Top of the pile was the 10th anniversary edition of Sophie Gray's Stunning Food From Small Change, which I acquired when I interviewed her in 2010. Gray, who changed her cooking and eating habits when she and her husband decided to become self-employed (and took a massive cut in income), was a bit of a novelty when this was first published in 2000. She did radical things like suggesting meatless meals, avoiding convenience foods and generally going in for a bit of kitchen DIY (I know, I know, some people don't know this stuff...)
It's not the most inspiring book, but I have found myself turning to it in times of severe economic hardship. Even so, I think it's time for someone else to benefit from Sophie's choices.
Krummeltorte
It's not all red lentils and ways to stretch one sausage to feed four in Gray's book - here's a slightly tweaked version of a recipe from the 'Decadence' chapter. It's a great high-speed pud to have up your sleeve, especially at this time of year when visitors seem to be forever knocking on the door.
If you don't have lemon curd and sour cream (I had both in the fridge rapidly approaching use-by dates), some tart, stewed fruit would be fab.
2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup sugar
100g cold butter, cubed
2 eggs
2 cups lemon curd
1/2 cup sour cream (optional)
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 24cm springform cake tin or loose-bottomed tart tin.
Put the flour, sugar and butter into the food processor and blitz until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and blitz again until it just forms a dough. Turn out and press together, then press two-thirds of the mixture into the prepared tin. Mix the curd and sour cream together, then pour on top of the dough. Crumble the remaining mixture over the top. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden. Dust with icing sugar before serving with a dollop of cream or yoghurt.
Now, the best thing about doing this was not only did our lunch guests wolf this down like there was no tomorrow, but I made some space on the bookshelf (and in the fridge) AND found the beautiful cake stencils my sister sent me for Christmas about a decade ago. Now, what shall I throw out next...
Hope you welcome the New Year in style, wherever you are. See you in 2012!
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