Cassava Cake with Flan Topping

Our motivation on weight loss is dwindling at  an all time low. My girlfriends and I have long given up inspirational talks  and half-assed hearted membership to  fitness studious.

Since coaching apparently isn't working,  we resort to challenging. A weight loss challenge with some cash involve. Recession and potential christmas shopping could be the push we all direly  need.  So weigh ourselves , wrote that dreaded numbers on a piece of paper and promise each other to stay fit , healthy and yes,  shred few unwanted kgs before 2015 ends. Whoever loses weight the most, gets the money. The prospect of being few bucks richer in December  pulls us like donkeys on a  carrot and stick for months.

The group tried , I know. We keep tab on each others  success failures. But the lack of determination  finally shine  like a golden nugget in the mud. Nobody  was really is up to the challenge!
So instead of trying to loss weight, each of us is now determined to make our opponents gain more weight than us!

I met my girlfriends/competitors again this week . We discuss our usual shenanigans  over dinner. I made this rich,  calorific  Cassava cake. I could have made a simpler topping but I want to make it extra irresistible. It was wipe out in no time. Butter, cream, eggs, sugar , calories and all.

We women are devious creatures!

Ingredients: 

1 kg cassava/maniok, peeled and grated

1 can condense milk

2 cans ( 400ml each) coconut milk

1/2 cup or 100 g granulated sugar

50 g butter, melted

3 eggs beaten

4 egg yolks

1 bottle macapuno

a handful of cheeses ( I used Parmesan and Emmental)

1 can ( 400 ml) evaporated milk



Baking Instruction:

1. In a large mixing bowl, put coconut milk, 2/3 of the condense milk, sugar and melted butter. Mix everything thoroughly. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, put grated manioc or cassava and 3 beaten eggs. 

3. Add in 2/3 of macapuno strip. Stir! Stir! Stir!

4. Fold in cassava mixture into the liquid mixture. Mix well until everything is well incorporated.

5. Pour batter in a well -greased/buttered baking pan /pans. I used 2 baking pans.

6. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and grated Cheddar/Emmental over it. Bake in a preheated oven ( 175°C) for about 30 to 35 minutes until set but the middle still wobbles. 

7. While cake is baking, make custard topping. In a mixing bowl , beat together 4 egg yolks, the rest of the condense milk and evaporated milk. Whisk until mixture becomes homogenous. Stir in the rest of the macapuno strips.

 8. Take almost cooked cassava cake from the oven and pour custard topping on top. Pop it back in the oven, increase temp. to 180°c and bake until custard is set and turns golden brown. Takes 15-20 minutes.

Schweinebraten in Biersauce mit Rostzwiebel

There are many things I learned while living for almost a decade in Germany.
One of those is how important Sunday is. To many Germans, it is a special day.  A day  to rest,  to go to church, dress your best , spend time with family  and be considerately quiet for your neighbour.  Germans take their  Ruhetag (  rest day ) pretty seriously, it even has a holy commandment on its own. Thou shall not mow  thy lawn on Sunday . Mind you, many are not as forgiving as Jesus...

Schweinebraten or Pork Roast is just one of the many traditional dishes serve and shared within the family on Sundays.

There's an abundance of ways and recipes out there but I want to share how I do mine. The Pork is succulent and tasty, the sauce well seasoned and the aromatic roasted onion just add an addictive crunch to the whole dish!

Ingredients:

1.5 kg pork neck 

3 medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped
3 large red onion, peeled and quartered
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed

4 celery stalks

2 leek, chopped

1/3 celery root, peeled and chopped

3 bay leaves

400 ml chicken stock

1 bottle ( 330 ml) of beer

salt and pepper

1 tbsp ( Kümmel ) caraway seed 

olive oil

1 tsp. braten/roasting paste, optional

1 -1 and 1/2  tsp. cornstarch
a handful of parley for garnishing

Onion rings:
2 large onions, peeled and cut into rings
1/2 cup flour
salt and white pepper
1 tsp. garlic powder
2-3 tbsp. water
oil for frying

 1. Wash pork with cold water and pat dry. Season with salt , pepper and caraway seeds. Let it rest for about 10 minutes.

 2. Heat olive oil in a roasting pan with lid. Brown pork on all sides. Take the meat out of the pan and set aside.

 3. Add more olive oil in the roasting pan, saute onion . Add in garlic and saute until aromatic. Add the carrots..

 4. Then, the celery stalks.

 5. Put celery roots and leek. Deglaze pan with the chicken stock.

 6. Put the meat back into the pan and place over the vegetable. Pour the beer and bring into a boil and cover. Cover with aluminium foil if your roasting pan don't have a lid.

7. Put the baking pan with the lid on in a preheated oven (180°c) and bake for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours until pork is tender. Keep it covered, it seals all the moisture keeping the meat succulent !

 8. Take the roasting pan out from the oven. Transfer meat into the serving dish. Cover with aluminium foil and keep that baby moist!

 9. Using a sieve, strain the contents of the roasting pan and pour it onto the small sauce pan. Press cooked vegetables to release liquid.

10. Bring the sauce into a gentle simmer. Add a tsp. of Braten/roast Paste if you can find one. Keep on simmering until the sauce thickens up a bit. If the sauce is too liquidy, dissolve a tsp. of cornstarch in 1/4 cup of water and stir into the sauce. Test taste and season with salt and pepper,  if needed.

11. Cut onion into rings. Mix together flour, salt, white pepper and garlic powder. Stir in onion rings. Add tablespoons cold water until lumps are form. Lumps are good in this case. It gives the onion an extra crunch.

12. Heat oil in the pan. Fry onion ring until it turns golden brown and crispy.

13. Assemble. Slice pork into serving pieces. Pour sauce over it. Sprinkle with chopped parlsley. Add crispy onion on top. Serve with dumpling, spätzle or mashed potatoes .

Enjoy your Sunday roast German style!