Back from a week in France where we saw the amazing gardens of Christine Kuntzer. Christine has cultivated odd patches of land in one of the region's tiniest villages to create beautiful plots that feed the imagination. She is a truly inspirational person in so many ways and seeing plants like angelica, wormwood and Good King Henry should inspire some new creations in the kitchen too.
Although the goldenberry sounds like a marketing euphemism, it's actually another name for physalis peruviana. These little golden balls of fruit retain their modesty in a natural papery sheath. You're bound to have seen them adding a touch of ersatz class to dessert tables since the 1980s. However, their dried counterparts are new to the scene. Slightly sour, like cranberries, I tried them in a fruit bread which should go well with cheese. I used a mix of white and rye flours and added sesame seeds and honey. It was good but there is still some way to go. The fruit on the inside of the loaf was juicy and tangy but those poor souls on the crust puffed up like bitter burnt clown's noses. An interesting experiment but very much work in progress.
A good focaccia should have lots of holes - the sign of a wet dough. Many bakers use an electric mixer for wet doughs but I still prefer a bit of hand action. This focaccia is studded with squished cloves of caramelised garlic and scattered with goat's cheese and fresh thyme. I used two types of goat's cheese - hard cubes that stay fairly intact when baked and smears of soft cheese that blister into a golden crust.
Show dried banana slices a good time by soaking them in coffee liqueur. You can then include them in the mix of these banana and coffee muffins and use some for decoration too.
Mum suggested I bake a coconut cake for my dad. He also likes ginger so that set me thinking about other eastern flavours. I adapted my gluten free coconut cake recipe again! Rice flour gives it a light yielding texture. This one has the zest of three limes in it, then I drizzled it with a syrup of fresh lemongrass, sugar and a little water and topped it with slices of preserved stem ginger. Anyone for Thai tea?
