Stuff and nonsense

I’m typing this rather gingerly as I have sustained 1st degree burns to both my index fingers, courtesy of attempting to make my own nougat. It hurts like buggery, and I now have a seemingly unmovable coat of burnt, rock-like candy welded on to the bottom of the kitchen bin. Damn you sugar syrup and your heat retaining properties!

So the recipe I’d like to share with you is one which is hopefully relatively painless, in both the somatic and mental sense. The crowning achievement of all of my Emergency term was cooking the following pie – a pastry with a deep mature chocolate base and hints of marzipan, studded with soft pears that cut through the richness. Ohhh baby, believe me it’s good, and what’s more, I can shortcut my way around the original Jamie recipe and have on the table without so much as a bead of sweat. Go here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/dessert/chocolate_and_pear_tart for the original recipe, but if you want to save yourself a lot of hassle, I highly recommend being lazy like me (no one will know). The pic below is from Jamie’s website, but mine looked even better.

Chocolate and Pear Tart

serves 6 or more
• a frozen tart shortcrust shell (about $3 at my IGA – stuff making my own pastry)
• 125g ground almonds
• 2 large eggs
• 125g butter, softened (chuck for 20 seconds in the microwave or melt with the chocolate)
• 95g sugar
• 185g dark chocolate, melted*
• large tin of pears in natural syrup
• Jamie suggests “crème fraîche” (whatever), I say cream would be perfect

Preheat the oven to 190°C or to whatever the instructions are on the frozen tart shell packet. Bake the pastry for around 10 minutes in the preheated oven as per instructions, then remove, set aside, and reduce the oven temperature to 170°C.

Chuck the almonds, eggs, butter and sugar into the melted chocolate while it’s still warm and stir until smooth. Pour the mixture evenly into the pastry case and then press the pears into the pie in some kind of nice-looking arrangement.

Bake the tart for 45 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the chocolate and almond mixture is firm. Serve warm with crème fraîche or softly whipped cream.

Ridiculously easy.

*I like to put the chocolate and butter in the microwave on high for 1 min, then stir, then repeat for 30 second intervals, being careful not to burn it. I seem to have a knack for burning things, including myself.

After eating one of these, I almost had an acute coronary syndrome. Good for you if you want to develop E cups aka Nigella. Bad if you intend on reaching your full life expectancy.

Molten Chocolate Babycakes by Nigella

Ingredients/equipment

• 50g soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
• 350g best dark chocolate
• 150g caster sugar
• 4 large eggs, beaten with a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 50g plain or Italian 00 flour
• 6 individual pudding moulds, buttered
• baking parchment

Unless you are making these up in advance, preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6, putting in a baking sheet at the same time. Lay 3 of the moulds on a sheet of doubled baking parchment. Draw round them, remove, and then cut out the discs as marked. Press them all into the base of the tins.

Melt the chocolate and let it cool slightly. Cream together the butter and sugar, and gradually beat in the eggs and salt, then the vanilla. Now add the flour, and when all is smoothly combined scrape in the cooled chocolate, blending it to a smooth batter.

Divide the batter between the 6 moulds, quickly whip the baking sheet out of the oven, arrange the little tins on it and replace in the oven. Cook for 10-12 minutes (the extra 2 minutes will be needed if the puddings are fridge-cold when you start) and as soon as you take them out of the oven, tip out these luscious babycakes onto small plates or shallow bowls. Serve these with whipped double cream, the same unwhipped in a jug, crème fraiche, crème anglaise or ice cream.

Serves 6.

Cook’s notes

• Aim for a cakey outside with a river of chocolate ooze within.
• I cooked them for ~20min at 200°C cos at 10min they were still in a custard type stage.
• I used 3/4 quantities and it filled 6 muffin moulds well (don’t own pudding tins).
• I made the mistake of using an overly sweet dark chocolate so cakes turned out almost sickly diabetogenic. Adjust sugar according to taste – I’d recommend using only >70% cocoa solid chocolate.
• Will stay in the fridge for a while as a fudgey sort of dessert, or you can microwave them to revive the choc ooze.
• Have a gym membership ready. You’ll need it!

Doesn’t this look absolutely fantastic? However, I’m a bit undecided on the taste. As a rule, chocolate and raspberries translate into success, but I think I prefer my orginal white base pav.

If anyone else makes this, I’m curious to see if theirs tastes as good as it looks. Maybe it’s just me – my family devoured it in a matter of minutes, rendering my friends-to-call-in-emergency-leftover-pavlova-crisis redundant.

Chocolate Raspberry Pavlova by Nigella, as usual

Ingredients: (I used 2/3 of everything to make a smaller and cheaper pav)

For the chocolate meringue base:

• 6 egg whites
• 300g caster sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder, sieved
• 1 teaspoon (preferably balsamic or red wine) vinegar
• 50g dark chocolate, finely chopped

For the topping:

• 500ml whippable cream (at least 30% fat!)
• 500g raspberries
• 2-3 tablespoons coarsely grated dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Beat the egg whites until satiny peaks form, and then beat in the sugar a spoonful at a time until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Sprinkle over the cocoa and vinegar, and the chopped chocolate. Then gently fold everything until the cocoa is thoroughly mixed in. Mound on to a baking sheet in a fat circle approximately 23cm in diameter, smoothing the sides and top. Place in the oven, then immediately turn the temperature down to 150C and cook for about one to one and a quarter hours. When it’s ready it should look crisp around the edges and on the sides and be dry on top, but when you prod the centre you should feel the promise of squidginess beneath your fingers. Turn off the oven and open the door slightly, and let the chocolate meringue disc cool completely.

When you’re ready to serve, invert on to a big, flat-bottomed plate. Whisk the cream till thick but still soft and pile it on top of the meringue, then scatter over the raspberries. Coarsely grate the chocolate so that you get curls rather than rubble, as you don’t want the raspberries’ luscious colour and form to be obscured, and sprinkle haphazardly over the top, letting some fall, as it will, on the plate’s rim.

Serves 8-10.

It has been something of a quiet mission of mine in life, to make a pavlova. One that tastes of meringue, as opposed to uncooked omelette. Many an afternoon has been spent whipping, prodding and poking a pile of egg whites. Finally I have succeeded, muhahaha!

Thanks again Nigella, I take back everything I said about you being lazy and a slut.

Pavlova as written by Nigella, who stole the recipe off Stephanie Alexander.

Ingredients

• 4 egg whites at room temperature
• 250g caster sugar (I used 1 cup of normal sugar and it was ok)
• 2 teaspoons cornflour
• 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar (or a sprinkling of cream of tartar)
• few drops pure vanilla extract
• 300ml double cream, whipped till firm
• pulp of 10 passion fruits (or those gourmet jars of pulp)

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line a baking tray with baking parchment and draw a 20-23cm circle on the paper, or just imagine what size the circle should be and dollop the meringue on. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until satiny peaks form. Beat in the sugar, a third at a time, until the meringue is stiff and shiny. Sprinkle over the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla and fold in lightly. Mound on to the paper on the baking tray within the circle, flatten the top and smooth the sides. Place in the oven. IMMEDIATELY reduce the heat to 150ºC and cook for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and leave the pavlova in it to cool completely.

Invert the pavlova on to a big, flat-bottomed plate, pile on cream and spoon over passion fruits scooped – pips and all – from their shells. Don’t be tempted to add other fruit.

I think this kind of thing needs to be eaten within a few hours or so once the cream goes on. Plan for this in advance, otherwise you’ll have to do what I did – call up friends in close proximity for the express purpose of inviting them over to get rid of your pav. Which is quite a nice thing actually, in retrospect (hint hint…)

What a gorgeous weekend. Such a shame to have to ruin it all by Monday-itis. No, make that weekday-itis.

But here’s a recipe that is reminiscent of summer picnics and party times.

Ok, so the picture isn’t actually of the ones I made, but it’s pretty close.

Sweet chilli chicken wings

Preparation: 30 min & overnight marinating
Cooking: 1 hour
Serves: 8 (or use 1kg chicken, and serve 4 with more sauce)

Ingredients

• 2 kg chicken wings, then discard the tips (unless you like nibbling on them)
• 2 cloves crushed garlic
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 table oil
• 1/4 sweet chilli sauce
• 2 tbls honey
• 1 tbls w vinegar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tsp grated ginger
• 1 tbls soft brown sugar

1. Trim chicken of fat/sinew. Cut the wing up into edible sized sections.
2. Mix all other ingredients in a big bowl. Add chicken and coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight (or several hours).
3. Preheat oven to 180C degrees. Drain chicken pieces and reserve marinade. Place chicken on a roasting rack over a baking tray or in a deep baking dish. Bake for 1 hour or until crisp/cooked. Brush the pieces with reserved marinade several times during cooking. Serve hot.

Option: I pan-fried mine once cos I was too stupid to know how to turn on an oven. I think they actually tasted better, but it’s more work. Brown the chicken in batches, then add everything in and cook for ~30min over mod-high heat

Storage: You can cook it up to 2 days in advance and reheat in 180 degree oven for 10-15 min.

I don’t know why this has become a foodie blog. Perhaps because food occupies my mind 80% of the time. The recipe below is an aphrodisiac if I ever came across one – I’m not sure if that’s because it tastes sinful, or because it’s a Nigella recipe.

Is this woman hot or what? Why does a cook need to look like Monica Belluci? And I don’t care how sexually ambiguous I sound, haha.

Chocolate Pots

1. Crush the chocolate to smithereens in the food processor.

2. Heat the cream and milk until just about boiling, then add the vanilla and allspice and pour through the funnel over the chocolate. Let stand for 30 seconds. Process for 30 seconds, then crack the egg down the funnel and process for 45 seconds.

3. Pour into whatever little cups you’re serving in, and sit them in the refrigerator for 5 hours or overnight. But remember to take them out of the refrigerator a good 20 minutes before you want them to be eaten; the chill interferes with their luscious, silky richness.

Note: This makes 2 cups altogether: enough to fill 8 little pots of approximately 1/4 cup capacity. But if you’ve got only bigger cups, just augment quantities.

From this:

To this:

This is a most fantastic recipe, because it’s quick, inexpensive, and it worked for me the first time I tried it, which is near unheard of. For my fellow DH-watcher, who is not losing her mind.

Panna cotta with passionfruit sauce (serves 4)

Preparation time 10 min; refrigeration time 6 hours
Ingredients:

• Light olive oil for brushing
• 3 teaspoons powdered gelatine (use a bit more if you’re strapped for time, but the panna cotta will be firmer)
• 300ml milk
• 300ml cream
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Passionfruit sauce

• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/3 cup (90g) passionfruit pulp
• 1/2 (125ml) water

1. Lightly brush 4 x 150ml moulds with the olive oil
2. Mix gelatine and 2 tablespoons water (may require more) in a small bowl until gelatine dissolves
3. In a separate small saucepan, put the milk, cream and sugar in, then heat until just under boiling point, stirring to dissolve sugar
4. Remove pan from heat and whisk in gelatine until dissolved. Add vanilla
5. Pour into moulds, refrigerate for 6 hours or until set.

Meanwhile…

1. For the sauce, put sugar and water in a small saucepan on medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves
2. Remove from heat and add passionfruit
3. Pour into a small jug and refrigerate.

When ready to serve, lightly run a knife around the side of each mould and invert onto plates. Spoon the sauce over the top.

Serve to lovers and friends so you can revel in their admiration whilst they eat your sexy, silky dessert…yum!