No Bake Chocolate Cake Surprise

Ingredients: 

• 125g dessert chocolate (75% cocoa)


• 35g butter


• 25g caster sugar


• 40g crushed sweet biscuits of choice


• 1 crushed small meringue (approx 10cms long, 3cms wide, bought from patisserie/bakery or make your own if you have a reliable oven!)


• 2 eggs, separated

• Prep time: 30 mins


• Chill time: 4 hours


• Makes 4

Instructions: 

• Line 4 ramekins or silicone moulds with cling-film.


• Break the chocolate into small pieces and melt in a bain-marie.


• Beat together the sugar and butter, then add to chocolate, stirring until butter melted.


• Add 2 egg yolks and mix thoroughly and set briefly to the side, allowing it to cool but not set.


• Whisk the egg whites to snow, then fold into the chocolate mixture.


• Once you are sure the mixture is not so hot as to melt the meringue, stir in the crushed meringue and biscuits until evenly distributed.


• Divide the mixture between the ramekins.


• Cover with cling-film and refrigerate.

To serve: turn out onto individual plates and serve with a scoop of vanilla or mint icecream, or whipped cream.

Bye-bye Bastard Oven

Well between illness and failing kitchen appliances there'a not been much to write about on the food front.  Every oven has its own 'feel' and often develops quirks, but the Bastard Oven has deteriorated to the point where it is utterly unreliable.  Thanks to the wonder of online shopping and four 'easy' payments, a shiny new Lovely Oven shall soon be delivered and Bastard Oven carted off to wherever uncompliant appliances go to die. That'll teach it to bugger up my bagels.

In the meantime I am mostly just adding more of my tried-and-tested recipes to the site, although I did come up with a new chocolate dessert the other weekend, inspired by a recipe in an old magazine.  I am rubbish at naming recipes (they tend to be horrible puns and in-jokes that only those closest to me would get) but in an effort to be vaguely sensible and descriptive I shall try calling it No Bake Chocolate Cake Surprise.

Trust me: I create better recipes than titles.

Deep-Fried Calamari

Ingredients: 

• Squid or ready-cut squid rings


• Flour (plain is perfectly good, although I like to use barley flour)


• Salt & pepper


• Mustard powder (optional)


• Lemon juice


• Vegetable oil for deep-frying

Instructions: 

• About 10 mins before cooking, douse the squid in lemon juice.  This will prevent them becoming rubbery.


• Put enough flour to lightly cover your quantity of rings into a food bag or large bowl.


• Add generous quantities of salt and pepper and a sprinkling of mustard powder.


• Drain any excess lemon juice from the squid rings and toss in the flour mixture until each ring is covered.


• Shake off excess flour and submerge in deep oil for 3-4 minutes, or shallow fry for about 2.5 mins on each side.


• Drain and serve with lemon wedges.


• Recommended side dishes: tomato and mozzarella salad, or some crispy golden chips (fries).

 

When I lived in Cyprus as a child, 'Calamari & Chips' was on the menu at just about every taverna - just talking about it makes me think of sunshine and seawater. It is a great summer meal, not least because I can plug in the friteuse outside rather than stinking up the kitchen!

Tags:

calamari

squid

sunshine

chips

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Lemon Curd Tart (with a buttery biscuit base)

Ingredients: 

Lemon Curd:

• 110g butter


• Zest of three medium lemons


• 150g caster sugar


• 3 eggs


• 175ml freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Base:

One quantity of the legendary Buttery Biscuit Base

We ate it before we could take a photo!

Instructions: 

• If you have a good, reliable, heavy-bottomed pan then you can simply dice the butter and pop in the pan with all the other ingredients.


• Otherwise, use a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water.


• Mix continually until even, then intermittently until the mixture thickens and the first bubbles appear.


• Remove from heat and allow to cool a little before spreading on the biscuit base.


• Refrigerate at least an hour.

A Bit Of A Tart At The Weekend

Well what was supposed to be a very busy weekend of cooking and DIY (one of our random, intermittent attempts to be responsible adults) went pretty well on the Saturday. However, Saturday's wine consumption led to a Sunday of staying very, very still on the sofa and the baking session I had planned was postponed.

Culinary highlights of Saturday were Goats' Cheese and Herb Soufflé - my standard soufflé recipe with about 100g of finely chopped goats' cheese and chopped, mixed herbs replacing the usual Gruyère - Deep Fried Calamari and Lemon Curd Tart, all washed down with wines from our local Cave des Vignerons here in Vauvert.  A lot of them.

Buttery Biscuit Base

Ingredients: 

• 250g biscuits of choice


• 170g butter


• 80g caster sugar

• Prep time: 10 mins


• Refrigerate before use

Instructions: 

•  Pop the biscuits in a food processor and chop until your preferred consistency. We like ours medium-coarse.


• Melt the butter and mix into the biscuit crumbs and sugar.


• Press into the base of a dish or lined tin.


• These days I use a lot of silicone moulds, which make for easy removal when the dessert has set.


• Place in the fridge until needed.

No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Ingredients: 

Base:

Quantities depend on your personal tastes.  We like a strong biscuit/topping ratio. Others may wish to use half as much.

• 250g biscuits (here in France I use 'sablé' biscuits, which are somewhere between a digestive and a malted milk, but not potentially soggy as Rich Tea)


• 170g butter


• 80g caster sugar

This is my version of a biscuit base, that was inspired by a friend posting this video.

Topping:

• 225g cream cheese (Philadelphia or similar)


• 100g crème fraîche


• 85g caster sugar


• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice


• About a dozen good-sized fresh strawberries

Instructions: 

For the base:

Pop the biscuits in a food processor and chop until your preferred consistency. We like ours medium-coarse.

Melt the butter and mix into the biscuit crumbs and sugar.

Press into the base of a dish or lined tin.  These days I use a lot of silicone moulds, which make for easy removal when the dessert has set.

Place in the fridge until needed.

 

For the topping:

If using whipping cream, this will need to be whipped separately.  If using crème fraîche, no preparation is required.

Mix together thoroughly the cheese, sugar and lemon juice.

Fold in the cream and whip until well blended.

Spread the topping evenly over the base. Slice the strawberries and arrange on top.

Freeze for at least an hour.

Remove from freezer 45 mins before serving.

Calzone

[caption id="attachment_941" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Mini Buffet-style Calzone[/caption]

Ingredients: 

For the dough: (makes 4)

• 7.5g dried yeast


• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 1 teaspoon sugar


• 1 teaspoon salt


• 300g flour

For the filling:

For you to decide. Some vehemently 'authentic' recipe authors insist that there should be ricotta cheese and absolutely no tomato sauce, some say no to certain cheeses etc. Calzone is often described as a 'folded over pizza' so I went with some favourite pizza ingredients, authenticity be damned!

• 1 large chicken breast (diced)


• 100g smoked lardons (or diced, streaky bacon)


• 1 ball of mozzarella


• 30g tomato paste


• Dash of red wine, seasoning, ground garlic, herbs

Glaze:

• 1 beaten egg

Prep time: 2 hours

Cook time: approx 25 mins at 220 C

Instructions: 

Dough:

• Put aroung 100ml of warm water in a jug or bowl


• Sprinkle in the yeast, sugar and salt


• Place somewhere warm until it begins to bubble.


• Measure out the flour, drizzle in the olive oil and rub together


• When the yeast mixture is bubbling, pour into a well in the middle of the flour and mix.


• Work the mixture, adding more warm water as necessary to form a dough.


• Knead for appox 10 mins until smooth.


• Place back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and leave to rise for approx 1 hour, until doubled in size.


• Punch down the dough, cut into 4 equal portions and roll until a few milimetres thin.

 

Filling:

• Blend togehter the wine, tomato paste, garlic, herbs and seasoning.


• Smear over rolled-out dough


• Jumble together the meat and cheese and distribute them evenly between the calzones


• Fold each one in half and firmly 'crimp' the edges (I usually fold them over just slightly and press down so the edge is not too thick)


• Glaze with beaten egg


• Place in hot oven for approx 25 mins

Allow to cool before serving.  No need for a side dish -  a meal in one! Great for movie night on the sofa, or in mini-format for buffets.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Ingredients: 

• 125g butter


• 80g sifted icing sugar


• 2 egg yolks


• 250g flour


• 2 tbsps water

Instructions: 

• thoroughly mix together butter and sugar


• add the egg yolks


• add flour, then rub together with fingertips, as if for a crumble


• add water, mixing between each tablespoon so as not to add too much


• work into smooth dough


• wrap in clingfilm or freezer bag and place in fridge for half an hour before use

The Tale Of The Crumpets Of Woe

Oh woe is me! My crumpets didst fail!.....

......Yes, well I considered writing this whole article in saga-format as befits the title, but it's Friday and I want to get this written before apéro.

Wintery Sundays seem to bring out our British roots, therefore I was recently inspired to make another British tea-time classic: crumpets.  Oops.

I mean no disprespect to the recipe I used but the crumpets I produced, whilst having a crumpety taste, were a complete joke with regards to shape and dodgy with regards to texture. I think this was more down to a lack of patience on my part than anything else, although I found the description for the batter "the consistency of thick cream" somewhat vague, as living here I am used to working with stiff crème fraîche or the runny crème liquide.

Not having any 'crumpet rings' I followed the advice and washed out a tuna can with both ends cut out.  Despite oiling it, my batter stuck to the ring like superglue so I abandoned the use of a ring and just deposited quantities of batter in a vaguely round shape.  This made it impossible, however, to follow the recipe's advice for assessing the thickness of the batter, so when the first ones were clearly too solid I experimented with adding more water.  In the end I just got a bit frustrated and impatient, with possible contributing factors of husbands and dogs under my feet, and the traces of a hangover.

Result: Weird-shaped splats with a crumpety taste.  Pretty good when slathered in butter and jam or Marmite.

Conclusion: Buy some rings and be much more patient next time.

I will try the same recipe again, but maybe not until next winter...

Just An Old Scrubber

To my horror it has been a week since I wrote anything (although I'm pretty sure not even the neighbour's cat is reading this).  Between The Girl's 16th birthday celebrations and the Spring Cleaning that followed I have not really had time for any new adventures.  Also, Bastard Oven is on it's way out, with increasingly erratic temperature control, so until the new one arrives I may find myself concentrating more and more on stove-top meals, which is a bit of an embuggeration to say the least.

To assuage my guilt at not having produced any articles for a while, l shall draw on my 'back catalogue' of recipes from over the years to try and get back on track (and to make it worth while building the recipe index!).  However, just before the wave of birthday activity engulfed me, I did discover a new family favourite in calzone, although with some of the recipes I read I was somewhat taken aback by the fierceness of the comments regarding authenticity.  I settled for putting in fillings that appealed to me and The Family and lay no claim to authenticity whatsoever.  I am about as Italian as haggis.  I do, however, know what tastes good to me and mine.

Another great success was the No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake created for The Girl's birthday dessert.  Cheesecake is one of those recipes that I've always been meaning to make - can't believe it took me this long!  Nom.

I feel I must also relate to you The Tale Of The Crumpets Of Woe  - proof if ever it was needed that one cannot get it right every time, no matter how how great one's enthusiasm....

Saucisses aux Lentilles

Ingredients: 

For 3 or 4 people:

• 250g lentils


• 500 -750ml water


• 1 onion


• 1 carrot


• 1 stick of celery


• bouquet garni

• Prep time: 5 mins


• Cooking time: 40 mins

Instructions: 

Very finely chop the onion, celery and carrot.

Heat a little olive oil in the pan and cook the veg for a minute or two.

Add the lentils, bouquet garni and 500ml water.  You can always add more water later if necessary.

Cook over a low heat for 20 mins.

Add the sausages, cover and let cook another 20 mins, checking the fluid levels occasionally and adding more water if necessary.

Remove bay leaves, let stand 5 mins before serving.

May cause your sausage to swell

How long before I run out of double-entendre titles related to sausages? (btw, 'double-entendre' is not a real French expression - French people look at you like you're an idiot if you use it.  True story.)

Anyway.  A simple, French classic dish graced our table this week: Saucisses aux lentilles. Technically, one should make it with saucisses de Morteau which has a lovely, smoked flavour, but this recipe also makes a very tasty dish (albeit slightly different) with the ordinary, coarse-ground pork sausages that I get from my favourite boucherie. The sausages become very plump and moist, hence the title. The celery, onions etc are a variation that we as a family prefer, evolved, as usual, from the many, many recipes I read.  (Food magazines in our house are known as 'bob's gastro-porn').

I like to chop all the veggie bits very, very finely so that they mix well with the lentils and imbue them with lots of flavour. Resist the temptation to salt the water as this will make the lentils hard and unappetising. It's a very filling meal, ideal for when you just want one course.