Something for the weekend: mango and lime loaf

Ever since The Guardian published the Dan Lepard recipe for olive oil cake I have been a woman somewhat obsessed with exploring the possibilities of this dairy-free cake. It have tried it with orange and cinnamon, with walnuts and coffee, with Earl Grey tea and lemon, with just mixed spice. I find the recipe incredibly versatile and as far as cakes go it is also towards the less unhealthy end of the spectrum. Please do note that I’m not trying to make this into something healthy. It’s just somewhat less bad for you than some other cakes.

In a lot of my cooking endeavours I am steered by what I happen to have in the house. This time it was a mango so ripe that it practically begged on its somewhat wrinkly knees to be used up. Next to it perched a lime whose zest had started to dry just a little. My trusted guide to many matters culinary, The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit, did remind me of the magic potency of mixing mango and lime. In light of that, it simply had to be done. The result is a moist cake with a very mild flavour and a tiny bit of crunch to the top.

Mango and lime loaf. Photo: Helene Frossling

Mango and lime loaf

1 VERY ripe mango

1 lime

135g light muscovado

4 large free range eggs

150 ml vegetable oil

200g wholemeal spelt flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Grease a loaf tin and line it with baking paper.

Peel the mango, and chop the flesh into small pieces. Zest the lime, then squeeze out the juice. Using a hand blender or a food processor pulp the mango with the zest and a tablespoon of lime juice. 

In a large bowl and using an electric hand mixer (or, if you feel strong, just a whisk), whisk up the eggs and the sugar. You are looking for a frothy mixture which is lighter in colour than what you started with – 2-3 minutes with the electric mixer should do it. If you are feeling strong and going for it with a whisk, you’re looking at far longer; just focus on the cake and the bulging biceps to come. Mix in the oil, followed by the mashed-up mango.

In a small bowl mix the spelt flour and the baking powder well. Gently fold this into the egg mixture, trying to loose as little air as possible.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. Bake in the pre-heated oven for around 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin before lifting out. Store wrapped in greaseproof paper in a tin or tupperware box. Stored like this it will keep well for a couple of days, although my boyfriend would probaly let it stretch to a slice per day for up to a week - or until I have to try out the Lepard recipe again.  

Shakshuka, or something like it

The good thing about following food blogs, reading cookery books and watching chefs prance around on TV is inspiration. Having quite a good memory (albeit increasingly unreliably as I dive deeper into my thirties) I can often recall interesting ideas picked up from all these recipes I come across. I don’t tend to spend money on buying the associated books – it is just their ideas I am after. As a cook I tend to be quite bold – to make things up as I go along. This comes in quite handy since I have a tendency of cooking using the ingredients at hand rather than buying ingredients for a specific recipe.

Shakshuka came to me in this way. I vaguely recalled seeing the dish raved about by Yotam Ottolenghi in his Mediterranean Feast series on Channel 4. I also stumbled upon Hemsley and Hemsley’s take on it, “Anytime Eggs”. I always have eggs, tomatoes, onions and garlic in the house, and quite often some greens as well. Cumin and smoked paprika are my staple spices, as will be very clear in this blog. Over a few weekends I ended up trying out different ways of preparing it and have ended up with a dish that is the perfect weekend pick-me-up. By no means of the imagination should this be seen as an authentic version of the dish. I do think anyone who tries it wants to have it again.

The greedy cook/photographer didn't get a chance to snap until  it was almost too late. Photo: Helene Frossling

Perfect breakfast for one VERY hungry person

1-2 tsp olive oil

1 banana shallot, or a couple of smaller shallots

1 garlic clove

4 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp ground cumin

60 g spinach, washed

2 free range eggs

To serve:

Smoked paprika powder, plain yoghurt, fresh dill or mint (chopped), bread.

Peel and slice the shallots thinly. In a small frying pan (approx 20 cm across) heat the olive oil and fry the shallots on a gentle heat until cooked through and beginning to get some colour. Crush the garlic and add to the pan for half a minute before adding the chopped tomatoes, the balsamic, the cumin and a tablespoon or two of water. Cook on a gentle heat until it looks like a somewhat dry tomato sauce. Add the spinach and put a lid on to let the spinach wilt into the mixture for a couple of minutes. Stir and season.  Now make two wells in the tomato and spinach mixture, large enough to hold an egg each. Crack one of the eggs into a cup, remove any errant pieces of shell then tip the egg into one of the wells in the frying pan. Repeat with the second egg. Put a lid on the pan and leave it until the egg white has set, which takes around 5 minutes.

To serve, dollop some yoghurt over the top, scatter with some paprika powder and chopped fresh herbs. Eat straight from the pan using a fork and pieces of bread. Amazing.   

The importance of breakfast, and my homemade granola

I have always been a greedy girl. Those with the patience to follow this blog as its identity becomes clearer will probably quickly realise that food is something I love with a passion. Eating, cooking, sharing; even (annoyingly) at times photographing. Ever since I was a baby I have had fast metabolism and I tend to wake up ravenous. How lucky for me that I grew up in a country where the phrase “breakfast is the most important meal of the day!” was almost as ever present as the Jante Law and Carola.

Breakfast can take many shapes. Some days are perfect for eggs. Perhaps they will be scrambled slowly and served with smoked salmon and chewy bagels. Or there may be poached eggs perched on a bed of fried chanterelle mushrooms (foraged in the forest behind my childhood home) on a toasted thick slice of sourdough bread.

Other days are grain days; the days when bread take centre stage, or when the humble oat shall rock your boat. In the Swedish way I do like my bread in the morning to be more towards an open sandwich than a slice of toast. In the household I grew up in, toast was for those days when the fresh bread had gone a bit stale and was beyond recovery. Fresh bread was eaten with cheese, ham, salad vegetables such as slices cucumber or red pepper. And oats. Oats often end up in porridge; the thick warming mixture made with half and half milk and water, and topped with fresh fruits and seeds. But some mornings there simply isn’t enough time to make porridge, or there isn’t even stale bread to be found for some toast. On those mornings it is good to have made some granola.

I started making granola a couple of years ago, according to a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi in his first (and eponymous) cookbook. These days I make my own mixture, loosely based on the original recipe but creating a crunchy, nutty, seedy and fruity mix just to my taste. It is divine with cold milk or creamy yoghurt. It is vital to go for jumbo oats here, as porridge oats will disintegrate in the process.

My biscuit tin of homemade granola. Photo: Helene Frossling

Granola

300 g of jumbo rolled oats

150 g chopped nuts of your choice; I like walnuts, almonds and pistachios

150 g seeds of your choice; pumpkin, sunflower, linseed

100 ml of clear honey

100 ml of maple syrup

4 tbsp of oil; I find olive oil too strong so like to go with rapeseed or sunflower oil

3 tbsp water

pinch of salt

250 g dried fruits of your choice; I tend to do raisins, sultanas and figs – the latter cut into small pieces

Preheat your oven to 150 C. Line two or three oven trays with baking paper.

In a bowl mix the oats with chopped nuts. As a guideline to chopping the nuts – just think of how big chunks you would like to eat in your breakfast. Add the seeds.

In a small saucepan gently heat the honey, maple syrup, oil, water and salt until the honey has melted and all is combined. Pour over the oats and stir carefully to mix everything but without breaking up the oats too much. Divide between the baking trays. Bake in the preheated oven for around 40 minutes, gently turning the oats on the trays every ten minutes and also swapping the trays around between shelves. It might seem like a hassle but you want to ensure as even a bake as possible.

When the oats are a golden colour remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before moving all the granola mix onto either one of the trays or a clean roasting tray. While the mix is still very warm, scatted the fruits on top and mix up.

Once the granola is fully cooled down transfer to storage jars. I like to keep my granola in a biscuit tin lined with baking paper; I like to be able to scoop the granola from there into my bowl. The granola keeps for quite a while but is best eaten within 2 weeks. However, it is so tasty that I doubt anyone can keep it that long..