Chocolate Fondant Cake

Karma is a scary word.  The last 24 hours I have been singing, humming and dancing on the street. A certain song from a certain teen pop sensation I sometimes make fun of is stuck in my head.  A song that should only be listened by a thirteen year old, not a respectable twenty-three year old adult like me.

I won't name neither the song nor the artist to save a little dignity I still want to preserve.  To be fair, I am listening to a cover version of the song by a guy who made it really cool on youtube.

One thing I am not ashamed of is this chocolate fondant cake.  This is so good, I have to stop myself from having another piece as I plan to bring some to the office tomorrow to celebrate Friday.  Apparently I also have issues with self-control.

Chocolate Fondant Cake
Recipe by Stéphane Reynaud

250 g good quality dark chocolate
250 g butter
4 eggs, separated
100 g sugar
100 g ground almonds
1 tablespoon cornflour

Preheat the oven to 160 C.  Melt the chocolate with the butter in a double-boiler.  Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks.  Whisk the yolks with the sugar until they become pale and frothy.  Add the chocolate mixture, ground almonds and cornflour.  Gently fold in the egg whites using a spatula.  Butter and flour a tin.  Pour in the chocolate mixture, cook in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes.  The texture of the cake depends on the cooking time.

Fondant cake should be stay very soft in the middle.  Served warm, it's best eaten with a spoon.  Served cold, you can cut the cake into slices (the chocolate and butter will have solidified).

Chocolate and Banana Panettone Bread Pudding

"You can't smell a hug.  You can't hear a cuddle.  But if you could, I reckon it would smell and sound of warm bread-and-butter pudding" Nigel Slater in Toast, the story of a boy's hunger.

I love bread and butter pudding.  It's homey, indulgent and comforting.  I know some people are put off by its texture, but I love the soft gooey interior beneath the golden crust.  And I need well-chilled cream or custard to serve.

This recipe is inspired by a wonderful dessert blogger friend of mine, Rick at Bittersweet.  When I saw his post, banana bread pudding with strawberry sauce, I know it just makes sense.  Banana and strawberry are a match made in fruit heaven.

In my version, as if bread pudding isn't indulgent enough, I add chocolate by using chocolate panettone as the base.  Chocolate and banana, come one, you know this is gonna be delicious. Panettone is my favourite bread and you get beautiful flavours right from the start; but any nice soft eggy bread like brioche or challah will be great too.  Just add chocolate chips to the mixture.  I ditched the strawberry sauce and stick to the traditional, good-old double cream which I will regret tomorrow at the gym (live today worry tomorrow?).

Chocolate and Banana Panettone Bread Pudding
Recipe by Me
Serves 2

250 g chocolate panettone, cut into rough cubes (or use any bread of your choice and add 150 g chocolate chips)
150 ml whole milk
125 ml double cream
2 eggs
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 banana, sliced
Butter
Well-chilled double cream, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180 C.  Grease a small pie dish with butter.  Arrange a layer of the panettone, followed by slices of banana and top with the rest of the panettone.

In a bowl, mix the milk, cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla.  Pour this over the bread slowly and leave to stand for  10 minutes.  Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until the custard has just set and the top is golden.

OK, enough said. I have bread pudding to attend to, so please excuse me... dessert for dinner... yum.

Ardèche potato cake

This potato cake has its origin from Ardèche region of France known as crique ardèchois.  It's a simple flat cake made with grated potatoes, eggs, herbs and cooked in a frying pan with butter or olive oil.

This cake is a great accompaniment to grilled meats like lamb or beef; but I also like it just as it is.

The only tricky bit about cooking this cake is turning it.  In the word of Julia Child, "When you flip anything, you've just got to have the courage of your convictions... especially if it's a loose sort of mass like this".  Or if it's too scary, do what I did... I'll explain later.

Ardèche Potato Cake
Recipe by Stéphane Reynaud
Serves 6 (or 1 in the course of 3 servings, I am dangerous around carbohydrates)


800 g baking potatoes
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 onions
1 bunch of chives
salt and pepper
olive oil


Peel the potatoes and then grate them on the fine side of the grater, and the potatoes will thus become a mush.  Mix with the eggs.  Peel and slice the onions as finely as possible, snip the chives into short lengths, combine with the rest of the mixture and season generously.  Pour a layer of olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan.  Heat and the pour the potato cake mixture and cook over a gentle heat for 7-8 minutes.  


Turning this cake can be a bit tricky.  It'll be easy if you have a second pan (same size, of course) and transfer it to the clean pan. Or, why not put the whole thing in a preheated 180 C oven and finish cooking it for 20-25 minutes (sprinkle the top with cheese if you wish). Transfer to a serving board, top with more chives and cut into wedges. Voilà!


I like to have this with sour cream and black pepper; or with fried egg and ketchup/brown sauce/hot sauce, your choice...

Have a great weekend!

Blondies and Man Brownies

Blondies or often called blond brownies, are these rich, dense and chewy bars or cookies with a wonderful butterscotch-y flavour.  These ones are made with oats, sweetened condensed milk, light muscovado sugar, dark chocolate chips and they are deeeelicious...

This is a very easy recipe to do... the hardest part for me is to stop myself from drinking the sweetened condensed milk.

Blondies
Recipe by Nigella Lawson
Makes 16 pieces

200 g porridge oats, not instant
100 g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150 g soft unsalted butter
100 g light muscovado sugar
1 x 397 g can condensed milk
1 egg
1 x 170 g packet dark chocolate chips

1 x 23 cm square cake tin or 1 x foil tray approx. 30 x 20 x 5 cm

Preheat the oven to 180 C and line the cake tin with foil - this makes it easier to get the Blondies out later.

Combine the oats, flour and bicarb in a bowl.  In another bowl mix or beat the butter with the sugar until pale and airy.  Then add the condensed milk, followed by the oats mixture.

When these are well mixed, beat in the egg and fold the chocolate chips.  Pour into the tin and smooth it down with spatula.  Cook in the oven for 35 minutes.  The Blondies should feel a tad under-cook, but don't worry, it should be like that.

And now, if you want just chocolate... although saying that this is more than just chocolate brownies, it's Guinness & Walnut Brownies! but I prefer its nickname: Man Brownies.

I found this recipe from one of my favourite food blogs Dear Love Blog and it's been sitting in my 'to-bake' folder for sometime now and I'm glad this brownies finally made it to my table and my stomach.  This brownies is out of this world, it's so good.  Adding Guinness to brownies may seem odd, but it works.

If you want to know how to make this Man Brownies, and see a better picture, which by the way is also my desktop background for one of my work computers, simply click here.  The other computer has a picture of slowly roasted pork belly, for your information... I know, I know, I need help.

Spaghetti with Marmite, again for dinner... This is addictive.

Lemony chicken stew with fennel and green olives

I think stew is the antidote to winter's chill.  A bowl of tender pieces of meat, soft vegetables, thick gravy and bread to mop all the juices, eaten on a sofa and a bottle of cider, ah... heavenly!  When I think of a stew, I immediately drawn to beef or lamb.  And obviously there is nothing wrong with beef or lamb stews, not at all. But today, I want something lighter but still hearty and comforting, so I made this lemony chicken stew with fennel and green olives.  

The idea for this is pretty much like chicken cacciatore, the Italian hunter-style chicken braised in a tomato based sauce with onions, garlic and white wine.  I added fennel to this which I love especially when it's cooked slowly and became soft and sweet with a mild liquorice flavour; green olives, I love olives full stop, and lemon juice to brighten up the stew and to bring a little spring on a cold winter's night.


Lemony Chicken Stew with Fennel and Green Olives
Recipe by Me
Serves 4 - 6

Olive oil
1 small chicken, cut up into 8 - 10 pieces
2 fat spring onions, or 4 skinny ones, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 fennel bulb, roughly chopped (save the tops for sprinkling later)
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
250 ml white wine
400 g can of cherry tomatoes
250 ml chicken stock
100 g pitted green olives
400 g can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and black pepper to taste
Flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

In a medium cast iron stew pot, heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and brown the chickens in batches.  I don't like browning chickens as the oil tend to spit all over, but it does give extra flavours, so be patient.  Remove the browned chickens from the pot and put on a plate to one side.

In the same pot, adding more oil if necessary, sweat the spring onions, garlic and fennel for a few minutes.  Pour the wine and scrape the brown bits sticking to the pot and let it reduce a little before adding the cherry tomatoes, stock and lemon juice. Put the chicken back in the pot and let it simmer for 30 minutes.  Add the cannellini beans and green olives towards the end of the cooking. Taste and adjust the seasoning.*  Serve with sprinkling of parsley, fennel tops, lemon zest and bread to soak up the sauce.

*You can serve the chicken on the bone or take them out, let cool a little and shred the meat and put them back in the pot.  And if you're like me, you save the carcass to chew later.