Saturday 15 December 2012

Boozy kahlua truffles

These truffles are really easy to make and taste delicious. You can use any liquor or whisky that takes your fancy, but I used Kahlua because it's lush and I had some lying around the house. It feels like a Christmassy liquor to me, because it's chocolatey and rich and goes great with coffee. 

Ingredients: 
80g unsalted butter
200ml double cream
280g dark chocolate, broken into pieces 
3 tbsp kahlua (or any liquor of your choice)
For the coating: 220g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

Method:
1. Make a burnt butter by melting the butter for 2 minutes over a high-heat until it achieves a dark golden colour. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely.
2. Make a ganache by heating the double cream until it's warm enough to melt the chocolate. When the cream is bubbling at the edges of the pan, take it off the heat and stir in the pieces of chocolate and the burnt butter. Stir everything together until you have a thick chocolatey mixture, which will have a glossy finish. 
3. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of kahlua, or your favourite liquor.
4. Pour the mixture into a lines baking tray of about 2.5cm depth. 
5. Refrigerate for 30-60 mins until the mixture begins to set, but is still malleable.
6. Using a teaspoon and your fingers, scrape balls of the mixture from the tray onto a lined plate. Refrigerate for another 15 minutes.
7. Melt the chocolate for the coating. 
8. Drop the truffles into the melted chocolate until they are coated and place on a lined baking tray.
9. Leave to cool and set at room temperature.
10. Scoff the lot share with your friends, or make new ones by feeding them boozy truffles at Christmas time.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Yule log!


What could be more festive than a yule log? It's the only treat you need at this time of the year, the main reason being that it's the most chocolatey! Forget mince pies, xmas pud, and that most offensive of desserts, Christmas cake, and get on with making this scrummy chocolatey log, which (if you don't share it) will last from now until Christmas day! Merry Chrimbles...



Ingredients:
  • Butter , for greasing
  • 5 eggs
  • 140g sugar
  • 100g self-raising flour
  • 25g good quality cocoa powder such as Green & Black's 
For the frosting:
  • caster sugar , for dusting
  • 285ml/9½fl oz carton double cream
  • 450g chocolate, 
  • icing sugar , for dusting
  • Edible glitter-if you're really excessive like me!
Method:
1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Butter and line the base and sides of a 30 x 35cm Swiss roll tin with baking parchment.2. Separate the eggs, putting them into two large mixing bowls. Add the sugar and 2 tbsp water to the egg yolks. Using an electric whisk, whisk the sugar and yolks for about 5 mins until the mixture is light in colour and thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk blades are lifted. Sift in the flour and cocoa, then fold in lightly, using the whisk blades or a large metal spoon.3. Using a clean whisk, beat the egg whites until they are stiff, then fold into the cake mixture in three batches, again using the blades to preserve as much air as possible.4. Pour the mixture evenly over the prepared tin, then carefully spread to the edges. Bake for 10-12 mins, or until the cake feels firm to the touch. 
5. Put a large sheet of baking parchment on the work surface and sprinkle lightly with caster sugar. Turn the cake out onto the parchment and peel off the lining paper. Cover with a clean tea towel, then leave to cool completely. 
6. Trim a little cake from all the edges, then score along the edge of one of the long sides of the cake and roll up from there, using the paper to help you, rolling the paper inside the cake.
For the icing & filling:
7. Bring the cream to the boil in a small pan, remove from the heat, then break in 400g of the chocolate. Stir until it is melted and smooth. Leave to cool, then chill until it is spreadable, about 1 hr. 
8. Carefully unroll the cake, then spread all the filling over to within 2cm of the edges. Roll up the cake again using the paper to help you, then set on a board.9.  Spread remaining icing over the cake, then dust with icing sugar to serve.

Strada-new menu review

Recently I was lucky enough to be invited to review the new menu at Strada. Now, before you really start to hate me let me just say that it was REALLY GOOD! What could be a better way to start a meal than with a massive platter of fresh antipasti? Succulent buffalo mozzarella interleaved with ripe tomatoes, bruschetta pomodoro, parma ham, salami, speck and a tasty olive tapenade made for a great first course. We were also treated to some large green olives, succulent and juicy, and a basket of hand stretched garlic and rosemary flat bread, which was gorgeous, and made us want to keep going back for more.








Mains came in two batches (just as well really!) starting with a four seasons pizza, topped with delicious artichokes, mushrooms, ground beef and parma ham. A pasta dish with Luganica sausage, pancetta, and broccoli, with red chilli was eye-wateringly spicy, but a creamy risotto with butternut squash offset that, so you should have both dishes at the same time... Second mains were a whole fish, cooked to perfection so it melted in the mouth, served with rosemary potatoes. Ahh. I love a rosemary potato, and this dish was a real taste of the mediterranean. Veal saltimboca was equally good, wrapped in parma ham (there's a theme here) and sitting atop creamy mash potato - real comfort food and perfect for this time of year.


Luckily, I have a second stomach for dessert-and it really came in to play here! Over the 3 dishes the jury was out as to which one we preferred. Luckily, I'm not an indecisive woman, so with intense concentration and numerous tastes tests I gave my casting vote to the Bunet Piemontese. (I know, I didn't try and pronounce it either!) The dessert was a new one on me, but the combination of chocolate and amaretto is a winning one in my book, and this boozy dessert was just the sort of thing I like at the end of a meal. The chocolate was somewhat like a firm mousse in texture, with crumbled amaretti biscuits and amaretto splashed over the top, delicious and boozy. What more could you want? 

The other desserts in the running for what is really the crown-of-all-crowns (I'm obviously a chocolate girl-chuck me some over?) were Affogato, a classic Italian dish of nougat iced semi-freddo, with a shot of expresso (or sometimes dessert wine-yum!) on the side which you can pour over. Strada's take on this was great to, and I really had trouble choosing. But in the end, chocolate will always beat ice cream for me. Pistachio ice cream was a delicate addition to a noisy dessert menu, and felt like the virtuous option-hence we didn't eat much! (If you're going to eat dessert, make it worth your while) It was nice enough, but had a slightly glazed look, a little bit too shiny for ice cream. Maybe the chef had polished it? Anyway, it was a great meal, and the service at Royal Festival Hall was excellent, even though the tables are very close together. Go and try the new menu, or have the Christmas one, and make sure you get some antipasti and finish with the Bunet Piemontese-if I haven't eaten it all already...


Here's the full run-down of what we had, to make you jealous, and for glimpse of bits of the new Strada menu:



OLIVES (V)
Large green Castelvetrano olives, fresh from Sicily
SCHIACCIATE LLA AGLIO FLAT BREAD (V)
great to share and the perfect start to your Italian experience
ANTIPASTO
A platter of Italian flavours: Parma ham, Napoli salami, speck
ham from Trentino, buffalo mozzarella from Campania, vineripened
tomatoes, olive tapenade and bruschetta pomodoro
STROZZAPRETI PUGLIESE
A classic dish from Puglia. Traditional hand twisted Strozzapreti
pasta, Luganica sausage, pancetta, and broccoli, with red chilli
butter & Grana Padano cheese
RISOTTO ZUCCA
Pumpkin, butternut squash, pancetta, spinach and pine nuts
QUATTRO STAGIONI
Four fabulous pizzas in one: Luganica sausage; Italian cotto
ham; roasted artichoke and chestnut mushrooms
SALTIMBOCCA MAIALE
Pork fillet with crispy Parma ham, mashed potato, green beans
and a sage butter sauce
ORATA AL FORNO
A whole sea bream, pan roasted with lemon & thyme,
served with a green salad and roasted new potatoes
Affogato (v)
Iced nougat semi-freddo ice cream with a shot of hot,
fresh espresso to pour over the top
BUNET PIEMONTESE (v)
Similar in style to a Pannacotta. A soft rich custard made with
Italian chocolate, hazelnuts, crushed Amaretti biscuits and a
generous splash of amaretto liqueur
PISTACHIO GELATO (v)
Especially made for us to a traditional artisan recipe
from Marche in central Italy

Saturday 1 December 2012

Sugar Doughnut Muffins


Are you in the mood for some seriously naughty comfort-food? Yes? Well, I was, and I found happiness at the bottom of a muffin tin. So much happiness, covered in sugar and butter... These sugar-coated doughnut muffins are so delicious and easy to make, you'll want to make them every weekend-barring the need to run marathons to work them off, obviously. Or you could make them for friends, as I did, because baking is a great way to win friends and influence people. Muhahaha. Anyway, I've said it before, I'll no-doubt say it again, it's Christmas, so treat yourselves and get baking! 


Ingredients:
  • 3/4 cup/170g sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 1/2 cups/187g all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking power
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup/60ml vegetable oil
  • 3/4 cup/180ml milk (low fat is fine)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup/100g sugar, for rolling
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.
  4. Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups or ~24 mini-muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
  5. Bake for 15-18 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 minutes for mini-muffins, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
  6. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl.
  7. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.