Savoury Bakes
The 71st Bake: Crispy Lentil Kachori
For a lazy sunny afternoon, this bake looked delicious. It sounded incredibly flavorful. My local shop only had split red lentils, rather than black, but it didn’t seem to matter, the recipe still worked. Having been in Bali recently and made a Yellow sauce from scratch, this recipe reminded me of that. (Recipe to follow) The whole combining of fresh ingredients like root ginger, garlic, ground coriander, chilli powder, fresh coriander leaves and cumin seeds brought back the essence of Balinese cooking and filled me with joy!! 🙂
I made these double chocolate crunchy cookies next. The recipe was beside a photo of the carrot cake, so I hadn’t noticed them before now. The interesting thing about these biscuits is that they had melted chocolate in them so they turned out to have the look and texture of brownies, but with added cornflakes, they had the crunch of afghans. Your mind whirled between the two biscuits trying to figure them out!! Trying new things is always fun. I have just returned from a trip to Bali which turned into a research trip (as well as a holiday of course) for my current novel. 
The food was fantastic. We did a cooking class in Ubud and made several traditional dishes, like Be Siap Mesanten Kare Ayam (Chicken in coconut curry). I would highly recommend Paon Bali Cooking in Ubud. It was fun, informative, very tasty and the host was charming. 
This looks interesting. I’m not even sure what a roulade is but I do have some wood smoked salmon in the fridge and spinach so that’ll be perfect. I made a large flat baking dish out of tinfoil 33x37cm and brushed it with butter. 
The next step was to make a nice thick white sauce with butter, flour and milk into which I flaked the smoked fish. Speaking of decadent food, I went to Little & Friday recently and wow their food is spectacular. Great baking, good value, donuts to die for. It’s one of those bakeries where you can’t not buy something. 
This Tiramisu Cake looks decadent and delicious and takes four packets of mascarpone cream so it’s got to be good!! I read the recipe the night before and as it involved a large sponge roll tin, (which I didn’t own) I made one to measure out of tinfoil, 35 x 25cm. Tick. Now I’ll have to make it!
I have never made a Bakewell Tart, but according to the recipe book it is a classic. And it wasn’t actually that hard, but it turned out delicious. I used bought puff pastry to line a buttered flan tin, pricked the base and let it chill for half an hour. Then 
I had an excuse to bake a big flash layered cake as family are visiting from Australia. This took most of the afternoon, although I have to say, having been through these steps before it does make it easier somehow. I needed two baking tins, so moulded one out of tinfoil to save having to bake the second sponge after the first. It was Maori language week and I went for coffee with my family to Crave, a local cafe. 
They were getting right into the spirit of things. If you ordered your coffee in Te Reo, you got it free. So I ordered “He rate pĩni nui koa” Large soy latté please. It’s great to see the Maori language encouraged as although my Te Reo is wanting, it’s good to give it a go. Funnily enough “Kei te pēhea koe?” was in my head from childhood, don’t know how, but it’s there. So much better and more effective to learn a language as a kid, when we can soak up information like a sponge without having to think about it. Now for the baking, I first made 
So I made Paul’s signature bake, Mini Sausage Plaits. Well, I have to say, I do love black pudding and the resulting parcels were filled with delicious ingredients, pork sausage, black pudding, mushroom paste and caramelized onions. YUM. All this inside a flaky pastry plait. 
Walking the dog yesterday by the marina gave a sense of freshness. The air, the sea, a shag perched on a pier, the oysters under the docks. You can’t beat the smell of sea air and fresh fish. Here is my recipe for ceviche, which I learnt how to make from a Peruvian, but have added my own twist. 
Well that sounds interesting and easy though it doesn’t involve bread! Hmmmmmm. But it does involve ALOT of peanut butter!!! Must be good. I hauled out all the jars of peanut butter I had accumulated, different flavours and types, smooth, crunchy, Pics and Deluxe Chia & Flaxseed!!! Hmmmm, how did I end up with so much peanut butter. I think it was at markets, I ‘m a sucker for buying new and interesting products, especially artisan varieties. I’ll give anything a go. Anyway, this recipe has alot of it so all the better. I mixed the peanut butter, with