GINGER AND LEMON BARS.

Ingredients....1 and 3/4 cups of plain flour, castor sugar, 125 gm of glace ginger, chopped, 185 gm of butter/ marg, melted, 1 egg lightly beaten, 2 tbs of lemon juice, 60 gm of flaked almonds. Preheat your oven to 180 deg C. Well grease a lamington pan ( 16cm x 26cm ). Mix the flour and sugar together in a large bowl, mix in the ginger, cooled butter/ marg, egg and lemon juice. Press the combined mixture evenly over the base of the prepared pan and press the flaked almonds on top. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in the pan. Turn out and cut into slices when cold.

BEEF IN GUINNESS.

Ingredients....1.5 kg of chuck steak, cut in 3 cm pieces, cracked black pepper to taste, 1/4 cup of plain flour, 1/4 cup of canola oil/ rice bran oil, 4 onions cut into wedges, 1 tbs of dried thyme leaves / 1/4 cup of fresh thyme leaves, 500 ml of Guinness stout, 250 ml of beef stock, 1/4 cup of tomato paste, 60 ml of Worcestershire sauce, 4 small parsnips, trimmed and quartered, mashed potato/ sweet mashed potato, if you desire. Preheat your oven to 180 deg C. Heat 1 tbs of the oil in a large oven proof saucepan with a lid over a medium heat. Add 1/2 of the beef, turning occasionally until browned. Transfer to a bowl and repeat with the remaining oil and remaining beef and add to the sealed beef in the bowl. Add the remaining oil and onion to the pot/ saucepan, cook until tender, stirring occasionally. Finally return the beef to the saucepan/ pot with the thyme, Guinness, stock, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce. Increase the heat to high and bring to the boil. cover with the lid and cook in the oven for 1 hour or until the meat is tender. Add the parsnips and cook for a further 45 minutes. Serve with mashed potato / mashed sweet potato.

LEMON RICOTTA CAKE.

This is a lemony cake from Sardinia and is quite different from a traditional cheesecake, but a cheesecake non the less. Ingredients....75 gm of butter/ marg, 175 gm of castor sugar, 75 gm of ricotta cheese, 3 eggs at room temp, separated, 175 gm of plain flour, grated rind o f 1 lemon, 3 tbs of lemon juice, 1 and 1/2 tsp of baking powder, icing sugar for dusting. Preheat your oven to 180 deg C. Grease and lightly sprinkle with fine polenta a 23 cm round baking pan. Cream the butter / marg and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the ricotta cheese. Beat in the egg yolks along with 2 tbs of the flour, lemon rind and juice. Mix the remaining flour with the baking powder and beat into the batter until just blended. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold them carefully into the batter. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until tested with a skewer inserted comes out clean. Allow the cake to stand in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. Liberally sprinkle icing sugar over the top before serving.