I’m not sure I’d call this a cake recipe, I think it’s more of a no-bake dessert, but I suppose you could serve it up as a cake. It says it should be made a day ahead, which makes it a great dessert for summer lunchtime bbqs.
To be honest I’m not a lover of duck, but I know I’m in the minority. This 70s recipe comes from a booklet put out by the Australian Wine Board titled ‘Bacchus in the Kitchen’, which paired dishes with wines. The suggestion for this recipe is to serve it with a dry red.
I think this 70s recipe was probably devised by someone who had a large crop of rhubarb growing in their backyard and was trying to find a way to use it all. Mum wasn’t as creative with Dad’s produce she just stewed it with some sugar and served it with custard – Dad loved it that way.
I think it’s the salad dressing I like most about this recipe. Unusually the salad itself has peanuts in it – personally I think they’d be a bit too big and crunchy, pine nuts might be a better idea or you could just make whatever salad you like and top it with the blue cheese dressing.
This recipe serves 2, but it would be easy enough to double it and serve it as an entree at a dinner party, especially as you could prepare it beforehand and then cook it at the last minute.
A true Rum Baba is made with yeast, so this version is much more of a cake, but either way it’s the lovely orange and rum syrup poured over it that makes it so good. Served with cream it makes a great dessert.
To begin with I thought this was corn beef fritters (which would have been good), but when I read the ingredients I realised it’s rissoles/hamburgers with corn, which is till a good mix. I think they’d also work well if you used minced pork with a bit of soy sauce or even minced chicken.
I think the words – apple, custard, cake – says it all for this recipe and when you add in apricot jam and perhaps a blob of cream, who needs more………..delicious.
Quite frankly this sounds a bit weird – even for the 70s. It’s a strange combination of a prawn cocktail and grapefruit. I used to make a grapefruit appetiser by halving a grapefruit, segmenting it, pouring in sweet sherry, sprinkling on brown sugar and then grilling the lot – it tasted quite good and was quick and easy to make. It was also pretty cheap (a definite consideration back then). I also used to make prawn cocktails, but only for very special dinners as they stretched the budget quite a bit, but I never combined the two and I don’t think I’ll start now.
Curries have come a long way since this was published in 1997 and can require a lot more time and effort to cook, but this recipe does have a good blend of spices and is quick and easy to make.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 