Matcha and marshmallow cake: an alternative Christmas cake

Otherwise known as the "Waiting Cake". I am more than 1 week overdue now and even though I know my baby will make an appearance soon I am feeling under pressure to start already. I like my hospital (Whittington) and all the staff I've met are lovely, yet I can't help noticing that everyone is very keen to get this baby out as soon as possible. Why? Surely, the baby should come when it's ready and not when everyone else is ready. Sometimes, it feels like our culture/society has got it's priorities wrong. I watched "Birth Story" recently and it's made me feel very hippy about the whole process (or perhaps it's just reinforced my natural hippiness). I've managed to put off my sweep until Monday, so that gives our little girl the weekend to get going. In the meantime, I am trying to relax so that I'm not hindering her with anxiety or fear. Breathe, meditate, eat. Of course, this is the problem - when you feel rushed, you aren't naturally relaxed. There is something inherently relaxing about baking though, especially when you go freestyle. This cake turned out quite Christmassy with it's soft green sponge and snowy white logs. It would work very well in cupcake form too.

Recipe

100g butter

50g coconut oil

150g plain flour

150g icing sugar

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 heaped tablespoon matcha powder

1 tablespoon plain yoghurt/ soured cream

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Icing

100g mascapone

50g icing sugar

1 teapsoon matcha powder

1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Marshmallows to decorate

I used my favourite method of baking, which is to melt the butter and coconut oil first in a pan, then combine it with the sugar and then slowly to soft the flour in while mixing all the time. About half way through adding the flour, crack the eggs in and carry on with the rest of the flour and cream of tartar. Finally, stir in the match powder, vanilla and yoghurt. I put in some marshmallows at this point too, but they just melted into the cake rather than create chewy bits, so I don't think there's much point in doing that. Bake in a small loaf tin that's been greased with coconut oil or butter. You can of course replace the coconut oil with more butter if you don't have any - I like to make my cakes a little bit healthier by using some coconut oil. Of course, matcha is crazy good for you too. It takes 30min on 180 degrees C. Allow it to cool before icing and decorating.

Abeno Okonomi-yaki restaurant, Museum Street in London

One of the perks of living in London is all the free museums and exhibitions. My favourite has to be the British Museum with it's futuristic ceiling juxtaposing the Greek revivalist facade and artifacts from all over the world. I spent a lot of time here when I was studying for my Masters' at SOAS, so it feels almost homely to me. If you are visiting the British Museum, then I have to recommend Abeno Okonomi-yaki, a Japanese restaurant close by, on Museum Street, for it's delicious Okonomi-yaki of course (a Japanese pimped-up omelette), cooked right there on your table by the friendly waitresses.

And if you fancy trying something quite strange and full of goodness, then natto might just be your thing. It's sticky texture puts some people off but I couldn't get enough of the stuff. When I crave something like that, I always conclude that my body must be needing it, especially when it's something that's usually absent from my diet. Natto is full of probiotics, something that I've found to cure most things in my life (this is just my opinion). Some say it's the secret of longevity in Japan, but above all it's a great little side dish to your Okonomi-yaki, complementing it perfectly!

Courgette and matcha cake

You know how I like to celebrate the small stuff. Just handing in a good piece of work is cause for celebration in my eyes. You can't control the outcome of any situation but you can commit to it and do your best. When you feel like you've done that why not celebrate in some small way, like opening a bottle of prosecco or baking a cake? Or both. This courgette-matcha cake was inspired by the one in Nigella's book but I changed so much about the recipe that I can't say it's the same cake anymore. Hers didn't have matcha in it for a start. I love adding matcha powder to sweets, it automatically makes everything taste Japanese.

As you can see, I don't like to skimp on the icing. I also added nutmeg, which works with the flavour of courgettes; and I added butter, because, come on, a cake needs butter! Then of course I used my special method of cooking the cake, where I melt the butter on the hob, add sugar, freshly grated nutmeg, then courgettes, and eventually beat the flour and eggs in. You turn the hob off once the butter and sugar have melted together, so you're not actually cooking the cake but it feels like you are. Finally, you add 2 teaspoons match powder, the baking soda and cream of tartar. Then you put it in a greased tin and bake for half an hour at 180 degrees C. Once it's cooled you cover it with your pistachio green icing - icing sugar and Philadelphia blended together with a teaspoon of matcha powder and the juice of half a lime. For main course we ate venison steaks in fig sauce. I just made the recipe up but it was divine, so I will share it with you in the coming future. Venison feels like an extremely extravagant thing to eat for lunch, but I will need to make them during the day, so I can take a decent photo for you. How I suffer for my art.

Ingredients 

150g butter

100g raw cane sugar

150g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

2 courgettes, grated

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

3 teaspoons matcha powder

250gr Philadelphia cream cheese

Half a lime

75g icing sugar

Bento lunch: Pea curry, omelette and red rice

Having partied away the last few days away in Madrid, I'm really very proud to have been motivated enough to make a bento for work on my return. It must be testament of the effectiveness of this little course I've been taking online. And I believe that this book I've been reading on my travels has also helped - it's incredibly inspiring! So here is my second attempt at bento making: pea curry, omelette and red rice

The omelette served as a divider between the two, as last time I spent ages messing around with cardboard to make everything neat -this is by far a better solution. From now on,  I will always try and find something dry and solid to use as a divider in my bentos - perhaps some tofu or fish. The red rice was created by adding Polish borsht soup (in powder form) to the rice as it was cooking. This is super easy to find in supermarkets and gives the rice a sweet-savoury flavour

Pea Curry Ingredients

Frozen peas
Onion
Garlic
Ginger
Mustard seeds
Turmeric
Fresh coriander
Grapeseed oil
Salt and pepper

Blend the top three ingredients together with some turmeric and a splash of water in an electric blender or crush using a pestle and mortar. Heat the oil and fry the mustard seeds for a couple of minutes, before adding the onion/ginger/garlic mixture. Turn the heat down and fry for a few minutes before adding the frozen peas and cover in hot water. Finally add the coriander, some salt then cover and cook for about an hour. If there is too much water left at the end, crank the heat up and steam it off - we are trying to get a dryish consistency

Bento lunch with quinoa, carrot-orange salad and aduki beans

I freely admit that neatness and attention to detail are not my strong points. I'm all about rustic food and a laissez-faire attitude. And yet I am fascinated by bento and love the whole concept of a well-presented, home-made lunch. So when the opportunity to learn to make bento came up on a free, do-it-when-you-want-to basis came up, I was first in line. We are on lesson number 2b and not even supposed to be attempting to make bento lunches yet, but I was all geared-up and feeling a bit scared and intimidated, which according to my life philosophy translates as "jump in right now at the deep end before you reconsider". Sometimes it's worth doing something badly, just to dissipate the fear. Now, a quick disclaimer: sometimes this is a really bad idea and I have hurt myself many times (especially while snowboarding) with my impatient run-before-you-can-walk philosophy. Yet in this case, it worked, because while showing me that there's a whole lot of work to be done and many things to be learnt, I also found that I love making bento! And this is despite all the faffing around with cardboard dividers (I made these so that the dishes stayed neatly in place, then took them out at the end) and the impractical sunflower seeds, which produced a sinister-looking smiley face in my quinoa rather than a cute one

Ingredients (for 2)

150g quinoa

Vegetable stock

Pumpkin seeds to decorate (would use something else in the future)

2 carrots, grated

1 teaspoon Russian-Korean spice mix 

(or 1/3 teaspoon cumin, 1/3 teaspoon coriander, 1/3 cayenne pepper)

Juice of 1 orange

Bit of olive oil

Salt and pepper

Tin of aduki beans

Small red onion chopped and fried in oil

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Salt and pepper

Juice of 1 lime

Macha green tea and coconut milk smoothie

Before I fall asleep at night, or sometimes in the morning as I wake up, I think about what my favourite part of the last day was. It puts things into perspective for me and shows me what I love. And what I'm loving most right now are cold, sunny days; reading books that open my mind to a different perspective on life; that feeling of connecting to people that you don't get in groups; and looking after myself: eating well, but not feeling guilty if I overindulge, trusting myself rather than just doing what other people expect, doing what I feel like in that moment even if it means cancelling all my plans and spending the whole evening reading in bed; and making delicious smoothies, like this one here

I blitzed a frozen banana (tip: peel and cut it into chunks before freezing) with some matcha green tea (I diluted a couple of teaspoons in a small amount of hot water first), honey, coconut milk and a couple of ice cubes. It took me less than a minute to down the whole thing, so I guess that my body needed it

Matcha (green tea) and maple ice cream

Finally we have Summer in London! This means beers and barbecues, dinners outside on pavements, leisurely night-time strolls and plenty of ice-cream. At least for me. I don't have an ice-cream maker, so I just stir. It's still the simplest thing in the world

Although it's made from clotted cream I would still argue that this ice-cream is reasonably healthy since it contains no sugar and really good quality green tea powder from the Japan Centre. Incidentally, this is one of my favourite shops in London. Every time I come I get stuck in here for at least an hour, so I have to remember to never attempt to "pop in" on my way somewhere, because I will be late. This has happened more than once, the place is a time warp

I blended the pot of clotted cream with a tablespoon of matcha and about 4 tablespoons of maple syrup. I put the mixture into a plastic box and into the freezer. Then, you just stir every half an hour until it's ready, more if you feel like it, for about 4 hours

Red Amaranth with bonito flakes

I was killing some time in an Asian supermarket yesterday, and came across some pretty purple leaves called "red amaranth". Luckily, there was a description of what to do with them - the Chinese use red amaranth as a vegetable in stir-fries, whereas the Vietnamese make soups out of it. But I wanted to go for a more Japanese flavour...

So I stir-fried it with garlic and Japanese Sukiyaki sauce, and served it with whole grain rice with bonito flakes on top. It was not only delicious but also incredibly good for you, so if you come across it, I urge you to not feel intimidated and just give it a pop

Don't you just love Japanese packaging? That's the bonito flakes up there, which are basically silky little threads of dried tuna. Delicious on top of everything. Apart from puddings perhaps

And the Sukiyaki sauce is a blend of soya sauce and red wine with a few other little things chucked to make it super tasty. Every time I go into an Asian supermarket I always discover something new!

Taro root with maple dipping sauce

Although reading cookbooks is one of my favourite things in this world, I normally struggle to find even a handful of recipes that I really want to try out. Yet there is one book that I have renewed three times already and never, ever want to return to the library - 'Simply Japanese" by Yoko Arimoto. I love the way it's all so simple, just like it says on the tin, yet each recipe is fascinating to me

Today, I found some taro root in the Japanese Centre. I've never cooked taro root before. Yoko suggests microwaving or steaming for 20min, but I just boiled them for about 15min instead. She said that if you score them, then then you can squeeze them out of their skins easily when cooked. This was not the case. I was scraping the skin off with my nails and shoveling them into my mouth, after dipping them messily (read dropping) in the sauce. Slippery little blighters, those taro. If you imagine a woodland creature gnawing on some tricky piece of bark, trying desperately to get inside and eat the contents (perhaps some bugs, I'm not sure what woodland creatures eat exactly) then you won't be far off. I was ever so hungry, you see, after my hardcore Kundalini class. Finally, on the last one I got it - their slipperiness can work to your advantage - if you rub and squeeze them hard enough, their skin really does slip off! Hallelujah! My dipping sauce was a mixture of soya sauce and maple syrup, a variation on Yoko's yellow miso and maple syrup one, and they tasted like a welcome cross between a chestnut and a potato