Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Chocolate Orange Ginger Drizzle

At this moment, my friends are out dancing. I came home to write about chocolate cake. Before you raise an eyebrow, you should know that this isn't just any chocolate cake, but a chocolate cake made with beets. I know what you're thinking: 'beets in a cake? gross'; but it's actually totally delicious, and while scraping the crumbs from the pan with the tip of my finger as I walked home, I was composing poetry in my head about the earthy, mild sweetness of the beets melding with the bitter sweetness of chocolate, the moistness of the crumb (due to the beets), and the way the flavours of candied orange peel and sweet ginger spiked up the whole thing as the perfect ending to a perfect bite. So why would I dance to '90's music when I could tell you about chocolate beetroot cake?



I love baking, and I love finding ways to bake healthfully. Part of this is doing it from scratch, and using fresh, organic, unprocessed, local ingredients. I love mixing in mashed/grated vegetables, or sometimes fruit, into my breads and cakes, too. "More vegetables" is a good general motto when it comes to my food, and baking is no exception.

One obvious example is banana bread, or carrot cake. But there are also apple cakes, pumpkin breads, zucchini bread (the English call this 'courgette cake' and think it's very strange indeed), sweet potato or pumpkin pie. When I heard of a recipe for chocolate cake with pureed beets, I was intrigued...partly because I knew I could get a good reaction from it, especially from Colm.



We grew beets in our garden this year because their green leaves are tasty in salads, steamed and tossed with dressing or fried with garlic and butter and really nutritious. Now we have an entire drawer full of the red roots. Roasted beet gets old; I prefer chocolate cake.

This recipe was passed around last year to the members of the CSA that we belong to. I've seen it in The Sunday Times and on Nigella Lawson's site. I've tweaked it a bit to make sure it contains healthy fats (coconut oil or ghee). It has a lovely, deep purple tint as you might expect, and is very nice if you sprinkle some shredded coconut on top after you drizzle on the melted chocolate. I've also mixed in a handful of chocolate chips, flaked almonds, chopped walnuts...you could improvise forever! So have fun with your purple chocolate cake. Just don't tell people what's in it until they're happily munching.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Chocolate Orange Ginger Drizzle
Adapted from Jill Dupliex's recipe in the Times Online

Notes: It's important to measure your beetroot precisely, otherwise the cake can taste too 'beety', so this is a good excuse to invest in a kitchen scale (which will be otherwise extremely useful, too!). I have also Americanized many of the amounts, putting them in cups instead of grams, for simplicity.

scant 1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup gluten-free self-raising flour or mix of this and whole wheat flour (I used 1/2 and 1/2 of each)
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup unrefined cane sugar
250g cooked beetroot
3 large eggs
2/3 cup ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil, melted
1 tsp good vanilla extract
80g orange chocolate ginger (Divine chocolate is making this flavour now - it's very hard to stop eating by itself, so melting it and putting it on a cake helps). If you can't find this flavour of chocolate, then melt 80 grams of 70% dark chocolate with 2 tablespoons each of minced candied orange peel and minced candied ginger.

Heat the oven to 180C (160C in a fan oven) and oil an 8 inch round or spring-form cake tin. Sift the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder into a bowl. Mix in the sugar, and set these dry ingredients aside.

Purée the beetroot in a food processor. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the side between each addition. Add the vanilla and oil, and whiz until it is smooth. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the beetroot mixture and mix it all lightly. Pour into the prepared cake tin. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean (peek at it around 30 minutes - if it's browning, cover it with foil). Don't worry if it doesn't rise much. When it's done, let it cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove if you like before icing.

While it's cooling, melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in a bowl set into a pot of boiling water, over the steam, until smooth. Whisk in the minced orange peel and candied ginger if using. Drizzle this over the cake in streaks and swirls. It will set and harden after a half hour or so, but you can eat it before that. I'm sure this cake is delicious with vanilla ice cream.

Healthyish Places to Eat and Things To Do in the Czech Republic

Driving around the Czech Republic is probably something I wouldn't have done if I hadn't moved to Europe. When I told my dad I was moving, three years ago, he said happily, "well then I'll just have to come and visit you!" For a travel-happy Oregonian whose daughter had already lived in San Francisco, Colorado, New Mexico and New York, it was a natural progression of events.



If I want to see my family in person, someone's going to have to travel a very long way. And so we usually try to meet up somewhere interesting and call it a holiday (or...'vacation'). This time it was Prague and the rest of the C.R. I did some research, and some very foot-punishing wandering, to find some excellent AND health-conscious places to eat and share, just in case any of you are headed that way soon.



I ate the most delicious Indian food I've had in recent memory in Prague. My guide book named the restaurant, but said book was six years old and there was a wine bar where my Indian restaurant was supposed to be. Not bad, but I wanted something solid in my belly. We asked locals and wandered through multiple cobble-stoned mazes until we finally went under an arch, into an inner courtyard, under another arch and...there it was! If it weren't for asking others, I never would have found it. And luckily, my father is happy to be a 'destination eater' and our searching paid off.



Indian Jewel (www.indianjewel.cz)
+42(0)222310156
Tyn 6, 11000 Prague 1 - Stare Mesto

The mulligatawny soup was amazing, even though I barely made it through due to my low tolerance of chillies. It was garnished with tiny bits of browned garlic which gave it the most wonderful smoky, earthy flavour. Our mains were fabulous too. My mushroom and pea curry was spicy but not overpowering and super tasty. I tried a bite of dad's black lentils in cream and butter which was total creamy curry heaven: the texture of the beans and astringent cilantro taste kept it in balance.

The other 'best ever' in Prague was chocolate ice cream. That's right: best Indian food and best chocolate ice cream. Not bad, eh? The ice cream came from 'Chocolat Gourmand' in a lovely district full of grand old buildings and designer boutiques (I heart window shopping). It was made at a shoebox-size chocolate shop with a long counter of specialty truffles, and next to that, a small ice cream cart with maybe six flavours. Dad bought the 'dark chocolate orange' and I tried his. I also sampled the super dark plain chocolate which was outstanding.



Chocolat au Gourmand was joined with a pastry/cake/tea room/sandwich shop (called 'au Gourmand') which we returned to the next day for breakfast after drooling over the cookies in the window. I was more impressed with the ice cream but that's not to say there was anything wrong with the pecan chocolate chip cookies and cappuccino!



au Gourmand and Chocolat au Gourmand (www.augourmand.cz)
Dlouha 10, Praha 1 (and other locations for au Gourmand)
+42(0)723065248

We also found a quite good Thai restaurant with tons of great vegetarian options, and a tasty sushi spot near the Prague Castle. Sushi is a rare commodity in the middle of England, so whether or not it was the best sushi in Prague was of no concern to me. They were located in an area with tons of interesting-looking spots to eat, so even if you don't fancy raw fish, head there for other choices, and obviously for the Castle and cathedrals.

Lemon Leaf (Thai: www.lemon.cz)
Myslikova 14, 12000 Praha 2
+42(0)224919056

Susharna (www.susharna.cz)
Trziste 12, Praha 1
+42(0)257219759

And lastly, there was a vintage clothing shop that I loved. Even if you're not a shopper or browser, going to the shop takes you to the old town, the part you want to walk around in anyway:

Retro/Vintage
Michalska 18, Praha 1
+42(0)774273238
www.vintage-clothes.cz

On our way out of Prague, we stopped in the town of Kutne Hore and looked at the cathedral there. It was breath taking. And of course, if you know about the Czech Republic, you probably have heard about the Ossuary? Well, it's this church that's decorated with over 40,000 human skeletons. Yup. Very...macabre? Creepy? Thought-provoking? Whatever your reaction, it's definitely worth a stop. We caught the last 10 minutes of open hours, which, honestly, was plenty of time for me. It's located in the town of Sedlec.



Eventually we ended up in Czesky Krumlov, one of the prettiest European places I've visited. It's a well-preserved medieval town, a Euro-fairytale type of place. C.K. is a bit of a tourist trap, but it's also stunning and has a castle on a cliff, many riverside cafes, and if you're there in the off season, you'll miss the crowds. They also have a nice vegetarian cafe, Laibon, on the banks of the river Vlatava that runs through the old town. The menu descriptions were more exciting than the food itself, but it was such a relief to find real vegetarian appreciation for a few days. There are tons of little cafes in the same area, perfect for having a Pilsner Urquell and staring at the river while you get some sun on your pasty English legs.



Laibon
Parkan 105, Cesky Krumlov 381 01, Czech Republic

Our last stop was Karlovy Vary, an old-school spa town where the Russian Mafia seem to have a presence. It was also really beautiful, and I think in the winter it would be a great place to do some hiking and then come down for a dip in the hot springs. If you want to do spa stuff, plan ahead so you can sift out the tourist traps from what you want. We didn't, and missed out. Oh well. We did have a fabulous end-of-trip meal at a restaurant on a bridge over the river that runs through the old town. I can't remember the name of it, but...if you walk to the bottom of the old town and end up at the Grand Hotel Pupp (the famous fancy one), then turn around and walk back (north-ish), you'll see people eating on one of the little footbridges over the river, just a few minutes walk up from the Pupp. It was asparagus season when we were there, and what I remember most was the dessert my dad ordered: strawberries cooked with green pepper. Apparently, pepper brings out the flavour of strawberries in a whole new way. I loved it, actually. Spicy strawberries. I don't think it was green bell pepper, though perhaps it was this with a bit of peppercorn, too; they had removed the evidence, those sneaky devils, so if I had to guess I'd say green peppercorns. Or maybe it was green bell pepper with a bit of black pepper. They had simmered the strawberries down into a sauce with the pepper, then removed it, and served it with custard or vanilla ice cream.

Saag Paneer from Scratch

In late March and early April, when I was home in Eugene, OR, we went to 'Govinda's Vegetarian Buffet'. Years ago, just the name of this place would have put me off - I wasn't sure what to make of it and had no idea what sort of food they served. These days, it may be our favourite restaurant in Eugene - or at least, 'old reliable'. Govinda's looks like an oversized espresso shack on River Road - not a street known for its food (unless it's fast and processed). But when our bodies have had it with espresso, pricey joints and glasses of wine with desert, Govinda's is just what the doctor ordered. What can I say, when you know what it feels like to eat really health food, how can you not keep coming back?

I generally adore Hare Krishna food - wholesome, vegetarian and totally scrummy (that's 'scrumptious' plus 'yummy' for those who don't know British English). When I asked for recipes, they recommended a book called 'The Higher Taste'. In a happy, synchronistic moment during the first cooking class I taught after returning to England, one of my students produced a pile of The Higher Taste cookbooks and said he was giving them away for free! How great is that? It turns out that it's not so much a collection of pure H.K-style recipes, but a mix of dishes from all over the globe - India, Thailand, Middle East, Europe, Greek, Latin American and more. One of the Indian recipes was for saag paneer.



I've cooked Ayurvedically for years now, with classic Indian spices & herbs, but haven't done much home cooking of the typical curry house dishes: naan bread, chana masala, etc. That all changed last week when I made Saag Paneer from scratch.

This was a process that took several days - which I hope won't put you off. Think of it as a good excuse to relax and take it slow. Or, you can just go out and buy your paneer and then it'll only take you half an hour. Or, use chickpeas instead of paneer. But I wanted to be able to say I'd made my own cheese, and I wanted my paneer to be organic and hormone free, damn it - so I took matters into my own hands. If you don't eat dairy, just skip this first part and substitute 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas for the paneer.

Paneer for one meal, serving two hungry people:

2 litres (8 cups, almost 4 pints) of organic whole milk
1 lemon (for 3-4 Tablespoons of lemon juice)
Cheesecloth
fresh herbs - optional. I used several pinches of dry basil.

Juice your lemon first.
Pour the milk into a big saucepan with several inches of room at the top for foamy boiling. Bring it to a full rolling boil on medium high heat, stirring frequently to prevent any sticking or scalding. When it boils and foams up, turn the heat to low, and while it's still foamy, drizzle in the lemon juice. Give it a slow stir in one direction and after 10 - 15 seconds, take the pot off the heat. Continue to agitate the 'milk', which will separate into a pale yellow-green watery liquid, plus lumps of curdled clumps at the bottom. If your clumps aren't forming after one minute, place it back over the heat and keep stirring gently; if necessary, add a little more lemon juice. When the curd has formed clumps, cover the saucepan and set aside for 10 minutes.



Place a sieve or colander in the sink and cover the inside with 2 - 3 thicknesses of cheesecloth. Drape the edges of the cloth over the side of the colander. Gently pour the liquid and curd clumps into the colander. If you're going to add in any herbs, do it now by gently folding them in. Then pick up the corners of the cheesecloth, twist it up and run it under cold water for a few seconds. Squeeze your curd bundle to drain out excess liquid. If you have something to secure the twisted bit of cloth, like a wire tie, that's handy. At this point, I simply put a milk bottle, filled with water, into a coffee mug and used this as a weight to further compress the water out of the cheese and also to keep the cloth together. So basically, find something heavy and put it on top to continue draining the cheese.



After half an hour, you're in business. It should be compressed and feel firm. If you're not going to use the cheese immediately, then wrap it in a paper towel, place in a container and refrigerate - use within 4 days.


Saag Paneer
Adapted from "The Higher Taste", published by The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust

2 very large bunches of fresh spinach (if they are not very large, then make it 3 or 4 bunches - spinach really cooks down!)
1 block of paneer, cut into half inch cubes (or 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas)
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 fresh hot green chili, seeds removed and minced (optional)
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon sea or rock salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil
4 tablespoons cream (I improvised and used whole milk)
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoon salt

Steam the spinach in a large saucepan with a little bit of water until it has cooked down and softened. With a fork, lift it out of the pan and into a food processor. Whiz it up a few times until it's roughly pureed. Remove and set aside.
With a mortar and pestle or a blender, or the same food processor after rinsing it out, blend the minced ginger, chili and garlic with a spoonful of cold water. Add the coriander, paprika, cumin and turmeric; pound or blend into a smooth paste.
Heat the ghee or oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, then add the spice paste and fry for a minute or two until the paste is aromatic and starts to stick. Fold in the spinach and mix well to combine with the spices. Cook for a few minutes, then add in the cream, paneer, garam masala, salt and cook for another few minutes. Serve hot with steamed basmati rice.

Falafel with Tahini Sauce

This week, instead of heading out for some soggy camping over the May Day holiday weekend, I had the girls over for dinner. Estrogen was in the air: a bottle of champagne was popped, announcing the start the evening. There was the intention to watch Memoirs of a Geisha (my second viewing in a week), but instead we sat 'round the table having a 'chin wag' (Irish for 'social chat') until midnight. We calculated that by the end of the evening, the four of us had each spent over an hour talking - wow.

Some seriously good food makes its appearance when we get together, and it's almost always vegetarian and home made. We're all members of the amazing local CSA and each week are happily inundated with some the best organic produce around. Perhaps we'll make our own version of Sex and the City entitled 'Veg in the Country'. I'm sure it would be a sensation: 'organic chic!'

Dinner included a loaf of fresh bread baked with sultanas, walnuts and home-grown wheat; warm puy lentil, leek and dill salad; field greens with vinaigrette and toasted pumpkin seeds; falafel made from scratch with tahini sauce; and gluten-free rhubarb crumble for desert.



Middle eastern food is one of my absolute favorite cuisines. The smoky, deep flavors and colorful ingredients feed my love of exotic things: it's the kind of food you'd eat on a good adventure in a country where you really feel like a foreigner. It lends itself so well to finger food, as if you could lay it out on a big wooden platter in the middle of the table and pick it clean. Personally I quite like to stick my finger into the tahini sauce or hummus, or when I'm sharing, I'll use a falafel patty or dolmade for my flavor vessel. I like spices, herbs and a lot of variety in flavor and fresh produce, and middle eastern food delivers.

Exploring the culinary arts keeps me on my toes, learning new techniques and exploring endless flavor combinations. In this case, it was working with raw chickpeas (gasp! - are they digestible??) and deep frying. But it's not hard to make falafel from scratch. The trick is getting it to hold together while frying but I haven't had any problems so far, so hopefully you won't either. Basically, you soak your chickpeas overnight at least, dry them on a towel, then throw them in a food processor with everything else, blend until pasty (a couple minutes), form little patties and drop those into a heavy-bottomed pot with oil you've heated on medium/medium-high and fry until golden brown. You don't even need an official 'deep fryer'.

Falafel Patties with Tahini Sauce

Don't use canned chickpeas here, they're too wet and mushy.

Falafel
1 3/4 cups dry chickpeas
two big garlic cloves
small/medium red onion or two shallots
1 big handful flat parsley leaves
1 big handful cilantro (fresh coriander) leaves
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon (or a bit more!) harissa paste
1 teaspoon paprika powder
4 tablespoons flour (I used white spelt)
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
black pepper, freshly ground, to taste
sunflower oil to a depth of 1 inch or a bit more in a medium, heavy-bottomed pot

Tahini Sauce
1/2 cup light tahini (sesame seed paste)
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup water
small garlic clove, finely minced
1/4 teaspoon cumin powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika powder
a few parsley leaves, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon salt or more to taste
fresh ground pepper to taste

The night before making the falafel, soak the chickpeas in filtered water (cover by an inch or so: they will swell up) so that by the time you make them, they've soaked for a whole day.

Roughly chop the garlic and onion and rinse the fresh herbs to remove any dirt.

Drain and rinse the soaked chickpeas, lay down a towel and pour them out onto it. Roll them around and pat to dry. Then put them into the food processor along with everything except the oil. Process until you have a thick paste: at least one minute, probably a little more than two minutes, pausing to scrape down the sides. Taste for salt and seasoning: if you want it spicier, add more black pepper, cayenne pepper powder or harissa paste. It's nice to have several different kinds of 'spiciness' in a dish: it adds interest. Blend again to incorporate anything you've adjusted. Have a plate ready; take out small handfuls of falafel paste and form little patties: 1 1/2 - 2 inches across, patted down to a thickness of less than 1 inch.

Meanwhile, pour the oil into your pot and heat over medium, medium/high heat for about 5 minutes, until hot enough that a bread crumb fries to golden brown in 1 minute when tossed in.



When your falafel patties are ready, gently drop them in to your heated oil. The first one may bubble and splatter; use caution if your hands are wet, as water droplets landing on the hot oil (it causes quite a commotion). Fry as many at once as will comfortably fit on the bottom of the pan. Turn them over with a spoon after 30 seconds or so. Have a plate with a paper towel ready, and when the falafel are golden brown, take them out and drain on said towel. It only takes a little over a minute to fry them. Continue until all your paste is used up.

Now prepare the tahini paste: in a bowl, with a fork, whisk together the tahini, lemon juice and water. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk again to mix well. Taste for seasoning and serve with the falafel.

Falafel are usually eaten in a Pitta bread pocket with salad and dressing, but I like them on their own, dipped in the sauce, or maybe served over spicy greens like rocket (called arugula in the USA) with tahini sauce as dressing.