It only takes a whole jar of Nutella...

I just made a Nutella cake. Considering the list of ingredients, it's going to be one crazy rich cake. I'll be cutting into it later for a taste, then will post with the details. If I can drag myself away from the cake, that is...

The slump

I feel like I've hit a bit of one. I've been tampering with go-to recipes, to see if I could make them easier/better. As it turns out, I've just been messing up a good thing. So it's back to basics! Or, well, not using substitute products when the real thing does it perfectly fine.

New post (with successful results) soon :)

French Apple Cake

A week ago, a friend hosted a brunch and everyone brought a little something for the table. It all turned out really great, as you can see :). My contribution was the French Apple Cake, which you can see front left. It's adapted from a Dorie Greenspan recipe on David Lebovitz's site (you can see it at http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/11/dorie-greenspan-french-apple-cake-recipe/). 

I put my own little twist on it, making 2 loaf cakes instead of one round cake this time around. I have also made half the recipe previously with great success as well. And I've made it as a standard round cake too, which worked fantastically. It's easily adaptable! 

I'm going to post photos of the process as well - don't judge me on the (bad) quality of the pics! 

Le Ingredients: 

4-5 large apples (a mix of varieties)

2 large eggs

pinch of salt

150g sugar 

3 tbs vanilla extract (or essence if you don't have extract on hand)

110g flour
3/4 tsp baking powder 

85g melted butter, salted or unsalted (note that this is a reduction from the original recipe's 115g. I prefer it with less, it's a little less oily and still tastes great. Do increase this to the original quantity if preferred.)

Le method: 

Start with the apples, but make sure you have everything in place to work quickly, as you don't want to take too long and allow the apples to brown. 

Peel and core the apples, then chop them up in varying sizes - the recipe suggests 3cm pieces, but I prefer a mix of that size and many smaller pieces, which then just melt into the cake. This time around, I only had 4 medium apples; I usually end up with a lot more chopped apple, which is how I prefer it. This is what I ended up with this time around.


Note on the apples: You can use a mix of any apples. A mix is great as you have the different  flavours playing together. This time was a mix of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious and Fuji. Do play around with it and try a different mix each time.

Beat the eggs until light and foamy. Then add the sugar and whisk until thick and fluffy, and add in the vanilla and beat. You will see the colour transformation when you add the vanilla. And you'll be able to smell it too :) 

Stir in half the flour, and half of the melted butter. Then stir in the rest of the flour, the baking powder and the rest of the melted butter. Don't beat to vigorously at this point - just make sure it's all mixed in.

Add the apples and fold in until all of the apple pieces are well coated by the batter. Usually, I get a batter that just coats the apples; this time around, I had a lot more batter because of the lesser apples. 

If you're putting the batter straight into the pan, butter the sides of the pan (quite generously) first. I chose to use parchment paper to make it easier to get out this time (I usually make it in a springform pan), so I buttered the parchment paper. Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top with the back of the spoon. If using parchment paper, this is the time to cut it down (I find it a better to do this after pouring the batter in than before, as it's easy for it to slip around in the pan). 

Go for a 20-23 springform pan or, as I did this time around, 2 loaf pans.

This goes into an oven pre-heated to 180ºC for about 40 to 50 minutes (one pan will need the 50 minutes, you want to start checking around the 35 minute mark for 2 loaf pans, but it should be done around the 40-45 minute mark).You can also test to see if the cake is done using a toothpick/knife/insert preferred method here.
Once you've got a nice colour on the cake and it's scented up your kitchen, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes. Then remove from the springform pan/loaf tin, making sure the apples are not sticking to the sides when you do so (I left one side sticking so I could show you what would happen to the cake if the apples stuck - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)

When it's cool, decorate if you'd like - I went with an icing sugar/water glaze this time, but usually prefer it unadorned. 

The cake is great on its own, slightly warmed or room temperature, or with a little bit of vanilla ice cream (particularly when warmed).

 The finished product: 

Apple Waffles

I bought a new sandwich toaster this week, and it has interchangeable plates. One of the plates is a waffle plate, so I had to try it out this week!

I decided on apple waffles instead of plain waffles because I have bought a few apples that are really not as good as they could be, so I wanted to re-purpose them. I ended up adapting a recipe from Dorie Greenspan based on what I had on hand, and they came out better than I expected. They were soft rather then crispy, with the apple just melting into the batter. I ate one on its own, but added a Brazilian pepper honey to the second. Both ways worked great.

The only problem was my first batch overflowing because I'd put too much batter into the toaster! I would have gotten 6 or 7 waffles instead of the 5 I ended up with if I hadn't done that. I have frozen the rest and will update with how they taste the second time around when I have then.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of allspice
1/4 cup sugar (I used just under 1/4 cup white sugar, and added 2 tsp Muscovado sugar)
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup Bulgarian/Greek yoghurt (I used the former)
1/4 cup water (you can replace the yoghurt and water with 3/4 cup of milk)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs melted butter
1 apple, peeled and grated

Method:
Mix all dry ingredients together. In another bowl, beat the yoghurt, water, egg and vanilla until well combined. Stir this into the dry ingredients, then add the butter and grated apple and stir it all together. Don't over-mix, just stir together until everything's combined.

Spray the waffle iron and spoon in as much batter as your waffle iron can handle (or do it once to figure out how much it can handle :P). Once it's brown and smells good, remove from the waffle iron - it's quite soft, so do this carefully so you don't tear it when removing. Use 2 forks to remove; I found that the easiest way. 

Keep warm in low oven if not serving immediately. Serve with whatever you'd like :)

A fresh start

Recently, there's been a change in my life. Because of the change, I've lost all appetite and inclination to eat. I've also realised that I really dislike cooking for one - there's no one to appreciate it and no incentive to do it.

So I thought one way out of the rut was to post about what I was making every day. I love reading food sites and blogs, so why not write one? Someone out there might read it and like it and be inspired to make something I've created, which would be great too :)

So I will endeavour to take photos and write about what I make every other day, and post something new at least 3 times a week. Thus ensuring that I don't get bored with my menu for one.

I will also post about the various places I go to around Cape Town - I always Google reviews of places I want to check out and don't find enough information online. Hopefully others who want to check out places will find the reviews helpful.

Here's to an excellent 2012!

Mediterranean Fish

I try to make fish dishes at least twice a week, and it gets challenging thinking of interesting ways of presenting it to someone who doesn't like fish very much. So I do a lot of searching online to find interesting recipes online. It's a hit or miss affair, so we've found some keepers and some even I have trouble finishing. This week, I took some inspiration from Dorie Greenspan, and it's a hit!


The ingredients:
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1tbs of capers, chopped up and a few kept whole, with some of the caper juice
1/2 onion, finely chopped
salt, about 1/2 tsp
pinch of sugar (may need more when you're doing the sauce)
Dried pepper flakes/black pepper, to taste
Olive oil, about 3 tbs 
Parsley, as much as you like, for topping
2 pieces of yellowtail

The process: 
Chop and mix first 7 ingredients (lemon juice and zest, capers, onion, salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil). Add any dried herb, if you like, eg rosemary. Coat the fish in this, and leave it to marinate.

While it was marinating, I started off the side dishes. I served it with potatoes, roasted tomatoes, sweetcorn and a garlic mayo.
Potatoes: Peel and cube 2 potatoes, put into a pan with a little bit of oil, and cover. Leave for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice. Once the 10 min are up, the potatoes will be cooked through. Sprinkle with salt and add to the tray in the oven to keep warm.
Roasted tomatoes: I had some nice tomatoes on the vine, which I just left as is and popped into the oven.
Sweetcorn: Frozen sweetcorn, also just onto the tray in the oven.
Garlic mayo: I had some of the roasted garlic from the Roasted Tomato Soup. I squeezed about 1/2 of that, mixed with mayo and some Bulgarian yoghurt. Taste and see if you're happy with it, or adjust to taste.

Once the potatoes were done and removed from the pan, put a little more olive oil in the pan. Scrape the marinade from the fish and place skin side down in the pan. Let it cook until golden, then flip and let it cook on the other side until it looks good to you. Probably about 5-7 min each side, depending on the thickness of your fillets. When done to your liking, pop it onto the tray into the oven to keep warm while you finish the sauce.

Sauce: just put the marinate in the pan and let it heat through. Taste - you may want to add more sugar at this point, it does have quite a sour kick from the lemon and the capers. When you have it how you like, dish up!

Plate the fish, potatoes, sweetcorn and tomatoes (which I put back in the oven on grill while the rest was being done, in order to blister it a bit) on the plate. Top the fish with the chopped parsley. Put the marinating sauce on/next to the fish (I prefer next to, so I can control how much I get in a bite), and add a dollop of the garlic mayo (if made) on the side.

Delicious!

Roasted Tomato Soup

I don't like soup. In fact, I actively dislike soup. It's just wrong. Why would I want to eat my food all gummy when I still have all of my teeth? It also looks weird.

The other half was feeling ill yesterday. I made him soup from a can for lunch, which he enjoyed and ate everything). But I thought I could do better than that, and toyed with the idea of making tomato soup (based on him asking if that's what we had earlier in the day). I googled a bit and checked out some recipes, and decided to wing it based on what I'd seen.

The ingredients:
4-6 large tomatoes, or a lot of little tomatoes (easier with the bigger tomatoes)
1-2 garlic gloves (use to taste, it does sweeten a lot in the roasting)
1 red pepper
1 onion (optional)
Thyme (fresh or dried) - to taste
Any other herbs you want to use (fresh or dried, I used some fresh parsley) - to taste
1tsp smoked paprika
1/2-1 cup chicken/vegetable stock
salt - to taste

The process:
Tomatoes should be halved and quartered, put on a baking tray, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Put the garlic gloves, still in their papery skin, also on the tray. Prick the skin of the red pepper all over with a knife/fork, and on the tray it goes. If using, slice the onion into rounds and put it on the tray too.

This all goes into the oven at 200 for about an hour. Turn the pepper about halfway. The tomatoes will concentrate down and release some juices.

After an hour, take it out of the oven and put the tomatoes and any juices in the pan into a pot. Put the pepper in a bowl and cover with clingfilm (this will allow you to easily remove the skin from the pepper so you can just use the flesh). Split the garlic clove and squeeze the roasted garlic into the pot too (be careful, it's hot!). Once you're done with that, the pepper should be ready - pull the skin off, and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Put the pepper into the pot too (I reserved some strips to put on the top). If you have onions, put them into the pot too.

Add the stock, and let it cook for about 5 min to reduce the liquid a bit. Add some smoked paprika, thyme (fresh or dried) and any other herbs you may want to add (fresh or dried).

Get out the stick blender and puree it. You can leave it slightly chunky or go all the way smooth - whatever floats your boat. Add salt to taste. If you want it thicker, cook it down further.

When ready, spoon into bowls and garnish with the roasted pepper strips.

I served this with some toasted cheese sandwiches made with mature cheddar on wholewheat. It works really well together.