Polenta Pancakes

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Not sure what to have for breakfast tomorrow? Well I have an idea for you.
I don't know about you but I love most things to do with corn - popcorn, cake with polenta, polenta by itself, cornmeal in muffins, grits, corn on the cob, cornbread (especially cornbread)...I can't really think of anything else right now but you get the point :)
So in the quest for the perfect pancakes I decided that since corn makes most things better that should transfer to pancakes as well.
And guess what, I was right :)
I called this recipe polenta pancakes but I actually used a mixture of cornmeals rather than 'proper' polenta but we can probably agree that mixed cornmeal pancakes sounds kinda stupid. I hope you like them anyway!

Polenta Pancakes
Cornmeal:
85 g Cornmeal (I use 1/2 super fine polenta and 1/2 medium maize meal (so that's slightly finer than grits))
A pinch of Salt
375 ml Milk

Dry Mix:
190 g Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tbsp Sugar

Wet Mix:
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
325 ml Milk
2 Eggs

Butter

Make some cornmeal by whisking the cornmeal and salt into the milk and heating it over a medium heat (while stirring) until the milk is all absorbed (i.e. if this were porridge it would be waaay too thick). Allow the cornmeal to cool before you continue with the next few steps.
Mix the dry ingredients and set them aside.
Whisk the wet ingredients together and then mix them in with the cooled cornmeal.
Add the dry mix and stir things until everything is combined, but make sure you don't overwork the batter.
Heat some butter in a heavy bottomed pan and make some glorious pancakes.
These pancakes are lovely on their own but shine with some golden syrup and some fresh berries.
Oh, and since the recipe makes quite a lot of them, they are really nice the next day as well.

Carrot Waffles

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Is there anything better than hot, waffles on a Sunday Morning - topped with heaps of icing sugar, or some butter and maple syrup, or some jam and fake cream :) oh the options are endless.

Carrot Waffles
11/2 cups Really Fine Corn Meal (whatever that is called in your country, but don't go for the stuff some people use to thicken gravy, you're looking for the stuff that is still slightly grainy but finer than polenta)
13/4 cups Kamut Flour
1/4 cup Light Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 tbsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp Cinnamon
11/2 tsp Salt
1cup Carrot Juice
3/4 cup Milk
3 tbsp Melted Butter (+ some more for the waffle iron)
Juice of 1 Orange
2 Eggs

Turn your waffle iron/waffle maker (whatever you call it, I love you anyway)
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Whisk all the wet ingredients together, then pour wet into dry and whisk again.
Brush the waffle iron with butter and have fun making your waffles (don't you love these recipes that come together faster than you can say 'good morning' ?!?!?
Even though they are best straight out of the waffle iron, they freeze rather well...and make my kosher chocolate spread (don't ask...) taste quite good.

I hope you have a fabulous week!

Rhubarb and Polenta Muffins

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Last week I felt really old.

After being responsible adults and making sure that my bottle of Chase Gin (soo nice!!!) hadn't gone off, Verena and I spent the evening listening to 1980s music on youtube and looking at cookbooks.

And while I'm still slightly worried about my music taste I came across this lovely recipe for a Rhubarb and Cornflour Cake in Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a domestic goddess' which just sounded divine.

And compared to the other recipes in the book it's actually not that unhealthy (ok, still not healthy but you know what I mean....) :)

Sooo, since I've been trying to find something to do with all this rhubarb I've been hoarding in the freezer this was my chance.

I felt like making something slightly more girly than a loaf cake (something has to balance out the bad music...) These muffins/cupcakes (I think muffins sounds nice in the name but they feel a bit more like cupcakes) are super easy and reallyreally nice and if you're looking for something to bring to a birthday party you can feel all Stepford without the effort by making the yoghurt cream to go with it (which takes like 2 seconds).

Rhubarb and Polenta Muffins (makes 24)

700g Rhubarb
300g Sugar
150g Flour
150g Polenta
1tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda
A pinch of Salt
1tsp Cinnamon
1tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs
125g Butter
250g Plain Yoghurt

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line two muffin trays.
If you haven't already washed and trimmed the rhubarb now's the time :)
Cut the rhubarb into 1cm pieces, then mix with 100g of the sugar and set aside in a bowl.
In a bowl, mix the flour, polenta, bicarb, salt, and cinnamon.
Cream the butter and the remaining sugar. In case you haven't heard me drone on about creaming butter and sugar, it takes time :) give it about 5 minutes with a handheld mixer. I know, it's annoying, but it's really worth it. Listen to some embarrassing music on you ipod if you get bored.
Mix in the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla extract.
Add the dry mix and the yoghurt alternating as you go along. Since we're making faux-muffins, don't worry about everything being properly mixed, otherwise they can get a bit chewy.
Now add the rhubarb (including the juices), give it one last stir and then have fun trying to get similar amounts of rhubarb into each muffin paper.
Bake for about 20 minutes.
You can either eat them as they are, but if you're looking for something slightly more fancy, add some of the boozy yoghurt cream below.

Boozy Yoghurt Cream
200ml Whipping Cream
150g 0% Greek Yoghurt
1tbsp Sugar
2tbsp Desert Wine

Whip the cream with the sugar until soft peaks form (gosh I love writing this!), mix the greek yoghurt and the wine, then fold into the whipped cream.
Done :)

Raspberry and Rhubarb Tartlets

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This one is for you Mama! And no cheating and asking someone to help you with the translation ;)

A while ago my mum asked me for a recipe that she could make for coffee with friends. One of the first things that I had to think about was the lovely cover photo of Kim Boyce's 'Good to the Grain'.
Unfortunately I seem to have this weakness that I can't just use a recipe as it is and I have to start changing things all the time (and yes, in case you wonder, a lot of the time it goes all horribly wrong, I'm thinking of a certain Brownie debacle, Sandra....).
So this weekend a, no doubt, amazing rhubarb tart recipe turned into an experiment that fortunately worked rather well :)
You'll have to make a compote either the night before or in the morning (doesn't take long though, so no worrying!!) and the only other thing is, the dough is a bit of a pain to handle, don't ask the girls about the language that was used in my kitchen the evening I made them - if you're hoping for a fun recipe that is going to make you feel like a domestic goddess, stay away from this recipe! If you're tired and have just come home from a long day at work, don't go for it! If you're all relaxed and happy anyway and you're looking for an amazingly crumbly, buttery and flaky (in a good way) tartlet this is just the recipe you're looking for.

Raspberry and Rhubarb Compote
750g-1kg Rhubarb
250g Raspberries
250g Golden caster sugar
1tbsp Rosewater

What you do now depends on what your rhubarb looks like. The one I had wasn't that tender anymore so I decided to peel some of it in the hope to get rid of some of the not-so-nice bits. If you've got some young and lovely rhubarb (like the one I discovered in my garden after buying some) all you'll have to do is rinse it and cut off the ends.
Depending on the size of the stalks you might want to cut them in half lengthwise. Then you cut them into 1.5cm chunks.
Set aside about 300g of the rhubarb and mix the rest with the raspberries and the sugar in a pot and cover with a lid.
Turn your hob quite low and slowly heat up the mix (don't think you can speed up this part, give it the time it needs). This takes about 15 minutes.
Once the fruit is swimming in gorgeous rhubarb juice, take off the lid and turn the heat a bit higher. Add the rosewater. Cook until the rhubarb is all broken down and the liquid begins to thicken. Keep stirring at this stage, don't just run off to chat to your mum :). This should take just under 20 minutes.
Stir in the rhubarb you put on the side, leave on the heat for another couple of minutes and then pour the compote onto a large dish (I used a stoneware gratin dish) and allow it to col down.
Once it's completely cooled down the compote likes to live in the fridge.

Right, now let's get to the tartlets.

Raspberry and Rhubarb Tartlets
60g Corn flour
125g Spelt flour
125g Fine cornmeal
80g Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
115g Butter (cold and cut into small chunks)
90ml Cream
2 Egg yolks

Mix the dry ingredients, add in the butter and mix until it's well incorporated and looks all crumbly and lovely. Add the cream and the yolks and mix well. Don't be tempted to add water or anything, the dough will look fairly crumbly.
Divide the dough into 10 pieces. On a lightly floured work surface flatten each piece until they are about 12cm in diameter. Spoon 4 tbsp of the compote onto the centre of each base and then fold the edges up. For me that was when I was nearing despair. My edges didn't really want to stay up. Keep trying and keep telling yourself that it's not supposed to be picture perfect but that you're going for a rustic look (and that the taste is going to be soo worth it!!).
Use one of those handy bench scrapers to slide under a tart, pick it up and place it onto a plate or a baking sheet (if you want to make your life easier, put a layer of clingfilm onto the plate beforehand)
and put the tarts into your freezer so they can harden.
Note: If your freezer is small think about what size plates you can fit into it :)
Your tarts can stay in the freezer anything between an hour and two weeks.
Right, nearly there, heat your oven to 190 degrees, put the tarts onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes until the tarts are the most amazing golden brown.
Enjoy them still slightly warm or cold.
Hmmm, I'll be dreaming of tartlets while working on my code today.....

Margarita-Syrup Cake

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Going back over my older posts I had the realization that I never posted the actual recipe......

While you enjoy the view of the mess that is my kitchen when we're having a baking session.....I found the precursor of this recipe in this amazing cookbook called 'Cook in Boots' by Ravinder Bhogal which is just a pure treasure-trove...the trifle this weekend was from there as well....well the general idea and the amazing custard that goes into the trifle....but i'll save that for another day...
So here we go...

Margarita-Syrup Cake
190g Butter
225g Sugar
350g Yoghurt
3 tbsp Tequila
4 Eggs
Zest of a lime
150g Self-raising flour
75g Semolina (go for the kind that is not too fine but don't go for the kind that is made from durum wheat.....)
75g Polenta
11/2 tsp Baking powder
75g Ground almonds

125g Sugar
Juice and zest of a lime
Juice of half an orange
6 tbsp Tequila
4 tbsp Cointreau

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and get out you 26cm springform tin, you'll want it lined with baking parchment but I wouldn't bother greasing it.

Cream the butter and the sugar together (if you're using an electric mixer that should probably take just under 5 minutes at a medium speed), mix in the yoghurt, tequila, egg yolks and the lime zest and give it another minute till it's all mixed in.
Add the dry ingredients and stir it until it's all well combined.
Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until you have those lovely peaks forming. I find if I add a pinch of salt this tends to be a lot quicker (not sure whether that's just superstition).
Anyhow....mix in about a third of the egg whites into the batter and make sure it's all well mixed in, then you fold in the rest of the egg whites. Apparently, if you mix in about a third of the egg whites with the batter the folding in is a lot easier (seems to do the job for me).
Once you have a lovely batter, pour it into the tin and bake it for something between 50 and 60 minutes.
Once you've taken the cake out of the oven and you are enjoying the most amazing smell in your kitchen you mix the sugar and the juice over a low heat until the sugar is fully dissolved. Take the syrup off the heat and add the tequila and the Cointreau and then you poke your lovely cake with a skewer....I know, it's a bit depressing to do that....but you'll get over it the second you pour the syrup over the cake and it all gets absorbed into the cake.
The syrup recipe is a bit more than you need but trust me, there won't be anything going to waste :)