I have a secret

I once took a job purely because I started swapping recipes with the interviewer half way through the interview

didn't just accept the job, I moved cities for it

the job was a dud, but my friendship with shelley is still going strong

and yes, we're still swapping recipes

in fact, she sent me the recipe for the rhubarb, apple and pear cake in this newsletter

so call up a friend you haven't seen in a while, put the kettle on and spend some good time together

rhubarb

hated it as a kid, adore it as an adult

it goes from from sharp to sweet on the tip of your tongue, from bright red to blushing pink in a matter of minutes, from firm to relenting softness...

I have been besotted with rhubarb for weeks now...buy it, have grand plans for it, then wind up cooking it down with a little lemon juice, cinnamon and sugar and having it over custard or yoghurt...and it never objects to being kept so simple and unfussed

so when shelley sent me this recipe, it was perfect timing

I do not know where she got it from originally, but we both played around with it a bit...the way you embellish a good story when you re-tell it over a cup of tea...so now it belongs to both of us!

60g / 2 oz softened butter; 380g / 13 oz dark brwn sugar; 2 large eggs; 1 tspn vanilla; 2 cups S/R flour; 2 1/2 tspns pumpkin pie spice (or 1tspn cinamon, 1/2 tspn nutmeg, 1/2 tspn ginger, 1/2 tspn cloves); 1 cup buttermilk; zest 1 lemon; 250g / 9oz rhubarb, cut into 1inch pieces (about 2-3 stalks); 250g red apple, unpeeled, cored and diced (about 1 1/2 lg apples); 1 bosch pear, unpeeled, cut into 1/4, cored and then sliced lengthways into slivers

pre-heat oven to 350

mix: butter and sugar (there isn't enough butter to 'cream', so just stir it through with a wooden spoon) then add the eggs, one at a time and mix

add: the vanilla, zest and spice and mix

add: the flour, mix, then the buttermilk, mix, then the apple and rhubarb

grease: and line a 9 inch springform pan (including the sides...this is a big cake)

pour: half of the cake batter into the pan, then arrange the pear slivers in a circle on top of the batter. cover the pear with the rest of the batter

bake: for about 1 1/2 hrs...until cake feels firm to touch. if it hasn't browned properly, bring the heat up to 375 for the last 15 mins

let sit in the pan for 5 mins. then turn it out onto a wire rack and remove the paper. mix 2 tablespoons castor / superfine sugar with 2 teaspoons cinnamon and sprinkle this on top of the cooling cake. your house will smell magnificent...serve with freshly whipped cream and coffee

I moved back to australia in 1994

I had been living in london and paris for years and came home full of homesickness for melbourne

I had $200 in my pocket and needed a job

fast

well, fortune smiled and 3 days later, still in the sticky embrace of jet lag, I was sitting in a pink office across from a beautiful, smiling woman and we were talking about food...I can't remember what food, I just remember thinking that the interview must be tanking but that I was getting very hungry

two weeks later I started working for a discount denim chain...flogging stonewash jeans and daisy dukes across my motherland

shelley and I endured it all by escaping into our little universe of food and music. it lasted about 6 months . I wound up working in asia, shelley wound up with two gorgeous boys...

when I got her rhubarb cake recipe, I played around with the leftover ingredients and came up with this simple little cake

I had to leave for a quick trip to new york last week and left the cake on the counter for the various folks who were stopping in to take care of my puppy

I knew it was a success when I came home to an empty plate...

4oz/ 125g butter; 3 eggs; 1 cup castor / superfine sugar; 1 cup semolina; 1 cup almond meal; 250g / 9oz diced rhubarb, 6oz/175g blueberries; pinch salt; 1 tspn baking powder; 6 oz / 175g cream cheese; 1 egg yolk; 3 tblspns sugar (extra); grated rind and juice 1 lemon

mix: softened butter, semolina, almond meal, baking powder, salt, eggs, lemon zest and castor sugar in a food processor. pulse for 20 seconds, scrape the sides and pulse another 10 seconds

mix: softened cream cheese, lemon juice, egg yolk and 3 tblspns sugar with a wooden spoon. combine into a paste

heat: diced rhubarb in a skillet with a couple of tablespoons of water. low heat. the rhubarb will soften after a couple of minutes. stir the cooked rhubarb through the cake batter. add the blueberries and stir gently

pour: cake batter into a greased and lined 9 inch springform pan. spoon the cream cheese mix onto the top of the cake batter. swirl a knife through it to combine it gently. bake the cake for 50-60 minutes in an oven which has been pre-heated to 350f. cool and serve dusted with confectioner's sugar

okay, I'm sure that she'd cringing at the analogy, but in an age when female singer/ songwriters are either all syrupy or all bitter, it is a sweet treat to find someone who knows how to walk the fine line

I discovered this disc the same day that I bought all of my rhubarb, and I cannot stop listening to it...she has that sweet / tart sound...her lyrics are sharp enough to send a shiver down your spine whilst her melodies caress you

she embodies the best of both her parents; loudon wainwright is her father and kate mcgarrigle is her mother. and then there's her brother rufus...

and the cd cover is even a washed out in a perfect rhubarb hue

I know this sounds silly, how can anyone sound like a fruit?

why would they want to?

well...because the effect is absolutely sublime!

and whilst you are at it, there is another fantastic singer/ songwriter also lurking around in the iTunes library (though I stumbled across her over a margarita at el conquistador last saturday night). her name is cindy alexander and she has a beautiful new album out called 'angels and demons'

click on the pic and you'll find a playlist filled with martha and cindy's tunes

whenever I have leftover strawberries and rhubarb (which is more often than most people, I have to admit), I make up a batch of this syrup...it is a loose jam or a thick sauce...whatever...spoon it over ice cream, fill cakes with it, make trifles with it...

click on the pic, the recipe's on the site

spent the entire 4th july tied to my grill; start looking for achoite spice, because there are some recipes on their way

and fattoush me...this armenian salad and some pomegranites are on my mind...who knows where this will all lead to, I just hope that you'll want a bite of it!

in the meantime, I'm about to spend 10 days in vegas...so if I come back looking like elvis...well, there'll be a hunka-hunka burnin' love in the next newsletter

and here's to shelley; you're still the only shoe that fits!

mannix@thelovebite.com