h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've had a good and a bad morning. The bad first.

I think I mentioned a few months ago that I'd found another place where I can buy the 2lb boxes of loose tea that, up to now, I've been getting at that Indian food shop that's a pain in the fundament to get to on the bus. Well, I'm running low on tea, so this morning I went there to load up. They don't sell it any more That puts me in a bind because I may, or may not, have enough tea to last me until this time next week, and I don't have half a day to spare taking the bus to and from the Indian place It looks like I might have to spend four times the price (per oz) on Yorkshire Tea at the foodie supermarket, which I wasn't planning on going to this week.

And the good.

The place I went to this morning (Spanish word for 'party', BG) is relatively easy to get to compared to the Indian shop, but the way the buses are scheduled I have to either run in, grab what I need and rush out again, or spend 40 minutes killing time before the next bus back home. I recently noticed though that there's a DIY store next to it, and I started wondering what I might need there. And then I thought "Ooh, an American fitting for that lamp I brought over with me 16 years which has a British fitting and which I haven't used since the last bulb blew because I had to buy the bulbs from a specialist place that sells US-voltage bulbs with a British bayonet fitting and they have to special order them and they're expensive and the place is way up in north Austin and wouldn't it be so much better if I could just use an ordinary bulb in it."

And now I can
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZGcsppU8AAudqX.jpg:large
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZGcxeNVAAAuQff.jpg:large

That's quite a lamp.

You won't find anything like that at our big box stores. At least not made from plastic.

I've had it more than 30 years. It was heavily reduced for some reason, and I may well have bought it even if it hadn't been. I think it's delightful. My Michigander g/f at the time didn't care for it at all

I might not have been able to get this morning, but I did pick up some McVitie's Digestives, so I can make this (and use up some more of that Camp Coffee So it looks like I will have to go to the foodie supermarket, to get ameretti.

Coffee mascarpone cheesecake

Ingredients

75g unsalted butter
100g digestive biscuits
50g amaretti biscuits

For the filling
3 tbsp instant coffee granules
3 tbsp hot water
500g mascarpone
125g light brown soft sugar
3 tbsp cornflour
2 tsp vanilla extract
A pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1 tbsp cocoa powder, for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4. Melt the butter over a low heat while you crush the biscuits to a fine rubble in a large bowl. Stir the butter into the biscuits until the powder holds together in clumps when squeezed. Press the mixture into a 20cm round spring-form cake tin, packing it firmly under the back of a spoon. It’s important to properly compact the mixture otherwise rogue crumbs will float upwards through the cheesecake mixture during cooking, pockmarking the dessert’s surface.

Bake the base for 10 minutes, keeping a close eye on it, to make sure that the biscuits don’t burn. It should be just about firm.

Leave the base to cool slightly while you prepare the filling mixture, and turn the oven down to 275°F/140°C/gas mark 1. This might seem like too low a temperature to bake with, but it’s this long, slow cook that’ll give the cheesecake a perfectly smooth texture. You can achieve a similar result by baking the cheesecake in a water bath, but I’ve had too many disasters with flooded cheesecakes to sincerely be able to recommend that method.

Dissolve the coffee granules in the hot water then set aside to cool slightly. Stir the mascarpone with the sugar and cornflour in a large bowl until smooth and lump-free. Add the vanilla extract and salt. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well between each addition. Finally, mix in the cooled coffee.

Pour the cheesecake mixture over pre-baked base and bake for 1–1¼ hours: be patient with it, give the cheesecake as long as it takes for it to just about set. When lightly jiggled, it should barely shimmy at its centre and be firm at the edges. If you overcook it, waiting for it to be perfectly solid all over, it’ll be more likely to crack as it cools.

Leave the baked cheesecake to cool in its tin before gently unmoulding and chilling. Just prior to serving, lightly dust a little cocoa powder over the top.

Have you tested that recipe? It sounds irresistable.

Not yet, I found it a few days ago. I might wait a week or two to make it. There's another place, about a ten-minute walk from Castle Gosho where I can go for tea but they only have 1lb boxes, and I stopped going there for a long time because the people (it's a little independently owned deli) couldn't care whether they served you or not. But they do have a pretty good range of international foods (including things like Branston Pickle, Bird's Custard, Golden Shred, McVitie's), and I have a feeling I've seen ameretti in there.

oo, that sounds so tasty

Talkin gof tea, we've discovered (sp?) - dimbula recently lose tea Mind, I'm still maxing it out on not tea teas, slike fennel and jasmine and peppermint and stuff thesedays as well as the ordinary Indian style teas

I've never heard of Dimbula, until I just looked it up, but I love Ceylon tea. It has such character.

its got a loverly taste... not too affette err, afette err effette a flavour, yet delicate try some if you see it about!

I will

What I won't be doing is making the coffee cheesecake though. Blackberries (organic) were on sale at the food co-op today, so I'm making this instead. The typos aren't mine - it's from the Grauniad.

Blackberry anise upside-down cake

Ingredients

250g blackberries
175g light brown soft sugar
150g unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
30ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 star anise
50g wholemeal flour
100g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp cinnamon
A pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4. Grease a 20cm round loose-bottomed cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Halve the blackberries. Sprinkle 2 tbsp sugar over the lined base of the tin, then arrange the blackberry halves on top, cut side up, filling every gap.

Cream the butter with the remaining sugar then stir in the eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Use a pestle and mortar or coffee grinder to crush the star anise until you're left with plenty of powder among the fragments of stubborn husk. Sift out the star anise debris and add the powder to the butter mixture.

In a separate bowl, stir together the flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and saltrest of the ingredients. Add this to the wet ingredients and fold lightly together, stirring no more than is necessary. Spoon the batter on top of the blackberries and level it out.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until well-risen and springy to the touch. As soon as it's cooked, turn it out on to a wire rack and peel back the baking parchment to reveal the blackberries embedded in the top. Serve with softly whipped cream.

Hmm. I'd like to try that. We have blueberries on offer at our supermarket this week, I could substitute those. But I don't have a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder. I do have some ready-grated aniseed, but I don't know how old it is or if it still has any flavour left in it....

I made it yesterday but I haven't tried it yet - I'm still working my way through last week's cherry cake But when I do I'll let you know if it's worth going out to buy more aniseed. I added a little allspice to mine because I had to increase the ingredients by 50% to fit my cake tin (more cake - oh dear how sad never mind ) and I didn't think it would be possible to cut one star anise in half... although I suppose I could have put two in and left the cinnamon out.

And this is what it looks like
http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZPwKz7U8AEnTST.jpg:large

I probably could have squoze a few more blackberries on the top.

Incidentally, it took a damn sight longer than 25-30 minutes to cook. Almost twice that before the skewer came out clean. At 25 minutes it was still wobbling.

Well, it *was* a cake and a half.

Thing is, I don't think I really needed to increase the quantities that much. The recipe calls for a 20cm cake tin, which Duck Duck Go reliably tells me is just short of 8", but my smallest round tin is 9¼". I know things get a bit exponential when it comes to increasing the volume of a shape like a cylinder or a sphere (a small increase in diameter can mean a surprisingly big increase in volume), but I really had to do it by 50% because there are two eggs in the recipe (I suppose I could have beat an egg, put in half, and then used the rest to add to a few more eggs for scrambled eggs on toast next morning ).

But even though I did increase everything by 50%, and even though it took so much longer to cook, it still came out thinner than I was expecting. And it did rise, quite a bit. But when I put it in the tin it really didn't look like enough cake mix.