Chinese Red Bean Cakes

I had heard tell of a Chinese supermarket in the city centre and so today I went in search of it. I found it quite easily and was amazed at the variety and quantity of exotic looking vegetables, dried fish, noodles, sauces and rice there was available. It was set out like a proper little supermarket, with isles and mini shopping trolleys and was run by a group of very friendly Chinese people. There was even a section dedicated to bowls, soup spoons, chopsticks, bamboo mats and rice steamers to complete the selection.

I should think the noodle section was the biggest. It had rice noodles, egg noodles, wheat noodles, seaweed and buckwheat of all different thicknesses and lengths. There was even some rice macaroni which I have never come across before. There was also an interesting flat green rice noodle, which on closer inspection turned out to be flavoured with green tea. I was sorely temped to buy some but having already got half a cupboard full of noodles I decided I could always come back another time when I have eaten through some of my supply.

One thing I was particularly looking out for was Moon Cakes. I have heard a great deal about these special little decorative pastry cakes that are commonly filled with red bean paste or other sweet treats and have never yet tried any. I had previously been on the shops website (to get directions) and on it they had a list of products which included quite an assortment of Moon Cakes. I found the isle dedicated to sweet treats but couldn’t see anything that resembled a Moon Cake. I asked a very friendly counter assistant if they had any and was told that they are only around at the end of July to the beginning of October as they are made to celebrate a mid autumn festival, rather like how Easter eggs are only around at Easter. I felt very foolish but he didn’t seem to mind and pointed out another pastry cake that he said was made using exactly the same pastry and filling but in slab form rather than cake. I thanked him and eagerly bought the pastry.
They are made with a soft, light, doughy pastry that surrounds a deep dark red filling, making them look rather like a giant fig roll. I broke off a piece when waiting for the bus, unable to wait until I got home in my eagerness to find out what they tasted like. It was like nothing I have ever had before. At first it’s just sweet but then a strong, yet not overpowering, spicy flavour develops. It began to remind me of something and I decided its ginger, as it was spicy and warming at the same time. However, I think there if definitely more to it than just that. The filling was wonderful, thick and slightly sticky. It had a slightly mealy texture whilst still being smooth which I suppose is due to the ground red beans, similar to the texture of houmous or a cake made using ground almonds. The whole pastry had been given a lovely shiny glaze which made it even more appealing. It smelt strongly of molasses or black treacle and yet didn't taste like there was any in the actual cake. I'm so intrigued as to how it was made. Overall I absolutely loved it, so different to anything I have had before. I’m definitely going to go back later on to try and get my hands on some genuine Moon cakes.

Click here to read more on Moon Cakes.

Fruit, Fruit and More Fruit

One of the bonuses of working in factory that means you have to experiment with different ingredients and recipes is that we often have a lot of excess fruit left over from the weekly trials when it comes to Friday. We clear out the ridges and divide any produce that won’t last the weekend between us. Last weekend I came home with two punnets of strawberries, a whole peeled pineapple, two mangoes and four fruit salads. Yummy yummy.

Another advantage is that we sometimes get companies sending us free samples of their produce or products in the hope of getting business with us. Last week we had a huge box of assorted dried fruit delivered to us. We don’t use dried fruit in our products all that often and so we didn’t have a need to keep the fruit. Instead we all had a little taster of it and then divided it up between us.

My haul included dried mango, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple and banana slices. I also ended up with the dried figs and prunes as my two other colleagues said they didn’t like these. I think they’re mad – but all the better for me. I have never seen dried strawberries before. They are still quite squishy and I don’t really know what to do with them. I’m sure they would be nice just to eat as they are, but I was wandering if there was anything I could cook/bake with them. If anyone has any ideas I’m open to suggestions. I plan use the blueberries in cookies and add the some of the others to my cereal. The pineapple is lovely the chewy with a great flavour and I think the banana slices would be great in muffins.

I bet there will come a day when I will be sick to death of fruit but, but I’m not there yet. Hope there is some nice fruit for the taking this weekend.

Orange, Cranberry & Ginger Oaties

This is the recipe I made a few weeks back, with just a few alterations to give a different twist. I baked these to post off to my dad for Fathers Day. I wanted a biscuit that would travel well and not turn up as crumbs. I thought these thick, soft cookies would fit the bill perfectly, plus they are more ‘manly’ looking than some other types of biscuit.

Orange and cranberry is a classic combination and I decided to add some ground ginger to give an extra depth of flavour. When they were baking they gave off the most wonderful spiced fruity aroma that reminded me very strongly of Christmas. Not really appropriate for this time of year but lovely nonetheless. The smell permeated through the whole house and greeted me hours later, when I opened the front door, after going into town.

They turn a lovely golden colour and are light and fairy soft in texture, with a slight chew similar to flapjacks. Crisp and slightly crumbly on the outside with little pockets of sweet cranberries. The orange complements them and the ginger adds an extra warming flavour and ties everything together.

They are so quick and easy to make and I’m sure there are endless variations that would produce yummy cookies. The others that come to mind are dark chocolate and hazelnut, apricot and almond or lemon and blueberry. Basically whatever combination takes your fancy.

Orange, Cranberry & Ginger Oaties

Ingredients
150g butter
100g light soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
170g porridge oats
160g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g dried cranberries
Grated rind of 1 orange
1 tsp ground ginger

Method
Preheat oven to 190C and get two baking trays ready but leave them un-greased.
Cream the butter together with both the sugars until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
Add the oats, flour, baking powder, ground ginger and grated rind of the orange into the bowl and beat together until all incorporated.
Fold in the cranberries.
Using an old fashioned ice cream scoop, or just a tablespoon, dollop level spoonfuls onto the baking trays, leaving around 4cm / 1.5inch gap between each one.
Gently press the tops down to form thick level discs.
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
Transfer to a rack immediately with the help of a palette knife.
Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container.
Makes 16 cookies

Avocado Open Sandwich

This is a really quick, simple yet tasty sandwich. For years I avoided eating avocados, not liking their soft soapy taste, however, recently in an effort to make them more palatable, I added some sweet chili sauce and coriander to some mashed avocado and spread it on some bread. I was amazed at what a difference it made to the taste. No longer was it bland and soapy, it had been transformed into a creamy, rich flavoursome paste with a nice subtle heat from the chili sauce. Still, finding the avocado on its own a little soft, I added some thick slices of cucumber and a few salad leaves to add some much needed crunch.

I am now converted to the delights of avocado. I think using sourdough or rye bread as base also helps bring the dish together. I feel you need something a little denser and heartier to offset the softness of the topping, rather than a soft fluffy white. It also means you can hold a single slice without it falling to pieces. This is now one of my favourite sandwiches. Even if you don’t like avocado, I urge you to try this, you may be pleasantly surprised at what a difference a few little additions can make. I know I was.

Avocado Open Sandwich
Ingredients
1 slice sourdough bread
½ small avocado
2 tsp sweet chili sauce
Thick slices of cucumber
Coriander
Baby spinach leaves
Baby beetroot leaves

Method
Cut the avocado in half lengthways, twist apart and remove the stone.
Scoop the flesh away from the skin and place into a bowl. Mash with a fork until fairly smooth and then mix in the chili sauce.
Take a slice of sourdough or rye bread and top with slices of cucumber.
Dollop over the mashed avocado and spread out evenly.
Top with some roughly chopped coriander and serve with some baby salad leaves, ready to pile on top before eating. (Mine were home grown).

I’m Back – Hooray!

It took a little longer than anticipated to get the internet up and running in my flat as BT were insisting they had to come and inspect the line before connecting me. Then the times they kept proposing to come and visit were in the middle of the day, during the week, when I was at work! Still all sorted now.

I absolutely love my job, it’s perfect for me being a fruit loving vegetarian. I have never eaten such a wide range and quantity of fresh fruit on a daily basis. The day feels quite long and my bus has broken down on me three times already but the work is so interesting, varied and ‘hands on’ that it more than makes up for it. Thank you to everyone who has sent me good luck wishes.

Anyway, I have a small backlog of recipes which I need to post about and seeing as today has been a lovely hot sunny day I thought I would start with a very summery recipe for individual baked strawberry sundaes. I made these to use up some madelines that had gone rather stale, but I have also made them in the past with thinly sliced scones, which are lovely.

I cheated slightly by using bought fresh custard, but in my defense you can buy some very good quality fresh custards these days. I decided to bake the strawberries rather than stewing them as I though this would give them more of an intense flavour and help to retain some of their shape. The baked strawberries looked and smelt good enough to eat just as they were; I bet they would be great spooned over some yoghurt or porridge.

The overall dessert was very tasty, with the sweet, summery strawberries and the thick, creamy custard with little layers of softened sponge in-between. They look quite impressive and take only minutes to assemble. They also happily sit in the fridge for two days without any ill effects. For extra indulgence add layers of lightly whipped cream on top of the custard.

Individual Baked Strawberry Sundaes
Ingredients
500g strawberries
300ml fresh custard
6 madelines or 3 plain scones

Method
Heat the oven to 190C.
Remove the stalk from the strawberries and place into a baking dish in a single layer. Reserve a few smaller strawberries for decoration.
Cut any particularly large strawberries in half but leave the rest whole.
Bake for 15 minutes, give them a stir and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes until softened and the juices given off have turned thick and syrupy.
Leave to cool.
When ready to assemble, slice the madelines or scones into 5mm thick pieces.
Using a pastry cutter, cut out discs the same diameter as your chosen glasses.
Place a scone/cake disc in the base of each glass and top with 2 tbsp of cooled strawberries, making sure to add plenty of the syrup to soak into the cake.
Top the strawberries with 2 tbsp of custard before adding another cake disc and repeating until all the strawberries have been used up.
End with a layer of custard and top with a whole reserved strawberry.
Cover and leave in the fridge for a minimum of two hours, to allow the cake to absorb all the strawberry juices and go soft.
Eat and enjoy.

Makes 3

I’m off

Well that’s it. I’ve finished all my exams and packed up my belongings and I’m moving to Leeds later on today. My course at university is called a sandwich course, very appropriate for a food degree. It basically means I have two years at university, then one year on a work placement and then a final year at university. I start my placement job on Tuesday; I can’t believe it’s come around so quickly, these last few weeks just seem to have flown by.

I am going to be working as a New Food Product Development Technologist for a fresh fruit company. I will help to come up with new products and improve upon existing ones in the development kitchens while keeping an eye on our competition. I’m really excited about it and yet also quite nervous. I have only ever had Saturday jobs before and suddenly I’m going to have a career – scary.

I won’t have the internet for the first week or so in my flat, which means there will no posts for a while. Hopefully, it should get sorted out soon.

Until then, enjoy the sunshine.

Big Bunch of Bananas, Banana Choc Chip Cake

This last week I have been attempting to eat the entire contents of my freezer. I finish university today and will be leaving my accommodation tomorrow and moving up to Leeds where I will start a year long work placement as part of my course. I was aware that I had a few frozen bananas lurking in the freezer from when I picked up a bag of around 20 small very overripe bananas for a few pence. I thought I had eaten my way through most of them but after a short rummage I had unearthed nine bananas. Nine!

I couldn’t bear to throw them away and so I decided to make my favourite recipe for banana choc chip cake, and throwing caution to the wind, I decided to use all the bananas and to reduce the oil and butter content to compensate for the extra moistness. I also reduced the sugar as I thought the bananas would add a lot of natural sweetness themselves.

The batter turned out well and I eagerly placed the cake in the oven. The aroma as it baked was unbelievable. Really intensely bananary (hardly surprising really). Once baked I waited impatiently for it to cool down before slicing into it. The cake was incredibly soft, light and fluffy with a good scattering of dark chocolate chips. The flavour of the bananas is really intense and makes the cake very moist. The mixed spice really helps to bring out the flavour and adds a subtle spicy overtone. It’s not too sweet as biting into the occasional bitter dark chocolate morsel helps to balance it out. If you like bananas, this is the cake for you.

Bountiful Banana Choc Chip Cake
Ingredients
9 small or 4 – 5 large overripe bananas
50g softened butter
125g soft brown sugar
80g dark chocolate
300g self raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
2 eggs
70ml vegetable oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter and line a deep 8inch square tin with baking paper.
Peel the bananas, place into a bowl and mash with a fork until very soft and mushy.
Put the butter and sugar into a separate mixing bowl and cream them together until light and fluffy.
Chop the chocolate into small chunks and beat into the butter and sugar mixture along with the banana mush.
Sift in the flour, mixed spice and baking powder.
Gently work the flour into the mix using a spatula, it will become quick thick.
Finally stir in the oil until well incorporated.
Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 45-50 minutes until well-risen and golden brown.
The middle should spring back when pressed and a skewer should come out clean, when inserted into the thickest part of the cake.
Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Immediately after baking the cake can be a little greasy but it seems to become reincorporated into the cake after a few hours.

I love this cake eaten just as it is. It’s so full of flavour that I don’t think it needs an icing. However, for a really indulgent treat its great gently heated and served with custard or even chocolate or caramel sauce. Replacing the chocolate with pecans or walnuts also works well.

Substantial Cinnamon Oat Raisin Cookies

I was in a baking mood and fished out a recipe for oat raisin cookies that I had been meaning to try for simply ages. The recipe was originally Phoebe’s Fabulous Oatmeal Cookies from the Friends Recipe Book which I adapted to suit my own tastes. I reduced the butter and sugar content from the original, which seemed a little steep for my liking. I also decided to add a tsp of cinnamon to the mix to add an extra dimension. I used an old fashioned ice cream scoop to portion out the cookies and I was able to fit nine cookies on each baking tray.

The batter was fairly sturdy, meaning they didn’t spread out too much during cooking. They stayed lovely and thick, unlike a lot of cookies I make, which usually spread out into thinner cookies. I really liked the fact these stayed so substantial. I was expecting them to be dense and sticky, a bit like flapjacks but I was pleasantly surprised at how light the texture was. Crisp and slightly crumbly on the outside with little pockets of chewy raisins and texture from the oats. The vanilla and cinnamon complimented each other wonderfully and the whole cookie was a joy to eat. They have a slightly craggily surface, with the raisins peeping through, giving them a very wholesome appearance. Utterly moorish, these are definitely on the ‘keepers’ list.

Substantial Cinnamon Oat Raisin Cookies
Ingredients
150g butter
120g light soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
170g porridge oats
160g plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
200g raisins
1 tsp cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 190C and get two baking trays ready but leave them un-greased.
Cream the butter together with both the sugars until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
Add the oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon into the bowl and beat together until all incorporated.
Fold in the raisins.
Using an old fashioned ice cream scoop, dollop level spoonfuls onto the baking trays. (I’m sure a tablespoon would work just as well)
Gently press the tops down to form thick level discs.
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.
Cool on sheet for only 1 minute before transferring to a rack with the help of a palette knife. Repeat with any leftover dough.
Allow to cool before storing in an airtight container.
Makes 21 cookies

No Prove Pizza Dough

My cousin came to visit me a couple of days ago and we decided we wanted to make pizza for lunch. We used a recipe for pizza dough that doesn’t require any proving time. This makes it perfect for when you haven’t planned very far in advance, as it means you can be eating pizza made from scratch in under an hour. It produces a good thin, crisp base and although I think the traditional proven pizza dough does have slightly more flavour, this is a very satisfactory second.

Our pizzas turned out looking very different. I topped mine with spinach and butternut squash, and my cousin topped hers with lots of tomato and cheese. They both looked very attractive after baking and tasted delicious.

No Prove Pizza Dough

Ingredients
30g dried yeast

½ tsp caster sugar

250g strong plain flour

¼ tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil
125 warm water

Method
Preheat the oven to 250C and place two baking trays or pizza stones into the oven to heat up.
Crumble yeast into the warm water, add the sugar and stir until relatively smooth.
Add the flour and salt to a large bowl and make a dip in the centre. Pour over the yeast mixture and the olive oil.
Bring the mixture together into a dough, before turning out onto a lightly floured surface and kneading for around 3-5 minutes until smooth and soft.
Divide the dough into two and roll each piece out into a 9 inch round, directly onto a square of greaseproof paper.
Spread a layer of tomato sauce over the base and top with the ingredients of your choice.
Remove the baking trays or pizza stone from the oven and holding them level with the countertop, pull the greaseproof paper/pizza onto the tray.
Return to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until crisp and golden brown around the edges.
Makes two 9inch pizzas

Spinach and Multi Veg Pizza

Spread the dough with a thin layer of tomato sauce (a reduction of oregano and chopped tomatoes) and top with a double layer of fresh baby spinach leaves. Scatter over thin strips of orange pepper, sweetcorn, sliced mushrooms and 1cm square cubes of butternut squash. Top with a few slices of fresh mozzarella if desired and bake.

Cheesy Tomato and Onion Pizza
Spread a thick layer of tomato sauce over the dough and top with thin slices of onion. Top with a few mushroom slices and a scatter of sweetcorn before adding a generous layer of sliced fresh mozzarella. Bake until golden and melted. (See above for photo)

Dash, Pinch and Smidgen

Have you ever been reading a recipe when it calls for a ‘pinch of chili powder’ or a ‘dash of paprika’ and you are left thinking ‘well how much is that?’
Well, thanks to these incredibility cute, mini measuring spoons your worries are over. The spoons are used to measure a dash, pinch or smidgen and unlike some measuring spoons, are guaranteed to fit inside the narrow necked spice jars. They really are teeny tiny, the spoon next to them in the second picture is a teaspoon!