This is a cake which I made from the book The Best of Gretta Anna – it has fast become a favourite. Divine and so easy to make – grated carrots, crushed pineapple, walnuts…and it keeps well, will last a few days if you don’t eat it all the day you bake it. I especially love the cream cheese icing – that say’s carrot cake to me every time.
Hint – If you make this at home – do not use vanilla bean paste – the little tiny black seeds are obvious in the icing 🙂 use vanilla in liquid form.
Guaranteed to make you hungry just looking through this book.
The Best of Gretta Anna with Martin Teplitzky
Lantern
Penguin Random House
Penguin Books
ISBN: 9781921383656
Description:
The much loved Gretta Anna Teplitzky is to Australian cuisine what Julia Child was to American cuisine, introducing the home cooks of Australia to her own unique style of fabulous French-style cooking, with her practical, non-nonsense recipes that work every time.
Here, for the first time, is an updated selection of recipes from her two bestselling books, curated by her son Martin, a talented chef in his own right.
What’s more, you’ll find sixty original, never before published Gretta Anna recipes, plus a selection from Martin.
My View:
It is a bleak and rainy day here in Western Australia and so I though what better to do on this lazy afternoon than flick through a new recipe book and see what catches my attention – I was already considering making something sweet with bananas or a casseroled beef type main meal (a strange combination I admit but we expecting a delivery of Leeuwin Grass Fed Beef tomorrow and I have some ripe bananas on hand and I am already planning what I might make with these ingredients).
Picking up this book was the wrong thing to do- I am now sitting in my office – my stomach is gurgling begging me to start cooking. The trouble is there are so many great looking recipes I don’t know where to start. French style cooking has never looked yummier (the photos are amazing) and so many of the recipes are calling to be made. And they don’t look difficult (is it a myth that French style cooking is intricate and tricky to master?) As the description of the back cover states – these are practical, no nonsense recipes that work every time.
Already I have decided to make Anna’s Carrot Cake, the Banana Cake (it is recommended to make a double batch and freeze one as all who try will love this), the Macaroons (a family favourite), the Almond Chocolate and Ginger Cake, and the mix in the food processor; Rol’s Apple Pecan Cinnamon Cake (too easy).
For vegetables I want to try the unusual combination of Sweet Potatoes in Lemon and Ginger or Broccoli with Garlic and Chillies or Beans & Broccoli with Chillies and Almonds (the garden has plenty of beans and sweet potatoes at the moment).
For the main meal …so many choices leap out at me; the Moussaka looks great (and we have eggplant still growing in the garden), or perhaps The Basic Casserole – can be made with chicken/lamb or beef. Or there is the Pot Roast Chicken or the Perfect Roast Chicken and the Chicken Capitan – it looks delicious too (a Spanish style recipe) or there is the Osso Buco Special.
Or perhaps the German Potato Soup would be a good place to start – something nourishing and warming for this wintry day?
Too many choices!
Reading, Writing and Riesling 