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

I was determined to watch a film this afternoon.

I'm making a cheesecake

Whisky and Honey Cheesecake with a Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients

For the biscuit base
150g Scottish Oatcakes
100g digestives
150g unsalted butter, melted
2 tsp runny honey

For the cheesecake filling
250g mascarpone (at room temperature)
250g cream cheese (at room temperature)
300ml double cream
3tsp runny honey
5-7 tbsp Scottish whisky (amount needed will depend on your taste)

For the raspberry sauce
250g raspberries (frozen at this time of year)
3 tsp runny honey
2 tsp raspberry vinegar (optional)
½ tsp arrowroot powder mixed with 1 tsp cold water

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4

To make the base, place the oatcakes and digestives into a food bag and bash with a rolling pin until they are fine crumbs (or you could use a food processor).

Place into a bowl and add the honey and the melted butter and mix well. Press into a 23cm springform cake tin using a metal spoon until firmly levelled. Place in the oven for 6 minutes until golden. Leave to cool thoroughly.

To make the cheesecake filling, place the mascarpone, cream cheese and honey into a large bowl and mix well together. Softly whip the cream in another bowl, then carefully fold the cream into the cheese mixture. Add the whisky to your taste. To do this begin by adding four tablespoons of whisky and taste, then add a tablespoon at a time until it tastes right to you. Spoon the mixture onto the cool base and level the top with a metal spoon. Place in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Make the sauce by placing the frozen raspberries into a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the honey and the raspberry vinegar (if you are using it) and cook the raspberries until they have become pulpy (about five minutes of cooking). Sieve over a large bowl, pressing the raspberries through with a spoon so that you only have seeds left in the sieve and a seedless sauce in the bowl. Pour the sauce back into the pan and add the arrowroot and water mixture. Bring to the boil and cook until slightly thickened. Pour into a jug and cool completely. Place in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

Just before serving, remove the sides of the cake tin and place the cheesecake onto a serving plate. Pour the sauce over the top of the cheesecake, spreading evenly and serve in thick slices with extra cream.


A couple of things.

I think this is my first ever cheesecake. I may have made one before but I'm not certain.

Although this is a whisky cheesecake I did think about making it with absinthe. And I would have if the absinthe bottle wasn't quite so empty. And bearing in mind this isn't cooked, the alcohol isn't going anywhere

I made this on a whim because I have some fancy cream cheese that needs using up, so I'm not making the sauce.

Well here's a turnip for the books. I might not have to do any cooking this weekend Well, not much. Bread and baked beans are a given, and I'm nearly cakeless, but I seem to have enough dinner to last several days. I usually try to plan dinner cooking so that I have enough to last through the work week and maybe a day into the weekend, but the dinners I made during the past two weekends sort of overran, and at the moment it looks like I have enough dinner to take me through at least another four or five days, so if I cook something else today, tomorrow and Wednesday, I'm set through to next weekend.

So, cake...

Oh, and I think I'll make flapjacks every weekend from now on too.

Cakeless? What am I talking about? I still have about three-quarters of that left, and a nearly-full tin of gulab jamuns

Well, since it's pancake day, and since I have some cooked pumpkin in the fridge, and since I also have some buttermilk that really needs to be used up, and even a spring of sage that's been in there too long, I thought I'd make these for breakfast.

Squash and sage pancakes
Makes 8-10 pancakes

Ingredients

300g cooked pumpkin or squash, mashed
150g buckwheat flour
5-6 sage leaves, finely shredded
2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ tsp nutmeg
260ml buttermilk
4 tbsp (2oz) melted butter, cooled
1 egg and 1 egg yolk

Method

Mix together the first seven ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Make a well in the middle. Whisk together the remaining three ingredients in a jug. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the pumpkin mixture, stirring as you go until just combined.

Warm a splash of oil into a non-stick frying pan and warm over a medium-high heat. Spoon small ladelfuls of the batter into the frying pan – you will probably need to do this in batches. Cook each pancake for about 3-4 minutes per side, until golden and cooked through. Keep the first batch warm while you cook the rest of the mixture.


The batter was far thicker than I thought it ought to be, and I was on the verge of another 'Lies, damn lies and ing recipes' rant, but they actually cooked pretty well They're a bit crumbly, but quite delicious (more sage next time I think). And it made exactly ten pancakes, so props to the writer for that

And it means I've already had one of my five-a-day

Proper pancakes (milk, flour, egg) this evening.

And I only ate five of them so that's breakfast tomorrow sorted too

I love blending kale into pancakes. It turns the mixture bright, bright green.

These ones didn't turn orange, as I hoped they might. I reckon that was because of the buckwheat. If they were made with regular old plain flour I think there might be a nice hue to them

Gonna try something new with the flapjacks this week - I'm adding a teaspoon of this http://shop.braswells.com/Red-Pepper-Jelly-13-oz-Old-Fashioned-Glass-2002.htm

It's a little sweet and it has a little bit of a kick to it, but not too much. I bought some ages ago when I was making a Hugh F-W recipe that called for redcurrant jelly (in a casserole of all things), which you can't get here, but I saw this on the shelf and figured it might serve the purpose. And it did, with added benefits, and I've had some in the cupboard ever since So now I'm melting it into the butter and golden syrup.

Mine came in a regular old jar, not a posh glass. And I don't think it cost anything like that much.

Ah, there we are http://shop.braswells.com/Red-Pepper-Jelly-105-oz-Jar-283.htm

And they do also make a redcurrant jelly http://shop.braswells.com/Red-Currant-Jelly-105-oz-Jar-271.htm

You were talking about cooking rice somewhere. I just found this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques/how_to_cook_perfect_rice

You've probably already seen it..

I bet I haven't... until now

I'm going to make a simnel cake this year. Never made one before, always wanted to.

It seems to me that pav bhaji (post 300) would make the perfect filling for samosas - potatoes, peas, cauliflower, onion, tomatoes plus spices - if you don't smoosh it to a near-paste the way it's supposed to be

Lawrence of Arabia

I've never seen it all the way through, and what I have seen hasn't been at the same sitting - and hour here, 90 minutes there.

So for those of you looking the food content in this post - I'm going to get all my baking out of the way in time to sit down for 3 hours and 47 minutes in front of the desert. And to that end...

Currant loaf.

I've made fruited breads before, but not this particular recipe. The dough for it seems almost identical to the one I use for my soft baps, but with twice as much yeast. I'm also replacing the currants with sultanas just because I like them and I have far more of those than currants right now, and next week I plan to make a simnel cake, which requires currants.

I ought to mention that this recipe is coming from an old 1970s Times Cookbook which LighthouseGirl very kindly sent me a few weeks ago to replace the one I stupidly got rid of when I was getting ready to leave Blighty more than 16 years ago

Well gorblimey. I'm quite astonished to find that not only does Bryan Pringle (one of my favourite comic actors) have a bit part in Lawrence of Arabia, he utters the very last line of the entire three hour and 47 minute epic: "Home, Sir."

Simnel cake is cooling on the rack, not yet marzipanned. That'll have to wait for next week. In the meantime it'll be tightly wrapped in foil.

With the delicious aroma that's wafting around the kitchen of Castle Gosho right now I find myself one question...

Why is it so bloody long since I last made a fruit cake?