Bakewell Tarts

It's a stupid reason to make tarts, but I was looking for a recipe that uses jam in it. I had some mediocre jam that I wanted to find a use for, without having to put it on my toast. So I thought of a Bakewell Tart, which has a layer of jam under a frangipane filling. But there's a reason for that old adage of using the best ingredients you can. In the end, I just couldn't bring myself to ruin a lovely pastry with jam that lacked any kind of decent flavour. Unless I'm struck with a brilliant idea soon, I'm going to throw the stuff out. (Mea culpa, mea culpa!)

I was surprised by the variety of recipes out there for Bakewell tart, especially the number of eggs required. Some of them have so many eggs, it must be more of a custard. I ended up using a recipe from one of my most reliable sources—Deb Perlman of Smitten Kitchen.

Bakewell Tarts 

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen. 

Yield:  five 4-inch tarts or one 9-inch tart.  Serves: 8-10 (I only have four small tart pans, so I had extra tart dough and filling left over—enough for one more tart. I've put it in the freezer, ready for use.)

Be warned, both the filling and the dough spend a few hours in the fridge/freezer, so this is a good candidate for preparing ahead of time and baking when required.

Tart filling:

1 cup blanched almonds, coarsely chopped

1 1/2 tablespoons flour

2/3 cup sugar

110 grams unsalted butter, cool room temperature

1 large egg

1 large egg white

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons orange or lemon zest 

4 tablespoons raspberry conserve

Tart dough:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup bastard sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

110 grams (partially) frozen unsalted butter

1 large egg

Tip: Put the butter for the tart dough in the freezer for a half hour or so before you start.

1. Make the tart dough.
   Butter the tart pans. In the food processor, mix the flour, sugar, and salt.
   Cut the cold butter into small pieces and scatter over the flour mixture. (The butter has to be very cold, but butter that is frozen solid is harder to cut,  so I always use butter that has been frozen for 30-45 minutes.)
   Pulse just until it forms a course meal (the largest pieces should be the size of a pea).
   Using about 1/5 of the dough for each tart, press it into each tart pan and up the sides. Try to press and handle as little as possible, just enough to get the dough stuck together in the form.
   Prick with a fork and put back into the freezer for an hour or two.
2. Make the frangipane.
   In a food processor, finely grind the almonds and flour, then add the sugar. Add the butter, almond extract, and grated lemon rind and mix until smooth.
   Add the eggs, blending thoroughly.
   Transfer to a bowl or container, then cover and chill for 3 hours.
   Clean the food processor, as you'll need it again.
3. Pre-bake the tart shells.
   Preheat the overn to 375F/190C.
   Take some aluminum foil and cut it into squares that roughly pit the tart shells.
   Butter the shiny side of the foil, fit it into a tart shell, buttered side down.
   Place the tart pans on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
   Remove the foil. If the pastry has puffed a lot, press it down a bit with a spoon.
   Return the tart shells to the oven bake for another 5 minutes.
   Remove and let cool.
4. Assemble and bake the tarts.
   Preheat the oven to 350°F/180C, and take the frangipane out of the fridge.
   Spread a generous tablespoon of jam in the bottom of each tart shell.
   Spread the chilled frangipane over the jam. I used by my fingers to break it into little pieces and a knife to carefully spread it out. You don't need to make it too smooth, since it will flatten out while baking.
   Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the top of the tarts.
   Bake them for 30 to 40 minutes until golden. A cake tester inserted into center of filling should come out clean.
   Let cool and then remove the tarts from the pans (this is where removable bottoms really make things easy!).
5. Optionally, sift some icing sugar over the tarts before serving.

Fish Pie

Fish pie is a classic English dish of the comfort food variety—a mashed potato topping over fish in a creamy sauce. As with any classic dish, there are innumerable variations, ranging from the type of fish and type of sauce, the choice of vegetables (if any) and herbs, to the technique (to pre-cook the fish or not).

Most recipes also call for part of the fish to be smoked white fish of some sort, something that is difficult to come by here. You can easily get smoked mackerel, smoked herring, and smoked salmon, but these are oily fish and have such a distinctive flavour (especially smoked salmon) that I don't think they work properly for fish pie.

Fish pie is prone to a number of problems, such as overcooked fish, bland flavour, and colourless appearance, so I've been on a quest for a fish pie that tastes great, uses sustainable and obtainable fish, and retains its character as down-home comfort food.
I decided to use salmon as a strong-tasting fish to use instead of smoked white fish, ignored suggestions for luxury items like shrimp and scallops, and added a layer of spinach to provide color, flavour, and nutrition. I really enjoyed the result!

Fish Pie

500 grams floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
25 grams butter
splash of milk
1 tablespoon chopped dill and/or parsley
500 grams spinach
250 ml fish stock
100 ml cup white wine
small bunch of parsley
250 grams white fish fillets (hake, pollock, haddock)
125 grams salmon fillet
25 grams butter
3 shallots, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoon flour
100 ml cream
1 anchovies, finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tablespoon breadcrumbs (optional)
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese, finely grated (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C.
2. Make the mashed potatoes. Cook the potatoes and smashed garlic in salted water until the potatoes are cooked, through. Drain the potatoes, then mash with some butter and a splash of milk. Mix in the chopped herbs, season to taste, and set aside.
3. Prepare and cook the spinach. While the potatoes cook, clean the spinach, removing any course stems. Using just the water that clings to the leaves, cook it in a large pot until it is all wilted. Drain and squeeze as much water out of it as you can, then chop finely. (Alternatively, you can use frozen spinach.) Set aside.
4. Barely cook the fish. Combine the fish stock (or use a fish bouillon cube in water), wine, and parsley in a large saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add the fish fillets and simmer for 3-5 minutes, depending on the size of the fillets. You want the fish to impart some juice and flavour to the broth but to be a little underdone. Remove the fish to a plate and break into large pieces. Remove and discard the parsley. Pour the stock into a measuring cup or bowl so you can reuse the saucepan.
5. Make the sauce. After rinsing out the saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, and sauté the shallots for 3 minutes. Add the flour and cook it, stirring, for a few minutes. Gradually stir in the fish/wine stock and bring it to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Take the sauce off the heat, stir in the cream, dill and anchovy, then season to taste.
6. Assemble and bake the pie. Add the fish to the sauce and mix gently. Put the fish in its sauce in a baking dish. Put the spinach as a layer over the fish, and top with mashed potatoes. Use a fork to draw pretty patterns. Sprinkle some paprika over the top, then bake for 35 minutes. (Optionally, bake for 20 minutes and then top with breadcrumbs and cheese before baking for the final 15 minutes.)

Salmon Croquettes

Say "salmon croquettes" in my family and you see faces lift, eyes light up, and virtual tails wag, like a dog that has scented a rabbit. Salmon croquettes are one of my mother's specialties and a universal favourite on the supper table. They are also a "company's coming" dish—unusual, attractive, comforting, and delicious.

They are easy to make, but require some time in the fridge to stiffen up, so it's ideal to do most of the preparation earlier in the day (or the night before) so that all you have to do is deep fry them for a few minutes just before serving. And they are frugal, stretching one can of sockeye salmon to feed four people.

I've tweaked it a bit, adding onion, celery, and dill to punch up the flavour a bit, but this is essentially my mother's recipe.

Salmon Croquettes

Serves 4 (2 croquettes each)
Note: Please don't substitute pink salmon for the sockeye. The deep red color and rich flavour of sockey are really needed here.

1 cup (aproximately) canned sockeye salmon (I just use a 213gr tin)
1/2  small or medium onion, very finely minced or grated (optional*)
1/2 stalk celery, very finely minced or grated (optional)
1 teaspoon  lemon juice
1 tablespoon  parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons dill, chopped
1 teaspoon  salt
1/2 teaspoon  pepper
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3/4 cup  oatmeal
2 tablespoons  butter
4 tablespoons  flour
1 cup  milk
2  eggs, beaten
1 cup  bread crumbs

* The original recipe called for 1/8 teaspoon grated onion(!), so Mom opts to omit it and I add more.

1. Drain the salmon and put it in a medium to large bowl. Flake it, crushing any bones with your fingers. (You can remove the bones and skin if you want, but I never do. It's a waste of good calcium and bulk.)
2. Add the minced onion and celery, the oatmeal, and the parsley, dill, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly, then set aside while you make the white sauce.
3. In a small saucepan or in the microwave, heat the milk until little bubbles begin to form. Don't let it boil. The point is to heat it up to minimize lumps in the sauce.
4. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and then add the flour, stirring for a couple of minutes to cook it and get rid of the ray flour taste.
5. Gradually add the heated milk to the roux of butter and flour, whisking all the time. Continue whisking as the sauce thickens and cooks, for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the white sauce to the salmon and mix thoroughly. Cover with cling film and put into the fridge for an hour or two to let the mix stiffen up so it is easier to handle and shape. The stiffer the mixture, the easier it is to roll, shape, and bread.
7. While the salmon mixture chills, whisk the 2 eggs in a bowl and pour a cup of breadcrumbs onto a plate.
8. After the salmon mixture has stiffened, take it out of the fridge and divide the mixture into 8 (more or less) even balls. Oil your hands with some vegetable oil, and roll each ball into a cylinder. 
9. Roll the cylinder in the bread crumbs, then into the beaten eggs, and then in the bread crumbs again. Be gentle, but make sure everything gets a double coat of bread crumbs, including the ends. 
10. Lay the croquettes on a plate and cover with cling film, then put it in the fridge again. 
11. When you are ready to cook the croquettes, remove them from the fridge. Pour a vegetable oil that can withstand high temperatures, such as peanut oil,  in a deep sauce pan or deep fryer (if you're lucky enough to have one) to a depth of about 3 inches. Heat it to 170C (350F).
12. Adding 2-3 croquettes at a time (depending on the size of your pan), fry them for about 3-4 minutes until they have turned golden brown on the outside and are heated through on the inside.
13. Drain on paper towels and then serve. 

Bundt Cakes

I have a new plaything—a lovely bundt cake form from Nordic Ware. It's an American company with a generous variety of such playful, heavy-duty cake pans that I understand the people who like to collect them!

My pan's crisp swirls are tempting me into the new repertoire of bundt cakes, and my colleagues are very grateful. I'm providing two cake recipes here, one for a vegan chocolate cake using a quickbread method, the other for lemon cake using the traditional cake method. Both cakes feature an unusual ingredient—beets in the chocolate cake, white pepper in the lemon cake.

Vegan cakes need something to provide the moisture and tender crumb that eggs contribute to ordinary cakes; fruit or vegetables can help bridge the gap, so I was not surprised to see recipes that involve applesauce or beets. Chocolate cake with beets is something I've known about for years and forms the basis of our family recipe for Black Forest Cake, so a vegan variant is a logical step.

The lemon cake recipe is even more interesting because it calls for 1-2 teaspoons of white pepper. This results in a sophisticated cake that leaves your tongue tingling long after the cake is gone. In fact, you barely even notice the pepper in the first bite or two, and then the tingle begins. I find it enchanting, as did my colleagues.

Lemon Ginger and Pepper Cake

I adapted this recipe from the one that came with the bundt cake form, but based on some internet research, it looks like the original recipe came from  Maida Heatter's Book of Great American Desserts. Although the recipe list contains fresh ginger,  it's flavour is not noticeable. I presume it is there just to give some of that spicy tingle. I reduced the sugar by at least 1/4 cup.

--
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated (1-inch piece)
2 teaspoons finely-grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
1 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3 cup sifted flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons ground white pepper
1 cup buttermilk
--
Lemon glaze:
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F (180°C).
2. Grease the bundt pan with the margarine and dust with the breadcrumbs (I used paneermeel)., 
3. In a small bowl, mix the lemon juice, grated ginger, and grated lemon zest and set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and white pepper.
5. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
6. Add the eggs, one-by-one, beating after every addition.
7. On low speed, add the flour mixture on third at a time, alternating with half of the buttermilk, and ending with the flour, mixing well after each addition.
8. Stir in the lemon-ginger mixture.
9. Spoon into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 75 minutes,  or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
10. While the cake bakes, heat the lemon juice and sugar in a small pan until the sugar is dissolved. 
11. Place a piece of waxed paper under a cooling rack.
12. After the cake has cooled for 10 minutes, turn the cake out onto the cooling rack.
13. Brush the cake with the lemon glaze until all of it is absorbed. 

Note: One of my colleagues found the cake too sweet and too lemony, probably because of this glaze. The rest of us loved it!

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Beets

I adapted this recipe from Epicurious, adding a quarter cup of cocoa powder and reducing the sugar.

--
1 tablespoon of vegetable or soy margarine
2 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
1/2 cup neutral-tasting oil
1 cups packed dark brown sugar
2 cups puréed cooked (boiled or steamed) red beets (about 3 medium-size beets)
90 grams (nondairy) semi-sweet chocolate
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder (look for aluminum-free)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Grease the bundt pan with the margarine and dust with the breadcrumbs (I used paneermeel).
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
4. In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar and oil, then add the puréed beets, melted chocolate, and vanilla extract.
5. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet beet mixture, and stir until just combined.
7. Pour into the prepared bundt pan, and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
8. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack. 

I find the shape of my bundt pan so pretty, I don't bother with a glaze, but a white chocolate glaze would also be very attractive. Or just dust with icing sugar when it is cool.

Beets are Best!

This winter I have been reveling in beets, those sweet earthy vegetables with the fabulous color, great flavour, and many uses. I've used them in soups, salads, and cakes. I've grated them, puréed them, quartered and diced them.

You can often buy them already cooked, and even diced, which is handy, but I also buy them raw and roast them.

I especially like them paired with slightly bitter greens like kale or chard. I've served this warm winter salad a couple of times now, and love the colours and flavours.

Warm Winter Salad with Beet Root and Sweet Potato

I adapted this recipe from Discover Kale UK. I've only been able to get Cavolo Nero (black kale) once or twice, but it also works with ordinary kale. In fact, I think any bitter green leafy vegetable could be used. Just adjust the cooking times accordingly. The original recipe calls for a tablespoon of honey, but the vegetables, orange, and vinegar make it sweet enough.


3 fresh medium beets (or aprox. 200 grams)
1 medium sweet potato
300g Cavolo Nero, shredded
1 orange
2 tablespoons walnut oil (or olive oil)
1.5-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (or sweet fruit vinegar, optimally mixed with white wine vinegar)
salt and pepper
100 feta cheese, crumbled

1. Roast the beets and sweet potato until tender in a medium oven. The sweet potato will likely be done after about 25 minutes, but the beets tend to take longer—45-60 minutes, depending on their size.   
2. Once cooled, peel the roasted vegetables and cut into wedges or 1 inch blocks. You can do this up to a day in advance. Just reheat the vegetables in a microwave or at least let them come up to room temperature before using in the salad.
3. While the vegetables are roasting, peel and segment the orange, freeing the segments from their skin, if possible. (It never is for me, so I segment and dice them.) Reserve any excess juice that comes free, or crush a few segments to produce some juice.
4. Whisk the orange juice, oil and vinegar together, and season with salt and pepper to taste. I used some syrupy fig vinegar diluted with white wine vinegar.
5. Boil the kale for 6-8 minutes and drain. 
6. Toss the Cavolo Nero, beets, sweet potato, and orange segments together with the dressing.
7. Crumble the feta over the salad and serve while still warm.

Vegan Baking

In Holland it is traditional to celebrate your birthday by treating others to cake, tart, borrel, or dinner. For example, on your birthday you bring in something like vlaai, appeltaart, or cake (usually purchased from the baker) for your co-workers. I always bring in homemade cake, quickbread, and/or cheesecake.

One of my colleagues is vegan, and doesn't  normally get to enjoy the treats people bring in, so I went hunting for some recipes that would work for him too. I started with the basics—banana bread and chocolate cake.

Vegan Banana Bread
Adapted from PostPunk's Banana Bread by substituting oil for margarine, reducing the white sugar, and adding ginger.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat or spelt flour 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
6 tablespoons oil
6 tablespoons soy milk
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 very ripe bananas, mashed
6-8 pecans (optional)

1. Preheat oven to  350F/180C. Grease and flour an 8×4 bread pan (use oil or margarine, not butter!) 
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices.
3. Mix the sugars, liquid ingredients, and mashed bananas. I puréed the liquid ingredients because I don't like chunks of banana in the resulting cake.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, mixing just enough to moisten everything. 
5. Pour the batter into the pan, garnish with pecans (if using). 
6. Bake for aproximately 45 minutes.

Vegan Cocoa Cake

Adapted from The Essential New York Times Cookbook, Amazon Cake

This is a very easy, everyday cake. 

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup cold coffee or water

5 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Line the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the liquid ingredients together. (I dissolved 4 teaspoons of espresso powder into a cup of cold water.) 
3. In another bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the liquid ingredients and mix well so that there are no lumps.
5. Pour into the greased cake pan and bake for 35-45 minutes. 
6. After 10 minutes, carefully turn the cake out onto a cooling rack, peel off the parchment paper, and flip onto another cooling rack or a plate.
7. Just before serving, sieve some icing sugar over the cake. (Use a paper doily or other cut out to produce a pattern.)

Dulce de Membrillo

I've seen them in the Turkish grocers and wondered what they were, and only recently discovered that they are quinces (kweeperen in Dutch). A South African colleague said he used to eat them sliced with a bit of salt, and apparently the Chinese and Turks also eat them this way. The Spanish and Portuguese, however, make them into dulce de membrillo. This is a firm, jelly-like paste that is traditionally sliced and served with a good cheese, such as the Spanish sheeps cheese manchego. The sweet and salt combination really works for me!

I recently acquired a new cookbook called Comfort Food by Janneke Vreugdenhil, which despite its name, is in Dutch. This recipe comes from her, but I've also seen recipes that call for some lemon juice and/or rind, a vanilla bean, and lots more sugar.  Although I like the idea of the lemon rind, I can't imagine using more sugar. This is plenty sweet enough.

Apparently membrillo is supposed to be a very rosy pink or red color. For whatever reason, my mebrillo turned out to be a caramel colour. It tastes fine, but I'm sorry it didn't turn pink. I wonder if it has to do with the variety of quince.

Dulce de Membrillo
Adapted from Comfort Food, Janneke Vreugdenhil

It is not difficult to make membrillo, but it is time-consuming. Ideally, you should have a kitchen scale (the amount of sugar you use depends on the weight of the cooked quinces) and a food mill (to puree the cooked quinces and separate the peels and cores). I don't have a food mill, so I used a sieve, but this was a lot of work.  I have since discovered some tips that would have made this less work. I've made note of these in the instructions.

4 quinces (this was1.6 kilos)
500-600 grams (2.25 - 2.75 cups) sugar
water

1. Wash the quinces, chop them, and put them in a large heavy pan. However, next time I will first peel and core the quinces, wrapping the peel, cores and seeds in a couple of layers of cheesecloth or muslin. (If these are hard to come by, consider using a very fine mesh laundry bag, or a knee-high stocking). 
2. Add enough water to the pan to reach a depth of 2 inches, add the peels and cores in muslin, and cook the quinces for 45 minutes until they are cooked soft. The peels and cores add a lot of pectin, which is needed to set the membrillo, so they really should be included.
3. Drain the cooked quinces, reserving the liquid for another purpose (add some sugar to make it into a syrup for pancakes or ice cream), and discarding the peels, cores, and seeds.
4. Purée the cooked quinces using a food mill, sieve, or food processor. (Using a spoon to push small batches of cooked quinces through a sieve took a good half hour. If I had separated the peels and cores, I could have used a food processor which would have been so fast and easy!)
5. Weigh the quince purée and return the puree tthe pan.
6. Add sugar that is equal to half the weight of the quince puree. In my case, the purée weighed about 1120 grams and had a volume of 4.5 cups, so half the weight in sugar was 506 grams.
7. Cook the quince purée, stirring frequently, to reduce it to a thick paste. Although you can start cooking over medium high heat, you'll need to turn it down soon to prevent the bottom from burning. I even used a flame spreader. 
8. Line a 9-inch square pan with baking parchment.
9. After 1.5 to 2 hours, the purée should no longer or hardly flow back when you stir it. At this point it's ready.
10. Pour and scrape it into the lined pan, spread it evenly with a spatula. Let it cool and set for a day. If the bottom has not quite set, turn the membrillo over onto a plate lined with more parchment paper, and return that to the pan. Let it stand for another 12 to 24 hours so that it can dry out and set some more. 
11. Cut the membrillo into squares or rectangles and wrap these in pastic wrap.  These will keep a long time int the fridge.
12. Serve with a good hard cheese, cutting it into thin slices.