Chocolate and Beetroot Cake - Abel and Cole recipe

This is a really nice one...

Serves 8, but I cut it into 12 because I'm -mean-.  You will need:-

• 200g beetroot, cooked, peeled and pureed (I roasted it for an hour, the skin just peels off)
• 200g butter at room temperature
• 125g plain flour (I used wholemeal and sifted out the bran)
• 150g dark plain chocolate roughly chopped
• 3 eggs
• 150 caster sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• pinch of sea salt - crushed finely
• hulled and finely ground cardamom (optional)
• 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

Preheat the oven to 180C - while this is happening put the chocolate and beetroot in an oven-proof bowl in the oven to melt the chocolate.  It doesn't take long so be careful as it's easy to burn chocolate.


 Fold the chocolate and beetroot together, add the ginger (and cardamom if you're using it).

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

Separate the eggs and whisk the egg yolk, butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy.

Whisk the whites until stiff and meringue-like.

Gently fold the yolk mix into the flour.

Then fold in the egg white mix, 1/3 at a time.

Gently fold in the beet-choc mix.

Grease an 18.5cm / 7" cake tin and lightly dust with flour to coat.

Add the cake mix.

Dust with the bran left over from the sifted flour if you used wholemeal flour.

Then bake in the oven until a skewer comes out cleanly - should be between 50-70 minutes depending on your oven.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a rack to finish cooling.

 
The cake will be fudgey on the inside...

 

Abel and Cole give an optional frosting of:-

• 100g mascarpone
• 200g full fat cream cheese
• 75g icing sugar
• 1tsp finely grated ginger

Mix it all up and then spread over the cake.  I decided not to as it should be moist enough without and I'm not keen on -that- much sugar and there's plenty in the cake already.

Abel and Cole

Fondantfitness asked a little while back, on a post of a recipe where almost everything was from Abel and Cole, if I use Abel and Cole much.  Well.

In November last year, I decided it'd be nice to give their organic veg box a try on a special offer where if you bought 3 boxes, one per week, they'd give you the fourth one for free.  I'd heard good things about the quality of their fruit and veg and although the perception was that they might be a bit expensive, I wanted to get good quality, tasty food where I have some idea of what's been used to grow it, where it's come from etc.  The fact that we throw away, on average, pretty much no food at all (and I really mean that, it's a bad month if I've had to throw even one item of food away), means that we can afford to buy better quality, more expensive ingredients as there's no waste compared with a lot of people.  Buuuuut, Abel and Cole aren't more expensive.  Not really.

So we had a couple of boxes.  And with the 3rd box, we got a free half dozen of eggs.  Which were really tasty.  So a few weeks later I added eggs in to the regular veg box order.  And I set the preferences to "I don't like potatoes" as we rarely eat potatoes.  And then we got some free bread.  Which was OK, but we eat very little bread, so.  I think there was some fish on special offer one week shortly after that, so I bought some.  And it was glorious!  So I bought some more.  Now we get all of our fish from Abel and Cole.  It is more expensive than Ocado, but it's tasty and, even better, where in a normal supermarket 2-pack of fish, the portions will be different sizes even by a little bit the Abel and Cole ones are -identical- every single time.

From there, with the odd other freebie here and there exposing us to new things, including the best ever one where we got the Abel and Cole Cookbook (which is almost my bible these days),  we got more and more meat and fish from Abel and Cole, culminating in an unforgettably good bone-in sirloin roast for the Christmas period.  We now get 80% of our vegetables from them (not lettuce as we need it to be iceberg and long lasting, with a once-weekly delivery that doesn't work for us), all of our fish, meat and eggs and the occasional herbs, cupboard goods etc.  It's all really good stuff, sometimes more expensive, sometimes not, but always worth it.  Always flavoursome.  And it's got me out of boring, habitual cookery, educated us to new and delicious vegetables (jerusalem artichoke is -amazing-!  kohlrabi... interesting and makes a good coleslaw.  black salsify - it's a black stick, but fabulous texture and flavour).  We're getting buffalo quite easily now and game is easily available.  We're eating better, more varied, more exciting food that's in season; getting more creative in the kitchen without huge amounts of extra effort.

Yes.  I use Abel and Cole a lot.  A -lot-.  And they're great.  Check out the recipes I've been through.

Omega-oils-tastic salad!

Went a bit nuts with the Omega fatty acids with this dinner...

 

Omega-tastic salad; serves 1 (easily scales up) - (763kcals - 42g protein, 45g carbs, 46g fat, 2.3 fruit and veg)

• Mixed oriental leaves (Abel and Cole) - a good handful (40g)
• Smoked salmon trimmings - half a pack (60g)
• Red salad potatoes (Abel and Cole) - a decent portion (175g)
• Red onions (Abel and Cole) - quarter of a small one, finely chopped (25g)
• Jerusalem Artichokes (Abel and Cole) - a couple of small ones (40g)
• Food Doctor Omega seeds - 1 heaped tbsp (25g)
• Mixed bean sprouts (Abel and Cole) - a couple of heaped tbsp (25g)
• Free range eggs (Abel and Cole) - 2, hardish boiled
• Extra Virgin olive oil - a good couple of lugs (10ml)
• Fresh lemon juice - juice half a lemon
• Mayonnaise - a good heaped tbsp (30g)
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Cut into bite-sized chunks the potatoes and artichokes (hopefully some are small enough to leave hole).
2. Boil the potatoes and artichokes to firm, but cooked.  Drain and set aside to cool a little.
3. Boil the eggs, drain and set aside to cool a little before peeling the shells.
4. Finely chop the onion.
5. Put the mayonnaise and half the lemon juice in a bowl. Add the onion and mix.
6. Add the warm potatoes and artichokes to the mix and the heat of the potatoes will help the dressing mix to coat them well.
7. Lay the salad leaves in a wide bowl.  Sprinkle the bean sprouts and seeds on top.  Add the salmon trimmings to cover about 50% of the surface, mostly in the middle of the bowl.
8. Drizzle the olive oil over the surface and the rest of the lemon juice and season with black pepper.
9. Cut the eggs in half and arrange around the edges.
10. Spoon the potatoey mix onto the centre of the bowl and season again with black pepper.
11. Serve immediately.

Curry for one (or two) - it's quick!

Curry from scratch does not need to take ages.  It tastes fabulous, you don't need jars of paste or sauce and you know exactly what you've put in it...

First, make sure you have cooked base protein.  In this case some Abel and Cole cubed buffalo, onion, tomato and courgette:-

Mr TOTKat cooked this in a batch a while ago.  Sweat a chopped onion, add 500g cubed buffalo (or beef or lamb), once browned, add the chopped tomato (a couple of large ones) and (a couple of medium) courgette and cook the meat through.  Divide up into (4) portions and chill/freeze.

You could use pretty much any meat or poultry, fish won't work so well but you could try some chunky white fish.  Big, meaty Portobello mushrooms, chick peas, butter beans or tofu can be used in place of the meat.  As it's not a creamy curry, nuts would probably not be very nice.  Veg could be lots of different things; courgettes, peppers, onion, cauliflower, tomatoes, aubergine, squashes, sweet potato, carrot... probably not cabbage or any softish leafy vegetables though pak choi or chard may work, it's worth a try. I can't imagine swede or parsnip would work so well though.

Then you need to make your paste (this makes enough for 2 people and you can keep it in the fridge for a day or three in a sealed container.

• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 red chilli
• a chunk of ginger to taste
• 2 tsps light oil

Roughly chop the onion.

Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan, then crush in a pestle and mortar with some salt crystals until you have a fineish powder.

Roughly chop the chilli and put all the paste ingredients into a container and blend into a paste with a hand blender.

Heat the paste in a non-stick pan.

I decided to add some extra tomato; chopped up a couple and blended them to a smoothish paste.  Then added that to the curry paste.  Cook for a little while and add slugs of water if it starts to get too thick or stick.

Add the pre-cooked meat and veg, add a little water if needed and make sure the whole thing is heated thorougly.

Serve and eat with rice, toasted pitta, curried potato or just by itself.  (By itself, 455kcals, 62g protein, 28.5g carbs, 11.5g fat, 7g fibre and 6.2 portions of fruit and veg - 600kcals with a toasted wholemeal pitta bread).

Start to finish, that took about 35 minutes including 10 minutes preparation time.

Anyone would think I worked for them...

Abel and Cole.  Like.  Seriously.

We just had a glorious Saturday evening meal, all from Abel and Cole and all gorgeous, tasty and fabulously good ingredients.  Lamb loin chops with "Hosanna Hey Sanna Pommes Anna" potatoes and braised fennel.  Recipes by Abel and Cole.  (524kcals per person, 34.2g protein, 19.5g carbs, 32.9g fat, 2.4 portions fruit and veg - all based on 2 people sharing)

Potatoes:-

• 200-250g largeish salad potatoes
• 30ml (2 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
• fresh rosemary (finely chopped)
• salt and pepper

Pre-heat your oven to 200C.  Using a potato peeler, finely slice the potatoes

Finely chop the rosemary

Slightly overlapping on each layer, layer the slices of potato with a sprinkle of herbs, seasoning and oil between each layer, in a ramekin per person

When the final layer is complete, press down firmly and cover with greaseproof paper

Bake in the over for 20 minutes, then remove the greaseproof paper and cook for the final 10-15 minutes uncovered.

While the potatoes are in the oven...

• 20g or so of butter (a good knob)
• 1 bulb of fennel, trimmed and sliced into 1/2" thick slices
• chicken stock

Melt the butter in a pan or over-proof dish that can go on direct heat

Saute the fennel slices in the melted butter (I did these one slice at a time in a small Le Creuset pot, then added them all back in after the initial searing in butter)

Cook for around 5 minutes in the butter with a lid on and then add the chicken stock.  Braise for a further 20-25 minutes on a medium to low heat until the fennel is tender.

Then, while all that is bubbling away...

• 4 lamb loin chops (around 425-475g total)
• seasoning (salt, pepper and any left over chopped rosemary)

Pre-heat a griddle or frying pan then add the lamb chops and cook until they feel about the same as the consistency of the heel of your left hand between finger and thumb of your right hand whilst your left thumb is pressed against your left middle or ring finger(*).  This should take about 5 minutes each side.

By this point, everything should have cooked so you can serve it all, having tossed the fennel in the stock one more time.

And it will be GLORIOUS!

* - I can't get hold of the original "how to cook perfect steak" page on Abel and Cole, so here's an image of the cached version to explain this...

Flaming salad!

(...or how I made a very pretty salad with lots of reds and oranges in it.)

We had a load of peppers (190g) and tomatoes (300g) from Abel and Cole that needed using up, so I roasted the peppers in the oven with olive oil and fresh thyme and rested them in the fridge overnight in olive oil.  Next day, I'd decided to make a salad with them so fished out the tomatoes and some left-over baby new potatoes (120g) from a previous dinner, chopped it all up together and added lots of Spanish chorizo (50g) (thank you Ocado for some really nice stuff on that front - soft, sweet and nicely flavoured with lots of paprika) and a dash of lemon juice, black pepper and a pinch of salt.

And look how it turned out...

Sooo pretty!  And so tasty with amazing quality ingredients from Abel and Cole.  The only ingredient not from them was the chorizo.

Buffalo stew

Laverstoke Park do quite a trade in buffalo meat these days and Abel and Cole shifts a lot of it to homes around the South East.  So sometimes it's on special and I get it in the weekly delivery from Abel and Cole as I prefer to get meat and fish when it's on special.  Recently I got a couple of packs of diced buffalo and made a huge stew in the Star Chef with them.

Buffalo Stew
Serves 4 (397kcals, 57g protein, 19.6g carbs, 6.2g fat, 3g fibre, 1.5 fruit & veg)

• 1 largeish or 2 small (250g) onions
• 1 tablespoon (30g) wholemeal flour
• 1 beef stock cube
• 2 to 4 (200g) carrots
• 1 tablespoon 15ml olive oil
• 2 packs (1kg) buffalo, cubed braising steak
• 1 tsp fresh thyme
• 1 tsp/ fresh rosemary
• 4 fat cloves garlic
• 20g cranberry sauce/cherry jam/any sweet and tangy preserve (not citrus marmalade)
• 200ml red wine

 
Chop the onions, slice the carrots, finely slice the garlic and chop the herbs.

Sweat the onions and brown the meat.

Sprinkle the flour over and stir a bit, then add everything else and cook on low/in a slow cooker for 3-6 hours.

Serve with root veg mash (or rice, or couscous, or a hunk of bread) and eat.