SWEET CAKES 4 U RECIPES

Steps:

• 1. Sieve your flour and icing sugar into a large mixing bowl from a height.
  2. Chop the butter into cubes, then using your fingertips, gently work it the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (or pulse it in a food processor).
  3. Finely grate in the orange zest (if using) or halve, scrape out and add the seeds from the vanilla pod (if using). Mix again.
  4. Beat the egg with the milk, then add the mixture and gently work it together until it forms a ball of dough. Remember not to work the pastry too much at this stage or it will become elastic and chewy, not crumbly and short.
  5. Sprinkle a little flour over the dough, pat into a flat round about 2.5cm thick, then srinkle over a little more flour, and wrap the dough in clingfilm. Pop it into the fridge to rest for at least 30 minutes.
  6. Get yourself a 25cm non-stick loose-bottomed tart tin and, using a splash of vegetable oil on a piece of kitchen paper, lightly oil the inside.
  7. Dust a clean surface and a rolling pin with flour, then carefully roll out your pastry, turning it every so often, until it’s about ½cm thick.
  8. Carefully roll your pastry around the rolling pin, then unroll it carefully over your oiled tin. Ease the pastry into the tin, making sure you push it into all the sides.
  9. Trim off any excess by running a knife along the top of the pastry case, then prick the base of the case all over with a fork and pop it into the freezer for 30 minutes.
  10. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.
  11. Get yourself a large square piece of greaseproof paper, scrunch it up, then unwrap it and use it to line your pastry case, pushing it right into the sides. Fill the case right up to the top with rice, and bake blind for 10 minutes in your preheated oven.
  12. Take the case out, carefully remove the rice and greaseproof paper (you can save the rice to use for blind baking another time), then return the case to the oven to cook for a further 10 minutes until it’s firm and almost biscuit-like. Leave to cool.

Steps:

• Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and add the onion. Fry gently for 10 mins until soft then add the garlic and grate the ginger straight into the pan. Stir in the paprika and the cayenne and cook for another minute then tip into the slow cooker.
• Return the pan to the heat and add another 1 tbsp oil along with the chilli, red pepper and shredded cabbage. Cook for 4-5 mins then tip into the slow cooker.
• Use the remaining oil to fry the sweet potatoes, you may have to do this in 2 or 3 batches depending on the size of your pan. Cook the sweet potatoes for around 5 mins or just until they start to pick up some colour at the edges then put them in the slow cooker too.
• Pour the passata and the coconut milk over the sweet potatoes, stir to mix everything together and cover the slow cooker with a lid and cook for 6-8hrs or until the sweet potatoes are tender.
• Stir the peanut butter through the curry, season well with salt and pepper and serve with couscous and chopped coriander scattered over the top.