Chocolate Pistachio Cake: Dairy and Gluten Free

While eating dinner with friends a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to describe the sort of recipes that I create, and one person perked up and told me she had a cookbook that I needed to borrow. She brought in 'Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache' by Harry Eastwood (Harry being a woman's name in this case). The book features 80 vegetable-based gluten-free baked goods recipes, the majority of them desserts, with a few savoury biscuit and scone recipes. Parsnip fudge, dense chocolate cake made with aubergine (aka eggplant), orange and butternut squash cupcakes. Harry uses finely grated vegetables, and sometimes finely ground nuts, in place of butter. It's my kind of cooking.

There are a number of recipes that I want to try at some point (particularly the Red Velvet cake, when I have enough beetroot), and I thought these cakes would be the ideal kind to keep in the freezer. You know, just in case. I don't really keep snack or junk food around the house, so sometimes I open the cupboard and all I see are ingredients: soy sauce, bags of lentils, balsamic vinegar, tahini, sea salt, basmati rice, honey, bay leaves, gram flour, cream of tartar, tamarind paste, black beans. Not exactly appetizing fare! And sometimes it's 3:25 pm and you want something with your cup of Earl Grey but you want it to be healthy-ish. And there's nothing prettier than a home-made cake sitting on the counter, flecked with sliced green pistachios. So I made her Chocolate Pistachio Cake with courgette (aka zucchini). Mmm.

The trick, if you're baking for vegetable skeptics, is to make this when they're not around so they can't see what you're doing.  Then, after they've eaten a piece and told you how good it was, break the news that there was green plant matter in their cake. Okay, courgettes are totally harmless and on the tame side of vegetable baking, but in many people's minds, vegetables live in one field, sweet things live in another and they should never cross-pollinate. But c'mon, people, it's 2011. Modern technology. Innovative thinking. Turnips in your Steamed Golden Syrup Sponge Pudding. It's a brave new world.

This recipe is a modification of the one in Harry's book. The icing recipe is mine, in the sense that I just threw it together with coconut milk instead of butter. I've added cinnamon because I like that spice with chocolate and with courgettes (just like zucchini bread), and because it helps balance blood sugar levels.  This cake is fast to make. It bakes in only 30 minutes, and doesn't require too many ingredients. Don't be put off by having to grate the zucchini/courgette: trust me, it grates very quickly.  You have to do these things for the sake of good food.  And the pistachios grind down to a powder in just a few minutes.

The original recipe seemed to imply that this would provide enough batter to make two layers. I prepared two spring-form pans but half the batter didn't even cover the bottom of one (unless spread ridiculously thin), so I scraped it all into one and ended up with a perfect, 1 1/2 - 2 inch high cake.  Works for me.

A note about lining a spring-form pan with greaseproof baking paper: it's a pain in the arse if you try to fit the paper in perfectly with it going up the sides and all of that. So just do this: open and remove the sides (ring) of the pan; lay a piece of paper over the circular base; push the ring down around the base and lock it into place, securing the paper over the base like a drum. Trim away the excess paper and lightly grease the sides and base of the pan with oil or butter. You can easily run a knife around the sides after baking if you have to.  Having paper over the base is sufficient.

A note to American readers about the measurements in 'grams': this sort of thing happens when you live in England. But having a kitchen scale is extremely handy, so this is your excuse to get one. And while we're on the topic of measurements, if you don't have an oven thermometer, please get one when you can. They're cheap and many ovens vary widely in temperature. If I set my oven to 150C, it shoots up above 200C (hotter than hell, in other words) for some odd reason.  I guess it's not a great oven.  So unless you have a fabulous oven, an oven thermometer will serve you well.

Chocolate Pistachio Cake
Adapted from 'Red Velvet & Chocolate Heartache' by Harry Eastwood
Dairy and gluten free.

FOR THE CAKE
100 grams shelled pistachios
3 medium organic eggs
180 grams demerara sugar
300 grams topped, tailed, peeled and very finely grated courgette (zucchini in the US) (about 3 medium courgettes)
120 grams self-raising gluten free flour blend
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
60 grams good quality cocoa powder
optional pinch of salt unless the pistachios you buy happen to have a bit of salt on them

FOR THE ICING
60 grams icing sugar
20-25 grams good quality cocoa powder
3-4 tablespoons coconut milk (full fat - I open a can of the stuff, then keep what I don't use in a glass jar in the fridge and put it into oatmeal or curries)
1 handful roughly chopped pistachios

METHOD
-Line the base of a spring-form cake pan with parchment or baking paper and lightly oil the base and sides of the pan.
-In the bowl of a food processor, grind the pistachios into a fine powder. This takes several minutes. A good idea is to add a tablespoon of the flour to the pistachios after an initial period of grinding: this helps them 'skate around the bowl' instead of clumping and turning into pistachio butter. Which sounds nice, but won't work here. Make sure you really do grind them to a powder: the texture of your cake depends on it.
-Start heating the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
-In a large mixing bowl, with electric beaters, beat the eggs with the sugar for two full minutes, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the grated courgette and pistachio dust.
-Using a sieve (the kind you'd wash lentils in), sieve the flour, cinnamon and cocoa powder in to the courgette mix. Cocoa powder tends to have lumps in it. You can push it through the holes of the sieve with a spatula to break up the lumps. Before you turn the beaters on again, swirl it all together to moisten the dry ingredients so that when you turn on the beaters, you don't create a cloud of cocoa. Now beat again to incorporate everything really well, pausing to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Pour into the prepared pan and place in the oven. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes (the book says 30, mine took nearly 40, probably because I had all of the batter in one pan).
-Meanwhile, to prepare the icing: in a medium mixing bowl, sieve in the icing sugar and cocoa powder using the spatula method above. Add two tablespoons of coconut milk and mix with a spatula to smoosh out any clumps. Continue to add coconut milk, 1/2 or 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until you have a nice, thick, spreadable consistency. Set aside.
-When the cake is done (test it by inserting a thin knife into the centre, making sure it comes out clean), remove the sides of the pan. Allow it to cool for fifteen minutes or so, then turn it out onto a plate and allow the other side to cool. At this point, you may want to pop it in the fridge for 20 minutes. You want it to come down to room temp or a bit lower, otherwise the heat in the cake (there's a lot of it in there!) will totally melt your icing.
-When the cake has cooled, ice it. Sprinkle roughly chopped pistachios on top. Serve. Feeds 12 health nuts with sweet tooths.

The Complete Guide on How to Use Coriander and Cilantro (Coriander Coconut Chutney Recipe)

If you're new to spices, or you could use some new ideas to jazz up your meals, then this monthly series where I pick one spice or herb and cover natural remedies, health benefits, a recipe or two and other tips is for you. I'll do one spice per month until I've worked my way through my entire spice rack, which has 40 jars on it! So I better get started.

But first, as far as any natural remedies in this post (or anywhere else on my blog) go, please see my disclaimer.

I didn't start cooking until I was 24, and I started with Ayurvedic Indian food. I didn't realize how adventurous I was being, as a cooking virgin. The recipes were full of items I'd never heard of, like asafoetida and turmeric. But I knew cilantro from eating it in guacamole, even if I had never cooked with its seeds, called coriander (in the UK, coriander is used to refer to the leaf and seeds of the plant).



Cilantro/coriander's leaves taste astringent and sweet. In Ayurveda, this makes coriander very cooling. Wherever there is fire, coriander will be there! You do start to notice that it's used most commonly in dishes that also contain chillies: Indian, Thai, Mexican and Chinese foods. It also goes well with sour tastes, as in yogurt dips (yogurt being sour) or with lime, as a garnish.

Some people have a huge aversion to coriander leaves because they find it tastes a bit like soap. I'm in the 'love it' category. The seeds of the plant are much more tolerable, lacking the funny flavour that puts some off the leaves. I use the ground seed in place of the leaves if I have to (I'd rather not). The leaves have the stronger flavour, so it's not usually advised to substitute them for the seed, but hey, rules are made to be broken. I like to use a bit (or a lot, depending) of ground seed along with the leaves to sort of 'layer' the flavours: meaning, if you have a dish and it calls for coriander, putting a bit of ground seed in with the leaf creates more complexity in the flavours in the dish. As an example, you can also layer flavours when you need a dish to be hot: heat can come from black, white, green, pink or red peppercorns; or from dried chillies of all sorts; horseradish, wasabi, mustard; perhaps try putting in two or three items from the same taste 'category' instead of only one, and adjusting amounts accordingly, so you don't overload the dish with heat but you build the flavours in complexity. Curry powder, for example, has heat from black mustard seeds, ginger and black pepper. It has sweetness from fennel and cinnamon. And so on. Hopefully that makes sense.

Here's where I use coriander/cilantro the most:

*leaves as a garnish in Chinese style stir-fries, ground coriander seed as part of the spice in the stir fries; a bit of coriander seed is nice in other hot or sour Chinese dishes where you might not use the leaves;
*Thai dishes such as Tom Yum soup, Thai curries, Thai rice and noodle dishes. I cook the coriander stems along with other vegetables in the curries and soups, then sprinkle the leaves over at the end, and ground coriander seed and stems would almost always go into a home-made curry paste if I was making it;
*Indian foods: chutneys, any Indian curry, vegetable dish, rice dish, home made curry powder, and Ayurvedic teas;
*Mexican dishes: chili tomato rice, guacamole, most chili-laden Mexican dishes. Cilantro also freshens and 'greens' up a Mexican dish that has cheese, helping to cut through the sour and oily qualities. The leaves are excellent as a balance to spicy mole sauces, and the stems could be cooked with any roasted veg that you're putting into your enchilada;
*yogurt dips: leaves and ground seed, perhaps with lemon and cucumber? Sort of like Tzatziki?
*Chutney! Recipe below.
*summer drinks: pound up a few sprigs of coriander with a handful of mint leaves, pour boiling water on them, steep for a while and drink; or, steep then chill it in the fridge, add some lime juice and a bit of stevia or raw agave nectar and enjoy your cilantro mint ice tea. Yum!
*digestive tea: one of the most popular Ayurvedic recipes is a soothing tea to drink at anytime, for anyone, made of 1 teaspoon each: coriander seed, cumin seed and fennel seed (use whole seeds). Place the seeds in a pot, add a pint or two of water, boil, turn to a simmer, simmer for a few minutes, covered, then strain and drink. This healing brew is helpful for indigestion, acid stomach, cystitis, sluggish digestion and many other conditions. You can make some in the morning and take it in a thermos to sip on throughout the day.



As a natural remedy, cilantro is a great herb in the summer because it's so cooling. Meaning, it's helpful if you're prone to heat rash, excess sweat, irritability, if you have acidity, internal inflammation (anything ending in 'itis' like cystitis), skin irritation or other 'fiery' conditions; or if you just need to cool off. The juice is a good thing to drink (along with unsweetened, pure cranberry juice) for urinary tract infections. The juice also soothes skin rashes and burns, burning sore throats, and is excellent for intestinal disorders and as a blood cleanser. I would guess that this is because, as a sweet and astringent tasting green plant food (like cucumbers and avocados), cilantro is powerfully alkaline. That means it counteracts the acidic effects of foods like sugar, coffee, alcohol, wheat, corn, dairy, meat, etc.

To make cilantro juice, wash a bunch of fresh coriander/cilantro in cold water, then run them through a juicer. If you don't have a juicer, put the washed bunch in a blender with a cup or two of water (depending on the size of the bunch) and blend. If you want to make more of a paste to place on heat rash or irritated skin, then add water slowly, in a trickle, while blending until you have the desired consistency. Apply where needed (but not on broken skin - see you doctor).

How to keep your cilantro fresher for longer if you buy a bunch of it from your local vegetable market? Treat it like a bunch of flowers. Snip off the very ends of the stems and place it in a short glass or jar with a bit of water (not enough water to reach up to the leaves, only about an inch or so of the stems). Then you can just leave it on the windowsill or maybe place it in the fridge.

Or, if you buy a bunch of cilantro and know you won't be able to get through it all, make a chutney. This is a really delicious topping for curries or basmati rice. It's also nice as a dip for South Indian flatbreads - like papadums, dosas or kallappams.



Coriander Coconut Chutney

1 packed cup fresh coriander leaves
1/3 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut flakes
1 teaspoon honey
¼ - ½ teaspoon salt (not table salt - sea, rock, kosher or iodized)
2 Tablespoons lime juice (about 1 small/medium lime)
1/2 inch fresh ginger root, peeled with the tip of a spoon and minced
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional!)
1/2 teaspoon (or a bit less) cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon (or a bit less) coriander powder

Blend the coriander and lime juice until chopped; add a little water if it's too thick. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until you have a paste-like consistency (again, adding minimal amounts of water if needed).

Cardamom Snickerdoodles

I love baking. It's therapeutic and can be so beautiful, especially when cake is involved. But I'm also a bit of a health nut. What I consider ideal is having a couple of sporty, hungry teenage boys to pass the cookies to so that I'm not stuck in the house, alone, with an entire cake or batch of cookies. Teenagers have amazing powers of absorption when it comes to food.

Let's cut to the chase. I made some Snickerdoodles in April and took them to dinner at the house of our friends Oleg and Anna, and their sons Dennis and Alex who are...14 and 16, I think. They're both very tall for their age, which makes them look 24 and 26. Their hair is a perfect blend of their mom's curly red and dad's fluffy blonde hair. I hope Oleg doesn't mind me calling his hair fluffy. I simply mean, 'not flat'. It's a good thing. But anyway, they loved the Snickerdoodles. We were over there again last weekend. The lads, plus Lucy, Dennis' girlfriend, cooked dinner for 10 people. I was so impressed, given my complete cluelessness about cooking when I was their age. They wanted the cookie recipe, or at least the spelling of the word so they could look it up.



I guess Snickerdoodles are American – this seems obvious when I think about it. There are plenty of silly words in British English but Snickerdoodle is not one of them. If it was an English 'biscuit', it might be called 'Snickies' or something else with a 'y' sound at the end. They love that over here. Like chocky for chocolate.

As a thanks for dinner, guys and gal, here's a recipe. I thought they'd be nice with cardamom in them. I love cardamom and think it's amazing in the right desserts. Dennis and Alex fondly remember the chai crème brulee that my brother made for everyone at our wedding party in 2008, and last week I had a similar cardamom crème brulee at a very authentic French restaurant near our house. Mmm. Anyway, the cardamom is optional here but I love it.

If you're going to use gluten free flour, it's a good idea to use baking paper so that you don't end up demolishing the cookies while trying to scrape them off the bottom of the pan. Baking paper lets you lift your gluten free wares off easily, with minimal crumble. It's a miracle for the gluten free baker.

I fiddled around to make them a bit 'healthier'. I used half whole spelt flour and half gluten free self-rising flour and modified the amount of baking soda accordingly (self-raising GF flour has baking soda in it). Feel free to use ordinary unbleached all-purpose flour. I also used demerara sugar, but I ground it up in the blender because I didn't want huge crystals but I wanted to keep the sugar unrefined. It's an easy trick that I use when I need powdered or caster sugar but don't want the white stuff.

Cardamom Snickerdoodles

for the dough:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground cardamom
pinch of salt (not table salt) (omit if you have to use salted butter)

for the topping:
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 Tablespoons sugar

In one bowl, cream the butter and sugar with the back of a wooden spoon. Add the egg and mix well.



In a second bowl, sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt (if using) and cardamom. Do try to grind the cardamom yourself, the aroma and taste is amazing. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until it starts to clear the sides of the bowl and comes together into a dough. Pat down the top, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for a couple hours or overnight.



When you're ready, take out the dough and preheat the oven to 350F / 180C (I have an oven thermometer and I only have to set my UK oven to 130C! Obviously, these are handy). In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon. Scoop out spoonfuls of dough, enough for 1 inch balls, and form them by rolling the dough around gently between your two palms. Then toss them in the cinnamon mix to coat and place on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until just starting to brown around the edges. Makes about 32 cookies. These freeze well. In case you need to save them for the next time you see some teenagers.