Yogurt Cake

I saw this cake on The Goddess's Kitchen blog a while ago, and really wanted to try it. I thought it would work well in a bundt tin.

In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder and bicarb. In another bowl, gently combine yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil and rum.

Add flour mixture to yogurt mixture and blend together gently.

Pour batter into an oiled bundt tin (or round 25 cm cake pan greased and bottom lined).

Bake at 180 C for 30 - 35 mins until top is golden brown. Stand for 10 mins and transfer to cooling rack.

The cooked cake in the pan. Lovely and tangy - great with a cup of tea or some ice cream. It actually tastes a lot like cheesecake!

The finished cake, turned out onto the rack.

I often think the cake looks better top-side up when it's been cooked in a bundt tin, as below, although this one looks pretty cracked.

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb
2 eggs
250 ml (1 cup) whole milk plain unsweetened yogurt (I used Greek)
200 g (1 cup) sugar
80 ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tablespoon light rum (if you have any - I didn't add this)

Chips

I'm not keen on the bags of oven chips you can buy, so if I need chips I make them instead.

I just slice up potatoes and fry them in a little olive oil in my big frying pan.

I think maybe these should really be called sauteed potatoes, but around here they're called 'Mum's chips'.

I don't attempt to cut them into chip shapes, instead I cut each peeled potato in half lengthways, and then slice each half several times - I suppose each slice is around half a centimetre thick.

Lay them in a single layer in a medium-heated pan with a little olive oil - they will shrink as they cook, so it doesn't matter if the pan is a little crowded at first. Don't have the heat too high, as they have to cook through as well as crisp up on the outside.

You can pre-cook the potatoes to speed up the frying process, and you end up with a slightly fluffier result, which is very nice. You also end up with an extra pan to wash up!


Turn them over when they have turned golden underneath, then keep going until they are completely cooked. Sprinkle with a little salt.

Vi's Mum's Oat Cookies

I needed to make something for the boys' school lunchboxes tomorrow, and I had run out of eggs - so I decided to try Vi's Mum's oat cookies.

Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup gently in a pan, and in a large bowl combine flour, oats and bicarb.

I used half white and half brown sugar because I like the caramel-like flavour that the brown sugar adds, and I also stirred in a handful of sultanas.

Stir the melted ingredients into the flour and oats, then put dessertspoonfuls on a baking tray.


Cook at 180 C for 12 - 15 mins. Leave to cool for a few minutes before moving to a cooling rack.

Yum!

Ingredients:
100 g SR flour
100 g porridge oats
1/2 level tsp bicarb
100 g butter
100 g sugar (I used 80 g)
1 tbsp golden syrup

Baci di Ricotta

Coby inspired me to try making these. I always assumed they would be complicated to make but they are very easy. As she said, it's quite difficult to photograph these once they're cooked as they get gobbled up very quickly!

They are from Nigella's book 'Feast' and they are like little ricotta fritters, slightly sweet, tasting very much like cinnamon doughnuts.


Beat ricotta and eggs, then add flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until reasonably smooth.

Heat about 2 cm oil in a shallow pan (I used a very small frying pan as it uses less oil) and heat until a small blob of batter sizzles when dropped in.

Drop in rounded teaspoons of batter, a few at a time. I found 4 was a good number - any more and there would have been too many to manage because they cook very quickly.

As they become golden brown, flip them over and let them cook for another minute or two before removing them onto some kitchen paper.

Dust with icing sugar and eat straight away.

Ingredients:
200 g ricotta
2 eggs
75 g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
veg or corn oil for frying (I used olive oil)
icing sugar for sprinkling

Makes about 30

Chicken Myers

Chicken Myers is a very tasty meal that's reasonably quick to make and includes lots of vegetables. All you have to do is cook some rice or potatoes to go with it.

I'm not quite sure what the 'Myers' means - we've been making this in our family for a long time, and originally the recipe came from 'The Dairy Book of Home Cookery' although I think we've all made changes along the way so all our versions are a little different.

Lightly steam some carrots and broccoli, and spread them in the bottom of a large baking dish.

Put the tin of soup in a bowl or large jug and stir in enough milk to make a thickish sauce. Add some seasoning (not salt as the soup is usually salty enough) - I use pepper and a generous amount of wholegrain mustard.

Cut chicken breast fillets into thin slices horizontally and lay them in a single layer over the vegetables.

Cover the chicken with the soup/sauce and then top with grated cheese.

Cook at 190 C for 30 - 40 mins until top is golden and the chicken is tender. (Be careful not to cook for too long or the chicken will be dry.)

Serve with rice or potatoes - it serves 4 people quite generously - not bad for two chicken breast fillets!

Ingredients:

2 chicken breast fillets

4 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 head of broccoli , divided into florets

1 tin of condensed 'cream of...' soup - I use celery, chicken or asparagus

milk, pepper, wholegrain mustard

grated cheddar