Always on the lookout for things to grow to cook, this year, I tried tomatillos for the first time.
Tomatillos need to cross-pollinate with each other, so I pick up four plants from the farmers market.
From the four plants, I ended up with a haul of about 5 cups.
Not enough to made jam, but enough to come up with a cake recipe.
Recipe - Tomatillo upside-down cake
Gluten-free, made with tomatillos fresh from the kitchen garden, stone-ground cornmeal and Gippsland buttermilk.
Ingredients
2 cups of tomatillos
1 pinch of vanilla seeds
330 grams of caster sugar
4 eggs
2 egg whites
160 MLS of buttermilk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
110 grams of cornmeal
90 grams of almond meal
1 teaspoon of baking powder
0.25 teaspoon cream of tartar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Weigh out sugar into 165-grams, 110-gram and 55-gram portions
- Grease and line a 23 cm springform pan. Place the springform onto a sheet of aluminium foil and bring up the sides of the pan to prevent the syrup from leaking during cooking.
- Random place the tomatillos in the lined springform pan.
- Place the 165-gram portion of sugar in a small saucepan with 80 MLS of water and a pinch of vanilla seeds. Bring to the boil over medium heat. Cook until thickened, but not golden. Pour over the tomatillos.
- Separated eggs. Place egg whites, with extra egg white in the bowl of the mix master. Whisk to soft peak. Add cream of tartar and the 55-gram portion of sugar. Whisk until you have stiff peaks
- If you only have one bowl for the mix master, scarp out the egg whites and put in a spare bowl. Put aside until needed. Wipe out the mix master bowl, you may want to rise out the whisk.
- Combine egg yolks with the 110-gram portion of sugar in the bowl of the mix master. Whisk until egg yolks combine to a ribbon.
- Fold the cornmeal, almond meal and baking powder into the whipped egg yolks. Stir in the buttermilk.
- Fold in the egg whites. Pour the cake batter over the tomatillo.
- Place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes.
- To serve, invert on to a plate.
