Читать книгу Fresh and Wild Cookbook: A Real Food Adventure - Ysanne Spevack - Страница 29

Lawrence, one of my two lovely nephews, has a very kooky sense of taste. Contrary to popular belief, lots of very young children like Lawrence love strong, fresh flavours. It’s only when they get to the school playground that they start conforming more and saying things like ‘I don’t like it’. Give little ones olives and strawberries if you want to see them smile and just check out that dimple-factor when they’re munching garlic, onions and leeks.

I developed this cake to celebrate Lawrence’s love of all things allium. It’s surprisingly sweet if the leeks are caramelized well, but is definitely a savoury lunch dish and not a dessert. The sun-dried tomatoes make it a pretty salty cake, with the poppy seeds matching the earthy oniony taste, and the herbs and spices supporting the central allium zing.

To grow garlic chives, simply make some clove-sized dents in a pot of soil, sprinkle a little sand inside the holes, then put a clove of garlic into each, root-end down, and cover with soil. Crop the shoots when they’re about 10–15cm high. More shoots will keep coming, so you can make more cakes or add the snipped shoots to salads or hot dishes to give them a lovely ‘chivesy’ flavour.

Kuzu root is a natural thickener that has been used in Japanese and Chinese cooking for the last 2000 years. It looks a bit like chalk. The gravel-sized lumps can be dissolved directly in water or ground in a suribachi before use. A suribachi is a rough stoneware bowl in which you grind foods with a surikogi. It’s basically a pestle and mortar, but better, as the bowl is rough inside so you can get a more effective grinding action.

A suribachi and surikogi set is great if you plan to grind kuzu, as this chalklike root will ruin your coffee grinder. They’ve got them at Fresh & Wild, imported from Japan by Clearspring, the same company that supply the jars of kuzu. Alternatively, just mash the kuzu in a bowl with the back of a metal spoon, and use your suribachi to grind fresh ginger and garlic.

Kuzu root does pretty much the same job as cornflour and costs a lot more for pretty much the same thickening power. However, whilst cornflour is low on nutritional value and healing properties, dried kuzu root is really good for you. In the Far East, people use kuzu in the same way that echinacea is used in the West. As well as helping prevent colds, it’s also good for your tummy, eases back and shoulder cramps, and is even good for hangovers. Not bad for a humble cake ingredient.

Rapadura is simply sugar cane juice that’s been evaporated to leave unrefined sugar. The difference is that rapadura is a kind of sugar that’s still rich in micro-nutrients, with a pleasantly toffee-ish flavour and less sickly sticky sweetness.

The beetroot and carrots in this recipe add a bit of sweetness, a bit of texture and a lot of colour. Wear washing-up gloves when you grate the beetroot, or wash your hands in cold water straight afterwards. Serve with Root Salad (see page 216) or a really herby tabbouleh salad.