Providing refreshments rhubarb and ginger cake

We all know how much I love a project (just the one?) so for the past few months I've been having great fun on a new venture with my mate Carly Findlay.

Refreshments Provided is a podcast where Carly and I get to talk about pop culture, what we've been streaming or reading and what's been happening in our kitchens.

While the conversation always comes back to food we also tackle some of life's more meaty subjects as we try to make sense of it all or just accept that sometime we don't have a clue.

We have had the occasional guest ranging from "Candice" our first guest who asked us for directions to the toilet to theatre producer Kath Duncan and media personality Osher Günsberg.

Each episode as well as catching up on the goss we of course have a delicious refreshment provided....I wonder how long it will be till people discover this whole project is just an excuse for Carly and I to catch up and eat! 

I'd love to hear what you think of the show.

This cake is the cover art of the podcast and is a great combination of sweet, tart and sharp (possibly just like the podcast) 

Rhubarb and ginger cake
Ingredients

• 250g softened unsalted butter
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 250g self raising flour
• 1tsp ground ginger
• 1tsp baking powder
• 4 large eggs
• 100g glace/crystalised ginger roughly chopped  (plus extra to garnish)
• 250g stewed rhubarb*

Method

• Preheat oven to 180°C
• This is an all in one mix
• Add all ingredients except the ginger and rhubarb to a large mixing bowl
• Beat together to combine for a couple of minutes
• Stir in rhubarb and ginger
• Add batter to lined cake tin
• Bake at 180°C for 55-60 minutes
• Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes
• Completely cool on a wire rack
• Cover with icing and extra ginger

Cream cheese icing

Ingredients

• 250g cream cheese (full fat)
• 200g icing sugar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method

• Beat together till smooth and not grainy (can be 20 minutes so a stand mixer is a good friend)

*I stew a bunch of rhubarb cut into 5cm chunks with about 1tbs of sugar and juice of 1 lemon in a fry pan over medium heat for about 10 minutes. 

There will be some left over for breakfast with yogurt.

Carly isn't a fan of icing which just means I get her's!!!

Gluten but not glutton free....

I hadn't set out to create a gluten free treat it was just a nice added bonus so now more people can enjoy it.....but I'll need to work on the sugar/fat free bit.

 

My too cute metal lunch box I recently learned is actually called a Tiffin, which Google also taught me is the name of a no bake chocolate slice and a chocolate bar. I had to try it, the possibility of a tiffin inside my tiffin was too much resist. 

 

Normally a tiffin is based on digestive biscuits but I swapped this for a packet of plain sweet ones instead. It's rare for me to buy packet biscuits, maybe 4 packets a year at most. 

 

Each time has a specific purpose though e.g. making a chocolate ripple cake, or needing a soup mug of milky sugared tea with a packet of chocolate butternut snaps to heal the woes of the world, or a packet of fairy biscuits well because with pink icing and 100's and 1000's you really don't need a reason!

 

We hit a technique snag as the biscuits didn't survive an infuriating episode of Q and A (political question time) as it was more polite to stuff biscuit in my mouth that yell at the TV!

 

I wasn't going to buy another packet of biscuits so popcorn became the understudy waiting in the wings to go on.

 

The proof that this little experiment worked was at 2pm the next afternoon at work counting down the hours till I'd be home for another fudgy piece.

 

Only 2 pots were harmed in the making of the popcorn, I must have lost my cooking mojo for a split second as the simple task of making popcorn which I've done 1000 time just wasn't a happening thang.

 

Twitter to the rescue!

 

The no fail method is to heat the oil with 3 kernels and once they've popped it's ready for the rest.

 

For this recipe 3/4 of a cup of popping corn give you even for the recipe and a late night TV snack.

  

Almond and Ginger Popcorn Tiffin

Ingredients

• 5 cups popped pop corn (make sure there are no uncooked kernels surprises)
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 90g glacé ginger
• 90g sultanas
• 2/3 cup cream
• 100g butter
• 1/2 sugar
• zest of 1 small blood orange (optional)
• 250g dark chocolate (75% + is good)

Method

• Toast the almonds in a saucepan on low heat for a couple minutes, being mindful so they don't burn
• Finely chop the glacé ginger
• Add to a large mixing bowl, popcorn, almonds, ginger and sultanas
• In a medium saucepan add cream, butter, sugar and zest if using
• Stir over a medium heat till sugar is dissolved and butter is melted
• Remove from the heat, add chocolate and continue stirring till melted and silky
• Add the chocolate to the mixing bowl and stir to combine
• Press into a plastic wrap lined tray (18 cm x 27cm)
• Let chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or even overnight
• Remove from tray, peel off the plastic and cut into a number of socially acceptable sized potions, I'm lead to believe that "in half" is not the right answer but I am not one to judge 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice a chocolate barricade, just like Les Miserable but you actually want to go back a second time!

(referring to the film not the stage show, which is brilliant)

Chow Down to Eurovision 2013 - Iceland

Hello, or as they say in Reykjavik Komið þið sæl og blessuð, and welcome to Iceland. Our dish of the day was going to be a pepper biscuit popular at Christmas in Iceland, but as you know the oven is another technical hitch. I have found a way better option though and it has the most awesome name, rúllupylsa. A rolled, stuffed, tied, boiled, pressed and sliced sandwich meat.

 The recipe is based on this video although I am grateful I don't have boxes of recently slaughtered lambs at my supermarket. This will definitely be a regular visitor to our table as it brings back all the memories of a Monday school lunch sandwich with last night's roast lamb.

In honour of the amount of rolling involved in the rúllupylsa our Eurovision bite has just as much rolling, well make that body rolling. Selma placed 2nd in 1999 which is the highest Iceland has ever come in a final. Yvonna won semi-final 1 in 2009 but also came in 2nd on the big night. My other favourite Icelandic entries would be Euroband (a Eurovision tribute band), the power house Hera Bjork, and the classic Paul Oscar all clad in PVC and bejewelled.

Weird trivia I almost won her dress on eBay years ago, I don't think it's my colour though.

Rúllupylsa-rolled sausage
Ingredients

• 2 lamb flaps or bellies
• 2 brown onions
• 1/2 bunch parsley
• 2-3 sprigs rosemary
• 1 thumb ginger
• 1/2 tsp. all spice
• 1 glove garlic
• 2 tbsp. salt (see note)
• Kitchen string
• Weights or pot of water to press sausage

Method

• Remove the ribs from the flaps
• Remove as much fat as you want remembering it wont render away when boiling and will be part of the finished sausage.
• Lay the 2 flaps on top of each other skin side out, you can square them up but I didn't bother.
• Chop the onion, parsley, rosemary and put in a bowl
• Grate the ginger and garlic into the bowl
• Add the salt and all spice and combine
• Spread the mixture over the top of the flaps
• Roll the flaps tightly to form the sausage
• Tie with kitchen string at about 1-1.5 cm intervals
• Boil in a large pot of water for 1.5-2 hours
• Remove the sausage from the water and place in a baking tray
• Press the sausage overnight or up to 24 hours in the fridge
• You can use anything to weight it down, weights, or a pot of water etc.
• Slice thinly remembering to remove the string
• Serve on toast with mustard, it is delicious
• Note: I had made some salsa verde salt for a dear friend's birthday, and used some leftover for this recipe which I think added to the flavour. The salt is processed in a spice grinder with fresh parsley, basil, coriander, mint, and then dried in the oven.
• The next time I make this I will try and remove as much fat as possible although the mustard does cut through the fat. I will also try making the filling in the food processer to achieve a smoother texture. I'll report back if it's not as good.

 Finally 50 shades of Grey came in handy!

 Malmö will see Eythor Ingi perform Ég Á Líf  will I have another Icelandic performer to add to my list of favourites?

Gangi þér vel!

No soup for you.

Faced with the challenge of needing to devour any medicinal ingredient I could get my hands on, garlic, ginger, onions, chili, but it not being soup, I had to come up with a plan B.
Instantly rich curries and tagines come to mind, but lets not forget the man flu, it had to be ready in about 15mins and with a little effort as possible. So close to death you don't want to risk a delicious slow cook if there is a chance you won't live long enough to taste it.
The answer???

Man Flu Fried Rice

• Olive oil.
• 2 onions chopped (any colour)
• 4 cloves of garlic chopped (or as much as you or your beloved can stand)
• 4 cm ginger finely chopped
• 2 red chili sliced (seeds in or out it's up to you)
• 2 carrots grated
• 3 stalk celery sliced
• Garden fresh broccoli or any other vegetable you can get your hands on.
• 3 spring onions chopped
• 3 cups of cooked rice
• Salt and pepper
• Kecap Manis, as much as you like.

Method

• Saute onions, garlic ginger and chili with a good splash of olive oil in a fry pan.
• When the onions start to soften, add the carrot and celery and other vegetables and saute for about 5 mins, you can add a little bit of water or stock if it is too dry.
• Add the spring onions and rice.
• Add Kecap Manis, salt and pepper to taste.
• This version was meatless but you can add any meat of your choice...if you have the strength to go to the shops.
• grab a box of tissues, a blanket, pillow, boxed set of your favourite DVD and pray you have enough strength to eat.

Especially the beans

In the June edition of Feast magazine there was a Brazilian recipe Feijoada (a shredded pork stew in a cast iron pot) where the picture looked so enticing I wanted to lick the page. The list of ingredients included pig’s tail and salt dried beef and smoked sausage. I’m all for exotic ingredients if I can get them, but it has to be with minimal e.g. zero effort. I’m not one for ordering from the butcher, or green grocer, if it’s on the self I’ll take it, if not we are playing a game of substitution. One day I’ll remake this stew and post my understudy version which was page licking good, anyway one of the main ingredients was black beans.

Having left over black beans I started thinking of what could become of them and of course black bean sauce was the natural option. Slight hiccup, black bean sauce uses fermented black beans not their sober cousin, oh well quick trip to the Asian grocers because I was having black bean sauce come hell or high water. The smell of the fermented beans was amazing, so pungent and salty. I’m sure that the other drivers were a pit perplexed as I sat sniffing the bag at the traffic lights. There are numerous recipes for black bean sauce on the internet so just combined the best bits of all of them to suit my taste.

Black bean sauce

·         250g fermented black beans (soaked in water for 20 mins)

·         5 cloves garlic finely diced

·         5cm knob ginger grated

·         2 red chillies finely chopped

·         2 tbsp. spoon soy sauce

·         2 tbsp. Chinese cooking wine

·         1 cup vegetable oil

Method

·         Drain beans and slightly mash

·         Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and heat on medium.

·         I cooked it for about 10 minutes till all the flavours were combined.

·         The oil will split from the sauce but that can be drained off when using sauce.

I used the sauce to cook some seafood in and also marinated some chicken and had that with broccoli noodles. With some of the un-fermented black beans I had soaked I added these to the rice on the seafood stir fry which added nicely to the texture. The stir fry was very fancy with spring onion cake and a marbled egg, perhaps i an watching too much Master Chef.