The Marzipator strikes back - Dorset Apple Cake with Marzipan

Somehow, it could not be avoided. The marzipator strikes back. How could get things get that far again?
Well it didn't start so bad. I ended up with several tons (note: exaggeration) of apples. They came in from different sides. It's the time for apples.
There are many lovely things you can do with them ... that is apart from just eating them as they are. The saying goes: "An apple a day keeps the doctor away!" That would mean I don't see the doctor for quite some time. I don't know whether that works. As far as I know, apples can't prevent accidents.
Anyway, you could use your apples for apple sauce, apple crumble, apple pancakes, apple porridge, many many other things and ... apple cake.
Now things are as follows. For quite some time there is a blog challenge going on. It's about the Best of British food and every month, there is a different region covered. The challenge is sponsored by The Face of New World Appliances and this month it is hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage with the theme Dorset. Have a look at London Unattached from Fiona as well.
Consequently this leaves me no chance as to bake a Dorset Apple Cake. I had a look at a few recipes and they all have some basic things in common. Apple is the obvious, but usually there are also some ground almonds in it.
That is the point were the marzipator and therefore the marzipan comes into play. It has to do with almonds anyway. So why not add some of it to the cake.

See for yourself!

Ingredients:
450 g of apples, peeled, cored and chopped into small pieces (more or less)
Juice of 1 lemon
250 g flour
2 tsp baking powder
250 g butter (I was too lazy to measure, so I decided for a whole package)
150 g brown sugar
50 g ground almonds
100 g marzipan
2 eggs
Some extra sugar mixed together with ground cinnamon

Method (if you want to call it that way):
Well, what to do now. I could simply tell you to just throw all ingredients into a big bowl and mix thoroughly, but ...
Toss the pieces of apple in the juice and let them sit in it.
Sift the flour and the baking powder into a big bowl. Then start kneading in the butter and create some crumbles.
Add the sugar, the ground almonds and the marzipan. Crack open the eggs and release the content into the bowl, not bothering about separating and beating egg whites.
Now is the time to mix or knead it through thorougly. Do it as you want it. I used only my bare hands and did it as messy as possible. However, if you should decide to do the same, make sure you have the usual round (about 25 cm) cake tin greased and ready and the oven going at 180°C.
Naturally, the content of the bowl moves over to the cake tin.

Once managed, it goes into the oven for 50 minutes until it gets nicely browned.
By the way, this is now two cakes in a row, since my last post was about a cake as well. Should I rename to Baking Around the World?
When the cake is ready and you removed it from the oven, let it cool down a bit and then try your best to move it over to a plate without falling apart. I managed kind of.

After the cake was sitting safely on the plate, I simply couldn't resist to sprinkle some magic cinnamon-sugar on top.
I hope you enjoy the cake. If you have some nice clotted cream available, that would give it another boost. So ... go for it!
Otherwise, you may have the chance to get to Dorset and get a piece of Dorset Apple Cake in a nice tearoom (of course it will be without marzipan).

Near this place I know a nice tearoom. Whatsoever, there are many other nice things to see in Dorset along the Jurassic Coast and beyond. I want to come to an end of this post and leave you with some impressions of Dorset ...

Red Hot Pumpkin Curry for #BestOfBritish

This time the Best of British challenge takes us to London as Fiona from London Unattached takes over. It's lovely to visit London and there is much to see and, of course, many different things to eat. I like going there and have done so accordingly quite a few times. On one of my last visits I went to this lovely Indian Supper Club. A few days later I was on the streets, somewhere to where a lot of shops with goods from India were. There I bought this.

Now I have an Indian spice tin, a masala dabba. That's what I want to use this time for my Red Hot Pumpkin Curry. Yes, I'm still working on using all my fresh chillies from the windowsill.

Ingredients:
Oil for the pan
2 small onions (or one big one - ha ha), finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, squeezed
2 carrots, in cubes
1 courgette, in cubes
1 green bell pepper, in stripes (kind of)
1/2 Hokkaido pumpkin, in cubes
1-4 fresh red chillies (you know what to do, to make it red HOT)
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp nigella seeds (don't get this wrong)
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
400 ml tinned tomatoes

Preparation:
The battle is on now. Well, I bet you have a lot of fun with all this chopping and crushing and squeezing and cutting into pieces and stripes.

To get the base for our curry, we heat up the oil and then gently cook the onions and the garlic for a while, but don't let them go brownish.
Then add all the other vegetables, apart from the tinned tomatoes. Fry it all for about ten minutes, together with the nice spices.
Then we can add the tomatoes and if you like liquid, add a bit of water, too. Cover it and let it all simmer for some minutes.
To be more precise, if you want to have steamed rice together with it, which takes about 20 minutes, you can leave the curry to simmer for the same time it takes to prepare the rice.
When all is done, you only have to serve it and eat it.
I still had some mini papadums, I wanted to use together with it. On the package it says, they would be suitable for the microwave as well and so I did. I thought one minute would do. That was a grave mistake. Well, I had to live with a horrible smell in the kitchen for a few days and some black papadums.
However, after adding some more and watching while they unfolded, I was still able to enjoy some with a little bit of mango chutney.

Time is really running by. Here goes another Best of British challenge together with The Face of New World Appliances.
Well, as I said, it is always a pleasure to go and visit London. I wonder, when I will go next time ...

All in one Cheesy Yorkshire Fish Pie (and more) for Best of British

What a beautiful day today. The sun is shining brightly and no cloud is to be seen on a blue sky. It's 35°C or more. Just a perfect day ... to be in the kitchen and do a lot of baking and cooking. So ... pump up the sound system and put some summer music on.
There would still be plenty of time to prepare a post for the current Best of British challenge, which is taking us this month to Yorkshire. The Best of British challenge is hosted this month by Karen from Lavender & Lovage. The whole event is sponsored by The Face of New World Appliances. Have a look at London Unattached from Fiona as well. After a lot of research and some extra motivation I'm ready now. In detail that means we are having some fish: Cheesy Yorkshire Fish Pie.

However, before we come to that, some other thoughts. Yorkshire! What comes to your mind, when you think about it? You can leave a comment and tell me. 
My friend Stuart, always a nice person ... that is if you have humour and can look beyond the obvious. He is from Yorkshire, but not living there anymore. At home he has some coasters with the Yorkshire motto on it:

"'Ear all, see all, say nowt;

Eyt all, sup all, pay nowt;

And if ivver the does owt fer nowt -

Do it fer thissen."

What, you don't understand that? I think you have weans and mays ... oh sorry ... confused the letters ... you have means and ways to find out. Enough of all that! We like to concentrate on some food now.
First of all, I got a few things from the garden, some herbs and those here:

You will see them later again. A few other things I still needed to get from the shop or the farmer's market for luckily that one was today. Unfortunately the fish stall wasn't there today. No worries, I just went to the local fish monger, which is very close by. He had to advertise his next door restaurant as well, which in fact is acclaimed by the Guide Michelin as well. Maybe I check it another day, whether that is still valid. For now, I just got some ling fillet.
Having all ingredients ready we could have a go at the fish pie now, but ... somehow I didn't feel quite satisfied with just doing one Yorkshire recipe. In order to keep me going I decided to start off with some Fat Rascals - quick and simple (if you do it right).

Fat Rascals
Ingredients:
350 g of self-raising flour (if you do it right)
175 g of butter
50 g of sultanas
50 g of dried cranberries
50 g of blanched almonds
50 g of amarena cherries
One (poor) beaten egg
50 ml of milk (or less)

Preparation:
Sift the flour into a bowl and add the butter. Crumble it together with the tips of your finger (isn't it luvly to get your hands dirty?). Then ... simply throw in all other ingredients apart from the milk and make a relatively dry dough. Add only as much milk as you need or it gets to wet (and you are not doing it right).
Form about ten round, two centimetre thick objects and place them on a baking tray, which you have lined with baking parchment. Bake the whole lot at 200°C for about 20 minutes.

Oh, I must have done something wrong, for I have more then 10 ...

It's best then to continue with the main thing, The Cheesy Yorkshire Fish Pie!

What you don't need:
A ringing phone
Someone knocking at the door
A wounded finger
Stress

What you need (in order of appearance - roughly):
400 g of white-fleshed fish
275 ml of goats' milk (or other)
275 ml of water
One lemon cut into four wedges
A handful of parsley - chopped
Salt, Pepper
700 g of potatoes - peeled
A knob of butter
More goats' milk
100 g blue veined cheese (preferably Yorkshire Blue - that is if you have easy access)
A splash of olive oil
One onion - finely chopped
A few carrots (depending on size - see above) - chopped
Two spring onions - chopped into rings
A hand full of peas
A few sprigs of thyme - of course only the leaves of it
A bunch of chives
A bit of cheddar - just making sure it's cheesy enough

How you could go about:
If you like or need you can cut the fish into smaller pieces. Mix the 275 ml water and 275 ml goats' milk in a pan and add the fish, the lemon and the parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Bring it to the boil and then let it simmer for 8 minutes.
Meanwhile boil your potatoes until they are ... eh ... mashable.
Meanwhile meanwhile sauté the onion, spring onions, carrots, and peas with the olive oil.
When the potatoes are mashable ... do just that, together with a knob of butter, the blue cheese, and a bit of goats' milk.
Once you have all that jobs done we can put things together in a 30 x 30 cm oven proof dish. 
First, we put the fish. You can discard the lemon and most of the cooking milk-water.

 

Add the herbs - that is chives and thyme leaves.

Yes, you are right again. The difference between the last two photos is only tiny. Let us go on then and add the mashed potatoes and grate some cheddar over it.

Done? Put it under the grill - just the way it is - until it gains some colour.

 

That should serve four people or if greedy ... less.

However, if you serve some pudding afterwards, you might also manage having a greedy person for the meal.

Oh, how luvly, a curd tart. Had to do that one as well.

Mini Cranberry Curd Tart
In-greedy-ents:
250 g of flour
125 g of butter
One egg yolk
Cold water
75 g of brown sugar
Two teaspoons of allspice
One lemon
500 g curd cheese
Three eggs
75 g of dried cranberries


Preparation:
The flour goes to a bowl again and the butter is crumbled in the same way as with the fat rascals. Then comes the egg yolk and as much water as you need to make things hold together. Just make sure you don't work it too much. In fact, it is best not to knead it, but somehow push things together. Wrap it in cling film and chill for 15 minutes.
Then have four small tart tins ready and line each one with an equal part of the dough. Cover with cling film and chill for another 15 minutes.
Whilst that is happening mix the sugar and the allspice in a bowl. Then you add the three beaten eggs, the cranberries, the curd cheese, and the zest and the juice of the lemon.
Whisk it all together.
When the chilling time is over, divide the filling between your four tarts and bake for 45 minutes at 190°C. The short-crust pastry should start to get brown and the filling should set.
Once your ready tarts have cooled down a bit you can serve them - great would be these days with some ice-cream (argh ... why didn't I think about this before).
You could have a cuppa as well ... Yes, I know, it is 35°C, but ... no worries.


So far our excursion into Yorkshire food. I leave you with some impressions of York ...

Scottish Whisky Cake for Best of British

Fàilte! Ciamar a tha sibh?

That’s Scottish Gaelic and means: Welcome! How are you?

Well, I really, from the heart, hope you are doing well!!!

Some ten years ago, let’s say, 15 years ago, or wait, I can’t get it correct right this minute. So, somewhere in between that time, a good friend of mine got married (I don’t need to remember his wedding date. He does and he gets in trouble if he doesn’t.).

As it comes at the wedding reception, as his friend, I had to do something to entertain the masses, OK, the bride, the groom, and the guests. Somehow I had or found or whatever this sketch, this comedy thingy. Did I tell this story before? Can’t remember either! Right, but it fits NOW!

Good! This sketch was about this man demonstrating how to bake a Scottish whisky cake, of course involving a lot of whisky. I think a whole bottle was necessary.

It goes like:

First of all check the quality of the whisky [drinking a glass of whisky]. Cream the sugar together with the butter. Check again, whether the whisky is still good [drinking a glass of whisky]. We-ell, add the eeeeeeggs [slurring the words already]. … OK, you have about a feel on how it went until the whole bottle of whisky is gone.

The only thing you need to remember now is: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!

Just follow the instructions below for preparing this cake.

I enter this post to the Best of British Challenge for July, which is themed Scotland's food. More info you find as well with Janice at Farmersgirl Kitchen and at The Face of New World Appliances and at London Unattached from Fiona.

Scottish Whisky Cake

Ingredients

For the cake batter:

250 g of butter (Gaelic: im) at room temperature

250 g of sugar (Gaelic: siùcar)

4 eggs (Gaelic: ugh)

500 g spelt flour (or 200 g + 300 g wheat flour)

15 g of baking powder

15 g vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

2 cl Sottish whisky

200 ml milk (Gaelic: bainne)

60 g white chocolate

60 g dark chocolate

For the icing:

160 g icing sugar

60 g butter at room temperature
2 tsps of honey

Juice of one lemon

2 cl Scottish whisky

Some roasted and shredded hazelnuts for decoration

Method:

Here we go. As I said you can of course skip all the whisky tasting part!

Have a round, let’s say 25 cm (±5 cm tolerance) baking tin form, prepared with butter for non stick ready to go and heat the oven up to 175°C.

Cream the sugar together with the butter. Add the four eggs (we don’t bother today with all these separating and whisking egg white and so forth). Simply whisk it together.

Sieve in the flour with the baking powder.

Before I go on talking to much, add the vanilla extract or sugar (whichever you are using), the whisky, and the milk. Well, mix well! Break the chocolate in pieces of the desired size. I like them rather more chunky. So that’s what I did then. Fold the pieces in.

Get the cake batter to the baking tin form and chuck, oops, put it gently in the middle of the oven and bake for one hour.

In between, do whatever you like. Whatever you can do with one hour. There are a lot of things, of course depending on what you like. You could use the time to clean up the mess you created by now. You could have a meal (even including preparation – depending on what you do of course). Whatever! It’s up to you and I’m not going to tell you what I did.

Once the cake is ready, remove it from the oven and let cool down for a while.

It’s time to think about the icing. Beat it all together. Give your best and make sure you don’t have any chunks of icing sugar sticking together (I forgot to think about it, no worries, though).

Let the icing flow over the cake, let the forces of nature have it’s work complete. If you feel like it, you can spread over the pieces of hazelnuts.

Even my dog, Lucy, had her part as she dressed up in her little Scottish dress for this challenge. Well, OK, right, was dressed up!

While talking about fitting music (see comments below) ... here a nice little addition I found on YouTube:

 

Still Cornish - Cornish Pasties

Having written something about Cornwall and using Cornish clotted cream, it didn't let me sleep properly so to say. Somehow I was still in Cornwall, mentally of course, after this post. It was really lovely there.

We met some nice fellows over there - couldn't resist to make contact. They would have loved to escape their "prison" - at least one of them at that time.

Then there were those beautiful houses to inspect, both inside and outside, including beautiful gardens with a lot of colour.
Well there are some kind of encounters she doesn't appreciate. I don't know why!

But the horse was safe this time. Lucy couldn't get it.
What more then can I do apart from looking through my old pictures. Of course, I can cook something. Cornish pasties would be very nice! By the way, there is still some beef in the fridge I need to get rid of.
For the pastry, though, I'm not ready for experimenting. So I think hard, where I have a recipe. Of course, there must be one in Jamie's Great Britain.  I know I can trust him, these things work.
Said and done with 500 g of flour, 250 g butter, pinch of salt and about 200 ml of cold water. Worked well! As expected!

As to the filling then, I have to go my own way, again throwing things I find together to a bowl. Can you spot what I used?

Of course, there is this leftover beef, and maybe you can spot the potatoes and the onions lingering in there. You might even notice tiny bits of cheese. What you might not be able to see in here is the rosemary, salt and pepper. Fair enough! They are quite to small to see on here. The olive oil you don't see as well. Maybe this is due to the fact that I took the picture before adding it. But who knows whether you would spot it if I had it done the other way round. Finally there is the secret ingredient, having something to do with Guinness (of course, if I would tell you, it wouldn't be secret anymore, would it).
Whatever you like in your Cornish Pasties, you would use that, I guess.

So, no big deal! Rolling out the pastry and placing a handful of filling in the middle. I used a bit of egg wash as a glue here.

That doesn't look too bad. It only needs to go to the oven with it's five other friends for 35 minutes at 200°C. 
After that you only have to decide how to eat your Cornish Pasties. That shouldn't be too difficult. I got some salad from my windowsill and some cucumber wedges from the depths of the fridge!

However, will one Cornish Pasty be enough? I will talk about it no more ...

Well, initially, I didn't intend do it, but now this post goes as well to the blog challenge: Best of British.

 

This blog challenge you still can find here (Chocolate Log Blog) and here (The Face of New World Appliances) and here (London Unattached).

Cornish Strawberry-Rhubarb Tiramisu

What a beautiful day! I don’t have to go to work today – an extra day off. I saw even the sun today and was tempted to lie down in the garden, in the sun.

 

It almost felt like holiday! At least a few features were fitting: no work, sun.

Of course having these two features and adding Cornwall to it would make things perfect.

Well it was a great time in Cornwall. There are tons of good memories.

Tintagel castle (with guard dog)

you have a great view from up there

nice fishing villages

the harbour of St. Ives

view from Lands End

the Minack Theatre ...

... with a nice view as well

 

The memories also have to do with food. I can’t remember how many Cornish pasties, but “I had them all!” and would I have had more time, even more.

Well, in between, of course there needs to be time for a good old cream tea with fine Cornish clotted cream.

From the past back to the present.

That brings us also to a blog challenge: Best of British, which features, what a surprise, the region of Cornwall this month.

More about this blog challenge you find here (Chocolate Log Blog) and here (The Face of New World Appliances) and here (London Unattached).

Let's talk food then.

Cornish Strawberry-Rhubarb Tiramisu

What do we need then for this waistline developing dish (if you are careful, nothing might happen, though)?

Let’s talk food then (of course I know that tiramisu is not Cornish, but clotted cream is not Italian).

Ingredients

200 g strawberries

200 g rhubarb

250 g mascarpone

250 g Cornish clotted cream (that is what it makes Cornish)

8 sponge fingers (at least)

one vanilla pod

5 teaspoons of vanilla sugar

one tablespoon of fructose

8 cl of strawberry liqueur (you might meed more when you like to drink during the preparation)

some wild strawberries

50 g of white chocolate

Then do it

Oh, you want me to tell you. Good!

Line a 24 x 24 cm form with the sponge fingers. You can add more in a second layer if you feel like it. 

Use the strawberries and rhubarb to make a nice compote in a pot on a medium heat. Add here also 4 cl of the liqueur (to the pot – and one to yourself if you have to (I’m not encouraging drinking though)) and the fructose. Cook it until the rhubarb starts to melt.

In the meantime whip up the mascarpone and the clotted cream together with the vanilla sugar and the seeds from the vanilla pod (if you can get only cheap dry vanilla pods, don’t bother using them). Well, and don’t forget to add 4 cl of the liqueur here as well (yes, I know). You get a slightly pinkish cream.

Spoon the compote over the sponge fingers. Do it carefully, you don’t want to make a mess, do you?

 

If you have managed, you can spoon over the slightly pinkish cream. Then you have to decide, what to do with the remaining cream you didn’t manage to get from the bowl.

Although I got unexpected company in the kitchen, I didn’t do what you might think I did.

(That is Willy. I try to keep an eye on him while his owner is away - EXTRA CHALLENGE! No worries, we get by!)

The whole thing we finish off with some nice wild strawberries I just got fresh from my garden today (while keeping an eye on Willy and Lucy – OK – Molly was also visiting – three dogs – no worries).

Finally or last but not least, grate the white chocolate on top.

Put it as it is in the fridge for a few hours and then indulge!

That should be all then. Now I can continue enjoying my holiday in "Cornwall".