Here’s what I came up with: chocolate squares with grated apple, orange juice, and a hint of cardamom thrown in the batter. Moist and gently fruit-flavored, these treats made the transition to urban environment much easier for me!

I would say these are best when eaten warm, either on the day of baking or warmed up a bit on the following days. We don’t have a microwave oven, so we always warm leftovers on the stove. Today, I just heated a small non-stick frying pan and fried the cake for a minute or two on both sides, until a thin crust formed and the insides softened.

The Wet Mix:

• 70 g dark chocolate, melted
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 small apple, grated
• 1 dl freshly squeezed orange juice with pulp
• 1 dl plain soy yoghurt

The Dry Mix:

• 1 and 1/4 dl whole wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons chick pea flour (gram)
• 2 tablespoons potato (or corn) starch
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 dl muscovado sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

First, I melted the chocolate, set the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, and covered a small (23 X 15 cm) baking dish with some parchment paper. Then I sprayed the paper with a little olive oil to prevent sticking.

I set the chocolate aside to cool down a little, and mixed the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. When the oven seemed ready, I added the oil to the chocolate, and mixed until combined. Then I added the rest of the wet mix ingredients to the chocolate bowl, and stirred until the mixture was pretty smooth.

I poured the wet mix in the dry mix bowl and stirred with a fork until thoroughly combined. Then I poured the baatter in the baking dish and baked it for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake came out with a few moist crumbles.

This is a lunch salad I made for myself the other day, and we had the leftovers as a side dish for a few days after that. I love the combination of oranges and red onions, and the freshness of the fruit was a very nice contrast to the earthy flavor of kamut. I don’t see why kamut couldn’t be replaced with another less expensive grain in this recipe: wheat berries, spelt berries, or even whole brown rice would most likely be very nice.

Here’s what I put in my salad:

• 5 dl cooked kamut
• 1 orange, chopped
• 1 large red bell pepper, cubed
• 6 sundried tomatoes in oil, rinsed and chopped
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, pressed
• 1 fresh red chili, deseeded and chopped
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teapoons salt (or more to taste)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• freshly ground black pepper to serve

Kamut is a grain that requires soaking overnight and even after that, a normal cooking time is about one hour to an hour and a half. I cooked mine in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes, and then let the pressure come down naturally for 10 minutes.

After the kamut had cooled down, I just tossed all the ingredients in a bowl, and refrigerated the salad for a few hours before serving. It actually got better and better over the next few days, so refrigerating the salad overnight would marry the flavors nicely.

Right before serving, I crackled some black pepper over the salad. Very nice served with homemade crackers or a nice crusty bread and hummus!

And this drink is really really good, especially when sweetened with agave syrup. Some believe that sugar isn’t good for a flu, but I don’t think a teaspoon or two of agave syrup ever hurt anyone. I have a feeling that this would be a great summer drink too, only chilled and served over ice.

My Tea Recipe:

• 1/2 l water
• 2 tablespoons ginger, chopped
• (1/2 teaspoon ginger, grated -optional)
• 1 teaspoon whole cardamom seeds (or a few crackled pods)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• juice of one orange
• (agave syrup to taste)

First I let the 2 tablespoons of chopped ginger, cardamom, and cinnamon simmer in the water for ten to fifteen minutes, then remove the pot from heat, and add the orange juice. I sometimes add the extra grated ginger and let the drink steep for 5 more minutes to get a fresh ginger bite as well. Then I filter it in a jug, and sweeten with some agave syrup.

I often double the recipe, and sometimes use the dried ginger root called sonti – it has an even more potent and fiery taste than the fresh root, but takes a little more effort to ground.