Friday, May 08, 2015

Butternut Squash 'Healthyish' Cake

A lovely moist and naturally sweet cake. Play around with the amount of Muscovado vs Sultanas - the first version I tried was a bit to overly sweet... But I don't have a sweet tooth...

75g Wholegrain Spelt flour, (unrefined with all the goodness)
1½ tsp Baking Powder,
160g Butternut squash, roasted and blitzed (just put the whole Squash in the oven on a backing tray, medium temp for about 40 mins until a skewer/knife slides in and out of the flesh easily and clean. Your choice whether to leave the caramelized skin on before you blitz it, but do top/tail it and de-seed it!)
75g Light Brown Muscovado Sugar (unrefined with all the goodness)
75g Softened butter
2 Eggs, medium
30g Sultanas
Grated zest of an Orange
Half of the Orange, juice squeezed into the mix

Pre-heat oven to 190°C

1] Line a 20cm round shallow tin with baking paper and grease.
2] Sieve the Flour & Baking Powder into a bowl and hand mix in the Muscovado Sugar and Sultanas.
3] Add the Butter, Eggs, Orange Juice and Zest then spatula/spoon hand work it together until blended.
4] Add the Butternut Squash. You will have to judge how much, to get a not too wet texture.
5] Pour into the tin and level.
6] Bake in the centre of oven for 20 - 25 mins until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
7] Allow to cool for 10 mins in the tin before transferring to a cooling rack.

Substitute roasted Parsnip for the Butternut Squash for an earthier flavour. Just put them on a baking tray, unpeeled/untrimmed, drizzled with some Oil/Salt/Pepper. Trim the tops and blitz.

Try adding in spices such as All-Spice, ground Roasted Cumin, Ginger etc when you mix up the Flour & Baking Powder.

Extra experiments to be done replacing the Butter with Coconut Oil/Solids...

Monday, March 30, 2015

Spicy Tofu Stir-Fry

Tofu Marinade
• 1 pack of firm tofu, cubed
• 3 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 Cloves Garlic, crushed 
• 1 teaspoon crushed Chilli flakes
• Generous dollop of runny Honey
• Splash of Light Soy Sauce


Veg

• 1 Onion, sliced, caramelised

• 1 Red Pepper, roasted, peeled, sliced
• Carrot
• Mushrooms
• Fennel

• Sesame Oil
• Soy Sauce





Drain the marinade liquid into your wok and fry off to get a rich spicy base.

Thinly slice the Fennel and place on a dry griddle pan.

Fry off the veg and add the Tofu.

Stir in the Red Peppers and Onions.

Serve and finish off with some Sesame Oil and Soy Sauce.

We had some cooked Rice, so we added that - In hindsight this would have been better off fried separately.