Bolo Bao (Pineapple Buns)

A friend and I recently made custard-filled pineapple buns. The buns contain no pineapple, the cross-hatched top often resembles a pineapple in appearance.

Rating: Tasty – I will probably make it again

Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Bread

I started with this recipe and made a few modifications to increase the amount of pumpkin in it.

Chanterelles and Potatoes

For lunch I gently sautéd chanterelle mushrooms and a minced garlic clove in butter, then finished them with a touch of milk and salt and pepper. Meanwhile I boiled some purple potatoes and salted them before putting the mushrooms and parsley on top.

Rating: Fine – I may make it again, but with modifications

Almond Liqueur Cake

My friends recently brought me some lovely almond liqueur from Portugal which is so smooth and delicious I couldn’t help but imagine it moistening and flavouring a cake.

I wanted to start with a simple and plain cake recipe. I used Carla’s hot milk sponge cake from the More-with-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. Once the cake had cooled, I pierced it with a metal skewer and poured about two and a half shots of liqueur over it, which the cake greedily absorbed. I finished the cake with a chocolate ganache made using some lovely Spanish chocolate another friend gave me.

Rating: Tasty – I will probably make it again

Mixed Mushroom Pasta

Recently I made this pasta, using the wine and passing on the cheese.

I used chanterelles, black fungus, brown button mushrooms and something I don’t know the name of which was recommended at the market.

I served it with steamed broccoli and carrots.

Plum and Blueberry Upside-down Torte

This recipe comes from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

Pasta with Borlotti Beans

This is one of my favourite pasta dishes, although I cannot make it often as I rarely see fresh borlotti beans at the market. I leave off the final drizzle of olive oil because in my opinion it doesn’t need it. Although I made this with an egg pasta from a local farm, the sauce doesn’t contain any animal products so it would be easy to make this as a vegan dish.

Garlic Roasted Potatoes

I served these potatoes with maple chickpeas and roasted pumpkin and beets.

Origin

This is my interpretation of a vague recipe I got many years ago from Johanna C. Colgrove via Usenet. I never got around to trying it until now.

Ingredients

• 600 grams/21 ounces potatoes
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• salt to taste
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil

Process

Preheat the oven to 200° Celsius/400° Fahrenheit. Make a paste of all ingredients except the potatoes. Wash the potatoes and dice them into large bit-sized pieces. Completely coat the potatoes in the paste, then put them in a baking dish. Bake until the potatoes are soft, stirring occasionally. In my oven it took about one hour.

Spiced Roasted Pumpkin and Beets

I  modified this recipe to use pumpkin and beets. I served it with chickpeas and potatoes.

Maple Chickpeas

I served these chickpeas with roasted potatoes and seasoned pumpkin and beet.

Origin

This recipe is based on a recipe for maple chicken from the Beauce region of Québec.

Ingredients

• 750 grams/26 ounces cooked, drained chickpeas
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon dried savoury
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• salt
• pepper

Process

You can use chickpeas from a can or cook them yourself for this recipe. I  used a mixture of dark and regular chickpeas to enliven the appearance, but you can use regular chickpeas.

Preheat the oven to 200° Celsius/400° Fahrenheit. While the oven is heating, dice the onion.

Put the butter in a casserole dish and stick it in the oven until the butter is melted. Put the chickpeas, onion, savoury, sage, thyme and some pepper in the casserole dish. Stir well to coat with butter and distribute the spices. Add the flour and stir again until it is well-distributed.

Add the maple syrup, then add enough water to just cover the chickpeas. Put the casserole dish in the oven until the liquid has reduced by half and the sauce has thickened. The onions should also be completely soft. This took 40 minutes in my oven, with the fan turned on for the last 10 minutes. Stir the chickpeas once or twice while they are baking.

Season to taste with salt.