'Willpower & sheer idiocy combine in harmony'
Courgettes, rhubarb, apple & citrus cakes; plums
Freezing a glut of plums
IT'S the first year my Japanese blood plum Lizzie has fruited in any quantity - but we are overwhelmed with produce.
These plums ripen very quickly, in a few days, from yellow to dark red. When completely ripe, the flesh is dark red, hence the name blood plum. They're small and juicy but 5kg picked in a day was obviously going to go off, as we can't eat that many fresh.
Like most fruits (except stawberries), they freeze well. Half each plum and remove the stone - messy work - do it over a pan to catch the juice.
Put the stone in the pan too (trust me here).
Place each plum half on a baking tray and freeze without covering until frozen, then put them in a freezer bag. This way, they remain separate and don't form a huge squashed mass.
As for the stones and juice, there's alway flesh left on them and it's too good to waste. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes or so, then rub the contents through a sieve. Once you've got all the flesh/juice through, discard the stones.
This puree is excellent to add to crumbles, etc - it will freeze too.
NOTE: you can freeze the fruit whole, but this wastes lots of freezer space.
Rhubarb, apple & ginger cake
FOR the fruit puree:
Approx 180g apple (peeled, cored and chopped) and rhubarb (remove stringy bits)
1 teaspoon ginger preserve OR half teaspoon powdered ginger and 1 teaspoon sugar
Juice half a lemon
For the cake:
225g butter
150g golden caster sugar
3 medium eggs
300g plain flour
2 rounded teaspoons baking powder
Topping: Preserved ginger and golden caster sugar
Cook apple, rhubarb, ginger preserve (or ginger and sugar) and lemon juice in a covered saucepan over a low heat until the apple is soft. Leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/170°C. Line a round loose-bottomed 18cm (7") tin with baking parchment and grease the sides.
Put the fruit into a food processor and blitz to a pulp.
Add the butter (at room temperature), caster sugar, eggs, flour and baking powder and mix to a smooth batter.
Scrape into the tin and smooth the top. Sprinkle the surface with the remaining sugar and press small bits of preserved ginger into the surface.
Bake for an hour or so until a skewer comes out clean (cover with foil after 50 mins to stop the top burning), then cool in its tin on a rack. Take out of the tin once it is cool.
Serve as a cake, or with custard as a pudding.
Plum
compote
JAPANESE blood plum Lizzie performed beyond all expectations, producing so much fruit that I had to flash freeze kilos of them.
As they were taking up half the freezer, and I needed the space for Christmas food, I decided to make a loose compote.
If you're unfamiliar with compotes, they don't 'set' like jam, as they usually don't have anywhere near the amount of sugar, nor do they need to be boiled at such a rapid temperature.
The down side? They don't keep as well.
In this case, a full drawer of plums in the freezer made one large and two medium Kilner jars full. I used a 500g bag of granulated sugar, which made it sweet enough for me.
All you need to do is stew the plums (defrosted if they are frozen) with sugar to taste. Heat slowly, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved and the fruit is cooked.
Pot up into sterilised jars (wash thoroughly, then put in a cool oven for 10 minutes. Keep in the fridge.
You end up with a delightful pink compote, excellent for breakfast with yoghurt and high-fibre cerals.
Citrus drizzle cake (with courgettes)
WE'RE all familiar with lemon drizzle cake, but this one blends the usual flavours with orange.
Hiding courgettes in there doesn't affect the flavour, but it makes it ultra-moist.
For the cake:
200g grated courgette
125g butter, melted
150g caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
juice of 1/2 orange
200g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
For the topping:
juice of 1 lemon
40g caster sugar
Preheat oven to 170 degrees C, Gas Mark 3. Line a 20cm round cake tin with baking parchment.
In a mixer or bowl, stir together the courgette, melted butter, sugar, egg and orance juice.
Sift in the flour, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Mix well. Pour into the tin.
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 20 minutes or so to cool.
For the drizzle, bring the lemon juice and 40g of caster sugar to the boil until it forms a syrup.
Stab the cake with a skewer several times and pour the syrup over the cooling cake.
Leave to cool completely so the flavours can absorb.
Easy spiced plum tarte tatin
MY mother has made this for years - don't faff about making puff pastry, buy a frozen pack. There's loads of fancy recipes on the internet, usually involving marzipan/almonds, but this is the one she makes:
75g demerara sugar
75g chopped hazelnuts
Half teaspoon ground cinnamon
Approx 1lb/500g plums (as many as you need to cover the base of the tin), halved, stones removed
1 pack frozen puff pastry, defrosted
Preheat oven to 220°C, gas mark 7.
Use a solid round 8" cake tin. Place on a baking tray, as juices can run out.
Mix sugar, hazelnuts and cinnamon and spread evenly over the base of the tin and arrange plums on top, cut-side down.
Roll out the pastry to a circle the same size as the tin, then place pastry over the fruit and tuck the edges around the plums. Poke a few holes in the top of the pastry to let steam escape.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the plums are tender. Loosen the edges and turn out on to a plate. Serve with custard or vanilla/ginger ice cream.
Rhubarb, vanilla & cinnamon tray bake
WHAT'S this... a miracle diet cake? No, it's not magically going to make you lose weight, but it's a healthier alternative to calorie-heavy confections.
Replace cream with yoghurt, sugar with products like Silver Spoon's Half Spoon.
The latter was bought by accident - it's twice as sweet, so you need half the amount, plus a little extra baking powder to make cakes rise.
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
5oz (125g) Half Spoon sugar OR 10oz (250g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
10oz (300g) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (OR 1 tsp if using normal sugar)
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder
8oz (200g) vanilla or apple/mango non-fat yogurt
12oz (300g) uncooked rhubarb, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
Preheat oven to 350F, 180C, gas mark 4. Line base and sides of a 9x12" shallow rectangular tin with baking parchment (use one piece, just fold in at the corners).
Beat eggs, salt, sugar and vanilla in a mixer for five minutes. Stir in flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Add yoghurt and rhubarb; stir until blended.
Pour into prepared tin and bake for one hour. Eat warm as a pudding with custard or cool as a moist, tray-bake cake.
Sneaky spicy chocolate cake (with courgettes)
THIS is an excellent way to disguise courgettes, especially at the end of the season when you suddenly find yourself with tasteless marrows. It makes a dark, sophisticated chocolate cake with spicy, middle-Eastern overtones.
250g plain flour
375g caster sugar
65g good-quality dark cocoa powder
90g ground almonds
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
4 eggs
350ml vegetable oil
340g grated courgettes
PREHEAT oven to 180C, Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 20x30cm tin with baking parchment.
In a mixer or bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, ground almonds, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt, ginger and cinnamon.
Add the eggs and oil, and beat well.
Fold in the grated courgette until it is evenly mixed in.
Pour into the tin and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.
If the top appears done yet the skewer is still sticky, cover top of the cake with greaseproof paper and give it anther 10 minutes.
Let the cake cool in the tin.
When completely cold, dust top with icing sugar.