A Tale of Stormy Weather and Root Vegetables

It's Winter in my part of the world and we've just had a category 2 cyclone hit the coast. Up here in the hills, it was wet and windy, but not much worse than that. We've been fortunate to not have lost power or had any storm damage, but the weather does turn one's mind to thoughts of warm and stodgy food. Root vegetables are gloriously in season now and we're getting some delicious beetroots, parsnips, carrots, potatoes and the rest.

I'm purposely leaving swedes (rutabagas) out of this collection. They're a vegetable that have resisted my many overtures at friendship. Bitter and distasteful, they do their best to shun my tastebuds, while taunting my eyes with their rotund, yellowy-puple forms displayed so temptingly at the grocer's. We have a tenuous relationship on which I'm choosing not to dwell.

Beetroot, on the other hand, is a firm favourite of mine. I'm becoming increasingly convinced that I must have eaten a lot of dirt as a child and that is why I love the deep earthy taste of beetroot. To me they really do taste like soil; sweetened and glorified. I'm not talking about the over-processed, over-sweetened variety found in tins and plastic bottles. I'm talking about the fresh, dirt-covered variety you find in the fresh food market. The kind you have to wash, peel and cook before you can eat them. The kind that stain your hands the deepest ruby red for days on end. The kind you wear dark colours near even when you're only looking at them... just in case. Real beetroot.

So now you know my dirty secret. My deep and abiding love for the earthiness of beetroot. Given the season, the weather and the availability of my ruby treasures, I thought it was time to venture into some uncharted and politically fraught territory (uncharted for me). I decided to slide down the slippery slope of attempting to make borscht. Let me say from the outset, there are as many ways to make borscht as there are families in Eastern Europe. I must have scanned 50 recipes for it, each one with a detractor commenting at the bottom of the page that "this is not how you make borsch/borscht" (they can't even agree on the final consonant!). In the end, I got the gist of the various recipes and decided to make my own version.

This is NOT a traditional borsch/borscht recipe from anywhere, but I'm hoping it will become a tradition in our house.

Ingredients:
Vegetable Stock
3L water
1 carrot
2 stalks of rosemary
4 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 French shallots or 1/2 a medium sized red onion
salt to taste

Soup
8 - 10 beetroots
1 large nadine potato
2 - 3tsp raw sugar
pepper to taste
150g salted butter

cream to serve

Method:
Make a stock as you would for any soup (if you have chicken or beef stock on hand, you can use that). Allow the stock to simmer and flavours to infuse for at least an hour (the longer you leave it, the richer the flavours - top up the water as you need to).

Peel and chop the potato (large pieces is fine). Add to the stock. Top and tail, peel and quarter the beetroot and add to the stock. Add sugar (I use raw sugar because I like the richer, slightly molasses flavour of it).

Cook for at least an hour (make sure all the vegetables are very soft and easy to mash).

Remove bay leaves and rosemary sticks (the leaves will have fallen off by this stage). Blend the soup with a stick blender (or do in small batches in a blender).

Taste for salt and add if necessary. Add freshly ground pepper and butter. Stir through and taste. Serve warm with a dollop of cream.

NOTE: A chilled version of this soup would be wonderful in Summer.

Doughnuts and a Patch of Warmth

Fresh doughnuts: golden puffs of sweet doughy goodness

It's not yet winter but nobody bothered to let Mother Nature know. We're waking up to mornings of 1C or less. Since I'm no fan of bitter cold days, a little patch of warmth inside my marvellous kitchen is a joy devoutly to be wished. And nothing says warmth like baking.

When my eldest son complained of feeling hard done by because he missed out on eating the last of the store-bought doughnuts to his younger brother, I promised him I'd make some. I've made doughnuts before and it's something that fills me with both dread and joy. The dread comes from the anticipation of getting the mix right, of not knowing whether it will rise enough, or puff the way it should when fried.

And the joy? Well, there is nothing as sumptuous as the smell of a kitchen filled with the aroma of freshly cooking doughnuts. It's a unique smell. It's not the deep, earthy aroma of a bread dough, or the sweet vanilla, chocolate or flavour-of-your-choice aroma of a cake. It's not the half-way-inbetween sweet earthiness of brioche. It is an unmistakable, uplifting, heart-lightening, worry-dissipating aroma all of its own. It has the power to entrance and delight. The power to carry the soul to another plane.

And there's nothing quite so close to unadulterated bliss as the taste of that first hot doughnut, drained, and dusted in cinnamon sugar. Feeling the slight crunch as your teeth break the crust then sink slowly into the light, fluffy fried dough, the smell of cinnamon wafting up to your nose, sugar coating your lips and spreading gently across your tongue. The burst and pop of tastebuds all across your tongue, as the flavours combine and your salivary glands spring into action.

There are things to remember and rules to follow when making doughnuts. They require yeast so, like bread, they need to be double proven to really work well. It means spending a little more time, but it's definitely worth it. I can't emphasise enough how important it is to double prove the dough (for breads and for doughnuts). This batch are probably my best to date. They rose beautifully and the gluten in the flour stretched its cobwebby fingers across pockets of nothingness, giving the doughnuts an ethereal lightness. Like all baking and bread recipes, you need to stick to the recipe as much as humanly possible.

I like deviating wildly from recipes and seeing what happens. In the kitchen, I'm a veritable mad-scientist tossing together ingredients like volatile chemicals, playing fast and loose with timings and temperatures to see what emerges, but I've learned along the way that breads and baked desserts are not to be messed with. They are the starched, Victorian, stiff-lipped, highly rule-governed great aunts of the baking world. They work according to ratios, so don't fiddle with the quantities, temperatures or timings. This, of course, comes with its own caveat. You can always fiddle with the quantities of flour and milk. In fact, it's necessary to do so according to the ambient humidity. The more moisture in the air, the more flour you'll need. The hotter and drier the day, the more liquid you'll need. The cooler the weather... well, you get the idea. Use your best judgement to get a firm, pliable and soft dough that's easy to knead.

...and don't forget the "holes"!

Doughnuts
(makes 30 doughnuts plus 30 holes - depending on size of cookie cutter)
Ingredients:
110g butter, cubed
375g plain flour
5 egg yolks
1 1/2 - 2 tbsp caster sugar
20g yeast
3/4 cup warm milk

oil for deep frying
caster sugar and ground cinnamon for dredging

Method:
Place milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl and stir until dissolved. Whisk in egg yolks.

Add flour to bowl of food processor. With motor on low speed, slowly pour in egg mixture and knead for 5 minutes.

Increase speed to medium, then add butter in 3 batches and beat until dough comes together. Remove dough and knead on a clean, dry surface until dough becomes shiny and smooth.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap (Glad Wrap/Cling Wrap etc.) and stand in a draught-free, warm place for at least 1 hour or until mixture doubles in volume.

Knock down dough, then roll out on a work surface until 2 cm thick (don't roll it too thin or you'll get flat doughnuts!). Use a cookie or pastry cutter to cut out your doughnuts. Remember that doughnuts will expand in the second proving, so don't worry if they look a little small when you cut them out. Use a smaller cookie cutter (I used the large end of an icing/frosting nozzle) to cut out the "holes" in the middle of the doughnut. Place doughnuts and holes around 4cm apart (to allow for expansion) on lightly oiled baking sheets (or you can cover your baking sheets in parchment/baking paper). Cover the trays and stand in a draught-free place for 1hour or until risen [I cheated a little here. I turned on the oven to around 200C while I was kneading, rolling and cutting the dough, then turned it off. I placed the doughnuts on the baking sheets in the warm oven with the door ajar to rise. It's much quicker and you get an even proofing].

Heat oil in a deep-fryer or deep saucepan to 180C [if you don't have a thermometer, it should take 10 seconds for a cube of bread to spin and brown. The temperature is important] and cook doughnuts in batches until golden on both sides. Drain well on absorbent paper [this step is important. Don't be tempted to dredge the doughnuts while still covered in oil. It makes them sweat and become sticky, and they won't last as long].

Dredge with combined caster sugar and ground cinnamon. Serve while still warm or wait till they cool down (these don't keep well and are best eaten within a couple of days).

NOTE: If you want jam-filled doughnuts, don't cut out the "holes". Proceed with the recipe otherwise and once dredged, use a long, thin piping nozzle and icing bag filled with jelly or conserve (use something with no pieces of fruit, which will get stuck in the end of the nozzle) to pierce and fill the doughnuts.

Hippety Hoppity!

It's Easter! Time for chocolate hangovers and hot cross buns coming out the wahzoo. So here's an easy recipe for hot cross buns (guess what we're having for breakfast??).

Hot Cross Buns
(makes 12)
Ingredients:
1 tbsp dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup sugar (I use raw sugar)
4 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg
50g melted butter

Method:
In a large bowl add the sugar, flour, yeast, mixed spice, cinnamon and dried fruit. Mix until combined.

Make a well in the centre and add the melted butter, egg and milk.

Use a butter knife to mix then tip out onto a lightly floured bench and knead for 8 minutes or until smooth and elastic (add more flour or milk if dough is too sticky or dry).

Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size (I left mine overnight so the dough would be ready to bake for breakfast).

Take dough out and knead lightly then portion into 12 segments of roughly equal size.

Roll into balls with your hands and arrange on a greased baking tin (I prefer a tin for buns and rolls as the heat up the sides gives a more even cooking).

Allow to rise in a warm place for another 40 minutes. Use this time to preheat the oven to about 200C and make up a mixture for the crosses.

Crosses: mix flour and water till it is a wet paste and pipe over the buns.

Glaze mixture: 1/4 cup hot water, 3 tbsp of caster sugar.

Bake for 10 mins then turn oven down to 180C and cook for another 20-25 mins or until springy to touch.

Brush glaze over them as soon as they are out of the oven. Eat hot or allow to cool!

Baking Butter Biscuits

A bit of alliteration and some delicious basic biscuits are the result!

Butter Biscuits
(makes 30)
Ingredients:
125g butter, softened (I used salted butter to cut down on the sweetness of the biscuit)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 180C. Line two baking trays with baking parchment/paper.

Using a food processor or electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. Add egg and mix well until combined.

Sift flour and baking powder over butter mixture. Add milk and stir/mix until just combined.

Using 2 teaspoons of dough at a time, roll dough into balls. Place on lined baking trays. Using a lightly floured fork, flatten biscuits slightly (remember to allow room for spreading).

Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, swapping trays over in the oven after 10 minutes, or until light golden. Allow to cool on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar. Biscuits will keep up to a week in an airtight container.

Pop goes the... well... popcorn

There's something so exciting about popcorn. I suppose it's the uncertainty of whether it will actually pop, and then how much of it will pop. Will you be left with only a few singed kernels at the end, or will their be an inch thick layer of unpopped kernels?

And then there's the smell... that delicious, heady mix of oil and butter, simmering gently, acquiring a nuttiness. The succulent mix coaxes the subtle aromas from the corn kernels as they go in, and the kitchen smells divine. Like warmth and sunshine, the smell of happiness and laughter and adventure.


The sound of popcorn, the gentle pfut pfut as each kernel springs into its new life; white, fluffy and inviting. It warms the cockles of my heart.

Blueberry Breakfast

I thought I'd make French Toast Cups this morning and fill them with blueberries and maple yoghurt for breakfast. I thought that's what I'd do.... till I discovered that all the bread in the house had gone mouldy! The unexpectedly humid weather we've been having recently has taken it's toll. So with PlanA so obviously dashed against a mouldy wall, I had to come up with a PlanB. So here it is...

Blueberry Muffins with Maple Yoghurt and Mango:

(makes 12)
Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour
1 tbsp sugar
4 eggs
2 - 3 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 punnet blueberries

Yoghurt Dressing:
1 1/2 cups plain yoghurt
1 - 2 tbsp maple syrup (use the good stuff not the maple flavoured syrup... you don't need much)

Mango diced
Spray oil for greasing muffin tin

Method:
Preheat oven to 190C. Grease muffin tin.

Beat eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the flour a little at a time and mix. You should have the consistency of pancake/hotcake mix.

Pour into muffin tins (only fill to 3/4). Add blueberries (I added about 8 to each muffin... the more blueberries, the juicier!). Bake for 20 minutes (or until golden brown and a skewer inserted comes out dry).

While the muffins are cooking, peel and dice the mango (I used one R2E2 which was more than enough) and mix the yoghurt and maple syrup.

When muffins are done, allow to rest 5 minutes (this makes it much easier to remove from the muffin tin - remember there are no liners or patty pans).

Arrange muffins in bowls, pour over maple yoghurt and sprinkle with mango. Yum.