Chocolate exploits

For the last few weeks now i have been learning about chocolate... I discovered what couverture is, i figured out why tempering is used... i also found out that different chocolates react to different ingredients in unique ways.

This is a quick post to show what i have been coming up with!

Plum Kuro

The garden has produced a billion plums this year, so i have mixed them with dark chocolate ganache to make these delicious little bars... based with crushed digestive biscuits and garnished with plum icing and cashews.


Diced plums were incorperated into the sponge which was dyed a slight pink to match the skin of the plums.


Dark chocolate melted with salted butter to give it the shine. I was going to use milk chocolate but the plums were sweet with the sour aftertaste, and milk chocolate would of definitely gotten lost amongst the flavors.


And Voila! They are complete. They are very simple to make and without going into too much detail...

The sponge was a basic victoria spong recipe with a tsp of red food colouring and the chopped plums incorperated whilst mixing.

The chocolate coating was choocolate and butter melted and mixed together

And the icing decoration was the remaining plums reduced in a bit of water and caster sugar, then when fully reduced over a medium heat strain out the juice (i used a sieve for this) and mix the juice with enough icing sugar to get the correct consistency, not too runny. this should also come out as pinkish color, depending on what plums are used.



Well thats it from me! but before i go, here are some chocolates i had at a japanese tea bar recently.


Strawberry and Chilli
Yuzu
Matcha
Mango and Balsamic

See if you can guess which is which! Until next time \(^_^)/

Clafoutis! Because i got the job!

Well I just finnished my old role at the department of health..... and i didnt know exactly where i would be going after that so as you can imagine it was a bit of a nail biting time. But this morning i got the job i was going for at the department of transport.... So thats a huge weight off my shoulders!

And as an extra bonus i dont start my new job until monday.... which means..... 1 WEEK OFF... SWEET!!!!!!

And sweet news deserves a sweet treat. So i decided to celebrate with a quick and easy assortment of Clafoutis.



Clafoutis is bassically a baked take made of flan like batter, traditionally made with black cherries i think. But as usuall i am not concerned with the traditional lol... One day ill make something recognisable to normal people haha.

For this recipe i decided to once again use use my ramakins (still in love with them) as opposed to a tart or pie dish.



Ok so lets begin.

Ingredients:

120g Plain Flour
Lots of assorted fruit haha (I used Apples, Pears, Blackberries, Blueberries and Raspberries)
60g Butter (I used Flora pro active because it has reduced cholestoral)
300ml Milk
90g Sugar
Icing Sugar (for dusting)
Mint leaves for garnish (i used these but do whatever you tink looks nice)


Method:

1: Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C
2: In a small bowl break and then beat the eggs
3: When the eggs are beaten put aside and melt the butter in a small frying pan. When melted take off the fire and keep in a warm place to keep it liquid but not any hotter than it should be at the point.
4: Sift the flour into a large bowl
5: Add the eggs slowly to the flour and mix all the while. The mixture should become a thick batter.
6: Now add the sugar, milk and butter to the mix and whisk until the mixture becomes a loose batter (if too watery add a little bit of flour, but it should be a milkshake consistency.... lol hope thats helpful)
7: Now set the mixture aside and take a bit of butter and grease the dish (or dishes depending on how u are making them) with butter.
8: To the dish thats now buttered and arrange the fruit in it (fill the dish between half to 2/3 full with the fruit)



9: Pour the batter over the fruit and place in the oven.



10: allow to cook for around 40 miutes (dont worry if it raises alot when its taken out of the over it will sink again, i was a lil worried when i first did it lol)



11: When its done take it out of the over and dust with icing sugar and decorate however u like. Deffinatly serve it warm!




And there we have it...

Congratulations Clafoutis!

Enjoy :D!!

Ok.... Im obsessed.....

Ok asides from my love of cooking i have a dirty little secret which i usually keep under wraps... but sometimes i let it slip... And that is the fact that i am a huge anime nerd....

There... IVE SAID IT!!! And im not even ashamed... Ive always loved Anime, and the first one i ever saw was a film called "Tenko no shiro Rapyuta" which translates (I think) to "Laputa: Castle in the sky"... Drawn and Directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki the film is set in a mythical land where a boy who works in a mine is one day the saviour of a ysterious girl who floats down from the sky with the aid of her pendant. Add some pirates and a few robots in there and it truly is one of the most beautiful films ive ever seen. IF your not too busy deffinatly check it out, even if your not into anime.



Ok... you may be wondering where im going with this, but FEAR NOT FOODIES... i do have a point lol.

One of my favourite pass times is combining my favourite pass times! So a combination of anime and food is ideal, luckily there is awhole genre devoted to anime fans who love food.

There are so many good shows out there which are not only fun to watch but also pretty inspirational. Today i wont be cooking any, but whilst looking for some anime inspired recipes i came accros a japanese website with the most beautiful cakes and treats and i felt it was my DUTY to share with you guys.... dont ask me what each thing is, as i sadly cannot answer you lol.. i wish i knew myself, but they do all look deliscious!



I dont even know what these are but just look at how beautiful they are... pretty flawless stuff.



Im almost certain that this one isnt even real!!! it looks perfect.



Chocolate elegance...



Amazing.... Just amazing, i want whoever made these to put thier hand against the screen of thier computer so that they can recieve my virtual highfive!

I can only hope that one day i can make stuff as amazing as this! I really dont want to pretend that these pics are in any way my own but i cant really figure out who the artist is who made them... I THINK the name of the patissier is Hidemo Sugino.... but that could be the name of the pattiserie. Either way, hats off to these guys. so so inspiring. Hope you guys are just as inspired!

Till next time! Enjoy!

Toooo long!

Hey Guys! im sorry it took so long for me to come back you lot with antyhign that even looked and tasted remotely good... btu my daytime job has actually gotten pretty hectic as of late.

And whilst i havent actually made this dish myself for a while,it is still a personal favourite! So the following pictures are not creditted to me but they do show you how to present the meal in a variety of delicate and artistic ways!....... OK! PANNA COTTA!





I first fell in love with this dessert when i was about 13 and i was watching blue peter (for you americans its like a DIY show for kids, cooking, animals, arts and crafts etc.. :D). They had a local chef come on and after a long talk about how she had began cookign and how much she loved it and blah blah blah.... they then had her prepare her favourite dish which was the Panna Cotta.... I WAS IN LOVE! To me it looked like jelly + ice cream.... and what kid doesnt liek that combination! so i tried it and tried it and tried it over the years and after a while i could make it pretty perfectly. So now that i could make it well, i began experimenting with flavours! Mango.... Apple.... rosemary..... But out of all of them my favourite was the stangest combination.

Thyme

and Honey

(Just noticed that i use honey an awful lot.... maybe i should look into it in a bit more detail for my next blog :P)


The basics of a Panna cotta recipe are incredibly simple. you will probably reasd this and think "why havent i made this before?!". The only thing that i doubt you will have just lying around the pantry will be gelatin, or gelatin powder.

Ingredients:

(This is a generic recipe which you can use as the base of any panna cotta... just tweak it to your liking by adding flavours and garnishes)


For the Panna Cotta

3 gelatine leaves
250ml/9fl oz milk
250ml/9fl oz double cream
6 spriggs of thyme
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways, seeds scraped out
25g/1oz sugar

For the sauce

1.5 tsp lemon juice
75g/6oz honey
175ml/6fl oz water
50 ml Drambuie (honey and spice based whiskey)

Method:

1. For the panna cotta, soak the gelatine leaves in a little cold water until soft.
2. Place the milk, cream, thyme spriggs, vanilla pod and seeds and sugar into a pan and bring to a simmer. Remove the vanilla/thyme spriggs and discard.
3. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine leaves, then add to the pan and take off the heat. Stir until the gelatine has dissolved.
4. Divide the mixture among four ramekins and leave to cool. Place into the fridge for at least an hour, until set.
5. For the sauce, place the honey, lemon juice, water and Drambuie into a pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture is smooth and clear.

Complete!


Now because im obsessed with my new ramikins and shot glass set that i found at a bargain price (of £4 for 16 ramakins, and £2 for 10 nice glass shot glasses! so awesome!) I usually put my pannacotta into one of these moulds and put in the fridge until needed. Then place them on a square or oblonged dish for serving and decorate in whatever way you think is best.



Enjoy! and i promise ill update things more often... \(^_^)/