
1 cup diced (1 cm) apple
1/3 cup olive oil (or veg oil)
1/2 cup honey (or maple syrup)
2 eggs (ideally at room temp)
1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1 tbsp demerara sugar to go on top

Heat the oven to 163C / 325F (218C / 425F for maple syrup). Prepare a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, mix flours, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, bicarb and salt with a fork. Add grated and chopped apple and stir.

In a medium bowl, beat oil, honey (or maple syrup) together, then add eggs and beat, then add yoghurt and apple sauce and mix.

Add wet to dry and mix until just combined, adding raisins and pecans in the final few strokes. Spoon into muffin cups and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake for c 25 min (13-15 min for maple syrup), until skewer comes out clean.

Walnut, raisin, honey and oat cookies (no dry sugar, no butter, no white flour)

These were another go at perfect quick cookies using walnuts and honey - pretty tasty, probably the best yet, although maybe could cut down the oil just a bit. This recipe.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup olive oil (or sunflower or vegetable)
1 tbsp mulberry molasses (or normal)
1 egg (beat with 1 tbsp water)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts

 In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (except raisins and walnuts) together. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together (note: measure oil before honey so the honey doesn't stick). Mix the wet into the dry. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix. Chill for c. 20 min in the fridge.

Heat the oven to 335F / 170C. Dollop the mixture in heaping teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and press gently with a fork. Bake for 15-20 min or until golden on the bottom of the cookie.


These came out good - perhaps a little soft/greasy, try reducing the oil a bit. Also, the recipe said they freeze well - test that next time. The flavour is all there though, and they stick together well despite not containing much flour. Could maybe also try cramming in a few more raisins+walnuts.

Another banana cake - but I haven't found the perfect one yet

I ended up with a lot of bananas that needed eating again - this hardly ever happens, but then now all of a sudden twice within a short time... This time my main requirement was that it didn't involve softened butter, since I didn't feel like waiting for it. I found this recipe pretty quick, and decided just to go with it - I guess banana and chocolate sounded pretty good!

3 large ripe bananas
1/2 cup (115 g) butter, melted
3/4 cup (145 g) light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla essence
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (130 g) plus 1/4 cup (35 g) plain flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup (about 20 g) cocoa
3/4 cup (130 g) chopped chocolate

Heat oven to 175C/350F. Grease a loaf tin and line the base.

Melt butter and put into a medium bowl, then mash the bananas into it. Whisk in the sugar, egg, vanilla, bicarb, and salt until thoroughly combined. Add 130 g flour, stirring until just combined. Pour half of batter into a second bowl. Into one bowl, mix the remaining 35 g flour and the cinnamon. Into the other bowl, mix the cocoa and chocolate. Dollop batters into the prepared loaf pan in large alternating spoonfuls. Use a flat knife to make a few figure-8s through the batters, to marble them together. Bake for 55-65 min, until a skewer comes out clean. Let cool for 10 min, then invert onto a cooling rack. Keep in a cake tin or wrapped in foil.


While baking this, I realized I have developed a banana cake wishlist: it should have oil in it (not butter), honey (not sugar), and should have walnuts and/or chocolate chips. With this in mind, I checked around for the perfect recipe... I found three possibilities - next time I have an excess of bananas, I will have to try one of these: cake 1, cake 2, cake 3.

Banana Cake I (also: Baking with Honey V)

We just returned from a very pleasant couple of weeks in Scotland. I had long promised S that we would go to Scotland for an actual holiday, and tour around a bit so he can see more than just Edinburgh and the Lothians. The beginning of Festival time is probably one of my favourite Edinburgh times - things just warming up, not quite in full swing yet, then a taste of the real thing. I accidentally booked a table at the Kitchin for Aug 2... and then it turned out my uncle was planning a big party and my dear friend would be in town for the first look at a play-experiment based on her book (part of the Books Festival), both on the same day (Aug 12), and so a Scotland tour suddenly developed bookends in Edinburgh. The promise to S had been that he would get a 'whisky tour of Scotland', so we decided we'd need a car to get around... but then remembered how much we both dislike driving so I tried to come up with a route that would give a good taste of Scotland and take in some serious distilleries without too much driving. Along the way, I realized how long it's been since I travelled around much in Scotland, and how little I really know, since almost all my travels there have been as a kid/teenager, and usually with someone else doing the planning... In the end, we planned a few days on Islay (for max. whisky tour potential plus gorgeousness of western isles), and stops in Glencoe on the way and at Loch Tay on the way back, for a bit of highlands.

We stayed in B+Bs all the time we were travelling, then with my uncle while in Edinburgh. For the drive/hike days, we visited a big supermarket and pretty much created a larder in our car boot - we had little luggage, it was full of food+drink. Since we were heading for some slightly out of the way places, and we're both veggie, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of emergency supplies. We actually did a very good shop, and got decent food that lasted for most of our lunches and even some picnic dinners. The one thing we bought and didn't eat was bananas - we came back to Edinburgh with a full hand of week-old bananas. At that point, I decided it was about time I contributed some baking to the party preparations - there was already a gang of about 8 people staying over, so I was pretty sure some banana bread would find an audience. A quick Google found this recipe, which I doubled since there were lots of us, and made two loaves - one with walnuts, the other with chocolate (also from our uneaten car-supplies). The chocolate one baked in C's silicone loaf tin was a particular success.

olive oil
250 g self-raising flour
3 ripe bananas
2 tbsp apple juice
125 g butter (at room temperature)
2 large eggs
½ tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp honey

Optional: 50 g chopped pecans, walnuts, or chocolate

Heat the oven to 180C/350F. Grease the bottom and sides of a loaf tin, and line the base. Mash the bananas in a medium bowl, then add the apple juice and stir. In a separate, large bowl, cream the butter, then beat in the eggs one at a time. It might look a little lumpy, but it's OK. Fold in the flour, cinnamon, honey and banana mixture until just combined. Mix in the chopped nuts or chocolate.
Dollop into the prepared loaf tin, then bake in the hot oven for around 40 min, or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for about 10 min, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Apple Butter

From 'Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables' - another use of the windfall apple pile, another dairy-based misnomer. But it is nice. Spread on bread, it makes me think of hot cross buns.

2.75 kg (6 lb) apples
1.15 l (2 pints) water
1.15 l (2 pints) dry cider
sugar
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cloves
5 ml (1 tsp) ground cinnamon

Wash and core the apples, discarding any bad bits. Peel them incompletely - I decided it best to leave about 1/8 of the peel per apple. Simmer the fruit in the water and cider until pulpy. Liquidize to make smooth pulp. Measure 350 g (12 oz) sugar for each 450 g (1 lb) pulp.

Return the pulp to the clean pan and simmer until the excess water has evaporated and the pulp is thick. Add the sugar and spices and boil, stirring frequently, until all the excess liquid has evaporated. It should be creamy. Pour into hot jars, seal at once, and store in the fridge when cool.

Pickled apples

Curious about apple pickling, since I had a suitable large jar from S's lupins, and obviously lots of apples. I liked the sound of the spices in this recipe.

700 g apples (approx. 4 med-large apples)
500 ml white wine or cider vinegar
120 g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
10 cm Carolina allspice bark or cinnamon stick (used cinnamon
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 whole cloves
½ tsp Szechuan peppercorns or black peppercorns (used black pepper)
1 star anise
Few sprigs of lemon thyme (used dried bayleaves)

Dissolve the sugar and salt in the vinegar in a pan over a medium heat. Add the spices, simmer for 15 min, then turn off the heat. Core, peel and thinly slice two apples as the pickling liquid cools. Place the slices in a large lidded jar and just cover the apples with spicy vinegar. Repeat with the rest of the apples. Eat within 10 days or so, or longer if the apples retain a good texture.

Spiced apple muffins with walnut streusel topping

Muffins for our new upstairs neighbours, in the hope we can start our neighbourhood sweetly. Using apples and walnuts from our garden. And a Delia recipe I've never actually tried before.

(makes 12 muffins, or one large cake)

For the muffins:
12 oz (350 g) apples (weight after peeling and coring), chopped into ½ inch (1 cm) cubes
3 oz (75 g) sugar
6 fl oz (175 ml) milk (used yoghurt mixed with water, as we never have milk)
4 oz (110 g) butter
10 oz (275 g) plain flour
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder
½ level tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
½ whole nutmeg, grated
2 large eggs

For the walnut streusel topping:
2 oz (50 g) walnuts, roughly chopped
3 oz (75 g) flour
3 oz (75 g) sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 oz (25 g) butter

Heat the oven to 190C. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat. Put the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves and grated nutmeg in a bowl and mix with a fork.

In another large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and milk together, then whisk in the melted butter. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined, folding in the apple at the end. Spoon into muffin cups.

To make the topping, mix the flour, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, then rub the butter in with your fingers.Add in the nuts and 1 tbsp cold water, and press loosely together. Press the topping on top of the muffins, then bake for about 30 min, until done.

Pumpkin and apple soup

More uses for our heap of windfalls. This time in soup, with hokkaido from the veg share. I used this recipe.

For the soup:
2 kg pumpkin, cut into wedges and deseeded
2 onions, peeled and chopped into 6 wedges
3 sharp apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves in their skin
100 ml olive oil
1 tsp ground cinnamon
salt+pepper
1/2 a nutmeg
2 litres veg stock

To finish:
yoghurt
raw apple sliced into matchsticks
walnuts

Heat the oven to 180C. Add pumpkin, onions, apple and garlic to a large baking tray. Toss in the olive oil. Sprinkle over the cinnamon, salt and pepper and grate over nutmeg. Toss again. Bake for 30-40 minutes until cooked and nicely softened. Remove and let cool a little. When still hot but safe to handle, take the skin off the pumpkin garlic.

Transfer the contents of the baking tray to a large pot. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce and simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and blend until smooth. Season to taste.


Serve topped with a swirl of yoghurt, some apple and walnuts, and salt+pepper.

S's pumpkin muffins

S made a pumpkin-carving party for his lab last week. He got them all pumpkins, and asked them to bring pumpkin themed food and then they carved pumpkins together. These muffins were his idea, slightly adapted by him from this recipe, and he even bought special silicone baking forms with pumpkin faces for baking them. He used the guts scraped out of two small-medium sized pumpkins and one butternut squash that he planned to carve the following day to make these. He spread all those pumpkin guts out on a baking sheet and baked them until soft and not liquidy, then blended them up to make the 15 oz of pumpkin puree needed.

(makes 12-13)

1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 cup walnuts
2 eggs
15 oz pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat oven to 375F and prepare baking tin with liners (not necessary for silicone form). Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl with a fork. In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients. Pour the wet into the dry and mix until just combined. Dollop into baking cups, and bake for 20-25 min until a skewer comes out clean.

Apple cake

The food insert from a copy of the Guardian from February had been lying around since then, unread. I have no cutoff for how old such things have to be before I will read them. I read it a week or two ago, while drinking tea and surveying the apples on the table, and came across this apple cake recipe, which seemed so serendipitous (and a little different from anything I've made before), that I had to try it.

(makes 1 large cake)

200 g dark muscovado sugar
200 g unsalted butter, soft (or use salted and skip the salt)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
150 g plain yoghurt
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
A good grating of nutmeg
4 apples (about 500 g)
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Butter and line a large (900 g) cake tin with baking paper. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the muscovado sugar and soft butter until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and yoghurt and mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture and beat just until incorporated.

Grate three unpeeled apples (about 375 g) and fold into the cake mixture.

Scrape into your prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Peel and slice the remaining apple and arrange on top of the cake. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake about 60 min, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.


My wholemeal flour was very coarse - this works well. Also, I was unable to resist throwing in some walnuts and raisins at the last minute before putting it in the oven, which I'd highly recommend - it introduces some interesting texture - otherwise the grated apple disappears into the cake - perhaps some diced apple would also add interest. It's dense and lovely though - cooks well but v moist.