Aubergine, butternut squash and tinned peach curry

As I was sorting the recycling today, I noticed just how many tins I have used in the last couple of weeks. Being in the lockdown and not being able to go out shopping whenever we need some fresh produce, we rely on tins a bit too much.
Also I promise myself, after all this ends, and if I am here to tell the tale, I am not going to eat pasta for a long-long time. I'm sick just of the sight of it.
I try to vary different sauces, and pasta shapes, but it's still stodge.

Last time I went out shopping, I managed to buy a nice aubergine and a pack of cubed butternut squash and sweet potato. I do like chickpeas in a curry, but they are as rare and valuable these days as loo rolls.

Aubergine, butternut squash and tinned peach curry
Ingredients:
1 medium aubergine, cubed
1/2 red onion
4tbsp olive oil
350g butternut squash and sweet potato
1 cube Knorr stock pot kaffir lime and ginger
1tsp mild curry powder
1 tin (227g) of chopped tomatoes
1 tin (160ml) coconut cream
1 tin (410g) of peach halves in juice

Start by heating up half the oil and frying the finely chopped red onion. Stir for a couple of minutes, then add more oil and cubed aubergines (I keep the skin on, but peel it off if you prefer). Add the cubed butternut squash and sweet potato.
Season with sea salt and spices and add the Knorr stock pot.
Next add the tinned tomatoes (chopped or plum), coconut cream and stir well. Slice the peaches and add to the curry. Bring to boil, then lower the heat and cook, simmering, for about half an hour, stirring occasionally, until the aubergines and squash are soft but still hold the shape.
If the curry is too thick, you might want to add some of the juice from tinned peaches.

Serve hot, with rice or/and flatbreads.

This is a variation of a vegetarian curry, which I cook quite often. You can swap ingredients - for example, use a dairy-free coconut yogurt or plain yogurt instead of coconut cream/milk. No tinned peaches? Add raisins or chopped apricots for a sweet note. Flaked almonds or chopped cashews for extra texture.
Make it more tomatoey by using two tins of tomatoes instead of a combination of tomatoes and coconut cream. Again, play around with whatever curry spices you have.

This curry has a lovely combination of flavours, and is easy to make.

In this recipe I used a pot of Knorr Kaffir Lime & Ginger stock, which was one of the products in March Degustabox.
Knorr's range of veggie flavoured stock pots are an easy way of adding depth of flavour to meat-free dishes. They are gluten free and suitable for vegans.
You can substitute it with whatever type of ginger you have - grated fresh root, or ginger paste in a squeezy tube or from a jar.
Also add a squeeze of lime, if you have it.

Be creative and stay safe!

Bonfire Night: the full Moon, friends and marshmallows

My Mum started her journey back home very early this morning. As I write it now, she must have arrived to Moscow, if there was no delay. I am always very sad when she goes home. We see each other once a year, and this year her trip almost didn't happen. She was very poorly, and had to cancel her trip arrangements.
She usually stays earlier in the year, mostly in summer, and this was the first time when she spent October and early days of November with us.
I thought it might be a fun idea to do something for the Bonfire Night, while Mum was with us.

You have to be English-born to fully understand the reasoning behind the 5th of November festivities. What this celebration glorifies is in fact the gruesome persecution of Catholics in this country (hasten to add, I'm not a Catholic, so let's say, an impartial side). I don't find any cause for joy in killing Guy Fawkes, and it seems bizarre that this fact is being lauded for centuries.
Living in the UK for more than 21 years, I rarely acknowledge this day. In the past we have attended a couple of big bonfires and fireworks displays, but this year we decided to make a smaller scale bonfire in our garden and invite friends over.

I wanted to make my Mum happy. She loves bonfires, and I have been telling her off for lighting the fires in the garden since she arrived. Eddie was ecstatic when Baba (grandma) roasted frankfurters for him over the bonfire in the garden a couple of weeks ago. He wanted to invite his best friend Peter over and roast marshmallows.
We bought a pack of Mega marshmallows for the occasion.

It was a beautiful night, with the full Moon and a starry night, clearly visible in the darkness.

On Saturday I cooked a big pan of carrot, sweet potato and ginger soup.
Take 1kg of carrots, peel them, chop into smaller chunks and cook on low, simmering for an hour+. Add a chopped sweet potato, 1tbsp vegetable stock, 2 tbsp red lentils, grate ginger (as much as you like, I had quite a big piece), season with sea salt, and when the veg is all cooked, blitz it all.
Serve hot in smaller cups or mugs.

I have also baked a gluten free parkin and made a big batch of white chocolate Oreo fudge, on request from my men.

We had lots of sausages, with a simple potato salad, Russian-style (with soured cream and gherkins) and a big bowl of pickled onion among other things.
Prepare the pickled onion a day in advance: slice 2 onions in thin rings, using a mandolin slicer, then add 2tbsp of demerara sugar, 2-3tbsp cider vinegar, 1tbsp honey, 1-2 tsp paprika, mix well, and put a smaller heavier dish on top of onion + add some weight on top (like a soup tin) to slightly squash the onion mix. Place in the fridge overnight. It is great in sandwiches or with cold meats.
It might not look very pretty but it tastes really nice.

Eddie and his friend were very excited about roasting marshmallows. My Mum was in charge of the fire.

We looked up at the bright stars and the full Moon, and even howled at the Moon jokingly, like urban werewolves.

After stuffing ourselves with marshmallows, we had a go with sparklers (cheap ones, from Poundland). Two of our younger guests are disabled, and couldn't go in the garden, so we had lights off in the sitting room, with a mini-display of sparklers outside the windows.

It was a lovely evening, and having Mum with us made it extra special for me.

Gluten free Parkin for Bonfire Night

Parkin is a firm British favourite for Bonfire Night. For many Northerners the Bonfire Night is almost unthinkable without a big slice of this dense spicy cake.
As we have invited friends over for Bonfire Night meal, with hot drinks and all the roasting marshmallows' caboodle, I fancied baking a spicy parkin. One of our guests is on a gluten free diet, so off I went googling for the right recipe.
One that caught my eye is a recipe found on All Recipes - see Gluten Free Parkin. I followed the recipe and method closely enough, but adapted it to what we have in the kitchen. I bought a fresh pack of gluten free flour. I have also used only one type of gluten free flour as opposed to three used in the recipe above, I didn't want to buy 3 different products, which I don't really need.

Gluten free parkin
Ingredients:
110g margarine (I used Stork)
100g golden syrup
70g black treacle
225g gluten free flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1tsp baking powder (gluten free)
110ml milk
2tsp Waitrose signature spice (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, star anise, black pepper, tangerine oil, cloves)
1tsp ground ginger
2 medium eggs

Melt margarine with golden syrup and black treacle in a saucepan. Set aside, and add milk, stir together and allow to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180C, and line a square cake tin (brownie tin) with parchment paper.
In a deep mixing bowl sift in the flour, xanthan gum and baking powder. Mix in the spices, and beat in the eggs. Add the milk/margarine/syrup mix, and combine together well to the consistency of thick yogurt. The addition of xanthan gum adds the viscosity to the batter.
Pour the batter in the cake tin and smooth the edges to even it out.
Bake for 50+ minutes. Check readiness with a wooden toothpick.
Cut into squares, once it's cold.

I forgot to add sugar, but the cake was sweet enough, thanks to golden syrup and treacle.
If you are not on a gluten free diet, obviously use the standard flour, which I think will improve the flavour. I am not the biggest fan of gluten free flour, it just doesn't taste the same, but we are lucky that we don't need to use it often.
Maybe the combination of three different flours would be better, as in the original recipe. I used the Doves Farm gluten free flour which is a combination of rice, potato, tapioca, maize and buckwheat.

Let's say it was not my best bake. You might ask why I blog about it, if it's not perfect. It is more of a diary and a cooking reference, so that I would know what I have baked, how, and what to do to try to improve it in the future. It needs something to make it less dry, perhaps swap margarine for oil?

If you have suggestions, please let me know, how you make your gluten free bakes moist.

Ginger molasses cake

I recently discovered Shetland series on Netflix, and totally fell in love with the location and detective Jimmy Perez. I headed to The Book People and bought a bunch of Ann Cleeves' books. Raven Black has a strong narrative, a great setting and an intricate plot. The personalities and close-knit community are well crafted. And though I know exactly how it all ends, having just watched the series on TV, I am enjoying the book.

One cold January morning a teenager is found dead on the frozen beach. All suspicions fall on an old loner Magnus Tait, who has been a local pariah for many years (he was implicated in the disappearance of a child eight years earlier, though nothing has been proved). Did he kill Catherine Ross?
Detective Jimmy Perez is investigating the case, which will lead him into the past.

Lonely Magnus is sitting in his house on the new year's eve, hoping that someone would come and wish him a new year. He has bought a ginger cake, and is ready for any visitors.
A few days later he thinks of inviting new neighbours - a mother and her daughter - in for a cup of tea with biscuits, "there was a slice of ginger cake in the tin. He wondered briefly if she baked for her daughter. Probably not, he decided. That would be another thing to have changed. Why would anyone go to all that trouble now? The beating of sugar and marge in the big bowl, turning the spoon as it came out of the tin of black treacle. Why would you bother with that, when there's Safeway's in Lerwick, selling pastries with apricot and almond and ginger cake every bit as good as the one his mother had baked?"

I read that, and suddenly had a craving for a slice of ginger cake. I don't bake it often, as my kids are not very keen on ginger, but a friend was stopping by on Friday for a cup of coffee, and I decided to bake the ginger cake. Not with black treacle like mother of Magnus, but with molasses.

GINGER MOLASSES CAKE
Ingredients:
100g molasses sugar
175g margarine (I used Flora Light)
3 medium eggs
1tbsp molasses (liquid)
1tsp baking powder
3 big pieces of preserved stem ginger, grated
2tbsp ginger syrup (from preserves)
a pinch of salt
1/3tsp ground cloves
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cinnamon
1tbsp ground almonds
230g self-raising flour
2tbsp milk (optional)

for the icing: mix icing sugar with a teaspoon of ginger syrup and lemon juice to make a medium runny consistency icing
2 pieces of stem ginger, sliced thinly for decoration

Beat the molasses sugar with margarine in a deep mixing bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time, and add molasses, baking powder, grated ginger and ginger syrup, salt, almonds and spices. Mix well.
Sift the flour in the bowl. If the batter is too thick, add a bit of milk.
Take a brownie tin and line it with a foil. Oil it lightly, and spoon the cake batter in. Even the surface, and place the tin in the oven preheated to 180C.
Bake for 30+ minutes. Check if it's ready with a wooden toothpick, if it comes out clean, remove the tin from the oven. Carefully lift the cake from the tin, and let it cool a bit on the rack before adding the icing.
Mix icing sugar with lemon juice and ginger syrup and pour over the cake. Decorate the cake with thinly sliced stem ginger.

It is an utterly delicious cake, not too sweet and perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. Shame my kids wouldn't eat it. Eddie peeled off a slice of ginger from the cake, ate it, shuddered, made a face and said "Thanks, but No".

If you don't have molasses, by all means swap it for treacle and brown sugar, but molasses add a distinct rich flavour which works so well in baking.

Have you read a book recently which made you run to the kitchen and cook to your heart's content?

I hope you are inspired by books to join in the #ReadCookEat challenge.

The idea is to choose a book, either a world classic or modern fiction, or even memoirs 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.

If you decide to take part, please add the badge to your post and link up back to me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email me with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).

I promise to Pin all blogs posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+

Ginger apricot loaf

Ginger bakes are among my top favourites. I love ginger cookies and ginger cakes. If you rummage in my kitchen you'll find some fresh ginger, ground ginger, crystallised ginger, stem ginger in syrup as well as ginger in chocolate. I recently received a jar of Chunky Ginger Preserve from Duerr's, and was curious to test how it compares to the other gingery goodies. When you are baking, ground ginger gives a more robust, stronger flavour, while stem ginger in syrup would make your bakes milder in taste. A combination of the two might be just right for a well-balanced flavour: not too strong and not too mild.
And so I baked a ginger apricot loaf for an afternoon tea.

Ginger apricot loaf
Ingredients:
2 eggs
100g molasses sugar
zest of 1 orange
pinch of salt
4 tbsp Duerr's Chunky Ginger preserve
1/3tsp ground cloves
1tsp ground ginger
230g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
120g butter, melted
2tbsp milk
2tbsp golden syrup
80g dried apricots
icing sugar and orange juice for icing

Beat the eggs with the sugar. If you don't have molasses sugar, use a dark sugar like demerara or muscovado. Add some finely grated orange zest (I used a blood orange), a pinch of salt, ginger preserves, cloves, ginger, flour, baking powder as well as melted butter, milk and golden syrup.
Chop the dried apricots into small pieces and add to the cake mixture.
The cake batter is quite thick. Spoon it into a well-oiled 900g loaf tin. Bake for 45+ minutes, check with a wooden skewer if it's ready.
Take the tin out and let it cool for about 10 minutes before removing the loaf from the tin.
Mix 4tbsp of icing sugar with enough of orange juice to make a runny icing and drizzle over the cake.
Serve warm.
It was an experimental cake, but it happened to be delicious, moist and crumbly.

I used Duerr's Chunky Ginger preserve in my recipe. It is a lovely amber-coloured preserve with the most marvellous aroma. It is finely chopped sweet ginger, which will work as a treat on a toast or served with a hot crumpet.

Disclosure: I received a jar of preserves for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.

As I used some of the molasses sugar which I bought back in summer for baking molasses cookies, and the box has been sitting in my kitchen cupboard since then, I am adding this post to #KitchenClearout linky run by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews.