Twice-Stirred Upsidedown Carrot Cake

A 'delicious mess' is this cake.

I made a vegan carrot cake the other week which accidentally got mixed twice (in an upside-down fashion) as entering the oven. My wrist gave way, and the cake landed face down on the oven door. Batter poured down the door onto the floor, under the oven and through the seals in the glass window.  In shock, I just stared. It was messy. I managed to salvage the batter (spoons and spatulas helped) not immediately touching the oven door surface, and it actually ended up quite a nice cake in the end...

500g carrots, grated or finely chopped in a food processor
2 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup saltanas
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 orange, squeezed
1 tsp allspice
1/4 cup milk-of-your-choice
1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour or 1 cup flour and 1/2 cup oats

Chuck everything into a bowl and mix well. Add some extra milk if mix is too dry or too thick to be poured out. Grease pan and pour in cake. As you go to put it into the oven, drop it on the door! Scrape up the batter not directly touching the oven door, and put back into the pan. Clean the oven door and floor. Cook the cake in the oven at 180C until skewer comes out clean. Eat while still hot, or as a breakfast bread!

Orangey Roast Chicken

As a child, we very rarely had roasts. It was mainly kept to special occasions, such as Christmas, New Years, and Birthday's (on request). Now I am much older, it seems to be the same. Apart from tonight, when I craved a pipping hot roasted meal.

One of my jobs was to clean out the Turkey or Chicken and fill it with stuffing. My traditional family recipe for stuffing (seasoning) included dried fruit, nuts of some description and sherry. I have kept to this tradition, tweaking it with things I have around the house or trying new flavours.

I keep on watching shows with fancy recipes for Roast Chicken. However, most of the ingredients you generally don't have lying around the house. Well, not unless you have a fully stocked French and Italian pantry! I felt like making something a bit more fancy, and have tried to just use things most people have around their house for this particular version of a roast-c.

Serves 4 - 6

1.5kg Free-Range Organic Chicken
Olive Oil
2 pieces of bread
2 cloves garlic
handful of dried apricots
handful of sultanas
handful of pepitas/cashews or almonds
1 orange
1 egg
1/4 cup sherry
Thyme
Salt and Pepper
2 tbs Orange Marmalade/Apricot Jam
Roasting veggies and greens (enough for 6)
Gravy Powder

 Secret Stuffing!

Clean and dry the chicken. Grease a roasting tray with olive oil and place chicken on top. To make the stuffing, use a food processor to crumb the bread or chop finely. Remove and place into a bowl. Into the food processor, add the sultanas, garlic and dried apricots. Chop roughly. Add to the bread crumbs. Add the pepitas, egg, 1/2tsp thyme and sherry to the bowl. Cut the orange in half and squeeze one half into the stuffing mix. Stir well. If the stuffing is to dry, add more sherry. Stuff the chicken with small handfuls at a time, and then sew up by covering the stuffing with the excess skin and using skewers or toothpicks.

On the top of the chicken, spread the jam or marmalade. Cut up the other half of the orange into crescents and place on the top of the chicken with skewers. Sprinkle some thyme, salt and pepper over the top. Roast at 180C with foil for 50 min, uncover and add the vegetables and roast for a further hour.  Serve pipping hot with the veggies, gravy made with the orange and chicken juice, steamed greens and a good glass of red.

Soup to Stew: Sustainable Eats

With the winter months approaching, pumpkins a plenty and apples to spare, soups and stews start being boiled in our households.

The food is orgasmic! Gorman House Markets has a new local-produce vendor: Soup in the City. They sell soup and other delights, such as Breakfast Burritos, using only locally sourced produce. Richard, the vendor, told me that everything he sourced this weekend was from Hall. He had delectable tomato soup with fresh croutons and basil you add yourself. There was also some great smelling carrot and coriander soup. Look out for Soup in the City @ Gorman House and Southside Farmers Markets.

Stews of all varieties make a hearty meal in the cold months. We make lots of chili based stews, like Mussaman Curry or Beef Rendang for a warming meal. However, I also make alot of stewed fruit. Apple season means boxes and boxes of several varieties from Angus' parents. Most of the time they end up stewed and at a friends place for Pancake Sunday. This weekend I added locally-grown rhubarb to the mix for something a bit different:

Serves Many!

6 large apples
1 bunch rhubarb
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup of either Rum, apple/butterscotch schnapps, port, sherry or something similar
1 lemon
1 tsp cinnamon

Dice up the apples (no need to peel skin) and add to a big pot with the sugar and booze. Fill the pot with water until it is about 1/2 the level of the apples. Boil. Whilst the apples are boiling, prepare the rhubarb by cutting both ends off and washing. Cut into 3 cm lengths. Grate the zest of the lemon and squeeze out its juice. When the apples are almost cooked, add the rhubarb, lemon juice, zest and cinnamon and cook for a further 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the mix and make sure it doesn't burn or get too dry. Add more water if required.

The booze really is my secret to making delicious stewed fruit. It just gives it that extra flavour that makes it go so well with ice cream, pancakes or in crumbles/pies.