Читать книгу Enjoy: New veg with dash - Nadine Abensur - Страница 20

A light-textured cake that you could make with Greek yoghurt instead of the ricotta, if you prefer – or, indeed, a mix of the two, which is what I often end up doing. The passion fruit syrup makes a dessert of this but it’s also good as a breakfast or afternoon tea sort of cake. An average passion fruit yields a mere 2 teaspoons of juice, so although passion fruit grow prolifically in Australia and are very cheap (the equivalent of about 3 pence each), I know 25 passion fruit can seem an exorbitant luxury in the UK. So I have suggested mango juice as an alternative, as it is a more accessible option despite its equally distant origins.

The mango topping is especially abundant, not just sparsely placed slices but more of a generous heap.

SERVES 8–10

100g polenta (not the quick-cook variety)

300g ricotta cheese

grated zest of 1 orange

grated zest of 1 lemon

grated zest of 1 lime

120g softened unsalted butter

220g caster sugar

3 eggs

200g self-raising flour

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1–2 mangoes, peeled, stoned and cut into smallish cubes

For the topping:

50g butter

2 tablespoons caster sugar

3–4 ripe but firm mangoes, peeled, stoned and sliced

juice of 1 orange

juice of 1 lemon

500ml orange or mango juice

For the passion fruit syrup:

300g caster sugar

100ml water

250ml strained passion fruit juice or mango juice

the pulp of 6 passion fruit

For the lime mascarpone:

grated zest of 1 lime

200g mascarpone cheese

2 teaspoons icing sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Line a round 23cm springform cake tin with baking parchment. Combine the polenta, ricotta and citrus zest in a bowl and set aside for about an hour, so the polenta starts to soften.

Beat the butter and sugar together until pale. Beat in the eggs one at a time, making sure that each is well amalgamated. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together and fold them in gently. Then fold in the ricotta and polenta mixture and finally the chopped mango. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, make the topping. Melt the butter and sugar in a large frying pan over a very gentle heat without stirring at all, at most moving the pan around very gently. Add the mango slices and all the juice and simmer for 8–10 minutes, until the juice is almost completely reduced and the mango soft and gently caramelised. Remove from the heat and set aside.

To make the syrup, put the sugar and water in a heavy-based pan and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has melted. Raise the heat and bring to the boil, then add the passion fruit or mango juice. Boil for about 10 minutes, until reduced and thickened, then remove from the heat and stir in the passion fruit pulp. Serve warm or cold and store any remaining syrup in the fridge.

Finally stir the lime zest into the mascarpone cheese, with the sugar if using. You can soften the lime zest first in the same pan as the passion fruit syrup if you like, lifting it out after a minute or so.

Arrange the mango slices over the cake – there should be enough for a couple of layers – and serve with the lime mascarpone and passion fruit syrup by the side.