The Fall-Back

Every chef I know has a few favorite recipes tucked away in his or her brain. We keep them there as fall-backs, simple go-tos, safety nets. They are often our favorite dishes, are always simple, and usually only call for what most kitchens have lying around at any given time. When a friend arrives to dine in the restaurant, or when another dish is needed to fill space on the specials board, or when the chef gets a bit bored, these are the recipes that come to mind.

Most of my stand-bys have already appeared on this blog in one form or another. There's at least one more I keep in memory. It's a tea cake almost not fancy enough to be on a menu. I love the recipe itself because of the numerical symmetry, which is also one of the reasons I can remember it so easily. It is almost infinitely adaptable, as you can substitute any kind of nut meal for the almond, any sweet spices for the cinnamon, any berry (or most any fruit for that matter) for the raspberries, and any flavoring for the almond essence.

Memorize the basic recipe and you've dozens of different variations at your disposal, depending on what you've got lying around. Then, of course, you can change what you serve with the cake and the options become limitless.



Almond and Raspberry Cake with Raspberry Compote

150g flour
150g sugar
150g almond meal
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking powder
pinch salt
150g butter
1 egg
1 tsp almond essence
200 raspberries

Mix the flour, sugar, almond meal, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Lightly whisk the egg and essence, and mix into the flour mixture to form a sticky dough. Butter and flour a 20cm springform cake tin. Spread half the mixture into the tin, sprinkle the raspberries over, and top with the remaining cake mixture. Bake at 180º for 1 hour. Cool. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or toasted almonds if desired. Serve with raspberry compote and double cream.

Alternately, you can use a muffin tin to make individual serves, as in the photo.

Raspberry Compote

100g raspberries
50 g sugar
1 Tbsp water
squeeze lemon juice

Bring all ingredients to a boil. Simmer gently until thickened.

Just one note: you can substitute frozen berries for both of these recipes with considerable success. Be sure let them thaw on a tray before you add them to either.