Apples and Oranges

At the end of Last Term, we focused on apples and oranges -

Having Apples growing in Stanley and oranges in our gardens - it can't get more seasonal and local than that.

We cooked 2 different dishes - both sweet - (sorry parents!)

The first dish was a really easy: Gluten Free Orange Cake and the second dish was a classic Apple Crumble.

Both dishes were a hit with the kids.

Children may recreate their own from the recipes.

Cooking with Lemons

At the start of term 3 we cooked with lemons as well.

The students walked down to the end of Lower Finch Street to harvest some lemons from a very old lemon tree. My neighbour kindly offered to come and pick some.

We cooked 2 dishes - a savory one: "Grilled Lemon Chicken", and sweet one: "Lemon Delicious Pudding".

Please find recipes below.

Good luck and ENJOY.

WHOLE ORANGE CAKE - flourless – (From: RecipeTin Eats)

It's also gluten-free and everyone can eat it. The nutty almond flavour is wonderful, and keeps it ultra-moist.

Makes 1 x 23cm 9" cake 4 cm / 1.6" high, or 2 x 20cm/8" cakes 3cm / 1.2" high.

Prep Time 5 minutes, Cook Time 1 hr 30 mins, Cooling 30 mins

Servings: 12 - 16 people

Calories: 268cal

INGREDIENTS:

· 2 medium oranges, fresh whole with rind on - any type (600g/1.4 lb total weight, ~300g / 10oz each orange, ~ 8cm/3" diameter, Note 1)

· 1 1/4 tsp baking powder

· 6 large eggs, at room temp (Note 2)

· 1 1/4 cups white sugar

· 2 3/4 cups almond meal / ground almonds (Note 3)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Boil oranges:

1. Boil 10 minutes: Place oranges in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over

medium high heat. Boil for 10 minutes and drain.

2. Repeat x 2: Put oranges back in the pot, cover with cold water and boil again for 10 minutes.

Drain, then repeat once more (ie. boil oranges 3 x 10 minutes). Shortcut: Boil 40 minutes

without draining, keeping an eye on water level. (Note 4)

3. Chop: Rinse oranges, then cool slightly so you can handle them. Slice into 1cm / 1/4" slices

then dice, removing any seeds. Cool completely.

Batter:

1. Preheat oven: Preheat oven to 160℃/320°F (140℃ fan). Grease and line a 23cm/9" cake pan

with baking/parchment paper. (Note 5)

2. Blitz oranges: Place chopped oranges in a food processor (Note 6). Blitz on high for 4 x 10

second bursts, scraping down the sides in between, until it's pureed into a marmalade

consistency with only a few visible bits of rind remaining. It does not need to be completely

smooth.

3. Blitz in remaining ingredients: Add almond meal, eggs, baking powder and sugar. Blitz for 5

- 10 seconds on high until combined.

4. Bake 60 minutes: Pour into prepared cake pans. Bake 60 minutes until the surface is golden

and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.

5. Cool: Cool fully in cake pan. Unless using loose base pan, cover surface with baking paper to

help you turn it out (cake is sticky so may stick to your hand and tear surface otherwise.)

6. Serve: Decorate as desired - I used slices of fresh oranges, rind strips and sprigs of flowers. A

dusting of icing sugar / powdered sugar is also lovely. Cut, then serve! See Note 7 for

suggestions.

Notes

General

Be sure to use gluten-free baking powder if making this for Gluten Free purposes!
Sweetness - average sweetness, definitely not overly sweet. Sugar can be cut to as little as 1/2 cup but personally, I don't think that's sweet enough.

1. Oranges - the cake is fine with smaller or larger oranges but aim for around 600g/1.2lb in total. If they are much larger, then the cake will just be more moist. Obviously if yours are tiny, then us more than 2 so they total 600g/1.2lb!

Does it work with lemons? Unfortunately, not! Tried, and it was too bitter because the ratio of pith to flesh is higher. But it had a gorgeous lemon flavour. Working on it! Will update when I figure it out.

2. Large eggs - industry standard, labelled as such on egg cartons. 55 - 60g / 2 oz each.

3. Almond meal / ground almonds (same thing) - this is finely blitzed raw, whole almonds in powder form, used in place of flour to add a beautifully nutty flavour to cakes, makes them ultra moist and also gluten-free. Find it in the dried fruit and nut section or health food section of grocery stores. Making your own: 250g/9 oz whole, raw unsalted almonds, blitzed until powdered.

Almond flour is slightly different but can be used. Cake texture will be slightly lighter (almond flour is made with blanched peeled almonds).

4. Changing water makes the cake flavour a bit cleaner because you're discarding the bitter flavour in the water. But it's only marginal - I've often done a 40 minute straight boil.

5. Cake pans - also great in 2 x 20cm/8" pans, 50 minutes in oven. I like using 1 x 23cm / 9" pan because it's slightly taller.

6. Food processor is best for ease of use. You can also use a blender (it's just more annoying to scrape out all batter) or a NutriBullet (too small for full batter, so blitz oranges first, transfer to bowl, blitz everything else and then mix).

I've also made this by hand when camping: I finely chopped boiled oranges by knife, then used a fork to mash as best I could (mortar and pestle would also work.) To cook, I used a large pot, with a cake pan elevated over simmering water using a few rocks, lid on, about 1 hour. Worked 100% perfectly - and came out even more moist from the steam!

7. Serving: Delicious plain because it's so moist and flavourful, but a dollop of Greek or plain yogurt, or creme fraiche is also wonderful. Otherwise, slightly warmed with vanilla ice cream!

https://www.recipetineats.com/wprm print/whole-orange-cake-flourless

CLASSIC APPLE CRUMBLE

INGREDIENTS

1.5kg mixed apples (I like to use

half Bramley)

150g golden caster sugar

1 lemon

50g unsalted butter (cold)

100g plain flour

TOP TIP

Enjoy with custard, a dollop of low-

fat Greek-style yoghurt, a scoop of

ice cream, or 1 tablespoon of low-

fat crème fraîche with a grating of

lemon zest.

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200C/400°F/gas 6.
Peel and core the apples, then quarter and chop into 3cm chunks.
Place in a saucepan on a medium heat with 100g of sugar and a few fine gratings of lemon zest.
Pop the lid on and cook for 5 minutes, or until the apples have softened. Remove the heat and leave to cool a little.
Meanwhile, cube the butter and place in a mixing bowl with the flour. Rub together with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs, then scrunch in the remaining sugar to add a little texture.
Transfer the apples to a 25cm x 30cm baking dish and sprinkle over the crumble topping.
Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden bubbling. Delicious served with vanilla custard.

GRILLED LEMON CHICKEN

INGREDIENTS

1/2 Cup (125ml) Olive Oil

1/2 Cup (125ml) Lemon Juice

1.5 KG Chicken Thigh Fillets

2 teaspoons rigani (or dried oregano)

1 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 medium lemon (140g)

1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves

METHOD

Blend or process oil and juice until mixture is thick and creamy.
Combine chicken, rigani, salt, pepper and half the lemon mixture in a medium bowl. Thread chicken onto eight oiled metal skewers.
Cook skewers on heated oiled barbeque (or grill or grill plate), brushing frequently with remaining lemon mixture until cooked through.
Serve skewers, sprinkled with oregano and lemon wedges.

Note: Rigani is dried Greek oregano, sold in bunches in Greek, Portuguese and Italina stores. You can also use dried oregano instead for these fragrant grilled lemon chicken skewers.

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