Seasonal Rhubarb, Mandarin and Saffron Cake

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A delicious and gluten-free treat, perfect for afternoon tea or buried in fresh custard after a hearty Sunday lunch, my rhubarb upside-down cake is enhanced with pomegranate and rosewater, saffron and sweet mandarins.

Recipe: serves 8

Cake

3 medium eggs

165g butter

165g light brown sugar

1 bunch of rhubarb, leaves removed

180g self raising flour (I used Dove’s Farm gluten free)

1tsp baking powder

1 generous tbls Hortus Pomegranate and Rose Gin Liqueur (or one of your favourites)

For the compote

20ml rosewater

25g caster sugar

2 mandarin oranges peeled and diced

Good Pinch of saffron

1 tbls Hortus Pomegranate and Rose Gin Liqueur (or your favourite gin liqueur)

Method

Cut the rhubarb into 5cm pieces and place in a shallow, wide saucepan with the rosewater, caster sugar, mandarins and saffron. Just cover, with water and slowly bring to the boil then simmer until the rhubarb is just tender.

Remove the rhubarb and place it in the bottom of a greased, loose bottomed cake tin measuring 20cm across x 8cm deep

Boil the mandarins in the remained liquid until it has reduced to a sticky syrup, of a honey like consistency. Cool, then blend into a smooth compote. Add the liqueur and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees c (fan)

Beat the sugar with the butter. Once thoroughly creamed, add the eggs, one at a time to prevent the mixture splitting.

Add the flour and baking powder (sifted) then, finally, gently stir in the Liqueur.

Pour the mixture over the rhubarb and bake for approximately 40 minutes or until a skewer, pressed into the cake, comes out clean

Cool the cake slightly and turn out onto a plate – I often line the cake tin with a greaseproof liner as this really helps when it comes to the turning out, although you may need a knife to help a little.

Whilst the cake is still warm, pour the compote over. It should be of a jam-like consistency, and will sit nicely on top of the rhubarb

Serve with créme fraîche and a really good dusting of caster sugar.

Tip: if you prefer very sweet rhubarb, add more sugar to the syrup – I prefer a more tart flavour which foils the cakes sweetness nicely.

The Pheasant Philosopher’s Christmas Diaries: Getting ahead with Christmas, a Duo of Sublime Stuffings

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Things which are time consuming relating to the Christmas Lunch are far better done early and the advantage of a good sized freezer makes preparing for Lunch extremely simple indeed.

I like to serve two stuffings. One meat, and cooked separately from the bird, and one to stuff in the neck cavity, to take on the flavours of all those delicious juices. Over the years I have experimented with lots of different recipes but now use just two. Pork, Cranberry and Orange, and Pear with Chestnut and Honey. Both can be frozen and the second, also made with gluten-free bread if there are any allergies to be catered for. A few minutes spent prepping now, will make for an effortless Christmas Lunch. After all – no one really wants to be in the kitchen, too much, over the festive period.

Pork, Pancetta, Cranberry and Orange Stuffing

Serves 6-8

I like to cook this in a loaf tin,  it turns out very well but also looks good brought straight to the table. You can also replace the sausage meat with chicken, or duck sausage meat and leave the pancetta out, for those who don’t eat pork.

Ingredients

500g good sausage meat

100 gram slice of pancetta, finely diced

The juice and zest of 1 large orange

1 clementine, sliced into disks with the skin still on

100g cranberries, roughly chopped

20ml port

Method

Fry the diced pancetta until golden brown and set aside to cool thoroughly

Mix the sausage meat, orange, cooled pancetta, port and cranberries – smoosh (love that word) it all together and fry a little to test seasoning, season to taste. Press the mixture into a loaf tin, cover with foil and pop in the freezer.

Remove on Christmas Eve and allow to defrost overnight in the refrigerator. Decorate with a few slices of clementine and a few whole cranberries, recover with foil and bake for approximately 40 minutes at 175 degrees c, testing with a skewer to make sure it’s cooked thoroughly. Remove the foil for the last ten minutes of cooking and serve.

Pear, Chestnut, Sage and Honey Stuffing 

IMG_6709This should stuff a turkey large enough to feed at least 6-8 with leftovers

Ingredients 

700g slightly stale bread (sourdough also works very well), all the crusts removed, then diced into 1 cm cubes

1 large tin of pears in juice, drained and the pear cut into 1 cm dice ( I have also used fresh pears, but as these are already cooked there are no worries about the pears discolouring)

100g cooked chestnuts, peeled and roughly chopped

1 heaped tablespoon runny honey

1 heaped tablespoon finely shredded sage

Seasoning to taste

Method

Melt the honey until liquid and add the chopped sage, allow it to infuse for a minute.

Stir the chopped pear, bread and chestnuts together and pour over the sage honey, making sure all the ingredients are well coated, add a good sprinkle of salt and black pepper.

Place into a freezer bag, or Tupperware and freeze until Christmas Eve.

Remove and defrost thoroughly before stuffing into the neck cavity of the bird. This is quite a chunky, almost medieval style, stuffing and compliments the meat stuffing very well. Do make sure that you secure the neck skin well to stop the stuffing escaping during cooking – my great grandmother used to actually sew the neck up using a needle and string (although they more often had a chicken or capon for Christmas Lunch)