This is one of those Cornish cake recipes that I’ve been making for years but can’t remember where it came from.
I remember baking it for tea on my older daughter’s first birthday. She went off to university earlier this month and I’ve continued to serve this cake up regularly in the intervening years – including last Sunday at Camel CSA’s apple harvest.
Use cooking apples or dessert apples with attitude – like the Lord Hindlip variety in Camel CSA’s veg boxes.
Serves 8
Preparation and cooking: 1 hour 20 minutes
Ingredients
175g butter or margarine
175g soft brown sugar
3 large eggs
225g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 large cooking apples
½ teaspoon vanilla essence or ground cinnamon
lemon juice
Demerara sugar for sprinkling
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Lightly grease a square or round 18cm tin and line the base with baking paper.
Peel, core and dice the apples into small pieces. Sprinkle them with a little lemon juice to prevent them discolouring.
Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs. Fold in the sieved flour, baking powder and vanilla or cinnamon. Then carefully stir in the diced apple.
Scoop the mixture into the tin and sprinkle the surface with a dessertspoon of demerara sugar. Bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes until golden brown on top. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning it out on to a rack.
It’s delicious served lukewarm – maybe with some Cornish clotted cream.
As seen on last night’s edition of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Every Day series. Lightly toasted walnuts would be a good alternative to the redcurrants.
Serves 4 as a starter, 2 as a main course
Ingredients
about 400g small beetroot
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
a large sprig of thyme (optional)
2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
3-4 handfuls of seasonal salad leaves
175–200g crumbly goat’s cheese
50-100g redcurrants
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dressing:
1 tbsp cider vinegar or lemon juice
3 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
pinch sea salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper
pinch caster sugar
Method
Scrub the beetroot well, but leave them whole, then place on a large piece of foil. Scatter with the garlic, the leaves from the thyme, if you’re using it, and some salt and pepper, then trickle over the oil. Scrunch up the foil to make a baggy but tightly sealed parcel, place it on a baking tray and put it in an oven preheated to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.
Roast until tender – about an hour, though it could take longer. The beetroot are cooked when a knife slips easily into the flesh. Leave to cool, then top and tail them and remove the skin. Cut into wedges and place in a large bowl.
Whisk together all the dressing ingredients. Arrange the salad leaves on serving plates and trickle on a little of the dressing. Roughly crumble the cheese over the beetroot, add the remaining dressing and toss together loosely with your hands. Arrange on top of the leaves, scatter over the redcurrants and serve.
From Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Good with slow-roasted belly of pork – or just as a first course with rocket or young spinach leaves. Another excellent recipe to try with your borlotti beans is Borlotti bean tagliatelle.
Serves: 6 as a starter, 8 as a side dish
Preparation and cooking: 40 minutes
Ingredients
500g fresh borlotti beans
1 garlic clove, peeled
10g sage leaves, chopped, plus plenty extra for scattering
3 tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra for drizzling
100g pancetta (or streaky bacon), chopped
slurp of red wine vinegar
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
salt and black pepper
3 handfuls of rocket or young spinach leaves (optional)
Method
Put the beans, garlic and chopped sage into a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 30 minutes or so, until the beans are soft. Drain them and, while still warm, add 1 tbsp oil and put aside.
Meanwhile, fry the pancetta in a very little olive oil until crisp and add to the beans. Mix together the vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper, and slowly add the rest of the olive oil to give a very creamy dressing. Pour this over the still-warm beans, keeping a third back if you are using the salad leaves. Scatter plenty of chopped sage leaves over the top.
If using the salad leaves, dress them and divide between the plates, and spoon the beans over the leaves. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.
From Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef. Good to add to a risotto, in a bread, or just to have as a really tasty vegetable.
Serves 6
Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
Ingredients
1 medium/large butternut or other squash
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp fennel seeds
2 small dried red chillies (or to taste)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Method
Wash the squash, then cut in half. (If the skin on your squash seems very tough, it might be best to peel it.) With a large spoon, remove the seeds from the squash (try roasting these with a little touch of oil and some sea salt and have them with drinks – they’re really nice!). Cut the squash lengthways into quarters and then cut the quarters in half – you should have approximately 2.5cm thick, boat shaped wedges of squash. Put them in a bowl.
Put all the dried herbs and spices in a pestle and mortar and pound them up with the salt and pepper to make a fine powder. Once you’ve done this, add the garlic clove and pound it into the spices. Scrape out the contents into the bowl and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Toss the squash thoroughly in the herb and spice mixture, making sure that all the pieces are well coated.
Place the squash pieces in a line, skin side down, on a baking tray. Roast them in the oven at 200C/gas 6 for about 30 minutes, or until tender. The spicy flavour will cook into the squash and the squash will crisp slightly, the skin becoming caramelised and chewy.
In her Garden Cookbook, Sarah Raven credits this recipe to the River Cafe. She says it’s an ‘incredibly fresh-tasting and yet comforting pasta dish’. Good now when there are beans and tomatoes aplenty.
Serves 6
Preparation and cooking: 25 minutes
Ingredients
1kg tomatoes, ideally plum or small beefsteak
300g french beans, topped and tailed
salt
150ml double cream
1 garlic clove, whole and peeled
handful of basil leaves
400g spaghetti
50g grated parmesan cheese to serve
Method
Skin the tomatoes, deseed with a teaspoon and chop them coarsely. Cook the beans in plenty of salted boiling water for 3 minutes until they are just tender. Cool them quickly in a bowl of cold water and drain.
Bring the cream to the boil and add the garlic. Take the pan off the heat and leave the cream to steep for 5 minutes before removing the garlic. Then add the beans, tomatoes and torn-up basil, and toss just for a minute to warm the veg through.
Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until al dente, drain and mix with the tomatoes and beans. Serve with freshly grated parmesan.
An excellent, tasty recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie Does book.
Serves 6-8 as a side
(half quantities makes a generous main for 2)
Preparation: 35 minutes
Cooking in oven: 40 minutes
Ingredients
2 tbsp duck fat or olive oil
3 onions, peeled and very finely sliced
180g basmati rice
7 medium courgettes, finely sliced
500ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
4 heaped tbsp crème fraîche
150g emmental or cheddar cheese, finely grated
salt and black pepper
olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. Get a large frying pan on a low heat and add the fat or oil and a splash of water. Once melted and hot, add the sliced onions and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until soft and sticky. Meanwhile, rinse your rice under cold running water until the water runs clear.
When the onions look ready, add the sliced courgettes to the pan along with the rice. Mix them up, then pour in the hot stock. Turn the heat up and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the mixture to stay quite loose and oozy, so add a little more stock if needed. Take the pan off the heat and gently stir in the crème fraîche and 100g of your grated cheese. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper, then taste and adjust the seasoning if need be.
Lightly oil a roasting tray, gratin dish or casserole-type pan, approx 25cm x 25cm. Tip everything into the prepared tray, making sure the rice is evenly distributed. Roughly flatten it out and try to get most of the courgettes on top to help keep the moisture as it cooks. Sprinkle over the rest of the grated cheese.
Bake in the hot oven for 40 minutes, or until the top is golden and bubbling and the rice has absorbed most of the liquid. Serve next to grilled meat or fish and a lovely fresh salad.
Thanks to Henrietta Danvers for this recipe, a salad that can be served as an appetiser or as part of a selection of salads, or as an accompaniment to grilled or roasted pork or lamb.
Serves 4
Preparation: 60 minutes cooking, 10 minutes preparation, 1 hour chilling
Ingredients
4-6 cooked beetroot
1-2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves stripped and thinly shredded
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper
Method
Slice the beetroot and cut into dice, put in a bowl and add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. Combine. Add half the thinly shredded fresh mint to the salad and chill in the fridge for an hour. Serve garnished with the remaining shredded mint leaves.
This makes an ideal children’s rainy day activity if the bank holiday weekend in the UK turns damp and miserable. (No… please no!) Otherwise it’s a delicious, moist and easy cake to enjoy any time.
It went down a treat with children and adults at one of Camel CSA’s volunteer growing sessions in May. We were sowing the carrots we’ve just harvested for this week’s veg boxes.
The recipe is aimed at 7-11 year olds and is on the Kids First for Health Great Ormond Street Hospital website.
It comes from Jeanette Orrey, the school dinner lady who revealed all to celebrity chef Jamie Oliver about the state of British school dinners. She told him about the terrible Turkey Twizzlers and showed him how she’d really improved the eating habits of the kids at her school.
She says: “I like carrot cake because it contains vegetables and fruit. If the grated carrot is soggy, pat it dry with kitchen paper before adding.”
Personally, I’d go easy on the icing. A light lemon or orange glaze does the trick.
Serves: at least 8
Preparation / cooking: 60-70 minutes (depending on age of cook)
Ingredients
140g (5oz) butter or margarine
140g (5oz) soft brown sugar
2 large eggs
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 orange
175g (6oz) grated carrot
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
55g (2 oz) sultanas
Ten steps to scrumptious carrot cake
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5
2. Lightly grease a square tin (18cm/7in)
3. Line the base of the tin
4. In a bowl mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
5. Beat in the eggs
6. Add and fold in the flour, baking powder, orange zest and juice, grated carrot, vanilla and sultanas
7. Scoop the carefully mixed mixture into the tin
8. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes until deliciously golden brown
9. When it’s ready, remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the tin before you take it out
10. Carefully take it out of the tin and when it is cold add an orange icing
This version of a traditional favourite comes from South Yeo Farm West in Devon. Rare breed farmers Debbie Kingsley and Andrew Hubbard have been making vats of it for their smallholder course lunches. They say:
Is there such a thing as a year without a runner bean glut? We’ve never known one. We adore this chutney with almost any kind of hard Devon cheese (Devon Oke, Curworthy) either in slabs or cheese on toast.
Obviously it goes just as well with Cornish cheese and Sue Pugh’s bread from St Kew Harvest Farm Shop!
Preparation/cooking: just over an hour
Makes 8 x 500ml jars
Ingredients
8 medium onions
500ml malt vinegar
2kg runner beans
2 heaped tbsp English mustard powder
2 heaped tbsp ground turmeric
50g cornflour
500ml white wine vinegar
500g granulated sugar
4 heaped tbsp wholegrain mustard
4 tsp flaked sea salt
Method
Dice the onion and put in pan with malt vinegar, simmer for 15 mins. Trim runner beans and slice thinly, put in a pan of boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, drain and refresh.
Mix the mustard powder, turmeric, cornflour, salt and wholegrain mustard with 4tbsp white wine vinegar.
Stir sugar and remaining white wine vinegar into onion/malt vinegar mix, boil and cook for 2 minutes. Add beans and cook gently for 10 mins, giving it a bit of a stir. Pour mustardy mix into the mixture stirring vigorously to avoid lumps.
Simmer for 20 mins, stirring regularly. Put into hot jars and seal. Store for at least a month before eating, but it’s better if left for 3 or 4 months, or 12!
This recipe is from Sybil Kapoor’s Simply British. “Surprisingly good,” she says, “and should be served with cold meat and jacket potatoes.” It’s a variation on one that appeared in the classic Food in England by Dorothy Hartley, and known as Yorkshire ploughboy.
Serves 4
Preparation: 10 minutes + 10 minutes resting time
Ingredients
½ large red cabbage, finely sliced
1 red onion, halved and finely sliced
3 tbsp dried sour cherries or cranberries
2 tbsp black treacle
4 tbsp white wine vinegar
salt and black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
Method
Place the cabbage, onion and dried fruit in a mixing bolw. Measure the treacle and vinegar into a small mixing bowl and stir until the treacle has dissolved. Pour over the salad, mix thoroughly and season to taste. Allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Note: This can also be made into a warm red cabbage salad by lightly frying the cabbage with finely sliced spring onions, a little garlic and the dried fruit before tipping in the dressing.
