Cooked cornmeal cake

I’d promised my dad to bake him a cornmeal cake ages ago – and he’d ask me about the cake every chance he got.

I have a good friend who knows all about Brazilian cornmeal cakes – she’s baked several different recipes, all of them with beautiful results. I used one of her recipes.
What a delicious cake! Since the cornmeal is cooked with the sugar, milk and oil, the result is a very moist cake.

In my opinion, the only difficult thing in this recipe is being able to resist and not eat the whole bowl of cooked, sweetened cornmeal. :)

My father loved it and said that he can’t wait for me to bake and send him more cakes like this.

Cooked cornmeal cake

320g fine cornmeal – polenta works wonderfully as well
250g sugar
400ml milk
150ml vegetable oil – I used canola
pinch of salt
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ½-2 tablespoons cornmeal – extra, to prepare the pan

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/355ºF.
Grease a 24cm ring pan and sprinkle with cornmeal, shaking well to coat the whole pan. Shake it to remove any excess. You can bake this recipe in muffin pans, if you wish.
Place the cornmeal, sugar, milk, oil and salt in a large saucepan and mix well until the ingredients are dissolved. Cook this mixture over medium/high heat, stirring constantly so there aren’t any lumps, until thick and creamy – it will resemble soft polenta.
If lumps are formed, stir quickly clockwise and then the opposite way – I used a whisk and it worked really well. Pour the mixture in a bowl and set aside to cool.
When it’s cool, add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well after each addition. Add the baking powder and mix well.
Pour the mixture into prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Let it cool in the pan before unmolding it.

Serves 10

Cinnamon pancakes

Valentina has created a new blog in which she wants to gather foodblogs that are written in Portuguese.
Every fortnight, a special ingredient will take the stage in an event called “The king of the fortnight” - her readers are supposed to cook something using that ingredient.
Her first choice was cinnamon – I can’t tell you how excited I was about that! :)

I’m willing to participate with more than one recipe, so here’s the first I’ve made: cinnamon pancakes.
They’re delicious but I must warn you: they’re only for cinnamon lovers. I used Nic’s recipe – she tells us to serve these with maple syrup; I had them with honey and they tasted fantastic, too.

Cinnamon pancakes

140g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
240ml (1 cup) milk – I used low-fat
1 egg
1 tablespoon butter, melted – optional, I used it

In a medium bowl, sift together flour and baking powder, add cinnamon, salt and sugar.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together milk, egg and butter (if using). Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and stir until well combined, with only a few lumps.
Heat a griddle or nonstick pan over medium/high heat – I prefer to use low heat. Drop batter to form 7,5cm pancakes – I used my 1 ½ tablespoon measuring tablespoon for that. Cook for about 2 minutes, until pancake bubbles and looks slightly dry around the edges. Flip and cook until golden brown.
Serve immediately with maple syrup.

Makes about 12 x 7,5cm pancakes.

Watercress and parmesan flatbread salad

This dish is a combination of two ideas: my decision to make – and post – more salads and also my first participation in the “Weekend Cookbook Challenge”, which is being hosted by Tami.

My salad is slightly different from the one in the book – I felt the need to change some ingredients – but I was happy with the result. It was refreshing and very tasty.

Watercress and parmesan flatbread salad
adapted from Entertaining

200g watercress leaves
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 oranges, peeled and segmented
50-75g (½ – 3/4 cup) shaved parmesan cheese
cracked black pepper

Parmesan flatbread:
2 large pita breads – you can use lavash bread, if you wish
35g (1/3 cup) finely grated parmesan cheese
60ml (¼ cup) olive oil

Combine the watercress, balsamic vinegar, oranges, parmesan and pepper in a bowl.
To make the parmesan flatbread, cut the pita breads in half, lengthwise, and then into strips. Combine the parmesan and oil, and brush over on side of the bread strips. Place under a preheated hot grill (broiler) and cook for 1 minute or until golden.
Cross 4 bread strips on each plate. Top with the watercress and serve.

Serves 4 as a starter or as a salad with a char-grilled meat or fish mean meal.

Apple coffee cake

Joao and I were watching TV during Carnival and the following dialogue took place:
“I want to cook something.”
“But we’ve already eaten.”
“I know, so maybe I’ll bake something. Maybe a cake.”
“Sure, honey, if you feel like it, go ahead”

I searched for something to inspire me and found a single apple in the fridge, so “lonely”, begging to be used – it was going to become a smoothie for Joao’s breakfast the next morning anyway. So I made this delicious cake, full of cinnamon and sugar on top.

I baked the cake in a removable bottom pan and it was easier to unmold it without ruining the apple topping.
Dip the slices in cold water containing lemon or lime juice to prevent browning.

I had a huge slice, hot from the oven, and it was hard not to devour the whole thing at once – it wouldn’t have been good to me to eat more, since it was 1:10am… :)

Apple coffee cake
from Sweet Food

Cake:
115g (½ cup) unsalted butter
150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
210g (1 ½ cups) self-rising flour, sifted
185g (3/4 cup) vanilla yogurt – I used plain skim yogurt

Topping:
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced – I used one Fuji apple
35g (2 ½ tablespoons) unsalted butter
50g (¼ cup) sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Grease a deep, 20cm round cake pan and line the bottom with waxed paper.

For the cake: beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Gradually add the beaten egg, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract.
Fold in the flour, then the yogurt, and stir until smooth. Spoon the batter into prepared pan and smooth the surface.
Arrange the apple slices evenly over the mixture in a circular pattern, starting in the center. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and the sugar (the topping ingredients). Melt the butter and drizzle over the top.
Bake for 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake. Leave in the pan for 30 minutes before unmolding – set on a wire track to cool.
If desired, combine a little extra sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the apples.

Serves 8-10.

Spaghetti marinara

João loves seafood but I’d never made anything aside from pasta with shrimp…
I felt a little reticent when he asked me for spaghetti marinara – I wondered if I could pull that off…
Luckily, I was able to find the seafood medley mentioned on the recipe, so it was a nice first time. Everything was clean, chopped and frozen – no traumatic contact with slimy stuff. :D

I made ¼ recipe and added king shrimp, seasoned with salt, pepper and lime juice and grilled with olive oil.

There was a thunder storm going on during our lunch, so I didn't have much light to photograph our food. :(

Spaghetti marinara
from Quick Food

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cans tomatoes, diced (395g each)
65g (¼ cup) tomato paste – I omitted
450g spaghetti
450g seafood medley – see note
8 mussels, beards removed, scrubbed – I omitted because there were mussels in the seafood medley I used
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil
salt
cracked black pepper

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat, add the onion, and cook for 5 minutes or until soft and golden. Add the garlic and stir for 1 minute of until aromatic. Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the sauce becomes rich and pulpy. Stir the sauce occasionally during cooking.
Season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling water until al dente. Drain well, return to the saucepan and keep warm.
Add the seafood mix and the mussels to the tomato sauce, and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the seafood is cooked and the mussels are open – I had to trust the cooking time specified on the recipe because I couldn’t taste the food.
Discard any mussels that don’t open.
Stir in the basil. Toss the sauce through the warm pasta and serve.

Serves 4-6

Note: Seafood medley – mixed seafood – is available in many supermarkets. Alternatively, make your own by buying different types of seafood, such as octopus, fish fillets, and squid, and chopping each into bite-sized pieces.