Ham Cake

While in Munich in 2003, a French friend brought over a loaf of what looked like yellow cake to a party at our place. He said it was "ham cake", which sounded very weird. However, when you got over the fact that it wasn't dessert, it was delicious. I decided to recreate it last week, and it was delicious. The recipe below is inspired by this food.com page. I'd like to try the same recipe with bacon, of course! Since I used sliced deli ham, I wonder if it would be just as easy to replace it with sliced turkey or chicken?

Ingredients:
Eggs - 4
White flour - 1 2/3 cups
Baking powder - 2 1/2 tsp
Olive oil - 1/3 cup
Butter, melted - 2 tbsp
Dry white wine (I used Prosecco) - 1/2 cup
Port wine - 1/4 cup
Green or black olives, pitted and sliced - 1 1/2 cups
Ham, chopped - 2 cups
Emmenthaler or gruyère cheese, cubed (I grated it) - 2 cups
Salt - use with caution, as the ham and olives probably already have quite a bit
Pepper
 

Cooking time (cook+prep): about 1 hr

Servings: 8-10 slices

Method:
Preheat oven to 200C or 390F
Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the flour, baking powder, olive oil, melted butter, wine and port. Now add the ham, cheese, olives, salt and pepper. Note: you may be able to get away with using no salt if the ham and olives are salty enough. Pour mixture into a greased bread tin (we greased it with ghee!) and bake for about 50 min or until well risen and golden brown. Slice and serve warm or cold.

Author: Shrinkingsodacan
Source: Food.com

Mushroom Cornbread Stuffing (James' Recipe)

This year for Thanksgiving, I emailed James for a recipe for stuffing. It turned out fantastic, we were able to find all the ingredients in Munich and it was pretty easy to make. Instead of repeating the recipe here, I'll just point to James' recipe page here.

Author: Shrinkingsodacan
Source: James Davies' recipe

Stir-fried green beans

Ingredients:
Whole green beans, optionally cut into halves - 1/2 kg
Oil - 2 tbsp
Rai (mustard seeds) - 1 tsp
Udad dal (split black gram) - 1 tsp
Dried red chillies - 2
Hing (asafoetida) - a pinch (optional)
Salt - to taste

Time (cook+prep): 15-20 min
Serves: 4

Method:
Bring 4-5 cups of water to boil in a saucepan. Add the beans and heat covered for 7-10 min. Heat oil in a wok, add asafoetida, rai, udad dal and red chillies. When the rai starts to splutter, add the beans and stir to coat with oil. Cook for a few minutes and add salt. Serve hot with plain rice or chapatis. (I discovered that it makes a very good companion to tomato rice).

Author: Shrinkingsodacan