Being Busy

    The last week has been very busy. I've started a new part time job in February, so now as well as being a wife, Mum, recipe compiler and cookery teacher/demonstrator, I am now an assistant in a kitchenware shop. All these things do not mean I am in anyway less aware as to what is going on around me. Just that I have less time to comment on them.
  
     Sadly on Wednesday last we attended the funeral of a very dear friend who died suddenly on the previous weekend. A teacher for 40 years, producer of school plays & musicals, a leader of charity fund raising events and form master, he touched so many lives and so many returned that by turning up to pay their respects at his untimely demise. He was given the very best sendoff anyone could have ever had.
  
    The service was long like so many of his plays & musicals, but there was a role for everyone and it passed in a timeless manner. At one point I checked the time and found I was 30 minutes behind. An hour had passed and yet it was as nothing. Farewell to Gerry we will all miss you.

Adventures in Chocolate

We have been experimenting with chocolate and other flavours to see how they work together. This was in the run up to Valentine’s day.

I love game and had some venison medallions in the freezer, I wanted to keep them simple, but give them a twist. Then I remembered the amazing Willie’s Cacao from http://www.willieschocolateshop.com/willies-cacao-chocolate-shop.html  we were given for Christmas. It is one of the special single bean and country of origin, 100% cocoa and very dark and intense.

I just gave the venison medallions 2-3 minutes each side on a very hot pan and then put them to rest in the bottom oven. I added a splash of red wine to the pan and reduced it to a spoonful and then added a splash of hot water and brought it to the boil and let it reduce to about 3 tablespoonfuls. I added 20 grams of the chocolate in pieces and let it melt in the gravy, with the pan off the heat.

To serve with it I made a creamy, chicory and blue cheese gratin.

When the venison and chocolate sauce was on the plate with the creamy chicory I wondered if I’d made a big mistake. I hadn’t really thought this through.

The first mouthful of venison and chocolate was delicious. The second mouthful of chicory was delicious, but the third of chicory and chocolate was also delicious!

Somehow these two bitter elements had a complementary effect on each other that seemed to be helped by the cream. I may have found something, but I’m not sure chicory and chocolate sauce will take off.

Another flavour that always goes well with chocolate is orange.

Last night I was treated to a “Jaffa” pudding, an orange flavoured sponge pudding baked with a chocolate bottom that became it’s top and served with a marmalade sauce.

It was rich and the bitter dark chocolate with the sponge gave it a very un-sweet taste.

We also add orange zest to our hot chocolate pots giving them quite a zesty zing.

The best flavour I find I like with chocolate is coffee, a recent trial mocha bread & butter pudding went down really well. It still needs a little work.

The Mocha cake below will have to do for now. For Valentine’s day I cut out heart shapes with a cookie cutter and iced each of them. I works just as well to decorate the whole cake and let the icing set and cut it into fingers.

Mocha Cake

40 g cocoa powder

3 tbs espresso coffee

175 g soft butter                        

175 g caster sugar                       

175 g self-raising flour

1 level tsp baking powder

3 eggs

Set the oven to GM 4/350˚F/180˚C, line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.

Mix the cocoa powder with the espresso.

Cut up the butter and put into a mixing bowl with the sugar and the eggs. Sift in the flour and baking powder.

Beat together the contents of the bowl until smooth and creamy.

Stir in the cocoa and espresso.

Pour the mixture into the Swiss roll tin and bake for 20-30 minutes in the centre of the oven.

When the cake is done it will spring back when gently poked with a finger. Take it out of the oven and turn on to a wire rack and peel off the paper. Leave to cool!

Cover the cake with the mocha icing and decorate with the white chocolate icing.

Mocha Satin Icing

115 g milk chocolate

50 g soft butter

3 tbs coffee

175 g sifted icing sugar

Put the chocolate, butter and coffee into a bowl over a pot of hot water and melt them together.

Beat in the icing sugar.

Leave to cool a little and pour over the cake.

White Chocolate Icing

60 g white chocolate

25 g soft butter

2 dsp milk

85 g sifted icing sugar

Put the chocolate, butter and milk in a bowl and put the bowl over a pot of simmering water and melt them together.

Beat in the icing sugar.

Leave to cool a little and pour over the cake.

Back to Basics

I proposed a back to basics cookery class to Brennan's of Oliver Plunkett Street in Cork ( http://brenco.ie/cookeryclasses ) and the first class took place yesterday.
We stuffed and roasted chicken, jointed some chicken and roasted it, gravy (without Bisto), roasted a mix of root veg, made carrot & ginger soup, brown bread, a celeriac remoulade and apple cakes all in two and a half hours. There was very little food left after wards, which I take to be a compliment.  I'll post more about it at a later date. For now well done to every one who took part! and Thank you.

Christmas Chocolate Log

This a plain, simple old fashioned cake.

It is our cake for Christmas Eve and tree decorating. It doesn’t have to look perfect and it won’t have time too anyway. If drinking chocolate makes the icing too sweet swap some of it for cocoa powder.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011 to you all.

Swiss roll

3 eggs

75g caster sugar

75g sifted plain flour

Line a Swiss roll tin with baking parchment and set the oven to GM5 / 180˚C.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until very pale, then gently fold in the flour.

Spread the mixture on to the prepared Swiss roll tin and bake for about 15 minutes.

While the cake is baking lay a clean tea towel on the counter.

When the cake is done it should be golden brown on top and spring back when poked with a finger.

Turn the cake out onto a clean tea towel and roll it up from one of the narrow ends. Leave to cool on a wire rack

Chocolate Icing

100g soft butter

100g icing sugar

100g drinking chocolate powder

2 tbs warm water

1 dsp extra icing sugar for dusting

Put the butter, sugar and drinking chocolate powder in to a bowl and slowly start to mix with an electric mixer. Add the first spoonful of water and whisk a bit faster and then the second spoonful. Keep whisking until the icing is pale and fluffy.

Unroll the cold Swiss roll and spread with a third of the icing and roll up again.

Cut a 5 cm slice off the roll at an angle and place it at the side of the roll to create a branch.

Put the roll on a serving plate and cover with the remaining icing.

Decorate using a fork to make rough bark like ridges on the roll and in circles on the ends like tree rings.

Use the extra dessertspoon of icing sugar and a sieve to dust the top of the log with some snowy icing sugar.

 

Crab Custards

This is just a quick recipe as promised. It could be used as a Christmas dinner starter. Make it the day before, and let the custards return to room temperature before serving with a wedge of lemon.

200g crab meat

1 egg

2 egg yolks

250mls cream

50g grated Parmesan

pinch of salt & black pepper

Set the oven to GM3/ 170˚C and boil a kettle of water. Butter some small ramekins, this amount should do about 4—6 depending on size.

Put the ingredients into a bowl and whisk them together.

Spoon the mixture into the ramekins and put them into a roasting tin. Pour boiling water into the roasting tin so that it comes two thirds of the way up the ramekins. Place the tin in the middle of the oven and bake for 40 minutes. They are cooked when a skewer comes out clean when pushed into the centre. Take them out of the oven and let cool. They are best served at room temperature.

Frost Yesterday!

I took this photo yesterday too, but wasn't sure how to get it on to the blog with some text. I have now worked it out.

Frost Today.