Cake, cornbread and a couple of soups

Summer comfort in the sick house

It has been one of those weeks. I have been trying to work - cooking and writing - but with everyone at home, and most of them ill at that, it hasn’t been the easiest. I have not decamped to my very own room across the street for fear of spreading infection, so instead I take myself off for long, peaceful working walks instead.

Blackberries, buttercups, philadelphus, thrush

Adam got home from the last day of what has been a pretty tiring half term (mock exams, very long all singing dancing rehearsals, endless fitness tests in PE) and immediately took to the sofa, pleading illness, refusing to budge. I was hoping it was just an under-the- weatherness from exhaustion thing, coupled with a desperate need to switch off from real life and watch all nine Star Wars films over two days. I can certainly understand the need for escapism at the moment, everything is increasingly desperate. But no, it turned out to be physical. Some kind of horrible throat/chest virus. A few days later, Shariq nosedived, then next to succumb was Lilly, just this morning, who is stoic and trying for business as usual because she is in the middle of her A levels and has 3 exams next week. I am pushing First Defence on her as well as every vitamin boosting potion and concoction I possess, and keeping my fingers crossed. And now just in the last hour I have that horrible, dread feeling that it is coming for me. Tight, scratchy throat. A creeping fatigue. Hoping it is psychosomatic and I am stupidly suggestible to my own writing.

So this week food has been the boys wanting to to cram as many comforting carbs into themselves as possible (feed a cold?) and me trying to get as much nutrition into them at the same time. I find that Adam will eat almost anything if there is an element of carb, preferably white. So batch cooking pasta, rice, potatoes, making sure there is every kind of bread to go on the side for all the (admittedly fat laden) vegetables I have been cooking. Then there are the requests for baked goods.

There has already been one posh bakery run this week. Bageriet, my little Covent Garden oasis of JOY, all cosy and warm and sending out tendrils of baked goods aromas down Floral Street and Long Acre, just the lure you need on a gloomy wet Tuesday. I bought the sugar pretzels (pretzel shaped baked doughnuts, bathed in a honey butter) and cinnamon buns and their black rye bread. But yesterday I was on my way home from taking Adam to the dentist and just 5 minutes from my front door, when I got a text from Shariq. “Please bring cake.” I had come from town where I could easily have bought decent (by which I mean, at the very least, non UPF, palm or “vegetable oil” free, I do make thing hard for myself) baked goods. The Boston Road in Hanwell? Not so much.

Bageriet for all seasons

BUT, I had fruit. And I had buttermilk (if you don’t, add lemon juice to milk). And I had been planning on making cornbread due to a surfeit of both coarse and fine cornmeal (polenta) in the cupboard. So decided to turn it into an opportunity and do a little cake experiment along with the cornbread.

So this is why I made two strawberry and rhubarb polenta cakes yesterday. Mainly because I was playing around with ratios, but also because I wanted to make one with vanilla and another with rose and cardamom to see which I preferred.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Polenta Cake

I love using polenta in baking. Much cheaper than almonds but with a similar open, slightly crumbly crumb and it is gluten free for all those who need to avoid. The one thing about it (and almonds) that I don’t love is that if the oil/butter content is too high, you can end up with too greasy a texture. Reducing butter and introducing buttermilk really helps with this and makes sure that the crumb is tender and not remotely dry. This one was lovely.

One of the issues with using fresh fruit in baking, especially if using those fruits with a high water content such as strawberries and rhubarb, is that they can flood the cake batter with liquid. This can make for soggy cake. It can also give your cake sink holes. Cooking the fruit first can help, and I could have pressure roasted both strawberries and rhubarb. But in this case I wanted to keep cooking to a minimum. Instead I macerated the fruit for an hour. This had the effect of reducing the water content, intensifying the flavour and also gave me a well flavoured syrup to play with.

Remember that if you are using a loose bottomed cake tin, you need to wrap the base so the steam doesn’t push up through it. I do this with foil and a rubber band.

You can increase the volume of this cake by a third, to fit a 20cm diameter tin - this will fit into most pressure cookers, but 18cm is roomier. Remember you can make a foil or fabric sling for your cake tins to help manoeuvre them in and out.

For the strawberries and rhubarb:

125g strawberries, hulled and roughly chopped

100g rhubarb, diced

juice 1/2 lemon

25g caster sugar

A few drops rosewater (optional)

For the batter:

125g fine polenta

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

75g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

75g buttermilk

And additional flavour:

1/2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

A few drops rose water (optional)

First prepare the fruit. Put into a bowl and sprinkle over the lemon juice and sugar. Add a generous pinch of salt and the rose water if you are using it. Stir thoroughly. Leave to stand for an hour, stirring occasionally. You will find that the fruit end up sitting in a pool of translucent, ruby coloured syrup. Strain it through a sieve, reserving the syrup.

Line an 18cm baking tin with baking parchment or reusable bake-o-glide.

To make the cake batter, put the cornmeal into a bowl with the raising agents, salt and the ground cardamom if using. Stir thoroughly. Beat the butter and sugar together until very soft and slightly increased in volume, then add the dry ingredients, the eggs and the buttermilk, along with either the rose water or vanilla. Stir to combine, keeping the mixing to a minimum.

Scrape half the batter into your prepared tin and sprinkle over half the strained fruit. Spread over the rest of the batter and top with the remaining fruit. It will sink into the cake a little as it cooks, but not all the way to the bottom! You should find that it will be evenly distributed throughout. Cover the tin with baking parchment and secure in place with string or a rubber band.

Put 2cm of freshly boiled water in the base of your pressure cooker and add a trivet. Set it over a high heat until plenty of steam is generated, then add the cake and put the lid on loosely. Turn the heat down and steam without pressure for 10 minutes. Close the lid and bring it up to pressure - you should find this doesn’t take long. Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally. Remove the tin from the cooker. Transfer the cake to a rack to cool.

You can also serve it warm. Very good drizzled with some of the syrup - I swirled some through some creme fraiche.

Cornbread

There is a recipe for this in Everyday Pressure Cooking, and it is cooked in an 18cm round tin, but yesterday for fun I used an enamel dish in my extra wide Kuhn Rikon which I think will take a loaf tin too. Yet another reason why I love this particular Kuhn Rikon.

The cornbread was going to be on the side of a black eyed pea, chard (as no collards!), sweet potato, bacon, chicken thing which may still happen tonight, but last night was a tomato soup night, see below for the recipe. The cornbread can be played around with as much as you like. This time I put a layer of two types of cheese, pickled jalapenos and herbs, and poured over butter, bacon fat and maple syrup at the end.

For the batter:

150g cornmeal, fine or coarse, it’s up to you

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

225ml buttermilk

2 eggs, beaten

For the filling:

150g cheese, grated (I used a mixture of cheddar curds and mature cheddar)

2 tbsp pickled jalapenos, roughly chopped

A few sprigs each coriander and parsley

To finish:

25g butter

2 tbsp maple syrup

Put the cornmeal in a bowl and add the bicarbonate of soda and 1/2 tsp salt. Beat in the buttermilk and eggs, keeping the stirring to a minimum.

Melt half the butter in an 18cm tin, or oven proof dish. When it is hot, add half the cornmeal batter and spread as evenly as possible. Sprinkle over the cheese, jalapenos and herbs, then top with the remaining batter. It doesn’t matter if some of the filling pokes through.

Put 2cm water in the base of your pressure cooker and add a trivet, or a folded up piece of fabric. Cover your tin with foil or baking parchment. Place on the trivet or fabric and close the lid. Bring up to high pressure and cook for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally.

Remove the foil or baking parchment. Pour over the remaining butter and maple syrup. You can put it under a grill if you like, to brown and slightly caramelise. I had just fried some bacon so poured over the fat from that too.

THE BEST tomato soup

I should use all the popular descriptors - for example I am so often asked for more “dump and go” recipes but I just can’t bring myself to use the terminology. And really I want to cook, I don’t want to do the slow cooker style thing of just bunging it all in and hoping for the best. This recipe does really work well though. I have also made it without the butter, purely because I was distracted and I forgot and it still tasted buttery. That is a very odd thing about pressure cooking, actually. The number of times I cook vegetables without butter and yet everyone thinks I have added some on the sly. The latest was swiss chard. Lightly braised/steamed. No butter. SO BUTTERY. How?

Many of you will have seen this recipe in one of its manifestations in either MPC or EPC. It is the most popular recipe in both. Every time I make it, I change the vegetables, depending on what I have, and change the flavours too. There is frequently some kind of chilli paste/sauce, depending on what I have open or want to use up. Today was the turn of chipotle.

1 large onion, peeled and quartered

1 leek, cut into rounds

1 sweet potato, cut into large chunks (around 6 pieces, don’t peel, just scrape off blemishes)

1 large carrot, trimmed and cut into thick rounds

1 celery stick

1 red pepper, roughly chopped

A few garlic cloves (OK, this time I used a whole head)

2 tins tomatoes or fresh equivalent

50g red lentils

A few coriander sprigs

1/2 tsp each cinnamon, allspice, oregano

1 tsp chipotle paste

25g butter, or coconut oil if you’d rather it were vegan, or none at all if you are fat reducing

1 litre water or stock

Put everything in the pressure cooker and season with plenty of salt. Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Cook for 10 minutes at high pressure, then remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally. Remove the lid an using a stick blender, or transferring to a jug, blitz until smooth. It is that simple.

And finally -

A Swampy Soupy Vegetable Thing

As seen in my Instagram stories earlier in the week. A few people asked for the recipe which surprised me because it was murkily worthy, (or worthily murky?) and not at all appealing visually! Sorry to say it isn’t one when you just put everything in, but it doesn’t need much in the way of sauteeing and after that it is pretty instant. It was very much a mixture of things I had in the vegetable crisper. You don’t have to use all of these vegetables and you can swap them out. And you don’t have to use all these spices either. If you have harissa paste or a spice mix such as baharat it will work just as well. Regarding the vinegar at the end, I am trying to use up a massive vinegar collection (so often something I buy on a whim but always go back to the same favourites) and so using vinegar more in place of citrus. I should really get Angela Clutton’s The Vinegar Cupboard out for some inspiration.

I had a big batch of sesame flavoured rice in the fridge which I ladled this over for those who wanted it.

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 leek, finely sliced

1 stick celery, sliced

200g cauliflower, roughly chopped

150g butternut squash, diced

1 courgette, sliced

Small bunches of coriander and parsley, finely chopped, some reserved for garnish

Leaves from 2 sprigs mint

4 cloves garlic, grated OR 1 tbsp garlic puree/paste/confit

zest of 1 lime, finely rasped

Spices: 1/4 tsp each ground turmeric, coriander, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, chilli powder, fenugreek

1/2 tsp each cumin, nigella and mustard seeds

25g red lentils (optional)

1 tbsp tamarind paste (or 1 tsp concentrate)

750ml water or stock

6 cubes frozen spinach

To finish: a little lime juice or vinegar - I used some pomegranate balsamic vinegar from Odyssea.

Heat your pressure cooker and add the olive oil. Add all the vegetables and stir for 3-4 minutes. Add the herbs, garlic, lime zest, spices (whole and ground) and lentils. Stir for another minutes.

Add the tamarind and water or stock. Season with plenty of salt and pepper, then drop the spinach cubes on top.

Close the lid and bring up to high pressure. Cook for 1 minute only, then remove from the heat and leave to drop pressure naturally. The vegetables will be the soft side of al dente and the lentils will be just short of collapsing.

Taste and add a little lime juice or vinegar as needed.

That is all from me for today. Have a lovely weekend all of you and thank you for reading! Please share, restack, like if you enjoyed it and think others might too - it is a free post and everything you do to share helps with its visibility. And I would love to grab more people’s attention re the wonders of pressure cooking!