Check out these two recipes from Rick Stein’s Long Weekends

GOOD food is at the heart of a great weekend, Rick Stein says in his sumptuous new book Rick Stein’s Long Weekends.

The lavishly illustrated book includes over 100 recipes from his travels around Europe.

If you can’t get away for a city break you can at least travel vicariously by trying three of his recipes here.

You can choose from a Cadiz dish (green rice with garlic, parsley and clams), a Greek favourite from Thessaloniki (meatballs in tomato sauce), and round it off with sweetness from Berlin (Apfelkuchen or apple pie).

GERMAN APPLE CAKE

SERVES EIGHT

2 dessert apples, peeled, cored and cut into fine wedges

1 tbsp lemon juice

125g unsalted butter, softened

140g golden caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

225g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

75ml full-fat milk

For the topping

1½ tbsp demerara sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Whipped cream, to serve

Heat the oven to 170°C/gas 3. Butter and line a 23cm diameter cake tin.

Coat the apples in the lemon juice and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy using an electric beater.

Add eggs and beat until smooth. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt.

Mix until well incorporated. Slowly add the milk, mixing well after each addition until you have a smooth batter.

Transfer the batter to the cake tin. Arrange the apple wedges in a spiral over the batter. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle on top.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 40 to 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean and the top is golden.

Remove the cake from the oven and cool for 15 minutes in the tin. Run a knife around the edges and turn out on to a wire rack.

Serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream.

MEATBALLS IN TOMATO SAUCE WITH CINNAMON & CUMIN

SERVES FOUR

 For the meatballs

500g minced beef

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated

1 egg, beaten

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp dried oregano

2 slices stale white bread (about 100g), soaked in red wine and squeezed dry

½ tsp salt

12 turns black peppermill

3 tbsp olive oil

For the tomato sauce

1 onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

5cm cinnamon stick

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp sugar

150ml red wine

1 tbsp tomato paste

500ml passata

½ tsp salt

12 turns black peppermill

Mix together all the ingredients for the meatballs except the olive oil and, with wet hands, shape into 20 to 24 rugby-ball shapes.

Heat the oil in a frying pan over high heat and fry the meatballs until golden on all sides, or grill on a griddle pan if you like grill lines on the patties.

Make the tomato sauce by sweating the onion and garlic in the olive oil with the cinnamon stick, cumin and sugar until soft, about 10 minutes over medium heat.

Add the red wine and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium again.

Add the tomato paste and passata, season with the salt and pepper and cook until slightly thickened, about 20 minutes.

Add the fried meatballs and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes with a lid on the pan until cooked through, adding a little water if the sauce is too thick.