A Good Cake Indeed

Yesterday I mentioned that I baked a cake, and I feel that I simply must bring it up again.



From the moment my eyes finished grazing the ingredient list, I knew I'd like it. So it only seemed appropriate to spend some time on Sunday afternoon baking a cake with my roommate, who is very eager to learn how to bake and has elected me as her know-it-all resource (eek!).

One of my favorite cakes has an almond flour base, so I knew Nigel Slater was on to something when he added pistachios and rosewater to his cake.

I know you might not all agree when you hear the word "rose water" (ahem, Mom, I'm thinking of you) because roses and lavender and such are supposed to be smelled and not digested, but I have been enjoying every drop of my bottle of rose water. And that's the key. Just a drop or a splash can add a sweet undertone to a dish. It reminds me of English tea gardens and baklava and lassi and corners of the world I'm wishing to see.

While I'm getting all dreamy, let me tell you about a dreamy book I've been thumbing through lately. It's Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries, and it earns its "dreaminess" through each turn of the sturdy warmly cream-colored pages. Photographs are smoothly printed in a matte finish throughout the book, and they include plenty of shots of Nigel's equally dreamy garden. The layout and font choices are clean and simple, which matches his casual and inviting writing style perfectly. Not to mention the recipes.



Oh, the recipes. Some of them, frankly, I don't think I'll ever attempt (no thanks, oxtail) but I've also been surprised to find myself drawn to a radish, mint, and feta salad (I'm still learning to appreciate radishes). And then there is a countless number of winners. From simple salads to pastas to trifles that make my mouth water, I'm reluctant to hand this book back over to my local library.

But let's not forget about that cake.



Rose and Pistachio Cake
Adapted from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries

Serves 12.

Cake:
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) and 2 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar (fair trade, please)
3 large eggs
2/3 cup shelled pistachios
2/3 cup ground almonds
2 small lemons
1/3 cup white grape juice
1-1/4 teaspoons rose water
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Icing:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice (can be squeezed from lemons above)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line the bottom of a non-stick 9-inch cake pan with parchment paper.

Prepare by grinding your pistachios into fine crumbs in a food processor (or in small qualities in a coffee grinder, as I did), and zest and squeeze your lemons dry.

Now, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Add almonds, pistachios, butter, and sugar to bowl and mix. Set aside 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for icing and add remaining amount along with white grape juice and rosewater to mixture. Lately, fold in flour with a large spoon or spatula.

Scoop mixture into the lined baking pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, covering lightly with foil for the last ten minutes.

Check cake by inserting skewer into center. If it comes out fairly clean, then take out and let it cool completely in the pan. Run a knife around the edge and turn it out.

For icing, sift sugar into lemon juice and mix together with a fork until smooth. Pour over cake and leave for half an hour to set.

Books for Pleasure? What a Concept.

One last afternoon of pleasure reading before the textbooks take over my life, complete with a mug of cool water spiked with rose water.

This was my company as the sunlight turned golden and another sunny January day passed:

The Art of Simple Food, Alice Waters*
The Kitchen Diaries, Nigel Slater
The Lemon Tree, Sandy Tolan*
Toast, Nigel Slater
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

*I particularly recommend these.

Hay Hay: A Rosy Recipe

"Hay hay, it's Donna day!" That's just fun to say! It sure can garner some confused looks from people who aren't familiar with Donna Hay, though, and then their foreheads begin to wrinkle even more as I attempt to explain it away as simply a food blogging event. A what? Um, never mind.



For most of you, there's no need for explanation, so let me just hurry up and tell you about this amazing yogurt. I was excited and intimidated by the prospect of something so simple to work with in Marita Says' pick for HHDD and vacillated between a lot of different options. The idea that kept nagging me involved a bottle of rose water I bought at a great Egyptian restaurant in Fort Worth. I knew it would work wonderfully in a syrup, and then a few days before the deadline, I promptly settled on a new idea of keeping the rosewater but including the mint from the original recipe. I didn't want the yogurt to get too perfume-y, and the two flavors seemed to fit together perfectly. They definitely did. And my kitchen filled with such a sweet, heady smell as the syrup simmered away on the stove. I wish I could have captured that in a bottle.

Instead, I have a container of creamy, drinkable yogurt sitting in my refrigerator, and I'm not looking to make any trades. After whisking everything together, I poured myself a small glass and sipped it slowly and deliberately. I may have even run my finger along the inside of the glass afterward and licked it clean. It was that good.





So, while this is perfect on its own, it occurred to me that including it in müesli might work out quite nicely. My mom included two müesli recipes in our family cookbook, a sign that we've eaten a lot of it. Growing up, my family never had boxes of sugary cereal in our pantry or gallons of milk in our fridge, so müesli, oatmeal, and homemade granola were our basic breakfast foods.

For a single portion, I tweaked my mom's "Müesli II" recipe by halving the amount of oatmeal and water I mixed together the previous night and then just tossing in the handful or two of fruit and nuts that looked appropriate. I squeezed in some lemon juice, poured yogurt on top, and called it good. The last thing I wanted was to overpower or complicate the pure taste of the flavored yogurt, so I kept it to pistachios, sesame seeds, and sultanas. It was possibly my favorite breakfast this year. (...Wait, too many others are coming to mind. How do people make blanket statements like that? Let's just say it tied with a lot of great stuff.)

Happy Hay Hay It's Donna Day!



Rose & Mint Yogurt
Adapted from Donna Hay's recipe, on Marita Says

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup mint leaves, shredded
1/3 cup water
2-3 Tbsp. rose water
1 cup chilled yogurt
1 cup half & half*

Make a syrup by putting the mint leaves in a small saucepan with the water, rose water, and sugar over medium heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar, and let it simmer for four minutes. Remove from heat and sit for five minutes.

Meanwhile, measure the yogurt and half & half into a large bowl.

Strain syrup through a sieve, pressing moisture out of the mint leaves with the back of a spoon. Whisk everything together, and that's it!

*I used half & half because that's what was in my fridge at the time. Obviously, the result is a more fluid consistency, more lassi-like, but if you want something spoonable, use cream, as suggested in Donna's original recipe.

Mum's Müesli (#2)
By my mother/mom/mum.

Combine & refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight:
1 cups rolled oats
1 cup boiling water

Before serving, add:
2 cups dried fruits (e.g.: dates, prunes, figs, apricots, raisins)
1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds (or any other nuts)
2 Tbsp. honey
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cups grated apple

Serve, passing yogurt and additional honey to add, if desired.

11/04/08: The roundup of delectable yogurts can be found here at Marita Says. Thank you so much for hosting, Bordeaux!