the red kitchen

Oaty apple cake

I've been baking a bit more lately, I don't know why, maybe the weather, maybe the fact that we are back from holidays and I am enjoying being back in my own (messy) kitchen. When I'm feeling at home, I bake.

The week before the holidays Lola and I were more or less home alone for a week while Max was skiing with Bruno's parents and Bruno was working. We had a very relaxing week, bonding, doing girly things and making pikelets with nutella for breakfast every morning (I blame Ms. Fabelhaft for Lola's nutella habit, entirely!). The pikelet recipe came from my trusty Edmonds cookbook (btw, check out this link for a look at an early version of the good ol' Edmonds, and just above it on the page was a recipe an Oaty Apple cake. Hmm, looks good, I thought to myself. I mentally bookmarked it for future reference, and went on holiday.

One week and many muscle aches later (what possessed me to try skiing again I don't know, why don't I just give up already), we were home and I was in a baking mood. The Oaty Apple cake! A bit of cakey indulgence, but still with enough healthy ingredients to pass muster as a pseudo health food - oats, grated apple, raisins etc. I bumped up the health quotient by using fresh orange juice instead of water, and fresh ginger instead of mixed spice.

I made it for Sunday afternoon tea with Bruno's parents, and it was delicious. A bit crumbly, esp. when warm from the oven (the flavour and texture improves after a day, if you can wait), but really good, moist and fruity, a bit like a muffin.

I made it again a few days later because we scoffed the first cake down so quickly that I needed to try it again to be really sure of its excellentness. I took some to my friend Gabriella and her visiting Italian parents, and she also loved it. Here, at her request, then, is the recipe:

Sugar fingers

Sugar fingers, originally uploaded by kitschenette.

I made shortbread from the River Cottage Family Cookbook for afternoon tea and Max couldn't resist helping himself to some sugary crumbs before the first slice was eaten (note green playdough on his fingers, remnants of the T-Rex necklaces he made earlier in the afternoon).

The shortbread was good, despite having to substitute cornflour for rice flour in the recipe, and very simple, a good one to make with kids as it doesn't require much mixing or other technique, merely rubbing the dry ingredients with the butter and pressing into a cake tin (don't even have to bother greasing or lining the tin).

And, it looked super lovely, sweetly pale and sprinkled with vanilla sugar from my big glass bottle of lumpy, vanilla-soaked sugar.

Bulging bellies

My kids are such gobbly guts. Tonight they stuffed themselves so full at dinner time that later, when they had their bath together, they exclaimed and squealed over their bulging bellies. Even I was surprised.

I do love seeing my kids eat well. I feel a kind of motherly pride in nourishing my progeny. Tonight I roasted some chicken pieces in olive oil and lemon juice until crispy and crackling outside, tender and moist inside, then made a gravy* with the pan juicies. A creamy garlic mash and some plain steamed broccoli and raw carrots (my kids' favourite veges, on the table practically every night, boring but good) and we were ready, set, go! Very good. If only I had a glass of red wine to go with it. However, after Tuesday night, when I imbibed an unprecendented 2 glasses of red wine and suffered a subsequent hangover (pathetic! I'm such a cheap drunk) the entire next day, I am going easy on the booze.

Max and Lolly love a little lake of gravy in their mound of mash. The back of a spoon is used to make a deep hollow in the mash, and a spoonful of gravy is carefully deposited. Woe betide the careless gravy-giver who accidentally releases the flood!

Berry good

For dessert I had promised Max I would make some of his favourite berry sauce to eat with fresh fruit, but we were so stuffed full that I didn't bother. Max loves this sauce with a passion. When he spies a box of frozen berries (berries aren't readily available at the moment, it's the middle of winter, remember? frozen is good) his face lights up like a Christmas tree. Today at lunchtime he spotted the box of frozen raspberries in the fridge. He was so excited he took the box out of the fridge and put it next to him on the table while he ate, gazing lovingly at it the whole while.

I have no problems letting him eat berry sauce til it comes out of his ears, because really, it's hardly even a sauce. Really it's just sieved berries. I don't add sugar or anything else except maybe some fresh orange juice and zest when I making blackberry sauce. In fact, he prefers it sour. The one time I added some icing sugar he turned his nose up at it and said it tasted 'funny'. It's an excellent way to get kids to eat a whole lot of extremely nutritious berries. Last Sunday we had a friend over for dinner and I made raspberry sauce as well as custard to pour over fresh fruit. The sauce boats were licked clean. 1 kg of raspberries eaten in about 10 minutes.

Once you have a jar of berry sauce in your fridge it's amazing how useful it can be. The dessert possibilities are obvious - with icecream, with chocolate cake and ice-cream, with custard or panna cotta or creme brulee, maybe even a swirl in a meringue, trifle, fool etc etc. The fresh acidic sourness and slight sweetness of berries are the perfect foil for creams and custards.

Also consider a swirl in breakfast yoghurt and muesli, in smoothies or muffins, or simply with a ripe juicy mango and a sliced banana. Endless possibilities.

Tomorrow I will make Max a happy boy. We'll make raspberry sauce together and  make some yummy little thing for dessert.  More bulging bellies!

* isn't 'gravy' the most awful word? Conjures up an image of a congealed, thick, lumpy brown mess to me. Luckily our gravy tonight was none of the above. Except brown.

The fruit of Love

Stephanie Alexander tells me that in ancient times quinces were revered as sacred symbols of love, happiness and fertility. There is something kind of miraculous about quinces, in the way that their perfume subtly fragrances the kitchen, and the way their hard, pale rawness transforms into crimson softness after a few hours of judicious cooking.

They've long been a favourite of mine, ever since I discovered them back in Sydney. Then, it was difficult to find a reliable source, but here in Switzerland they are reasonably easy to find.

Bruno's parents recently gave me 10!!! kilos of quinces, all from a local farm. Luckily they have a long shelf-life, because I've been so busy that I haven't had time to make jam and jelly from them - they are still sitting out in our open freezer (the balcony, now it's so cold). I did poach a huge batch,  from which I made a fab quince and almond cake (in the manner of Anneka Manning's apple and almond cake), much better than the quince and nut cake (from Stephanie Alexander) I made for Max's birthday, which was a dry and pretty dismal affair.

I have to admit I don't do much more with quinces other than poach them (and then use them in various cakes and tarts) and make jam or jelly from them. They do amount to a fair bit of work, just for those simple recipes. I haven't tried my hand at quince paste, nor am I tempted, for some reason (I think it was Stephanie Alexander's comment about how she badly sprained her arm while making a batch that put me off). I'm happy as a clam with my poached quinces, so I haven't made much of an effort to seek out new quince recipes (lazy, I am). I might try to put some in my christmas cake this year, though (if I ever get around to making it).

Here are my two favourite quince recipes. If quinces are in season in your part of the woods, take advantage now, because the season is so sadly short:

On birthdays, a surfeit of cakes, and tight pants

This week finds me becoming increasingly well-acquainted with my oven, and my trusty Edmonds cupcake recipe.

In the last two days I've two double batches of cupcakes - one lot for Max's birthday celebration at kindy (yes, he continues to celebrate his birthday, a full two weeks after the event), and the other for Lola's birthday (which is today, happy birthday sweet little Lolly!)at the Chinderhuus. Max requested chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing and red flowers, and Lola got vanilla cupcakes with pink vanilla icing and white flowers (no photos, as I was too busy trying to fend the kiddies off the cupcakes, but trust me, they were delicious, even though I forgot to put the proper quantity of baking powder in one lot).

Cupcakes are a Good Thing when it comes to these kindergarten-type birthday thingies, because they a) look cute; b) do away with the need for plates; and c) do away with the hassle and mess of cutting and distributing. But, when it comes time for the big birthday bash, I think a proper whole cake is still nice.

Last night I also made a quince and almond cake, cos few people have asked me for the recipe and I didn't want to post the recipe without some pics. This weekend we are having a joint birthday party for Max and Lolly, so guess what I'll be up all night making! Another cake!!! Still haven't decided if I will attempt a shape (last year at Mum and Dad's in Oz we had a dinosaur park and a pink pigcat - it was meant to be a pink pussycat but was decidedly pig-like) or just do a big, round confection with sprinkles, candles, lurid piped icing, ringing bells and whistles, and maybe some fireworks for good measure.

Now, I love a good butter cake but taking this weeks' cake bonanza and last weeks' chocolate chipper fest (I made up a quadruple batch) into consideration, I think I have overdone it, and have the tightening pants to prove it. Oh well, there's my winter layer of blubber.

Peachy

Yesterday Bruno's parents arrived back from 2 weeks in Tuscany, loaded down with goodies for us - 6 litres of hand-picked organic extra virgin olive oil (*swoon* you should see its grassy green-ness), waldhonig (forest honey), coffee, biscotti, and a tray of beautiful peaches. Lovely lovely.

Tonight we're having some friends over for fondue (the cold weather made us do it...). I wanted a light dessert that wasn't going to sit heavily in our stomachs after all that cheese, so I poached the peaches in a vanilla sugar syrup, with a couple of peels of lemon rind for zing. The end result is gorgeous.

However, I would STRONGLY advise anyone considering doing the same to make sure their peaches are absolutely ripe, as it makes it much easier to peel away their skins. Even slightly unripe sections of peach are a pain in the arse to peel away, and make for unsightly dents and gouges in those blushing smooth cheeks.

I plan to eat them at room temperature, with maybe some rich thick double cream from Lac de gruyere  for good measure.

Mmmmm!

A scorcher

I made two of these cakes on the weekend - one for Donat's birthday (happy birthday, Donat!), and the other for Bruno's parents to sell at the local jazz festival (every year they have a fundraiser stall selling home-made cakes).

The cake is an easy-peasy flourless choccy cake (hazelnuts rather than almonds), slathered in ganache (chocolate and cream melted and then beaten together) and adorned with scorched hazelnuts.

I tried to make this cake a few weeks ago but buggered up the ganache. This time all went fine thanks to the old 'bowl-over-a-pot-of-simmering-water' trick.

It was pretty delicious! Very rich, though, so only small slices needed for full chocolate overload.

failures

on wednesday i did a lot of cooking:

- a banana cake with cream cheese icing

- a flourless chocolate and hazelnut cake - i substituted hazelnut meal for almond meal(unfortunately the ganache topping failed miserably, more on that later)

- spätzle with peas and chicken

- tofu and vege green curry with rice

- rhubarb, apple and blackberry crumble

- giant pot of stewed apples (devoured by hungry toddler on same day)

that's a lot of cooking, considering i had to do the shopping, drop max off and pick him up and do various boring household chores as well.

the cakes were for bruno's birthday, which was on monday. in switzerland when it is your birthday YOU take in a cake to celebrate you birthday, not (as in australia) the office all chipping in and buying you a cake. hmm. there are so many people in bruno's office that it required two cakes to feed them all. the banana cake turned out nicely, but i was annoyed with myself for buggering up the choccy cake - i slightly over cooked it (not too much of a problem since it was a flourless cake which is very moist anyway), and made a total mess of the ganache i was planning to 'ice' it with. i knew i should have used a bowl over simmering water to melt the chocolate and cream together, instead of direct heat. but then neither nigella or stephanie alexander mentioned this necessity, so i thought i should just follow their instructions and it owuld all be fine and dandy.

but no.

my beautiful thick, smooth ganache split and curdled just before the last chocolate bit melted. that will teach me. i've never melted chocolate any way  other than over a pot over simmering water, so i didn't know the warning signs to look out for....but now i do. sigh. how annoying! i was planning to thickly slather the cake with the ganache, then top it with whole roasted hazelnuts, which makes for a very wicked, chocolate-y cake which looks amazing. i've made this cake once before, but ages ago, so i obviously didn't remember the finer points of ganache-making, considering the curdled mess i made of it on thursday.

i'm meeting some friends on tuesday morning so perhaps i will have another go at it. it does annoy me to not to make something perfectly.

stay tuned.

jam-ing; bean-ing; chocolate chipper-ing

still here. sorry the red kitchen has been a little quiet of late. i've been either too exhausted to post or had no time to post.

nonetheless, the kitschenette kitchen has been humming with activity. since bruno has been away i've been baking and jam-ming away almost every night! gotta keep busy so that the silence of the household (once the kiddies are asleep of course) doesn't deafen me.

in the last few days i've made double batches of the great chocolate chippers from a couple of weeks back, this time using chopped up dime bars (these were FANTASTIC, properly chewy and caramelly with half melted chocolate and toffee), banana cake, a double batch of zopf, and two batches of strawberry and vanilla jam. and a big pot of chilli beans (max's favourite meal, with rice and yoghurt) is currently simmering away nicely on the stovetop now. no pics, unfortunately, because bruno has taken the camera to milan with him. bummer.

the strawberry jam is really pretty, a beautiful glowing red. i first tasted strawberry and vanilla jam at a great little cafe in erskineville called bitton (i think it has now moved, gotten bigger and more famous) with my friend adamski. i bought a jar to take home and was delighted to find half a vanilla bean in the middle. if i remember correctly though, the jam itself was a little overcooked, brownish red rather than a bright fresh red. strawberries are in plentiful supply here at the moment, and quite cheap, so i bought a kilo and cooked them all up in sugar, with the juice of a lemon and a vanilla bean thrown in. the result was so wonderfully warm, and fragrant and delicious that i had to give a few jars away to share around the goodness. so i had to make another batch to replenish our sadly depleted jam stock (because we were in oz last summer i missed out on the last half of the jam-making season, when all the plums and blackberries are ripe). so, so good. max has declared it his new favourite jam (mr jam afficianado).

today is cold and gray, AGAIN. time for a pot of beans to warm the cockles of the heart. max will be happy to have his favourite meal, one that i KNOW he likes, after the disastrous lunch i made yesterday. reminder to self: cooked avocado tastes VILE. i know this, but i accidentally over-heated the simple pasta with avocado and tomato after i had tossed the green and red bits through. what is it about avocado that makes it taste so great raw and so disgusting when warmed? be warned!

weekend eats

i know it's tuesday, almost wednesday, but here's some stuff we ate over the weekend:

a tarte tatin, courtesy of orangette via saucy. i have to admit it didn't turn out very aesthetically pleasing. my apple configuration was very haphazard, and the slices migrated around in the sticky caramel, but no matter. it tasted wonderful. with some thick oozing double cream from lac de la gruyere, not a flake of pastry nor a translucent piece of apple was left. i am going to try it again this friday evening, when we have some friends around for dinner. this time i want it to look perfect!

sunday kitchen sink dinner. asparagus, brie and smoked trout frittata. surprisingly good for a slapdash dinner. even the kiddies loved it - lola had 3 (small) slices! often kids like stronger tastes than grown-ups give them credit for, i find.

i also made some yummy fat buttermilk pancakes for brekkie on sunday morning (no time for pics, sorry, too busy stuffing my face). i am finding quite a few uses for the carton of buttermilk in my fridge left over from my last banana cake frenzy. we ate them with cream cheese (so evil, soooo good), a soft, rosy pink quince jam (rather than jelly) made by bruno's mother, and fresh strawberries. 

>>>

we've got a busy weekend ahead. friends for dinner on friday night (maybe vietnamese rice wraps?), easter brunch on sunday with bruno's family, and the usual trillion small meals and snacks in between. shops are closed over the holiday break so i will have to do some judicious shopping and planning - never my forte. i shall also be making a small mountain of zopf for all those we know and love - my poor arm muscles!!!