Orange and Lemon Polenta Poppy Seed Cake

I am supposed to be sleeping, getting ready for a long flight to Hawaii in the morning.

But no, I cannot leave on holiday without first getting my affairs in order (ie posting for both of my blogs).

I made this cake last week with my excellent cousin Georgia. We were lacking in a car to drive places and we both kinda felt like cake.

For Mum's birthday Jack and I bought her the new Ripe Deli book

Ripe Recipes: A fresh batch.

Boy is it a great book! I have photocopied what seems to be every second page.

Amongst the wonderful recipes in this book was a recipe for gluten free orange and lemon polenta loaves.

They looked so moist and excellent in the picture. We had polenta, and ground almonds and plenty of oranges and lemons! The only thing we didn't have were the two loaf tins required. So we decided to turn this into a cake. And a large cake at that.

We used a 23cm round tin with decently high sides. The cake rose right to the very top! It was seriously the tallest single layer cake I had ever seen. It was really impressive looking. The high fat content also ensured the cake's easy removal from the tin. Overall making this cake was almost as much of a dream as that heart shaped feijoa cake a few weeks back.

This recipe was supposed to have chia seeds in it. We used poppy seeds instead. Sure they don't have all the super nutrients that chia seeds supposedly have but they give the same speckled effect.

Polenta comes from very finely ground corn, hence why this cake is gluten free (provided you use maize corn flour and gf baking power). The polenta lends quite a corny taste to this cake as well as a soft gritty texture. It is interesting and strangely addictive. The moistness of this cake is to die for. Make sure you put plenty of zest lemon icing on the top as well! We were too impatient to munch on cake while watching a movie so the warm cake caused the icing to dribble everywhere but really at the end of the day who cares?

We found the method of this cake really really weird. You have to boil the oranges and lemon for ten minutes then whizz them up in the blender to a pulp. Then this all gets added to the cake. Adding to the moistness I suppose.

Are you uncomfortable with the number of times I have said moist in this post so far?

Tehe.

Orange and Lemon Polenta Cake with Poppy Seeds

Makes one very tall 23cm cake

2 oranges, topped and tailed so that they can stand without rolling around in the saucepan.

1 lemon, topped and tailed

1 1/4 (210g) cup finely ground polenta

1/4 cup (35g) cornflour

1 cup (100g) ground almonds

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 tablespoons poppy (or chia) seeds

250g butter, softened

2 cups (440g) castor sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees on bake.

In a medium sized saucepan, place the oranges and lemon and then pour in boiling water until it reaches two thirds of the way up the fruit. Boil for five minutes, flip over the fruit then boil for another five. Remove from the water and set aside to cool a little.

Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time until the incorporated and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, mix together the polenta, almonds, corn flour, baking powder and poppy seeds.

In a blender or small food processor, blend the oranges and lemon to a smooth pulp.

Add a cup of the dry polenta mix and a few dollops of the pureed fruit mix to the butter-sugar-egg mix and mix until incorporated. Continue adding the polenta and puree alternately until it has all been mixed in.

Pour the mixture into a large, tall, lined and greased cake tin.

Bake for an hour then cover the tin with tin foil and bake for a further 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool before removing from the tin.

Once fully cool ice with a lemon glaze:

25g melted butter

2 cups icing sugar

juice of 1 lemon

Enjoy!

Birdseed Slice

Mum told me I wasn't allowed to bake when I got home.

I had been home 6 hours before she asked me if I wanted to make a birdseed slice from the Ripe Deli cookbook. So much for not baking. Apparently this is Mum's substitute for buying muesli bars. They have seeds in them. That is her justification.

I had never tried this slice before. It is full of seeds and oats and raisins so you could almost convince oneself that it is a healthy snack (provided you ignore the peanut butter, butter and sugar that goes into it).

If you have braces, don't eat this slice haha. The seeds get stuck in even my braceless teeth!

I recommend visiting the bulk bins for this slice, it will be cheaper and easier than buying individual packs of seeds. You need 450g of seeds! Yes that seems like a lot so I recommend making this at home when the parents are paying haha.

This recipe came from the Ripe Recipes book, it is filled with all sorts of wonderful delicious things. I have put the book on my Christmas list! There is this brioche recipe that I am keen to try in it. I digress, where were we? Ah slice.

This recipe follows a similar method to ANZAC biscuits so no creaming of the butter and sugar is required and it is really quick.


Birdseed Slice
Adapted from Ripe Recipes
Makes around 30 small bars

150g raisins, soaked for 20 minutes in boiling water
90g butter
1/2 cup golden syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
90g peanut butter
150g rolled oats
150g pumpkin seeds
150g sunflower seeds
150g sesame seeds
(you could even add some dark chocolate chips if you wanted)

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the oats, seeds and raisins.

In a small sauce pan on a medium heat, melt together the butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and golden syrup. Heat and stir until the mixture is combined and smooth.

Pour the liquid into the bowl of seeds. Mix to combine evenly.

Press the mixture into a 20x30cm slice tin that has been lined with baking paper.

Cover the baking tin with tin foil and bake for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes is up, remove the tin foil and bake for a further 15 minutes.

Leave to cool and place in the fridge and leave to get really cold before slicing, or else it falls apart (as you can probably see when we all became impatient only an hour after it was made).

If you slice it too soon after baking it falls to bits!

These make a great morning or afternoon tea snack! Have with a nice big cup of tea and try to resist eating the whole container!

Sophie x

Butter Chicken on Spiced Rice

Good evening all!

I know this post isn't about cake, but . . .

Last night I was fortunate enough to be invited to a cooking demonstration by Ray McVinnie (one of the judges from Master Chef, amongst other things) (he did the cooking, not I was invited by him). It was amazing. He believes in good, fresh simple food (with no additive nonsense as he pointed out to me haha) and drawing inspiration from older societies which have had long histories of good food made from few ingredients. Now all I have to do is somehow source a rack of lamb for my flat  . . .

Mix this inspiration with my re-visited obsession for World Kitchen and we have a need to a) travel and b) try making some (semi) authentic cuisine. I decided to try out Nici Wickes's Delhi  Style Butter Chicken. From scratch I must say. None of this canned and bottled rubbish (much to the horror of some people in my food class - you know who you are :) )

Overall I think it was a success, although not as SPECTACULAR as my Mum's one (which is epic and hard to beat I must say).

The initial expenditure for all the spices can be a bit pricey but well worth it. Remember, you can get more than one use out of each one. Once you are set up, it is a relatively cheap meal to cook.

Nici Wicke's Delhi Style Butter Chicken slightly ammended

Serves 4

3 diced chicken thighs or breasts (chunky is good)

Marinade:
5 cloves of garlic, diced
2cm ginger, grated
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
1 heaped teaspoon cumin
1 heaped teaspoon turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons (or a good squeeze) of lemon or lime juice
1 cup of natural yoghurt (they come in small 150g pottles which is ideal)
2 tablespoons of cooking oil

Mahkani Sauce:
2 tablespoons of butter
3 cloves of garlic, diced
1 cm ginger, grated
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 cardamom pop, split and crushed (with a cooks knife, flatten them - this should split them open then just throw this opened pod into the sauce)
800g crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon (or squeeze) of lemon juice
25 g unsalted butter
100ml cream (I used reduced fat)
Fresh coriander to garnish


Method:

In a plastic container or bowl, mix your marinade ingredients together. Mix through the chicken and leave to sit in the fridge. This can be done the morning or night before for extra flavour. Once it is time to cook the chicken, turn your oven onto a high grill, place chicken pieces in a greased oven dish and grill until the pieces are browning on the outside (this is to imitate the tandoor). Once one side it nice and done, flip the pieces over and repeat on the other side. Once both have been done, remove from the oven.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a deep dished saucepan, add your garlic and ginger and cook for a few minutes. Then add your spices and cardamom pod. Cook for a minute or two then add your lemon juice and tomatoes. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add your cooked chicken pieces. Stir in the cream and butter and then season to taste. Serve this atop basmati rice with a sprig of fresh coriander and you are ready to roll!

Mix your marinade ingredients together

 Place along with your diced chicken inside a snap lock bag. Pop into the fridge for 15 minutes or overnight

 For the sauce, fry your garlic and ginger in the butter

 Add your spices and cook for a few minutes to activate them

 Add 800g of tomatoes

 Place your chicken in an oven dish and grill on high until browned (10 or so minutes)

 Once cooked, stir into the sauce. Then add the cream and rest of the butter.

 I rinsed my marinade bag out with the cream, as to include all that spicy goodness.

and one more knob of butter for luck!

Or . .

If you are feeling a bit more adventurous, while your sauce is simmering, make up this tasty spiced rice.


Spiced Rice with Dried Fruit (according to Mum on the phone who was reading from the Ripe Deli Cookbook) and off the top of my head again.

50g butter
2 onions, diced
1 tablespoon cumin seeds (or just less than a tablespoon of ground cumin)
1 cinnamon quill (or 1 teaspoon of cinnamon)
4 cardamom pods, split and crushed as above
1 cup of dried fruit (sultanas, raisins, diced dried apricots, diced prunes, whatever really)
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
3 and a bit cups of water

In a saucepan, saute and soft the onions in the butter. Do not brown them. We don't want the caramelised flavour in this. Add your cumin seeds and cinnamon quill (or ground cinnamon), cardamom pods and fruit, stir and cook for a minute or two. Add the rice. Stir for 2 minutes to make sure it is nice and coated with butter. Add the water, bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes (stirring occasionally) then pop the lid on, remove from heat and leave to sit for 15 minutes. This should work, if not then pop the rice in a microwaveable container, add a splash more water and microwave on high for another 3 minutes or so. Hmm not very specific I know. Just as long as the rice isn't crunchy! :) Once nice and done, serve underneath (or along side) your delicious butter chicken and devour like the hungry students that you are.

Cook the spiced rice in a pot

Excellent!

I hope you enjoy

We sure did!

Cheapo Cooking Episode IV: Kushari

Hey everyone!

Tonight boys and girls we are making kushari. Kushari is a popular Egyptian national dish made with lentils and rice topped with a hot spicy tomato sauce and is my new favourite dinner. It is cheap as chips to make, which is why you can often buy it over in road side stalls for next to nothing. The recipe made here is from our wonderful Ripe Deli Cookbook.

Doesn't that look tasty?

Now originally when I thought of lentils, a mushy hippy-commune style of food came to mind. Bleh. Especially when you see them come out of the can. Yes we got the lentils from a can. Why? because we are lazy slaves to the convenience drone. Haha slash who can be bothered soaking their lentils overnight? Anyway keep buying convenience food. Making stuff for you to buy is what my future job will be, so keep buying so I will still have a job.

Mum got that can for $1.83, but you can get cans as low as $1.65. Bargain. The only expensive bits are the nuts and the olive oil. 

So here is how you make it:

Kushari - as told by the Ripe Deli Cookbook

serves 4-6

Lentils and Rice:

1 cup green lentils (we used brown)

50g butter

1 cup basmati rice

2 cups chicken stock (vegetable stock will do for you vegos out there :) )

1 teaspoon sumac (its a red-purpley coloured spice used in middle eastern dishes to add a lemony flavour to meats and other dishes. We didn't have any so we skipped this out. Not the end of the world).

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

2 onions peeled and thinly sliced

1 cup toasted pistachios

1 cup fresh Italian parsley, roughly chopped

1 cup fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

Spicy Tomato Sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

3 red chillis, de-seeded and finely sliced.

400g can crushed tomatoes

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 cup cider vinegar/white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika (we use la chinata smoked paprika)

1/4 cup fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped

I know this seems like a long list of ingredients, but it's really not. Bear with me :)

Now we are assuming your lentils are already cooked (if they are from a can they are cooked and soft).

To prepare the spicy tomato sauce:

In a saucepan over high heat add the oil, garlic and chillis and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, water, vinegar, salt, cumin and paprika. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and leave to simmer for 30 minutes until thickened.

Stir in the fresh coriander leaves. 

Taste to see if more salt, pepper or coriander is needed.

To prepare the rice and lentils:

In a saucepan over a high heat, melt the butter and then add the rice. Cook for 1 minute stirring constantly. 

Add the stock, water, sumac, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt and pepper.

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook for 12 minutes before removing from the heat.

Cover and set aside for 12 minutes (to let the rice cook).

While the rice is cooking prepare the onions.

In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil to a medium heat and slowly cook the sliced untils until dark gold in colour. This should take approximately 20 minutes.

Break the cooked rice up with a fork.

In a large bowl mix together the lentils (drained), rice, toasted pistachios, fresh parsley and coriander and 2/3 of the cooked onions.

Season with salt and pepper and pile high on a platter. 

Top with the remaining onions.

Once individual portions are served, pour the hot tomato sauce over the top.

 The rice was really tasty even without the tomato sauce. It would be a really tasty summer salad as well.

Every spoonful is different.

Enjoy! we sure did :)

See you later!

Oaty Ginger Slice

 Hello!

So today I am blogging about my Mum's most recent delicious discovery that is Ripe Deli's Oaty Ginger Slice. Once again it was recommended by the wonderful Sue. I blame Sue for many ingested calories over the last few years. She should probably stop giving Mum all these recipes, but then again maybe not. Anyway Mum loves ginger crunch and originally I thought this was a ginger crunch recipe but it turned out to be an oat slice crossed with ginger crunch. Which is excellent. I love oats. Especially when they are in ANZAC biscuits.

Hmm isn't that delicious looking? Unfortunately I didn't have a camera on me at the time of the slicing so I had to make do with my good old trusty phone :)

Ok here goes Ripe's Oaty Ginger Slice as told by the Ripe Deli cookbook . . .


Oaty Ginger Slice

Base:
200g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons golden syrup
1 cup soft brown sugar
1 cup desiccated coconut
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger

Topping (I doubled the recipe):
1 cup icing sugar
75g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon ground ginger

You will also need a good trusty slice tin approx 20x30cm in size and a big chunky knife to cut it once set. A flimsy butter knife won't cut the mustard. Or in this case a very chunky solid base.

So first up, preheat your oven to bake at 170 degrees.

 So my friends, the next first thing you will want to do is to pop your base butter in a saucepan and heat until metled.

Next add the brown sugar and golden syrup and stir over a low to medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved.

Oh yeah a trick with golden syrup if your Mum hasn't already taught you is to pour boiling water over the spoon you plan to use before dipping it in the syrup. The heat melts the syrup making measurements more accurate, the syrup more pourable and less gets stuck to the spoon.

In a separate bowl mix all your other ingredients together such as your flour, oats, coconut, baking powder and ginger. Mix until evenly distributed.

 Pour your hot butter mixture over the top of your dries (just like in ANZAC biscuit making) and stir until well combined.

Once all nicely mixed, line your slice tin with baking paper like so.

And proceed to mold the base mixture to the base of the tin, making sure it is nice and even and goes right to the corners.

I find using the bottom of a half or full cup measure works really well to flatten the base evenly. This base is quite greasy so you don't need to flour the cup but for more doughy bases dip the cup's base in flour to stop it from sticking.

Sweet we are now ready for the oven. 20 minutes at 170 degrees.

Now this base looks quite dark in the next few photos, almost over done. But I have found that it needs to be cooked until that colour for the base to be crunchy enough to carry the soft, smooth topping. It's all about preferences. I love really hard crunchy ginger nuts but my Dad can't stand them so of course I want mine to be as crunchy as possible. Make sure you leave this to cool before pouring on the topping.

So now for the topping. It's dead easy. Like I said up the top, I make a double recipe, Mum does a one and a half. It doesn't really matter. One and a half is for people who arn't as fatty as myself but is more than sufficient.

In your trusty saucepan, melt your butter and then add your icing sugar, ginger and golden syrup.

Stir stir stir until it is all melted and smoother than the inside of Chris' thigh. Not joking about that either. Women would kill for such sparse thigh hair growth. TMI? Yeah thought so too. Anyway the idea is that you want it molten and smooth.

So that when you pour it, it looks like this.

Tilt the tray around to spread it around the base.

Oh doesn't that look good?

Leave to cool for a few hours on the kitchen bench. Our first batch was cooled in the fridge. Mum seems to think the fridge made it soft. Once all nice and set take to it with that big knife of yours and cut it up into delectable wee pieces. Did you know they say ginger is a natural blood thinner and can help to ease cramping when you get your monthly bill? What an excellent excuse to eat lots of this at a time when you are already feeling fat, bloated, cranky and sore! haha.

Ok time for me to right up the oaty cookies that I made simultaneously :)

See you soon!