Christmas Cherry Cake

This is traditionally made at Christmas in my family - because we live in the southern hemisphere and Christmas is in mid-summer. Nothern hemisphere residents might find this a little difficult, or at the least very expensive to make at Christmas. I believe the recipe might be a clafouti, but whatever it is, it's delicious.

Pastry
2 cups plain flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking power
pinch salt
4oz butter

Filling
1.5 lb cherries
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 egg yolks
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C.

Pastry
Sift flour, sugar, baking power and salt togther into a bowl. Cut in butter and rub in (or use a food processor). This will not make a dough, but a sandy, crumbly mixture. Press into an 8" square or 25cm diameter baking tin. No, it will not fall apart. Promise.

Filling
Stem and pit the cherries (I recommend the Cherry Chomper by Talisman Designs. It looks like a toy, works like a dream and is so much easier on the hands than the pincer-style ones)
Place fruit on uncooked base. Mix together cinnamon and sugar, sprinkle over cherries.
Bake in a hot oven (400 F, 200 C) for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix together the egg yolks and sour cream. Pour over the cherries after they have cooked for 15 minutes, then cook for a further 30 minutes.

Serve cold. Guard jealously.

I can't eat wheat, so I'm trying this with Rowie's sweet shortcrust pastry mix as a base.

Thai Red Curry Kedgeree

Watching Jamie's Christmas, I was inspired to make a kedgeree with what I had in the cupboard, which turned out to be:

Olive oil
1 large brown onion
1 clove garlic
1.5ish heaped teaspoons of thai red curry paste
2 - 3 cups cooked rice
1 bunch coriander
2 eggs
100g smoked trout

Chop onion roughly, cook over medium heat in olive oil until translucent. Chop garlic finely or put through garlic crusher, add and cook for a minute. Add thai red curry paste, and mix together, cooking for a few minutes. Add more olive oil if the curry paste is too dry.
Add rice, adding some water if the rice has dried out a bit (I was using leftover takeaway rice), and stir until rice is nicely curried.
Reserving a few leaves for garnish, chop corainder roughly, getting finer when the stalk gets bigger. Stir into rice. Turn heat down to medium low and let cook for 10 - 15 minutes. Try to not to stir too much if you like crispy bits.
While the rice mixture is cooking, hard-boil two eggs. Peel, chop in quarters and add to rice mixture.
Chop or flake smoked fish roughly, add to rice at the very end and stir through until warmed.

Later update: adding roughly grated ginger (about 1.5 cm) and using thai yellow curry paste are also to be recommended.

Eat while watching more cooking shows for inspiration.

Flourless Chocolate Biscotti

I finally managed to make a reciped I've been wanting to try for some time, and it is delicious. The horrible oven in our mountain abode nearly destroyed the result, but they were saved... and they are lovely. These are courtesy of the Food Network Canada and can be found here. In case they decide to remove the page, I am copying the recipe here... with added notes.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 3/4 cups brown rice flour
• 1 cup regular cocoa powder, packed
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup shelled pistachios
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. With electric beaters or a standing mixer fitted with the whip attachment, whip eggs, sugars and vegetable oil until frothy and pale, about 4 minutes. Sift rice flour, cocoa powder, salt, pepper and cloves and stir into egg mixture by hand. Fold in pistachios and chocolate chips or chunks.
3. On a work surface dusted with rice flour, turn out dough and shape into 2 logs, each about 12 inches long. Place onto prepared baking tray and press flat, so each log is about 2 1/2 inches wide. Bake for 30 minutes, until surface of biscotti logs crack a bit. Let cool for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 F.
4. Remove biscotti logs from tray and slice on an angle into 3/4 inch biscotti. Return to baking tray and bake for 12 minutes. Remove pan, flip biscotti over and bake another 12 minutes. Let cool completely before packing in an airtight container.

I used 1 cup of slivered almonds and no chocolate chips or chunks due to a mild pantry failure. For similar reasons, I used 1 tsp cinammon and 2 tsp ground ginger. Yes, we do have pepper, but the pepper grinder resulted in such large chunks I didn't fancy it. Note to self, get mortar and pestle for mountain house.

These are quite tart and cocoa-ey, but I adore them. Thank you Anna Olson (whoever you are).

Gravlax Summer Pasta

• 25g gravlax or smoked fish


• 1 punnet of cherry tomatoes


• approx 1 small handful thai or opal basil


• 1 - 2 cloves of garlic


• olive oil


• 2 large spoonfuls of low fat yoghurt


• juice of 1/2 lemon


• salt and pepper to season


• 2 servings of pasta (e.g. spaghetti)
  
  Slice the fish into small strips (approx 1 cm * 3cm)
  Quarter the cherry tomatoes
  Finely chop the basil
  Cook the spaghetti, drain and leave in the colander over a small quantity of the cooking water.
  Pour a splash of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and put the garlic through a garlic press into the oil. Start with the oil cold so that the garlic does not burn.
  Bring to mid-heat and cook until garlic is no longer raw.
  Add tomatoes and stir for a minute or so until tomatoes are hot. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  Add fish and basil to the pan and stir until warm.
  Pour in some lemon juice, stir, pour in yoghurt and stir until all is amalgamated.
  
  Add pasta to pan and stir until coated.
  Serve.

The Pink and The Green

A few months ago I went to the Old Bus Depot Markets in Canberra (apparently there had been a sheep and wool show the previous week... my timing sucks). I found a stall which had skeins of yarn which each consisted of 3 mini-skeins. My four-year-old companion glommed onto a vivid pink and blue skein, and I chose a green and sparkly skein for her six-year-old sister. Unbelievably, I have actually finished the scarves (loop scarves, to help prevent untimely loss) while there is still cold weather ahead! I handed them over this weekend.

The colour sequence was determined by relative length of each yarn in the skein. The green scarf is knitted straight, the pink and blue scarf is a feather-and-fan variation which uses kfb rather than yo.