Cozido á Portuguesa

I see someone was looking for a recipe in English for cozido á portuguesa. If you come back and see this, if you like I'll get the proper proper recipe from Sogríssima, my mother-in-law who makes a great example (as long as I'm not forced to eat the pigs' ears!). email desalinhadas@hotmail.com

LIGHT carrot cake

This started out as a spiced apple muffin recipe until one day I was out of apples and tried carrots instead and it makes the lightest carrot cake. Even the fussiest members of my family will eat this (as long as I don't tell them there are carrots inside).

200g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder and half tspoon bicarb
150g sugar (use brown for a slightly darker look and taste)
1/4 tspoon salt
150g of finely grated carrot
a heaped tspoon cinnamon
a level tspoon of grated nutmeg
a pinch of cloves

juice and zest of a lemon
about 120ml milk
1 egg
60g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Mix together in a large bowl all the dry ingredients, grated carrot and lemon ZEST.

In a measuring jug, put the lemon juice and top up to 200ml with the milk. chuck in the egg and butter, whisk up and pour onto the dry ingredients.

mix lightly with a spoon, just until the carrot is separated and all the dry stuff is wet (!).

Pour this pretty liquid batter into a tin 20x30cm lined with greaseproof or equivalent (this time greasing won't work, has to be in paper).

Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, until the top is springy and browning nicely. Cut into squares and tell the weight/cholesterol conscious that it only has one egg and 60g butter in the WHOLE thing. That'll shut 'em up.

Bolema

I know it sounds like an eating disorder, but bolema is a Portuguese apple cake. It is all appley and cinnamony and this is my version of it.

for the dough:
500g plain flour
1 sachet yeast
pinch of salt
60g sugar
50g butter
1/4 litre tepid milk

for the rest:
two or three apples, quartered and sliced very finely (as in a french apple tart)
cinnamon
250g sugar (more or less, depending on the tartness of the apples.

mix and knead the dough as normal bread dough, leave to rise for an hour, knock it back (now turn on the oven to 200ºC). Split into two halves. Roll out the first piece to fit a baking tin (about 20x30cm) lined to the top edges with greaseproof/bake o glide/whatever (basically cos it's easier than bothering greasing the thing).

Onto the rolled out dough sprinkle about 50g of sugar and a little cinnamon. Then lay on the apple slices, so that they overlap (just like a french apple tart!) until they cover the base, though leaving about 1 cm around the edges uncovered. Sprinkle on about 150g of sugar this time, and about a teaspoon of cinnamon. (more sugar if apples are really tart).

Then roll out the remaining dough to the same size, press down onto the apples and seal at the edges to close off the apples. Sprinkle on some more sugar and cinnamon on top. When the oven is hot, bake for 25-35 mins. Slice up and eat.

Back to the blogfront

Well, if you read my other bog, you'll know that life has been a bit hectic and strange and no good for blogging time, but now I'm back and I've been making some amazing cakes I have to tell you about. more later.