This ruby red rhubarb and berries crumble is rich in taste. I find it comforting but not in the sense of heavy food. The colour of it is amazing, you can’t wait to put your spoon into it!
Here I have access to red rhubarb, you can do it with green rhubarb, the colour will be a bit different. You can choose not to do a crumble and just keep the compote to have as-is with a biscuit or at breakfast.
Ruby red rhubarb and berries crumble, the fruit compote has boiled over the crumble. The yellow colour of the crumble is due to the use of besan four.
Ingredients:
For the red ruby rhubarb and berries compote:
500 g of rhubarb (1 bunch)
300 g of mixed frozen berries
150 g of white sugar
200 ml of red wine
For the crumble top:
75 g of very soft butter (or 1/2 melted butter)
150 g of flour. You can use gluten-free flour. In the photo, I have used besan flour (chickpea flour)
75 g of caster sugar
75 g of walnut, crushed in your hand
25 g of pistachios
Method:
Peel the rhubarb and wash the stalls. Tip: peeling rhubarb consists in cutting the leaf off, then the bottom bit (the thick end). With the bottom bit will come some of the rhubarb skin in the form of a long string of “skin”. Pull till it comes off.
Cut the rhubarb in 1-2 cm long pieces. Place in a large saucepan with the redberries, the sugar and the red wine.
Cook with a lid on high heat until it reaches a boil then reduce the heat to medium to get a simmer and cook until the rhubarb is tender (about 20 minutes).
You can choose to leave the compote as it is or blend it partially (or fully). I like to blend it a little bit with a blending stick. Keep on the stove a little longer if you wish to reduce the juices further.
Now for the crumble: mix together the very soft butter, flour, sugar, walnuts and pistachios. Rub between your hands until you get a sandy to gravelly texture.
You are now ready to put together the crumble. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Use an oven-proof dish and pour in it 4-5 cm thick of the red ruby rhubarb and berries compote. Cover with the crumble mix
Cook for half an hour or until the topping of the crumble has reached a brown colour. The liquid may come over the crumble, that’s fine.
Cool a little before serving. You can also serve this at room temperature.
Use this recipe of meatballs in tomato sauce as a base for meatballs recipes. What is important is to bring up the flavours with the meat. This recipe is easy and can be done with children.
500 g mince meat (beef, you can use a combination or other meats)
3 large garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 onion passed through the food processor (alternatively dice very thinly)
1/2 cup of mozzarella
1 teaspoon of chermoula mix spices (or other meat seasoning spice mix)
corn from 2 corns on the cob, boiled and separated.
1 egg (this is to help making it stick together, if you have small eggs, 2 may be better)
salt & pepper, oil
Passata – about 2 cups
1/2 cup of parmesan or similar
about 2/3 cup of plain flour (use corn flour is gluten is an issue)
garden herbs: thyme, rosemary or parsley
Method:
In a big bowl, mix together the mince, garlic, spices, onion, mozzarella, corn, egg, and if using some thyme or rosemary. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Place the flour in a deep plate.
Make balls with the meat the size of a lime then roll in the flour. Set aside until all are prepared.
Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frypan, once hot, place the meat balls and slightly flatten them. Allow to grill on each side (turning once only as they are fragile). Reduce the heat to medium. Once grilled, add the passata and cover for 10-15 minutes while the meat finishes to cook. If you find the sauce is too thick or too little you can add 1/2 cup of water.
Uncover, add the parmesan and fresh parsley. Serve.
I love a good generous chocolate souffle. It is really quick to prepare, and cooks quickly too. And it is deliciouuuuuus. I prefer the souffle family version or sharing version, that it in a big tall round dish. This is a personal taste, some may prefer the individual ramequins. This recipe is from a French magazine called “ricardo cuisine“, I have adapted the recipe (essentially removed the sugar, it is not necessary).
Chocolate souffle and cake – here the souffle has already deflated.
For a successful souffle (any souffle, not just chocolate), there are a few rules to follow:
Do NOT open the oven door while the souffle is cooking. The sudden drop of temperature is very likely to make your souffle collapse and it will not rise again. when you check for donesness, do it quickly and do not remove the dish from the oven
Serve you souffle as soon as possible once out of the oven because it always deflates a little and seeing the souffle change shape is fun too!
The souffle needs either to be baked in ramequins or in a large dish with tall vertical edges, what is important is that the width is about 1.5 size the height of the sides, not much more, and the sides must be vertical.
Make sure your egg whites are well beaten and inserted without breaking them i.e. they need to be folded in, not mixed in!
For a chocolate souffle. there are a few ways to go about it. Here, there is nothing very technical, so all good. Choose a good quality cooking chocolate, a 55-60% cocoa is best if the souffle is also for children, otherwise feel free to use 70% cocoa cooking chocolate.
Ingredients:
140 g dark cooking chocolate
3 medium eggs
125 mL of milk
1 tbsp corn flour
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
A nut of butter and caster sugar for the dish
Method:
Butter the dish and coat over with caster sugar.
Heat up the oven to 180°C.
Separate the egg white and egg yolks. Mix the cornflour and cream of tartar with the egg yolks.
In a saucepan, melt the chocolate in the milk. As it is melted, remove from the fire and mix and add in the cornflour/eggyolk mix.
Beat the eggwhites until firm. Add to the chocolate mix and gently fold in. Transfer to the tin.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the top of the souffle is steady when gently poked and cracks have appeared on the top. If you want it not so oozy in the centre, allow for a little longer.
Serve immediately but be careful, it is hot!
Tip: if there are left overs, keep those at room temperature for the next day! (not in the fridge please).
When I say loaf cake, I am not thinking of the french size long tin, which we refer to as “moule a cake”. Yes, as funny as it is, we have a cake in France which name is the word “Cake” as such, that is in English! How funny! I will do a post on this famous “cake” and the numerous derivatives mastered by the French, I am not kidding there are tens of books on those “cakes”.
Today I am speaking about the large ad generous loaf cakes. They are not top elegant (like the “cake” cake) but are so comforting. They also have a great advantage: they can feed a crowd!
Here are two of them: the classic australian banana cake and a quick orange cake which I am asking you to try because it is really worth it!
The classic banana bread
Yum! I am warning you :
it is delicious
it is nutritious and even more if you serve it with a salted caramel spread, it then becomes quite indulgent.
So freeze these very ripe bananas until you get a few and go for it! The recipe is HERE.
The not so known quick orange cake
I like to think of that one as the “hubby bake”. If my husband was one day to bake a cake (he never has), he would like to put it all in the food processor, press start, transfer to the tin and bake. Well this is pretty much this cake! you put everything, the whole orange skin and all! I have made this orange cake again and again over the years. The recipe is from a Australian Country Women cook book given to me by friends years ago (because they wanted to give me something Australian and liked coming home for some meals!). Not sure if they are reading today but thank you!
This time I added some walnuts, but it is also great without. Just give it a try! The recipe is HERE.
No health warning here, butter has been swapped for oil.
This one is a winner. Definitely. It was gone in such a short time from the kitchen bench, it did not even have time to move from it!
I tried some beetroot chocolate cake recipe a while ago, but was not completely won over. This time it is different. The recipe is inspired from BBC Good Food. I added cocoa nibs and pieces of chocolate.
Ingredients:
This makes quite a large brownie. For a 18×18 cm square tin divide by two.
500 g beetroot steemed (3-4 medium beets)
100 g unsalted butter, plus extra for the tin
200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
1 tsp vanilla extract
250 g caster sugar
3 eggs
100 g plain flour
30 g dutch cocoa powder
100 g cocoa nibs
150 g dark cooking chocolate cut in chuncks (0.5 mm max)
Method:
Peel the beetroot, steam the beetroot. Place in the food processor to reduce to a mash.
Heat oven to 180°C.
While the beetroot cooks, butter then line the baking tin. Melt the butter and chocolate together. Add to the beetroot and blend until super smooth. Add the cocoa.
Put the sugar and eggs into a large bowl or food processor, then beat until thick, pale and foamy, about 2 mins. Add in the chocolate-beetroot mix. Add the flour and gently fold in using a large spatula.
Pour into the prepared tin, place on top the cocoa nibs and cut chocolate chips and using a fork insert it into the mix. You can alternatively add them at the same time as the flour, it should work, I have not yet tried that way.
Bake for 25 mins or until it starts to crack (but not too much) on top and is just set in the middle.
Cool completely in the tin, then cut into squares and dust with cocoa powder.
