Cannelloni & cake

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned cannelloni. I found some in the pantry & thought I'd better use it. I filled them with pumpkin. It was so delicious that I made it again the following week with spinach which was even better and easier. A really good after work meal. In your food processor blend 2 bunches of washed spinach about 150g ricotta, a couple of cloves of garlic & a sprinkling of salt & pepper. To make a piping bag get a plastic bag & snip off a corner. Fill the bag with the spinach mixture and pipe into the cannelloni then lay in a greased dish into which they will fit snugly. Pour over a jar of passata - passata is an Italian tomato sauce that has been passed through a sieve to remove the seeds. It is like puree but fresh - not concentrated. I buy it in jars from Moore Wilson. On top of the sauce put slices of Clevedon Valley buffalo mozzarella, then sprinkle over a layer of Parmesan. Make lots and take leftovers to heat up for lunches. If you have left over spinach mix freeze it. I think it will be nice in little crispy pastry cases. I'll let you know when I get around to it. I made the pumpkin in a similar way but you need to cook the pumpkin first -I rubbed it with cumin & roasted it. And if you put a hot filling in the cannelloni then pour on the passata it cracks so you need to wait for the pumpkin to cool. Spinach is quicker.

Phoebe made a lovely spicy chicken one day and I have must tell you about lentils with poached eggs but it is the film festival and having been to 2 movies today as well as the market, a walk and weeding the garden, I'm feeling a bit tired.

A couple of weeks ago Leonie sent me this recipe for Whole Orange and Almond Friands - note no butter or flour.
2 large oranges (try to get home grown ones for a tarty flavour or you could use 3/4 mandarins)
5 eggs
220g/7oz white sugar
250g/8oz ground almonds
1tsp baking powder

Lightly grease friand tin/muffin tin with butter.
Pre-heat oven to 350f
Scrub oranges.Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil for about one hour. Remove and set aside to cool.
Cut oranges into quarters, catching any juice, only discard pips, do not discard skin. In a food processor/blender, puree to a pulp.
Separate the eggs. Beat whites till lightly fluffy (not stiff) beat egg yolks till fluffy and mix lightly into egg whites. Add the orange pulp and juice, ground almonds, sugar and baking powder and mix thoroughly but lightly. Pour into cases and bake for about 20mins to half an hour or until lightly golden. Bake longer if wet. Cool in pans for a few minutes before tipping onto cooling rack.
Options:
Drizzle with passion fruit syrup 10 minutes before taking out of oven.
Drizzle with melted Mars Bar when cool and top with a mandarin segment
Dust with icing sugar

And on the topic of butterless cakes, I met a wonderful yoghurt maker, Ad Sintenie, at Moore Wilson this morning. He is from Clearwater's organic dairy farm in Geraldine. You must buy this yoghurt. It is indescribable. Ad gave me a recipe for a yoghurt cake and it is in the oven now. You can buy the yoghurt at plenty of locations in the South island & at Nosh in Auckland. It is cheaper and considerably lower fat than any comparable youghurt. He doesn't do flavours because if you add fruit you have to add other stuff to the yoghurt. I could just sit down & eat the whole pot. Perhaps I shall put a dollop on top of my cake. I did