Valentines Treat - Nigel Slater's Chocolate Truffles

The challenge : 

"...all you have to do is randomly select a recipe that includes chocolate somewhere in the ingredients, cook that dish and then write about your experience on your blog..."

This challenge was perfect with Valentines day coming up on Friday, especially as my valentine loves chocolate. 

Nigel Slater's 'Real Food' has a section called 'CHOCOLATE' and  I randomly opened it at page 282 CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES.

I was a bit worried to begin with as I don't have much chocolate making experience.  I know that chocolate can split when heated, and there's  nothing that you can do, but to start all over again with a new batch.

But it was easy as pie. There are only two ingredients, good quality chocolate with at least 70% cocoa solids, and cream. You don't have to heat the chocolate, just the cream. Then pour the warmed cream over the finely shredding chocolate in a warm bowl, melting it in the process. Simple.

It makes a shiny chocolate ganache that you beat until it's smooth and glossy.

If any of the chocolate remains unmelted you can place the bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure that it doesn't touch the bowl, and then heat until every last little bit has melted down to a velvety sauce. I couldn't resist a taste at this point. It was scrumptious but I know that my valentine has a very sweet tooth and I'd used a good quality dark Ecuadorian (fairtrade) chocolate, with 72% cocoa solids. I suspected that it may be just a little bitter for his taste. So I added a couple of dessertspoonfuls of golden syrup. 

I then chilled it in the fridge for about an hour until the chocolate had reset. Then the fun began. You take spoonfuls of the ganache and roll it into rough balls or log shapes, then dip them in cocoa powder. I also dipped some in powdered icing sugar because my valentine loves truffles made that way.

I used half the recipe ingredients in the book but the same as the recipe on this link.  I made at least twenty large truffles, but it's difficult to be exact because a few may have  accidentally fallen into my mouth whilst I was making them...

This was a really fun project to do, and one that kiddies may like to join in with...I'm sure there would be lots of finger licking. Great for a Mother's or Father's day gift with a little help from a grown-up. 

I made simple cones from thick wrapping paper to hold them. I used a dinner plate as a template cutting out a circle of paper and than halving each on to make two cones. Rolling each one into a cone and securing with a little bit of double sided sellotape. 

Or you may like to link to a clip art pdf of printable template for sweet little gift bags perfect for holding these, here,  or boxes here and here.

I'm linking with dom and choclette to share the challenge.

...have a happy valentines day...
debx

Belleau Kitchen Challenge...Random Recipe 30

I love Dom's Challenge and I do it every month. I follow the challenge to the letter. I count the books, or randomly select one as required. Then I bake the cake, knead the bread, make the casserole or toss the pancakes. Just as the challenge dictates. I take the requisite photograph. Usually more than one...I take photos...lots of them. 

The hairs are standing up on the back of my neck. I can feel Dom saying, "OH NO YOU DON'T!" 

"I DO DOM, HONESTLY"...But you don't know that I do it every time. You see, I'm a little bit tardy...and I love the making and photographing but I'm not so good at the words. The post will be there...the draft copy all ready to press the 'PUBLISH' button...except for the text. They are still there, all the ones I've missed...waiting in a kind of blog-land limbo. Like the Persian Milk bread I made two months ago...apart from the words. That's when I start to dawdle...I drag my blogpost-writing feet. 

But at last I've got a riddle on. Still it's going to be on the last minute...just in the nick of time... 

Here's my contribution to the lovely Dom's, Belleau Kitchen Random Recipe Challenge No 30, which isn't hard at all and really fun to join in. You can find the rules here on Dom's blog.

My random book number thirty turned out to be Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights. Page thirty, Indian sweet potato pankcakes. Perfect Sunday breakfast. 

To make enough for two people you will need:

• 2 egg whites
• 340g/1 1/2 cups of cooked coarsely mashed sweet potatoes
• 2 medium sized spring onions/scallions, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of curry powder
• 1 pinch of ground cumin
• Salt and pepper
• Groundnut oil

The method is very simple. You beat the egg whites in a bowl and then add all the other ingredients apart from the oil, and mix well with your fingertips. Heat up the oil in a frying pan. Then form neat little pancakes...and drop them into the hot oil, squashing down a little with a spatula. Then cook for about five minutes on each side. Sophie recommends turning over for a final blast of heat on the first side before serving. 

I can't express enough just how tasty these ordinary looking little pancakes are. They have crunchy outsides and hot soft spicy middles. I forgot to add the onions, so we ate the pancakes with the crunchy fresh spring onions and cold sour yoghurt. Scrumptious. I will definitely be making lots of these. They would be a great vegetarian alternative to a cooked English breakfast...good for visitors.

The process of making them was so relaxing...Maybe something to do with the lovely Miss Dahl herself and her languorous way. Whilst standing over the pan cooking the hot little patties I had found myself imagining  Miss D lip-sinking Bollywood films (you must read the book) or of beautifully bangled and sari clad ladies bending over open fires tending their pancakes, and my mother-in-law teaching me to make Persian lamb cutlets along with wise words in her broken English, not to turn them too soon....

It's this simplicity that I love about Sophie Dahl's cooking. Not too many ingredients, but good ones. She even cuts down on the tools, using fingers instead of fork for mixing. But the best bit about her book is the history, always a little nostalgic tale attached...a nod to her tale-telling granddad...or should that be tail...

...there's just time to for you to join in if you get a riddle on too...coming...?
debx

Random Recipe 25 The Choice is Yours - "unadulterated manna"

 

...That's how Sophie Dahl described her banana bread, when fresh out of the oven, eaten "with a lick of butter."She also said that she used to make it "in the fierce winters" when she "lived in New York and it was too freezing to do anything but bake."

We have nothing to compare with the snowstorm that's raging New York at the moment. But at the weekend it felt like someone had taken the little snow globe of Oxford, given it a subtle shake to produce a gentle powdery dusting of snow. The kitchen beckoned, as did the five black bananas in the freezer. Sounds a bit like the start of a horror film doesn't it? But actually it turned out to be just the antithesis.

I must explain. Dom's monthly Random Recipe Challenge that you can read about here, said that this month we could select a recipe book of choice. It was a toss-up between a few favourites, but Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights won. I randomly opened it at page 266 and 'Banana Bread'. I was a bit dubious that banana bread could ever be described as mana. But for the sake of the challenge, to use up the black bananas and  because I didn't think Miss Dahl would risk her reputation by telling  porkies, I was prepared to try.

You can find the (less than) Voluptuous Miss Dahl's Banana bread recipe on her website here. I can't print it here because it's copyright. As usual her ingredients were healthy and wholesome. Things like spelt flour and butter. I know what you're thinking, but butter is healthy. And her instructions were minimal. Just a bit of banana mashing, beating eggs and then combining everything. My kind of recipe. I did just adapt one of the items. The recipe asks for a cup of brown sugar. As we're trying not to use too much sugar but alternatives I only used half a cup of sugar, and half Maple syrup/honey mixture. I was worried that swapping all the sugar a dry ingredient for the other two wet ingredients may cause problems. I needn't have feared. It rose beautifully.

And the results amazingly are just as she described. Which is why it was speedily wolfed down by everyone. I must admit that I had more than my fair share. Especially when I discovered how well it tastes with a big dollop of Greek Yoghurt, freshly grated ginger, a sprinkling of ground cinnamon and the last drizzle from the bottle of Maple syrup.

Thanks to Dom's challenge I returned to a favourite book that I'd neglected of late. And I remembered a challenge I'd set myself a while ago, to try out each and every one of Miss Dahl's Delights...somehow on the way I got lost. So maybe it's time to begin again.

Blue eggs and green tea - A random recipe challenge

We seem to have an abundance of tea at the moment. H arrived home armed with boxes of Russian Caravan tea and Lapsang Souchong and lots of other interesting things.  Then I got an email out of the blue from China.  A nice one from a very cool lady saying that she liked my blog and wondered if I'd like to try some of her tea. Of course I said yes. Then a parcel arrived all the way from China with Tie Guan Yin Iron Goddess Oolong Tea, Organic Silver Needle White Tea (Bai Hao Yin Zhen ), Bailin Gongfu Black Tea and Premium Grade Dragon Well Green Tea (long Jing). The best thing is that she didn't even ask me to mention her website or write a review about her tea.  Which of course makes me want to do so. Although, maybe not both today. This is the lovely website.  Don't you just love those teapots? 

Well with all the tea and the little blue eggs that a friend's chicken laid, it was perfect timing for making afternoon tea. Especially as the theme for Dom/Karen/Kate's  random recipe this month is "teatime." 

The recipe book I chose was Merry Berry's Simple Cakes. (Edit:whoops that should say Mary Berry!) It randomly opened at page 40, Chocolate and Vanilla Marble Cake. The great thing about Mary Berry's recipes is that just like Delia Smith's you know they are so well tried-and-tested that as long as you follow them correctly will work perfectly.  

This recipe is a very simple all-in-one method.  It's copyright so I can't publish it but you can link to it here. 

It makes a very moist cake that rises well.  

I left mine to cool with a little note saying that I would ice it as soon as I got home.  As you can see somebody (or somebodies) found it before I had the chance!

 

I did ice what was left though as per the recipe, with chocolate icing and a trickle of melted white chocolate. 

It didn't last very long at all and was a big thumbs up with everyone, with or without icing.  Definitely one to make again.

Belleau Challenge - Back to Basics

Wow time flies...Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipes challenge is a year old this month. So he's asked us to go full circle back to the first challenge we ever did.

In his words:


"...  to mark this first birthday I am going to ask you to go back one year and choose again from that first random book... for those of you who took part in that first challenge it's pretty simple... for those who joined in later-on do exactly the same, that first book you used to enter my challenge... and for those Random Recipes Virgins out there... simply choose one of your cookbooks at random..."


So I'm randomly choosing a recipe from The St Michael Freezer Cookery Book the one I used when I first joined in...Not my favourite book, but full of lots of useful advice. It opened up at page 62, Minestrone soup. A really hearty substantial rustic style Italian soup. I was pleased, it's my kind of food. Which is probably why it opened at that page...


To make it you need the soup trinity of leeks, onions and celery, then  some kind of beans and tomato puree or passata and seasonal vegetables. Potatoes and carrots are always good and I like to add a  brassica because they bring a deep, rich flavour and with the addition of dried basil and parsley, make stock unnecessary. 


An a little tip I learned from watching Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers...A piece of Parmesan rind added to the soup whilst cooking gives an amazing  un-cheesy flavour and just melts away to nothing.


...and making?  It's basically a case of cooking the beans. Then a little bit of peeling and slicing of vegetables.  Sautéing the onions and leeks. Adding the tomato puree,seasoning, stock or water and all the other ingredients and cooking until tender, remembering to add the pasta in the last ten minutes or so to cook for the required length of time. Then all you have to do is enjoy it...mmm...

edit...whoops sorry the font was TOO BIG!

Dom's Random Recipe Challenge Number 12 - Salmon and Rocket Pasta

By now you'll realise that I don't generally go out of my way to buy things specially for specific recipes.  Usually it's the other way round.  I see what's growing in the garden, or in season on local markets and food stores, or in my organic veg-box when it arrives. Then I either make-up, or search for an appropriate recipe.


I do make an exception though for Dom's Random Recipe Challenge. I actually make a special trip to buy the ingredients. So it may surprise you that when I went to buy the precise ingredients for Salmon and Rocket Pasta, that I came back with something else! I bought some lovely tuna fillet and watercress! Oh and instead of the prescribed tagliatelle, papardelle.


We've had quite a bit of salmon over the holidays, kindly and deliciously prepared by others. So when I saw tempting fresh dolphin friendly, line-caught tuna in the fishmonger section of the store, I couldn't resist adapting the recipe a little. I was sure the recipe required 'either' rocket 'or' watercress (it didn't, just rocket) I chose the latter as it's even more peppery than rocket, so that was another adaptation. 


Finally the pasta substitute...I really love fresh pasta, 'A' doesn't...and I was making one of those indulgent solitary suppers when he was out visiting friends, so decided to have fresh pasta and wouldn't you know...there wasn't any fresh tagliatelle left in the store, hence the papardelle! 


...I must try and make my own pasta...it's a vague New Years Resolution!


The book? Not a Christmas present...I didn't actually get any Cookery Books this year but lots of lovely related gifts that will creep into photo's soon. But this is my latest acquisition. BBC Good Food: 101 Fish and Seafood Dishes. A dinky little book filled with simple supper dishes...the kind of recipes you could easily make-up yourself, but really good to give you ideas, with good clear illustrations on every other page. Lots of great recipes like Spicy Salmon and Lentils sound lovely (p84) and Leeky Salmon in a Parcel (p66). Oh and I've been wanting a recipe for Cullen Skink(p74) for ages.

But I randomly opened it up at page 92 where you can find the recipe for Salmon and Rocket Pasta. It's copyright so I can't write the recipe here but you can link to it over at the BBC food website, here.


Basically you pan fry the fish in a little oil then remove from the pan. Cook the pasta, reserving some cooking water. Make a sauce with the cooking juices, creme fraiche and the zest of half a lemon...I also added the juice. Then combine all the ingredients...It takes twenty minutes maximum. It actually took me less because I used diced tuna which took about five instead of twelve minutes to cook and fresh pasta that again only took minutes to prepare, even less than dried would have. I also added a little sea salt and lots of crushed black pepper.


A definite winner...10 out of 10...I might even make it for supper tonight...or Tuna and Red Onion Salad looks good page 32...mmm...


It's a delicious and very adaptable recipe as I've shown by changing almost every ingredient including the creme fraiche for low fat yoghurt...(healthier eating being another tentative New Year's Resolution.) Instead of fish, Chicken or prawns would work really well, or wild mushrooms/butternut squash for vegetarians.

Why not join in Dom's challenge this month too...

...You sometimes stumble across the best recipes randomly...


....I may even have to do this again...I've made so many changes to the recipe it might not qualify...

Spicy Moroccan Squash Soup

If you have a brain that works like mine (going off on a million tangents all at once) you can easily be transported on a magical mystery tour into the past...just from one little recipe.  No wonder I rarely drink alcohol...my husband 'A' tells me that I'm already at least one glass up on everyone else, without even touching a drop!

This month, Dom of the Belleau Kitchen is joining up with Jac from Tinned Tomatoes for a joint Random Recipe and No Croutons Required challenge. For the challenge you have to randomly select a soup recipe and if it's not vegetarian,  just mix it up a bit so that it is.  It sounded like fun...

So I picked up The New Soup Bible and opened it randomly at page 168 to Moroccan Chicken Soup with Charmoula Butter and before you could say 'Sancho Panza' I was on a boat sailing from the port of Algeciras at the southern edge of Spain, to Ceuta in North Africa...


But it all started long before then...


When I was a little girl we lived with my maternal grandparents and my aunty, who as well as being a local artist did an important job,  that she told us required signing the official secrets act...maybe she was a spy! She painted abstract paintings, and blue and green portraits and big red nudes in her studio upstairs.  The nudes always seemed to be big fat red ladies, and I didn't like them.  I'm sure they were very good and I'm not sizist at all...if there is such a thing...but for some reason as a little girl I had an aversion to them.


On Saturday afternoons I sometimes watched old black and white movies with my granddad and 'little nanny'  in their living room.  I remember lots of old Betty Davies movies, and films with safaris in African jungles with beautiful Grace Kelly and Ava Gardener  dressed in safari suits, who would disappear into a tiny tent, only to reappear a second later clothed in beautiful evening dresses, with perfectly choiffed hair. It became an obsession with me to go to the continent of Africa one day...I didn't really care which country in Africa. The whole continent sounded  romantic to me. I read everything I could about it.

So when some years later I went on holiday to Southern Spain with a group of girlfriends and discovered just how close we were to North Africa, I couldn't settle until we'd bought tickets and sailed over for the day.  I loved it. It wasn't the romantic jungle with warriors killing lions and tigers with spears, and ladies in safari suits and beautiful gowns falling in love with alpha males.  But I thought it was amazing and funnily enough my memories are food related.


We arrived at siesta time.  Everywhere was closed and so we hired a six door Mercedes to drive us to the borders of Morocco. We were starving and the driver took us to a Hotel.  He knocked on massive big double wooden doors that opened onto a lively courtyard, full of people sitting at long wooden tables enjoying lunch.  We ordered paella that was served from the most enormous beaten metal  paella pan, saffron yellow with prawns and clams and mussels and then we drank sherry that was so sweet and dark that it was almost black, called Malaga Virgin.  I'll never forget that meal...

That's where Dom and  Jacs' challenge took me....I only needed to see the word "Moroccan"and I was off on a metaphorical magic carpet ride...


I adapted  my random recipe to make Spicy Moroccon Squash Soup with Charmoula Butter by substituting the chicken with butternut squash....and it was amazing.


Here are the ingredients you'll need:


50g/2oz/ 1/4cup butter ( I used olive oil and not so much)
450g/11b of butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
1 onion chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
7.5ml /1 1/2 tsp plain (all purpose) flour
15ml/1tbs harissa
1 litre/1 3/4 pints 4 cups vegetable stock
400gm/14oz can chopped tomatoes
400g/14oz can chick peas drained and rinsed
salt and ground black pepper
lemon wedges to serve


For the charmoula
50g/2oz slightly salted butter at room temperature (or soya or olive oil substitute)
30ml/2tbsp chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)
pinch of saffron strands
finely grated rind of 1/2 lemo
5ml/1tsp paprika
cup of dried breadcrumbs (I used fresh ones and this worked great)


Method:

1. Melt the butter or heat the oil in a large heavy based pan and then sauté the onion and cook over a gentle heat for a four or five minutes until beginning to soften but not colour too much.  Add the garlic and continue to cook for a minute or so, being careful not to burn as it will taste bitter.
2. Stir in the flour and cook for a three or four minutes, stirring continuously until it begins to brown.
3. Stir in the harissa and cook for a minute. Gradually add the stock and cook for two to three minutes until it's slightly thickened.  Stir in the tomatoes.
4. Add the squash and chick peas. Cover and cook on a low heat for about twenty minutes until the squash is tender. Season well with salt and pepper.

To make the chamoula:

1. Put the butter or substitute into a bowl and beat in the coriander, garlic, cumin, chilli, saffron strands, lemon rind and paprika.  When the mixture is well combined, stir in the the coarse breadcrumbs.
2. Ladle the soup into six warmed bowls.  Spoon a little of the charmoula into the centre of each and leave for a few seconds to allow the butter to melt into the soup before serving with lemon wedges.

This soup is absolutely delicious.  It's a very substantial autumn or winter recipe.  If allowed to reduce a little more it would make a great accompaniment to couscous, quinoa  or rice.  The variations are endless.  It would work with any root vegetable and would be nice with spinach or chard added.  For meat eaters prawns or fish would work well too and of course the chicken that the original recipe required.

This isn't the most photogenic dish (at least my version isn't) it looked much better when the butter had melted in...but what it lacks in beauty it definitely makes up for in taste ...

The chamoula whilst butter-heavy is an amazing addition and would make a great  stuffing for chicken or turkey.  I think it would work really well sandwiched into the cavity made in a chicken when you lift the breast skin up; I'm sure that it would result in a really tasty moist chicken....mmm...the possibilities are endless...(sorry veggies)

Random Recipes#7 - Back to Basics

I closed my eyes tight shut, a finger obediently pointed randomly in the direction of a pile of shuffled cookery books. On opening them I was pleased  to see that I was poking a copy of  Tessa Kiros' Falling Cloudberries. 

 even happier serendipity when it opened at page 292 SPAGETTINI WITH PEPPERCORNS, ANCHOVIES AND LEMON. I don't eat a lot of pasts but I do love spaghetti and always have some in the pantry.  I used this instead of spagettini (angel hair spaghetti) and fortunately had all the other ingredients to hand, including some delicious Antica Cremeria butter from Carluccio's, that one of my sisters had just bought for 'A'.  It's an amazing white butter made with the cream of the milk used for making Parmigiano Reggiano cheese...a real treat.

The sauce is made by cooking anchovy fillets in butter until they soften, then adding lemon juice, rind, and crushed green peppercorns.  Letting the ingredients meld together into an unctuous savoury sauce, to serve with cooked pasta, adding some more butter and a little of the cooking water from the pasta.  Topped with grated or shaved Parmesan cheese this is delicious.

I love this kind of spaghetti recipe with not too many ingredients.  It reminded me of spaghetti cooked for us by a friend we made on holiday in Italy...a surprise  supper in a chestnut lodge in the Tuscan mountains. Served  with garlic and olive oil or butter... maybe some fresh herbs I can't remember...simple good food, but delicious. 

Random Recipes#6 - my favourite cook book...

After my last catastrophic attempt at Dom’s challenge, I was really pleased to see that this month’s ‘Random Recipe Challenge’ is from "your favourite cook book".

Which cookery book would I choose as my favourite? A no-brainer? Actually it’s harder than you might think.

If you’re like me, that is. That’s because I have groups of favourite cookery books. For example, the ones with hand-written inherited recipes collected over time. Ones that you’ve had to coax out of friends or relatives. Secret family recipes that they may not really want to share until their deathbed, and even then, you may not have been the first choice for the legacy...

Then there are my favourite informative ones, those that have the 'how-to' recipes, the diagrams, conversion charts and tables; the well used reference books that you can’t do without.

Finally, my most-read books, the beautiful ones, or those written by my favourite cookery writers. Interestingly, non by chefs (unless you count Jamie.) Books like ‘Falling Cloudberries,’ or ‘Apples for Jam’ with the cute little pair of red shoes on the dust jacket, both written by Tessa Kiros, that I coveted for ages until I had my own copies. Then poured over the pages a hundred times reading the text and the recipes, admiring the colour images and cute illustrations; but for some reason have only ever tried making one…!

My much loved, and well-used copy of Nigel Slater’s ‘Real Food’ that I know would randomly open at the page for Green Chicken Curry. I love that book and use it all the time. I think I love him too. Watching him with people on TV he just seems like such a nice guy, someone that you would want to have as a friend…you just know that he’d be a really good one.

I can’t miss out the kitsch nostalgia of Nigella’s 50’s and 60’s inspired, retro family recipes, which I can find in any one of her books that inhabit my shelves. I’m always making her Keralan inspired spicy breakfast omelette and watching re-runs of ‘Nigella Bites’ or ‘Forever Summer’ (I prefer those earlier TV shows) they have brightened up many a rainy day, encouraging me to get out the baking bowl!

But at the moment (and I know that may sound fickle) my favourite cookery book is 
‘Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights.’ I love reading SD’s story, I love the images, I love the food and her style of cooking…and I love her too...it’s just perfect for me…

And the random recipe is…da…da…:-

"Baked eggs with Swiss chard"

You can find the recipe on page 40. It’s in the ‘autumn lunch’ section. I have to say that on randomly opening the page I was a little disappointed. This didn’t sound the most exciting or attractive dish to make for the challenge.


But not-one to give up easily I persevered and I’m so glad that it took me to this page. It's really worth making. If you don't have copy you can link to it here.


Basically you:

• Caramelise red onions in olive oil. Then place them in an oven proof dish along with chopped chard.
• Crack in eggs. Season and then bake in a medium oven until the eggs are cooked.
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle with goats cheese and grill until it's melted.

I used lovely Persian ewe's milk cheese, just because we've had some relatives over that brought us some, and it's delicious. The finished result didn't look very much and the cheese was a bit pongy when I took the dish out from the oven...but it tastes amazing, especially with a good dash of Tabasco sauce.

This is the 17th recipe from Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights’  that I've tried and tested to date. I will make this often.  Another resounding thumbs up...10/10 from me.

I think that although in the autumn lunch section, this is a great vegetarian alternative to an English cooked breakfast. It has as much flavour and is just as substantial. In fact it's Saturday morning and pouring with rain...

so I think I'll go and cook some up now...mmm....can't wait