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Victoria Sponge with Chia Jam and Coconut Cream

I made a disastrous version of this gorgeous cake on the telly here.Queen Vic would have turned in her grave. I was having too much craic in the kitchen with Lucy Kennedy.

Chiamania

When you need to recharge your superhuman powers, or your Bridge skills, try chia.

These weensy seeds are members of the omega-3 plant squad. Why such excitement? Omega-3 is a good fat, the kind that nourishes your noggin and not your waistband.

Our brain cells are primarily composed of fat. So too are many of our neurons (think of an internal electricity grid that lights up our thoughts). There is strong scientific evidence linking good brain health with omega-3-rich diets.

Most research involves controlled studies using omega-3 supplements. But what’s the point in necking expensive pharma-bullets when you can be merrily tucking into chia jam every morning?

Find black or white varieties in your local health food store and savvy grocers. Chia may initially seem expensive, but these tiny seeds actually swell to eight times their volume as soon as liquid touches their orbit.

Apart from being a tasty insurance policy against brain-drain, chia seeds deliver a surprisingly generous dose of calcium and iron too. Great food for mama and bump.

Victoria Sponge with chia jam and coconut cream

Not the traditional butter, cream, sugar and bleached-flour variety, this Victoria Sponge will make your taste buds fist-bump and your health insurer applaud.

Make it for a group of Brits, and you’ll have friends for life.

For the sponge:

1/2 cup / 65g coconut flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup / 25g ground almonds

Good pinch of sea salt

4 medium (not large) eggs

2 tablespoons natural or soya yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

just under 1/2 cup / 120ml unscented coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup / 125ml light agave, brown rice syrup or honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the chia jam filling:

2/3 cup / 125g frozen raspberries, defrosted

1-2 tablespoons chia seeds

Squeeze of lime (optional)

3 dates, pre-soaked and stones removed (optional jamminess)

4 tablespoons / 75g CoYo coconut milk yoghurt or thick Greek yoghurt

To make the chia jam, let the raspberries thaw first. Then whiz them in a food processor or hand-held blender with the chia seeds, lime and licky-sticky dates. Allow the chia seeds to thicken the jam for 40 minutes before using.

For the sponge, you’ll need to oil an 8×8 (20cm x 20cm) brownie pan, or a 10-inch (25cm) circular tin, and set aside. It’s also important to preheat your oven to 170 degrees, 150 for fan-assisted or 325 Fahrenheit. I find the best oil to use for greasing is unscented (as opposed to extra virgin and raw) coconut oil. Unscented coconut oil won’t turn the edges of the sponge infuriatingly dark. The meat of the coconut is lightly steamed before pressed, in order to remove the strong coconuty aroma.

Take out two large bowls. In the first bowl, sift your flour with the baking powder together. Stir through the ground almonds and some salt.

In the next bowl, whisk the eggs and yoghurt together, adding a splash of vanilla extract. Then pour in the melted coconut oil and sweetener, stirring vigorously to prevent lumps. Gradually drizzle in the lemon juice, whisking all the while.

Now, let the wet ingredients party with the dry ingredients, beating to prevent any cheeky lumps.

Scrape this sumptuously sticky mess into your prepared tin. Level with a spatula. Then bake for approximately 20 minutes, depending on the circumference of your tin (I use my 8×8 brownie tin). The deeper the tin is, the longer time it needs. If you leave it in longer than 30 minutes, I will throw a tantrum.

Remove the sponge from the oven, and admire. Let it cool for 60 minutes before ejecting from the tin. Then carefully slice the sponge in half (of course you could always double the recipe, and make two tiers instead). Smother great big clouds of coconut yoghurt over one half. Parachute a little chia jam on top of this. Then crown with the other half of the sponge.

Serve on a plate with many napkins and giddy fingers. And a side of Sinatra.

May 19, 2014

Breakfast, Treats & Snacks, Videos

cooking supergrains – amaranth

Amaranth is another one of those supergrains that have Hollywood glitterati genuflecting. It has serious nutritional gravitas, rivaling quinoa as the number one seed. Think of a white poppy seed. Small, but mighty.

Amaranth has more muscle than wheat, clocking in four times the amount of calcium and twice as much iron. And with generous stores of lysine, you can kiss toodleloo to coldsores.

Not bad for half a cent per gram.

A caveat for the cook: bananas used in this recipe need to be over-ripe. Any green areas on the banana skin means they have not ripened fully and will turn the recipe bitter. Look for older bananas with blackened sweet spots.

1 cup whole amaranth, rinsed well

1.5 cups water

¼ teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons maple or brown rice syrup

3 tablespoons tahini or almond butter

2 large eggs, beaten

½ litre soya, hemp or oat milk

½ cup raisins

2 very ripe bananas, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon rapadura or coconut blossom sugar and cinnamon

Preheat oven to 165 C / 325 F /145 fan-assisted.

In a small saucepan with a tightly fitted lid, bring the water, salt and pre-rinsed amaranth to a soft boil. This means a gentle putter rather than a violent bubble that will blow the lid off and scare the bejaysus out of your budgie.

Cook for 15-25 minutes or until the water is fully absorbed. Amaranth is not a dry, fluffy grain when cooked. Expect something that looks like a gluey couscous. Keep on cooking until this is achieved!

While the amaranth is doing its thing, prep the rest of the gear.

Blend the maple syrup and nut butter together until smooth. Then add the eggs. Pour this mixture into your choice of milk and add the raisins, chopped banana and vanilla.

Remove the amaranth from its source of heat, stir briskly and add the milky mixture to the saucepan of cooked amaranth. Give it all a gentle stir.

Pour and scrape your pudding mix into a medium-sized pie dish, about the size of a magazine page. You’re aiming for a pudding at least 1-inch in depth but no more than 2 inches. Pyrex rectangular glass dishes give the best result for custardy puds like this one.

Cook for 40 minutes at 165 C in a conventional oven. It should wobble slightly in the centre when removed. Halfway through cooking, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on top. Rapadura is a unique extra-fine sugar made from evaporating sugar cane juice. It is caramel in colour with a deep mineral taste to it. Find it in all good food stores. Pretty pricey, but worth experiencing.

April 27, 2014

Lunchbox, Salads & Suppers, Sides, Vegan &/or Raw, Videos

Cooking Supergrains – Quinoa

It’s much easier to cook quinoa than pronounce it.

Once you give this super-grain a shot, you’ll be outraged couscous ever seduced you.

Cooking Quinoa – a 60 second demo from Susan Jane White on Vimeo.

What’s so snazzy about quinoa? Here’s the jazz from a post last January with a recipe for black garlic quinoa, and another for smoked paprika and cumin quinoa. Below, I’m including the recipe for Beginner’s Quinoa from the video above, to help get you started.

1 cup quinoa
1 & 1/2 cups stock or well-seasoned water
8–12 juicy baby tomatoes, halved
flesh of 1 avocado, roughly chopped
1 mild chilli, de-seeded and sliced
handful of rocket, chives, cress or coriander, roughly torn

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
sea salt flakes and a few twists of the black pepper mill

Wash the quinoa very, very well in a sieve under running water. Some grains have a pesky bitter coating.

Transfer to a heavy-based saucepan. Bring to the boil with the stock or well-seasoned water and cook for 12–15 minutes with a lid on. The longer you cook it, the softer and stickier it becomes. If you prefer it this way, add a little extra time and water.

Take the pan off the heat as soon as the quinoa has drunk up all the water. Let it sit on the countertop and fluff up in the residual heat of the lidded saucepan.

Leave the quinoa to cool a little before stirring through the remaining ingredients. Adding olive oil too early often makes it soggy. Give the black pepper mill a few twists and add a smattering of sea salt flakes.

You could pack the quinoa into an empty container for lunch at the office. I use the cardboard ones from my local deli’s salad counter. They seem far snazzier than my manky old Tupperware.

Some rice cookers have a special ‘grain’ setting that works perfectly for quinoa. Mine is the Tefal 8-in-1 rice cooker. I measure 2 Tefal cups of quinoa, and fill the basin to level 2. Press grain setting. Perfectly fluffy quinoa in 45 minutes.

April 4, 2014

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Victoria Sponge with Chia Jam and Coconut Cream

For the sponge:

For the chia jam filling:

cooking supergrains – amaranth

1 cup whole amaranth, rinsed well

1.5 cups water

¼ teaspoon sea salt

3 tablespoons maple or brown rice syrup

3 tablespoons tahini or almond butter

2 large eggs, beaten

½ litre soya, hemp or oat milk

½ cup raisins

2 very ripe bananas, chopped

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon rapadura or coconut blossom sugar and cinnamon

Cooking Supergrains – Quinoa

1 cup quinoa 1 & 1/2 cups stock or well-seasoned water 8–12 juicy baby tomatoes, halved flesh of 1 avocado, roughly chopped 1 mild chilli, de-seeded and sliced handful of rocket, chives, cress or coriander, roughly torn

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion sea salt flakes and a few twists of the black pepper mill

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1 cup quinoa
1 & 1/2 cups stock or well-seasoned water
8–12 juicy baby tomatoes, halved
flesh of 1 avocado, roughly chopped
1 mild chilli, de-seeded and sliced
handful of rocket, chives, cress or coriander, roughly torn

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
sea salt flakes and a few twists of the black pepper mill