Friday 23 March 2012

From Macbiehill Farmhouse Kitchen

March 2012

I was lucky enough to have some help in the Macbiehill Farmhouse kitchen this week, so I have got ahead for the gluten-free/wheat-free course this weekend by making the luxury chocolate cake from the gluten-free baking chapter of Bread Matters. 
Note that some baking powders can contain wheat flour so if you are using one to raise a gluten-free cake, check the ingredients carefully. (The Bioreal one we use doesn't.)
 http://www.breadmatters.com/bookindex.htm


We've eaten the first leaves of mizuna and mibuna, from the polytunnel. They taste of pepper and vitamins and are great for winter salads, stir-frying or threading into green vegetables at the last moment. 


I've also made a new Lenten dish that might just be the perfect solution in a household that has both lovers of the humble sprout and those who regard them as a custom best followed once a year, and that at Christmas or thereabouts. The origin of Lenten is Germanic and related to 'long', so is especially apt for the lengthening days of Spring. 

Lenten Greens
There's only one rule with this recipe and it's that you must weigh nothing. 
Finely chop or shred some onions, white cabbage, sprouts and a little curly kale. Gently sweat the onions in a large heavy pan with generous amounts of olive oil, ground chilli and cumin and a little sea salt. Add the cabbage, sprouts and kale, put a well-fitting lid on the pan and keep stewing over a low heat or in a low oven for about 30 minutes. Add a little water, only if and when you think it needs it (all the moisture will be staying in the pot). 


The greens can be reheated, topped with sauce or with finely sliced potatoes and baked in the oven. They also form the bottom layer of a dish I make a lot, with a deep layer of fresh, real bread crumbs and some generous dollops of olive oil or butter on the top, baked until heated through and slightly golden. 



I served a generously-spiced dish of Lenten Greens at a recent Bread Matters supper and it was very well received. The person who ate most of it was the one who had enquired 'is this napalm organic?'.


Waste-nothing notes: Use a pan lid whenever you can. Only things that need constant stirring such as (you guessed) stir fry, roux sauces, porridge etc. need to be uncovered. Using just enough water saves energy and leaches away less nutrients from your food.  


April 2012

Pirozhki are another great way to make the best use of what is available locally and seasonally, in what is known as the 'hungry gap' of the year. These little pies are made of yeasted pastry, filled with onion and shredded white cabbage, chopped hard boiled eggs, rocket (or spring onions or chives) and seasoning. 


My most recent batch had plenty of peppery rocket, which I chopped and added raw instead of sweating it with the  and I used paprika and turmeric in the seasoning, adding colour as well as flavour.


The recipe is at page 275 of Bread Matters Why and How to Make Your Own. Andrew Whitley (Fourth Estate 2009). 


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I've been serving the wheat-free St. Clement's cake as a pudding this month. Slice the cake lengthwise into large pieces, cover with rhubarb and ginger and warm through gently in the oven. Serve with cream, yoghurt or a real custard. 

Rhubarb and ginger
Whitmuir rhubarb is wonderful at the moment. I wash it, chop it and put it into a large pan or cocotte with only the water left on the pieces, plus one tablespoonful, and cook it slowly over a very low heat with chopped, crystallised ginger. 

St. Clement’s Cake
This began its life as Nigel Slater’s recipe for demerara lemon cake (in The Kitchen Diaries 2005). I substituted olive oil for the butter and used equal proportions of light rye and ground almonds instead of wholemeal flour. 
It evolved further into St Clement’s cake when I had only one lemon but plenty of oranges. 
This version stays wonderfully moist and has pieces of juicy fruit peel dispersed throughout the cake. 
For the cake:
olive oil          160g
raw cane sugar 200g
light rye flour  90g
ground almonds  90g
baking powder half a tsp
half a large lemon and half a large orange
large eggs 4
For the topping and syrup:
half a lemon and half an orange, plus the juice from 1 lemon or 1 orange
raw cane sugar or honey 6 tablespoons
water 6 tablespoons
A rectangular loaf tin (25 x 11 x 7cm). Line it with with baking parchment unless it is truly non-stick. 
Topping and syrup:
1 Slice the lemon and orange very thinly, removing the pips, and cut the slices so that the pieces are no more than 2cm. Put them in a saucepan with the extra juice, sugar and water. 
2 Bring to the boil and keep boiling for 5 minutes or more, until the fruit pieces are sticky and the liquid has become syrup. Scoop out all but a few of the fruit pieces; reserve them to place on top of the cake before baking.
Cake:
3 Weigh the flour and ground almonds and mix them together with the baking powder. 
4 Grate the zest of the orange and the lemon and them to the flour mixture. 
5 Beat together the sugar and eggs in a food mixer until well blended. Keep blending, more slowly if you can, while you stream in the olive oil. The idea is to keep some of the air trapped while you add the oil, but don’t worry if it drops back. 
6 Use a large metal spoon to fold the almond and flour mixture into the oil, sugar and egg mixture.
7 Scoop the mixture into the loaf tin and lay the reserved pieces of fruit (from the syrup) over the top of the cake. Some will stay on the top and brown and others will sink into the mixture. 
8 Bake for around 1 hour at 150˚C, until risen and golden. Insert a metal skewer. 
If it comes out clean, the cake is done. 
9 When it has cooled, spike the top of the cake with a metal skewer and pour two tablespoons of the syrup, and the remaining fruit pieces, over the top of it. Keep any remaining syrup to pour over later servings. 
Sliced thinly, it makes a lovely tea time cake. A thicker piece, served with cream or crème fraîche and an extra spoonful of the syrup, serves as a glamorous pudding.

Veronica
Fried Green Tomatoes March/April  2012

1 comment:

  1. This sounds wonderful! Thank you. Just as soon as I get a new oven I'll try it. My present fan oven either burns or undercooks everything!

    ReplyDelete