White wine, olive oil and polenta cake

This recipe was the one I was talking about yesterday. It comes from June 2008's issue of Delicious, written by Rick Stein.

It's very Italian to me, or at least Mediterranean. The taste of the olive oil is very prominent and I thought that maybe if I left it for a day, the olive oil taste might be a little more mellow. Turned out, I was wrong, I tried it this morning and it's still there. I did reduce the amount of oil called for and added a tbsp and a half of lemon juice. The lemon taste is beautiful bolstered by the white wine. Rick called for a sauvignon blanc or riesling, but I had an opened bottle of chardonnay so I used that instead. The aromas weaving through my little apartment was so promising, so I was a little disappointed by the strong olive oil taste. It made me feel like I was eating oily cake which isn't appetizing...not very anyway. The lemon and wine made things a heap better, or perhaps I'm just not used to it. Fred liked it though but it wasn't our favourite.

Also something went funny when I tried mixing the flour into the liquid batter. It got clumpy and scary so I did something bad...I just used my hand mixer to whisk in the flour until it was homogenous. I know, I shouldn't have, especially when the eggs had been ribboned prior. But better than eating bits of flour I suppose. Do try out the recipe since it's so simple and let me know what I did wrong. It's simple enough to try again.

White Wine, Olive Oil and Polenta Cake (serves 8)
2 eggs
250g caster sugar (I used 175g)
150 ml white wine (such as sauvignon blanc or riesling)
150 ml olive oil (i used 125ml + 1 tbsp lemon juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
175g plain flour (I used 1 cup rice and 1/4 tapioca and potato starch each + 1 tbsp almondmeal)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 instant polenta ( I used 1/4 cup polenta and almond meal each)
Icing sugar, to dust.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Grease and line the base and sides of a 24 cm springform cake pan.
Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and whisk using an electric hand whisk. Whisk for 10 minutes or until thick enough to form ribbons when you trail it on the surface.
Gently beat in the white wine, olive oil, vanilla and lemon zest and juice. Sift over the flour and baking powder.
Gently fold it with a metal spoon until just conbined, then fold in the polenta and almond meal. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

*oh, I just realized, I didn't sift the flour over the liquids, I merely tipped it in... oops.

cold

I am going to apologize for being bad and not blogging for over a month. But it's been a busybusy time for me. For starters, I had to move out of my old apartment to my current one. So that was a really big deal and the amount of clothes and shoes (ahem) I had, made it a... bigger deal. Plus, I was bed ridden for a week, down with that dreadful thing called a flu. I never knew that you lose all sense of taste when you're out sick. The only thing I could taste amidst all the sniffling was peanut butter and apples. Luckily they go together so that was all I ate for about 3 days. Evil, I know but a girl's got to eat! =) Well it's not that I stopped baking or eating, I just momentarily stopped blogging.

The word cold has so many meanings. It describes the weather here right about now. Cold, very icy cold. Sometimes it's a good thing especially when you're wearing new heels and the cold numbs your feet so you can't feel the pain. Sometimes it's a hindrance, especially when you have 9am classes and your jeans have been sitting on the sofa all night exposed to the cold. And as you pull them on, they bit your legs with the cold. And sometimes it's how I feel, inside. A lonely kind of cold. I realized this when I listened to an entire album by Taylor Swift and the only song I could relate to was 'Cold as You'. Hmmm... oh and I might watch Wicked alone (the Broadway musical about what went on behind the Wizard of Oz-kinda like the untold story). It might be something new for me. I've grown accustomed to shopping alone, exploring alone and eating alone.

Okay, now that I've bared my soul and wallowed in self-pity, I've got a cake baking in the oven (I love my oven) for this month's SHF. It's from June 08 Delicious, a recipe by Rick Stein. A lemon, olive oil and white wine cake. Since it's still baking I can't really say how it turned out. I will update this post though. So stay tuned!

Swiss Roll Recipe

This is a reader request. The recipe for the swiss roll from the previous entry. Here goes!

Swiss Roll (adapted from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Light Desserts)
4 large eggs, seperated
3/4 cup sugar divided (I would cut it down to 1/2 maybe)
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup (less 1 tbsp) rice flour
1 tbsp corn flour (from corn)
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup all-fruit spread, warmed
icing sugar, for dusting

1) Heat oven to 170 degrees celcius
2) Whisk the yolks with half the sugar and vanilla. Whisk for about 1 minute or more until mixture is pale and aerated (ribbon stage)
3) Combine the egg whites and salt in another bowl and whip until they are white, opaque and just beginning to hold their shape. Add remaining sugar in a stream, while whipping, until they hold a firm peak.
4) Fold the yolk mixture into the egg whites
5) Stir the flours and baking powder together and sift 1/3 over the egg mixtures, carefully folding in. Repeat with each remaining third of the flour mixture.
6) Scrape batter into prepared pan (I used the baking tray that comes with the oven, sprayed with cooking spray and lined with sprayed foil/parchment). Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until wellrisen
7) Turn cake layer out on a clean tea towel, sprinkled with icing sugar. Carefully roll up loosely and let it semi-cool in that shape. Slowly unroll and let cool completely, before spreading the warmed jam and slowly rolling it back. =)
8) Sprinkle with icing sugar and eat!
9) happyhappy in your tummy!

Jam and Rolls

You know why I love Borders? Because every once in awhile they do something great...like give out 40% off one full-price book vouchers. And as long as you keep printing them, you keep getting them. HOW WONDERFUL!

But seeing that I had bought 2 books 2 weeks ago, I only had reason to buy one-really. And with the looming shift to the new house approaching, I really didn't want to pack an extra book. Trust me, if you had this much stuff, you'd understand too. =) So I bought Nick Malgieri's Perfect Light Desserts and ohboy ohboy am I excited!!! I felt like something jam filled. So duh, Jam Swissroll? I used the swissroll recipe from the book, but made it gluten free by using 1 cup rice flour + 1 tbsp cornstarch as a substitute. Worked like a charm though the rolling bit was a little tough. Yummy nonetheless! A little too sugary for me, so I might cut down on the sugar in the sponge. However this time I just made a tangy sour lemon icing (juice of 1/2 lemon + 3 tbsp icing sugar) to cut the sweetness. And just because it's pretty, I HAD to sprinkle that icing sugar on top. WHOOPEE! =) I would really love to type the recipe here but I'm killing myself thinking about a deadline. So off I go... sorry guys! =)

All toasty inside

I love bread. I love bread with sugar and a generous sprinkling of raw sugar crystals. I love bread with jams boasting giant sized fruit pieces. I love bread with nutella and peanut butter together. I love bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I love bread smothered with baked beans and a sunny side up, with the yolk still runny. YUP! I love all of it. ALL OF IT.

But then I became gluten free (mostly) and bye-bye bread. No more bread basket, no more buns filled with custard, no more no more no more.

BUT THEN! A whole plethora of creative people became gluten free too. So they solved this major problem. and HELLO BREAD!!!

I tried out this recipe from recipezaar, apparently it was taken from Roben Ryberg. Somehow it didn't work out for me. I didn't have the potato starch so I substituted it with sweet rice flour and tapioca starch. My mixture looked like pancake batter, goopy. So I figured why not, and I added a whole other bunch of things like cornmeal (polenta) and besan flour. Mix mix mix. Then I forgot the xantham gum. And I was kinda in a i really don't care kinda mood so I shoved it into the oven to bake and WHOAAAA it rose and rose. haha, it was pretty funny. Like the batter was creeping out of the muffin holes and kissing each other. heh. They stopped short of the edge of the pan and that's all I ask for, really.

And it was yummy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. YUMMY. =) I had them fresh yesterday with tuna and avocado. But as with all/most gluten free baked stuff, they taste better warmed up the day. So I cut one into half, toasted it and had it with my fig & vanilla jam on one half. And tuna on the other. I think I might've had one bite with both jam and tuna but you didn't need to know that. =)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1 packet dry yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 c sweet rice flour
1/4c tapioca flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
dash of salt
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar (any will do)
1/4 cup besan flour
1/4 cup cornmeal (polenta)

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees fanforced
2) Mix all ingredients together.
3) Pour into well-oiled muffin tin (1/2 full) and bake for 10 minutes, check if cooked, if not bake further. Sorry I wasn't paying too close attention to the time. =)

They look kinda like crumpets once you slice them open. yummers.

Bad Day

You know those days, you wake up and you instantly know you're just not quite ready to meet the world. Yeah, kinda like today. Looking for apartments to rent is killing my brain and everytime I make that phone call to enquire, I'm pretty sure the property's already been leased or it's a 12 month lease only (just when I needed 6). So what do you do? You thank god that at least the muffins turned out right. And you fool yourself by saying that they're packed chock full of fibre and other good stuff. And that they're actually not too bad. So now I can admit, I've had 8 of these things since 12noon.

I know. Don't judge me, I've had a bad day. Ending with a mighty headache.

Morning Glory Muffins (makes 13-15) adapted from here
(Gluten Free and Vegan)
Whisk Together:
1 tub (reg. serving) vanilla soy yoghurt
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed in 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup veg oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 cup sugar

Add In:
3/4 quinoa flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 generous tbsp rice flour
1/2 cup corn flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Finally, Mix In:
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/3 cup grated courgette
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup sun dried muscatels/raisins
1/4 cup crushed pecans/walnuts

Stir until well blended and spoon into muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes then check for doneness. I can't remember how long mine took so check at 15 mins and estimate from there. Frost after they have cooled.

To Frost, Mix:
1/4 cup vanilla soy yoghurt
1 tbsp honey

Bad day = lazy = no photos. Sorry guys. But trust me on this, I love these muffins. I'm off to get my eighth.

(Almost) Raw Chocolate Tartlet

I've been been fascinated with the different types of diets people adopt. There's the vegetarian diet, vegan diet and now, the raw diet. It's not something new and it basically revolves around the idea that food heated above 116 degrees Fahrenheit destroys the beneficial enzymes present in our food. The diet is vegan but brought to the next level. I know I'd probably never be able to live on raw food (despite it's yumminess) because I really do love my grandma's cooking, none of which, are raw. But nonetheless, it doesn't stop me from trying recipes from the wondrous pool of raw recipes out there. I was rummaging through Heidi's 101cookbooks and decided to use her raw peaches and cream pie recipe, with a slight change.

I followed the pie crust recipe but had trouble with it turning as wet as I would've liked it to so I added 1.5 tbsp of water just to help reach the desired consistency. I left half of the nuts out of the food processor, while processing the rest with the water, then I added the rest in and just mixed it with a spoon so it wouldn't be too wet and still remain chunky.

For the filling, I decided I really needed a chocolate hit and my peaches weren't in the best condition so I did this:

In a food processor, place 1 cup cashews (soaked in water for 30 mins and drained), 1.5 tbsp honey, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of salt, 2.5 tbsp cocoa powder, juice of 1/4 lemon. Process for 2-3 mins. Add 1 teaspoonful of water and process again, continuing the adding of water until you get a paste like, spreadable consistency. My tartlet is ALMOST raw because I added choc soy milk instead. Use chocolate spread to fill tartlet shell/s.

And because I'm a greedy giant, I placed my tartlet in the freezer for 10 minutes before transferring it to the fridge. It held VERY well, much better than some of my gluten free tarts and was incredibly yummy although I would use a milder tasting honey or maybe maple syrup instead. I halved the recipe and got 2 bountiful tartlets. It serves about 4. =)