thepassionatecook

Roast skate wing on beluga lentils with chorizo, green beans and potatoes

I recently reconnected with an old friend I have not seen in almost twenty years (oh, the wonderful world of facebook) and as a busy working Mum, she asked for recipes that she can "prepare in about half an hour using just one pan". That's exactly the kind of cooking I am forced to do most of the time now, being a full-time student and mother of three... but being pressed for time also means that I can't stop to photograph, so there aren't many recipes I publish. I have trawled through the list of dishes made over the years and found quite a few that fit the bill in at least one of the two categories and I will label them accordingly very soon - look out for a drop-down box on the sidebar entitled "quick fixes" or something along those lines!

This is a wonderfully rustic dish - this is only the second time I ever made skate and I don't know why I don't cook it more... it's one of those fish that are no hassle whatsoever to prepare, nor is it fiddly to eat. You simply roast it in the oven, then literally scrape the meat off the rather peculiar-looking, long and thick bones - no choking on little bones, you're left with just a pile of juicy meat that goes brilliantly with the farm-house style lentils and beans. 

Of course, this dish doesn't fit either of the above categories, but it's still worth mentioning - it uses a frying pan and a casserole and it will take about 45 minutes, 30 of which you're free to do whatever you have to: bathe the kids and get them ready for bed, clean out the hen house or just put your feet up with a glass of wine in hand... of course, I couldn't do either of those (I don't have a hen house, for starters), as I had to write down the recipe and get everything set up to take a picture, oh well (I made up for it after ;-))

Carrot & apple cake with cream cheese & lime frosting

This wonderful cake has been making the rounds here in London - I have been bringing it to every festivity imaginable from baby showers to cake sales and birthday parties... and people keep asking for the recipe, so here it is, the wait is finally over.

Carrot cake is a big thing here in the UK. It's sold in every cafe, every corner store, every petrol station, every sandwich shop... it's probably the most common sweet fix your average Londoner enjoys. Possibly because you might be cajoled into thinking that it's healthy - although the reality is that by the time you've cut through the thick, hard icing that's on top of your run-with-the-mill variety, you've consumed a week's worth of your RDA of sugar. But if you thought that practice makes perfect, you'd be surprised how many carrot cakes sold out there are actually almost inedible (in my humble view) - it's really hard to find a good one and after many disappointing buys, I have simply stopped trying.

In Austria, carrot cake is almost unknown, although I distinctly remember my Mum making one every once in a whilewhen I was growing up (her version involves lots of almonds and she decorates it with chocolate glaze)... but most people shudder at the mere thought of putting vegetables into their cake. It was only because we had so many apples left in the spare fridge from our autumn harvest and I clearly will soon be needing some space for chocolate santas and reindeers and for hiding Christmas presents, and I was bored of apple cakes and tarte tatins that I decided to re-invent the carrot cake. Or at least I think I've re-invented it by lacking any kind of direction of what you actually put in a typical carrot cake... as I said, I am not an expert.

So my carrot cake happens to combine carrots with apples, contains no nuts (as I was making the first one for a cake sale and there's a very strict no-nuts policy at that school) and the icing on the cake is actually not icing, but a cream-cheese and lime frosting. I can't stress how wonderfully moist this cake is, if you're a carrot cake novice, there's no way you can screw this recipe up, so you're safe here. Go on, give it a try. Although it might not fit into a weight-loss programme, it's probably healthier than many cakes out there... and you won't taste the carrots - I promise!