Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Also known as the ‘Plumptious Beauties’

So this post is a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to be a domestic goddess.’  Her books are fantastic, incredibly well written with just the right mix of story, memory, interesting recipes and photos.  I do find that the portion-control is a little off though, as are some of the quantities and timings.  I can’t really make my mind up about Nigella.  My feminist self basically gets into a bit of a knot about the whole thing.  Do modern women want to be seen as domestic goddesses? What does a domestic goddess even mean in this day and age?  I have spent most of my life with various people telling me that a way to a man’s heart is through his stomach – as if this is the main reason why I should be really pushing myself with my cooking. Nigella pouting suggestively at the camera while plunging half a cut lemon into an overly-phallic juicer doesn’t really help.  My new mantra will probably by WWCMD? (what would Caitlin Moran do).

I’m not sure what my feminist-self would say about the outfit I put on specifically to bake these cupcakes.  I got a bit carried away really.  It all started with a new cookbook – The Vintage Tea Party Book by Angel Adoree.  This is one of the best things I have spent money on in a long time.  It is an incredibly beautiful book, with great recipes and really cute little touches like invitation stencils, fascinator making, how to get your victory curls perfect and tie headscarf, 1950s style.  So for my day of baking I decided that a headscarf was probably a good idea (all for the sake of hygiene of course), as was a proper apron.  Then I had to put my pearl necklace on, and then the whole ensemble looked really half-done without the addition of red lipstick.  So there I was, dressed up and feeling a bit silly as a stepford wife, baking.  AND I LOVED IT.  Now what would Caitlin say to that??

And now for the recipe.  These were in fact the first cupcakes I ever made, in my house in Dawlish Road when I was in the second year of university in Birmingham.  I over-filled the cases and they mushroomed over the top, in a style known affectionately as ‘Hiroshima cupcakes.’  According to Niki Segnit’s Flavour Thesaurus (love love) cherry and chocolate is a ‘winning combination’ and she even refers to this recipe as an example of how well they work together! Due to the melted chocolate and jam these cupcakes are much denser than regular ones, but they are really yummy.  Nigella says that this makes 12 – she must be using gigantic cupcake cases or something, because I made about 28 cakes from 1 of these batches!  You could of course make them in a muffin tin – but they are quite rich and unless you are a major chocaholic, it might be a bit much.

For the cupcakes

125g unsalted butter

100g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

300g morello cherry jam (I usually use the Tiptree black cherry jam, but this time I used Sainsburys special selection red cherry jam, which was a little more sharp and gave a really nice flavour).

150g caster sugar (or a bit less, depending on how sweet the jam you are using is)

pinch of salt

2 large eggs, beaten (usually I just use a fork, but I think the next time I try this I will use a whisk, and try to properly aerate them, might make the cupcakes a bit lighter)

150g self-raising flour

for the topping

150g dark chocolate

100ml double cream (I never have any cream, and tend to just use a blob of butter, about 20g worth I reckon)

glace cherries – some shops stock natural coloured glace cherries, which are incredibly classy (or, as classy as a glace cherry can be) the lurid pink of the normal kind is pretty perfect for a cupcake though.

Preheat the oven to 180c, or about 160-170 if using a fan oven (recommend).

Put the butter in a saucepan or large microwave-safe bowl and melt.  When melted, take off the heat and stir in the broken up chocolate.  There will be enough residual heat to perfectly melt the chocolate without it seizing (chocolate melts at exactly body heat – isn’t that good to know??).  Once the chocolate is melted add the jam, sugar, salt and eggs.  Stir it all up and when its amalgamated add in the flour, and combine.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases to about 2 thirds full.  This is possibly the best tasting cake batter ever – so make sure you lick the bowl.  Now I know that I’m not 6 anymore, but that is definitely the best part of baking, possibly the only reason to bake in the first place.  Bake for about 25 minutes.  These cakes will be a little wobbly when they first come out of the oven, because of all the chocolate, but they will harden up as they cool.

When they are cool melt the chocolate with the cream or butter, and generously coat the top of each cake, and top with a cherry.

Yasai Itameru

Stir fried tofu with mixed vegetables, noodles and coconut ginger sauce

This recipe comes from the Wagamama Cookbook.  It’s a really great book, with all the greats from the restaurant as well as many others.  I have cooked a few things from this book and they always turn out just right – with the Amai Udon (udon noodles with peanuts and leeks in a tamarind sauce - without prawns) turns out exactly as it does in the restaurant. 

For Hannah’s birthday at the beginning of the summer I said that I would make her dinner, and she picked this recipe.  It did seem much more involved than stir fries that I usually make, but it really was worth it.  I was lucky enough to have the wonderful Alli helping out in the kitchen – especially when I grated off my fingertip with the microplane. 

Serves 2.

150g rice noodles (we used udon noodles, as well as being squishy and delicious, they also come in handy serving-sized packets)

approx. 3 tbsp vegetable oil (or other flavourless oil)

1 tbsp garlic paste (homemade or bought)

1 red chilli, trimmed, deseeded and finely chopped

200g firm tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes

3 pak choi, halved lengthways

1 red onion, peeled and thickly sliced

5 spring onions, trimmed and cut into 1 inch lengths

1 small sweet potato, peeled and julienned

2 handfuls of beansprouts

1 tsp salt (we did not use anywhere near this much)

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

250ml coconut ginger sauce (see below)

handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped

1 lime, cut into wedges

Cook the noodles in a large pan of water for 2-3 minutes (if necessary), drain and refresh under cold running water to prevent them from overcooking.  Leave them in cold water until you are ready for them.

Heat a wok (or medium frying pan, or like us in one which was way too small, leading to stir frying being done in batches) over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until completely hot and almost smoking, and then add the vegetable oil.  Stir in the garlic paste and chilli, cook for 10 seconds and then add the tofu, pak choi, red onion, spring onions, sweet potato and beansprouts and stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Add the salt, sugar and soy sauce and stir fry for 4-5 minutes until tender.  Remove the pan from the heat and drizzle over the sesame oil, stirring to combine.

In a separate pan, mix the coconut ginger sauce into the noodles and warm through on a low heat.  Divide between 2 bowls (or however many you are using) and top with the stir fry, coriander and lime wedges.

Coconut ginger sauce

Makes about 500ml

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

1 inch piece of fresh galangal, peeled and grated

4 lemongrass sticks, outer leaves removed and finely chopped

500ml hot water

½ tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

200g can coconut milk

3 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a low heat.  Add the ginger, garlic, galangal and lemongrass.  Sauté over a moderate heat for 6-8 minutes, until softened and fragrant but not coloured.  Add the hot water, bring to the boil, add the sugar and salt.  Turn the heat down and simmer for 20 minutes, until reduced by about half.  Then stir in the coconut milk, heat for a further 2 minutes, remove from the heat and add the coriander.  Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Can't cook without a decent sunset over the sea right?

The finished dish - delicious!

Lemon and Caper Vinaigrette

So I have started cooking again.  I vanished from the world and am now back with a vengeance (and a silly new blog profile picture – watch this space).

I made this dressing last week to accompany some simply roasted whole Sea Bream – see Sea Bream post for method.  Its incredibly easy and really yummy.  Serve it with any kind of plain fish or chicken (or somesuch) and everyone will be really happy.  The dressing is kind of like a salsa verde, but without the same degree of pungence, and also much easier to make.  It reminds me of summer holidays, and those trips to seaside places where you get incredible fish with nothing but a little punchy dressing.

Zest and juice of 1 large lemon

Large handful of parsley, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped

Big handful of capers, rinsed and roughly chopped, with some of the little ones left whole

½ teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon mustard, wholegrain or Dijon

Lots of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Mix everything together.  You may also want to add a splash or 2 of water.  Make this a few hours before you want to serve it for the flavours to mingle and settle – don’t refrigerate it if you can help it though.

Here are some photos of sea bream with the vinaigrette – I didn’t manage to take any photos the last time I cooked bream – as you can see, one of the fishies lost a bit of skin when I was turning it in the oven, and so I gave it a little ‘coat’ made out of foil – ahhhh.

Olive oil, rosemary and dark chocolate spelt cake

After a summer hiatus, the blog is back with another guest blogger - my wonderful housemate Hannah.  I have hardly cooked at all this summer, as i spent most of it sulking, and have really been inspired by Hannah's experimentation and general cheer.  She was cooking up a storm while I was stomping around eating yogurt.  I know this recipe sounds a bit odd at first, but it really was delicious - as I'm sure everyone who tried them will agree.  It was complex and perplexing, both sweet and savoury in a mind and tongue-bending sort of way.  And due to the use of spelt, also a little smug, but in that really great way.

 

and now I introduce Hannah:

 

Our kitchen has two chefs. The professional and the wacky. As flatmates for the past year, our kitchen personalities have clearly rubbed off on each other. I for one will now only make coleslaw using a Julienne, I grind my own spices with a Pestle and Motar, and will only use sharp knives at whatever risk to my limbs. In turn Miri finds inspiration in my the-weirder-it-sounds-the-more-I-want-to-try-it attitude. To push me on this she bought me the perfect book entitled 'Good to the Grain' Baking with Whole-Grain flours. Flicking through the book from the back (as all left handers do) the first recipe that caught my attention was 'Olive oil Cake Muffins'. The combination of bitter sweet chocolate, rosemary, spelt flour and olive oil, was my idea of cake fantasy. 

If cake baking was a Sesame Street theme it would be brought to you by the letters W & D and the number 2. 

Because to make cake loaf - in one bowl you sift the dry ingredients in the other you mix the wet ingredients. Then fold the wet into the dry, gently mixed until combined, pour into the cake tin and bake it. 

So now here is that again with the ingredients (NB Measurements are in American cups)

Olive Oil Cake

Prep: Position a baking tray in middle rack of oven and preheat to 180 degrees celcius. 

Dry bowl:  sift together 3/4 cup Spelt Flour, 1 1/2 cups Plain flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 3/4 teaspoon salt. 

Wet bowl: whisk three eggs, then add -1 cup olive oil, 3/4 cup milk, 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped and mix. 

Mixing: Fold wet into dry mixture

The best bit: Take a packet of really good chocolate like Lindt 75% and cut into small pieces and mix in to batter. 

Bake: Pour into cake tin or muffin tins and bake for 40 minutes. 

And there you have it - one wacky recipe. 

The results - well you must ask the professional.

West African style sweet potato and peanut stew

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of co-hosting a Friday night for Wandering Jews.  Wandering Jews is a groups organized by the amazing Jo and Jude, with the simple premise of getting together once a month with old friends and new and sharing in delicious vegetarian potluck in a different venue each month.  As my housemate Hannah and I are pretty new to the scene, we decided to give the evening a theme of Shehechiyanu, or newness.  The translation of the prayer blesses our g-d for having ‘granted us life, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this occasion.’  I like to think of it as a way not to take life for granted, to see the excitement in every day and to, as often as you can, really push yourself to trying something new.

I wanted to bring this emphasis on newness into my cooking with the event.  I needed something vegan and warming, which could feed a lot of people.  My fall-back dish for this kind of thing would be some kind of red and yellow dahl, but I wanted to break out of my comfort zone.  I started looking into West African recipes as I knew from various cookery programmes (mainly the hairy bikers I think) and friends’ travel experiences that it was a style of cooking which would incorporate all the things I wanted: vegan, protein, complexity of flavour, and warmth.  The following is the recipe for the dish I made, which is an amalgamation of many different peanut stews that I found online.

Feeds a lot of people

2 - 3 very large white flesh sweet potato –with purple skin, peeled and cut into large-ish chunks

3 - 4 yellow flesh sweet potato, peeled and cut into slightly smaller chunks

a couple of carrots, if you happen to have them, peeled and sliced

1-2 aubergines, diced

2 red peppers, diced into quite large chunks

1 onion, cut into large chunks

1 onion, diced very fine

2 cans of chopped tomatoes

1 can/tetra-pack of sieved tomatoes

approximately 4 tablespoons of peanut butter (depending on how much you have), smooth or chunky depending on personal preference

1 inch lump of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 fresh chilis (I used 1 red and 1 green) deseeded if you want, finely diced.

½ teaspoon cinnamon

2 heaped teaspoons cumin

1 heaped teaspoon coriander

salt

a packet of roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped

the juice of 1-2 limes

big bunch of fresh parsley, washed and chopped.

You can also add in a can of chick peas for some additional bulk.

In a microwaveable bowl or small saucepan, combine the small diced onion, ginger, garic, chili and peanut butter with 1 can of tomatoes and a little water.  Cook, stirring from time to time until the peanut butter has amalgamated with the other ingredients and created a sauce. 

Add the sauce and all remaining ingredients except for the peanuts, lime and parsley to a large pot.  Top up with water – just a little, add more if it looks a little dry halfway through cooking – and cook for about 40 minutes-1 hour, until everything is cooked but not falling apart.  Just before serving, add the lime juice, parsley and peanuts, adjust the seasoning and warm through.

Peanut Butter Fudge

This is a Sophie Dahl recipe, its absolutely fantastic, and easily adaptable to vegan. This recipe was on her bbc tv series, called something wonderful like ‘Miss Dahl’s voluptuous delights’ and I actually really enjoyed it, such a nice change from Nigella, and Jamie, who’s later shows have them becoming almost parodies of themselves.  Sophie’s cookbook is pretty great too.  Although the recipes aren’t exactly earth-shattering, it is a really lovely read.  This fudge recipe isn’t in the book, but it is available online.

I have made this a few times and it is pretty foolproof.  Just make sure that you are really patient with boiling the sugar and milk, and give it the time it needs.  While it does seem like a lot of sugar, it does make a lot of fudge.  In the past I have made it with a layer of chocolate on the top (melt the chocolate with a bit of butter or cream to stop it from hardening too solid and snapping when you cut the fudge), which is great, but it is equally delicious without it.

Ingredients

                  125g/4½oz butter/ vegan margarine 

                  500g/1lb 2oz dark brown sugar

                  120ml/4fl oz milk / soy milk

                  250g/9oz crunchy peanut butter

                  1 vanilla pod, seeds only (I didn’t bother with this)

                  300g/10½oz icing sugar

.                 Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.

.                 Stir in the brown sugar and milk, and bring to the boil for 2-3 minutes, without stirring.

.                 Remove from the heat, and stir in the peanut butter and vanilla seeds if using.

.                 Place the icing sugar in a large bowl, and pour the hot butter and sugar mixture on top. Using a wooden spoon, beat the mixture until smooth (careful not to burn yourself).

.                 Pour into a 20cm/8in square baking tray, and set aside to cool slightly, then place in the fridge to chill completely.

Cut the fudge into squares and store in an airtight container.

recipe and image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/peanutbutterfudge_93630

Butternut Squash Soup with mango powder

As some of you know I have a somewhat odd obsession with very big, very sharp kitchen knives.  A few weeks ago I managed to freak out quite a few of my friends by getting slightly more enthusiastic than normal over a knife sharpener.  Of course, there is no prescribed level of normalness when it comes to knife-sharpening enthusiasm, I think the strangeness was mainly due to the fact that I don’t tend to get enthusiastic about stuff.  Of course I know that really appreciating sharp knives isn’t odd, actually perfectly sensible. Try and chop a butternut squash with a small vegetable knife that isn’t sharp anymore and you will know what I mean.  Having the correct knife that is sharp enough is actually safer as you need much less force behind it.  Once you get over the fact that they might look a bit scary, you will never go back.  About 4 or 5 years ago I was making sushi with a friend at their house and asked for a very sharp knife, and was given some global brand ones to use, and my life was never the same again. 

I’m never very good at buying ginger, despite really knowing better. I always accidentally let it go moldy and have to throw it away (which is really stupid of me – fresh ginger freezes really well).  When you buy ginger go for the fattest chunk you can find.  In general in the ginger box in the supermarket/shop, there are massive hand-sized roots, and tiny little broken blobs.  It isn’t widely known, but it is perfectly acceptable to break a chunk off a big root to get the piece you want the most (although I still tend to do this quite subtley, in case I get into trouble).  The little broken bits are thinner and you have no idea how long they have been separated from the main root, slowly drying out.  This soup really does need ginger, I didn’t have any and so borrowed some of my housemate’s slightly odd-looking ginger she found in the amazing Indian supermarket in Kingsbury.  The ginger was so odd in fact, that it was turmeric.  If you want to know what fresh turmeric looks like, see here.  My hands were yellow for the rest of the day.

These quantities are pretty vague, and this soup will make one big pot full.  The veggies can be increased pretty much exponentially depending on how many people you need to feed.

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks

1 Leek, thoroughly washed and sliced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into chunks

1 large onion, diced

about 1 inch of fresh ginger, peeled and diced or grated

1 or 2 garlic cloves, crushed

flavourless oil

1 can of coconut milk

½ teaspoon chili powder

1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin

1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon curry powder

Salt

Amchoor powder – this is dried sour mango, ground to a powder.  It is used in parts of India as a souring flavour, like lemon juice, especially in places that don’t necessarily have fridges.  I bought it in an Indian supermarket in Kenton and its really fantastic, tasting a bit like sherbet! I think it is pretty easily available, if you know where to look!  

Fry the onions on a medium heat for about 10 minutes, and then add the garlic and ginger.  After 2 or 3 minutes add the spice powders and fry for a few more minutes.  Then add the veggies and stir to coat in the spicey onion mixture.  Add the coconut milk and another can-full of hot water.  You want the liquid to come up almost as high as the veggies, but not covering them entirely.  Leave to simmer for 30-40 minutes, or until everything is cooked through.  Leave to cool slightly and then blitz with a hand blender.  Season the soup and reheat as required.  Serve with the mango powder sprinkled on the top, maybe with a little dollop of yogurt and some dried chili flakes too if you want.