Sabirah's Kitchen

Apple cake was a staple in my childhood every autumn/winter. There are two viarities of Apple cake that my mum used to make, one is a yeast base tart like cake which has thinly sliced apples, almond slices and raisins strewn on top.
The other one is a sponge cake with delicously cooked quarter apples hidden inside and finished with a fine dusting of icing sugar, and if you fancy it, cinnamon.

Here is the recipe for the delicious sponge apple cake. Instead of apples you could use cherries or pears, or drained tinned apricot halves. Yum!

For the apple sponge cake you just need

125 g margarine or butter
185 g normal white sugar
2 large eggs, separated
250g standard flour
2 tsp baking powder
125 ml milk
about 3 apples, peeled and cut into quarters.
some vanilla or almond essence (the alcohol free version)
a greased and floured cake springform tin, 8"

beat butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy gradually add each egg yolk one by one.
Slowly add the flour and the baking powder and milk and beat until everything except the egg white is combined.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and carefully stir into the batter.

Pour the batter into the springform tin and arrange apples on top of it, do not push the apple quarters into the batter as it will rise and hide the apples anyway. If you push the apples in, they will sink to the ground and everything could turn into a mushy porridge.
Bake in a pre-heated oven of 180 Degrees for about 40-45 minutes. Let it cool on a rack and sprinkle with dusting sugar. Serve with thick whipped cream.

Voila, THAT'S SO EASY!

... Quiche is so easy to make and is great food to prepare in advance!

This one is an all time favourite that needs only few ingredients that most families have at home.

Quiches can easily be prepared with leftover meats and vegetables!

all you need for a 26cm diameter leek quiche is

a big leek
a handful of mushrooms
150 ml cream or 150 g of creme fraiche
4 eggs
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
salt, pepper, paprika to taste
100 gr grated cheese of your choice, I use vegetarian edam or guyere


for the shortcrust pastry
umm, there we go, I didn't use measurements for the pastry, but I roughly used

250 gr all purpose flour
150 gr margarine or butter
salt
you can also add an egg, i didn't. If you do, use less butter.

cut the margarine into the flour and add the egg (or don't), knead to a smoth dough ball. Cover with gladwrap foil and put in the fridge to rest. It has to rest at least 30 mins, meanwhile you can prepare the quiche filling, clean the area and feel totally efficient!

wash and cut the leeks into fine rings, fry with a little bit of margarine or oil until almost tender.
Add caraway seeds and set aside.
Mix the cream or creme fraiche with the eggs and salt, pepper, paprika and grated cheese.
Preaheat oven to 190 degrees.

Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out between two sheets of gladwrap. This way it doesn't crumble and its a nice and even sheet that is easy to transfer to the baking dish.
The baking dish should be either greased and floured or covered with baking paper, that's what I do.
Transfer the sheet of pastry to the dish and cut the sides so it looks neat and even. Take a fork and punch some holes into the base, then transfer to the oven and pre-bake for 10 mins.

Take the dish with the pastry out after 10 mins and spread the tempered leeks, then cut up some mushrooms and distribute on top. Finally add the egg-cream mixture and sprinkle with some cheese.
Bake at 190 degrees celsius for 25-30 mins until golden brown.
Serve with green salad.

I promise this will be a party favourite!