Homemade apple butter

Canadian apple butter

It is Canada week over at The World On Out Plates, and I decided to make Canadian apple butter.

Apple butter, for those of you who are not in the know, is a really thick apple sauce. It tastes like the best apple sauce you have ever tried. I promise, you'll love it.

Apple Butter
Makes about 1 large jar
Recipe by Michael Smith from Food Network Canada

10  apples, peeled, cored and quartered
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup apple juice
1/4 tsp each of ground nutmeg, cardamom,  cloves and allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Place all the ingredients in a large sauce pan, stir to combine. Over medium to high heat, cook the apples until they become very soft. Let the mixture cook until the liquid had reduced with about 80% and you have a thick, dark brown sauce.

2. Remove from heat, and using an immersion hand blender, purée the apple butter. Pour the apple butter into sterilized jars.

Sponge sandwich cake

I do volunteer work at a missionary church nearby about once a month. I was more or less coaxed into it by the very enthusiastic pastor who thought there were way too few young people at church, so he signed my up for the Sunday church café rotational.

I don't mind, it's nice to have something to do on Sundays, and I do love baking. I work with a lady named Irene and we have decided I should bake a cake, and the waffle mix for each Sunday that I'm on duty. Two Sundays ago, I was too lazy and bought a packet of a "just add water"- waffle mix and the whole thing was a disaster. Didn't know you could fail such a basic instruction...

Anyways, during my first two cafeteria-Sundays I made chocolate muffins and no one bought them. I realised old people do not like chocolate. For the third Sunday I made a roll-up cake filled with strawberry jam and served it with a big dollop of whipped cream on top. It went down a treat. I realised old people love stuff covered in whipped cream.
With this in mind I set out to make a classic sponge sandwich with a strawberry jam and whipped cream filling for last Sunday's café. Little did I know that this Sunday most of the old people in church were away and left were the slightly younger crowd (40+) and they were apparently not too fond of whipped cream and jam... I was left with 4 pieces of cake... Irene's cake sold out. Her cake was more "modern" and "youthful", I guess.

I had no idea doing cafeteria work, once in a blue moon, required demographics.

So, here's a great recipe to make for granny's birthday.

Sponge sandwich cake
8 slices
Adapted from BBC Good Food

Sponge
200 g soft butter
200 g self-raising flour*
1 tsp baking powder
200 g sugar
4 eggs
2 tbsp milk

Filling
142 ml double cream
50 g sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
100 g strawberry jam
icing sugar, for dusting

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Grease and base-line 2 x 20cm non-stick round sandwich tins with baking parchment, then lightly grease the parchment. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl, then tip in all the other sponge ingredients. Using an electric whisk, beat everything together until smooth. Divide the mix between the cake tins, then bake for 20-25 mins until cooked and golden. When cool enough to handle, remove the cakes from the tins, then leave to cool completely on a rack.

2. To make the filling, whip the cream with the caster sugar and vanilla until it holds its shape. Build the cake by spreading one sponge with jam and the other with cream. Sandwich the whole thing together, then dust with icing sugar.


*= if you live in a country where it is impossible to find self-raising flour, like Norway, you can make your own. Here's how:

For each cup of flour, add 1 ½ tsp baking powder and ½ tsp salt. I put about 4 cups flour in a big jar and added in 1 ½ x 4 tsp baking powder and ½ x 4 tsp salt. Closed the lid and gave it a good shake. It's a great store-cupboard essential.

Homemade Tahini

With nothing else to do I found myself watching BBC Lifestyle's Chef At Home with Michael Smith. Today's inspiration was Morocco, and he made a chicken stew and some other dishes, one of them being hummus. One of the ingredients in hummus is Tahini. Tahini is a sesame paste, made from sesame seeds and vegetable oil, used alot in Middle Eastern- and some Asian foods.

My friend Hanna once gave me the recipe for hummus, and one day I decided I'd make it for a dinner party I was hosting for a few friends. As the recipe called for Tahini I went to the local Middle Eastern food shop and the only jar I found was a huge plastic thing. Well, I needed Tahini so I bought it, and then only used however much the recipe called for and then never again.... I think I threw it out when I moved here...

So, inspired by Michael Smith's Moroccan feast and Hanna's hummus in mind I decided on making my own Tahini, so that I have a batch at home when I feel in the mood for some Middle Eastern flavours.

Tahini

1 cup hulled sesame seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Roast the sesame seeds in a 170° C oven for 5-10 minutes, keep an eye on them so they don't
burn. Chill



In a mixer, tip in the seeds and half of the oil. Mix to combine. Stop to clean the sides with a rubber spatula from time to time

After about 1 minute, slowly pour in the rest of the oil. Don't add all of it at the same time, as by adding a little at a time you can control how thick or thin you want you Tahini.

Store the Tahini in an air-tight jar in the fridge for quite a few weeks.

Homemade pasta

Got a gift card from Clas Ohlson for my 25th birthday the other week. (Yes, I am now a quarter of a century old... yikes!) With the gift card in my hand, I headed in to Clas Ohlson, and came out one Mercato Atlas pasta machine richer!

This is how you make homemade pasta:

100 g plain flour per person

1 egg per person


Combine in a food processor until the dough resembles cooked couscous. Tip out and press down on the dough, be sure to catch any straggling bits.



Place the dough in the pasta machine, roll through and fold in half on the thickest setting 4-5 times.

Now, take it down notch and roll trough. Do this again and again, taking it down a notch each time until you have the desired thickness of your pasta.

Make the pasta sheet into tagliatelle or angel hair by using the different attachments on your pasta machine. Or cut the dough with a knife, either one works!

Cook the pasta in lightly salted water for 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Watch Jamie Oliver make pasta

Chicken curry, "Indian" style

Walking through my local supermarket earlier today I picked up a bunch of free recipe folders, you know the kinds that different brands make to show you what fantastic dishes you can make by using their products. I love these little free cookbooks! I can never afford to buy my own cookbooks, they are way too expensive, and anyway I usually get one of two new ones to add to my collection for my birthday and for Christmas, so really, there's no reason for me to buy cookbooks. No reason other than that I love cookbooks. But the truth is I very seldom cook anything from them, especially not if the cookbook's got a glossy cover and a nice picture on the front and are not adapted to everyday cooking. Normally I find most cookbooks too complicated, and quite frankly, quite uninspiring. This, I know, is very contradicting. What I love about cookbooks is the sense of knowing that I have them, that if I one day fall down and hurt my head and on a whim decide to cook something utterly complicated I have cookbooks to back up my crazy idea. You know what I mean? I also love reading them, I love looking at all the pretty photos, and I love seeing them on my shelf. (Without my Jamie Oliver, Nigella and Tina cookbooks I'd be lost).

Ok, let's get back on track... where was I? Oh yes, the free recipe folders I picked up at the supermarket today. In one of them, "Så enkelt - og så godt!" from Tine, I found the recipe for today's dinner - Chicken curry. Actually, the original recipe calls for shrimps and some other things I kind of over-looked at first glance, which resulted in my adaptation of the dish. (I did not over-look the shrimp/chicken thing, but some other stuff- I'm not that absent-minded!)

Oh yes, this recipe did not only give me the best food experience I have had in a while, it also taught me how to cook with yogurt without it curdling.

This is how you prevent the yogurt from curdling when added to hot food:
For every 3 dl of yogurt, add 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour. Mix it together by using a hand blender. This will make the yogurt more watery, but it will also keep the yogurt from curdling, which is the main thing.

Now to the main recipe.

Chicken curry
Serves 4

4 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 ½ tbsp spicy curry powder
10 sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
100-150 g frozen wok vegetables
2 dl water
1 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 dl yogurt
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ketchup
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sambal oelek, or spicy chili sauce

1. Heat vegetable oil in a large pan, or wok. Sauté the onion and garlic until soft and translucent. Stir in the curry powder, and allow to heat through. Add in the sun-dried tomatoes, wok vegetables, water and the chicken. Cook until the chicken is almost done

2. Mean while, mix the yogurt with the flour, as described above. Stir in the mix little at a time to ensure further that is does not curdle. Also add in the salt, ketchup, sugar, and sambal or chili sauce.

3. Simmer for 3-5 minutes. Sprinkle with chopped coriander and some freshly ground pepper.

4. Serve with rice, naan-bread or poppadoms/papads, and a dollop of yogurt, if it's too spicy for you.

På svenska
Kyckling curry på "indiskt" vis

Sterilizing jars

For food preservation, such as pesto or jam, in jars, you'll need to sterilize the jar first.
It's simple and does not take all that long, but be sure to do this while you are making whatever you are meaning to preserve.



How to:

Start by putting the jar/s in a large pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off, but leave the jars in the water until you need them. Remove the jars from the hot water with tongs or something similar. Fill the jar within ½ inch from the top. Wipe off any spills with a clean towel. If you are making something that is oil-based, cover the top with oil and put the lid on. If you are making jam, you need to buy waxed paper discs and follow the instructions on the pack. Allow the jar to cool in room temperature for 24 hours before storing in cupboard or fridge.