Danish Apple and Prune Cake

Hello family and friends.... I have missed writing this blog, so here goes with a cake to start the New Year, 2012

Batter

Lucy enjoys my cake on Boxing Day

125g Butter

170g Sugar

2 Eggs

100g Ground Almonds

80g Flour (ok to substitute with GF flour)

1 tsp baking powder

125ml milk

1 tsp vanilla

Toppings

12 soft dessert prunes cut into thirds

100g chopped walnuts

2 Green Apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced

3 tbsp extra sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

knob butter

1.  Prepare 23cm cake tin, grease and line with baking paper. Preheat oven to 190°C

2.  To make batter either place all ingredients into food processor for 10 seconds, run a spatula around the edges, and process a further 5 seconds  OR

cream better and sugar, add beaten eggs and then fold in the rest of ingredients.

3.  Pour batter evenly into prepared cake tin

4.  Push the prunes gently and evenly into batter

5.  Sprinkle walnuts over prunes and batter

6.  Cover with apple slices arranged neatly over the walnuts

7.  Bake in oven 35 mins @ 190°C

8.  Carefully remove from oven. Quickly sprinkle over cinnamon, sugar and dobs of butter.

9.  Slide cake back into the oven for a further 15 – 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean

Serve with cream or ice cream, or just eat as is

Thanks to Jill, who was flying from Adelaide to Sydney on Boxing Day I was able to have my cake hand delivered

I usually double this mixture as the cake keeps well for up to a week in an airtight container.  I sometimes make it thicker in a smaller tin or thinner in a larger tin, it is a very easy cake. Also I have just sliced one apple and layered with stewed quinces, also added half desiccated coconut/almonds. Swap walnuts for almonds and so on…

Adapted from ‘More Gretta Anna Recipes” p. 192

Curried Prawns

Dad (Poppa) loved Mum's Curried Prawns, he would rub his hands together with glee and joyfully peel the prawns in anticipation of dinner.  I think of this dish as comfort food.  It is safe, easy to make, reliable and nourishing. Often people are scared of cooking with seafood so I hope you give this a go, because the prawns are already cooked it is hard to mess it up, just make sure you don't cook the prawns again, they will warm through in the sauce! You can vary the curry heat by the quantity of powder or paste you use.  Mum always used Bolts Curry powder, but any paste can be used as well.  This recipe wasn't in Mum's book but a really important dish from her repertoire as we children we will all remember it very well.  I guess she never felt the need to write it down.  I haven't made it for a while so I checked in with Lucy who cooks it for her Peter! It is one of his favourites, and now Alistair has put it on his top ten list for our kitchen.  Let me know how you enjoy it!

½ kg cooked prawns, shelled and cleaned

2 tabs butter or oil

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic

1 tabs plain flour (Gluten Free GF flour is ok)

1 – 2 heaped tsp curry powder or 1 - 2 heaped tabs curry paste

1” fresh ginger grated

1½ cups milk or coconut milk

Squeeze of lemon juice

Chopped coriander or parsley

1. Fry some onions and garlic in oil/butter until soft and golden

2. Mix in curry powder/paste and plain flour

3. Cook for a few minutes, add ginger

4. Add milk/coconut milk and stir until thickens slightly

5. Just before serving, reheat sauce and stir in prawns and lemon juice

6. Serve with steamed rice and chopped coriander/parsley

Steak Temoana

This is an old recipe of Mum's that I haven't seen her cook for years. It is delicious and dead easy to make, also very low fat if you trim the meat well. In Nonna's day many recipes had their flavour boosted with tinned or packet soups and you will see them used a lot in this blog. These soups are little sachets of salt, stock powder, dried veges, and inexplicable additives so I usually prefer to replace them with alternate ingredients as described below. This way I can control how much salt I'm using and avoid all the additives, fresh is best!

1- 1.5 kg Blade Steak

½ tsp Curry Powder

1 pkt dried Mushroom Soup (**use replacement for GF)

2 tsp Mixed Spice

1 cup Dry Sherry

1 tabs Tomato Sauce

¼ cup Vinegar

1 tabs Worcestershire Sauce

2 chopped Onions

12 stoned Prunes

12 Pineapple chunks (tinned)

1. Measure Curry, Mushroom Soup and Spices into a plastic bag

2. Cut meat into 3-4cm squares

3. Toss meat into plastic bag and shake until meat evenly coated

4. Place into casserole dish with other ingredients placing Prunes and Pineapple on top

5. Cook 2 hours in moderate oven 165ºC

** Instead of using the dried Mushroom Soup you can replace it with 2 tsp beef stock powder, 3 tsp GF flour, ½ tsp black pepper, ½ tsp salt. Place in plastic bag with other ingredients as above.  Add a handful of fresh mushrooms sliced or 50g dried porcini mushrooms that have been soaked in hot water for 5 mins and then sliced, add soaking liquid as well.

Vegetable Soup

Childhood memories are filled with an amazing vege soup that Mum made and I had forgotten the recipe. We would sit by the open fire and sip soup that was incredibly smooth and the flavours melded in a way that was hard to know what was in it. A sprinkle of chopped parsley, or a sprig as pictured. Thank you Lucy, it is great that you remember it so well. Here is Nonna's vegetable soup as remembered Lucy:

"I have just cooked up a big pot of vegetable soup that Mum taught me about 35 years ago to cook when I first got married!
The soup starts with a big pot of homemade chicken stock. I pulled one out of the freezer made a few weeks ago. I boiled a whole chicken with onion, carrot and herbs. Into the soup pot I just love putting in whatever needs to be used up in the fridge, as Mum did.  Tonight's soup was almost identical to Mum's except I add ginger and often a few Asian ingredients like lemon grass and some chilli or whatever!


Finely chopped Onions, Garlic, Celery, Broccoli, Capsicum
Grated Pumpkin, White Potato, Carrot
Brown Rice and Quinoa grains (GF)
Barley or "Soup Mix" = Mum's favourite

I also added whole Sweet Corn, microwaved and then sliced off the cob
Chopped Parsley, dried herbs or fresh dried herbs
Sea Salt and Ground Pepper


Place all ingredients on the stove simmering for a few hours so it all congeals together and the vegetables soften. Mum's little trick at the end was to add a tin of tomato soup to sweeten it up a bit and add a little more flavour.  I just added a small tin of tomato paste tonight and a spoon of brown sugar instead to do the trick.

Lemon Delicious Pudding

Golden sponge topping and creamy lemon sauce, this pudding is easy to make and always a winner. Ok, I'll admit that I cooked this a little too long... and the boys told me it was burnt! As you can see by the colour of the crust, the oven was a bit hot for too long and the "sponge" came in 2 parts, soft and fluffy, plus a crisp crust.   If you don't overcook it the sponge will stay attached to the crust. This is a pudding that Nonna made over and over but I am sad to say that her version has gone as it was written on one of the 4 pages fallen from her book.  Jill requested this recipe so for her I post this one up. You can see from mine that it is Ok to overcook a little!! Still Yum!! This recipe is adapted from Stephanie Alexander's "Cook's Companion" p394.

2 Lemons
60g Butter
1½ cups castor sugar
3 eggs, separated
3 tabs Self Raising Flour
or use GF flour + ½tsp BP
1½ cups Milk

1. Preheat Oven to 180ºC and butter a 1 litre ovenproof basin or serving dish.
2. Grate the Lemon rind (zest) of 1 Lemon and juice of 2 Lemons
3. Cream Butter and Sugar with zest, add Yolks one at a time
4. Mix in Flour and Milk to make a smooth batter
5. Whisk Egg Whites in a clean bowl until creamy and firm
6. Fold Whites into batter gently and pour batter into prepared basin
7. Stand basin in a baking dish and pour in hot water to come half way up the sides of the basin.
8. Bake for 1 hour.  Allow to cool a little before serving with cream

If you like using a food processer this recipe adapts well, after step 4 put the batter into a mixing bowl and then add the whisked Egg Whites.
I have added a new tab for Gluten Free (GF) as I realise so many of us are catering for Gluten Free diets.  I'll got back over all the previous posts and add the Gluten Free method where possible :)