White Peach & Cardamon Conserve

Flat white peaches ooze and drip peachiness; smelling like peaches did in childhood holidays. They peel like a dream and miraculously retain their fleshiness when cooked – magical fruit indeed. A light sprinkling of cardamon seeds is just enough to complement them in this blushing pink jam which is all you need with a sourdough toast, sharp spreadable goat cheese and hot coffee type summer breakfast.

Ingredients

for 7-8 200ml jars

1kgs cut pieces of peach flesh (from approx 1.25 kgs flat white peaches)

1 lemon, juiced and the rind saved to add to the jam

1/2 litre of apple juice from boiled whole quartered sour apples such as Granny Smith, passed through a fine cloth

900g sugar

Cardamon seeds, slightly crushed, 1 teaspoon of the inner black seeds

How To

Step One: Make a syrup by lightly boiling (five minutes) the sugar, apple juice and lemon. Leave to cool and add the peach pieces and macerate overnight.

Step Two: Boil to a rolling boil until setting point – which will take 20-30 minutes depending on your pan and the liquid in the peaches (I measure on a jam thermometer until 105C and test for set on frozen plates too) . Remove the lemon rind pieces and jar in sterilised jars following the Jam Sessions – Rules for making jam.

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

This is a cake inspired by the Italian teacake “Ciambellone” which is made with yoghurt,mascarpone and olive oil and so I used what was to hand and good: lush sour cream and sunflower oil. The beauty of this cake lies in its audacious simplicity: a few local ingredients mixed with a fork together in one bowl; no special equipment or elbow grease needed. If you ever need a cake in a hurry, this may be it.

I give two quantities – 4 eggs if you want to go for the “Ta da” bundt tin number, or two eggs for a standard sandwich tin or loaf tin.

In the cake pictured I used half plain flour and half wholemeal flour – no reason only that I had forgotten to buy white flour!

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Bacania Veche – a cornucopia of good things

Since 2010 Marius has been selling high quality foods and baking home made cakes and savouries making this the first real “foodie mecca” in Bucharest. In particular the range of top quality Romanian artisanal products is second to none.

Now it also has a regular supply of organic veggie suppliers too – some of whom you can order in advance from. The quality of these is excellent and I savour how they really do taste like the veggies you knew from childhood.

49, Barbu Vacarescu

All details and on line shop: https://bacaniaveche.ro/