Boiled fruit and walnut cake

The decluttering gurus like Ms Kondo would have conniptions if they happen to go with me to the charity shops. I tend to donate a bag of clothes, books or toys about once a week, but I also do a weekly charity shops crawl and always end up buying a few little things.
Just this week I bought two paperbacks for myself, a couple of books for Eddie, a little porcelain bird for 50p (made in the USSR, and I had exactly the same one as a child) and a Neolithic hammer found at Beachy Head (as you do).
Well, technically the hammer was on display in the vintage shop, along the other Neolithic finds like scrapers etc. It was clearly someone's much-cherished collection, sold in bits and pieces.
Eddie and I watched 10,000BC on DVD recently, and I bought an old edition of Rosny's Quest for Fire on eBay, so it was all fitting perfectly well, according to my reasoning.

One of my recent finds was a cook book Cakes & Slices (The Australian Women's Weekly). It was priced 20p, like all the books in that charity shop (books for kids go for 10p each). I really don't know how they make money at all.
The cake recipes in this book are all rather old-fashioned and tasty. Nothing particularly fancy, not a single grain of quinoa in or Himalayan salt in sight.

A friend of ours was coming earlier today for tea, and she is usually happy to be a guinea pig for my untested recipes.
One of the cakes I wanted to try is called Wholemeal boiled fruit and walnut cake.

I have adapted the recipe, reducing sugar in half (I find that most American and Australian cake recipes use too much sugar), and changing some of the ingredients, but the main idea is borrowed from the book.

It turned out to be tasty, but definitely not a looker, as the top had split, which often happens when the cake batter is wet.

Boiled fruit and walnut cake
Ingredients:
50g dried apricots
40g currants
70g dried apple rings
1 teabag (black tea, like Typhoo)
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
235g self-raising flour
65g rye & spelt flour
200g butter, melted
45g walnuts
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp baking powder

First finely chop the apple rings and apricots. Place the currants and apricots in a pan with boiling water and 1 teabag. Bring to boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped apples and cook for another couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and strain the fruit using a colander or sifter. Discard the teabag. Let the fruit cool.

In a big mixing bowl beat together the sugar and eggs. Sift in the flour, baking powder, add the melted butter and mix well. Add the chopped walnuts and boiled fruit, and mix well.
Line the base of the spring cake tin with a parchment paper, and oil the sides lightly. Pour the cake batter in the tin.

Place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Cook for an hour and a half+ Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.
Cool in the cake tin.
Dust with icing sugar (optional).

You can use a different combination of dried fruit and nuts. My kids love apples and walnuts, and that's why I've chosen these ingredients for the cake.

It is a moist cake, fruity and not over-sweet. Judging by how much is left by now, my family (and friend) liked it.

I used Typhoo black tea which was one of the products in the latest Degustabox. You can use any other black or flavoured tea.

Fruity pork stew

It has been a mild weather for winter, but a bit on the cold front in March. Quite a few mornings I woke up to see a frozen puddle on our kitchen roof (I can see it from the bathroom window). On days like this you crave some comfort foods like soups and stews. It has to be thick and hearty, and bursting with flavours.

Fruity pork stew
Ingredients:
4tbsp olive oil
600g pork (shoulder steaks, cut into strips)
1tsp plain flour
1/2tsp fennel seeds
black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 vegetable stock cube
a small handful of dried apricots
1 tin of chopped tomatoes (400g, I used Cirio chopped tomatoes)
5tbsp green lentils
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 chorizo stick
1 peach
2 medium potatoes
sea salt

Cut the pork shoulder into strips and coat with a dusting of plain flour. Brown the pork on all sides in a deep frying pan with the olive oil. Add the fennel seeds, black pepper, bay leaves, a crumbled stock cube (I used a Knorr vegetable stock cube), a handful of sliced dried apricots and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Add the lentils and pour enough water to cover all the ingredients.
Finely slice an onion and fry it with chopped chorizo stick for about 5 minutes. Add to the stew with 1 stoned and sliced fresh peach. Season with salt (but taste first, as the stock cube already has some salt).
Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for an hour+. Add the peeled and chopped potatoes in the last half an hour of cooking. Check once in a while and add more water.
Serve hot, with a chunky bread to mop up all the juices.
Pork benefits from the sweetness of fruit, smokiness of chorizo and tart notes of tomatoes. You can substitute dried apricots for prunes or raisins, and swap a peach for an apple.

Just the other day I read that Fiona from London Unattached has cooked a different version of the pork stew - check out her recipe for a delicious pork, white bean and chorizo casserole. 
Not surprising that on colder days we fancy comfort food.

In this recipe I used a tin of Cirio Chopped Tomatoes. I have already mentioned Cirio on my blog, as it is a great Italian range of tomato products. I love their tinned pomodorini (cherry tomatoes), and have tried quite a few of their products, all of which bring authentic Italian flavours to our tables.
Cirio as a brand has a long history, going back to 1856.  Their tomato products are a welcome addition to any pantry, either basic or well-stocked. It's always handy to have a couple of tins in the kitchen, so you can rustle up a great tasting pasta sauce, ragu, soup or stew.

Disclosure: I received a selection of Cirio products for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.

Fruitcake for Mma Ramotswe: ReadCookEat challenge

"Fruitcake came to her mind unbidden - a large fruitcake rich in sultanas and candied peel: the sort of cake that would torment and tantalise those on a diet. But Mma Ramotswe was nether dieting nor planning to do so, and she welcomed the vision wholeheartedly. She had not had fruitcake for a long time, and the idea of a generous slice - or possibly even two slices - seemed very attractive... There were two ladies in Botswana who made good fruitcake, and Mma Potokwani was one of them" (Alexander McCall Smith, The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon)

I love Mma Ramotswe, the founder of the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, and admire this traditionally-built lady for being wise, kind and intelligent. I have read all the books in the series (except the very last one). I also enjoy numerous references to food and cooking in the books, and of course, Mma Potokwani's fruitcake features regularly.
A few years ago the flavours of the series were recreated in a cook book called Mma Ramotswe's Cookbook: Nourishment for the Traditionally Built. I have borrowed this book in the library in the past and enjoyed reading it.
My recipe for fruitcake has been inspired by the recipe from this book called Persuasive Fruit Cake which also appears on The Redbush tea company's site.

Fruitcake for Mma Ramotswe
Ingredients:
4 medium eggs
200g caster sugar
zest & juice of 1 orange
220g mixed dried fruit (dates, raisins & lemon peel)
2tbsp brandy
100g ground almonds
110g cornflour
3tsp baking powder
300g plain flour
200g butter, melted
1 teabag of Rooibos (I used Dragonfly Earl Grey Rooibos)
1tsp vanilla bean extract
1tsp essence of orange blossom water
icing sugar + 3tsp of orange blossom water for the icing + more icing sugar

Start by soaking the dried fruit in brandy and orange juice. Leave it for about 30 minutes. Beat the eggs with the caster sugar, add the zest of one orange, ground almonds, cornflour, flour, the contents of one rooibos teabag (discard the bag), vanilla and orange blossom water, mix well.
Add the fruit with all the juices and melted butter, and mix again.
Butter the cake tin (or use the cake release spray) and spoon the cake batter in (it will be quite thick), then place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C. Bake for an hour.
Once baked, decorate with simple icing made of the orange blossom water and icing sugar.
And sprinkle more icing sugar on top.
If you like your fruitcake sticky rather than crumbly, add more dried fruit.

"There are times when it is better to concentrate on the cake in one's mouth than contribute to a debate".

Have you read a book (and I don't mean a cook book) and felt inspired to recreate the dish or recipe mentioned in it? Every time I read an Inspector Montalbano book (and I have read all of them), I feel like running to the kitchen and starting cooking those fabulous Sicilian dishes like pasta with sardines or caponata. Salvo's house keeper Adelina cooks the most scrummy dishes for him, and it's a joy to read the descriptions of the local food through the series.

You don't have to "travel" far, just pick any Jane Austen's novel and explore what her characters had for dinner. Aren't you tempted to reconstruct Mrs Bennet's dinner for Bingley or try the rout cakes mentioned in Emma or negus served at the balls in Mansfield Park?

Chris from Cooking Around the World has kindly agreed to run a joint reading-cooking challenge with me. The idea is to choose a fiction book, either a world classic or modern fiction, and pick up a dish mentioned or described in that book and then recreate it in a recipe. Please say a few lines about your chosen book, and maybe even do a quote from the book.

As Chris is the original author of the Cooking around the world linky, I am merely stating the rules for taking part in our joint linky.
Please add the badge to your post and link up back to Chris and me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email either of us with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).
The challenge will start on 1 April and will end on 30 April 2014.
I promise to Pin all blogs posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+.

If you would like to discover which book inspired Chris, visit his blog.

Looking forward to everyone's creations!

Duck with red cabbage: our last meal of 2013

After the lavish Christmas lunch our new year's eve's dinner looked very modest in comparison, but I was feeling absolutely rotten and had no energy to cook a three-course meal. We didn't have guests either. We didn't celebrate, my guys went to bed rather early and didn't stay until midnight to greet 2014. I kept reading until 12am, listened to some boom-boom of the nearby fireworks and then decided it was time for me to join my sleeping army as well.

For the last meal of 2013 I have picked Nigel Slater's recipe for Red Cabbage with Prunes and Port. It was a starting point for my dish of Duck with red cabbage.
I went to Waitrose with the very good intentions of buying a jar of duck confit needed for his recipe, but after looking at the price (£10.99), I decided against it, as the fresh duck legs would cost less than a half of that, and I still had some duck fat left in a jar from Christmas.

Duck with red cabbage 
Ingredients:
2 duck legs
2tsp duck fat
a dash of sherry+ a squeeze of lemon juice
150g prunes
port, enough to cover the prunes in a bowl
1 small red cabbage
4tbsp cranberry & port sauce
2tsbp cranberry jelly (optional)
juniper berries
sea salt, pepper

Put the prunes in a small bowl and pour the port over, enough to cover the prunes, let them soak for an hour. I didn't stone the prunes.
Put the duck legs in a roasting dish, slightly smear with 1tbsp of duck fat, season well and put the tray in the oven preheated to 200C. Roast until the skin is crispy and the duck is cooked well (none of that pink nonsense please). Squeeze some lemon juice and add a dash of sherry if you want mid-way through cooking.
Put the finely shredded red cabbage in a deep frying pan or wok with 1tbsp of duck fat and add the juniper berries, add a bit of water, cover with the lid and cook for at least 30 minutes.
Nigel Slater's timing of cooking the red cabbage is much shorter, but while I love fresh crunchy cabbage in slaws and salads, it has to be cooked well in a dish like this in my opinion. Keep checking the cabbage, and adding a bit more water if necessary. Add the cranberry sauce and jelly (we had the remains from Christmas). Add the prunes and port as well, mix well. The cabbage should be soft, not crunchy, but not overcooked to the point when it is disintegrating.
Shred the duck meat, add to the cabbage and serve while hot.

It was a lovely combination of flavours and textures. Duck was nicely complemented by the sweet prunes and cabbage, the port added the richness to the final dish, so all in all, a very satisfactory meal, albeit not exactly as Nigel Slater planned when he wrote his recipe.

And if you wonder what our first meal of 2014 was, I'll tell you: we had pancakes. What about you?

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