Peanut butter cookies

The ingredients -

The recipe -

Peanut Butter Cookies

Cream    75g (salted) butter
             175g peanut butter

Add a total of 225g sugar (approx 1/3 granulated, 2/3 brown)

Mix in 1 egg

Stir in 140g plain flour
             1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

Roll into small round balls. Placed on a lightly greased baking sheet and flatten with a floured (or sugared) fork.

Bake 12-15 minutes at 180C (350F, gas 4). Makes 4-5 dozen.         


The criss-cross is crucial -

Result -

 

Easy recipe - Kobi Sabji

I'm making a record of some of my favourite recipes, so that I can easily find them.

Ingredients
Not in photo: vegetable oil, salt
I used 3/4 of the cabbage and just one of the chilis

Onions and tomatoes chopped and sauteing

Add chopped cabbage and spices

It's ready!

Kobi Sabji (for 4)

Chop 2 onions
          2 tomatoes

Heat 4 Tbsp vegetable oil

Add 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds, fry till they pop; add onions and tomatoes, cook 10 mins, stirring occasionally.

Chop a small cabbage
           2 green chilis

Add to pan along with 1/2 tsp turmeric

Cover and cook till cabbage is tender, about 10 mins.

Add 1 tsp salt, or to taste.


The recipe is easily halved, if you're cooking for one, and leftovers keep well in fridge/

Cooking by the book

A happy hour spent following the recipes to make a couple of tasty veg dishes -

 The potatoes are from Simply Ottolenghi...

The bean and herb salad is from Olia Hercules' "Mamuschka: recipes from the Ukraine & beyond" ...

Quick meals for one - an Anatolian omelette

"Vorpi jash" means "the orphan's meal", referring to its simple ingredients, says Arto der Haroutunian in Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East, one of my favourite cookbooks. "For centuries the Anatolian peasants lived, and still do, on such dishes."

In the book the recipe starts with 8 eggs and serves 3-4. This recipe cuts it down to a single serving.

First make the yoghurt sauce. (You may wish to go very easy on the garlic, though I suspect even just a little makes a flavoursome difference.)

Mix a tiny clove of garlic, crushed, and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Add 75ml plain yogurt (full-fat Greek yogurt is the best, imho). If you have a spring onion on hand, finely chop it and add. Sprinkle with 1/8 tsp dried mint.

Now for the eggy part -

In a bowl, mix together 2 eggs, 2 Tbsp milk, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper; beat lightly until just blended. 

Melt 1 Tbsp butter in a frying pan over moderate heat. Carefully pour in the mixture, stir, and leave to cook for a few minutes till the top is just set. (I turned the heat to low and put a plate over the pan to help the top set.)

Transfer onto the nice warm plate - the photo shows it flipped over - and add the yogurt sauce. Eat.


Over the years the people I cook for have come to have yogurt with a lot of dishes - curry, chili, to garnish soups - but this is the first time I've tried it with eggs. I put in rather too much garlic and next time will finely grate just the tip of a clove.

Also I'll use a slightly larger frying pan, and will give the egg mixture a good stir at the start. The golden bottom does look lovely, so flipping it onto the plate is worth the effort.

The chopped spring onion (green bit) will also add to the eye-appeal.

This is really quick to make and has protein, calcium, and all sorts of other nutritional necessities. From the eggs:  "vitamin B2 (riboflavin), vitamin B12, vitamin D, selenium and iodine. They also contain vitamin A and a number of other B vitamins including folate, biotin, pantothenic acid and choline, and other essential minerals and trace elements, including phosphorus."

84 kcal per medium egg
5.7g fat, of which 5.6g saturated fat [and the butter will increase this!]
8.3g protein

From the yogurt (75g; based on these values for full-fat greek yogurt)
82 kcal
6.4g fat, of which 4.2g saturates
3.6g carbohydrates, of which 3.5g are sugars [milk contains lactose]
0g dietary fibre
2.8g protein

Perhaps a bit high in fat for the modern diet, but those calories would have been important to the hard-working peasant.

Bran muffins

"Good for what ails you"

Bran muffins

Preheat oven to gas 6, 400F, 200C.

Grease 12 muffin cups or use paper liners.

Cream 100g butter.

Add 60g brown sugar (about 3 Tbsp)

  70g treacle (about 3 Tbsp)

  2 medium eggs

Beat till fluffy.

Mix 250g plain flour

  1-1/2 tsp baking powder

  1-1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

  1/2 tsp salt

  125g bran

Add to creamed mixture alternately with 250 ml milk to which a splash of wine vinegar or cider vinegar has been added (or use buttermilk).

Add 75g (large handful) sultanas. Mix well but quickly, then put into pans and into preheated oven.

Bake 15-18 minutes.

Home-made pesto

A basil plant has been sitting by the window for, hmm, a couple of months, getting pinched back every time there's a tomato-mozarella salad on the menu. It has suddenly put on a growth spurt, which could signal that it's about to flower, in which case the flavour of the leaves would change.

Time to make it into pesto. There should be enough basil for a decent amount of fresh yumminess.

Now that I have a "whizzy" tool with a rudimentary food processor, it takes just a few minutes. Back in their kitchens in Provence, cooks would whip up some pistou with a pestle and mortar and/or sharp knife in the time it took the soup to come to the boil. They'd use whatever was on hand - some herbs, some sort of nut, the garlic, some cheese, and quite a lot of olive oil.

Basil pesto

In a blender or food processor, place
   2 cups fresh basil leaves
   3 tablespoons pine nuts, pistachios, or walnuts
   2 large cloves garlic, smashed
Whirl until finely minced. Add
   3 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
   4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Process till blended. Transfer to small bowl, cover, chill.

Covering the pesto with a layer of olive oil protects it from oxidation (the unsightly muddy look) - or press clingfilm onto the surface.


The book was published in 1994 and is still available. I bought, and hold on to it, because of the illustrations - but its recipes have proved useful over the years.

"Forest Scrumpy" (1998)

This recipe makes a much nicer drink than elderflower cordial (imho) and you also get the pleasure (imho) of picking the berries.

This book evolved within minutes in an illustration class at London College of Printing, as it was then. It was my first experience of how art could "just happen" - but of course it didn't just happen, there had been subconscious preparation: the learning that was happening on the course, my experience of making the drink and of making other books.

What was instantaneous - and fortuitous - was the scrap of yellow that seemed to need a hand on it (ie, wearing Marigolds to pick the berries rather than staining your hands). And the rest dropped into place.

Later the pages became potholders, made with applique and embroidery, but never used in the kitchen - and I still have a few of the resulting postcards -

"Serves 4 as side salad"

This recipe has been drifting around my desktop for a while now -

At some point I really did intend to make it, but today - it being Saturday, the traditional housework day for women who work outside the home - a frantic ruthlessness has come over me, such that I was about to finally put it in the bin but first had a quick read of it. I'm a sucker for variants on coleslaw, especially if they're not drowning in mayonnaise.


White cabbage salad with bacon and mustard

For the dressing:
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp grated horseradish
3 level Tbsp creme fraiche
1 tsp groundnut oil
salt and pepper

For the salad:
10 dried apple rings
4 dried peach halves
12 prunes
4 Tbsp raisins
12 dried apricots
12 rashers of smoked bacon, cooked crisp
375g hard white cabbage, finely shredded
1 orange, peeled and sliced
12 walnuts, shelled

Mix up the dressing ingredients and marinate the dried fruits in the dressing for 30 minutes.
Chop the bacon into 1" pieces, add to the cabbage, fruits etc and toss gently.
Transfer to a clean dish and serve.
Serves 4 as a side salad.

What! - as side salad a person would be required to consume 3 rashers of bacon, 3 whole walnuts, 2.5 apple rings, a peach half, 3 prunes, 3 dried apricots - not to mention some raisins and a bit of fresh orange - and not to forget several handfuls of shredded cabbage - all moistened by a dab of dressing. No no no no no...

Don't make this at home!

And when you read a recipe, whether in a magazine (does anyone proofread them?) or online (ditto), do keep your wits about you. Obviously I didn't do that, all those years ago when, intrigued by mustard and horseradish as a foil for the fruits, I cut it out and kept it.

Food for friends

This week is turning out to be Traybake Week at Kitchen136. What a great way to feed people - you cut up a few veg, add some chunks of chicken if desired, mix some spices or herbs, and into the oven it all goes. There's not even very much to wash up at this stage, and the kitchen will be in a tidy state before the doorbell rings and the wine gets poured.

The spice mixture on the Chicken, red pepper, etc traybake was really good - fennel seeds, smoked paprika, cumin, lemon zest, garlic - who knew!

The Spinach, ricotta, and chicken recipe, with veg roasted in a separate pan, is untried, that happens tonight ... and it needs the chicken breasts stuffing with a spinach and ricotta mixture, which is a teeny bit fiddly imho, but it all cooks at the same time, without different saucepans needing timing, which is my criterion for an easy life.

The spicy roast veg and lentils recipe is untried too -- but lots of veg are on hand for tomorrow's debut. The recipe calls for tinned puy lentils, which will take further searching for - or else I'll boil up some dried ones, just like we used to do in the bad old days before everything came in tins.

Cakes and all they stand for

It was a workshop at Alston Hall that set me on the road to ruin as far as traditional cakes are concerned. At teatime, Victoria Sponge was on offer - something I've seen lots of but never eaten ("so boring"). This was a revelation. And since then, the notion of making one myself has been in the back of my mind - reinforced by the madly impulsive decision to have a victoria sponge cupcake with my coffee in a cafe recently. A cupcake - shock horror, and not for the purist, but rather good....

Traditionally one takes 4 eggs, weighs them, and uses the same weight of butter, sugar, flour. The mixture goes into two 8" sandwich tins and bakes till golden, then the layers get a filling of jam. Done, dusted (with icing sugar on top). And maybe cream is added to the filling.

My research found an article that compared the "add one ingredient at a time" approach with the more modern "put it all in a bowl and beat it" approach - from which I concluded that easy does it, and got out the hand mixer. The butter had nicely come to room temperature, the eggs also - the recipe called for 4 medium eggs, 200g each of butter, sugar, self-raising flour - and a teaspoon of vanilla. The dough was a bit hard to level in the tins - and only 7" tins were available - but I went ahead, Delia's stern advice about having the proper size of tin niggled a little, and I watched with dismay as the middles rose alarmingly, leaving a flat area round the edge. 

On we bash, though, and once the cakes were cool, on went the jam and then cream and then the top layer, to await the rest of the tea party. 

Unfortunately, when it came to cutting the cake, we noticed that tectonics had been happening - a gentle slithering took the top layer slightly off to one side, and its weight sent the cream cascading off the edges all around the plate. No photo is available of this sad sight. 

I found it rather sweet - and heavy - and next time will try the butterless version.

This recipe makes one, 9" layer; 3 eggs, milk, lemon zest, and oh dear, a "dinnerspoon" of salt - what on earth is a dinnerspoon? Do we need salt at all?

This one uses 3 eggs, 75g sugar, 75g s-r flour for one 7" layer (ie, 6 eggs for the entire cake) - but it suggests whipping single cream, which ain't gonna work too well - you need the fat to hold the stiffness.

This one is vegan-friendly, should a friendly vegan be coming to tea - no eggs, and non-dairy milk is used, as well as a non-dairy buttercream.

"A quick, inexpensive cake that is relatively good for you" - that's the Irish version, according to Irish-American Mum, and here's her photo (the cream looks like it could start its tectonic cascade at any moment...) -

The recipe is given in American measurements, but on this side of the pond we might want to use what her mother used:  4 eggs, 4 ounces of sugar and 4 ounces of flour - easy to remember. Have your eggs at room temperature and beat, beat, beat. You'll want two 9" cake tins, and despite what the blogger says about the joys of using "non-stick spray infused with flour", go ahead and use butter and flour for the tins if you want!

Perhaps another Afternoon Tea, soon, is called for ... once I get some 9" cake tins.

For the record, here are many sponge cake recipes; if you try them all, please report back on your favourite (or what to avoid).

If you have access to catch-up radio, a recent Food Programme on BBC radio is all about the significance and making of cakes. What a heartwarming story about how the Clandestine Cake Club was started by Lynne Hill.

To bring in something seasonal - if it's Christmas cakes you're after - panettone, pandoro, stollen, buche de noel, galette des rois, bolo rei de natal, even japanese christmas cake, as well as english christmas cake and (scottish) Dundee cake - here's where to buy them in London, as well as a bit of their background.

Sorting through the recipe box

Three magazine-boxes full of recipes, sorted through. I kept a handful - a few with Tony's written notes, and a few of my favourites of the many meals he made.

Reminiscence...

Tony came to be The Cook because of That Darn Old Cooker. The brown monster had been in the house since the 70s, and not only was it electric, not gas, but it had those old-fashioned spiral rings. Which had among them various sorts of slopes, so that pans heated only where they touched the ring, which was in a small amount of the available area. Sometimes you'd lift the pan and 3/4 of the ring would be glowing red - heat that should have transferred to the metal of the pan.

After a few years of battling with this, and making strong suggestions about New Cookers to no avail, I simply refused to cook any more. And Tony took over, first from the Waitrose recipe cards, then using the pictures (and shortness of list of ingredients) in the 101 Recipes books as a basis for choosing the dish. He often used the BBC Good Food website, printing out the recipes, some of them several times over the years, as I discovered when going through the printouts.

There came a time, was it 2009, when the kitchen needed repainting and it was decided to get a new cooker at last - "just to please you" may have been the words he used. What a treat to have a gas hob, and to have an accurate oven! By then his chefly repertoire was extensive - what pleasure to become aware of good smells wafting up to my weekend studio, followed by the arrival of a glass of wine and an estimate of when the meal would be ready. Ah there are things you miss ... chief among them, the cook ... but I don't miss That Old Cooker, not at all!

A nice light dessert

"Lemon Snow" is one of my favourite desserts from childhood, but I've rarely made it myself. Using gelatin has put me off - getting it dissolved without heating it so much that it loses its setting power. The recipe comes from Dr Oetker's "German Home Cooking" (vintage 1970s), in which it's called Lemon Cream, even though it's dairy free; there's another recipe for Lemon Cream with Milk, which as far as I know is not the one my mother made.

Putting lemon zest into little bags and into the freezer has nothing whatsoever to do with the recipe
(they are destined for gremolata at some later date)

Assemble tools and ingredients - dissolving the gelatin in a pan was a mistake

Lemon Cream

Needs a small bowl, a medium bowl, and a large bowl; whisk; pan with hot water

Separate 3 eggs; measure out 100g sugar; juice 2 large lemons (2 ½ smaller ones).

Put       6 Tbsp water in a small bowl

Add     a packet gelatine (12g) – sprinkle onto the water and stir, then leave to soak for about 10 mins. Put over simmering water and stir over low heat just until completely dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Whisk the egg whites till stiff; add a third of the sugar. (No need to wash the whisk before the next step.)

Add     4 Tbsp warm water

to the egg yolks and beat vigorously until very frothy. Gradually add the rest of the sugar and beat until the mixture is thick and creamy. Whisk in the lemon juice and dissolved gelatine. As soon as the cream begins to thicken, fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Put into individual serving dishes or a pretty bowl. Chill until set.

Ready to chill

Tis the season...

...to be baking! My efforts this year include, left to right in the photo, Vanillehörnchen, Husarenkrapfen, Haselnussringen, and Schokoladenschäumchen, recipes from a German cookbook first published in 1911 that belonged to my mother. I don't think she used it much - her favourite was Dr.Oetker. But it does have over 100 cookie/biscuit/Plätzchen/Kekse recipes, and another section on cakes - rich pickings!

The recipe for Vanillehörnchen is here. Shortbread with ground almonds, and not too sweet, they are our default xmas cookies.

Husarenkrapfen - hussar's doughnuts - are this year's discovery - they melt in the mouth, and the speck of jam gives them zing.

Haselnussringen should, or could, be cut with a ring cutter, but I had to make do with a round cutter with an interesting edge. If you can get hold of coarse sugar to sprinkle on top, all the better.

Schokoladenschäumchen - chocolate meringues - are "under development" at my place. They need to be small so that they dry out and are crispy - what I thought were small shapes turned out to expand rather in the baking; the soft centres were very chewy and the outsides extremely crunchy.

It's amazing how many different results can be had with various combinations of butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and additions of nuts, chocolate, etc. My project is to bake more of these "lost" recipes ... lost to me, without my mother around to bake them, but very much alive on www.chefkoch.de - 275,000 recipes (not all for cookies, of course; check out the tempting photos).

Husarenkrapfen (hussar's doughnuts)

150g butter

65g sugar, including a tsp vanilla sugar

2 egg yolks, plus an extra one* for brushing (optional)

160g flour

about 2Tbsp (raspberry) jam

Cream the butter, beat in the sugar and egg yolks, then add flour. Make little balls (slightly smaller than a walnut) with the dough and dent the tops with your finger or a thimble. Let stand in a cool place or the fridge for 1-2 hours.

Brush with the extra egg yolk*, put a tiny bit of jam in the indentation, and bake in a moderate oven (350F, 180C, gas 4) for 30 minutes. Makes about 30.

*Alternatively, dust with icing sugar once the biscuits have cooled.

Haselnussringchen (hazelnut rings)

250g butter

250g sugar

2 eggs plus one yolk

500g flour

90g ground hazelnuts

Cream the butter, add other ingredients one at a time. Let the dough rest for an hour, then roll out 1/3cm (1/8") thick and cut, preferably with ring shaped cutter. Spread with a beaten egg yolk and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts and Hagelzucker (coarse granulated sugar). Bake at moderate heat (350F, 180C, gas 4) for about 30 minutes, till golden. Makes about 60.

Schokoladenschmäumchen (little chocolate meringues)

2 medium egg whites (60g)

10g vanilla sugar

340g icing sugar (270g plus 70g)

80g dark chocolate

30 g cocoa

Grate the chocolate on a medium grater and set aside. Beat the egg whites till stiff, then beat in the 10g vanilla sugar and sift in the 270g icing sugar. Mix in the grated chocolate and sift in the cocoa.

Put the 70g icing sugar on a board (or the counter) and onto it the mixture; flatten the mixture to 3/4 cm thick, then cut into small (2 – 3 cm) shapes. Lay the shapes onto a buttered baking tray, leaving 2cm between them and let stand for 1-2 hours to dry. 

Bake in a low oven (275F, 140C, gas 1) for 1-1½ hours; it’s more drying than actual baking. Wait 5 mins before removing them from the baking tray.

Makes about 50, depending on the size of your shapes.

Viennese crescents, Vanillehoernchen, Kipferl ...

... they may have other names as well. Around our house they are THE Christmas cookie. The recipe is given in American cups (8 fluid ounces).

1 cup butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 cup ground almonds (a 150-gram packet)
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Mix the ingredients, adding them in order and blending well each time.

Roll small balls of the dough between your hands and shape into crescents. Put on baking trays and into a preheated 180C oven for about 30 minutes, till they are slightly brown.

Let cool, then roll in icing sugar. Makes about 4 dozen, depending on size.

Easy-peasy nibbley things

Ingredients - puff pastry, tomatoes, black olives, feta, herbs (eg basil) -- and olive oil

Heat oven to 200C

Cut the ends off 12 tomatoes and cut in half; chop 9 olives very fine, and chop 9 thin slices feta very fine.

Lay the tomatoes on the rolled pastry (this is half a packet) and cut into squares

Transfer to baking tray 

Adorn the tomatoes with olives and feta, separately or as a mixture
(the feta has a mind of its own - press it firmly onto the tomato)

Bake 15 mins or until golden; sprinkle with finely-chopped herbs

They are very nice  served still warm, with the pastry all crispy and the tomato so juicy

Warming wishes for the new year

The end of 2013 saw a flurry of soupy activity in the kitchen and some tasty results - so here is the method, in hopes it will inspire you … but no doubt many readers do exactly this already!

May you enjoy it in good company...

Fruitful pursuit

These jars of chutney used up 20 apples - and took 2.5 hours to make, much of it spent peeling and chopping the apples and tomatoes and mint. With The Food Programme and Gardeners Question Time on in the background, for much of the time.

Which, at time of writing, leaves these bruised beauties to turn into jelly (with lemon and ginger) -

And more will be coming off the tree... Might get around to trying chilli apple jelly with the next lot.

Apple Mint Chutney

Peel, core, and chop 4 lb (2kg) cooking apples.
Skin and chop 1 lb (500g) ripe tomatoes.

Cook apples with 1/2 pint (450ml) vinegar until thick and pulpy, then stir in the tomatoes and
another 1/2 pint vinegar
1 lb (450g) soft brown sugar
2 level teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 tsp mixed spice
large pinch cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lb (250g) seedless raisins

Cook for 15 minutes, then add
2oz (50g) finely chopped mint and cook a further 5 mins or until thick.
Pot and cover.

Apple Jelly

per 2 lb (1 kg) apples - use 1 large or 2 small lemons, 1 tablespoon ground ginger. 

Cut up the apples, removing bruises etc. Put in a pan with grated lemon rind and cold water almost to cover (the amount depends on the hardness of the fruit), then cook slowly till soft, 30 mins or so. 

Put pulp into jelly bag over a large bowl and leave to drain for 3-4 hours or overnight. Don't squeeze the bag (it will make the jelly cloudy). 

Measure the juice and put in a large pan with an equal volume of sugar, the juice of the lemons, and the ginger. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Boil vigorously for 10-15 minutes or until setting point is reached. On a sugar thermometer, the setting point will be reached at 105C/220F - or, drop some jelly onto a cold plate and if it forms a crinkly skin, it's set.*

Remove the pan from the heat and leave to settle for a few minutes. Skim* the surface. Pour the liquid jelly through a wide mouthed funnel into jars that have been sterilized (put in oven at 90C/200F/Gas¼). Seal each jar with a lid.


Here's what Delia says about setting point, and about skimming -

How to test for a set: at the same time as you begin cooking the fruit, place three or four saucers in the freezing compartment of the fridge. When you have boiled the jam for the given time, remove the pan from the heat and place a teaspoonful of the jam on to one of the chilled saucers. Let it cool back in the fridge, then push it with your finger: if a crinkly skin has formed on the jam, then it has set. It if hasn’t continue to boil for another 5 minutes, then do another test.

Don’t worry about any scum that rises to the surface while the jam is boiling – if you keep skimming it off, you’ll finish with no jam at all! Instead, wait until you have a set, then remove the jam from the heat and stir in a small lump of butter, which will disperse the scum.

Gunpowder cake

Why it's called gunpowder cake, I don't know. The recipe comes from a book that seems to have disappeared from my shelves, published by the Royal College of Art sometime last century, with contributions from various staff members - not just recipes, but drawing to go with them. (Used copies are obtainable for a pittance (plus postage; it was published in 1987, before recipes went into grams etc.)

Instead of eggs, this wartime recipe uses vinegar (and baking soda) as a raising agent. We find that, rather than icing, whipped cream is the best filling and topping. Though a whipped cream filling and a chocolate glaze is nice too.

My copy of the recipe has been much annotated, to fit various pan sizes, so much so that I can no longer make sense of it!

Let's start with the original recipe, converted to metric. If you are using plain flour, add 5ml (a teaspoon) of baking powder for every 100g flour. If you've run out of cocoa but happen to have some drinking chocolate on hand, substitute it for the sugar and cocoa - just add up the grams of the two ingredients.

First, heat the oven to 190C, 375F, gas 5. Butter the baking tin(s) - I usually flour them too.

Gunpowder Cake - for 8" round pan (20cm)

Sieve into bowl:
160g self-raising flour (1-1/2 cups)
125g sugar (1 cup)
30g (2 Tbsp) cocoa 
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Melt 150g butter (or use spreadable butter) (5 ounces)
Add to bowl with
2 Tbsp vinegar
250ml warm water (1 cup)
splash vanilla
Mix. Put in well-greased tin. Bake at 190C (375F) for 40 mins, till cake pulls away from the edges of the pan and springs back when touched lightly.


For an 8" (20cm) square pan, or two 7" (18cm) tins [a very British size], use 1-1/2 times the recipe -

Sieve into bowl:
210g self-raising flour
125g sugar [we like it less sweet]
45g (3 Tbsp) cocoa
1-1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Melt 225g butter (or use spreadable butter)
Add to bowl with
3 Tbsp vinegar
340ml warm water (1-1/2 cups)
splash vanilla
Mix. Put in well-greased tin. Bake at 190C (375F) for 40 mins, till cake pulls away from the edges of the pan and springs back when touched lightly.


Following the second recipe, baked in two 8" layer tins, this was the result -

I was alarmed by how thin the dough was, and unfortunately adding the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients resulted in a lot of lumps. By the time I'd sorted those out, the fizzing reaction had stopped, and the layers came out of the oven rather flat. But it was airy and tender nonetheless - and delicious.

So I suggest you add the liquid gradually.

Making borscht

Onion, leek, celery, carrot - and of course beetroot. The "perfect" recipe - of which this is a variation - is here. A wonderful soup - we have it with full-fat greek-style yogurt, rather than sour cream.

Roman potatoes

A simple recipe, nice to make on a chilly day  -

Cut potatoes (the amount above is from four largeish potatoes) into 2cm dice, dry them, coat with flour, toss in an oiled pan, roast in a moderate oven for about an hour, stirring if you remember. At the outset, scatter some garlic cloves (unpeeled, for squeezing out when cooked) and rosemary sprigs among the potatoes. (Salt and pepper at your discretion.)