Rhubarb and ginger chutney

Our rhubarb plants are huge this year - it's amazing. Took them a few years to get going but now they have settled in and I'm impressed with them! Enough to make chutney (although this was combined with some from our veg bag). I wanted something savoury and rhubarb-y. Perhaps I should try some kind of sweet pickle as well? Anyway, here is rhubarb chutney - from this recipe, which sounded like exactly what I wanted to try.

 2 lb / 907 g rhubarb, trimmed and cut into chunks

1 lb / 454 g onions, roughly chopped

4 oz / 113 g chopped dates (or raisins or sultanas)

2/5 pint / 227 ml white wine vinegar

2/5 pint / 227 ml water

1 lb / 454 g turbinado sugar

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and grated

Combine all ingredients in a big pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and jammy (wooden spoon should leave a trail). Put into sterile jars and store 6-8 weeks before using.

Ice lollies: (1) mango; (2) acai

I got some ice lolly molds in my little lifts box when I was sick. 2 years later, s is into ice cream and I thought it might be fun to try them. We started with (1) mango lassi, a recipe from the box. And then (2) popped into my head - I'd bought acai powder a while back thinking we could make acai bowls, which has not yet happened... I thought ice lollies could be like little bitesize premade acai bowls (the molds are quite small)?

 Option 1:

 2 ripe mangoes, peeled, de-stoned and cut into chunks (defrosted if using frozen)

1 banana, peeled and cut into chunks

1 cup skyr

Blend mango and banana together til smooth. Mix in skyr. Freeze in lolly molds.

 

Option 2:

1 banana, peeled and cut into chunks

3/4 cup blueberries (defrosted if using frozen) 

3/4 cup skyr

c. 3 tbsp acai powder

1-2 tbsp almond meal

Blend all together, pour into lolly molds, freeze.

These are ace! s loves them, we can share them with his friend who doesn't eat sugar in the garden. And I don't feel guilty about letting s eat multiple ice lollies in a day, as they are (a) rather small, and (b) full of nothing but fruit and yoghurt! And they are so quick and easy to make, with no cooking - great for summer. Many more variations to come!

Raspberry coconut rhino biscuits

An idea from little s. I more-or-less used this recipe, except I switched out a little bit (75 g?) of flour for desiccated coconut. And didn't have quite enough freeze dried raspberries so used a little acai powder as well. s helped me make them - he cut out almost all the shapes! And we used almost all the different biscuit cutters we have - rhinos were a favourite, but also moose, bear, squirrel, snail, pterodactyl, t-rex, stegosaurus, triceratops, flower, heart, egg, dinosaur footprint, stars... 

(makes quite a lot - maybe 30 biscuits of various sizes and shapes)

15 g / 1/2 oz freeze-dried raspberries (used about 12 g rasps plus 3 g acai powder)

114 g / 4 oz sugar

227 g / 8 oz butter at room temperature

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp vanilla powder

1 egg at room temperature

340 g / 12 oz plain flour (subbed c. 75 g for desiccated coconut)

Crush raspberries a little - not to a powder, just until they are broken down to individual drupelets and a wee bit powdery - I used a pestle and mortar. Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Beat butter, sugar and salt together in a large bowl until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add flour, beat until mixed. Add raspberries and mix until just mixed.

Split the mix into two balls. Roll out the first on a lightly floured surface until 1/4 inch thick. Cut out shapes and put them on prepared baking sheets. Chill on the sheets for 20 min.

In the meantime, heat the oven to 150 C (300 F). Bake for 20-30 min - until the edges start to turn golden. Take out and let cool for 5 min before transferring to a cooling rack.

 

These are good! Buttery and raspberry-y. Hold their shape really well, without being tough. It is quite a lot though, and you can't halve the recipe without halving an egg... If making again, I might try increasing the proportion of coconut. Could also be good with all acai - or matcha powder.

Microwave popcorn

I always before made popcorn either in a popcorn maker (my sister had one when we were teenagers, it was awesome - but a one-purpose kitchen gadget), or in a pan with oil. The other day s and me had a play date with his little mate n, and n’s mum had made popcorn... I asked her how she made it and she confirmed just in the microwave... so it was time to give that a try! This is the general idea..

Put c 1/3 cup popcorn kernels in a large microwave proof bowl with a lid (or plate that covers the top) that fits in the microwave. Cover with the plate, and put in the microwave. I found 800 watts for c. 7 min was about right - but keep an eye / ear on it and when the popping slows right down take it out. The bowl and plate will be hot when you remove them so be careful and use an oven glove. Transfer to a normal-temp bowl and sprinkle with table salt to taste. 

I made this to watch s’s first movie with him! It was shrek- I’d thought a while ago he might like it, and we just saw it came onto Netflix, and this was a weird snowy afternoon... since cinemas are not an option just now it seemed right to maximise the experience at home as much as poss.

I also recently realised you can do poppadoms in the microwave - getting to be quite a microwave fan!

S birthday cake 2021: Dulce de leche chocoflan

Another birthday! All our birthdays are in the winter, within a couple months. S's is the last of the winter, or the first of the year, and is well positioned to liven up February.

I'd had my eye on this recipe for ages. I basically usually make 2 cakes a year, for S and s birthdays... I bought a bundt tin specially, and had to buy dulce de leche and evaporated milk from an online peruvian / latin food store (evap seemingly especially hard to find round here?), but it was worth it - it was a fun recipe!

Little s helped me make it, and especially helped with the decoration. This is the only photo I have of the cake, but it worked! The inversion of the batters and the layers on slicing are so cool! And it was tasty - we like flan! Ours turned out more uniformly dark brown on the outside than the photo in the original recipe - perhaps because I decided to dust the tin with cocoa powder (I was so paranoid it wouldn't come out of the tin... although not enough to actually buy a specialist cooking spray) - but it was ok, it just made the layers more surprising when we sliced it!

For the flan:

380 g dulce de leche (i used 'la havana' from a jar)

354 ml evaporated milk (I bought it online as evap, then realized it was labelled condensed when just about to use it... but then noticed it was not sweetened, so I decided it was really evaporated - so confusing!)

115 g cream cheese, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla powder

pinch fine sea salt

5 large eggs

For the cake:

160 g plain flour

200 g sugar

50 g cocoa powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

85 g butter, cubed, at room temp

120 ml coffee, cooled

120 ml buttermilk

1 large egg

3/4 tsp vanilla powder

Heat oven to 180C. Prepare bundt tin by buttering the inside all over, being careful to get into all the nooks and crannies, and then dusting with cocoa powder.

To make the flan mix, blend up together the dulce de leche, evaporated milk, cream cheese, vanilla, and salt (I used a large bowl and a wand blender). Add in the eggs and blend until smooth.

To make the cake mix, mix the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon with a fork. Add the butter and rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles wet sand. In a jug, beat together the coffee, buttermilk, egg, and vanilla, then mix it into the flour-butter mix gradually. Beat as fast as you can for a full minute.

Pour the CAKE mix into the bundt tin, smoothing out the top with a spoon. Carefully ladle in the FLAN mix so you disturb the cake mix as little as possible. Put the filled bundt tin pan in a roasting tin large enough to fit it. Grease a piece of foil and place it greased side down onto the bundt tin, folding it over the edges to loosely seal it. Transfer to the oven, then pour cold water into the roasting tin to come up 2 to 3 inches.

Bake for 2 hours to 2 hours 15 min, checking for doneness after 1 hour 45 min, using a skewer inserted into the cake to make sure it’s baked through, with little to no crumbs sticking to the skewer when you pull it out. (mine was pretty much done at 1 h 45 - I gave it an extra 5-10 min but I don't think it needed it).

Take out of the oven very carefully. Remove the bundt tin carefully from the roasting tin and let it cool to room temperature (which took several hours) before placing it in the fridge to cool completely, at least a couple of hours.

When ready to serve, carefully run a knife around any edges that are sticking, invert onto a serving plate, and shake up and down gently until it comes out!

 

It took a long time to cool and chill so definitely make the day before you want to eat it. And remember to brew the coffee and get cream cheese and butter to room temp ahead of time as well.

I was so relieved it came out - suddenly realized when shaking up and down the fifth time or so that turning out a bundt is a wee bit stressful (it was the first time I'd used a bundt tin) - there is no hiding issues - no icing or anything - the decoration is all in the shape of the tin... But we made it, phew! s and me had fun decorating it...

Realized it had an insane variety of different dairy products in it: dulce de leche, evap, cream cheese, butter, buttermilk... Also realized I like buttermilk - had never bought it pure before, always imagined it would taste like butter because of the name, but it is more like a runny yoghurt. 

The chocoflan was beautiful and quite tasty: maybe I should make more flans. And will have to think of more things to do with that bundt tin now!

Polenta paprika parsnips

Parsnips... I like them, but I only really like them roasted... or perhaps in soup? We got them in the veg bag a couple times recently so tried a couple of different roasting methods:

1) Delia mustard and maple syrup

2) Polenta and paprika  

In the end, I think we liked the polenta version better - the process was a bit simpler, and parsnips are already sweet so adding maple syrup seems a bit overkill. So here it is:

 

2 kg parsnips, peeled, trimmed and cut into halves or quarters lengthways

100ml rapeseed or sunflower oil 

5 tbsp polenta

2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

2 tsp paprika

Prepare the parsnips and put them in water if doing ahead. Heat the oven to 220C. Blanch the parsnips in boiling water for 4-5 mins until slightly soft. Drain, leave to steam-dry, then tip into a large bowl. Drizzle over the oil and toss to coat all the parsnips.

Mix the polenta, salt, pepper and paprika, and sprinkle over the parsnips. Toss well, then lay the parsnips out on one large baking tray (or two small ones), with lots of space between them. Roast for 15 mins, turn them over, then roast for another 15-25 mins until golden and crunchy. (mine didn't take that long - perhaps the pieces were on the small side)

Baked potatoes

I rediscovered baked potatoes this autumn-winter. I loved them as a kid, but had got out of the habit of them. But with being home so much, things like this that take a while in the oven but little involvement seemed like a good idea. If I do 180C for 2 hours I can put them in the oven before I go get s and they'll be done in time for dinner.

A few large potatoes, ideally a good baking variety

olive oil

salt

Heat the oven to 180C (for cooking time approx. 2 hours), or 200C (for cooking time approx. 1 hour) - if you have time I think they taste better with lower for longer. Scrub the potatoes and pat dry. Put them directly on a big baking sheet. Stab them all over with a fork. Rub with olive oil and salt. Bake until done - they should have a thick brown skin, and be squeezable.

Good with bean chili. Or cheese. Or hummus. Or loads of other things.