Rana’s turmeric & fennel cake

I love pulling out old recipes, or ones passed down from friends and relatives because each time I make them it’s like recreating a bit of history. Someone else – whether last week or decades ago – put those same ingredients together in the way they liked best, and served it to people they loved. It's why I like making the few recipes my Italian grandmother gave to us…I never met her, but feel that I can get to know her a little by enjoying the same things she did.

I caught a compelling interview on the radio last Sunday morning with Rana Jawad, a BBC journalist who lives in Tripoli. She described the unimaginable difficulties she and her family have faced over the past few months, as well as her resolve to keep writing about what was going on with the constant fear of being captured by Gadhafi’s forces. She then spoke of how she’d relax in the midst of it all by baking, making up her own recipes, and serving her freshly-made cakes to her loved ones.

While I do not pretend that I can even begin to identify with someone in Rana’s position, what we do share is the simple truth that baking does indeed provide a welcome escape from daily events. Perhaps it’s the comfort of having something that’s a little bit in our control, or just being able to step away from life’s dramas and instead ponder over whether you should add another teaspoon of cinnamon to a recipe.

So, when the radio presenter said that some of Rana’s recipes would be posted on their website (you have to scroll down a little), I was very intrigued. I made her Turmeric & Fennel Cake, which she says is inspired by desserts from her home country of Lebanon. It’s absolutely delicious. There are also recipes for Chilli & Chocolate, and Rose Water & Apricot cakes. 


NB - If anyone out there doesn't have scales, I'd be happy to do a cup conversion for you.

Someone else thought it looked delicious, too (note our photo studio, aka the sun porch,
aka where laundry dries, aka the only room that actually gets decent light)

Braciole

As nice as it is to stick to what you know about baking, every now and then it’s good to challenge skills with something ridiculously complicated (or, ridiculous for me – someone who’s more the “throw it all together and see what happens” kind of cook).

I must confess that I’m very easily swayed by what I see on tv – foodwise. Watching The Great British Bake Off right now makes me want to create whatever it is they’re cooking up each week. An episode of last season’s Desperate Housewives inspired me to make a pineapple upside-down cake when we visited my mother-in-law that weekend. And so, watching a re-run of Everybody Loves Raymond one early weekday morning put the thought in my head to try braciole.

I spent a while researching recipes – it’s not one found in an average, all-purpose cookbook. I settled on this one by Hal Licino as he explained a bit of braciole background as well as giving an achievable-looking recipe, and also because the first comment is from someone who was also put onto braciole because of Everybody Loves Raymond (I don’t really even like the show very much…)

Braciole is essentially a thin piece of tenderised steak that’s spread with a mix of breadcrumbs, cheese, pine nuts, parsley, prosciutto and currants. It’s then rolled up and cooked for hours in a sauce.

I didn’t actually make the sauce in Hal’s recipe – I just did a basic tomato sauce with thyme, garlic and carrots. I also had the braciole cooking for only 2.5 hours. It was very good, but I didn’t measure each ingredient evenly so some flavours came through more than others. Next time I’ll probably whiz everything together in a food processor first.

(Any veggies out there…you might not want to look at these pics)

Pounded, filled and rolled. Nobody seems to sell baking string,  so I had to use rather dangerous-looking combination of toothpicks to hold them together. Thankfully, all were accounted for later and we didn't eat one accidentally… 

Result! 

Be warned, though – removing toothpicks from hot meat is actually a little painful.

Chocolate strawberry shortcake

Going by Nat King Cole’s apt description of summer days, ours have been more crazy and hazy than lazy this year. But, after a spate of cloudy and humid weekends, the first sight of sun on a Saturday meant a sumptuous summer fruit dessert was needed. Maybe it’s more of my New England baking reflex talking, but there’s just something about having a dish that involves sugar and berries in-hand to truly enjoy a warm summer afternoon.

In the end, by the time my choco-fied version of strawberry shortcakes cooled down enough to glaze, then set long enough for the glaze to harden, the sun had gone in and the heavens had opened. The British summer strikes again! Oh well, the backyard will have to wait another week to be mowed, but chocolate-strawberry goodness can be enjoyed rain or shine.

Chocolate scones (makes 6-7)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup (75g) butter, softened

1¾ cups (220g) flour

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

¼ cup (32g) baking cocoa

¾ cup (175ml) milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 450F/220C.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Cut in the butter, and use your hands to work it in until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3. Stir in the baking cocoa, then the milk. Add a little more flour if necessary to create a firm dough.
4. Place the dough on a lightly floured surface, and knead for about 30 seconds. Roll or pat the dough to ½in (just over 1cm) thick.
5. Cut out the scones with a 3in (7.5cm) round cutter. Place each one about 1in (2.5cm) away from each other on an ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 10-12 minutes. The scones should have risen, the outsides should look fully baked and the insides should be soft but not doughy.
7. Cool on a wire rack. Don’t start making the glaze until the scones have cooled completely.

Chocolate glaze

Ingredients:

4 squares (30g) of baking chocolate

2 tablespoons (28g) butter

2 tablespoons sugar

½ tablespoon water

Method:

Melt the chocolate and butter together over low heat (or in a bowl suspended over a pot of boiling water), then stir in the sugar and water. Keep stirring frequently for about two minutes, or until all ingredients have dissolved and the mixture has become a thick, smooth syrup.

Cool for about 10-15 minutes. Spoon over the top of each cooled scone, letting it drizzle down the sides.

Strawberry sauce

Ingredients:

Around 3 cups of strawberries, chopped (apologies to gram users – I forgot to weigh out this one, but I used a whole punnet of strawberries from the supermarket)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon corn starch

2/3 cup (150g) sugar

Pinch of salt

Method:

Squish down the strawberries slightly with the back of a spoon or potato masher, to release the juices and create a smoother sauce (the more you mash them, the smoother the sauce will be). Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir over medium heat until the mixture boils. Remove from heat, and cool completely.

To make up the shortcakes...

Cut one scone (warm or cool) in half , pour some strawberry sauce over it, and serve. Top with whipped cream, if desired.

Chicken, broccoli and smoked cheese pie

One of the things I love about English food is the tolerant, liberal stance on putting anything between two pastry crusts or underneath mashed potatoes or breadcrumbs, and calling it a pie. Back home, pies are generally what you have for dessert. Granted, dinner might feature an impossible pie (the brilliant creation of cooks at Bisquick) or chicken pot pie, or shepherd’s pie…but each of those is a very specific recipe and has a defining word in front of ‘pie’. You’d never tell someone “I’m having pie for dinner,” and know that the other person would understand what you mean. In England, that same statement conjures up images of yummy meat, veg and gravy mixtures that are wonderfully comforting after a long day….and it make the other person want pie for dinner too.

The other day, T decided to make a breadcrumb-topped pie with chicken, broccoli and smoked cheese. It’s based on a chicken, broccoli and cheese pie from Sweeney & Todd in Reading that we sometimes share on a Friday (or, Pie Day, as we have come to call it). It’s easy to adapt the mix as you like, just make sure the cream/milk mixture comes over the chicken/broccoli/cheese in the baking dish, so it doesn’t come out too dry.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1-1½lb (500-600g) chicken, cut up

Broccoli

1½ cups (100g) smoked cheese, cubed

2 cloves garlic

1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

1¼ cup (300ml) light cream

1¼ cup (300ml) milk

1 cup (60g) bread crumbs

Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

• Preheat oven to 400F/200C*. Move rack to the middle of the oven.
• Cook chicken with garlic, lemon juice, and black pepper. Put cooked chicken in a square glass baking dish. Add the cubed cheese and broccoli, and mix with the chicken.
• Mix cream and milk in a bowl, adding salt and pepper as desired, and pour over the chicken.
• Cover with an even layer of breadcrumbs.
• Bake for 45 minutes. The mixture should be piping hot and bubbling.

*If you're cooking chips/fries at the same time, increase the oven temperature as instructed for those and put them on the very top shelf in the oven. 

Serve with peas and potato wedges...

Garlic & cheese biscuits

Last week, I celebrated my seventh Independence Day in the country we sought independence from. But, it’s hard to act too superior as none of my ancestors really had much to do with the conflict, and I much prefer the other traditions associated with the day that involve lots of food, a smoky grill and an afternoon baseball game (with the time difference, we can still watch it). I would happily include sparklers into my standard ex-pat 4^th celebrations, but the ones in the shops are usually left over from Guy Fawkes Day (November 5), and little sparkle remains.

This year, we and four friends sat in our grassy backyard last Monday night and enjoyed hamburgers, potato wedges, quesadillas, chicken with barbecue sauce, cucumber salad, veggies with a homemade spinach dip and corn on the cob, followed by brownies, lemon squares and blueberry/strawberry crisp. Yes, it was a little much, but I often get carried away when there’s an opportunity to put on a good spread.

I also made garlic and cheese biscuits…though over here I suppose they’d be called savoury scones. They really weren’t needed in the end, but it was an experiment that went well, so I shall share it here.

(Makes 10-12 biscuits)

Ingredients:

2 cups (250g) flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup (213g) butter, softened

⅓ teaspoon garlic powder

½ cup (about 85g) Emmental (swiss) cheese, grated

¾ cup (175ml) milk

Method:

1. Heat oven to 450F/230C.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender, or by crumbling it into the dry ingredients (I prefer this way), until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
3. Stir in the garlic powder and cheese, and then add the milk. The mixture should be sticky, but leave the sides of the bowl – add a little more flour if necessary.
4. Make each biscuit either by shaping a small amount of dough with your hands into a ½in (1.5cm) thick, 2in (5cm) diameter circle, or by using a cutter that’s about 2in (5cm) in diameter. With the latter, tip the dough onto a floured surface, and knead a few times. Roll or pat to about ½in (1.5cm) thick, and cut the biscuits.
5. Place each biscuit onto an ungreased baking tray about 1in (2.5cm) apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Let the biscuits cool for a few minutes, then serve warm or remove them from the baking tray onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Iced chai tea

The elusive British summer seems like it’s trying to prove that it really does exist, and at a good time, too. We’re well into Wimbledon season at the moment, and it’s hard not to get caught up in the aces, deuces and set points. I don’t consider myself a tennis fan generally, but I think everyone crosses their fingers for their favourite tennis player during Wimbledon.

But, I do feel a little bad for them when they have to play in the beating sun and it’s over 90F/30C out. Monday was a particular scorcher – it was hard enough to do anything more strenuous than get up to turn the fan on, never mind chase a bright yellow ball around a white-lined lawn.

While I do know quite a few Brits who are happy to drink a hot cup of tea on a day like that, it’s something I’ve never been able to adopt. Instead, I brewed up some ice tea one morning in the anticipation of needing it by the afternoon. While mixing it later, I created this chai version…

(Notice our tomato plant forest in the background)

Ingredients:

Black tea (I used Earl Grey)

Honey

Milk

Cinnamon

Nutmeg

Method:

1. Brew some strong black tea, using hot water in a teapot or cold water in a jug that’s kept in the fridge – make only as much as you will need, as it’s not recommended to keep homemade ice tea more than a day. Use at least triple the number of teabags you would normally. Brew hot tea for at least three hours, and cold tea for at least six hours, or to taste.
2. While the tea is brewing, add 1 tablespoon of honey per two cups of tea, or two taste.
3. After the tea is brewed, pour it into a glass pitcher with ice to cool, if necessary.
4. Fill a glass ¼ or ⅓ with milk. Add ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon (or as much as desired), and a pinch of nutmeg. Stir thoroughly with the milk.
5. Fill the rest of the glass with ice and cold tea, and stir. 

If at first you don’t succeed…

What do you get from these ingredients (besides the name of where we usually shop)? Theoretically, it should be pasta.

Do you have a cookbook – or two – that you never use from but don’t want to get rid of because the recipes sound so fabulous? I have this kind of relationship with Mario Batali’s Simple Italian Food. Well, the other day I finally cracked it open with the intention of making one of the staples of most Italian food – pasta. I feel I owe it to my own Italian heritage – and my great-grandmother Assunta’s cooking skills – to master basics like this.

Scarily, you don’t have to use a bowl, because you keep the eggs and olive oil in the center of a mound of flour while you start to blend everything together. Something like this…

I had high hopes after seeing that this stuff stayed together long enough for me to take a picture. But then, I started to mix it. See, the problem with adding in flour with the beaten eggs and oil is that it takes away from the “well” walls. I was soon in a messy battle between falling flour and runny dough, but then gave up and just smooshed everything together so the dough would become firmer more quickly.

Once I actually had the dough, I thought that was the hard part done.  I rolled it out with my trusty wooden pin to the absolute thinnest I could go, cut it into uneven tagliatelle strips and put it in the fridge until dinner – a big mistake.

While in the fridge, the pasta meshed into a firm, cold mound that did not easily separate when dropped into a big pot of boiling water. The pasta was also very thick as I didn’t roll it out as thinly as I thought, so I added a little extra cooking time to compensate. Even so, the pile of tire-quality, congealed rubber was hardly the rustic homemade pasta I’d envisioned.

So, this is one to try again when I have done these two things: 

1. bought a pasta rolling machine
2. read about the proper techniques that are supposed to be followed when mixing and then storing pasta

There’s another portion left in the fridge for tonight’s dinner…can’t wait…