LPR Bars

Sometimes I think the concoctions that come out of my oven are a direct result of a weekly fridge cleanout. For nearly two weeks I have had a bunch of lemons sitting and waiting to be made into either some sort of baked good or to nobly get sliced and diced as an accoutrement to a vodka tonic. Sadly, neither has taken place recently so I figured the Bank Holiday Monday was a good opportunity to do both. In the process of making my lemon squares I came across some passionruit and raspberries that were also longingly asking to be put to some good use. As my Yoga teacher states at the end of my weekly sessions, “With all that hard work, now is the time to let the new fresh energy back into our systems.” I think I’d like to adapt that to my fridge, “With all that hard work (not that hard when drinking a V&T ), now is the time to let the new fresh food from my Bank Holiday trip to Whole Foods into my now empty fridge.”

The creation of these lemon bars made me realise just how desperate I am for a food processor.

I had promised myself that my first big purchase in London would be this culinary gift from above. It’s been 5 months and I still haven’t bought it. Why you might ask? Good question.

The fact that I have food stored behind our living room couch gives a sneak peak at the lack of kitchen space at 168 Buckler Court. Luxuries like food processors are going to have to wait unless I want my Choos set aside and plan to store my kitchen appliances in my bedroom.

Ironically, the sad story here is that for the past week 75% of my clothes have been cooling out in my lounge/kitchen area. The pathetic tale here involves a broken wardrobe, piles of hangers, a lot of cursing, and a fix-it man who refuses to fix anything (and even made me get up at 8:30 on Saturday morning to NOT show up).

Ok, so yeah – instead of the food processor I used this archaic tool known as hands…had to knead and work the butter until it resembled fine meal and started to stick together. The crust definitely could have benefited from one or two more on and off turns in the food processor. Alas, it was not meant to be.

LPR (Lemon, Passionfruit, and Raspberry) Bars

Crust

1 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup toasted coconut

85 grams (3/4 stick) chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Topping

1 ½ cups sugar

4 eggs

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
Juice and pulp from 2 Passionfruit
¼ cup muddled raspberries
1 tbsp (packed) finely grated lemon peel

¼ cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

For crust:

- Preheat oven to 185°C (350°F).
- Butter a metal baking pan.
- Combine flour, sugar, and salt and then add coconut and butter – work through with hands until -dough begins to stick together.
- Press into pan and bake until golden about 20 minutes.

Topping:

- Combine sugar, eggs, lemon juice, Passionfruit, raspberries, lemon peel, flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl and whisk until smooth and mixed thoroughly.
- Pour filling evenly over hot crust.
- Return to oven and bake until filling begins to brown at edges and is cooked through, about 30 minutes.
- Cool bars.
- Sift powdered sugar over if serving to guests or if you like your LPR Bars sweeter rather then tarter. Personally, I prefer a bit of apucker.

Dins Party - Take 1

My brief 2 week hiatus is a result of that thing called work. I’ve recently started a new project and low and behold it’s sunk its dysfunctional claws in quicker than I would have liked. This has resulted in many a night of scrummy sandwiches (not), glorious bowls of cereal (hardly), and on the off occasion, just a pint and/or a piece of cake for dins…pretty much the utmost in unhealthy.

That said, a week ago last Sunday I felt myself jonesing for a little old-school dinner party… or more accurately some really good home-cooked food. Seeing as this generally requires me to do the cooking, FM and I invited a few of her LBS friends over – I was just happy to have some people to cook for! Plus I was looking to do a bit of career questioning whilst seeing if I could get some good blackmail gossip on BRO1.

That Sunday morning found FM and I having a cosy roomie day of plant (we named her Louda), bin* and grocery shopping. It was another day of crap weather, but lovely in that it was nice to feel like I was ticking off a bit of the domesticated chores I’d been procrastinating doing – it was sparkling in 168 Buckler Court by mid-day!

Le menu:

1. The C-B family recipe for Grandpa Cook’s pork
When people ask if I’m very religious I like to explain that one of my grandpa’s favourite dishes, made by my grandma (both Jewish), was this pork filet dish. So, yeah – um not really when it comes to the whole kosher thing.

2. Courgette fritters with a home-made yogurt garlic dipping sauce

3. Salad – courtesy of FM (two thumbs up on the lettuce, cucumbers and feta)

Grandpa Cook’s Pork - Looks like (and is) a higgildy piggildy assortment of ingredients, but it tastes like a gem. Even better the next day.

1-2 Pork Filets (That’s Fill-its not Fill-ays and also known as Pork Tenderloin for you Yanks)
2 tsps minced ginger
2 tsps minced garlic
¼ cup ketchup
¾ cup red wine
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup water
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp cornstarch

- Mix all ingredients except for corn starch and marinate pork for a few hours.

- Preheat oven to 190 C or 375 F

- Pour marinade into a medium size sauce pan. Take a bit of the liquid and vigorously mix with the cornstarch and add to sauce pan to thicken and make a roux.

- Cook pork for about 30 minutes or until just a bit pink in the middle.

- Serve pork with sauce on top



Courgette Fritters with Yogurt Sauce - Adapted from Bill Granger’s cook book Bill's Food

500g (1 lb 2 oz) courgette (zucchini), grated
1/2 tsp sea salt
8 spring onions, chopped
125g (4.5 oz) feta, crumbled
35g (1/2 cup) chopped coriander (cilantro) - Note: Bill's recipe suggests parsley, but Dana suggests cilantro - your choice
15g (1/4 cup) chopped mint
2 eggs, beaten
60g (1/2 cup) flour
Sea salt and pepper to taste
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil for frying

- Put the courgettes in a colander, sprinkle with salt and set aside for 30 min (Didn’t read the recipe ahead and was a bit squeezed for time so only allowed about 15 minutes – it was fine). Squeeze out any excess liquid and pat dry with paper towel.

- Mix everything in a huge bowl, then heat the oil in a pan and add tablespoonfuls of the batter, flattening them with the back of the spoon. Fry for about 3 min on each side (or until golden).


Yogurt Sauce

1 minced garlic clove
1 tbsp olive oil
125g (1/2 cup) plain yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
Sea salt
Black pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and serve with fritters.
(This yogurt sauce is also amazing with fish or chicken)


*Bin = Garbage can. At £50 ($100) I almost died, but hey nothing but the best in garbage cans for FM and me.

Greengage upside-down cake

Certainly someone could have come up with a better name than “greengage”!? Finicky to grow, the greengage fruit is of the plum family and rarely found in the US (select farmer’s markets have them in the summer) and available in some UK supermarkets for a few weeks as well. Originating in France, the greengage is a pale greenish and slightly tart plum. I first happened upon them last week when I opened my front door to a surprise package. A friend had left a whole bag from his parent’s back garden at my doorstep. Apparently the greengage is typically used to make jam and not much more, and as my friend mentioned - no one is his family has successfully baked anything wonderful with the greengage. My mission, if I chose to accept, was to make something "wonderful".

Firstly, I tasted them on their own to see what I was up against. Quite nice I must admit – tarter than the average plum – and a nice little summer shnack. I first looked around for greengage recipes online - um yeah, didn’t find too many of those. Alternatively, I decided to doctor-up a plum recipe, keep my fingers crossed, and hope for the best.

On epicurious.com I found a recipe for a plum upside-down cake. Whilst I used this recipe as a baseline there are a few alterations below which I’ve bolded.

Greengage upside down cake
2/3 cup brown sugar
140 grams (about 10 Tbsp) butter
1 Tbsp Maple Syrup or Honey
1 dozen greengages, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 wedges
1/4 cup blueberries (coolin’ out in my fridge so figured, why not)?
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F).

- Stir 4 tablespoons butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in pan over low heat everything is melted and a smooth sauce forms.

- Transfer to 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides and arrange plums in overlapping circles atop sauce. (I started out making some fancy design and then realised is was going to be a disaster…stick with the circles)

- Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt

- Beat the rest of the butter in large bowl until light. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add vanilla extract.

- Combine sour cream and buttermilk.

- Add dry ingredients alternating with wet ingredients to butter/sugar/egg mixture, until combined. Spoon batter evenly over plums.

- Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool in pan 30 minutes (don’t be tempted to skip this step – have patience)!

- Using knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Place platter atop cake pan. Invert cake; Voila!

Note: The epicurious recipe calls for serving it with whipped cream. I didn't think this was necessary, if you make it don't add much sugar as the cake is particularly sweet.