Organic Courgette Zucchini Cake Recipe with Raw Cream Chantilly and Nasturtiums

This time of year you are probably either snowed under with Summer squash from your own garden or fending off friends and neighbours as they proffer armfuls of their own. We even have one person who flits about the village leaving them on doorsteps or posting them through car windows. It's a shame to undervalue them in a glut because they are nutritious, have anti-oxidant properties and can be eaten in so many different ways. One of our favourites is raw in salads, using both fruit and flowers but below is perhaps a more unusual one, a delicious moist cake.

I first made this some years ago for a village supper and asked everyone to guess what was in it - they could all taste the home-grown ginger but the subtle green colour and hint of some other more elusive ingredient, had them baffled. Since then it's become a regular favourite with so many, so happy to have found another use for the ubiquitous courgette.

The recipe is based upon my favourite Carrot Cake one given to me by my sister and I have used it since to create other cakes with a variety of root vegetables, including beetroot, parsnip and turmeric. In fact I am about to make a marble cake so will post it here in the blog when I have done so.

It's a very simple cake, which really suits organic ingredients which are strong in flavour and need no other additives than their own delicious selves. You could use your own favourite carrot or apple cake recipe to make this too. A word on sugar, I usually halve the sugar requirements as outlined in most old recipes, organic sugar really is sweeter and if you use something like rapadura, has a strong flavour which you do not want to overshadow the rest. As with all cookery, this recipe is about experimentation and you can always add an extra hint of sweetness in the cream Chantilly. 

The ginger (foreground above) we grow and make ourselves and there is a link here as to how crystallise it http://simplyorganicrecipes.blogspot.fr/2013/02/how-to-crystallise-organic-ginger-root.html#.U-pbnP5Du5k. A friend has also made this cake with raw grated root ginger and again it's all about experimentation and preferences, particularly in the balance of sweetness. You could make this simple cake with all sorts of seasonal fruits and vegetables, just let your imagination run wild! Just like our courgette plants in the 5 dollar greenhouse below.

Other than the home-grown organics, I get my certified organic ingredients from my local organic shop, which has a charter to source locally whenever possible. My raw cream comes directly from our local organic dairy farm.

Ingredients

8oz (225g) courgettes
A handful of preserved/crystallised ginger
6oz  (175g) raw butter
6oz (175g) unrefined caster sugar
2 eggs
8oz (225g) plain flour
5g organic raising agent
(we do not have self-raising flour in France)

Oven Temperature 350 °F (180 °C)

 

Firstly, grate the courgette and express the juice by pressing through a sieve or just by squeezing it in the hand.

Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the beaten egg. Slowly incorporate the flour and raising agent, then the crystallised ginger and finally the grated courgette.

Spoon into a buttered and lined loaf tin and bake for one and a quarter hours approximately. To check if cooked insert a cocktail stick into the middle of the cake if it is ready the stick will come out clean.

The cake can be decorated simply with a dusting of icing sugar but we really enjoy it with raw cream, whipped and slightly sweetened to Chantilly and then decorated with edible flowers and leaves from the garden.

As zucchini plants are so prolific and as the fruits keep well if stored in a cool dry place, you can be eating this cake even as the first frosts begin to bite. A delicious reminder of the changing seasons, brightening up the Winter days with the fragrance and taste of Summer.

..and now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film:

Thanks for dropping by. All the best and please feel free to comment and share this recipe,

Sue

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© 2014 Sue Cross

Organic Marmalade Recipe - Seville Oranges, sweet oranges, lemons, clementines, grapefruit and pomelo with a touch of crystallised ginger.

Brought from the wondrous gardens of Persia, celebrated in verse and prized for their virtues in Medicine and Perfumery, the first citrus aurantium trees were planted in Spain by the Moors in the fertile land of Andalucia. 

Legend has it that a ship laden with these fruit and en route from Seville was forced by storms into the safe harbour of Dundee. The captain, afraid the oranges would spoil, sold them off cheaply to a local grocer, one James Keiller, who had mistaken them for a sweet orange variety. His canny wife, substituted the bitter oranges for the usual quinces and made the traditional paste known as marmalade, (from ‘marmelo’ the Portuguese word for quince). By the end of the 18th century this new sweetmeat had become so popular that the Keiller family had established a factory making the breakfast preserve still known as ‘Dundee Seville Orange Marmalade’.

To make a manageable batch of marmalade, I use 3 kilos (just over 6½lbs)  of citrus fruit (with a majority of Seville Oranges) plus half their weight in raw cane sugar. As this preserve contains only one third sugar and traditional marmalades are half sugar, I jar some for use and freeze the rest in reasonable quantities to boil up and jar as needed.

My recipe is made of a mixture of citrus fruits including pink grapefruit as well as the traditional Seville bitter oranges. I always like to minimise the sugar to fruit ratio in my preserves. Organic sugar by weight is much sweeter than the non organic kind and tempering its content, lessens the risk of overpowering the bitter sweetness of the fruit. Marmalade is traditionally seasonal, made for a very limited period in the Winter months, when Seville oranges ripen. It is also eminently suitable as an organic recipe as its unique taste comes in part from the peels of the fruit which in organic agriculture are untreated and unwaxed. 

Begin by washing the fruit to remove any dust. Remove peel. My marmalade recipe initially requires the peel and pulp to be dealt with separately. I've found this makes the peel more digestible. 

I employ a method for preparing the peels, which I found in a family copy of Mrs. Beeton's Household Management from 1861. This removes the bitterness without impairing the taste. Start by adding all the peels to a saucepan, cover with cold water, put on lid and bring to the boil. As soon as you have a rolling boil, remove from heat, drain and rinse. Repeat this process three times in total. Then taking a sharp knife, remove as much pith as possible from the peel, which is then cut into strips. This is the same cooking method I use for making candied peel and can be found here: http://simplyorganicrecipes.blogspot.fr/2013/02/how-to-make-organic-candied-citrus-peels.html

Concurrently, chop the bitter oranges into small pieces and remove as many pips as possible. Place all the fruit pulp in another saucepan, add sugar and stir over gentle heat until dissolved.

You can now add the peel, cover the pan and heat gently.  After about an hour and a half the fruit should be well enough cooked to be liquidised. 


I have a wood cooker so I leave mine for a couple of hours on the side of the cooker top just off the hot plate. Mrs. Beeton suggests that the longer marmalade cooks the better the flavour.

GARDENING TIP 
Ginger is quite easy to grow in the house or greenhouse. Chinese ginger seems the best for colder climates. I bought a root at our local organic shop and left it out in the kitchen until a bud appeared. I then suspended the root in water, with the bud partly submerged. Within a few days roots appeared and I then transferred it to a planter filled with a soil and compost mix.


Add a good handful of the crystallised ginger and at the same time test for flavour and if needed add a little of the excess sugar left from crystallising the ginger. Stir well to incorporate the ginger and then heat to a rolling boil. It's so easy to make the above, so here's the link showing the simple method by which I crystallise the ginger root. http://simplyorganicrecipes.blogspot.fr/2013/02/how-to-crystallise-organic-ginger-root.html

After a few minutes further cooking you can test to see if the marmalade will set by putting a small amount on a cold saucer. Leave it to cool for a few seconds and then lightly skin the surface of the marmalade with the side of your little finger. If the surface wrinkles against your finger the preserve is ready. Prepare some glass jars by sterilising them in boiling water and leaving them to dry and remain hot in the oven. The finished marmalade can then be poured into them. I usually only jar up two lots of marmalade and freeze the rest. If you do not wish to freeze you will have to add more sugar to the mix, normally the same weight as the fruit, or alternatively, make smaller quantities, otherwise you run the risk of the marmalade not keeping.

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One of the first vitamins to be depleted by stress is vitamin C. I didn't know this until I observed the behaviour of one of my bantam cockerels, recovering from cold stress. I could not help noticing, that of all the foodstuffs I had provided to help him combat it, he always chose the citrus first. I then googled it!

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Or if you'd rather, just sit back and watch some dancing fruit:-

If you've enjoyed this post, please feel free to share it and/or comment or ask questions.

I'll wish you bon appétit and hope to see you next time, Sue 

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© 2013 Sue Cross

How to crystallise organic ginger root for cookery and cures.

This year we grew ginger root in our greenhouse for the first time, it made  metre high lily type stems. I started it inside the house in a glass of water and moved it to a home-made pallet wood planter in April. The root I used was  an organic ginger from China similar to the one below. It seems to be the kind which is easiest to grow in our climate here in Normandie. The leaves have now died back and I will shortly be digging it up and investigating the possibility of breaking off a section of root for use. The rest should, if protected well from the Winter frosts, shoot up again in the Spring.

 

Take a large, plump ginger root, cut or break it into pieces, peel and chop into approximately 1 to 1½ cm (¾") lengths.

Place in a heavy-bottomed pan, cover with water and bring to the boil and partially cover with a lid.

Continue to boil for approximately one hour, adding a little water as necessary to keep the ginger covered. It is cooked when the ginger is softened but still slightly al dente.

 

  

Drain and weigh the cooked ginger and return it to the saucepan with an equal amount of raw cane sugar and 2 tablespoons of water.  Stir gently to allow the sugar to dissolve.

  

 
Bring to the boil.

   

Stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, simmer for about 20 minutes until the ginger becomes translucent and the syrup thickens. 

At this point, you should begin to stir vigorously as the syrup begins to lose all its liquid content and within seconds becomes crystalline. 

The excess sugar, can be used to add flavour to gingerbreads, cakes, biscuits, puddings and crumbles.

 



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“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”, Hippocrates, aka the Father of Western Medicine 460 BC to circa 370 BC)

In the spirit of Hippocrates, crystallised ginger is the traditional, safe and effective treatment for nausea, such as experienced in bouts of flu, travel and morning sickness. It stores well in a box or a jar. Just pop one in your mouth and chew or suck, when feeling queasy.  

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Now if you'd like to sit back and watch my film on how to grow ginger in a cold climate:
 




I'll wish you bon appétit and hope to see you next time, Sue 

Return to 'WHAT'S ON THE MENU' for more Simply Organic Recipes 

© 2013 Sue Cross