Treat for Mel and Carl

Mel and Carl were nice enough to watch our kids so I made them a little treat.

Chocolate Mallow Pie Base: 1 stick of butter, 1 1/2 oz sugar, Graham Crackers.

To make base: Crush about 1 1/2 packs of the crakers into fine crumbs. Melt the butter and sugar in a pan and then add the crackers until it feels like it will hold together and is not too runny. Put into pan and let cool.

Filling: 4 oz dark chocolate, 15 marshmallows, 2 tbs of water, 1 egg seperated, 1/2 pint double cream.

To make Filling: Put Choc and Marshmallows into a bowl. Microwave until melted, then mix thoroughly and let cool slightly. Stir the egg yolk into the chocolate mixture and leave to go cold. Whisk the cream until it is stiff. Whisk the egg whites until it creates stiff peaks, then add the cream and then the egg whites to the chocolate mixture. Turn into the base and then let cool inthe fridge. I had left over crackers so I crumbled them over the top for fun.

Anniversary Food - Dessert 2

Baked Chocolate Tart: 5 ounces unsalted butter 5 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate 8 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted Small pinch salt 4 eggs 7 ounces granulated sugar 3 tablespoons maple syrup 3 medium heaping tablespoons sour cream or creme fraiche 10-inch flan or tart shell, baked blind

To Make: Place the butter, chocolate, cocoa powder and salt in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed.

In a separate bowl beat the eggs and sugar together until light and well creamed, and then add the golden syrup and sour cream or creme fraiche. Stir the chocolate mixture into this mixture, scraping all the chocolate out with a spatula. Once you?ve mixed it well, pour it into the pastry shell. Place into a preheated 150C/300 degree F/Gas 2 oven for 40 to 45 minutes. During cooking a beautiful crust will form on top.

Carefully remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes, during which time the skin will crack and the filling will shrink slightly.

I used VERY dark chocolate that made it rich, you could use about 60% Cocoa to dull it down a little. I served it with rasberries and fresh whipped cream.

Anniversary Food - Desert 1

Chocolate pots: 1/2 pint heavy cream 7 ounces semisweet chocolate, best quality 2 large egg yolks 2 tablespoons almond essence, 1 tablesponn Vanilla essence,3/4 ounces butter.



To make: In a thick-bottomed pot, heat the cream until near boiling. Remove and set aside for 1 minute before adding chocolate. Stir in until melted and smooth. Once melted, stir in egg yolks and brandy. Cool slightly, add butter and stir until smooth and shiny. Pour into individual serving pots.


PS. Sometimes if you add the butter when the chocolate isn't cool enough it will make the chocolate look as if it has split. To rectify this allow the mixture to cool a little longer before stirring in some cold milk, a little at a time, until you have a smooth consistency again.



You could add any flavoring you want and just add to taste. I served it with mini Milano cookies to dip in. Delicious!

Anniversary Food - Main Dish

This is good traditional English grub. The Cornish Pastie was invented for Cornish coal miners to take as their meal. The original pasties had large crimping so the the miners could hold it here and discard it as it would be coverd in coal. I made 1 traditonal and 2 of my own variations.

Traditional
Pie?
For 2 to share.

Pastry: 8 oz self raising flour, 4 oz butter or shortning, enough water to mix.

To make the pastry: Rub together the flour and fat, do not overwork as this will create hard pastry. Add water until it becomes like playdough, again too much will make your pastry hard.

for the filling: Chuck steak cubed, 1 onion, 1 Carrot, 1 Potatoe, seasoned flour, crumbled beef boulion cube. SLice and dice all the ingrediants into a bowl cover with seasoned flour and the boulion cube.

To make pasties: Roll out pastry and cut into circles to meet your portion needs. Place the filling in the center. Brush the edges with water to help them stick. Gather up and crimp over the top. Brush the Pastie with beaten egg and put on a baking sheet into a 450 Degree oven until pastry is cooked, about 10 mins. Then lower temp to 350 and bake for about 35-45 mins. Kepp an eye on these as they could burn quickly.

Anniversary Food - Courses 1 & 2

Easy Mozzarella and Tomatoe salad to start. I drizzled Balsamic vineagar over the top to add a little kick.Poached Salmon with Baby Spinach and Spring Green salad with Lemon Garlic Dressing

Dressing: 1 garlic clove 1 teaspoon salt 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest Freshly ground black pepper 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

To make the Dressing: Mince garlic and mash to a paste with salt. In a bowl whisk together garlic paste, lemon juice, vinegar, zest, and pepper and whisk in oil until emulsified. (Dressing may be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. Bring dressing to room temperature before serving.)

Salmon: 1 Lemon, Dried Basil and Parsley, Butter.

To Make Salmon: Place the salmon on foil and squeeze half the lemon over it. Slice the other half and put slices on top of salmon. On top of the slices put basil, parsley, freshly ground pepper and a knob of butter. Bring the foil together and make sure it is sealed so that the steam stays in. Put into a oven preheated to 350 for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the fish. This makes very moist salmon and the butter that melts with the seasoning makes a great sauce.

Delicious Tin Foil Dinners

Last week we went into the canyon and we wanted tin foil dinners. However, I always seem to hate tin foil dinners as half of the stuff is undercooked and the other half is burnt and it all tastes like carbon. So I decided to try something a little different. I defrosted 2 chicken breasts and cubed them fairly small. I quartered 2 spuds and then thinly sliced them. I then cut a zucchini into 4 strips and cut it into chunks, this I knew would cook quicker than the root veg. I then diced half a yellow onion and crushed a clove of Garlic. I put all this in a large Tupperware and added some olive oil, parsley, basil, thyme, salt and pepper. I shook it all together to make sure it all had an equal covering. I laid out 2 strips of foil in the shape of a cross and laid the mixture onto the foil. we had a grill cover so I had the foil open and started the mixture cooking on the grill. once the meat had started to color I divided up a can of tomatoes between the 2 dinners, wrapped the meals up and put them on the coals. After about 20 minutes I drained the juice and we had very moist chicken and veggies steamed in the tomato and chicken juice. Everything was cooked and the juices stopped it from burning. If you do not have the grill top you can just wrap it and start it cooking for about 5 minutes then open them and add the tomatoes.

Lemonade

I had some requests for the recipie for lemonade that I made on my birthday.
You need
1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups lemon juice
8 cups water

In a saucepan combine the sugar with 1 cup of water. Bring it to the boil and stir to disolve all the sugar. Allow it to cool at room temperature, then cover and refrigerate until chilled.

When juicing the lemons remove all the seeds but leave the pulp. In a pitcher stir together chilled syrup lemon juice and remaining 7 cups of water.

I have found that if you are in a time crunch you can make with warm syrup, I would just add ice and remove 1 cup of water. This will chill it quickly if you are in a hurry.

Also it is fun to have some fresh berries on hand, we used rasberries. I crushed on or two into the bottom of a glass and then poured the lemonade into it. You could even freeze rasberries into ice cubes that you add to the glass for a fun presentation.

Sweet Onions

we had a red oninon left over the other night and I wanted to put it with some Salmon that I was poaching, so I started raiding the fridge and pantry. I started by slicing the onion into thin rings and heating some olive oil in a pan. I cooked the onions for about 4 minutes until they started softening. I squeezed over the juice of 1 lemon and added about 2-3 tablespoons of honey. As the onions softened the honey glazed thm and they absorbed the tangy lemon juice. This made a really simple side to the salmon, you could also put thes on a burger off the BBQ. The onion still taste like onion but had a sweet and tangy kick to it.

Fun Breakfast

I have been slammed at work so have not had much time to put posts on here. Tonight Carter wanted waffles for dinner and I thought that bringing out the old waffle mix was a little boring. I like to make cooking fun for him so we got out the food coloring and made fun colored waffles. If you have kids or want to just make breakfast fun this really livens up a boring looking dish. we also added some cocoa powder and sugar with a little extra water to create our own chocolate waffles. Easy and simple with very fun results