Risk it for a biscuit…?
September 17, 2011
Cleaning out my kitchen cupboards this week turned out to be quite an eye-opener, what with all the talk in the news of sell-by and use-by dates. How often do you risk it for a biscuit? And what is the cut-off point?
My sister refuses to buy a chicken unless it’s got at least three days to go after she has purchased it. However, a colleague’s attitude is, if it looks ok, it probably is and if it doesn’t, he’ll nuke it in the microwave. There are many times I would disregard dates on food – biscuits, most dried goods and cheese if it smells fine. It seems stupid to have any dates of fruit and veg since they generally let you know if they’re not worth eating. Most councils now have on their websites the chance for punters to check out their favourites restaurants and how they have performed in environmental checks. This can either be a reassuring experience or can mean you will never eat out again. We have a lovely old-fashioned neighbourhood Chinese and they had been marked down for ‘having celery in the fridge beyond its sell-by date’. Well, if the celery was in your fridge and looked OK, would you not just use it up? I would. It seems ridiculous to punish restaurants for not wasting edible food.
Clearly, sell-by/use-by/display-until dates all have their uses, especially when it comes to certain fresh produce such as meat and dairy. But as we all get skinter and skinter and are urged every other day not to waste food it is certainly a good time to revisit the system used. By not turning shoppers into robots about what to buy and when, people can think more for themselves about what to buy and when they want to eat it.
My cupboards were not too shameful, but only because I got a new kitchen three years ago. However, there were a few things with 2010 as the date and they were chucked out, not because I thought they would poison us but because they were probably on the stale side. Some things seem never to go off and will lie in a cupboard happily for years. Camp Coffee is on one of them and a great store-cupboard ingredient. I’ve had my bottle for at least four years and use it about twice a year. Added to any chocolate icing or sauce and it gives a lovely sheen and mocha taste.
It was finding this bottle skulking behind the three bottles of soy sauce with different amounts in and a baffling jar of chocolate Nesquik that put marble cake into my mind. It’s one of my favourite cakes to make. There are two essentials – the cake mixtures must be on the stiff side or will merge too much and the chocolate part must be dark and bitter while the plain sponge should be rich with vanilla flavour. It is very easy to make and needs no adornment other than a nice cup of tea and a sit down.
Marble Cake
Preheat oven to 170C and grease and line a loaf tin (or the new silicone tins are great – no need to line and cakes come out perfect)
Have two bowls on the go. Place 4oz each of butter, flour and sugar in each bowl. Crack in two eggs to each bowl. Add 2oz ground almonds to one and 20z cocoa to the other. In the almond one, add 2tsp vanilla extract or bean paste and to the chocolate one 2tbsp Camp Coffee (or a small amount of instant espresso powder). Beat the vanilla mix with a hand-held whisk until everything is incorporated. It should be no thinner than mashed potato. Using the same beaters, do the same with the chocolate bowl.
Using two separate spoons, place alternate spoonfuls in the tin until all the mix is used up. It doesn’t need to be neat. Level gently and bake for 30-40minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the tin.
