Persian-style Gluten Free Shortbread

So there's a bag of besan lurking in the cupboard that was bought for some long-forgotten experiment ages ago, and now needs using up.
Coincidentally, I had just rediscovered my copy of The Legendary Cuisine Of Persia, that had gotten buried in a pile of stuff.
So I was glad to spot the recipe for Nan-e Nokhodchi whilst leafing through - a simple shortbread made with besan, and flavoured with ground green cardamom.
I scaled the recipe up a bit from the rather small batch size in the book.

Peanut Butter Cookies

It's a damp drizzly day, and I found a half jar of nut butter in the cupboard that needed using up. So time to brighten things up with some sweet-salty Peanut Butter Cookies.

These are based on the recipe from The Kitchn, but mixed up a bit to match what was in the cupboard.

The Cofresh Sweet Chilli Caramel Peanuts are a recent find in the supermarket Ethnic Foods aisle. Very moreish, with just the right level of chilli hit to offset the caramel sweetness.

Hot Milk Cake with Pandan Kaya filling

So we went to Hoo Hing recently and as usual Random Things To Try somehow found their way into the trolley.

This time the things included a jar of Pandan Kaya, which turned out to be a thick custard-like spread made from eggs and coconut milk, flavoured with pandan leaf. My immediate thought on trying it was that it would make an excellent filling for a cake. Preferably a light plain sponge cake that would show off the filling's flavour without overpowering it.

This American Hot Milk Cake from Farmers Weekly sounded perfect, just needing a couple of tweaks.

I don't bother to keep self-raising flour AND plain flour, and of course when I looked in the cupboard there wasn't quite enough plain white flour left so it ended up being about 2/3 plain white flour and 1/3 chapathi flour.

Quick Chicken Liver Pate

Every fortnight I receive a pack of organic chicken carcasses with my vegbox order. These are what is left over after a chicken has had breasts, thighs, drumsticks and wings cut off - namely the main body, neck and giblets (internal organs). The pack generally contains the remains of two butchered chickens.

I separate out the livers from the giblets, and throw everything else into a roasting tin, cover with foil and pop in the oven to roast, and then into the pressure cooker to make Chicken Stock.

The livers, I make into pate.

Baked Polenta

I've made this a couple of times now.
It's easy to lob in the oven whilst pressure-cooking something to accompany it, and avoids the traditional constant stirring on the hob of most polenta recipes.

This method of cooking polenta comes via Joy the Baker.

Marzipan Cake

This is a rich almondy cake made with marzipan.

It is moist enough to not need any further icing or filling, and makes a good alternative to a traditional Christmas Cake if you are not into dried fruit.

I originally came across the recipe years ago on Amateur Gourmet.

Sort of Persian-inspired Fish and Rice

A random experiment to use up some broad beans, inspired by reading through some Persian recipes.
The result was tasty, and worth recording so we can repeat it another day.
Add more chopped fresh herbs if you have them - parsley, dill, chives, fenugreek leaves...

• 1 Onion, chopped
• a knob or two of Butter
• 1 bunch Coriander Leaves, finely chopped
• a few sprigs of garden Mint Leaves, finely chopped
• 1 cup Basmati Rice
• 1 mini carton of White Wine, plus water to make it up to 1.5 cups total liquid
• Salt, Pepper, Cinnamon and a little Turmeric to season
• 3 frozen fillets of White Fish
• Fresh Broad Beans, shelled.

Turn on the rice cooker to cook mode and melt the butter in its pan.
Saute the onions in the butter until translucent.
Add the rice, wine+water, chopped herbs and seasonings and stir to combine.
Layer the frozen fillets and the broad beans on top of the rice.
Put the lid on the rice cooker, switch it off and on again, and restart the cook cycle.
Once the rice cooker switches to keep warm, let it stand for a few more minutes to finish steaming the fish and beans.
Break up the fish into bitesize pieces and fold gently through the rice.

Chocolate Mint Loaf

It's been a while since I posted anything.

I've got into a rut, cooking from the same set of warming winter meals using the same winter fruit and veg each week. The impending spring weather and new season's produce should change things up a bit soon though.

This cake is also part of a rut, being yet another Empty Jar Generating Loaf Cake variant. I do make other kinds of cake too, honest!

Key Lime (Cheesecake) Pie

Key Lime Pie was invented by American settlers of Florida to use what they had to hand - fresh-laid eggs, tinned condensed milk and fresh key limes. The original pie filling used nothing more than this and relied on the acidity of the lime juice to coagulate the eggs and milk alone.

In these days when we get our eggs from the supermarket of an unknown age, modern recipes lightly cook the pie in order to ensure the raw egg yolks are pasteurised.

This variation bulks out the condensed milk filling with some cream cheese, which makes it a little less sweet, and a bit more cheesecake-like.

Pan-fried White Fish

I've mostly gotten over the 'orrible cold I had for the first half of this week, but things still taste slightly weird to me. I'm still finding that I don't fancy the usual foods. I am still drinking gallons of hot mint tea all day to keep my throat moist, even if I am no longer coughing and drowning in snot between cups.

I can't face my usual salad for lunch, and have been craving natural yoghurt for breakfast.

Naturally, this all wreaks havoc with trying to decide what to make for tea, and I've resorted to comfort food and easy stuff that can be thrown in the oven and forgotten about for the last few days. Stuff like Cheesy Potatoes (boil some potatoes, melt some cheese over them - it's raclette without the machine) hardly rate as a recipe.

Today was another can't decide want something easy quick type of evening, and having used up all the packets of sausages in the freezer, it fell to the frozen white fish fillets to provide.

I sort-of wanted fish and chips, but didn't have breadcrumbs to bread the frozen fish, so I ended up with pan-fried fish to accompany potato wedges baked in the oven.

With only 10 minutes left until the potato wedges were baked, I pan-fried the still frozen white fish fillets in melted butter. Seasoned lightly with salt and pepper, and sprinkled over some bottled lemon juice. Popped the lid on the pan and let them cook through over a low heat.

After dishing up the fillets, I then boiled down the lemony-buttery-fishy juices until they thickened into a syrupy consistency, and spooned this sauce over the fish.

This was quick, easy, and delicious. And now noted here so that I remember to consider it next time I am tired and looking for something simple to do with frozen fish.

Mince Pies

It's December, and mince pie baking season is in full swing.

When baking mince pies, I use a particular pastry recipe that I copied from my mother's cooking notebook, and that she had copied from my grandmother's notebook.

It makes the lightest melt-in-the-mouth mince pies you could ask for, but it is a bit tricky to work with...

Empty Jar Generating Lemon Loaf Cake

If you have been making much in the way of homemade jam or pickles, you may well have hit the point where you have things you could jam or pickle, but a shortage of jars.

Once you have already hit on all your neighbours, co-workers, friends and family for their empty jars, then there are places that will happily sell you empty jamjars and lids - prices vary from over a quid each (!) down to about 37p if you are prepared to buy by the hundred.

Alternatively, you can wander into any branch of Tesco/Sainsburys/Asda and pick up jam jars with lids for a mere 22p or so each. The catch is that they come filled with a free helping of cheap lemon curd, which you will need to empty out first.

Just scooping it out and throwing it away just seems like ... an unnecessary waste. So some way of using up lots of lemon curd is needed.

Lemon Curd wine would seem a little ill-advised due to the egg content (though at least one person seems to have tried to do that).

And then I found this recipe for a Lemon Loaf Cake on a forum post.

Using up lemon curd at the rate of 1 jarful per loaf, this quick to mix loaf cake is perfect for when you need a few more empty jars in a hurry. The cake freezes well, perfect for later use as trifle sponge, or just to have a cake in the freezer for emergencies.

• 100g softened butter
• 75g sugar
• 175g Plain Flour
• 3 tsp Baking Powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 jar of cheap lemon curd

Grease a 2lb loaf tin and line with a strip of greaseproof paper.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Measure all ingredients into a large bowl and whisk together with an electric whisk until it forms a light and fluffy cake batter.
Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, smooth out the top, and bake for 40-45 minutes until the loaf is golden on top and a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for a minute before turning out onto a wire rack and peeling off the paper. Let cool completely before slicing.

Update:

I have also tried making this as a lemon and ginger cake, adding 2 tsp ginger and 1tsp cinnamon to the mixture.

Update 2:

Replacing the jar of lemon curd with a jar of value marmalade, and replacing a couple of tbsp of flour with cocoa powder makes a decent chocolate orange loaf.

Update 3:

Though not quite in the original spirit of emptying a jar of cheap jam... I found Korean Honey Ginger Tea in the local Chinese Supermarket - it consists of finely grated candied root ginger in a sugar/honey syrup flavoured with cinnamon and yet more ginger. Substituting 450g for the jar of lemon curd yields a deliciously moist and fierily gingery cake!

Two Kinds of Melting Method Biscuits

Two quick melting method biscuit recipes. These were mainstays in any tin of homemade biscuits when I was growing up.