Chicks Love Chocolate

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and that can only mean one thing CHOCOLATE. As a child it was a feast day second only to Christmas. You knew you would get lots of chocolate and be allowed to eat it at your own pace -which when it comes to kids generally means fast! Easter eggs are everywhere, in many shapes, sizes, types of chocolate, themes etc.. but what about making your own? Well why bother? It's a lot more economical, environmentally friendly and easy, once you have a mould. Also you are in control -how dark you want the chocolate, what ingredients you want, how thick you want the egg etc....so it's a win win situation. I bought a mould in a kitchen shop, Stock in Dublin. They only had chicken moulds left, if you can't get one, you can buy a cheap egg that has the plastic protection and use this. All you need then is some chocolate to melt and whatever you'd like to add.

I used 100g of chocolate per two halves -so each chicken is made of 100g chocolate. To make sure it's not too fragile and thin you have to do two layers, so, first fill the moulds with a layer and allow this to harden in the fridge. If you leave the chocolate over the bain marie, but off the heat, it will still be liquid by the time you're ready for the second layer. I added the nuts when I was doing layer two, but do as you wish. Then pop them back in the fridge and when they are ready to be stuck together, you need a little bit of melted chocolate -this is the hardest part so take your time and try not to hold the chickens for too long or you'll get fingerprints all over them.

You can use almonds, coconut, lavender, crystallised ginger, chili or whatever you fancy.

Wrap in coloured paper with ribbon and flowers on the outside for a cracking nice Easter egg present.

The Open Door Supper Club

Ideas growing right before your eyes...

Hello, here I am again ....you might think I wasn't cooking at all in the month of March - but I've been cooking like there's no tomorrow actually, although tomorrow I will sleep, because today I am hosting my first ever supper club! So I have been buzzing around the kitchen and scribbling ideas in my notebook for most of the month in preparation. It's something I've wanted to do for quite a while and finally decided to bite the bullet or should that be biscuit....?! I've just put a raspberry and coconut truffle mixture in the fridge to set, the lamb shanks slept over night in the oven and the lavender and lemon wibbly wobbly jellies are a delicate pink and woblling and wibbling rather nicely - woooopie! I'm quite tired and nervous, but also really excited! It seems strange to be having a group to my house for dinner and know that I won't be eating with them -but such is the nature of the beast! Here follows my menu with a little Victorian twist as my house (rented) is of that era. Blog to follow...(after the sleeping)

The Open Door Inaugural Supper Club

Fizzy Early

Prosecco & French lemonade with earl grey tea spheres

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Nibbly Bits

A selection of sourdough bites to ‘amuse-your-bouche’

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Pears & Graces

Red & white chicory boats filled with Wicklow & Cashel Blue cheese, pears, roasted hazelnuts & a quince syrup

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Little Bo Peep

Slow cooked lamb shanks with sweet leeks & cannellini beans in a rich tomato sauce, with buttery moist mashed spuds.

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Oranges & Lemons

Marmalade ice-cream sandwiches with a cup of lavender & lemon  wibbly wobbly tea

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Closing Time Tea

Builders tea, herb teas, espresso or straight up black & a selection of petit fours

Chocolate Ganache Tart - because you are worth it

I was watching Raymond Blancs' latest tv show The Very Hungry Frenchman recently and he made an amazing chocolate ganache tart with a crumble base and butterscotch sauce - I wanted to make something similar, but not a replica as I didn't have enough time for Raymonds extras. So I searched around internetland and found a recipe on a blog that caught my eye. A chocolate ganache tart that used an almond pastry shell - which requires you to melt the butter, yes -a pastry that requires you to apply heat to it -mon dieu! The recipe is from a blog called COOK, a oui chef journal by Connie. In the end I combined Raymonds filling with Connies pastry base...although I tweaked both a little. The base seemed to have a tonne of butter -8 tbsps (!!) so I played it by ear with the butter. My tart dish was too small so I reduced the filling to avoid overflow, that's why the base is so thick compared to the filling -so make sure to use a 9 inch tart dish and then increase the volume of the filling...sorry if this is complicated... I will give the recipe according to a 9 inch tart dish and you will have a thinner base. The result was very delicious, a smack of dark chocolate and a lovely crumbly, buttery base.

Waiting for the tart to set

For the base;

• Turn your oven on to 180'C/Gas 4
• In a pan over a medium heat melt 6 dstps of butter
• Gease a 9 inch tart dish
• In a bowl combine 1 cup of plain white flour sieved, 1/3 cup icing sugar & 3 tbsp of ground almonds
• When the butter has melted slowly pour into your dry ingredients using a fork
• When the mixture has formed large crumbs take a 9 inch tart or flan dish and press the 'pastry' evenly into the dish, bringing it up the sides to form an edge, bake in oven for 18-20 mins or until very lightly golden, allow to cool once cooked

Pour in your ganache filling

For the filling;

• In a saucepan over a medium heat add 165ml of whipping cream & 1/3 cup caster sugar, bring to a boil (if you use a chocolate with low cocoa solids don't add the sugar)
• Break in 180g dark chocolate (80%) and whisk it up to ensure they combine properly, remove from heat
• In a separate bowl whisk up 1 egg & 5 tbsp milk, add a little bit of the chocolate mixture to the egg, to bring up the temperature, then add the egg mixture into the chocolate
• Pour into your cooled pastry shell, when the heat has gone from the filling place your tart in the fridge for at least 2 hours, serve solo or with a scoop of good vanilla or hazelnut ice-cream

Enjoy with a nice cuppa!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFGCZZV4dxs&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Old Cadbury Flake advert ...don't forget to pack your Flake when going to the jungle...

For the Love of ...Love - A St. Valentines Feast

Usually I don't go in much for Valentines day, it kind of has that Hallmark-ish feel, also I don't like being 'told what to do', plus most of my ex-boyfriends didn't really care for it.... so maybe I just made myself not care too!? Anyway this year was to be different, R. seemed a bit disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm so...deep breath..I decided to whole heartedly embrace it... just to see what it feels like. Celebration = food, naturally, so what to cook? Well, I wanted to indulge our senses, throwing caution to the wind about how much butter I was using and also do something a little bit tongue-in-cheek. I decided on the menu as below, although I had to abandon a few ideas for different reasons. Ms. Marmite Lover (Londons Supper Club Queen) had a nice recipe for Palm Hearts Salad in her book Supper Club, I really wanted it as a course, but for love nor money they weren't to be found anywhere in Dublin...even Fallon & Byrne didn't have them!

Cupids Din Dins

Prosecco with crushed Raspberry Hearts

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Cupids Arrows with Poached Egg & heart-attack Hollandaise

Eat your Heart out Artichoke with Lemon Butter

Bitter/Sweet Figs baked with Honey & Gorgonzola Crema

Heart-Shaped Vol-au-Vents with Wild Mushrooms & Beetroot Hearts

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Blueberry Blood Custard Cakes with Lemon Curd Cream

• So, Prosecco with berries, it's so easy -you can use any kind of berry you like and you can use frozen! Essentially you make a coulis. I defrosted some frozen raspberries in a pan (no water), sweetened them with a little honey and passed them through a sieve, to get rid of the annoying little seeds. Once the coulis has come to room temperature, put some in the bottom of a glass and pour in your chilled Prosecco or Cava or Brut, give it a stir and hey presto a lovely aperitif. I'm not bothered with Champagne - it is over-rated and over-priced. Dunnes Stores do a lovely tasting and well packaged bottle of Prosecco for E6.99!
  
• Hollandaise sauce- it was my first time making this and it didn't split! I only wanted a small amount so I took 1 egg yolk, 2 dstp of lemon juice -combine these with a whisk over a bain marie, then whisking all the time slowly add cold butter 1/4 cup in total. I steamed the asparagus until tender but slightly al-dente, oxymoron -yes! I like to poach my eggs in a non-stick frying pan, employing a Heston Blumenthal trick -crack your egg on a slotted spoon over a bowl and quickly put it into the warm water -so you discard the stringy egg white bits, that make a poached egg look ugly! Apparently this can be avoided by using a really, really fresh egg...like one you've just lifted from a hens nest.

Asparagus with Poached Egg & Hollandaise

• I took a whole fresh artichoke, in place of my palm hearts, tearing off some of the exterior leaves then simmering it in a large pot of water with a lemon quartered. A large artichoke will take about 45 mins to cook. When it's ready, drain it on a tea-towel and melt some (lots of) butter, to which you add lemon juice, pepper and a little salt, to taste. Pull off the leaves dipping them into your sauce and sucking off any flesh, until you reach the heart -then scoop away the choke (furry inedible bits) and eat the exposed heart...show no mercy, smother it in the buttery sauce.

• The figs, again easy peasy, turn on your oven to 180'C/Gas6. It's not fig season so the only ones I could get weren't as juicy as I would have liked, but how as ever we scoffed them. Split the fig into 4 to halfway down, R. loves Cambozola but Fallon & Byrne were out, so Gorgonzola Crema it was to be, put some cheese in the open fig, with a teaspoon of honey on top and bake for about 15 mins on some baking paper. Serve with some leaves and if you have some coulis left over drizzle it around the plate.

Fig with Gorgonzola Crema & Honey

• Next the soppy, sentimental plate...I had this idea to make heart shaped vol-au-vents, so I bought some puff pastry (Aldi do a decent one), using a cookie cutter I cut out the hearts and a few smaller ones for decoration. Brush with some beaten egg and cook in oven at 180'/Gas 6 until they turn golden -about 15/20 mins. Meanwhile clean your mushrooms, (I used oyster and brown capped French) in a frying pan put lots of butter and fresh thyme, cook your mushrooms on a medium heat. I added a little cream before serving to get a nice sauce. I cooked a medium sized whole fresh beetroot in water for about 35 mins, I then sliced it and cut out more heart shapes....I know I was really getting into it! To finish the heart shaped vol-au-vents, I very carefully cut out a central heart shape from the large puffed hearts and gently removed the center, leaving the base. Fill these with the cooked mushrooms and top with a beetroot heart, serve with leaves.

Vol-au-Vents with wild Mushrooms & Beetroot Hearts

• I used the recipe for the Flognard/Custard Cake, see previous blog /theopendoorsupperclub/2012/02/flognardcustard-cake-with-currants.html using fresh blue berries instead of currants and serving it with a lemon curd cream, in individual ramekins. There was a little lemon curd left in one of the jars I made for R. at Christmas so I just swirled it through some whipped cream -easy.

Blueberry Blood Custard Cake with Lemon Curd Cream

So myself and R. enjoyed the feast, we were suitably stuffed and I was glad to have embraced the culinary opportunity of V-day... oh wait, is V-day Vagina day? -well that would certainly be an interesting theme for a 5 course dinner...

Sweet & Simple Pancakes

I reckon a lot of people won't be going to church this Holy Week but I bet 99% of us will be eating pancakes tomorrow. I have to confess I've had them three times already in the last week! Traditionally during the Lenten period, milk and eggs were prohibited, so pancakes were the order of Shrove Tuesday to utilise any remaining supplies. I remember it being one of the few school mornings where we would willing get out of bed, drawn to the kitchen by the delicious smell. My mother standing at the solid fuel cooker, making pancake after pancake and keeping a batch warm on a plate over a large pot of simmering water -so that we could all have one in unison, thereby saving a row between us kids. Often we would have them again that night and manys a time my mother would have to top up the batter with more milk, to stretch it out for our hungry mouths. We only ever had them with caster sugar and copious amounts of fresh lemon juice and that still remains my most favourite way to eat them. If you can it's best to make your batter ahead of time ensuring a lighter pancake -my mum would usually make hers the night before! Don't worry too much if you're short on time you can still use it straight away.

Makes 4/5 pancakes

• Sieve 100g plain flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle
• Whisk up one egg, put in the well along with a pinch of salt
• Gradually add 350 mls of milk (if you're dairy free oat, rice or soya is ok)
• Using a whisk gently mix and 'take in' the flour from the edge of your well to avoid lumps
• Add a small knob of melted butter or 2 tsps of sunflower oil
• If you get lumps whizz them out with a hand blender
• After the batter has rested over night or for an hour at least, put your non-stick pan on a medium heat
• Put your batter into a jug, melt some butter in the pan -enough to lightly cover the base, pour your batter in, tilt the pan to spread it and cook evenly on both sides

Before the roll-up

• Enjoy with;

                          Lemon & Caster Sugar

                          Lemon & Honey/Maple Syrup

                          Your favourite Jam

                          Nutella & Banana

                          Spinach, Walnuts & Goats Cheese

                          Cheese & Tuna etc.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqL7jyrXhLs

   Cookie Monster....I feel the same way about pancakes.

Corleggy Cheese and Tomato Tart

Pastry, oh pastry.....you and I have only met a few times in my life, but I'd like to meet you more. I used to be a little bit scared of you, because you can be unpredictable, erratic and prone to mood swings. Though the more I meet you, the more I like you and even though I can buy you ready made -I love you when you do behave and we work together, towards an end goal -my stomach.  I like you in this recipe - a very simple blue cheese and tomato tart, you were a team player in the trio and it was a win win situation. Dear pastry I promise to always be your friend -if you promise to be mine.....

• Begin by making the pastry, if you don't have a food processor you need to be careful about the dough getting too warm when you're making it, to help avoid this you can chill everything ahead of time.
• Sieve a cup of plain flour into a large bowl and pop into the fridge with two knives.
• Measure out 3 tbsp of water into a jug and put in fridge along with 1/3 cup chilled butter cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• When everything has had time to chill (20/30 mins) you can begin adding the butter into the flour holding the two knives together and using these to 'cut the butter in' -eventually the mixture will resemble chunky breadcrumbs, you may have to use your fingers to rub together the butter & flour a little towards the end.
• If using a food processor the warming is not such an issue -whizz up the flour and chilled butter, until the 'breadcrumbs' form, do the next step by hand.
• Next start adding the cold water bit by bit with a fork, trying not to over work the dough, the mixture should start 'coming together' and you will have to use your hand to complete this process.
• Once you have your ball of dough -wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 mins.
• When you're ready, turn your oven on to 180'C/Gas 6, next flour a work surface, pat your dough down gently and start rolling, make sure your re-flour the underneath as you go or your dough could end up sticking, also flour your pin if you need to.

• Grease your tart dish and have it beside you, so you can check the dough size as you go. When it's big enough (with a little extra width) lift gently and place over the tart dish or roll it up on your pin and then unroll over the dish.
• Prick the base a little with a fork and blind bake to cook the crust and prevent the pastry going soggy once the filling goes in. To do this, place parchment over the base, cover with dried beans or rice and bake for 20 mins 
• Remove from oven, brush the pastry with some beaten egg and return to oven for 1 minute, repeat. This will ensure that the base is cooked through and water proof.
• While your base is being blind baked you can get your filling ready, the recipe I saw was for Roquefort cheese but I was at the farmers market and wanted to use something Irish -so I got a hunk (185g-ish) of Corleggy mildly blue cheese. Slice up your cheese into thinnish slices place them around the pastry shell, scatter over about a tbsp of fresh thyme and lots of cracked black pepper. 
• Thickly slice enough vine tomatos to cover the tart -please use good tomatos -nothing pale and scentless!
• Pop your tart into the oven and bake for 15/20 mins, allow to cool for about 10 mins before serving. we had ours with a sorrel leaf salad.

French Toast -my guilty pleasure

French Toast or Pain Perdu has been around for a very long time -referenced in a collection of recipes from the 5th century. Up until 6 months ago, I thought I didn't like french toast -perhaps my waistline would prefer if I still thought that! I think it was because myself and my brother tried to make it as kids, but didn't really know what we were doing, we just fried up eggy sliced pan and thought that was it -it was a bit euch! A good friend re-introduced me to the joys of this simple to make, delicious to eat, 'weekend breakfast'....although, following a feed of it yesterday -I had to make myself some more today.....to....stave off the Monday blues...yes that's why....!

• Take 3 eggs whisk them up, add 3 tbsp of milk whisk again, add a pinch of freshly ground nutmeg.Put a knob of butter on a non-stick pan with a little bit of sunflower oil. slice up some bread -I find the best is sourdough bread -something about the slightly vinegar taste....
• Let the slices soak up the mixture and fry on pan until golden, serve immediately with your favourite toppings.
• My two favourites are; natural yogurt with blackberry jam or natural yogurt with chestnut puree...nom nom!
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