A Dirty Martini

Now here's a thing, a martini with an edge; someone one day decided a splash or two of the liquor from a jar of olives was what was needed to improve what was after all already a perfect cocktail to be drunk once the sun is over the yardarm. Personally I think they may have just been a bit slap dash with the olives and as often happens discovered the extra briny flavour was worth repeating. I have to say there are days when I agree.

For this version of a gin martini you will need:
100ml of Plymouth Gin
3 teaspoons of Noilly Prat
3 teaspoons of the brine from a jar of green olives

In a large glass, or a cocktail jug if you're making for more than yourself, place three large chunks of ice that have been washed for a few moments in tap water. Add the ingredients and stir with a teaspoon for exactly one minute, this is sufficient time to dilute the gin, moderation in all things I say. Serve in a chilled small martini glass with 2 green olives. This quantity makes 2 martinis which as far as I am concerned is the perfect number. I think it was Dorothy Parker who once said she liked martinis, 2 at the most, 3 she was under the table and 4 she was under her host.

Notes:
I'm off to hospital for a while and so this I think is a very fitting last post for a while. While I'm away I do hope my blog readers will all enjoy the 145 recipes that are now on this blog, I'll be back as soon as I can be, much love Tôbi.

Ginger & Lemon Madeira

Fond as I am of sponge cakes, though I admit it's not that often I make one, a madeira style cake is one you are far more likely to find here when offered a cup of tea. I like to incorporate ground almonds whenever I can, they add to both the flavour and the texture and I believe help the keeping quality of any cake. This cake is subtly flavoured with lemon and ginger, you can always add a little more ginger flavour by adding some ground ginger to the mix.

No 100 in the list of countries, welcome Bangladesh!

No 101, welcome Lebanon!

Amazingly, 3rd new country in a week, Gibraltar, country no 102, welcome!

For this cake you will need;
200g of caster sugar
200g of unsalted butter
3 eggs
150g of ground almonds
110g of  self raising flour
The rind of 2 lemons
4 chunks of ginger in syrup
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt

Heat the oven to 180C and line a large loaf tin, 23cm by 13cm, with baking parchment.
Begin by grinding up the thinly pared lemon rind in the sugar in a food processor, wash and pat dry 4 chunks of ginger in syrup and add them to be ground up along with the sugar and lemon rind. Add the butter and cream the mixture before adding the eggs one at a time, processing in between each egg.  Add the remaining ingredients and process just until you have a cohesive mix. Place the cake batter in the prepared tin and bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out cleanly when pushed into the middle of the cake,

Notes:
One of the things I like about cakes such as this and the Orange & Poppy Seed Cake is the fact that you can serve small thin slices, much in the way you might serve petit four.

Orange & Poppy Seed Cake

Many many years ago, when Strawberry Fair in Cambridge was still worth visiting, I sold cakes from the back of my car, this orange & poppy seed cake was probably the most popular. Readers of my blog will know I rely on the peel of oranges to provide flavour and this cake is no exception.

Welcome Barbados, country No 99!

For this cake you will need;
200g of unsalted butter
200g of caster sugar
3 medium eggs, weighing roughly 200g in their shells
150g of ground almonds
100g of poppy seeds
110g of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
The peel of 2 medium sized oranges

Heat the oven to 180C and line 2 small loaf tins (16cm by 10cm) with baking parchment.
Begin by grinding the thinly pared rind of the oranges in the sugar in a food processor. Add the salt, and the butter and process until you have a light fluffy mixture, add the eggs, one at a time and process in between. I find you need to scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl to ensure all the ingredients are fully incorporated. Add the poppy seeds, ground almonds, flour and baking powder and process just until the batter comes together into a cohesive mix. Divide the mix between the two lined loaf tins and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a skewer comes out cleanly when pushed into the middle of the cake.

Notes:
I like the thin glaze of an orange icing on this cake and I mix 100g of icing sugar with enough orange juice to make a thin icing, I pour it over while the cakes are still warm having taken them out of the loaf tins. Return them to the oven for 10 minutes so that the icing can dry out.
You can use fewer poppy seeds than my recipe states, personally I like the crunch of the seeds and the dramatic colour they give.

Bakewell Tart

Now the good people of Bakewell will always claim that the rest of the world is wrong to regard the confection known as Bakewell tart has anything in common with the Bakewell pudding readily available in the town. It's difficult now to think of what else to call this other than Bakewell tart but I freely acknowledge if you ever do travel to the town of Bakewell, this is not what you will find there, if you come to my part of Norfolk, however, and I have enough notice (2 hours) it is what you will be offered with a cup of tea.

For this recipe you will need;
250g of good sweet pastry, I prefer paté brisée
180g of ground almonds
180g of caster sugar
180g of unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 medium eggs
80g of self raising flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoon of jam, seedless raspberry or apricot.

Begin by lining a 24cm flan tin with the pastry and bake it blind in a hot oven, 200C for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, reduce the heat and when the temperature is down to 100C return the flan for 30 minutes to complete the cooking. It makes a big difference to have the pastry base fully cooked, a golden brown and fully dried out.
Make the filling by creaming together the butter and the sugar until they are pale and light in texture, add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Add the ground almonds, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix to a soft dropping consistency. Heat the oven to 180C.
Line the bottom of the pastry shell with the jam, spread out evenly before topping with the almond cake mixture. Cook in a moderate oven, 180 for 30 to 35 minutes until fully cooked. Allow to cool completely in the tin before removing, dust with icing sugar before serving.

Notes:
It makes such a difference to the finished cake if you go to the trouble of baking the pastry case blind; it's easy enough to do, line the flan tin with the pastry, prick the base with a fork several times, place a sheet of baking parchment on top of the pastry to hold either ceramic baking beans or some rice that you keep for the purpose, this prevents the pastry from rising during baking. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes before returning to the oven with the temperature turned down and the parchment and baking beans removed.
You can also produce a delicious version of this tart by using rhubarb jam and ground hazelnuts in place of ground almonds. Simply grind up 180g of toasted hazelnuts with 180g of caster sugar and proceed with the rest of the recipe, beating in the butter, eggs and finally the flour and baking powder.

Falafel

The world is grateful for the chickpea, it provides protein in a vegetable form for a huge number of people from the chana masala and pakora eaten in India, to the hummus and falafel eaten in the Middle East. Here is my recipe for falafel. The biggest mistake that is made in making falafel, is to use cooked chickpeas. It's possible of course to make a rissole type morsel from cooked chickpeas, but they wont be falafel. Chick peas have the ability to bind with other ingredients without the use of egg, this is true of both the flour as seen in pakora click here for the recipe and the ground up raw chickpeas in this recipe. I always like to add a little vegetable when I make falafel, this can be a small amount of carrot, a stalk of broccoli, a piece of green or red pepper or in this case a stick of celery. I also add a teaspoon of sugar to the mix to counter the slight bitterness of the gram flour.

For this recipe you will need;
250g of dried chickpeas soaked for 8 hours or overnight.
2 fat cloves of garlic
1 stick of celery
A small bunch of flat leafed parsley, about 2 tablespoons when finely chopped
140g of gram flour
2 teaspoons of Marigold bouillon powder or 1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 small red chilli
1 teaspoon of sugar

Begin by grinding up the garlic, chilli, parsley. celery and seasoning in a food processor. Add half the soaked chickpeas and process until you have a medium coarse mix. Tip the mix out into a large bowl and place the remaining chickpeas in the food processor with a couple of tablespoons of water and blend to a smooth paste. Add to the other mix along with the gram flour and mix together, adding just enough water to be able to make a cohesive mix that you can form into small balls to deep fry. I use two spoons to make small quenelle. Heat up a large container of vegetable oil to 180C and deep fry about 8 to 10 at a time. Deep frying should always be carried out in a container half filled with oil so that the oil has room to expand without spilling over. I use a large karhai or Indian wok. Fry for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side until they are golden brown and crisp. Although falafel are perfectly good cooled down, there is nothing quite as lovely as a falafel that has just been fried, the outside is crisp, the inside, tender, steaming and moist. The crunchy texture of the outside is enhanced by not over grinding the chickpeas initially, creating a medium course texture.

Notes:
You can vary the flavour by adding a little freshly ground cumin seeds to the mix.
In Egypt fava beans are often used in place of chickpeas.
The worst falafel I ever had the misfortune to eat were in Bethlehem, I think the oil they were cooked in dated back quite possibly to biblical times.