Norwegian apple cake - nom!

Hello Friends,
What a fab autumn day it's been today. A lovely walk at Creswell Crags, now back to light our pumpkin, fill a glass & settle in to celebrate Samhain night. 

I wanted to bake something for today which used some of our own fruit, so I chose Norwegian Apple Cake. I've been baking this cake since I was about 14 years old. Everyone who tries it says how nice it is, so I thought I'd share the recipe. It's from an ancient cookery book, now very much defunct, which I no longer own, but I pretty much know this recipe by heart. If you've got a few nice sharp-tasting apples handy, give it a go. You do need a reasonably deep rectangular tin. The very shallow ones used for tray-bakes are not deep enough. You need the sort of tin you might make a Yorkshire pudding in.

This was the view from our kitchen window as I was baking mine. A lot of leaf-raking to be done this week, particularly as Albert Whiskers is starting to trail them in on route to the fridge. Anyway, on to the cakeypoo:

Norwegian Apple Cake

2 eggs
9oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
1/4 pint milk
6.5 oz plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
4 nice sharp-tasting apples (3 will be enough if they are the big Bramleys)

Grease & lightly flour a deep rectangular baking or roasting tin (approx. 20 x 30cms). Pre-heat oven to Gas 6. Put 1 oz of the sugar aside on a saucer. 
Put the milk & butter into a small pan & gently melt, then start bringing it to the boil.
While it's heating, crack the eggs into a bowl, add 8 oz of the sugar & whisk together till pale & thick. The mixture needs to be thick enough to leave a trail when you lift the whisk. 
Keep the whisk handy & finish bringing the milk & butter mixture to the boil. 
Now get the electric whisk going with one hand & with the other, add the buttery milk STILL BOILING HOT in a careful steady stream into the sugar & eggs, while you whisk it in. 
Sieve the flour & baking powder swiftly into the mixture & carefully but thoroughly fold it in with a spatula. 
Pour it into your greased & floured tin. 
Now, working quickly, peel & core the apples, quarter them, then slice quite thinly. 
Arrange the apple slices in rows across the top of the mixture. You should have plenty, so overlap them a little if you want, to fit them all on.
Sprinkle the surface with the reserved 1 oz of caster sugar.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 25 mins until well-risen & golden brown. The sugary top shouldn't 'catch', but if it looks like it's going too dark, cover it with a piece of baking parchment for the last little bit of cooking time. (This is a moist cake because of all the apple, but do give it a little poke in the centre, just to check the batter is not still liquid. If this happens, just give it another 5 mins). 
Leave it to cool in the tin before cutting into slices (makes about 10 'normal' size or 8 if one of the eaters is my husband). Before serving, sift a little icing sugar on top or a sprinkle of caster sugar. 
It's nice on its own, but its niceness is elevated further by a blob of clotted cream.

This is an easy cake to make. It's a runny mixture, so don't start worrying & thinking you've done it wrong. It's more like the consistency of pancake batter than normal cake mixture. Just stick with it & you'll soon be tucking into a lush warm slice of Autumn. Enjoy!

Well,  it will soon be time to sit down with a little bowl of these spicy roasted pumpkin seeds at my side, candles lit, ready to watch The Wicker Man  - the original, of course!

Autumn blessings to you all from The People & Cats Republic,
C x

Pear Chutney (This is seriously yum!)

Hello Friends,
Anyone who has spoken to me recently will know that after my loathing of the Tory government, the next topic of conversation is currently our inundation here at 'Hagstones' with pears! Our old Conference pear tree produces fine crops, despite the foliage being affected with pear rust & the buds trashed every Spring by the local sparrow mafia. I've made blackberry & pear jam, pear chutney, 2 pear cakes, oodles of pear & cinnamon compote, which I like on top of porridge & I've given 2 stones in weight of them to Labour Party comrades in a trade for some of their lovely allotment summer berries. However, I'm still picking up this sort of quantity every couple of days.......

.....& I can see there are more than as many again under the tree for gathering today. I've been asked to share my pear chutney recipe this morning, so here it is. I'm really proud of this one, because it isn't someone else's recipe which I make or have tinkered with, it actually is my own recipe. Anyone remember this fab foodie/cookery mag?

Sadly, it ceased to exist around 4 years ago, much missed by me, & I've kept all my old copies. Anyway, before they went bust, they chose my Pear Chutney recipe for their 'Reader's Seasonal Recipe' page.

I make this chutney every year. It keeps well & makes a nice gift, particularly at Christmas, as it goes so well with ham & different cheeses. Unlike most chutneys, it doesn't require maturing time, so you can start slathering it on your sarnies pretty much immediately. Makes around 8 large jars, but sterilize some extra ones just in case, as chutney-making, like most things in my life, isn't an exact science.

Pear Chutney

Ingredients

2.7 kg pears

1.6 kg white granulated sugar

900 ml white wine vinegar (cider or malt vinegar are fine)

1 kg onions

1 kg sultanas

5 red chillies, de-seeded (dried are also fine)

2.5 tsp salt

2.5 cm cube root ginger, grated

1 level tsp ground mixed spice

Chop the onions & chillies. Put in a preserving pan. 

Peel, core & chop the pears. Add to the pan.

Add the rest of the ingredients. Heat slowly, stirring well until the sugar has dissolved.

Bring to the boil, turn down heat & simmer until the chutney is thick & sticky. 

It's ready for bottling when most BUT NOT ALL of the liquid on the top has gone. The chutney will continue to thicken as it stores, so you don't want it to get too dry.

While the chutney is cooking, wash the jars & lids in very hot soapy water, arrange in a roasting tray & sterilize in the oven at Gas 2, turning temperature down to lowest setting until you're ready to use them. Make sure that the lids are the ones which are coated inside, as vinegar can react with metal lids & taint the chutney.

Carefully ladle the chutney into the hot sterilized jars, wipe the jars with a hot very clean cloth & seal with the lids.

As you can see, this is a rich, sticky chutney. It's very easy to make & would be a good recipe for someone who is new to chutney-making. The only thing to watch out for is that the chutney doesn't 'catch' on the bottom of the pan as it starts to thicken, as this can result in blackened sultanas & a slight burnt flavour. Just get plenty of good music going in the kitchen, & make sure you are on hand to give the pan a good stir fairly regularly as it cooks.

I hope I haven't made this sound complicated, because it really is an easy recipe, & well worth making to liven up the winter larder. If anyone out there is as armpit deep in pears as we are, do give it a go!

Until next time, which will be feline fun & games.

C x

Phew! Sitting down with cup of coffee at last......

Hello Friends,
I'm making headway now with all the tasks I'd fallen behind with. Today I put the greenhouse to bed for the winter. That's always a bit of a seasonal marker. First, I collected up all the remaining food,

including red peppers (Variety = 'Thor'. Very good. Much better than the iffy petulant sulkers I grew last year!), chillies & a bunch of basil. I've frozen the jalapenos & green 'Heatwave' chillies & strung the ripe 'Heatwaves' up for drying, & turned the basil into a batch of fresh pesto for some pasta.

An hour of sweeping & clearing made sufficient space for tender plants to come under cover before the first hard frosts - agapanthus, lavender mint & grapefruit mint here, enjoying some rays.

Grapevine suffered a severe pruning. I'm not a natural pruner. I start off with a plan & it turns into a more of a frenzied hacking, but however bad it looks (& it will die back to little more than a collection of twigs over winter), it does always burst into grape-promising buds in spring. 

That's the thing with us gardeners, really. Garden tasks are so seasonal, but there's always this looking forward to the next season too. I brought this dahlia (Variety = Lolo Love) under glass this morning to protect it from freezing, so that felt kind of quite wintery, but also these two trays of strawberry runners which I potted up to increase our fruit supplies next summer. I always feel sad when our awesome swifts depart for Africa midway through August, but I know that this has to happen for me to enjoy their noisy return at the beginning of May.

So with spring sunshine in mind, I sowed our sweet peas. Two varieties - A mixture of hot colours called 'Floral Tribute' & a cooler 'Blue lagoon'.

I always find I get better plants from an October sowing. I've tried sowing sweet peas in March but they have invariably been spindly ungrateful little things, refusing to thrive. They are pretty hardy plants on the whole. I will probably be able to plant these outside at the end of March. If you want to sow some, it's well worth saving the tall 'disposable' coffee cups & large yoghurt pots, as sweet peas (like all peas & beans) seem to like a deep root run. No need to buy special root-trainer pots - there's already quite enough plastic waste knocking around!

And before coming indoors to do some baking (only bread, in case anyone was just getting on the bus in anticipation of a large interesting cake!), I had what I can only describe as an idea of near genius. Oh, ok, that's stretching it, but as someone who lives in permanent fear of eight-legged beasts fiendishly concealing themselves before deliberately leaping out on people, this is a low-tech innovation of note.

......A large plastic freezer clip fastened firmly across the tops of my gardening gloves. Ha! No baddies getting in those! Just need some bigger ones now to clip across the tops of all my boots!
That, friends, has been today's activity.
Till next time,
C x

Autumn herb-gathering

Hello Friends,
As you might expect, I'm not a lover of Tory Conference season. In fact, I'm currently avoiding the media, as every time I switch on the TV, I am assailed by David Cameron's hammy face telling me how the Conservative Party is a friend to the poor. Yes, making poor people a whole lot poorer apparently teaches them self-respect. I would like to shut Cameron, Hunt & IDS in a small, damp, one-bedroomed privately rented flat with a three-day food bank parcel & a copy of 'The Ragged-trousered philanthropists'. This would culminate in a test on the causes of inequality. The real ones. Not the pretend ones, promoted by their media friends, which ensure that people turn on each other, instead of the real enemy.

So there's not much news consumption going on here. Instead, I'm throwing myself into catching up in the garden. I'm rather behind, but at least nothing this time of year (apart from bringing in frost-tender plants) is urgent. 

Today, I've gathered the last of the cherry tomatoes in every shade from the brightest red to the dodgiest green & tackled the herb garden. What a pleasant couple of hours - warm October sunshine, a robin singing in the greengage tree & surprisingly, good things there for the taking! I normally would have done my final herb harvest of the year a couple of months ago, but the warm weather has kept everything going, so I was able to cut & tie plenty of bunches for drying.

These are sage, oregano, bay, marjoram, rosemary, thyme & winter savoury. All now hanging from the beam in the kitchen to dry. I was annoyed to find that the tarragon had been entirely eaten. The chief suspect had taken up residence near the sole remaining twig & was duly sent space-wards - us gardeners soon develop an impressive slug-launching arm! 
I recommend growing winter savoury. It's an inexpensive plant to buy, easy to grow & it survives snowy winters. The aroma is quite like thyme, but the leaves are tougher, which makes it an excellent ingredient in slow cooker stews, which give it the time it needs to soften & give up its flavours.  I use it finely chopped in my home-made burgers too. If you enjoy cooking & don't grow it, it's well worth having.

Now, the word 'beam' may give the impression that we live in an ancient 'chocolate box-style' cottage.........whereas the truth is that our beam is the result of some past idiot owner knocking a supporting kitchen wall out of our extremely ordinary 1930s house! It's very useful for drying herbs though, & festooning with Yuletide greenery later in the year. 

I don't bother drying mint or basil, as neither herb dries well. I've chopped basil & frozen it in ice-cube trays for use during winter, & put a bunch of mint stems to stand in water ready to make apple & mint jelly at the weekend.

Albert Whiskers has been of no help whatsoever, but has at least calmed down from yesterday's rain, when he was on permanent 'Wet playtime'. Attacking doormats, jumping around in all the cabling behind the TV, helping himself to stuff from my knitting basket, chomping my hair & nibbling my tights at every opportunity.

Today is thankfully looking a lot more like this. 
Hope everyone is managing to get at least a bit of time outside in the autumn sunshine.
Till next time......unless I have turned into a giant pear, which is quite possible with the amount of them we are currently having to eat!
C x

Six things NOT to say to an arachnophobic!

Hello Friends,
Well, here it is, the time of year when damp autumnal foliage & fence posts are festooned with these.

Lovely to see, aren't they? Can't help but admire both the technical construction & aesthetics. I find myself doing quite a lot of admiring, but only if the Resident is currently AWOL. I have pretty bad arachnophobia. Even typing the first half of that word, 'arachno.' makes me shiver, as the adrenaline response automatically kicks in. My arachnophobia was learned as a child and I'm sorry to say has not lessened as an adult. It feels truly ridiculous, but we all have our limits. I have friends who freak out at the thought of a bird falling down the chimney, or a mouse running across the floor. No problem! I can catch mice & birds without batting an eyelid......or bats, large furry moths, ferocious looking beetles, all fine. My phobia relates only to critters with eight legs.....excluding octopii.....(especially when done szechuan-style with bucket-loads of chilli).

With my life-long dread of spiders, I can tell you that there are certain pieces of helpful advice which I've heard time & time again. I decided it's time to compile a definitive list of........

Six things never to say to an arachnophobic

1) "It's far more scared of you than you are of it".
It really isn't.

2)"It's barely half an inch across".
Irrelevant. Size isn't everything. If an arachnophobic can see the familiar 'blob with eight legs' outline, it will be sufficient to trigger a response.

3)"Have you ever considered aversion therapy?" (Usually followed up by explanation of how this would involve looking at pictures, examining caged beasts & eventually letting tarantulas sit on my arm)
No! I don't want to get up close & personal with spiders. Ever. I  don't want them to come in my house. If there's a scheme anywhere for how to achieve that, I might be tempted to kick in my course fees.

4)"It's ok, Babe, it's nearly dead".
'Nearly dead' is not 'Actually dead'. There is a subtle biological difference. 'Actually dead' is still pretty scary & needs removing pronto. 'Nearly dead' is NOT DEAD AT ALL. It's toying with you, waiting for you to get brave, then waving a leg or resurrecting itself more fully & charging your chair. A variant of this Thing Never To Say To An Arachnophobic is "It's that time of year,  they're just coming indoors to die". Look, we have a decent-sized shed, a 130 foot garden & other perfectly good houses as alternative arachnid death sites on either side of us. There is no need for their end of life histrionics here.

5)"Have you seen those long-handled spider-catching gizmos?"
Yes. Of course I've seen them, but like all other arachnophobics, I know that no handle the manufacturer could realistically use could EVER be long enough to put the required distance between myself & the beast. I mean, some of these things are barely the length of a standard ruler.  That's 30 cms if it's a long time since your maths days. I would need a pole of at least 4m, forged from some naturally spider-repellant material to prevent unwanted charging in my direction. That level of thought is never going to go into a product of this nature, found as it usually is alongside automatic banana slicers, single gigantic heated slippers & battery-operated ear wax removers.

6)"But you have a cat. Does he not eat spiders?"
<Sighs>. I can't tell you how many people have told me that their cat aces the full spider tracking, catching & dispatchng service. If such felines exist, I have unfortunately never had the pleasure of owning one of them. The trouble with cats is that they SOMETIMES catch spiders & they SOMETIMES eat them. Mostly they do neither of these things properly. They mangle the beast to the degree that something has to be done about it before leaving it somewhere disturbingly visible or if they do dispatch it, ensure that the gory remains are left in as creative a spot as possible. Albert Whiskers has recently enjoyed splatting a large example to the stair wall, mashing it into the wallpaper as efficiently as possible so as to hinder removal attempts by my Rescuer from Such Things. So, if you have a cat which will deal properly with spiders, I can only envy you. As with everything involving Albert Whiskers, Tummy-Time tends to kick in before any non food-related task is completed.

So while these are beautiful & a harbinger of frosty mornings to come, they also signal for me a scary season of checking shoes & boots every time I put them on, peering nervously in the bath first thing each morning & jumping out of my skin every time I see a piece of black thread on the floor. Thank goodness I share my life with someone who is able to tackle even the freakiest monsters, or I should be a sorry mess indeed at this time of year!

Hope everyone's enjoying the late September sunshine.
Till next time,
C x

Tomato & ale chutney

Hi Friends,
I promised a couple of people this recipe, so here goes! Tomato & ale chutney. Yum! It really is a good one for so many things, especially a spoonful dolloped on top of cheese on toast before flashing it under the grill.

I snipped this recipe out of a gardening magazine ages ago - I can't remember which magazine, but it was definitely worth its cover price for this alone.

  Tomato & Ale Chutney

You will need:

2.5 kg ripe tomatoes (soft & imperfect ones are fine)
500g onions
500g sultanas
500g demerara sugar
500g malt vinegar
250ml full-flavoured ale*
2 tsp salt
1.5 tsp mixed spice
1.5 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper

*A good chance to support your local small brewery instead of a big multi-national corporation. I'm using this -

'Maid Marion' from the Springhead Brewery

Equipment needed - Large heavy-based pan, ideally a preserving pan, jam jars or kilner jars with tight-fitting lids, labels.

Instructions:
*Skin the tomatoes by pouring boiling water over them for a few minutes, before plunging into cold water.

The skins will now come off easily. Chop the tomatoes into small pieces.
*Chop the onions quite finely.
*Put the tomatoes, onions & all the other ingredients in the pan.

*Heat slowly, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
*Bring it up to the boil, then reduce the heat & simmer for around 2 hours. It's hard to be exact with timings because some tomatoes are more watery than others.
*While you are waiting, wash the jars thoroughly in hot soapy water, rinse them & stack them on their side in a large roasting tray (or similar). Heat the oven to Gas 2, Put the tray of jars inside & reduce the heat to 'S' (or Gas 1/2 if you don't have the 'S' setting).
*Make sure you stir the chutney now & again to ensure that it isn't sticking on the bottom of the pan. If it does, it can catch & the burned flavour can permeate the finished product.
*After about 2 hours, the chutney should have reduced in volume & be thick, rich & sticky-looking. There shouldn't be a very noticeable layer of liquid on top of the pan. You can do a little test, by ladling a bit of chutney onto a plate & drawing a spoon through it to make a line. If this is impossible because of lots of liquid, then it needs a bit more cooking. If it's so thick & sticky that you could actually use it to make a modal stegosaurus or mortar brickwork, then I'm afraid you've over-cooked it.
*When it's ready for bottling, turn out the heat & remove the tray of jars from the oven. You need plenty of work surface for this, so have a quick declutter if you're a messy cook. Line up the jars (they will be HOT!) & give the chutney a good stir. Using a jam funnel if you have one, or a steady hand if you don't, carefully fill the jars, leaving about 1cm gap at the top. Check that there are no air bubbles in the jars. If so, they will need poking with a clean utensil to get rid of them as they can affect the keeping quality of the chutney.Using a clean cloth rung out in hot water, wipe the jar rims before screwing the lids on straight away.

*Label the jars, admire your efforts & think what a resourceful little Clever Trousers you have been.

Now, if you've not been able to resist dipping a cheeky spoon in to see what it tastes like, don't worry if it's initially a bit sharp & vinegary. It's perfectly fine to eat now, but this chutney matures to mellow loveliness after a couple of months, so it will be more than ready for a turkey sandwich. I find that home made chutneys usually keep well for a year in a dark pantry, but I do store them in the fridge when they're open (not that much lasts very long around here!)

So that's how to make a fab tomato & ale chutney. It's a very straightforward recipe, so a good one to try if you've never made chutney before. If you don't fancy it, & it sounds like too much effort when you can buy a jar off the peg, then I suggest you spend your time another way......maybe lying on the patio with your feet in the air as demonstrated by our friend below - 

....it works for him, anyway!
Cheers,
C x

Beetroot, beans, more beans, curry & stuff

Hello Friends,

This week, I have mostly been Doing Things With Beetroot. And when I haven't been doing that, I've been Doing Stuff with Beans. Shortly, just for variety, I will be Doing Stuff With Tomatoes. And peppers. And pears. It's just that time of year when all our veggie gardening efforts are repaid with baskets full of good things.

Here at the People & Cats Republic, we have a Love-Hate relationship with beetroot. I love it, the Big Hairy One can't stand it....which is fine, as it means there's all the more for me! For some reason that has so far eluded me, I am unable to grow beets much bigger than golf-ball size, but the flavour is always good. This year, I pickled some of my crop & ate the rest. I'd like to say I did something cheffy with them - a bit of a 'jus' with crumbled feta & watercress, served on a shard of slate, that kind of thing. The truth is, I was stuffing them into my face as quickly as I was peeling them. I know.......classy!

I always think it's a shame not to use the leaves, so I weighed out the best of these for a curry. I remember reading Madhur Jaffrey on the subject of curry leaves. Apparently, in India, people are much more creative in their choice of greens for 'saag' type of curries, using things like turnip tops, radish leaves, etc, whereas here, we would tend to go out & buy a bag of baby spinach.

We operate a zero food waste policy here, so these leafy beauties went into a batch of Spinach & chickpea curry. I can't take the credit for this recipe. It's from a book by Mridular Baljekar which I borrowed from the library many years ago, & would dearly love to buy, but it is no longer in print.

Spinach & chickpeas in chilli & garlic sauce

1 large onion, roughly chopped

2.5 cm piece of root ginger, peeled & roughly chopped

1 long green chilli, roughly chopped (I take the seeds out first)

3 tbsp olive or sunflower oil (I use 1 or 2 only)

1 tsp fennel seeds

8 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

0.5 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tbsp tomato puree

400g can chickpeas, rinsed & drained

140ml warm water

225g finely chopped spinach (or substitute beet tops)

1 tsp salt

125g canned chopped tomatoes (inc juice)

0.5 tsp garam masala

Blitz the onion, ginger & chilli with a hand blender to make a puree. Heat the oil & sizzle the fennel seeds & garlic for 30 secs.  Add the cumin & coriander & pour in the pureed paste. Stir-fry for 5 mins. Add the turmeric, chilli powder, tomato puree & stir-fry for another 1 min. Add the drained chickpeas & the 140ml warm water. Bring it to the boil, cover & simmer for 10 mins. Add the finely chopped spinach & salt, increase the heat a little & stir-fry for 1 min until the spinach has wilted down & released its juices. Add the tomatoes & stir-fry for 7 mins. Add garam masala & stir-fry for 1 min. 

There you go, it's ready. Serve it with rice or any bread. It's filling & like all Mridula's recipes I've tried, tasty & inexpensive.

If you have LOTS of beet tops & TWO tins of chickpeas in your pantry, then it's worth doubling up, as this curry freezes really well. 

So that took care of this year's beets, both the roots & leaves. As for those sneaky plants which looked as though they were growing but cheated me by not producing a root, I'm not letting them win! Oh no.

 

Those have been left in the ground, & will be used to supply baby leaves for salads into the autumn months.

I can't pretend that veggie growing isn't hard work at times, but it's good for health & fitness & provides cheap food grown with zero chemicals. I might not be feeling quite so positive later this afternoon which I am likely to spend up to my armpits in runner beans & tomatoes!

Am heartily thankful for the sunny dry weather today, as Albert Whiskers has spent most of the bank holiday weekend on Wet Playtime. Of all the cats we've owned, Albert Whiskers takes the prize as 'Cat least happy about getting wet'. As he did sometimes have to go out for Essential Functions, bedroom doors were left firmly closed to prevent drying of paws on clean duvets. As Albert Whiskers had clearly hoped to spend the weekend like this.............

 

............he wasn't too impressed!

Hope there's someone somewhere out there who didn't have a soggy bank holiday. Off to slice my body-weight in beans now,

Till next time,

C x