Dinner Plan: Dinner by JD

Well there's a lot of reading and blogging today. I have to work - from home - and as I'm waiting for updates from various people, I'm filling time in because I'm stuck at home!

It appears that once people realise that you keep a food blog, the expectation is that you will place high standards on all meals... even those prepared by friends! JD invited us over to his house and apparently there was panic about making everything perfect - although I think he's already a great cook anyway!

So I present to you "Dinner by JD" and suggestions of where similar recipes can be found.

Spiced pumpkin and coconut soup:
How's that for presentation? This recipe is a good start.

Steak and Horseradish Sauce, served with Potato Rosti:

I love horseradish. I haven't used this recipe but found it in Cook's Companion - ingredients are in an alphabetical listing, fortunately when I looked up "H" I didn't find horse. :) This is a wonderful recipe and reference book; I have given copies out as birthday and wedding presents. For my birthday, the lovely T bought me "Cooking & Travelling in South-West France" which is also by Stephanie Alexander. (And when I'm not so busy, I'll cook something from it!)

As it contains dill, I'd say that ideally this goes with fish. Maybe I'll experiment with other herbs for other meats and let you know.

Simple Horseradish Sauce
1 Tbl Creamed horseradish sauce*
2 Tbl Dill seeds
2 Tbl Finely chopped fresh dill leaves
120ml Sour cream

Stir all ingredients together and refrigerate until required. Makes 1/2 cup.

*If you have fresh horseradish, grate it and mix it with whipped cream and a little white-wine vinegar.

Nigella's Chocolate Cloud Cake:
Recipe can be found at Niki's. I loved this variation, the cake was served with a dark chocolate sauce and orange pieces soaked in cointreau.

Nutella cake

How lucky am I? Niki made me this amazing nutella cake for my birthday! I had been (and still am) flat out at work and didn't have time to bake in between everything else. And even though Niki has been busy herself, how could I refuse the offer of one of her cakes?? It was delicious, it was not low fat, it was my birthday who cares about calories? :) THANK YOU, NIKI!

Honey Chocolate Cake

I needed to bake a birthday cake and in my revision madness, had seen the Honey Chocolate Cake in Nigella's Feast and had my heart set on it. Those who got to taste my cake commented on the honey flavour as this rarely comes out when heated, as I typed the recipe I wondered if perhaps the muscovado sugar helped bring out more sweetness. The recipe states light muscovado but I had dark so this would have produced a sweeter cake. One friend was reminded of golden syrup so this would certainly be the molasses taste of muscovado.

When the cake came out of the oven, the smell reminded me of the Magic Faraway Tree at the Land of Treats when there are toffee pops and all things nice. It was so welcoming and sweet, and being quite delicate (hence the instructions to cool completey) if you find a small piece that flakes off, eating it will only tempt you to take a big bite out of the delicious, warm cake. You must then steady yourself and remind yourself that you are baking this for someone special and you must not destroy it!

The whole cake takes time and although the glaze is beautifully glossy, I think it's also superb on its own so would quite happily just have a plain honey chocolate cake the next time.

Nigella's Honey Chocolate Cake
Cake
100g Dark chocolate, broken into pieces
275g Light muscovado sugar
225g Soft butter
125ml Runny honey
2 Eggs
200g Plain flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1 Tbl Cocoa
250ml Boiling Water

Glaze
60ml Water
125ml Runny honey
175g Dark chocolate (finely chopped)
75g Icing sugar

Bees
25g Marzipan - yellow if found and desired
Flaked almonds

1) Whilst melting the cake chocolate, have all ingredients out so that everything is at room temperature. Set aside the chocolate to cool slightly.
2) Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and line a 23cm springform cake tin.

Fast method:
3a) Put everything for the cake but the boiling water in a food processor, mix and scrape the batter down. Then slowly add the water down the funnel with the motor running. Go to step 7 below.

Take your time:
3b) Beat together the sugar and butter until airy and creamy, then add the honey.
4) Add 1 egg, beating it with a tablespoon of flour, then the other egg with another tablespoon of flour.
5) Fold in the melted chocolate, the rest of the flour and the bicarbonate of soda.
6) Add in the cocoa (pushed through a sift so there are no lumps) and finally, beat in the boiling water.
7) Mix everything well and pour the smooth batter into prepared tin.
8) Bake for an hour - after 45 mins, check and if the cake is "catching", cover the top lightly with foil.
9) Let the cake cool completely in the tin, on a rack.
10) For the glaze, bring the water and honey to boil in a saucepan and take off the heat.
11) Add the finely chopped chocolate and swirl it around to melt in the hot liquid.
12) Sieve in the icing sugar and whisk until smooth.
13) Cut four strips of baking paper to form a square outline for your cake to sit on. Place this on your plate or stand, this will prevent the glaze from running off your cake onto your plate.
14) Unclip the cake tin and sit the (cooled) cake on the plate, on the paper.
15) Pour the glaze over the cake and smooth it over the sides.*See note 1
16) Allow the glaze to harden - it can take an hour. Don't wash up, you want the leftover glaze.
17) Slide out the baking paper and you have a clean plate.
18) For the bees, divide the marzipan into 6 pieces and roll into fat bee bodies with a taper.
19) Push the flaked almonds into the marzipan bodies to form wings and dipping a skewer into the leftover glaze, decorate the bees.
20) Decorate your cake with the bees!

Notes:
1) Making the cake isn't hard, the glaze is the tricky part. Although I've given measures according to the recipe, *I found that I had too much glaze so don't be tempted to pour a whole lot over the cake. It is deceptively liquid and before you know it, the baking paper will have gathered a lovely pool of glaze. The glaze is also very tacky until it hardens so handle with care.
2) The marzipan quantity gives 6 bees... I wanted many more. Nigella references that smiley bees are Disney and loveable whereas just having 2 dots as the eyes is rather Napoleanic - I went Disney!
3) I haven't given an exact quantity for the flaked almonds. You know each bee has 2 wings but the almond flakes are delicate and some will inevitably break as you lovingly give your creatures wings.

Tagged with Honey Chocolate Cake Bees Honey

Easter Egg Nest Cake

Happy Easter!

Above is my Easter Egg Nest Cake from Nigella's "Feast". It actually doubled as a birthday cake for a friend and proved a hit. The point is that the cake should be collapsed but someone is going to point out that you were just disguising a mistake!

The cake is fiddly (chocolate melting, egg separating and whisking) but the end result makes it all worthwhile. And licking the spoon with the chocolate and cream is a bonus! I found another friend collapsed on the couch in ecstacy, this delectable mix of dense flourless chocolate cake smothered with chocolate cream is no ordinary treat.

Nigella's Easter Egg Nest Cake
Cake
125g Butter - unsalted, softened
250g Dark chocolate
6 eggs - 4 separated and 2 whole
175g Caster sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Topping
250ml Double cream
125g Dark chocolate
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Small chocolate easter eggs - ideally sugared eggs

1) Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C and line a springform tin with baking paper
2) For the cake, melt the butter and chocolate and allow to cool.
3) Whisk the 4 egg whites until foamy and gradually beat in 100g of the sugar until peaks form; they should not be stiff.
4) Whisk the 4 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs with the remaining 75g of sugar and the vanilla essence. Fold in the melted butter and chocolate.
5) "Lighten the chocolate mixture with a dollop of egg whites" and in three additions, fold in the rest of the egg white mixture.
6) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40mins until the cake rises and cracks on top, and the centre doesn't wobble.
7) Let the cake cool in the tin. The centre will collapse and form a crater, and the sides will crack.

8) Carefully remove the cake from the tin and place on a serving plate/cake stand.
9) Melt the chocolate and let cool. Whip the cream until it is aerated but not stiff and add in the vanilla essence. Fold the chocolate into the cream topping.
10) Fill the crater with the chocolate cream and spread towards the edge of the cake. Decorate with the chocolate eggs.

Notes
1) My cake took a little longer and I actually cracked the top of the cake myself with a wooden spoon, then returned it to the oven to bake until it didn't wobble.
2) Sugared easter eggs were nowhere to be found and all I could find were mini creme eggs; not as colourful but they did the trick.

Tagged with: Easter Treat and Easter Egg Nest Cake

SHF 17 #: Strawberry Spritz Yoghurt Muffins

Niki told me about the Sugar High Friday challenge with a theme of dairy so I thought I'd give it a go. One of my favourite cookbooks for baking is Carol Durst's "I Knew You Were Coming So I Baked a Cake" and I remembered that she had dairy suggestions.

The yoghurt muffins are really easy and this recipe is great for when you have bananas that are sitting around almost rotting away.

Yoghurt Muffins as per Carol Durst's recipe
1 cup flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 lb butter
1 egg
1 banana
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 180C, grease muffin tin
1) Put flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a bowl
2) Melt the butter in a glass bowl in the microwave and add to the dry mixture
3) Add egg, banana, yoghurt and vanilla extract
4) Mix until just incorporated
5) Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake 20-25 mins

This will make 12 muffins

Notes:
1) I used low fat yoghurt by accident - I picked by flavour only so make sure you use full fat yoghurt.
2) You can vary the yoghurt flavour, I used Strawberry Spritz! This quantity is just under 1 small tub.



3) I doubled the batter and tried full size and mini muffins. Unfortunately the batter didn't rise as much as I expected so the bigger muffins are quite flat. (See photo below "Gee son, you're getting taller than me everyday.") You need to almost fill the tin up as the minimal handling of the batter means that you're not going to get a chance to get much air into the mixture.


Tagged with: SHF and Sugar High Friday