Tarta de Santiago

A surprisingly easy and delicious traditional Spanish "cake" that I came across when I was looking for a 'different' dessert recipe.  Torta de Santiago in Gallego or Tarta de Santiago Castiliano, literally means St. James's cake, an almond cake or pie from Galicia in northern Spain, its origins are in the Middle Ages.  It has many resemblances to a Bakewell Tart, in fact some recipes include a pastry or puff pastry base.  My suggestion here is the plain version, with no pastry!

Santiago, is a Spanish way to say St James. He also happens to be the Patron Saint of Spain and of the northern Province of Galicia, from where this recipe originates.

Ingredients

250 gm granulated sugar

250 gm ground almonds
5 x large'ish eggs, organic and free range if possible
1 x tablespoonful almond essence
1 x level teaspoonful powdered cinnamon
1 x lemon (zest only)
Icing sugar - for decoration
Butter - for greasing
Plain flour - for dusting

Method

Butter a 20/22 cm spring sided baking tin lightly, dust generously with flour and line the base with baking parchment.
Pre-heat the oven to 175 C

Put the ground almonds into a large mixing bowl (I'm lucky, I have a food mixer) together with the sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon; combine them well and finally add the eggs, beaten if you're not using a mixer or just spank them lightly if you don't like violence!.  Stir the ingredients together then add the almond essence to the mix.  Some people also add just a little brandy or sweet liqueur to the mix; if you do though don't overdo it, about a tablespoonful is enough.

At this point the mixture will be very loose, that's OK, its the way its meant to be.  Next gently pour the mixture into the baking tin and put the tin on a middle shelf of the oven and cook for 30 - 40 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the cake.  Depending on your oven, it might be a good idea to cover the baking tin with foil for the last ten minutes of cooking time, just to stop the top from burning, remember there's an awful lot of sugar in the mix!

When the cake is cooked, remove the tin from the oven and allow the cake to cool for ten minutes or so, on a wire rack before removing it from the tin.  Even if you have used a spring sided baking tin, taking the cake from the tin can be quite tricky as the top becomes "crispy" as it cooks, so first check that it is loose in the tin, if not gently ease the sides with a sharp knife, open the spring clip and "Voila!", a lovely moist tart; allow the tart to cool for about another thirty minutes before removing the base and setting it on a wire rack to cool completely.  For cooks unable to use a spring sided tin, ease the sides of the tart around the edges of the tin and put a clean tea towel over it, then holding the cloth tight, invert the tin and shake it gently - the cake should now be resting in the tea towel.  Put the wire rack back on top of the inverted cake and gently turn it "right side up!"  See, I told you it was tricky!

Finally when the cake has cooled, it is traditional to add a simple decoration by cutting out a "St James's cross" in the form of a silhouette*, putting it on the top of the cake and then lightly dusting the cake top with icing sugar.  Gently lift the stencil to reveal the shape of the cross on the cake top.

Finally to serve this very rich and moist cake, cut it into either eight or twelve wedge shaped slices and present it with a generous helping of slightly sweetened vanilla flavoured whipped cream.

* You can find the stencil for a cross of St James on the internet.  Just Google it!

A delicious Asian recipe for salmon

Tandoori Salmon with

Rogan Josh spiced lentil dahl

Until recently and for no particular reason I’ve never been attracted to fish curries and their like.   That was until I met chef Julien Clémot at Dunbrody House Cookery School, in Arthurstown, near Waterford in the south east of Ireland recently, his way with spiced salmon changed my mind www.dunbrodyhouse.com

So here, dedicated to Chef Julien is something he inspired me to create.

We begin backwards way around, by making the lentils first, since they take the longest time to cook and by the way, I always use dried lentils as the base for this dish.  Prepared lentils bought in jars are fine, but they’re always very soft and “mushy;” but cooked from scratch you can control the texture of your dish

Ingredients

250 gm good quality dried lentils

250 gm salmon fillets *

2 tablespoonsful ground coriander seeds

1 x dried chilli

Half x teaspoonful turmeric powder

gm full fat yoghurt

2 x cloves garlic

1 x walnut sized “knob” of fresh ginger

1 x medium onion

Juice of half a fresh lemon

100 ml sunflower oil

Chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) leaves

Pre-prepared Tandoori paste*

Pre-prepared Rogan Josh paste*

Method

Start by washing the lentils thoroughly, in two or three changes of water, until it remains clear.  Check for little stones too!  Then put them in a pan and cover with water so that they are fully submerged and there is approximately 1 cm of water above them.  Bring the pan to the boil, then turn down the heat until the water is just simmering. Do not season the water, adding salt at this stage prevents the lentils (and any other pulses) from softening.  Simmer for approximately one and a half hours or until the lentils are soft with just a little ‘bite.’  If necessary add water as the pan water evaporates.  When the lentils are cooked to your taste, take the pan from the heat, drain it and set the lentils to one side.  If you intend to keep the cooked lentils for any length of time; when they’ve cooled, put them in a dish covered with clingfilm, in the fridge.

The next step is to make the marinade and marinate the salmon.  Making the marinade is relatively easy.  Add the tandoori paste, half of the freshly ground cilantro seeds and the chopped dried chilli, to the yoghurt, with just a little good, but not virgin olive oil – it is too strongly flavoured.  Mix the ingredients thoroughly and then coat the salmon fillets on both skin and top sides with it.  Put them in a preferably, glass, dish covered in clingfilm in the fridge.  I like to marinade mine for at least three hours, overnight is best if you have the time. 

The final step in preparing this dish is to make the spicy Rogan Josh mix, for the lentils.  Begin by “blitzing” the onion, the ginger and two cloves of garlic to a paste.  Put this paste into a frying pan with a little sunflower oil with a half teaspoonful of turmeric, stir well and add 30 mls or so of water.  Cook this mixture until all the water has evaporated and you see the paste frying, slightly, now add the Rogan Josh paste and the remaining ground coriander seeds.  Cook gently until all the ingredients combine and release a faint spicy aroma.  Finally add the lemon juice and cook for just enough time for the ingredients to blend, add salt to your taste and check for seasoning.  This mix is now ready to be added to the lentils.

Mix the Rogan Josh sauce into the drained lentils, stir gently over a low heat and loosen the mix with just a little water, if it is too stiff.  It should be loose but not “soupy.”

To cook the salmon, preheat the oven to 160 C.  Remove the clingfilm from the marinating dish and if the dish is ovenproof, put it on a lower middle shelf, uncovered, to cook for approximately 20 minutes or until the tandoori marinade begins to bubble and turn brown at the edges

To serve, put a generous helping of lentils on to a plate.  A soup plate is good, then set a fillet of salmon elegantly on top; dress the salmon with a spoonful or two of the cooked marinade and finally garnish with a sprinkling of chopped coriander leaves.

·        *I prefer “Patak’s” but any genuine Asian product should be fine

·        * I strongly suggest you use salmon fillets for this dish. The bones in cutlets are much too 

d    difficult to spot and remove

Brilliant Easy Healthy Bread

Make this amazing Crunchy Loaf in ten minutes

This must be the easiest ever, bread to make.  You don't even need kitchen aids, if you have, all the better, but they're not essential; in fact a small-ish child can be used instead, they love the messy mixing!

Ingredients

500 gm Spelt flour. Wholemeal will do just as well.
450 ml Natural Yoghurt.
1 x Dessertspoonful Cider Vinegar.
1 heaped x Teaspoonful Sea Salt
1 x heaped Teaspoonful Bicarbonate of Soda
A splash of Olive Oil, for greasing.

Equipment

A small child, optional
Loaf tin 20 x 10 cm, optional
Baking Parchment, optional
Large mixing bowl (My Grannie used to call them Bread Mugs!)

Method

Put  a baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven and set the temperature to 200 degrees C.  Then if used bring the small child into the kitchen and explain that he or she is very welcome to get incredibly messy.

Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Add the cider vinegar to the yoghurt and also mix thoroughly.
Add the yoghurt/vinegar mixture to the dry mix and stir well; at this point decide whether to use a mixer, your own hands or the small child for this.

Once the ingredients are well incorporated (at this stage the mixture will be quite "sloppy") and if used, the child will be having fun - not too much though*, the dough can then either be moulded into a rounded 'cob' shaped heap and  put into the centre of a baking tray that has been covered in lightly floured baking parchment; or loaded into an oiled loaf tin.

In either case put the tray or tin into the oven, setting the timer for 35 minutes.

Remove the messy small child from the kitchen and clean it, explaining that he or she can have a delicious slice of buttery warm bread after about 45 to 50 minutes.

Check that the bread is cooked after 35 minutes or so.  A sure fire way to see whether the loaf is cooked is to tap on the bottom of the loaf with a knuckle and if the sounds hollow, the bread is ready.  If the sound is still dull, I tend to take the loaf out of its tin if one has been used, and put it back in the oven inverted, for ten minutes more.  Then keep checking.

Remove the cooked bread from the tray or tin and put it to cool on a wire rack.

*This Bread uses Bicarbonate of Soda rather than yeast as a leavening agent.  The Bicarbonate of Soda reacts with the acidic yogurt/vinegar mix to create carbon dioxide, which leavens the dough rapidly, unlike yeast which works slowly.  Hence prep time should be as short as possible.

A delicious savoury variant of this loaf is to add half a finely chopped shallot and an equal quantity of spicy chorizo to the mix.  When I do this I tend to increase the baking time by approximately ten minutes to allow for the extra moisture that cooks out of the onion.  I haven't tried Olives yet but I'm almost certain they would work too.

For a healthy breakfast, toast a thick slice, well, and top with a soft poached egg, you'll not need butter or if you do, lash it on and sod the calories just this once!