Jan 31, 2009

Sunshine Soup

About 1-2 kilo's Sweet Potato, Butternut squash or Pumpkin
2 onion chopped
2cm piece of ginger, grated
1 can coconut milk
1 teaspoon chilli powder
boiling water


Roughly chop the vegetables and fry gently with the onion, ginger and chilli powder to release the flavours.
Cover with water till about 2cm above the vegetables.
Bring to a boil and let it simmer until veg is soft.
Blend with a blender till smooth.
Add the coconut milk and heat through.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
If you have kids try replacing the chilli powder and ginger for some finely grated orange rind.

Enjoy!

Jan 25, 2009

White Chocolate and Apricot cookies

400g white chocolate
140g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons butter
5 tblspoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
75g dried apricots
Melt 85g of the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water.
Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla together.
Mix in the egg and add the chopped apricots and the chocolate.
Mix the flour, baking powders and salt togther.
Finally mix the wet and dry ingredients together till it forms a dough.
Flatten the dough and cover with plastic, chill for an hour.
Roll the dough out and cut into rounds with a cookie cutter.
Bake at 180"C for 10 minutes.
Melt the rest of the chocolate and dip half of the cooled cookies in.
Lay them on some greased proof paper to harden.
Thats if you can wait long enough before devouring one!!
Enjoy.

Jan 9, 2009

Melting Chocolate Puddings

200g dark chocolate (70%cocoa solids)
110g sugar
(optional) 2 tablespoons brandy
4 large eggs
4 extra egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence
60g plain flour
Cream to serve

Melt the chocolate, butter and brandy in a heatproof bowl sitting over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Stir well.
Place the sugar, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla in another bowl and whisk on high speed with an electric whisk until the mixture has doubled in volume. This should take 7-10 minutes and look like a thick mousse when its ready. It should leaves a trail when you lift the whisk.
Fold the chocolate mixture carefully in using a metal spoon. Do not beat the mixture as it will loose its airiness.
Add the flour folding carefully in the same way. Do not over mix.
Pour the mixture into 8 well greased ramekin dishes. The mixture should come to just below the top of the dish.
(At this point they can be left in the fridge until needed.)
Put in the oven for 12 minutes until risen and fairly firm to touch. (14 minutes straight from the fridge.)
Leave to stand for a minute, loosen the edges of the pudding from the dish with a knife and turn carefully out onto your serving plate.
Serve with whipped cream and enjoy as the delicious fudge sauce oozes out.






Jan 3, 2009

Soup, glorious soup....

Beetroot soup, 5 Bean soup and Corn chowder....I could not resist a shot of these beautiful pots of soup at work today with their vibrant and contrasting colours. And that beetroot soup is simply delicious with a dolop of creme freche with a hint of horse-radish. Mmmm!

Mince Pies

Ok, so I used my last bit of minced meat. I can't buy it in Holland and so I savour it and am admittedly and unashamedly selfish with it too.... only people who reeeaaaally like them, and appreciate the wonderful christmasiness of them, may have one of my mince pies! They where gone within an hour...I won't tell you how many of the 12 I had!!

I made a wonderful sweet shortcrust dough. For the lids I used a small star cutter to cut out a star shape and then placed the star back on the pie to give a fun effect.