Chocolate macarons are my most favourite macaron. They’re so beautifully rich, and the osmotic-like absorption of the ganache’s flavour from the shell makes them so much more delectable. But they’re also incredibly simple to make… once you’ve got the technique. After I made the macarons for the second time, I knew the recipe and what to do off by heart. It’s not the recipe itself that’s difficult; it’s just keeping an eye on the consistency of the batter (i.e. knowing what to look for), and getting to know your oven!

Perhaps I’ve finally mastered the recipe and got to grips with my oven?! Or perhaps not… just because I’ve made decent looking macarons a couple of times doesn’t mean a thing! Especially as on a more recent attempt, they failed completely.

I ran out of icing sugar, and used desiccated coconut in place of the almonds. When I baked the cookies, they developed no foot at all, and had a completely different texture to regular macaron shells. However, I still sandwiched them with the chocolate ganache and put them forward in the badminton league buffet. I did get compliments though, as they were quite tasty, although nothing like the macaron I was hoping for!

There are many variations of making macarons posted all over the internet; some people try it and have great success, while others try and have little. Sometimes it’s just that the instructions can be quite ambiguous. When a recipe states something along the lines of “now, incorporate the almonds and icing sugar with the egg whites, being sure not to over mix. You know that you’ve over mixed when the batter is dull,” it can mean anything! But for me, the most important part of making macarons was the “macaronage,” which some people use to refer to the part where the almonds and icing sugar are incorporated into the egg whites, and the right amount of air is knocked out of the whites. If the batter is over mixed it will become very runny, and won’t be able to hold its shape when piped. However, if it’s under mixed, you won’t get a perfectly smooth shell and too many air bubbles inside. The piped macaron shells are then left on the worktop for about an hour to air-dry. This helps to create a hard shell, so that when the air inside of the macaron shell expands in the oven, the shell is forced upwards thus creating the “foot” at the bottom. If the shell isn’t tough enough, then it’ll crack and no foot will develop. I have read on a few other blogs that leaving them out to “air-dry” wasn’t a necessity for them, but in my experience, is it a necessity for me!

The following video is a great instructional video on how to make macarons. The part about knocking the air out of the egg whites was what I found the most helpful: if you plop some of your batter onto a plate before baking, and the peak slowly disappears, then you’ve got the perfect batter. It should have a “magma” like consistency. I found that to be a top tip!

I use a roasting tin with parchment paper to bake my macarons, because it doesn’t distort with the heat of the oven, therefore giving lopsided shells. Also, I place the roasting pan on top of a broiler pan in the lower part of my oven. This stops the heat from the bottom of the oven being too harsh on the shells, and also keeps the macarons perfectly at mid/lower-level in my oven! However, I can only bake about a maximum of 12 shells at a time. So macaron baking requires patience!

The temperature at which people bake their macarons is also a hot topic. Too low or too high temperatures result in undesirable consequences, which is why it’s important to “get-to-know” your oven. A further note is that the size of the macaron shell I believe is entirely of your choice, as I’ve seen and bought macarons of varying sizes. Some like them rather large but other prefer them bite-size. Personally, I prefer slightly larger maracons, that require two or three minute bites. But that’s just me.

And finally, macarons do taste better with time, which probably goes against almost all rules of French pâtisserie! But I suppose that as macarons aren’t pastry, the rules of pastry don’t apply. It takes time for the shells to absorb the flavour of the ganache, which gives them a very soft and flavourful interior. Some people recommend eating them after 2 days, but the ones that I bought from Zürich airport (along with other sources) suggested up to 5 days for maximum flavour. In fact, the blog Not So Humble Pie suggests that if you’re leaning towards either over or under-baking your macarons, go towards over-baking them, because if they’re a little too dry, the moistness from the ganache can help to rectify the issue after a few days of mingling!

A great trouble-shooting guide, as well as other tips and discussions, can be found here.

Macarons au Chocolat
Adapted from: Not So Humble Pie and Kokken 69
Makes 8-10 shells (4-5 macarons)

Ingredients
For the shells:
• lemon juice
• 40g ground almonds
• 57g icing sugar
• 10g cocoa powder (or replace with icing sugar and add some vanilla essence instead)
• 35g egg whites
• 11g granulated sugar

For the ganache: (enough for about 15-20 macarons!)
• 200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 200g double cream
• 70g butter, at room temperature

Preparation
For the shells:
Add a splash of lemon juice to a very clean bowl together with the egg whites. Whisk for about 30-60 seconds until very frothy. Sprinkle in the granulated sugar, and continue to whisk until stiff, glossy peaks form (the kind where you can hold the bowl upside down over your head!).

Then sieve in the icing sugar, cocoa powder and ground almonds together over the egg white peaks. Now, this is the part some people refer to as “macaronage” (i.e. macaron-ing). Use a wooden spoon or pastry scraper to knock the air out of the batter. Use the spoon to scoop the batter around the outer edges of the interior of the bowl and then almost scrape the batter down the middle of the bowl in a zig-zag pattern until the final consistency is similar to that of magma. A useful video to watch can be found here.

A test to see if the batter is of the appropriate magma-like consistency is to take a clean plate, and dollop a spoonful in the middle. If the peak slowly disappears into itself, then the batter is ready. If it’s still visible after about 30 seconds or so, then it needs some more air knocking out! If the batter is too runny, then you’ve over mixed!

Prepare a heavy-duty baking sheet with baking parchment. Spoon the batter into your piping bag (or icing syringe, etc.), and dollop macarons onto the parchment paper, leaving at least an inch worth of space between each shell. This depends entirely on how large you want your macarons.

Bash the tray on the surface of the worktop 4 times, rotating each time. This forces air bubbles in the macaron batter to rise to the top. Use a toothpick to pop any large ones. Leave the macarons on the side for an hour to air dry, so that they’re not sticky or tacky to a light touch.

Preheat the oven to 155◦C, ensuring that you do not use fan assist. Pop the tray into the lower half of the oven for 16-18 minutes.

Leave to cool completely before peeling the shells off the parchment.

For the ganache:
Melt the chocolate and cream over a low heat in a saucepan; allow to cool to around 50^◦C. Cut up the butter in a bowl, pour over the chocolate sauce, and whip until smooth. Pop into the fridge until thick enough to pipe. Before piping, leave the bowl out of the fridge for a while to bring the ganache up to room temperature.

Assembling the macaron:
Fill an icing syringe or piping bag with the ganache, and dollop a splodge into the centre of a macaron shell; not too much or too little. It takes a little practice to get the right amount, so that when the two shells are sandwiched together, the ganache spreads to the edges of the shell but no father, and so that there’s a smooth, unblemished edge around the ganache. Pop in the fridge for anywhere between 2-5 days before taking out of the fridge to bring it up to room temperature before devouring.

Bon appétit!!

Shells baked: 19.12.2011, shells filled: 20.12.2011.

I’ve been dying to try and make some macarons for a long long time now. But before I attempted, I would like to try them first. A few weeks ago, my PhD led me to Switzerland to visit my sponsor company for a couple of days. I was certain that Zurich airport would have macarons… and indeed they did! I ended up purchasing a box of 6 of these fairly expensive Lindt macarons from their “Délice” selection,” while my supervisor bought some Swiss chocolate for his family/friends. So finally, I get to taste Swiss macarons! I’m sure they’re the same as the French ones.

And as a side note, Zurich airport is the best airport I’ve ever been to. The security is such a pleasure to go through. That’s probably because they had security stations for groups of gates, rather than one large security area for loads of people. It made everything to much quicker and relaxed. Also, every time I see the recent Lindt advert on TV with Roger Federer, I think to myself “woo, Switzerland!” I much prefer the normal-TV version to the extended one:

However, I just found it quite funny though when, about two weeks later, my mum went to a supermarket and found mini macarons on sale for a fraction of the price of the Lindt ones… I’ll have to decide if they rival those of Lindt when I get home this weekend!

Now that I have finally tried macarons, I had no excuse to attempt to bake my own. I have to admit, I was terrified that something would go horribly wrong after hearing how difficult they are to get perfect, how you have to become accustomed to your own oven and all of these Swiss and French meringue methods. But I think that my macarons are ok! Sure, they look a little homemade (I think it’s partly to do with using too small a nozzle on my piping bag – so it’s difficult to pipe smooth circle – but then again I still think my batter is too under mixed, after reading this post by Brave Tart).

Light in new place difficult for photography as it only comes from one angle and is so depepdent on the day.

My first attempt at macarons this week were lavender shells. However I think that the batter I used was severely under mixed (due to my fear of over mixing the batter, after hearing dreaded things about that!), as the shells were so thin and crumbly. Although when they were in the oven, I did get excited when I started to see the “feet” developing and even thought to myself “perhaps I’ve got this macaron stuff down!” Of course, I hadn’t. The only good thing about these ones was that they had fairly bump-free tops (most probably as a result of under mixing and the batter being too runny).

The second attempt weren’t too bad. I think that the feet were good! I did get a little impatient though and sandwiched the white chocolate ganache between the banana flavoured shells before it had completely cooled. But they tasted ok and weren’t too bad!

I was quite pleased with the coffee and Nutella macarons I made on my third attempt, but was very disappointed that there seemed to be no feet.

I’m going to attempt one more time this week using a slightly different method I’ve found during my readings of macaron baking. And seeing as it’s nearly 4pm on a Friday afternoon, I only have a few hours of the day left to get cracking…

For Father’s Day, I asked dad what I could cook for him as a ‘gift.’ He asked for Thai Green Curry and Spotted Dick.

This recipe I found called for a strawberry and rhubarb rather than cherries. I was going for blueberries, but there weren’t any in the fridge, even though I swear that there were! So I opted for cherries! It would have been nice to have had more (so I doubled the amount that I used in the recipe below), as mine only just managed to cover the top.

Ours was with a vanilla bean custard, which was extremely good! But I made mine ahead and reheated it later, but unfortunately it was a little lumpy and not too attractive to the eye. However it still tasted delicious.

Here’s a nice image of dad and his mum on Mother’s Day in 2008. And a handsome image of Tim, just thrown into the mix

Spotted Dick with Cherry Compote
Adapted from: There’s A Newf in My Soup
Serves 16

Ingredients
For the cherry compote:
• 300g cherries, pitted
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 x sachet gelatine
• 2 tbsp brandy
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

For the spotted dick:
• butter and flour, for greasing
• 10 tbsp/170g butter or suet
• 1¼ cups/300g sugar
• 4 x eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2¾ cups/340g self-raising flour
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup/150g dried fruit

Preparation
For the cherry compote:
Mix the sugar and gelatine in a bowl. Then add the cherries, lemon juice and brandy, and simmer over low heat until thick and syrupy – about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, butter a cake tin, then dust with flour (knocking the excess out).

Pour the syrup in the bottom of the tin, arranging the cherries (without burning yourself!) in a pretty fashion. Leave to cool at room temp. until set.

For the spotted dick:
Trace a circle on parchment paper slightly larger than the cake tin, and cut out.

Melt the butter in a large bowl, add the sugar, and cream with a wooden spoon until pale and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Sift the flour into the mixture, and beat until well combined. Then add the milk and beat, also. Dollop the mixture on top of the cherry compote, and flatten out.

Fill a large, shallow pan with water, and put some metal cookie cutters or something in the bottom to create a platform on which to place the cake tin, about 1” above the water. Bring the water to a boil, and then turn the heat down so it simmers.

Put the cake tin on top of the platform, cover the tin with the parchment paper, and put the lod on the pan. Steam for about 1 ¼ – 1 ½ hours. If using little ramekins, it will be about 1 hour.

The spotted dick will puff up a lot. I used a bread knife to even the bottom of mine before I inverted it onto a plate, and sliced it, and served it with homemade vanilla custard.

Vanilla Bean Custard
Adapted from: Bite My Thumb
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
• 3 x egg yolks
• 1 cup/250ml double cream
• 1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (1 tsp vanilla essence)
• 3 tbsp sugar

Preparation
Boil water in a small saucepan.

Whisk the cream and egg yolks in a Pyrex bowl until smooth throughout. Then add the vanilla bean seeds (or vanilla essence) and sugar, and whisk until homogeneous.

Place the bowl over the simmering water (this is known as a bain-marie), and whisk continuously so no lumps form. The mixture should be whisked for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and forms a custard like colour and consistency.

Remove the bowl from the pan and pour over your dessert, and enjoy

Enjoy

Enjoyed: 19.06.2011

For Father’s Day, I asked dad what I could cook for him as a ‘gift.’ He asked for Thai Green Curry and Spotted Dick.

I found this recipe from the internet and it looked quite tasty (I have to admit, it’s always the pictures that draw me to the recipes!), and the ingredients seemed plentiful, but easy to find. I have had this curry in curry houses before, but I made one myself from one of Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks using shop-bought curry paste, and it didn’t come out very well. I think it was because I used long beans and asparagus spears, which were quite hefty to manage without getting curry everywhere! This, on the other hand, was extremely creamy and soft in flavour. It would have been easy to spice it up a little more using more chillies (and including their seeds, perhaps) for the curry paste. But having my grandmother and people who don’t appreciate too much spice, I thought it’d be best to tone it down as one can always add chilli to their dish.

Happy Father’s Day, dad

Chicken & Prawn Thai Green Curry
Adapted from: It Must’ve Been Something I Ate
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
For the green curry paste:
• 3 tbsp walnut/peanut oil
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 x stalk lemon grass
• 1 x tsp ground cumin
• 1 x tsp coriander leaf
• ½ green chilli, deseeded
• 3cm ginger, roughly chopped
• 2 x garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 x spring onions, roughly chopped
• 2 x fist full fresh coriander

For the green curry:
• 2 tbsp walnut/peanut oil
• butter and flour, for greasing
• 812g boneless chicken breast
• 360g cooked prawns
• 3 x spring onions, chopped
• 1 x garlic clove, crushed
• 2 x red and green bell peppers, chopped
• 155g mangetout
• 200g pack of “cabbage medley”
• 1 x 400ml can coconut milk
• green curry paste (as above)
• 3cm carrot, grated
• ½ cup water
• 2 x tbsp cornflour
• fresh coriander leaves for garnish

• enough rice for your guests

Preparation
For the green curry paste:
Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend until a smooth paste is formed.

For the green curry:
Heat 2 tbsp of walnut oil in a large pot. Add the chicken and prawns, and whiten the chicken all over. Throw in the chopped onions and crushed garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the chopped peppers and mange tout., and cook for 5 more minutes. Add the coconut milk, green curry pasta, water, cabbage and grated carrot. Bring all to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes or until ready.

Don’t forget to cook the rice! Serve and enjoy!

ทานให้อร่อยนะ

Enjoyed: 19.06.2011

Yesterday, a family friend came for dinner! And what’s better than to celebrate Easter with….Chili!? He also bought us some nice Easter gifts, including flowers and eggs! And mum also wanted me to take pictures of her graduation cards.

I was a little tight on time, with revision and all that, so I tohught I’d make something simple but hearty. I found this chilli website and thought it might not have been too flavourful, as it was quite simple, yet it had really good reviews. And it was very flavourful: it had a mild kick, a nice taste, and I’m wishing I did a little more with it than just piling it on some rice with salad. Although mum does make a killer salad! It’s not just lettuce and tomatoes, but there’s cucumber, sweetcorn, olives, boiled eggs, peppers, grapes and strawberries! It’s full of colour, flavour and health!

Next time, I’d love to use this chilli to make burritos with, and then have nachos, salsa, sour cream and guacamole!

There was enough for 6 portions I’d say; of which a large bowl of chilli was saved for dad for when he came home from London.

Chili con Carne
Adapted from: BBC Good Food
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
• 2 tbsps butter/oil
• 1 x large onion
• 1 x large red pepper/capsicum
• 2 x garlic cloves, diced/minced
• 1 heaped tsp hot dried chillies
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin or parsley
• ½ tsp dried marjoram
• 500g lean minced beef
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp sugar/dark chocolate
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 410g can red kidney beans (in water)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• long grain rice, sour cream, guacamole, etc., to serve

Preparation
Dice the onion and the pepper. Heat the butter/oil in a large pot over a medium heat, and then sauté the onions until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, red pepper, chillies, paprika, cumin/parsley and marjoram, and cook for another few minutes.
Brown the mince all over. Turn the heat up a bit, add the meat to the pan and break it up with your spoon or spatula.
Add the tinned tomatoes and crumble the stock cube into the pan. Add 300ml/½ pint of hot water. Add the sugar (or chocolate) a good pinch of salt and pepper. Then squirt in about 2 tbsp of tomato purée and stir the sauce well.
Simmer it gently. Bring the whole thing to the boil, give it a good stir and put a lid on the pan.
Drain and rinse the kidney beans, then add them to the chilli.
Turn the heat off and leave it for 10 minutes to allow the flavours to mingle (an important step!)
Then, bring the chilli back to the boil, and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes. Check the pan occasionally to stir it and make sure the sauce isn’t drying out. The sauce should be thick and aromatic.
Serve on a bed of plain, boiled rice, with a spoonful of soured cream on top. Pile it on tortilla chips and sprinkle it with grated cheddar. Wrap it up in a tortilla with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and guacamole for a great burrito!

¡¡Buen Provecho!!

Firstly, I would like to say “Happy Graduation, Mum!” Mum finally graduated on Saturday with a BA (Hon) in Social Sciences! She’s just got one more module to go, before she gets a BSc (Hons)! She made me so proud, and gave me that extra motivation I needed to keep on revising and to do well in my final year exams.

Secondly, tonight is the last match of the 2010/11 season. It’s pretty sad, but I’m quite looking forward to tonight; win or lose, they’re going to be tough games! We’re playing against Derriford, and last time we played against them, they were tough! Perhaps some tart might slow them down? Hehe…

I wanted to make something special, but easy to make. This didn’t take very long, but I think the results look as though it did!

For those of you who are familiar with Mr. Kipling’s delicious, but very naughty, Cherry Bakewells, then you might find that these are quite different. I really want to try next time to make cherry bakewells just like Mr. Kipling’s, but I stuck with this recipe I found, first.

I always thought Bakewells involved frangipane, but I think it’s just depends on what recipe you use. According to Wikipedia, a Bakewell tart is a shortcrust pastry with a layer of jam and almond sponge filling, which is then covered with a layer of fondant (which sounds quite similar to the Cherry Bakewells by Mr. Kipling). Whereas the Bakewell pudding is flaky pastry with a layer of jam and an egg and almond filling. Apparently, they’re both quite different with regards to appearance, flavour and texture, but I’ve yet to try a Bakewell pudding. Right, that’s the next things on my “To Make” list!

The colour of the tart doesn’t look too appetising, but that’s because I mixed the raspberries in with the sponge; perhaps I should have scattered them across the pastry base first, but I didn’t: oh well!

I also found that the pastry shrank a little when I pre-cooked it. I think next time I’ll make sure there’s a little hanging over the sides, as once it’s cooked, you can always cut it off afterwards. And I used my mum’s trusty silicon moulds; not only are they non-stick, but they let you remove your pie with ease, and they’re great to clean!

Bakewell Tart
Adapted from: BBC Good Food
Yields 2 x 8″ tarts

Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry (source: Serial Cooking):
• 225g plain flour
• 30g sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 110g buter, melted
• 2 x egg yolks
• ½ tsp almond or vanilla extract (optional)
• 1-2 tbsp water

For the ‘base:’
• 5 x heaped tbsp raspberry jam
• 100g frozen raspberries, just thawed

For the sponge:
• 100g ground almonds
• 100g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 200g butter, melted
• 200g golden caster sugar (I used 20g of Hermesetas sweetener)
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 4 x eggs, beaten
• 4 x heaped tbsp apricot jam

To decorate:
• 25g almonds, slithered

Preparation
For the shortcrust pastry:
Sift the flour in a bowl, and add the sugar and salt. Melt the butter, ensuring that it’s all liquid, and tip into the flour whilst mixing and combining with a wooden spoon. Add the egg yolks and extract, and use the spoon to being it all together. Add the water if necessary, just enough to form a cohesive and slightly sticky dough with your hands. Form the dough into two discs, wrap with clingfilm and pop into the fridge for 30 minutes.

For the tart:
Preheat the oven to 190◦C. Roll out the pastry and line two 8” tart tins (I used silicon moulds; they’re very useful as there’s no need to butter the dish!). When rolling the dough out, it’s best to make sure it’s as cold as possible, and be generous with the flour when flouring the work surfaces. Also, make sure that the pastry hangs over the sides a little.

Pop the pastry into the oven for 8-10 minutes until it’s cooked, but not too coloured. Turn the oven down to 160◦C. Spread the raspberry jam across the bottom of the tart bases, and scatter the raspberries across.

Put the flour, sugar, ground almonds, butter, eggs, extract, baking powder and apricot jam into a bowl and mix until homogenous. Dollop into the pie dishes and sprinkle with flaked/slithered almonds. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden and firm, and leave to cool.

These will freeze for up to 3 months, and can be served hot or cold!

Enjoy your Bakewell tart!

Well, seeing as it’s a rainy day, and I’d rather be doing anything than revision (I was really hoping to go on a long cycle today), here’s a little story and recipe to go with it!

On Valentine’s day, I entered a competition at Jen’s website, My Kitchen Addiction. The competition involved having to choose 10 spices, herbs, seasonings, chiles of extracts from the Spices Inc. website, developing a name for the spice set, and creating a couple of lines as to why those particular spices were chosen for the set.

I didn’t think I’d win anything, but it was a little bit of fun and worth a shot. So I came up with:

The Opportunist’s Diverse Gourmet Collection
These unique and expensive spices are from many areas of the world and only a true gourmet can appreciate their rarity, aroma, richness and origin. They can be used in many dishes, from main courses to desserts, virtually every day in order to develop some of the beautiful flavours found in the world. These spices create opportunity for those who can’t travel, or for those who want to bring about sweet reminiscence, to share these flavours and memories with others.

1. Organic Garam Masala
2. Saffron
3. Organic Cardamom Pods
4. Organic Vanilla Beans
5. Organic Ground Black Pepper Medium Grind
6. Fleur de Sel
7. Star Anise
8. Organic Herbs de Provence
9. Organic Lavender
10. Organic Mustard Seeds

Then a couple of weeks later, Jen sent me an email saying that she’ll be forwarding my address along to Greg Patterson of Spices Inc. so that they can send the custom spice set I “created.” It was amazing! Jen announced the winners here, and it turns out that they couldn’t settle with choosing just one, so they chose three sets that were suggested by competitors.

I couldn’t wait to start cooking with them! I love the use of spices but usually don’t go for expensive options. I’ve never used saffron, star anise or vanilla pods before, so I couldn’t wait to try them out! As well as that I’ve also never used fleur de sel or lavender in cooking, either!

It took the Spices Inc. crew a little bit of time to send to package across, probably because it was quite expensive, and they also said they’d never shipped anything to England before, so I guess they were sorting out the logistics.

A couple of days ago, Parcelforce sent me a letter saying that I was to pay an extra £21.24 as import VAT and clearance fees, and then the spices could be delivered. The Spices Inc. said that they had already paid $39 shipping it over, but as the retail value of the set is under £40, I was able for the gift to be delivered for free (apparently, the value of the spices were written as around $90 on the side of the box!). And I finally received them today! You can see the set for yourself, here.

And to celebrate, I made a beef rogan josh! I followed the sample recipe for my lamb rogan josh, except I used beef instead, and substituted the roasted peppers from a jar in the paste for grilled aubergines from a jar, and used a few different spices, too.

Recipe: here.

I always try to cook different things, which really helps to improve my culinary skill. I am definitely starting to get the hang of improvising, and being able to substitute ingredients and adapt a recipe to suit our own tastes. Not only that, but it also helps to make oneself more open to food when visiting other countries, and cultures. It goes beyond just being open to their food, but also being open to more things in life, too.

When I was younger, I remember a few teachers being really impressed with the number of different types of fruits and vegetables that I knew the names of, and had tried. Once a friend came round to my house for dinner and she asked what the “yellow stuff” was on our plates. My parents were shocked that she’d never even come across sweetcorn before. Back then I had already tried things like pomegranates, Sharon fruits (persimmons), star fruits, passion fruits, and lots of other things like that.

But I feel as though it extents to more than just knowing your food; by knowing and being aware of food makes you naturally inquisitive about other things (i.e. it’s a lifestyle thing). I remember also being in secondary school (high school) and some teachers were really shocked when one pupil pointed Canada out as Australia on a map….and so was I! I went back to my parents and exclaimed to them how one couldn’t know that! And to be honest, my geography is rubbish…but surely everyone knows where Australia is, right?

Anyway, I made this meal for my mum as a mini Mother’s Day gift (even though it’s not until tomorrow). We’ll all celebrate Mother’s Day properly next weekend, because dad will be back from work in London by then, and also we can celebrate with both of our grandmothers, too. But to be fair, I don’t really think that we’ll even be celebrating that, because next week, is mum’s graduation ceremony!

Mum said that she wasn’t looking forward to this meal, as she tried gnocchi years ago (before my brother and I were born) and didn’t like it at all. Admittedly it was from a packet, but I managed to convert her by rustling up this delicious dish of fresh gnocchi! You should try it, too!

I would love to make this again, but for those who like their meat, chicken would go great with this dish! I suppose you could pan fry it before adding the mushrooms. Simple.

Fresh Gnocchi with a Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Source: The Culinary Chronicles
Serves: 4 generous platefuls

Ingredients
For the gnocchi:
• 750g potatoes
• 220g (~2 cups) flour
• 1 x egg
• 1 tsp salt

For the mushroom sauce:
• 2 x tbsp butter
• 500g button mushrooms
• 2 x cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp dried chives
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• 500ml vegetable stock (36kcal)
• 60ml (¼ cup) double cream (150kcal)
• 30g (¼ cup) cheese, grated (I used cheddar)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

To prepare the gnocchi:
Peel the potatoes and cut them into sizes roughly the same size. Boil them in slightly salted water until they’re incredibly soft – about ½ an hour.

Drain the potatoes, reserving the water in the large pot (keep a lid on it to keep the water as hot as possible). Mash the potatoes in a large bowl, and add the flour, little by little, mixing with a wooden spoon. Keep on adding flour and mixing until the dough comes together, so that it’s easy to handle without being particularly sticky.

Separate the dough into balls, and roll each ball out into a long thin sausage-shape about ½ – ¼ “ thick. Then, use a pastry cutter to cut little balls of pillows about 1” long.

Boil the salted potato-y water (reserved from earlier), and pop the gnocchi in. Prepare a large bowl half filled with cold water. Cook some of the gnocchi (this will need to be done in batches) for a couple of minutes until they float to the surface. Remove them with a slotted spoon into the cold water.

When all of the gnocchi are cooked, drain them in a colander and set aside for later.

To prepare the sauce:
Wash and slice the mushrooms. Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large pot; add the mushrooms, thyme, garlic and chives. Sauté the mushrooms until reduced and golden brown. Then add the stock, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the cream, and simmer for a few more minutes, before adding the gnocchi. Let the gnocchi heat all the way through, add the cheese, stir well (being very careful not to break and mash the gnocchi), and leave to boil. Reduce to a simmer for approx. 5 minutes.

Serve piping hot with salad, or anything else of your choice.

Buon appetito!

Yesterday was Dan‘s birthday. He came over for a birthday meal, and then we surprised him with a lovely chocolate cake! I know that a curry isn’t particularly a special meal, but I thought that one made from scratch, along with naan bread, would be a nice effort for any occasion!

This curry was actually a really nice level of spiciness. I like a bit of heat, but I find that too much just overpowers and destroys the rest of the flavours in the dish. This was perfect. There was spice, but you could still taste the other flavours. However, the curry looked a little anaemic; so I improvised and added some turmeric to make it a deeper colour of yellow.

This was also a nice opportunity for me to make some naan bread! The original recipe stated that you should stick the naan with water to the pan, and then turn it upside down to expose the top of the bread to the flame to create those large blister-type bubbles on top. But I didn’t want to create a mess, and decided to play it safe. They came out more like pancakes…but they still looked quite nice and people always appreciate when you’ve gone to extra lengths. The dough however, was extremely sticky (which I believe is what naan bread dough is supposed to be like), so next time I’ll try it the way the original recipe stated.

We served this curry with a really nice salad; with olives, fresh strawberries and hard-boiled eggs. My mum makes such amazing and colourful salads. And this curry definitely thickens up the next day!

Well, I hope you enjoy making this beautiful and aromatic dish as much as I did! I absolutely love cooking for others, because for me it’s not only nice to see people enjoy and compliment something you’ve worked hard on, but it’s also a way to share time together and bond. Food is something that everyone has in common, which is most probably why going out for a meal is always something people find a socially fun thing to do.

Chicken Korma
Adapted from: Jamie’s Ministry of Food, pages 74 & 99
Serves 6

Ingredients
For the curry paste:
• 1 tbsp walnut oil
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• 5 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 2 tbsp ground almonds
• 2 tbsp dried coriander leaves
• 2 x cloves garlic
• ~20g fresh root ginger
• 1½ fresh green chillies

For the curry:
• 800g diced chicken (or chicken breasts, thighs or legs)
• ~40g fresh root ginger
• 2 x onions
• a large bunch of fresh coriander
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp butter
• 1 x drained can of chickpeas
• 1 x 400ml can of coconut milk
• curry paste (as made above)
• turmeric (optional)
• enough natural yoghurt for a large dollop each
• 1 x lemon
• enough rice for 6

Preparation
For the curry paste:
Pop the cumin and mustard seeds into a frying pan, and put on high heat. Don’t add any oil, but leave the seeds on high heat until you can smell their wonderful aroma and you can hear them start to crack. Don’t leave it for any longer though, otherwise they’ll shoot out all over the place.

Finely peel and chop the ginger and garlic cloves. Not forgetting to cut the chilli, too. Pop that, along with the toasted seeds, into a small blender. Then add the rest of the ingredients to a blender, then whiz everything together until it’s a nicely ground paste.

For the curry:
Peel and finely cut the garlic along with the onions. Remove the leaves from the coriander and set aside for garnishing later, and finely chop the stalks.

Put a large casserole dish on high heat and throw in 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the chicken and brown it all over, then toss in the onions, ginger and coriander stalks. Add 1 tsp butter and cook until the onions are soft, but not browned.

Then, add the curry paste, the coconut milk and the drained chickpeas. Fill up half of the coconut milk tin with water and mix that into the curry, too. Bring the mix to the boil, and then leave to simmer for 45 minutes. If the curry looks a little pale, add some turmeric until you’re satisfied with it’s colour.

In the meantime, cook the rice! And when that’s all ready, serve with a fresh wedge of lemon, a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of coriander leaves.

And for the naan…

Homemade Naan Bread (Pancake Style)
Adapted from: Rasa Malaysia
Makes 6

Ingredients
• 2 cups (330g) plain flour
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp sugar
• ¾ tsp salt
• ½ tsp olive oil
• ½ cup (150g) yoghurt
• ½ cup (125ml) warm milk
• butter for brushing
• coriander, lemon, garlic, coconut, black peppercorns (for the type of naan you want)

Preparation
Sieve the flour into a large bowl, and add the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and salt.

Form a well in the centre, and add the oil and half of the milk. Then mix together and add the rest of the milk slowly, until a dough is formed that’s slightly sticky to touch, but leaves an indent when you press it.

Knead the dough for 5-7 minutes, and then cover and keep in a warm place for 2 hours.

Separate your naan into six balls (it will be hard as the dough is sticky wet your hands to make it slightly easier).

Then, heat a non-stick pan on high, and use a brush to brush a little butter to thinly cover the surface.

Stretch out one of your naan balls into an oval, and place it in the skillet/wok. After it has cooked on the bottom, use a spatula to flip it over, and press down on the naan to make it thinner and to spread it out, so as much of the dough is cooked as possible. This is similar to the technique I used for making banana pancakes.

Continue to cook on both sides until they’re slightly brown and crispy.

Do this with the other 5 balls, and set aside to cool. Then, you can reheat in the oven at 200°C for 5-10 minutes (or under the grill for a few minutes) with a sprinkling of water when you’re ready to serve them with your curry!

Enjoy your meal.

Today is Dan‘s birthday. He came over for a birthday meal that I cooked; a chicken korma. It’s quite nice because it was a way for me to practice my cooking skills, especially as he’s lent me so many books ever since I mentioned that I wanted to learn to cook! He also bought his DSLR for me to check out before splurging on one myself.

After the meal, we all moved to the living room and I made tea and coffee for us all. Then, we surprised him with the cake! It was completely unexpected, and I hope he was pleasantly surprised! Whenever I cook for people, I’m always worried as to what they’ll think of my food, which is only natural. But I always have too high an expectation, and am usually disappointed and think they people aren’t telling the truth if I’m complimented. But, the cake turned out beautifully, and Dan even asked for a second slice! But we packed it up for him and he took it home, which was probably a good thing as I would have eaten it all.

This is the best chocolate I have ever made. Seriously. It’s dense, moist, rich, and truly a cake designed for chocolate lovers. One tip is to make sure that you use good chocolate. I used Green & Black’s dark chocolate (70% cocoa), and you could really taste the rich flavour, especially in the ganache; even Dan noticed!

Also, by baking the cake at lower temperatures you prevent it from doming, which makes it easier to layer the cakes, which also means that you can put more ganache on top and it will happily sit there without sliding off, which is absolutely beautiful when you cut it.

I made this cake in 2009 for my boyfriend’s 21st birthday, but didn’t use ‘quality’ chocolate. If I remember rightly, I used Tesco’s milk chocolate, and it was still delicious. I had compliments not only from Ed himself, but also from his housemates who snuck a piece!

The same cake I made for Ed’s 21^st birthday in November 2009. Before we went out I made him come over to mine and surprised him with this cake! It completely smoked my uni room out though; luckily the fire alarms were heat sensitive, not smoke detectors!

My mum has always said that she doesn’t really like chocolate cake because it’s too dry. And to be honest, as much of a chocolate lover I am, I agree. Unless of course it’s covered in frosting or something. However, with this recipe, don’t be afraid if the batter seems a little too runny; that just explains why the cake is so moist.

One day I would love to make this cake twice as high! I’ll need a really special occasion, where lots of people will turn up (so that I’m not subjected to eating it all!) so they can all have cake! Because of the fattening nature of the ingredients, I calculated the calories in the cake; the cake totalled to 4398kcal, and the ganache to 2164kcal (with 99kcal for the cherries!). That makes a total of 6661kcal for the whole cake! So 417kcal a slice! Yikes!

Moist Chocolate Cake with Rich Chocolate and Cream Ganache
Source: BBC Good Food
Serves 16

Ingredients
For the cake:
• 200g dark chocolate (I used Green & Black’s 70% cocoa)
• 200g butter
• 125ml cold water
• 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
• 85g self-raising flour
• 85g plain flour
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 25g cocoa powder (I used Whittard’s coconut hot chocolate)
• 200g sugar (I used 20g Hermesetas sweetener)
• 200g light muscovado sugar
• 3 x eggs
• 95g/75ml/5 tbsp buttermilk

For the ganache:
• 200g dark chocolate (I used Green & Black’s 70% cocoa)
• 284ml pot of double cream
• 2 tbsp sugar (again, I used Hermesetas sweetener)
• 8 x French glace cherries

Preparation
Break the chocolate into little pieces and cut the butter into chunks. Pop into a Pyrex bowl along with 125ml cold water and the coffee.

Then, sieve the flours, bicarbonate of soda and cocoa powder into a large bowl. Add the two sugars, and then break in each egg and add the buttermilk. Mix together with a wooden spoon.

Then, microwave the chocolate and butter mix, stirring after every 45-60 seconds (to make sure it doesn’t burn on the bottom). When it’s fully melted, add all of the mixture to the large bowl of flours, and mix together until all smooth and fairly runny.

Then pop into two silicon moulds (7-8″ diameter), and bake at 150◦C for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I then turned the oven off and let them cool (along with the oven) in there. Make sure that a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

When the cake is completely cool is the time to cover it in ganache. Pop the sugar and the cream into a saucepan, and heat until it starts to bubble. Turn the heat down as much as possible, and break the chocolate into the mix and stir until it melts.

Sandwich the two cakes together with a little of the ganache, and the cover with the rest of it. Try and pop most of it on top, and the cover the rest.

Pop into the fridge, and when it’s hardened a little, push the cherries into the top of the cake to decorate, and then pop back into the fridge to harden completely. Please note that it won’t ever ‘harden,’ but this cake is seriously beautiful to cut!

Enjoy.