Quick Chocolate Pudding

I’ve seen cornflour-based puddings in many places – cookery books, blogs, in add-milk only packets on supermarket shelves – but it was only a couple of weeks ago that I decided to try my hand at making one, on a day when I felt like chocolate but wanted something that didn’t feel too naughty. This pudding, which resulted, felt about as bad as an evening cup of cocoa – i.e. not at all and really rather comforting. The recipe below makes one serving and the cup measurement is based on a 250 ml mug as equal to one cup.

What you’ll need:

2 heaped tsp cocoa powder

2 rounded tsp brown sugar

1 heaped tsp cornflour

1 cup milk

Your choice of garnish, such as whipped cream, Greek yoghurt, fresh fruit or chocolate shavings

What to do:

1. Put the cocoa powder, brown sugar and cornflour into a small saucepan. Add a small amount of the milk and mix everything together into a smooth paste.

2. Add the rest of the milk and whisk everything together thoroughly.

3. Put the saucepan over a medium heat and bring slowly to the bowl, whisking regularly. Keep the saucepan over the heat until the mixture starts to thicken and reaches a consistency slightly thicker than custard (unfortunately the camera was not prepared to fight through all the steam associated with this stage to get a good picture, so there isn’t one…).

4. Remove the pan from the heat and either serve immediately or (and I much prefer this option) wait a few minutes for the mixture to cool a bit, and then pour it into a serving bowl and then cool completely in the fridge before garnishing and serving.

Sticky Toffee Cake

I don’t remember the first time I ate sticky toffee pudding. Most of the time when I’ve been tempted by it as a menu option, it has followed a hearty pub meal, and these are times when I am more tempted by options such as brownies and ice cream or lemon tart. However, once I tried it I was sold on it. Not so sold that I’ll never again choose brownies and ice cream or lemon tart over sticky toffee pudding, but sold enough for it to always be a viable contender. A couple of weeks ago, it won the pudding-menu-option-fight and I had an average to good sticky toffee pudding. Since then, I’ve been craving more sticky toffee pudding. However, I decided to try making it in cake form rather than as a steamed pudding. This had the advantage not only of being much quicker to prepare but also meant that I was able to sneak a quick slice for ‘elevenses’ yesterday morning (not something I usually have). This is good served hot from the oven in the same way you would serve sticky toffee pudding (my preference is with custard, but, if you’re not familiar with this pudding, cream or ice cream also work well) or cold. The sauce on top sinks to the bottom to make a thin gooey layer, although this does seem to dry pretty quickly once the cake has been cut. The cup measurements below are all based on a 250 ml mug as equal to 1 cup and I baked it in a baking pan (actually a roasting tin) which measured about 12 inches long by 9 inches wide by 2 inches deep. This cake is quite sweet – decrease the sugar slightly if you’d prefer yours less sweet. You can also vary the taste slightly by using ground ginger in place of the mixed spice and/or add a generous handful of nuts, such as walnuts of pecans, either to the cake batter or sprinkled on top after adding the sauce. If you’d like extra sauce to serve alongside the cake, make another batch using the same quantities as those given below, but with extra milk or cream to bring it to an easy pouring consistency.

What you’ll need:

For the cake:

250 gram package of stoned dates

3/4 cup boiling water

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

3 eggs

2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch salt

1 heaped teaspoon ground mixed spice

For the sauce:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

What to do:

1. Roughly chop the dates. Put them in a heatproof bowl and then cover them with the water and set them aside for later.

2. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4 (180º C or 350º F) and grease the pan well with butter or margarine.

3. In a new, clean bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer.

4. Beat the eggs into the creamed butter and sugar, one at a time, with an electric mixer.

5. Sift the flour, salt and mixed spice into the butter/sugar/egg mixture and fold in.

6. Tip the soaked dates and any unabsorbed water into the butter/sugar/egg/flour mixture and fold in thoroughly. My batter looked slightly curdled at this stage – probably because my butter and eggs were pretty cool; however, it did not seem to affect the cake so don’t worry if yours looks curdled too.

7. Tip the cake batter into the greased pan and spread out evenly across the pan and then set aside whilst you make the sauce.

8. To make the sauce, put in a small saucepan the butter, sugar and milk and then put the pan over a low heat. You may need to give it a quick mix once or twice or swill the milk/melting butter around the bottom edges of the pan to ensure that all the sugar is incorporated. The butter and sugar should soon melt fully and the mixture will reach a rolling boil. Once this point is reached, keep the pan over the heat for a further minute or so, at boiling point, and then remove from the heat. Leave the sauce to cool in the pan for a minute or two.

9. When the sauce has cooled slightly, pour it over the top of the cake batter and then swirl it into the batter with the end of a butter knife.

10. Bake the cake in the middle of the pre-heated oven for 45 to 55 minutes or until done. You will need to test it but checking to see that it is beginning to pull away from the sides and is springy to the touch – a skewer may not come out clean as the sauce will have settled at the bottom of the pan and made a thin layer of gooey goodness. Please excuse the little bit of ‘quality control’ in the corner of the pan – I was initially confused when this came out of the oven as the cake looked cooked but I didn’t expect the gooey layer at the bottom and so was confused about why my skewer wasn’t coming out clean…

11. When the cake has cooked, remove it from the oven and either leave to cool in the pan on a cooling rack or serve immediately with your choice of sauces and accompaniments.

Hamburgers and Mustard Mayonnaise

I almost feel like this recipe is too simple to blog. But, unfortunately, after a couple of weeks of very little motivation to be in the kitchen and multiple failures when I have ventured into that particular room of the house, this is all I have to offer. I used to make hamburgers and meatballs with dry breadcrumbs and by adding raw onions and, when I used it, raw garlic to the raw meat mixture. However, that all changed when I made keftedes, Greek meatballs, from a recipe in an awesome Greek recipe book given to me by J. The book, which I would recommend highly, is called Culinaria Greece: Greek Specialities, edited by Marianthi Milona and published by h.f.ullman (2004/2007). This recipe uses the great ideas of pre-cooked onions and pre-soaked bread learned from that recipe. This makes six good sized burgers.

 

 

What you need:

1-2 slices of white bread

1 onion

500-600 gram pack of beef mince

1 egg

Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Fresh or dried herbs – I used dried oregano

Salt and pepper

3 dessertspoons mayonnaise

½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

Squeeze of lemon juice

6 hamburger rolls and trimmings of choice, such as sliced lettuce and tomato.

 

What to do:

 

1. Put the bread in a bowl and cover with cold water to soak.

 

 

 

2. Chop the onions finely. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and then soften the onions in the hot oil.

 

 

 

 

3. Squeeze the water out of the bread (if you’re not sure, gather the soaked bread together in your hand and then squeeze it gently in the same way you might squeeze water out of a sponge) and then put the bread, cooked onions, mince and egg into a large mixing bowl with a generous sprinkling of herbs and some salt and pepper. Mush all the ingredients in the bowl together until they are fully combined. I do this by hand. It is a messy but fun business!

 

 

 

4. Divide the meat mixture into six roughly equal portions and then shape each portion into a hamburger patty. I find that the best way to do this is to shape each portion into a large ball and then to pat the ball flat, smoothing the edges into a circle every so often as I pat down the top and bottom.

 

 

5. Cook the hamburger patties by shallow-frying them in a frying pan with more hot oil, or lay them on a baking tray, on a sheet of greaseproof paper and bake in a pre-heated oven on gas mark 5 (190º C or 375º F) for about 30 to 40 minutes, turning once, or until brown on both sides and cooked through. Please excuse the terrible picture below – natural light had pretty much disappeared for the day by the time these had finished cooking.

 

 

6. To make the mustard mayonnaise, mix together thoroughly the mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice. Taste and adjust each ingredient according to your preference.

 

 

 

 

7. To assemble, prepare your hamburger rolls according to your preference – my preference is lightly toasted and buttered – and then add a patty and a generous dollop of mayonnaise to each roll along with any other hamburger trimmings I have to hand. Eat immediately.

 

 

Roast Vegetable Salad

I think my favourite way of cooking vegetables is to roast them. I love the delicious slightly burnt, slightly caramel, slightly olive-y (I use olive oil when I roast vegetables) flavour that roasting creates. Although I am happy with a big dish of unadorned, unadulterated roasted vegetables, sometimes it is good to mix things up a bit. Initially, I planned to make this using quinoa – something I love – but unfortunately, the only quinoa I could find in my local supermarket was one of those pre-flavoured ones, whereas all I wanted was the grains so that I could add my own flavour. In the end I settled for bulgar wheat, but this would also work with quinoa, cous cous or even pasta, if you wanted. This makes enough for about 6 to 8 servings and would be great alongside a braaii (or BBQ for those of you who, unlike me, did not grow up in southern Africa!). The cup measurement below is based on a 250 ml mug equalling one cup.

What you’ll need:

1 medium aubergine

2 courgettes

1 red pepper

1 orange or yellow pepper

A generous handful of mushrooms

A generous handful of cherry tomatoes

Lots of olives

1 1/2 cups uncooked bulgar wheat

Extra virgin olive oil

Lemon juice

Fresh or dried herbs, such as thyme or oregano (if fresh, they will need to be chopped finely; I used dried herbs for the roasted veg and then fresh when seasoning the final dish)

Pepper and salt (I don’t always use salt, so just adjust the amount you use, or don’t use any, according to your preferences)

What to do:

1. Cut the aubergine into small chunks and then leave to soak in very salty, cold water for at least two hours. Soaking the aubergines in salty water will draw the moisture out of the aubergine, helping them to cook properly later.

2. Chop the courgettes, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes into small chunks, all about the same size as the chunks of aubergine (I had bite-size cherry tomatoes and just aimed to make everything about that size). Drain the aubergines and give them a quick rinse in a colander under running water and then put them in a large bowl with the chopped courgettes, peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes.

3. Put the oven on to pre-heat at gas mark 4 (180º C or 350º F).

4. Generously drizzle olive oil and lemon juice over the vegetables, sprinkle pepper and salt (if you’re using salt) over the olive oil and lemon juice and then add a large bunch of fresh herbs, finely chopped, or about a teaspoon of dried herbs to the bowl before mixing everything together thoroughly. Feel free to use fresh lemon juice if you’re not as lazy as me (but if you are, the pre-done lemon juice works just as well!). Try to make sure every vegetable chunk is reasonably well coated in the oil and lemon juice.

5. Spread the vegetables in a single layer in a large roasting tray (I ended up using two trays to make sure they stayed in a single layer) and then roast in the middle of the pre-heated oven for about an hour until fully cooked. During this time, you will need to mix the vegetables round in the pans a couple of times to ensure that they all cook evenly.

6. Whilst the vegetables are roasting, cook the bulgar wheat in a large pot of boiling water (just follow the instructions on the packet if you’re not sure) until soft. Then drain the bulgar wheat and put it in a large bowl (apologies for the bad photo – the steam from the cooked bulgar wheat really messed up the many photos I tried to take of this step…).

7. When the vegetables are fully cooked, put them into the bowl with the bulgar wheat, add the olives, and then drizzle more olive oil and lemon juice into the bowl and add more herbs and salt and pepper to taste (if you’re very observant, you may notice that I did not follow this exact sequence when I made this and took photos – in fact, I nearly forgot the olives which I added after the lemon juice). Mix everything in the bowl together thoroughly. Before serving, taste the salad and mix in more olive oil, lemon juice, herbs, pepper or salt according to taste. This is good both hot or cold.