David in the kitchen.

Can I get you a dessert menu?

I hadn’t intended to go down the dessert route. So says the glutton who’s long since lost all sense of direction when it comes to sweet treats. But it’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Or is that the sugar on my fingers?

We’d gone out for lunch, a midweek trip to use a 20% off in January offer a local eatery is running. One of those things designed to help you through the post-Christmas gloom, and a good way for them to fill tables at this time of year.

We’d been good, two sensible main courses ordered. A spiced duck salad for me, and some pan-fried cod for my partner. There was no booze. We’ve both said that rather than go the full Dry January hog, we’ll at least keep it just to the weekends.

So we felt good, we felt sensible, and to be honest we felt quite sated.

Then came the inevitable

‘Can I get you a dessert menu?’

That throw-away line, casually asked by every waitress, in the full knowledge you’re going to reply

‘We’ll just have a look’

But we didn’t just look. We considered the crumble, we pondered steamed pudding, and we eyed the ice cream. Then hidden away at the bottom of the list we found Black Forrest Gateau with boozy cherries, chocolate ice cream and spun sugar.

I ask you in all honesty, who was going to resist that? Virtually every indulgence box ticked in the one dessert. The only saving grace I can offer, the only bit of virtue we managed to hang on to, is the fact we decided to share.

One cake, two spoons, and a very clear plate at the end.

Fyriskaka

As much as I admire the sentiment and applaud those taking part, Veganuary and Dry January are passing me by again.

I know there’s been the inevitable overindulgence during the holiday period, not helped in my case by having a January 1st birthday. All of this followed by a week where ‘we better just finish this off’ seems to proceed every meal.

But taking this all into account, I still think a stricter adherence to position control is the best I’m going to manage. I need a little help to get me through January, not some self-imposed austerity.

All of this brings me to the Fyriskaka I made yesterday. A soft, sweet and spicy Swedish apple cake.

Apple cakes always feel so right to me at this time of year. The addition of spice, in some recipes a splash of whisky, and some flecks of dark bitter chocolate, gives them a wonderfully seasonal flavour.

Ingredients

130 grams butter
1 teaspoon crushed cardamon seeds ( You can use pre-ground, but seeds from pods you’ve opened and crushed always seem to have more flavour )
3 medium-sized apples
3 tablespoons brown sugar ( I used demerara, but if you don’t have that any brown sugar will work )
1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
130 grams of caster sugar
2 eggs
140 grams of flour ( I like to use spelt flour for extra flavour, but plain flour will work fine )
0.5 teaspoon baking powder

Method

Grease and line a springform baking tin ( the one I used is 18 centimetres )
Preheat the oven to 160c for a fan oven, 180c for electric or 350f for gas.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then stir in the crushed cardamon and leave to cool.
Peel the apples and slice them thinly.
Mix two tablespoons of brown sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl. Then add the sliced apple. Gently mix with your hands until all slices are covered in the sugar mix.
In a second bowl whisk the cooled butter and the caster sugar until smooth. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and whisk until combined.
Sift the flour and baking powder into the butter/sugar mix and use a wooden spoon to stir until combined.
Pour the cake batter into your lined baking tin and spread it out. Place the apple slices on the top and sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of brown sugar over them. Don’t worry if you have to do two layers of apple slices to use them all up.
Bake for 35 minutes. The cake is done when a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

The fabulous smells of caramelised apple filling your kitchen will probably make it quite difficult to wait until the cake has cooled before you try a slice. But believe me, it’s worth it, and if you join me in a little bit of portion control, it will last even longer.

Sometimes it’s not the writing

Sometimes it’s not the writing. It’s what to write about. I’m sure there’s supposed to be a goal when I sit down in front of a blank document. An ambition to fill it with prose which will leave any eventual readers interested stimulated and keen to come back for more. But it’s easier said (or in this case written) than done.

My issue often is, as much as I want to populate this blog with regular posts. Be one of those people popping into your inbox daily. I have great difficulty deciding what they should be about.

I have wondered if this stems from me calling the blog David In The Kitchen, have I tied myself into always having to write about food? But I don’t think that’s it. Let’s face it, many writers sit at their kitchen table and produce pieces about any subject you care to mention.

Then I worried that what I might want to write about isn’t going to interest anyone. Might seem of no significance and leave people asking ‘why does he think I’d want to know this’.

Pondering these problems over the last few days, and determined to be here more in 2023, I’m hoping I may have found the answer.

Trawling through the many and various ‘how to improve yourself’ articles which fill the papers at this time of year, I found one about writing. In particular the problem of gaining inspiration. The answer they suggested is to sit down daily and just write. Don’t worry about what it is, and don’t edit as you go. just write and see what comes out in the end. The proverbial ‘just go with the flow’.

So that’s what I’ve done. I couldn’t think of what to write about. So that’s what I’ve written about.

I did do it at the kitchen table though.

Two Culinary Daydreamers

It was last Christmas. Our eyes met across a crowded bookshelf. You reaching for Nigella, me the latest Ottolenghi.

We didn’t speak, didn’t acknowledge. Both lost in recipes, imagining how flavours on the page would taste on the plate.

‘I want to try that’ our first words.

Two culinary daydreamers.

We cooked together that night, and haven’t stopped since.

Whatever’s going on elsewhere, you’ll find us in the kitchen. Our domain, no spice too strong, no sugar too sweet, no boundary can’t be challenged.

Except for trifle, of course. Nigella will always win that one.

…….

Looking at the paltry number of posts I’ve put up over the last year, it’s clear that despite my best intentions, I haven’t been writing enough. I’m not going to fall into the trap of making a New Year resolution about having a specific schedule. That’s a fool’s game and only leads to disappointment when it fails by the end of the month, never mind the end of the year. But I am determined to be here more often.

To kick things off I’m sharing this microfiction piece. I wrote it for a 100-word story challenge set by Kitty Johnson ahead of publishing her novel Five Winters. Kitty was my tutor on a couple of creative writing courses I took, and her guidance and encouragement had a lot to do with me starting up this blog.

Happy New Year.

A bread to brighten your day

I don’t think there’s ever been a time when the urge to shut myself away in the kitchen and bake has been stronger. The world feels as if it’s going to hell in a handbasket, the UK is reduced to changing Prime Minister every few weeks, even the Great British Bake Off is proving to be a disappointment. The current series is full of the most uninspiring challenges they’ve ever had.

If you feel remotely the same, or just enjoy a good bake, I’m hoping the bread recipe below will brighten your day. I made it for the first time this week, but I think it will become a regular in this house.

I know I’ve written before about the thrill bread baking gives me. Taking so few ingredients and turning them into something so good. The ingredient list may be a bit longer this time, and the method a little different, but the wonderful flavours in the finished bread make it all worthwhile. Every bit as good as the flavour is the amazing aroma of hot cheese and rosemary that will fill your kitchen when you take the finished loaf out of the oven.

Ingredients

350g potatoes, peeled and cut into approximately 2cm cubes
50g butter. I used unsalted
350 strong white bread flour. I used flour with seeds in, to add a bit more texture to the bread. If you don’t have this, just add a few extra seeds of your choice.
7g dried fast-action yeast
5g salt
10g rosemary leaves, finely chopped
100g cheese, grated. I used a strong cheddar, but any hard cheese would work.

Method

Boil the potatoes for 15 minutes until soft. Drain and mash using the butter. Put the mash into a large bowl and leave until it has cooled enough to handle.
When cooled, add the flour, yeast, salt, rosemary and cheese. Use your hands to bring everything together as much as you can, then add 50ml of water and continue to mix. The dough will seem quite dry and rough at this stage.
Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for about five minutes, until the texture becomes smoother. Put the dough in a clean bowl, cover it with a tea towel and leave it to prove for an hour.
After the hour tip the dough onto the worktop and knead briefly to knock out any air. Then form it into a tight ball and place it on a piece of baking parchment, cover it with the bowl, and leave it to prove for about another 20 minutes.
During this period heat your oven to 220c, 200fan, gas mark 7,
This loaf bakes best in a large oven-proof casserole dish with a lid. If you have one of these, put it in the oven to warm up for the 20 minutes.
Carefully remove the hot casserole from the oven, remove the lid and drop the dough, still on the parchment paper, inside.
Bake the bread for 20 minutes with the casserole lid on, then remove the lid and bake for a further 15 minutes.
The finished bread should be golden on top and sound hollow when the base is tapped.

Here’s one I wrote earlier

Clearing out a cupboard yesterday I found a long-since forgotten school magazine, dating back to when I spent part of my childhood in Malta.

My Dad was a printer by trade and he’d gone out to Malta to help set up a print company. We were there for about four years and he still reminisces about it being one of the best times in his working life, and for me and my sister, growing up on a Mediterranean island was a childhood paradise. Year-round sunshine, never far away from the beach and swimming.

Finding the magazine bought memories flooding back. You won’t be surprised to hear that many of them are food or drink related. 7-Up floats in outdoor cafes, long glasses of ice-cold lemonade topped with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. I suppose they have them elsewhere, but for, me they’ll always be Malta.

Then there were the local cheesecakes. These delicacies of soft cheese and crispy pastry always make me think of trips to the dentist but in a good way. They weren’t the reason I needed to go, rather there was an exceptionally good cheesecake place on the same street as my dentist and Mum always seemed to take me there straight after for a treat.

Since I’ve been cooking there’s been a temptation to have a go at making my own. But some food memories feel too important to risk. What if I didn’t like them after all this time. It’s probably this sort of feeling that has stopped me from ever going back to the island.

It isn’t all just food memories though. When I flicked through the magazine I discovered I’m in there twice. First up there’s a photo of our school football team with me in it, looking gangly and a little uncomfortable alongside noticeably shorter teammates. Then at the foot of page eleven, I found a short story written by David Burbidge, Junior 1. It wasn’t as bad as I feared and as I’ve noticed on Twitter that today is #NationalWritingDay I thought I’d share it with you.

I can’t decide if the sudden ending was done for effect, or if I was getting bored and just wanted to finish.

Once upon a time, there was a woodcutter who lived in a hut by the river. One day in the summer a barge came chugging along the river, and there was the sound of musical instruments coming from the cabin. Suddenly the door burst open and a man ran out playing the trumpet, with another man singing in a weird language. Slowly the barge disappeared down the river. The woodcutter thought this very strange and mysterious. Three months later the woodman was shot at his work.

Maybe after all these years, it’s time to write a second chapter.

I’m still here

Up until the turn of the year, which feels such a long time ago now, I was writing regularly. The blog was thriving, words were flowing, and I was enjoying the whole experience. Something I’d prevaricated about for years was turning out to have been a very good idea. I even had the thrill of Alison Tyler referring to me as a ‘writer’ when she shared something I’d produced in response to one of her writing prompts. I didn’t stop grinning for a week after that. The whole thing was giving me a buzz.

Then, for various reasons it stopped. The time and place I’d been setting aside to write disappeared and somehow it proved easier to go with the flow rather than adapt to these changes. At first, I hardly noticed. Then weeks became months and what at first seemed to be a hiatus has gone on far too long. To the point where I almost feel back at square one. Nervous, and a bit tentative. Wondering if anyone is going to be bothered to read it if I do write. But of course, that’s not the point. As much as I appreciate the feedback and enjoy interaction with people who respond to my posts, I have to remember that I’m writing because I enjoy it and need to start again. It’s something that helps to keep me sane.

So this is a brief note, just to say I’m still here, still baking and as of today still writing.

Beetroot, caraway & goat’s cheese bread.

First of all an admission. Under any other circumstances than this recipe, I don’t like beetroot and I certainly wouldn’t expect to find it cropping up here again in a hurry.

For a long time now we’ve subscribed to a regular organic veg box service. Great at the best of times and an absolute godsend during lockdowns. Once a fortnight a nice man leaves a box brimming over with good stuff on our doorstep and it’s a race between us to see who can get there first to check out what he’s brought. There are always potatoes, but beyond that, it varies to whatever is in season and abundance that week. The one problem we have is just how often it includes beetroot.

We tried them baked, we tried them raw in salads, we even turned them into beetroot hummus. But all to no avail, we just didn’t like them. My partner took them to work and tried giving them to colleagues, but there were no takers. Clearly, we weren’t alone in our aversion.

Then, out of the blue, I discovered beetroot bread in an Ottolenghi book. I still wouldn’t want to see them in the veg box too regularly, but this savoury bread recipe has quickly become a big hit and a great way to use them up.

I’ve tweaked the recipe a bit. It’s ideal for home baking as it can be chopped and changed to take into account whatever seeds and cheese you have to hand.

A couple of things are worth mentioning:

It’s best to cover the bread with tin foil for the second half of the baking as it’s in the oven for a long time, all be it at quite a low temperature for bread baking.
Go carefully when grating the beetroot. I didn’t the first time I made this bread and finished up with everything in my vicinity stained pink. Now I use a very deep bowl, a small handheld grater and make sure I take my time. No more pink worktops.

Ingredients

50g oats
10g thyme leaves – chopped
50g pumpkin seeds
2 tsp caraway seeds
100g wholemeal flour
100g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 beetroot – peeled and grated
2 eggs
80ml sunflower oil – any other neutral oil should work
80ml milk
1 tbsp honey
20g parmesan cheese- grated
120g soda goat’s cheese – cut into small pieces

Method

Preheat the oven to Gas 6/ Fan 180. Grease and line the base of a 20x10cm loaf tin.
Mix the oats, thyme and seeds in a bowl.
Mix both flours, the baking powder, bicarb and a teaspoon of salt in another bowl. Whisk them together and then add the grated beetroot and all but a tablespoon of the oat and seed mix.
In a separate bowl whisk the egg, oil, milk, honey and grated parmesan together. Pour this mix into the bowl with the flour and beetroot and fold together using a spatula. Then add the chopped goat’s cheese and fold it in.
Pour the mixture into the greased tin and sprinkle the last tablespoon of the oats, thyme and seeds on top.
Bake for 40 minutes, then cover with tin foil and bake for a further 40 minutes.

Carrot & Mango Cake

It would’ve been my Mother’s birthday today and I’ve no doubt at all if she was still here there would have been cake.

The sweet things were always her favourites, I’m sure that’s where my indulgent streak comes from. She was one of those people who always looked at desserts first on a menu, making sure whichever earlier courses she picked left room for the sweet treat which had caught her eye.

Some of my earliest memories are of her baking and me asking for a taste of the cake mixture before it went into the oven. A habit I’ve not got out of to this day

My love of baking, rather than just eating it, didn’t start until very late in Mum’s life. But for those last few years, it was great to swap recipes and to pick her brains as I was learning.

I’m so pleased I got to bake the cake for her 80th birthday party. Even if I wasn’t allowed to put 80 on it as she didn’t want to be reminded it was a landmark day.

If I had been baking her a cake today I’d like to think the one I made earlier this week would have met with approval. A light sponge that’s spiced with ginger and cinnamon, has crushed toasted walnuts for added texture, along with grated carrots and mashed banana. Filled and topped with cream cheese and mango icing. Happy birthday Mum.

Ingredients for the cake

50g walnuts
2 eggs
260g light brown sugar
0.5 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground ginger
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
150g plain flour
100g wholemeal flour
260ml sunflower oil – or any other neutral oil.
1 banana – mashed
190g grated carrot

Ingredients for the icing

75g unsalted butter – softened
45g caster sugar
I pinch of sea salt flakes
320g cream cheese
1 tbsp icing sugar
Approximately half a mango – I used a supermarket pack that was already chopped and peeled.

Method

Heat the oven to gas4/fan160. Grease and line two 20cm cake tins.
Put the walnuts on a baking tray and toast them in the oven for about 12 minutes. Leave to cool and then crush them.
Whisk the eggs and sugar in a stand mixer until fluffy. Then slowly pour in the oil while still whisking. Once the oil is combined with the egg and sugar mix add the mashed banana.
In a separate bowl combine the salt, spices, crushed walnuts, raising agents and flours. Mix and then add them to the egg mixture and stir well to combine. Finally, stir in the grated carrots.
Split the mixture between the two prepared tins and bake for 35 minutes. When they are done a sharp knife should come out clean. Leave the cakes in the tin to cool.
For the icing beat the butter and caster sugar together at a medium speed. Once they are combined, add the salt and cream cheese and beat again. Then add the icing sugar and a few chunks of the mango, beat on a higher speed to break down the mango.
Put one of the cooled cakes on a plate and cover it with two-thirds of the icing. Add the second cake and put the remaining icing on top. Finish off with more mango and some edible petals if you have them.

Unexpected flavours

One of the things I most enjoy when baking is dropping in unexpected flavours. Flavours that on paper probably shouldn’t be there. But when you eat them you’re glad they are. It’s great to watch the look of surprise on someone’s face when what you’ve served them turns out to be more than they expected.

I find it very easy to fall into the trap of only using the spice rack for savoury dishes. Ginger might be the obvious exception to this, but believe me, there are many more spices that will enhance a sweet bake. Adding extra layers of flavour. Taking cakes out of their comfort zone.

If you’re going to do this I would urge you to check just how fresh and up to date your spices are. One of the positives of our recent kitchen refurb was when clearing the old cupboards it prompted me to have an audit of what was in them. There were far more bags, packets and bottles of spice than I expected, but when I came to check the dates on them many had been lurking there for far too long. When opened up most of the scent and taste had long since faded away. So they all went out and I’m only replacing them as and when I come to a recipe requiring that spice. The difference this is making to final flavours is remarkable.

I’ve recently made a couple of unusual combination cakes and both were hits, quickly devoured and requests for second bakes already in.

The first was sumac, spelt & apple, the second date, toffee and cardamon. If you’ve clicked the link for the first cake you’ll have seen it’s a Benjamina Ebuehi recipe. Her book The New Way To Cake is one of the most used in my kitchen and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I’ve made virtually everything in it and I’m now eagerly awaiting her second volume, due next spring.

The date, toffee and cardamon cake was my version of a recipe I saw in a magazine. If you make this I’d recommend you keep it in the fridge. Ours lasted about four days and the flavours seemed to get stronger as the cakes aged. Chilling also helps to firm up the toffee topping.

Ingredients

Cake

150g chopped pitted dates
140g unsalted butter
180g caster sugar
0.5tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla paste
120g natural yoghurt
200g self-raising flour
Ground seeds from 4 cardamom pods

Toffee

40g unsalted butter – softened
40g dark brown sugar
Ground seeds from 4 cardamom pods
100ml double cream

Filling

200ml double cream
2tbsp caster sugar

Method

Grease 2 20cm cake tins and preheat the oven to Gas 4/Fan 160
Put the dates and 200 ml of water in a pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool.
In a bowl, use an electric whisk to cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the remaining cake ingredients and the softened dates. Stir the mixture until combined and then pour into the two prepared tins. Bake for 25 minutes.
To make the toffee heat the butter and sugar in a pan, stirring until the sugar has melted. Then remove the spoon and let the mixture bubble for about another minute before adding the cardamon and cream. Let it bubble for another minute then set aside to cool.
Once the cake and toffee are cool, whip together the cream and sugar for the filling. Put one of the cakes on a plate, cover this with the cream filling, add the second cake and then pour the toffee on top.