Arros al forn d’estiu (summer baked rice)

Posted on October 10, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

The story goes that when my husband Oscar was a boy, the family would pack a carload of towels, sun shades, chairs, cousins, food and drink and head off to the beach for the whole day. Iaia would always take along a whole, tea-towel-wrapped, ceramic dish of Summer Baked Rice, especially for her eldest son, and he would come rushing out of the sea to demolish the whole lot by himself, washing it down with chocolate milk. It is still one of his favourite lunches!

The amounts here feed between three and four people. If you don’t have a ceramic dish, use a metal baking tray, but increase the amount of water slightly so that it is exactly double the amount of rice.

The black pudding sausage is optional!

What you need:
2 glasses (roughly 400g) Spanish rice
1/2 glass of olive oil
a whole head of garlic
three or four ripe tomatoes
a handful of flat green beans
a good-sized potato
150g white beans
a black-pudding sausage (botifarra)
parsley
1 tsp sweet paprika
saffron/orange food colouring
water

What you do:
Pop the oven on at 200ºC and prep by measuring out your rice and oil, grating one of your tomatoes, slicing the potatoes, breaking the beans into pieces and putting your water on to boil. The amount of water is directly dependent on the amount of rice you use and the type of dish you cook in. If using a metal tray, use two glasses of water for every glass of rice. For ceramic dishes, hold back half a glass or so of liquid. For this particular recipe, I used 750ml of water for 400g of rice.You will also need to make what we call a “picadillo”, which is a bashed-up clove of garlic with a small bunch of parsley and a bit of oil added. I use a mortar and pestle, but finely chopping is good too. Set this aside for a moment while you get on with the frying and assembling.

Place the rice into the bottom of your ceramic (or metal) dish and gently shake it so it settles evenly over the base.

Now pour the half-glass of oil into a frying pan and get the heat on. Place the whole garlic head in the oil for a quick, oil-flavouring fry. Once it has been on for a few minutes, drop it into the saucepan with your water and let it simmer gently while you prepare everything else, this will help ensure that the cloves are all cooked through by the time you come to eat them.In the same oil, lightly fry your sliced potatoes. Remove and place over the rice, distributing the pieces evenly. Gently fry your green beans and when they look bright green and slick, add the grated tomato and white beans. Fry for a minute or two longer, then in goes the paprika for a quick swirl. Remove from the heat and pour over the potatoes and rice, spreading things evenly over the whole dish. Slice the remaining tomatoes thickly and place them on top of the other ingredients. Nestle the head of garlic in the middle and (optionally) place the sausage right next to it. Spoon your “picadillo” over everything. Sprinkle a bit of food colouring on top to get the Spanish yellow that people here prefer to white when it comes to rice.Now, hopefully, you will still have the right amount of water in your saucepan, and it will be boiling hot. If it looks as though some of it has evaporated, add a little. It’s important that the water be boiling when you add it to the dish so that the rice starts cooking immediately; otherwise, you might get a gluggy mess. So, carefully pour the hot water over your rice and slip it straight into your oven. Bake until the water has all been absorbed; depending on how hot your oven really is, this should take between 25 – 40 minutes.Let the rice cool for a few minutes before tucking in, or I promise you will burn the bejesus out of your mouth.

Serve with: sweet raw onion slices go beautifully on top, cold chocolate milk is a must for beach-goers, while at-homers could try a fresh young red.

Spanish Omelette (aka potato omelette)

Posted on August 10, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Spanish Omelette in Spain means potato omelette, with or without onion. Everyone has their own secrets for making one of the most fantastic omelettes ever, and discussions can get quite heated when it comes to whose is the best! Iaia always uses onion and can turn out a perfect tortilla with her eyes closed. I still need to keep mine open, especially with the flipping.
This dish is incredibly versatile as it can be consumed hot or cold, served as an appetiser, a main meal, a snack, in a roll, on a plate, in bite-sized squares on toothpicks, with tomato, with mayonnaise, with salad, at a picnic, a dinner party, as part of a buffet…need I go on?
The recipe here is for a large dinner-plate-sized omelette which will provide a good slice for 6-8 people. I used a stainless steel frying pan as it’s the only large pan I have, but I highly recommend using a non-stick pan instead.

What you need:
3 potatoes
1 onion
6 eggs
olive oil
salt
a non-stick frying pan

What you do:
Chop the potato and onion into chunky pieces, as you see above. Heat a generous amount of olive oil so that nothing sticks or burns (you can always drain any excess off before adding the eggs), and gently fry the onions for a minute or two before adding the potatoes. Iaia insists on covering the potatoes as they cook so that their edges become sort of fuzzy instead of sharp. This helps the egg stick to the totties later and gives you a much more attractive finish without any air holes between the potato and egg.Beat your eggs in a large bowl and add a good pinch of salt. Once the vegetables are cooked, but not falling to pieces, use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the egg bowl. Drain any excess oil from the frying pan, but remember you will need a healthy coating to stop any sticking (even in a non-stick pan). Once the pan is well heated again, pour the whole egg and vegetable mix in and move it gently around (without disturbing the edges) so that the omelette cooks evenly, but take care not to turn it into scrambled egg. You can cover a very thick omelette to help with the cooking but don’t walk away!
After a little while, you will have a browned bottom and edge, and curd-like centre. It is time to flip (for photos of this see the Spinach Omelette recipe). Take your pan off the heat and cover it with a plate. Wrap a tea towel over the top and base of the pan to avoid burning yourself, and grip firmly from either side. Flip with conviction, so the omelette flops out onto your plate in one piece. Put your pan back on the heat and slide your now raw-side-down omelette back into the pan to finish cooking. I like to use a spatula to tuck the edges under a little because it gives a lovely rounded edge; this is especially important if you are cooking a larger omelette.
The trick is now to cook the omelette to the ideal point – neither runny nor rubbery. Practice will show you what it feels like to the touch when it is ready. Turn out onto a plate and allow to cool (or not!) before eating.

Llescat – another summer table dish to share

Posted on July 1, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Llescat, which means “in pieces” is also known as esgarraet, which means “torn” and that is because you literally tear oven-roasted aubergine, peppers, onion and tomato into pieces to make this fruity, garlicky summer supper dish. It’s may seem a bit fiddly to get the skin off everything, but as long as your oven is hot enough, it shouldn’t be a problem. Careful when you open up the peppers – the steam inside burns!

What you need:
2 aubergines (eggplants)
2 greenish-red peppers
2 onions
4 prune tomatoes
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
best quality, fruity olive oil
salt

What you do:
First of all, put your oven at about 220ºC and give it time to heat up. While it is doing so, wash and dry the aubergines, peppers and tomatoes. Peel the onions and chop them in half. They take longer to cook than the other veggies, so you will also need to wrap the halves in a bit of foil. That way, the steam they create is trapped and helps them cook through in time. Put the other veggies in a baking tray and use your hands to rub olive oil over them until they glisten. Add the foil-wrapped onions to the tray and pop them into the hot oven for about 45 minutes, turning everything over about halfway through. Charring is good for flavour, but you don’t want anything to burn dry.Once cooked, place the aubergines, peppers and tomatoes into a deep bowl and cover with plastic film to cool for a bit. Leave the onions as they are to keep steaming in their foil. After about a quarter of an hour, gingerly pull the veg out and peel the skin off – it should come away very easily. Drain any excess liquid off, and then use your fingers to tear the flesh into thin strips. Unwrap your onions and tear them up as well. Season with salt and very finely chopped (or crushed) raw garlic to taste. Pour a generous dressing of olive oil over everything and then mix gently with tongs or a fork. It’s best to let the flavours soak into each other, so we usually prepare this the day before it’s to be eaten. It’s fine to store it in the fridge, but worth taking it out and letting it come to room temperature before forking it onto thick chunks of crusty baguette and devouring.Serve with: a summer spread of ensaladilla, beer-battered aubergines, sardines…and heaps of excellent bread

Bunyols (pumpkin doughnuts)

Posted on April 5, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Easter weekend almost always includes buñuelos, or pumpkin doughnuts, for us. Oscar’s auntie Herminia is the resident expert, and it is her hands that you can see doing all the hard work in this recipe.
I am not a huge fan of the little orange balls; without sugar, they are a bit bland and biting into granulated sugar sets my teeth on edge. However, they are a very popular treat here and most certainly part of Iaia’s year in the kitchen!
This recipe made about 90 little doughnuts, which sounds like a barbaric amount, but isn’t, especially when served to a table full of Valencians. Short work was made of these little blobs of pumpkiny, sugary sweetness on Easter Monday.

What you need:
800g boiled and drained (or roast) pumpkin flesh
about 80g fresh yeast
1 egg
about 750g plain flour
the cooking liquid from the pumpkin (or warm water if you use roast pumpkin)
1½ litres sunflower oil for frying (most of which can be reused later)

What you do:
In a large (really large) bowl or bucket, hand mix the crumbled fresh yeast, pumpkin and beaten egg. Add about 300g of flour and start working it into the orange pulp with energy. Once the first addition of flour is mixed in, keep adding bit by bit, alternating with small splashes of the cooking liquid until you have used about 750g of flour.The finished dough is really very soft, so you will end up adding quite a bit of liquid. There is no specific measurement, but the texture before the dough rises is similar to thick mud – the kind that squelches most beautifully between your toes. Cover the bowl with a tea towel (Iaia has asked me to point out that hers is from the Australia pavilion at the 1992 Expo Seville, before Oscar had met me) and set it aside for a couple of hours. You will be amazed at how much the mixture rises, all bubbly and spongy with the yeast!

And now comes the complicated bit…

Heat the oil in a large, deep pan. It can’t be too hot, or the doughnuts will burn on the outside and be gluggy in the middle, but it has to be hot enough to fry them quickly, so they don’t come out disgustingly oily. Herminia says that when you drop the test blob in, it should rise immediately to the surface and bubble satisfyingly without spitting. Easy to say – you’ll have to practice a bit to get it right!

To form the doughnuts, grab a fistful of lovely, squishy mix and squeeze it so that a walnut-sized blob spouts from between your thumb and forefinger. With the two first fingers of your other hand, which you should wet slightly with the leftover cooking water (or any warm water) to avoid sticking, scoop the blob off and immediately plunge the thumb of the scooping hand into the middle of the ball to form the hole. As you twist your wrist around, the mixture will threaten to drop off your fingers, but before it does, you will have deftly, and gently, spread your index and ring fingers and drop it into the hot oil. Repeat until the surface of your pan is full of bobbing buñuelos. You will get quicker as you practice.

Let the doughnuts brown for about 30 seconds before flipping them over. When they are evenly golden, they are ready to be removed from the oil with a slotted spoon and drained on kitchen paper. When draining, make sure you don’t pile them up on top of each other because they will stick and squish.

Once you’ve finished cooking (Herminia took about 20 minutes to do the whole batch), serve warm or cooled with a bowl of sugar for everyone to dip into. The cooked doughnuts can also be frozen in single layers and defrosted when needed. Microwave reheating is also possible if, unlike me, you have the technology.

Serve with: coffee

Iaia’s yoghurt cake

Posted on March 9, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

A simple sponge based on the yoghurt pot measure, which in Spain is 125ml. If you have bigger pots, you might need to add another egg and a bit more baking powder. I cooked this one last night, and it has already been quaffed by three teenage girls. I might also have had a piece or two myself.

What you need:
1 pot of natural yoghurt
1 yoghurt pot of sunflower seed oil
2 yoghurt pots of sugar
3 yoghurt pots of plain flour
1 sachet of baking powder (16g)
3 eggs
the zest of a lemon or an orange

What you do:
Heat your oven to 180ºC and line a 23cm round cake tin (spring-form makes it easier to get the cake out later). Pour the yoghurt into a small bowl and set aside so you can use the pot to measure the other ingredients. Mix the sugar and egg yolks together in a large mixing bowl, then add the yoghurt and oil, stirring until smooth and glossy. Sieve the flour and baking powder into the bowl pot by pot, stirring well but not over-beating. Add the zest and then whip up your egg whites and fold gently into the mix. Bake for 30-40 minutes (every oven is different) and then allow to cool completely before the slicing and gobbling.

Serve with: tea

Caldereta de rap (monkfish stew)

Posted on March 2, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

This is one of Iaia’s signature dishes. She tends to cook it for us on birthdays and we all love it, especially the thick sauce, which can be either scooped up with fresh bread or spooned up after mashing it into the potato chunks.

Fresh monkfish flesh is a lovely rosy pink. The frozen stuff does not taste the same, and Iaia refuses to use it. Try to buy smaller fish as their muscles are less fibrous and far more pleasant to eat. Leave some of the skin on if you don’t find it irksome, as this will act as a natural thickening agent for the sauce and enhance its sweet, fishy goodness.

Get the fishmonger to clean the fish but bring them home with the heads on, which you can then scissor off and freeze for the best fish stock ever. The cuts that go into the stew are the whole tail and the loin, both with the bone in.

Iaia swears by olive oil for just about everything and quite happily pours a good half litre into her pan to fry the potatoes. Once they are done, she siphons off about two-thirds of that oil and saves it for paella on Sundays.

What you need for 6:
About 850g fresh monkfish pieces
1 kg potatoes
2 pear tomatoes
2 onions
3-5 cloves of garlic
small bunch of parsley
50g toasted almonds
½ litre of oil for frying (Iaia uses olive)
sweet paprika
2 small chillies, whole*
750 ml good fish stock
flour for dusting the fish
salt and pepper to taste
*optional and to be taken out before the whole dish becomes mouth-numbingly hot!

What you do:
Finely dice the onion, slice the garlic, grate the tomato and chop the parsley. All of these ingredients will end up being blended, so don’t be too fussy about perfect knife work.

Cut the potatoes into chunks. Iaia has a special technique – she stops each cut about ¾ of the way through and then breaks the piece off, saying that this will stop the potato chunks from breaking up as they cook. It seems to work!

Heat your olive oil in a deep pan and fry the potatoes in batches until golden, but not necessarily cooked through. Iaia says she uses so much oil because you have to have enough to cover the potatoes so that there is no chance of them getting crushed and deformed by constant turning and stirring.

Once the potatoes are done, remove two-thirds of the oil and reheat. Season your fish well with salt and pepper and dust with flour before laying it gently into the hot oil to fry. You don’t need to cook the fish through; 2-3 minutes on each side is enough. When you remove the fish, place it directly into a wide, shallow, flameproof casserole dish, which is where you will cook and present the final dish. Distribute the fried potatoes evenly over the fish pieces.

In the same oil, lightly fry the sliced garlic and then add the parsley and onion, cooking until the onion is softened. Pour in your grated tomato and fry until you notice the mix thickening slightly as the water from the tomatoes evaporates. If you are using chillies, settle them into the mix now, but take them out before you blend! Just before you take off the heat, pop the teaspoon of sweet paprika in and give it all a quick stir.

Pour the tomato and onion mixture into a blender along with the whole toasted almonds and pulse to a thick paste. You can also do this with a stick blender, but avoid over-blending; texture is important here.

Pour this picadillo, or flavour base, over the fish and then add just enough stock to cover everything. Check for salt – fish can be tricky and very easy to over-salt, so it’s best to add small amounts throughout the process than try to rectify with a great handful at the end.

Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes, adding stock if you see that it gets too dry, aim for a thick gravy-like consistency.

Like most stews, this one is even better the day after it’s cooked, but it will also benefit from standing for half an hour or so before serving.

Serve with: fresh bread and your best bubbly.

Coquetes de cacau (peanut biscuits)

Posted on February 27, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

I think my husband Oscar’s most amusing claim to fame is that he was once the recipient of the most expensive peanut biscuit crumbs ever. We had moved to Australia, and back in Valencia, Oscar’s grandmother was fretting because she was convinced that without his favourite peanut crackers, her little Oscar would simply not be able to survive. So she made a huge batch and posted them to him. From Spain. In a box. Without bubblewrap.
I think the postage cost about 8,000 of the old pesetas, which is roughly 80 Australian dollars and considering that the crackers contain only flour, oil, a handful of peanuts and a splash of beer, and considering also that international post is not known for its delicacy of handling, you will understand what I mean by the most expensive crumbs ever.

Anyway, these savoury little biscuits are an essential part of this family’s diet – everyone loves peanuts, and everyone loves cocquetes de cacau. They are also quick and easy to make, which is good because they are in constant demand!

What you need (for about 12):
Half a glass of olive oil
Half a glass of beer
As much flour as it takes to form a soft dough
A good pinch of salt
Raw, shelled peanuts

What you do:
Heat your oven to 190ºC and lightly flour a baking tray. Pour the oil and beer into a mixing bowl and add a pinch of salt. Start stirring in flour, adding gradually until the dough comes together. It will be oily but not sticky and will form a lovely glossy little ball. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly for a few minutes. Then break off walnut-sized (ish) balls and squash flat on your palm to get a roundish, flattish disc.

Lay the discs onto the floured tray and prick them with a fork. Then decorate with your peanuts, give an additional sprinkling of salt and bake for about 15 minutes, though you really need to keep an eye on them to ensure they don’t burn!

Allow the biscuits to cool completely on a rack before crunching into one. If there are any left to store, do so in an airtight container for a couple of days at most.

Serve with: tasty cheese and beer

Fideuà

Posted on February 23, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Last week Iaia turned 70, and not realising that her two boys had planned a surprise party for her, she got all the ingredients together for a celebratory fideuà. Of course, there was no way we were going to let such deliciousness go to waste, so we had a second celebration today, and Eduardo, my father-in-law took the reins and talked me through the art of this fabulous dish.

The stock we used was homemade fish stock. Iaia often goes to the Friday market and buys a bag full of “stock stuff”, including monkfish bones, hake heads, little crabs and other odds and ends that are not otherwise sellable. She boils up a huge batch – maybe 10 or even 20 litres of stock – and freezes it in various-sized containers.

If you can be bothered, and if you can stand the stink, homemade stock is the best by far. Otherwise, buy the best quality fish stock you can find. Please, please don’t use stock cubes – they just don’t cut it for this sort of cooking, and I’m afraid Iaia would be horrified.

What you need for 9-10 people:
Uncooked langoustines and prawns (1 or 2 of each per person)
2 cleaned cuttlefish (or squid)
2 large onions
6 cloves of garlic
3 pear tomatoes
1 kg of fideos*
about 2½ litres of fish stock
250 ml of olive oil
1 tbsp sweet paprika
salt and pepper

*fideos are short lengths of thick, bucatini-like pasta with a hole running through them. If you can’t find them, try breaking spaghetti or bucatini into 1-inch pieces and adjust the cooking time and amount of stock to suit the pasta you use.

What you do:
Eduardo cooks over an open fire, which is difficult and can be dangerous. If you can get hold of a paella gas ring and paella pan, then I would use them. Otherwise, if you scale down the recipe, you could probably do a pretty good version for 2 or 3 people in a large frying pan over a gas flame.

Slice the cloves of garlic and finely chop the onions. Grate the tomatoes and discard the skins.
Cut your cleaned cuttlefish into short strips and get
everything else assembled within easy reach before
you start cooking.

Pour the oil into your chosen pan and heat well. Carefully place the langoustines into the hot oil and fry for a few minutes, turning them from time to time. Add the prawns and do the same, then haul all of the critters out and set them to one side. This is not so much to cook the crustaceans as to perfume the oil, and it does wonders for the final
flavour of the dish.

Lower the heat a little and fry the garlic and onion for a couple of minutes, or until they soften slightly. Add the cuttlefish. It’s a good idea to keep things moving throughout these early stages so that nothing catches and burns. Eduardo also mentioned that when he buys fresh cuttlefish or squid, he scalds it and then lets it dry before frying it,
apparently this stops it from spitting oil all over you, which is a good thing. After about 5 minutes, the cuttlefish will be opaque, and the onion and garlic well-softened. It is time to add the tomato and your first seasoning of salt. Keep pushing everything around the pan; burnt is bad.

(At this point, we had to take everything off the fire because my brother-in-law was late, and he was bringing the pasta. While we were waiting, we gave in to temptation and dunked some bread into the tomatoey base. It was superb. Be tempted.)Once the fideos arrive, pour them all into the hot sauce, adding the paprika at the same time. Give them a thorough swirl to coat them with the flavoursome mix, and then pour your stock in. It is a bit of a hit-or-miss calculation; experience seems to be the key. Eduardo used about two and a half litres today, and the pasta was perfect.

As the liquid comes to a boil, lay your langoustines and prawns over the top and check for salt. Allow to boil vigorously for the time stipulated on the packet – usually about 9 or 10 minutes. The liquid should have all but disappeared by then.

We don’t eat this one from the communal dish but serve it on plates and sit at the table. It’s important not to leave the pasta in the metal pan for too long, or it will take on a slightly metallic tang. If there is any leftover after your initial serving, pop it onto a large dish and bring it to the table – most people will want seconds anyway!

Serve with: bubbles or a cold, dry white

Iaia’s apple cake

Posted on February 2, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

I have always preferred to bake cakes with butter, very much in the English way. Yet it is not very common to see butter in Iaia’s fridge at all and she prefers to fatten her batter with sunflower seed oil, claiming that it has a lighter flavour and therefore does not interfere with the other ingredients so much. It certainly gives cakes a lighter texture, and all of the cake recipes here are really very good, even to my butter-loving taste buds. But, if you think butter is better, by all means, substitute.

Iaia always gives me measurements in glass or yoghurt-pot fulls, which is fine as long as you use the same size glass or pot for everything to maintain the right proportions. For this recipe, I have included her words plus a translation into ml and g.

What you need:
a generous half glass (150ml) of sunflower seed oil and the same amount of milk
a glass minus a finger (160g) of sugar
a glass and ¾ (250g) plain flour
4 eggs, separated
a sachet and a half (25g) of baking powder
a bit (half a tsp) of cinnamon
one large, or two small golden delicious apples

What you do:
Pop the oven on to 180ºC and line a 27cm spring-form cake pan. Beat your egg yolks and sugar together, then mix in the cinnamon. Add the milk and oil and beat well. Sift in the flour and baking powder, adding a little at a time and stirring until well mixed. Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks and fold carefully into the cake batter. Peel and quarter your apples and slice thinly so that the pieces will cook well. Pour the batter into your tin and arrange the apple slices on top. Iaia always does this in artful circles, but I was feeling slightly abstract this evening. You could also chop little apple dice and mix them into the batter for more appley-ness.
Sprinkle a little extra sugar over the apple and cook the cake for around 45-50 minutes (NB: Iaia uses a much wider, shallower tin and cooks her cake for just 30 minutes, but I don’t have one, so it takes longer). When you notice that the top is golden and you start to smell an appley, cakey, cinnamony yumminess wafting about the place, check with a skewer to ensure it is cooked all the way through.

As this cake is better when fully cooled, leave it in the tin for a good while, then carefully un-spring the base and dig in.

Coca de carabassa de La Borrassa (pumpkin sponge)

Posted on January 25, 2013 by lisajaneroberts

Pumpkin is not considered a savoury ingredient here and is never served as such. More often than not, the sweet round fruit is cut in half and roasted in a moderate oven for a couple of hours until caramelly and soft. Slices are then taken as if from a pie and eaten with a spoon for dessert. The cooked flesh is also incorporated into many typical sweets such as buñuelos (fried doughnut-style balls), or sponge cake.
This recipe comes from a neighbour of Iaia’s who is commonly referred to as La Borrassa. The intricate system of hereditary nicknaming that is an integral part of the small rural township here in Valencia never ceases to amaze (and amuse) me. This particular woman’s moniker comes from the fact that her surname is Borras. The “a” at the end denotes the fact that she is a female Borras. But it is not always that simple. I have heard conversations that (loosely translated) run something like this:

“Did you hear what happened to Rosa?”
“Which Rosa?”
“Um, you know Carmen the Duck (daughter of Pedro the Drake), whose sister married Joe the Monkey (son of John the Monkey)?”
“Do you mean the Duck who used to live next door to Harry Bread and Oil’s mum?”
“Yes, that’s her. Well, The Duck’s cousin, Rita the Crying Woman, is Rosa’s older sister.”
“Ah. So Rosa is the younger Crying Woman! Now I know who you mean. Her husband is Man’s Head the plumber!”…

Yes, well, in any case, here is the recipe for La Borrassa’s Pumpkin Sponge. Quantities are for a 37 x 25 cm baking tray, so fiddle them to suit your tin.

What you need:
250g roast pumpkin flesh
500g sugar
5 eggs, separated
400g plain flour
100ml sunflower oil
100ml milk
zest of 1 lemon
2 sachets (32g) baking powder

What you do:
Pre-heat your oven to 180ºC and line your baking tray/cake tin with parchment. Mix the egg yolks and sugar together, then mash in the pumpkin. I use a fork and stop when I see the sugar starting to liquefy. Whisk in the oil and milk, then gradually sift in the flour and baking powder, mixing thoroughly between each addition. Stir in your lemon zest, then whip up your egg whites until soft peaks form before folding them into the mix too. Don’t over-mix at this stage, or you will squash all the air out, and your cake will not be as springy and spongy as it should.

Pour the batter into your prepared tin and cook for at least half an hour, testing with a skewer once this time is up. Don’t be tempted to open the oven before the 30-minute mark or your sponge will collapse. Allow to cool in the tin…if you can bear the wait.

Iaia's kitchen

Traditional recipes from my Valencia mother-in-law

Category Archives: vegetarian