Rhubarb Cake

Rhubarb is such an odd fruit.  It's almost a twisted fact of nature that rhubarb is great at this time of year, just as we should be donning our suncream and sunglasses.  Then you have a spring like this one.  Days of dismal rain and almost tempted to switch on the central heating.

So rhubarb suddenly has a strange purpose.  The joy, if you like, in the drizzled disappointment of British weather!

After initial reluctance, my son loved this cake and so did I.  It lasted for 2 further days in a tin and I also froze some wedges which defrosted in the microwave beautifully.

Great served warm as a pudding with silky double cream or custard or cold as a cake.  Ok, I'm not winning any prizes on health here but I figure it's still healthier than a chocolate bar, and, cream aside, it's pretty low in fat.

Rhubarb Cake - makes 1 large cake

Ingredients

60g, 2oz Margarine
300g, 10.5oz Sugar (I used a mix of half white and half dark soft brown sugar which gave lovely little toffee flavoured flecks in the mix)
2 Eggs
300g, 10.5oz Self Raising flour (or the same amount of all purpose / plain flour with 3 tsp baking powder)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp Mixed Spice (apple pie spice)
300g, 10.5oz Low Fat Yogurt
250g, 9oz Rhubarb cut into short lengths

Method

Preheat an oven to 160oC, 325F, Gas Mark 3.

Line a 7.5", 19cm cake tin with baking paper and grease lightly (a mild flavoured oil spray is great for this).

Cream the margarine with the sugar as best you can as there isn't much fat.  Add the eggs and beat in.  Add the spice, vanilla and the yogurt and beat together.

Add in the flour then fold in the rhubarb.

Pour into the tin and bake for approx 1hr 15mins.  Check after an hour and cover if it's browning too much.  Check with a sharp knife or skewer to see if it's done.

Allow to cool on a wire rack and serve warm or cold.  This would be great warm with custard.  Central heating from the inside thanks to Rhubarb cake!

Cauliflower Pakoras; great finger food for kids

Cauliflower pakoras are something I'd never made before until recently, but as part of my 7 a day challenge I made some vegetable pakoras using peas and loved them.  When I moved house a few days back and restocked my cupboards (including buying some gram flour), the helpful assistant in the shop suggested cauliflower was pretty good and, in fact her favourite.  She also said that fresh spinach was, in her opinion much better in Indian food than frozen.

I always like a bit of advice when it comes to cooking so I gave it a go.  The jury is out in the spinach.  In my opinion frozen is just as good but the great thing about baby spinach is you can use it as a salad vegetable or cook with it and it just so happened I had some in my fridge so I went with it.
Traditionally I don't think the cauliflower is precooked but although I don't like soggy cauliflower, I'm not overly keen on cauliflower which bites back either so I partially precooked mine.

 

Caulflower pakoras - serves 2-3

 

Ingredients

 

7 Small cauliflower florets
30g, 1oz Fresh spinach, finely shredded
100g, 3.5oz Gram flour (chickpea flour, garbanzo bean flour, besan)
2 tsp Garam masala
1/2 tsp Madras curry paste (or more if cooking for adults if liked)
Juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 tsp Baking powder (use gluten free if avoiding gluten)
75 - 150ml Cold water
Oil for frying
 

Method

Part cook the cauliflower by boiling for approx 4 minutes so still firm but almost cooked.  Cut into halves.

Heat up approx 1 inch of vegetable oil in a deep saucepan.  Never leave hot oil unattended.
 

Mix the flour, curry paste, lime and baking powder with enough water to make a batter like consistency.

Add in the spinach then add in the cauliflower.  Try a drop of batter in the oil, if it sizzles immediately, put a coated piece of cauliflower and see how it cooks.  If it browns too quickly but the batter is still runny inside, lower the heat.  If it takes a long time and seems greasy, increase the heat.

Cook in batches of 3-4.  Leave to drain on kitchen roll then serve as a starter, a side dish or as I did for my son with some rice cooked with peas and some mango chutney mixed with plain yogurt to dip.
 

Reheating:  Once cooked, keep in the fridge and either eat cold (although they do go a bit soft) or much better, reheat in a preheated 180oC / 350F oven for approx 6-10 minutes or until warmed through and crisp.  It's almost worth making extra to have the leftovers with no effort the next day!



Quesadillas for the Whole Family

Quesadillas was something I used to make for my son when he was very little.  This is a slightly updated version with plenty of sneaky hidden vegetables!

Quesadillas - Serves 2 adults and a toddler

Ingredients

1 tomato, diced
1 tbsp fresh coriander, cilantro chopped
1/4 Green pepper (capsicum), finely chopped
Approx 1-2 inches courgette (zucchini) finely chopped
1/2 tin (drained, 120g, 4oz drained weight) red kidney beans
1 Clove garlic
1/2 tsp mild smoked paprika
45g, 1 1/2 oz Extra mature (extra sharp) cheddar
4 tortillas
Salsa or chilli sauce, to serve

Method

Mix the ingredients apart form the cheese tortillas and salsa and heat in a saucepan for 5-10 minutes or until hot through and combined.

Spread half the mix on a tortilla, top with half of the cheese then put a second tortilla on top.  Don't be tempted to overfill them as they'll fall apart.

Dry fry in a non stick frying pan.

When browned on one side, flip by putting a plate on top then turning out and sliding back into the pan.

Brown on the other side then slide out, cut up and serve.  Grown ups might want some salsa for dunking.

Make it Thrifty

Use up leftovers in quesadillas.  Leftover cooked chicken might be nice.  You can use pretty much anything you want.  I keep meaning to put some cooked sweetcorn in sometime.  The only thing you must include is cheese as it holds it all together.

If you have any tortillas left over, either freeze them or spray with oil, bake for about 6 or 7 minutes at 200oC, 400F, Gas Mark 6 or until browned and crisp.  Serve with dips.

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Spinach and Carrot Cannelloni

Cannelloni is a surprisingly easy dish to cook for one.  I had made some tomato and pesto soup the other day and the leftovers were in the fridge.  It occurred to me that it would also make a really good pasta sauce. 

But I had no cream cheese, no goats cheese, no mince, nothing traditional for a cannelloni filling in the house.  So why not vegetables.  Why not?  You know what, it didn't just work, it was delicious!

A great idea for fussy kids not keen on vegetables (or even adults!)


Spinach and Carrot Cannelloni - Serves 1 adult or 2 children

Ingredients

1/2 a carrot, peeled and grated
20g, 2/3oz Fresh spinach, finely shredded
2 tbsp Single cream (light cream) but any cream could be used
30g, 1oz Extra mature (extra sharp) cheddar
200-250g 7-9oz of homemade tomato and pesto soup
4 tubes cannelloni.  Mine were quite small, weighing 45g, 1.5oz.  Make sure you choose the dried kind which can be cooked without precooking

Method

Mix the grated carrot, spinach, cream and grate in a third of the cheese.

Preheat the oven to 200oC / 400F.  With your fingers (the messy bit), shove the filling inside the tubes.

Pour a spoonful of the soup into the base of the baking dish, put the cannelloni on top, finish with more soup and then the rest of the cheese grated on top.

Check pack instructions but it should take about 30-40 minutes to cook until bubbling, browned and the cannelloni are cooked through.

Make it Thrifty

A completely different dish from leftovers.  What could be thriftier than that?

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Honey Ginger Glazed Tuna

Glazed tuna, a pretty tasty invention, I have a feeling this would work with any kind of robust oily fish.  The idea is you add the flavour after the cooking so you don't get issues with the sweet sauce burning in the pan.  I enjoyed this and have made it twice already, what's more, fresh or frozen tuna is a great source of Omega 3 (tinned isn't).  It's also great to make something like tuna the star of the show when so often it's just bunged in a sandwich as a cheap protein source, although I have to admit my favourite way to have tuna is sushi but with the sweet gingery notes, this still hits the mark.

This isn't mad spicy so should be fine for kids but no babies please as it contains honey.

Honey and Ginger Glazed Tuna - Serves 2 adults

Ingredients

2 tbsp grated ginger
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp Soy Sauce
1 tsp Sweet Chilli Sauce
1 tsp Sesame Oil
2 Tuna Steaks
Spray oil
Stir fried vegetables and noodles or salad and rice to serve

Method

Mix the ginger, honey, soy, chilli sauce and oil together in a bowl and put to one side.

Cook the rice or noodles.  Fry the tuna steaks for a couple of minutes on each side or until done on the outside and still pink in the middle (fully cook for young kids).  Put onto a warm plate and spoon on some of the glaze.

In the meantime, finish cooking the rice or noodles and stir fried vegetables or this would be great with a shredded salad.

Serve drizzling more of the glaze onto the fish and vegetables if liked.

Make it Thrifty

Look out for frozen tuna steaks in the freezer section and defrost before using, they're much cheaper than fresh.

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Gluten Free Pancakes

Chickpea pancakes might sound like an odd proposition for breakfast but bear with me.  Chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour or 'Besan' has a distinctive, savoury taste but there is something delicious about that served with syrup, just like that salty sweet combo of bacon and syrup is something fantastic, so was this.

The amazing thing about chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour is it has over double the amount of protein compared with wheat flour which makes them amazingly filling so a great start for the day, and, handily for coeliacs (or people choosing to avoid gluten), it's naturally gluten and wheat free.

The verdict was "nice but not quite as good as the normal ones" from the household, I disagreed.  I really liked them and I felt seriously full until lunch.

Gluten Free Pancakes - Makes enough for 3-4

Ingredients

Batter
225g, 8oz Chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour (besan)
2 tsp Gluten free baking powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 Apples, grated (including skin but excluding the core)
300ml, a generous half pint Milk
2 Eggs

Butter or spray oil

Butter, honey (over 1s only), golden syrup or maple syrup to serve.

Method

Blend all of the batter ingredients together including the grated apples.  I normally take them and crate them back to the core.

Heat a non stick frying pan and either rub butter over it or spray with spray oil (see my original pancake post for more instructions).

Pour or spoon on a little batter.  Keep on a medium heat and turn when the bubbles start to burst.  It might take a little trial and error to get the perfect heat.

Once ready, put on a plate and top with your choice of toppings.

Make it Thrifty

Look out for big bags of Besan or Chickpea flour in the Indian / South Asian section of your supermarket.  They're also great for making pakoras!

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