Category Archives: Recipes

Basically I love food and I love cooking so the idea behind the blog was to write down recipes that I had tried and those we’d liked and would want to eat again. As John began producing more and more food on the huerta, I wanted to make keep a record of recipes for certain foods that we could cook again in the years to come.

Coffee and Walnut Cake in the Pressure Cooker

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I’ve recently been experimenting with cooking cakes in the pressure cooker. As we live off-grid, low-wattage electric ovens are only possible on sunny days and with all the rain we’ve been having over the last few days, this hasn’t been an option. So far, the cakes cooked in a pressure cooker have been a success and they come out cooked and moist.

So far, I have cooked an orange cake, brownies and today I wanted to see what would happen when I baked the walnut and coffee cake that I’d previously made in the mini electric oven.

I used a round 7 inch cake tin and lined it with a silicone BBQ liner that I’d cut out specially. This means that you don’t have to grease or butter the tin before making the cake and means you lift it out easily once it’s cooked so that it can cool.

 

COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE

Coffee and Walnut Cake

CAKE INGREDIENTS

  • 65g walnut halves, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon coffee
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 1 teaspoons baking powder
  • a pinch salt
  • 115g butter, softened
  • 115g brown sugar
  • 2 medium eggs

TOPPING INGREDIENTS

  • 2 teaspoons instant coffee
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 12 walnut halves

METHOD

  1. Heat a frying pan and gently roast the chopped walnuts and the walnut halves.
  2. Prepare some strong coffee. You will need 1 tablespoon for the cake. You can also use this to substitute for the boiling water and instant coffee for the icing.
  3. Grease and line the cake tin.
  4. Coarsely grind 30g of the chopped walnuts in a food processor.
  5. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  6. Beat in the eggs.
  7. Gently fold in the ground walnuts, chopped walnuts, flour, baking powder and salt.
  8. Pour the mixture into the cake tin.
  9. Put 2 cups of boiling water in the pressure cooker and place a silicone mat on the bottom.
  10. Gently lower in the cake tin.
  11. Bring to pressure and then turn down the heat and cook for 30 minutes.
  12. Turn off the heat and leave for 10 minutes.
  13. Quickly release the pressure.
  14. Remove the tin from the cooker and leave to cool for ten minutes.
  15. Lift out the cake onto a baking rack and leave to cool.
  16. Prepare the topping by mixing 2 tablespoon of boiling water and the icing sugar.
  17. Ice the cake with the topping and decorate with the walnuts halves.

Sausage Pasta

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This is a recipe for sausage pasta.

SAUSAGE PASTA

INGREDIENTS

    • 1 medium yellow onion, diced
    • 2 stalks of celery, finely diced
    • 1 carrot, diced
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 500g pork sausage meat, split into small pieces
    • 1/2 cup of white wine
    • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
    • 1 teaspoon ground fennel
    • a pinch chilli
    • 1 can tomatoes
    • 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
    • pasta
    • parsley
    • Parmesan cheese

METHOD

  1. Heat the olive oil in a stainless steel frying pan.
  2. Gently fry the onion, garlic, carrot and celery until soft, seasoning with salt and pepper.
  3. Transfer the vegetables to a dish.
  4. Fry the sausage pieces until golden brown.
  5. Add the fennel, bay leaf and wine.
  6. Add the vegetables, can of tomatoes and tomato sauce and cook for 15-20 minutes.
  7. Meanwhile, cook the pasta.
  8. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with Parmesan cheese.

Chocolate Brownies in the Pressure Cooker

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Although it was a beautifully sunny day today, the backlog of everyone’s dirty clothes meant that the washing machine had priority over the mini electric oven.

So, this is my latest experiment at cooking cakes in the pressure cooker and I wanted to give brownies a go . This time, I decided to make a chocolate pudding and wanted to try out the idea of one with a sauce. I wasn’t sure what the result would be in the pressure cooker, but it worked out perfectly and was delicious.

CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

INGREDIENTS

    • 85g butter
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
    • 2 tablespoons water
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 2 large eggs
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 1/2 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

    METHOD

    1. Line a 7″ cake tin with baking parchment.
    2. Place a heatproof bowl over a saucepan with some boiling water.
    3. Add the butter and melt over the heat.
    4. Stir in the sugar and cooked until melted
    5. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder, water and vanilla until smooth.
    6. Add the eggs and beat well.
    7. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and continue whisking
    8. Fold in the walnut pieces.
    9. Pour the cake mix into the cake tin.
    10. Pour 1 cup of boiling water into the pressure cooker and place a silicone mat on the bottom.
    11. Carefully lower the cake tin into the pressure cooker.
    12. Cover and bring to pressure.
    13. Turn down the heat and cook for 20 minutes.
    14. Turn off the heat and leave for 10 minutes.
    15. Quickly release the pressure and leave the tin on a baking rack for another 10 minutes.
    16. Remove the brownies from the pan and leave to cool.
    17. Serve with ice cream or cream.

NOTE: If using a normal oven, cook the brownies at 160ºC (bottom + fan) on a central rack for 20-25 minutes.

 

Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding

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Here’s my second experiment with baking sponges in the pressure cooker. This time, I decided to make a chocolate pudding and wanted to try out the idea of one with a sauce. I wasn’t sure what the result would be in the pressure cooker, but it worked out perfectly and was delicious.

CHOCOLATE SELF-SAUCING PUDDING

INGREDIENTS

For the sauce:

  • 2 tbsp cocoa
  • 50 g soft brown sugar
  • 200 ml hot water

For the sponge:

  • 80 g soft butter
  • 80 g soft light brown sugar
  • 65 g self-raising flour
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 3 eggs

METHOD

  1. Butter the pudding basin.
  2. Make the sauce by putting the cocoa and sugar into a small bowl and using a wooden spoon mix in some of the hot water to make a smooth, runny sauce.
  3. Put all the pudding ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat until smooth.
  4. Pour the pudding mixture into the basin and pour the sauce mixture over the top.
  5. Cover with foil and tie a piece of string around the top to secure..
  6. Put 2 cups of boiling water in the pressure cooker and place a silicone mat on the bottom.
  7. Gently place the pudding basin on the bottom of the cooker.
  8. Cover the basin with a small plate and close the lid of the pressure cooker.
  9. Bring up to pressure and then turn down the heat and cook for 30 minutes.
  10. Quick release the pressure.
  11. Serve with vanilla ice cream or cream.

Steamed Orange Sponge Pudding in the Pressure Cooker

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I’ve been enjoying experimenting with the mini-oven which we can use with the solar power but today there were cloudy skies and much needed rain.

I decided to bake a steamed sponge in the pressure cooker and looked around for some ideas. I first thought about cooking it in the normal way in a pan with boiling water but the recipes I looked at said it would take 2.5 hours. I didn’t have that much time so wanted to find a quicker method using the pressure cooker.

I made this and it came out fine.

STEAMED ORANGE SPONGE PUDDING

INGREDIENTS

  • 100g butter
  • 100g brown sugar
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 orange, zested and juiced
  • 4 tablespoons of marmalade

METHOD

  1. Boil some water in a kettle.
  2. Butter a pudding bowl.
  3. Cream together the butter and the sugar.
  4. Beat in the eggs.
  5. Add the flour and stir thoroughly.
  6. Add the rest of the ingredients and 1 tablespoon of the orange juice and the zest, and mix well.
  7. Pour the mixture into the pudding bowl.
  8. Cover the top with foil and place a plate on top.
  9. Add the boiling water to the pressure cooker.
  10. Place a silicone mat on the bottom of the pressure cooker.
  11. Lower the pudding bowl gently into the pressure cooker. The water should come half way.
  12. Secure the lid of the pressure cooker and bring up to pressure.
  13. Turn down the heat and cook for 50 minutes.
  14. Turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes.
  15. Quickly release the pressure and remove the pudding bowl.
  16. Check to see that it is cooked and pour the rest of the orange juice over the top.
  17. Serve with cream.