Pear and ginger cake with ginger glaze

Ginger - guaranteed to cure colds and keep you young. It also protects you from radiation if eaten daily. Apparently. (I wonder if they know that in Fukushima). Yet again, I seemed to have a glut of nearly-rotten pears which I just couldn't bear to throw away, so this recipe which used 2 (or 3, by the time I'd cut out the brown bits) was ideal.

Pear and ginger loaf cake

Pear and Ginger loaf cake

200g butter (unsalted preferable but not essential)
100g soft brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Half a teaspoon ground ginger
200g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 pears, peeled and chopped
2 balls of stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped

Glaze: 3 tablespoons syrup from the ginger and 3 tablespoons light brown sugar

Heat oven to 160/gas 3. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs and vanilla gradually. Fold in the flour and baking powder and then the pears and ginger. Place the mixture in a lined 2lb loaf tin and bake for 60-70 minutes. Make the glaze by mixing together the syrup and the sugar, adding a half a teaspoon of water. Tip it over the cake and allow it to cool in the tin.

I had run out of self-raising flour so added an extra 3 teaspoons of baking powder to the recipe; and I used only half the amount of sugar - unintentionally - but you wouldn't know.

Talking of gluts, I have a few apples to use up...

... all suggestions gratefully received

Nouvelle cuisine

Past experiences of introducing new meals into the household have not been entirely positive, but my children are both fans of Wagamama so I thought I'd try something from their cookbook. Child 1 came home from school with a stomach ache unable to eat, child 2 pushed it around her plate a bit, and my husband ate it all but didn't make any comment. I loved it, and urge you to try it!

Marinated chicken with orange, soy sauce and ginger 

(Serves 3-4)

For the marinade:

3cm piece root ginger, peeled and grated

1 garlic clove, crushed

zest and juice of 1 orange

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

Put everything in a saucepan on a medium heat for a couple of minutes and stir until the sugar dissolves.

200g chicken meat, roughly chopped

150g medium noodles

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

a handful of mange tout or sugar snap peas, sliced

80g baby corn, halved lengthways

100ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 tablespoon sesame seeds, briefly toasted in a hot, dry frying pan

1 lime, quartered

Marinate the chicken for between 1-24 hours. Cook the noodles, then drain and rinse with cold water. Heat the oil and cook the chicken (not the marinade) for a few minutes until golden. Add vegetables, remaining marinade and stock, and stir fry for another couple of minutes. Dissolve the cornflour in a little water and add to the pan, simmering for another minute or so until thickened. Add the noodles and sesame oil and stir well. Taste, and add more soy sauce if needed. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and serve with a wedge of lime. 

I didn't brown the chicken enough - but it was still delicious
(I also didn't have any sesame seeds or lime)

Antidote to overpriced & underwhelming restaurant food

It's half term! Cooking has taken second place to entertaining the children, and we have been eating on the hoof: Rubbish food, mean portions, and dirty, shabby premises yesterday; clean with a great view today but a big slimy slab of institutional lasagne served with naked lettuce... It all leaves a bad taste in the mouth as well as a hole in the pocket.

By contrast, I made a generous (and distinctly lo-effort) dinner for all four of us tonight for £6.75 - meatballs and pasta - comprising 250g wholemeal spaghetti (50p) and 24 meatballs (£4.00) which I cooked and drained of fat before adding one jar of Dolmio sauce £1.75). I let them simmer for about an hour, before serving with 50g grated Grana Padano (50p). Best of all, when I went to the loo afterwards there was no alien urine on the seat!

You can make it a bit healthier by adding chopped fresh tomatoes and a clove or two of crushed garlic.

In a desperate bid to use up some more apples, I also made a

Toffee Apple Ginger Pudding

Ginger sponge on a toffee-apple base

Base layer:
4 apples, peeled and sliced
A small knob of butter
A teaspoon or 2 of lemon zest (completely optional)
5 tablespoons Carnation caramel/Dulce de Leche

Sponge topping:
100g margarine or butter
100g light brown sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger

Pre-heat the oven to 190/gas 5. Place the apples, butter and a couple of tablespoons of water in a bowl and microwave for 2-5 minutes to soften. Add the lemon zest and caramel to them and spread in the base of an ovenproof dish. Beat sugar and margarine/butter together until light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time, and fold in the flour and ginger. Spread over the apples and bake for about 40 minutes until the sponge is golden and well risen.

I didn't measure my apples as I already had a vat of cooked ones, but just spread them out in a generous layer on the bottom of the dish and stirred in the caramel. I usually use butter (favouring it as a more natural product), but used Stork today for speed and lightness of sponge.