Coffee Poppy Seed Cake

- Alex 6 Comments

Coffee & Poppyseed Cake

You know how sometimes a coffee cake doesn’t have any coffee in it? It’s actually a cake to eat with coffee and the whole thing turns in to a disappointing experience?

Well, this is not that cake. A few weeks ago Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published some coffee recipes in the Guardian and one of them was this cake, complete with coffee, poppy seeds and a very syrupy glaze/icing.

I can’t remember the last time I made a cake with poppy seeds in, even though I like them (both the poppy seeds and the cakes!) and I’m always thinking I should be a little more diverse in my cake making. Poppy seeds, like sesame seeds, are one of those things that can go off. They need to be stored in cool, dark places and used relatively quickly, otherwise they can go a bit rancid – and that’s not what you want in cake.

This is a simple recipe and is almost a one bowl wonder.

Begin by soaking, for at least 2 hours, 100g of poppy seeds in 80g of mascarpone (the recipe specifies sour cream, but I had mascarpone in the fridge). The poppy seeds soaked up all the mascarpone and it became quite a stiff mixture.

Preheat oven to 170°C and grease and baseline a 22cm spring form tin.

If you’re so inclined you can sift the dry ingredients first: 150g plain flour, 1 tsp bicarb, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. If you’re making this by hand (that is, without the kitchen trickery that is a food processor or a stand mixer) make the effort. Even with gadgets to hand, I’m starting to do more and more sifting …

Now cream 150g of unsalted butter with 250g of caster sugar, before mixing in three eggs, one at a time. Ensure each egg is well beaten in before adding the next. Mix in a 1 tsp vanilla essence and 40mL of espresso coffee. If you don’t have a coffee maker to hand, make up some really really strong coffee and use that.

Add in the flour a bit at a time, alternating this with the poppy seed/mascarpone mix. Mix until just combined and then spoon in to the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes (until the toothpick comes out clean).

Allow to cool for a little in the tin and then cool completely on a cake rack.

Now, for the icing HFW suggests using 125g of icing sugar (definitely sift this – it makes your life so much easier and your icing a lot less lumpy) and 50 mL of espresso. I did this but we found this icing too runny and, by the time it had soaked through the cake, it made the whole thing far too sweet. So I suggest making your favourite icing and adding a bit of coffee to it. Or dust it with icing sugar before serving – the poppy seeds make it quite an attractive cake even without icing so there’s no need to go mad.

I personally thought that the cake had a good coffee flavour which was accentuated by the cinnamon. The universal opinion was that it was too sweet and I really regretted making the icing.

So while I’ll definitely be making the cake again I’ll be passing on the icing.

French Onion Soup

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I love soup and as it’s getting a bit chilly here in the southern hemisphere soup is perfect for a cold night in front of the fire and tv.

This onion soup recipe comes from the May 2004 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller and was the recipe accompanying the Masterclass piece on hard cheeses. This means that the original recipe specifies Gruyère but I couldn’t find this in our local shop so I substituted a mix of cheddar and mozzarella (both of which I had hanging around in the fridge). I also only made up a half quantity – and I just can’t imagine how tedious the onion chopping would be to make more!!!

Begin by heating olive oil and butter in a heavy based pan and then add 500g of very thinly sliced onions. It’s really important to slice the onions thinly – absolutely as thinly as you can!!! Turn the heat to low, cover the onions and cook, stirring every now and then for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes is up, remove the lid and cook for a further hour or so, until the onions are golden. You’ll need to stir frequently (but you don’t have to hover). This part is really important – cooking the onions for a long time gives not only great depth of flavour but also imparts a lovely colour to the finished product.

Once the onions are golden, add ½ tbsp of plain flour. Stir this in well and cook for about 4 minutes. This is also important because you don’t want your soup to taste of plain flour! (The same thing goes if you are making a white sauce – always cook the flour out). Next, add 75mL of dry cider and simmer until this has nearly evaporated. Then add 750mL of stock, a bay leaf and some thyme and simmer for about 15 minutes. Finish with a splash of Cognac or brandy and season to taste.

All of this can be done well in advance – and the more in advance the better. I thought the soup tasted a lot richer and complex the following day.

To finish (or to serve), grill slices of bread on one side (I did this in a griddle pan – no oil required, just head) and rub the toasted side with a cut clove of garlic. Put your hot soup in to bowls and arrange the bread, toasted side down, on each bowl, covering the soup. Finish by putting as much grated cheese as you want over the bread and popping the bowls under the grill (or in a hot oven – though you’re likely to need to finish off under the grill anyway) until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.

It does rather look like it might give you a heart attack but it doesn’t (yet, at least) and it will definitely make you feel very warm and cosy!

Le Riad

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date of visit:  Thurs 19 May 2011

At the suggestion (or should that be request?) of a friend a small group of us headed to Le Riad, the only city centre Moroccan restaurant in Adelaide. It’s a tiny, unobtrusive restaurant that sits on Pulteney Street, next to the Earl of Aberdeen and Pondok Bali.

I like Moroccan food (just as I liked Morocco – any country where bakers cycle around with their fresh bread which you can buy and then they invite you to come and see their bakery rates highly for me) but don’t have a lot of experience eating it in restaurants, so I was interested to see how things panned out.

Our reservation was for very early (6pm) on a Thursday night – totally unnecessary as we were alone in the restaurant for the entire meal, although a very large party did arrive just as we were leaving. The restaurant is decorated with carpets and wall hangings which not only add ambience but I suspect are absolutely essential for sound absorption in such a small venue. The Moroccan music playing was mostly unobtrusive, so Le Riad definitely gets a thumbs up for noise management! It is quite a dim restaurant which can be irritating if you like (or want) to see your food in detail.

The service was probably the big let down. I know I’m difficult to please when it comes to service but our waitress just wasn’t switched on enough. For example, we ordered the selection of dips to start and the dips were placed on the table without any explanation of what was what. OK – we could figure out the hummous and the goat’s cheese dip but did rather struggle with the others. And when we ordered more bread (from someone other than our waitress) she came out into the restaurant with it and seemed surprised and confused about where the bread should go. Of course, not providing quite enough bread with a selection of dips is a criticism in itself. It never pays to be less than generous with things like bread – especially not when bread is such a staple in Moroccan cuisine.

These grumbles aside, the dips were tasty and things augured well for our main courses. Around the table we had a tagines, couscous and different types of kebab so we did a reasonable job of covering the menu. The portion sizes are quite generous although, with the kebabs in particular, there is plenty of padding with salad. I ordered the kefta kebab which came as three patties on a plate with rice and salad. It all tasted good (not exceptional) but the dish was really salad, with the kefta and rice.

After finishing with mint tea, the bottom line came to $35 per person (including a tip). This did include a few alcoholic drinks. I suspect that this is where my problem lies: it’s just a tad too expensive for what it is. The selection of dips alone was $24 – that’s just too much for something that’s so cheap and easy to produce. The various kebabs all hover around the $20 mark and the rest of the dishes are somewhere between $20 and $25. This means that if you’re a keen cook who can be bothered to produce this type of food at home you’ll be left feeling a little short changed. Personally – that’s exactly how I feel which means I doubt I’ll be rushing back.

Of course, if you’re looking for a casual meal out which is a change of pace, then Le Riad is definitely an option worth considering.

Le Riad
314B Pulteney Street
Adelaide SA 5000
phone: 08 8223 6111

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