Raspberry and Rose Layer Cake

This cake is not nearly as bad as it looks. It's very low in sugar, and despite all that cream, there is no other fat in the layers (thereby knocking out all the butter in a standard cake) - and you could always use a light cream. It can be made small or large - just double the quantities and make a larger diametre pancake (I made mine around 16cm - you could easily go up to about 25cm if your pan is big enough and you are an expert flipper.)

The best thing? It's a no-bake cake. The only thing you need to cook are the pancakes, and it's actually better if its made the day before serving.

Ingredients

For the pancakes (layers)

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup self raising flour
• butter for greasing pan (If yours is not a non-stick one)

Flourless lime and coconut cake

This is officially the best cake in the world (according to me). Wheat free, grain free, dairy free, low in fat (but not in sugar - hey, you can't have it all), moist, finely textured, exotic, pretty, keeps well and is incredibly easy to make. AND it tastes like lemon meringue pie.


Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 3 Tahitian limes, zested and juiced (about 100ml liquid)
• 1 cup caster sugar

• 1 ¼ cup ground almonds
 (200g)
• 1 cup finely desiccated coconut
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• pinch salt

for the syrup

• ¼ cup grated jaggery (or raw sugar)
• ¼ cup water
• zest of one lime

Cardamom and pistachio custard tart

This is really so much easier than you would think. I'm not much of a pie maker, and yet, I managed to pull this off without a hitch. There's many steps, but all are very easy. Unfortunately it's a little deviation, in fact a large deviation from my usual gluten free and dairy free options - it's got all the baddies in there, sorry. But my reasoning is that it's an adult's taste, and so we'll only have it when all the kids are in bed and unable to see us sneaking in the naughty stuff.

Ingredients:

• shortcrust pastry (enough to line a flan tin. about 400g)
• 400ml milk
• 1 cinnamon quill
• pinch of saffron threads
• 8 cardamom pods (slightly crushed) 
• 4 small eggs (separated)
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/3 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1/4 cup shelled pistachios
• 4 digestive biscuits
• 1/4 cup soft brown sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• coarse salt to taste
• pomegranate seeds (optional)

Coleslaw with an asian twist

Coleslaw used to be one of my favourite salads. Childhood days in my Mum's late 1970s kitchen, when Margaret Fulton ruled (she still does occasionally), and when a "salad" was always lettuce, tomato and cucumber with french dressing. There were only two other variations - Potato salad (with bacon chips from a jar) and the aforementioned, sweet and dripping with store bought "coleslaw" dressing. My mum used to add nutmeg and somehow this translated it into a dessert rather than a vegetable. But one day, I tried the coleslaw from a take-out restaurant, and this soggy mess with raw onions and bland flavour destroyed it for me. I will never eat coleslaw again.

But, I will take some of the ingredients, and give it my own twist. I'll eat this kind, and so does everyone else - it's a party favourite. It even has a crunch honouring my mum's bacon chips on potato salad.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups grated carrot (or fine julienne is better if you can be bothered)
• 2 cups finely sliced red cabbage (also called purple cabbage or blue kraut)
• 1/2 cup coriander leaves
• 1/2 cup mint leaves
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 3 tbsp teriyaki sauce
• 3 tbsp white Japanese sweet sauce (*see note on sauces)
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 cup aloo bhujia for topping **
  

Mocha meringue torte with hazelnut crumble

This one came to be because it was a friend's birthday. Not just any friend, but another food blogger. Not just any food blogger, but a food blogger who has been to Paris to study Cordon Bleu cookery (Francine's blog is here). I stupidly suggested I'd make a cake, and then realised I wouldn't be able to whip up one of my standards. Oh no. This would require ingenuity. Something that looked and tasted seriously adult, yet essentially remained cake-like. Something I couldn't muck up, yet something that looked like it required effort. Voila. The base is adapted from a chocolate meringue cake with coffee cream found almost anywhere, but the crumble is something I thought it needed just to take it over the edge.

Ingredients:

• 6 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 3 tbsp good quality cocoa (not just drinking chocolate powder)
• 1 1/2 tbsp corn flour
• 1/3 cup peeled hazelnuts
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 4 digestive biscuits (e.g Wheatens - substitute with oat bran/amaretti or other GF biscuit for gluten free)
• 200ml whipping cream
• 100ml custard (see note)
• 1 super sweet ristretto, cooled (really strong shot of coffee with lots of sugar and very little liquid)

Omani Lobster with za’atar and garlic

Omani Lobster is presently a little overfished, but just once in a while, it’s a super way to turn things up for a celebration. This is a claw-less variety, and so is easy to prepare and eat. Simply use the tails, and if you want to keep waste to a minimum, use the legs to make a stock and freeze it for later.

Lobster tails are easy to cook – simply grill until the flesh is translucent – then take them off the heat and eat immediately - it will continue to cook a little in that shell until it's cracked open like a Christmas present. Za’atar is a local narrow and long-leaved thyme relative known elsewhere in the world as winter savoury.

Ingredients

• 2 Lobster tails, cleaned
• fresh za’atar – about 12 stems
• 1 tsp black mustard seeds
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt, pepper and lemon to taste

Roasted Vegetable Salad

This is such a vibrant salad. Considering it is so hot here, even over Christmas, not everyone wants a bowl of hot roasted vegetables. It’s easy to prepare before-hand and features plenty of local and seasonal ingredients. It’s wonderful with turkey, but also makes a great accompaniment to grilled seafood.

Ingredients:

• 500g pumpkin, peeled and cubed
• 1 bunch of radishes
• 5 small beetroots, quartered
• 250g roca (arugula)
• 1 tbsp warm water
• 1 big pinch of saffron
• 1 tsp honey
• coarse salt to taste
• ¼ cup flaked almonds
• 2 tbsp labneh
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• squeeze of lemon
• 1 tsp sumac
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• herbs for garnish (za’atar or coriander)

Gingerbread lamp with stained glass

I've been inspired by the region - hard not to be really. Last year, we made a gingerbread house, and it turned out quite nicely. But the snow on the roof and the Hansel and Gretel theme doesn't really gel in this part of the world. So, here is a Middle-Eastern-Appropriate gingerbread, both in flavour and construction. And you know what? Easier than it looks...


Ingredients

• 250g butter, softened 
• 2/3 cup soft brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup date honey (dhibs)
  2 eggs, beaten 
• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 cup self raising flour
• 2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 15-20 clear boiled sweets (lollies), crushed with a mortar and pestle into coarse powder.

Roast Turkey with Freekeh

 Ok - this is not the easiest part of a Christmas Dinner, and so breaks my usual slap-dash rules of only 3-4 steps. Sorry about that - nothing to do. It is however not a hard recipe as far as roast turkeys go - just a simple roast, no brining or anything like that. Let's start you with the stuffing, which is really just chopping, browning and stirring, then I'll move through the trickier bits...

Freekeh Stuffing Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra, to drizzle
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 150g minced veal
• 205g (1¼ cups) freekeh (washed well and soaked for 1 hour)
• 2 tsp shawarma spice
• 1½ tsp salt
• 750ml (3 cups) chicken stock or water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp ghee
• ½ cup pistachios
• ¼ cup dried barberries
• Salt and pepper to taste

Gluten Free, Dairy Free cupcakes – as easy as 1, 2, 3

It’s amazing where your best recipes come from. This was my son’s maths homework. His male, non-cooking teacher sent home a recipe that was to be used to practice multiplication. He sent home the ingredients for 6 cupcakes, and asked students to make him 12 or 18 at a time. With my kids being on a gluten free diet, I substituted the self raising flour mix by Doves Farm. I also substituted the caster sugar for some coconut sugar I had just picked up from the organic shop (less processed = better for the soul). The recipe was already dairy free.

It’s one of the only cake batters I’ve made that does not contain milk or at least a liquid substitute, and I was convinced it was going to be rock hard – not so. Eggs are mighty little ingredients. Recipe below makes 6 cupcakes – but can easily be multiplied, as my son can vouch for.