Decadent Chocolate Fondants

I haven't forgotten you all and I've been on adventures to Taiwan and Hong Kong which I will need to fill you in at another time but I needed to stop and write a recipe for my decadent chocolate fondants.

I recently ate at Big Stone Tapas in North Sydney and I couldn't get over how amazing the chocolate fondant dessert was. It was one of the things I missed most on my travels was being able to cook and bake for my family.

I decided to rectify this to replicate a quick and easy chocolate fondant that could be whipped up whilst we enjoyed our family dinner of spaghetti bolognese.

Serves 6

Ingredients

100g dark chocolate
100g unsalted butter

2 eggs
2 egg yolks
100g sugar

100g plain flour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celcius

2. Use a thin slice of butter and use this to grease the ramekins. (I use a pannacotta mould as I wanted these to be small as these were rather decadent)

3. Add chocolate and butter into a microwave dish with lid and place in the microwave for High 50 seconds. The chocolate wouldn't have completely melted but stir this mixture around and it will melt due to the residue heat from the butter.

4. Add eggs and egg yolks with the sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk for 3 minutes until pale yellow in colour.

5. Add the chocolate mixture to the egg mix and fold in the 100g of flour.

6. Divide the mixture into the ramekins and place on an oven tray.


7. Bake for 8-10 mins or until the surface is cooked but still soft in the centre.

8. I like to serve mine with a dollop of yoghurt as it is a rather rich dessert.

Spaghetti Bolognese you want to make a big batch of.

I've been looking for a Bolognese sauce to impress hubby and have been playing around with a few things but I will say that I am most impressed with Matt Preston's Simple Bolognese recipe. So much so that I have made this twice already and haven't had the need to change the quantities and now have an easy method to make this. This recipe makes a good amount, as I have 3 containers in the freezer ready for the next spag bol night. Perfect for a cold winter's night and one that hubby and the kids' love.

Matt's simple bolognese

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes or as long as possible

Ingredients

Olive oil
40g butter

To make soffritto
2 medium carrots, diced small
3 medium brown onions, diced small
4 bacon rashers cut into fingernail size tiles
2 celery sticks, diced small

1 tbsp soft brown sugar
4 cloves garlic, peeled, chopped and crushed
3 tbsp tomato paste

1kg beef mince
1 lemon
500ml red wine
3 bay leaves
Splash Worcestershire sauce
2 cans tinned tomatoes
500ml beef stock

1 large pack of egg tagliatelle  the curly nesty ones are nicest
150g Italian parmesan cheese
1 loaf crusty bread and a green salad for serving

Method

1. Place a large pot on the heat.

2.  Throw the onions, carrots, celery, bacon rashers into the food processor and blitz until diced small.

3. Pour in 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 40g butter into the hot pan. When the butter is melted and the oil hot, throw in the carrots, onion, celery and bacon. Cook until veg is soft and going translucent at the edges (about 10mins).

4. Sprinkle over 1 tbsp of brown sugar and stir through.

5. Add garlic and tomato paste. Move this all round the pan to cook out for three minutes.
Scrape the tomatoey soffritto into a bowl.

6. Splash in some more olive oil.  When it is hot, throw in the mince and cook until browned. Stir the meat the whole time so it cooks evenly. (Depending on the size of your pot, you may find it easier to do this in two batches.)

7. Cut a 4cm long ribbon of lemon peel (without pith) and cut the lemon in half.

8. Scrape meat into the soffritto bowl.

9. Turn up the heat and deglaze using the red wine.

10. When the wine has reduced by half, add back in meat, soffritto, bay leaves, a couple of good dashes of Worcestershire sauce, lemon peel, tomatoes and stock. Stir.

11. Season with salt and a good squeeze of lemon juice from one half of the lemon. Reserve the rest.

12. Bring to the boil covered, then remove lid and turn the heat right down. Cook very gently for up to four hours. Stir occasionally to ensure the sauce doesn't stick and burn. (If the sauce gets too thick, add some more stock and stir it in.)

13. The sauce is ready when it smells irresistible, wonderfully thick, and is a dark red, glossy colour.

14. Taste and season with a little more salt and lemon juice as required. You can now either serve it straight away or cool it and refrigerate before using the next day.

15. Cook the tagliatelle in plenty of salted boiling water in a large pan. When the pasta is cooked but still a little firm to the bite, carefully scoop out a cup of the starchy cooking liquid and drain the pasta.

16. Put a generous ladle of the bolognese sauce in the pasta pot (about two cups) and toss through the pasta. Moisten the combination with a little of the reserved pasta water so it isn't clumpy.

17. Feel free to use as little or as much sauce as you like  we've got lots of plans for the sauce that's left over.

18. Serve it with grated parmesan over the tagliatelle, bread for mopping up the leftover sauce and crisp green salad.

Mandarin marmalade

It's coming into mandarin picking season and I love how sweet and juicy this fruit is. When using this fruit to make marmalade, I tend to use less sugar, to let the sweetness of the mandarin do the talking.

A foodie friend had gifted me a box of mandarins from her farm on the provision that I provide a jar of my homemade mandarin marmalade. When she tasted it, she told me that I had missed my calling, such a compliment and wanted a copy of the recipe. I am a fan of marmalade, especially the citrus variety. I think that the slight bitterness from the rind and sweet flesh of the citrus is what makes it.  I find making marmalade theraputic and great little gifts to give to friends and family.

Marmalade is very easy to make as long as you get the ratio of citrus and sugar right. Or it is really up to you if you like a runny or thick marmalade. This is my trusty recipe that uses every single part of the mandarin including the pips and the pith (the white bit).

Why do I keep the pips and pith you ask, this is where the naturally occurring soluble, gum-like substance known as pectin is and pectin is what you need for the marmalade to set.

The degree to which a preserve sets is dependent upon the ratio between the fruit pectin, acid and sugar. And the levels of pectin and acid varies considerably between different types of fruits.

Getting slightly scientific on you, oranges and mandarins have high levels of pectin and medium acid levels, hence you're able to reduce the sugar content.

If you have friends that love to take all the pith off their mandarins, I recommend that you call them to come over right away to help you with your preparation. Removing the seeds and pith takes a awhile, so settle in with some tunes or get the kids to help. Don't you worry if you miss a couple of seeds, you'll find that these will just float to the surface so they can be easily scooped out.


Makes 5 x 375mL, 2 x 200mL jars full

Ingredients

20 mandarins (2.5kg)
1kg sugar (I tend to start from 0.75kg and taste til I'm happy with the sweetness but no more than 1.5kg)
6 cups of water
Juice of 1 lemon

Method

1. Peel mandarins and place segments into a large bowl. Keep the peel from at least 10 mandarins

2. Cut the peel into thin strips, (thinner is better, unless you like chunks of peel) and set aside. I tend to place 3 layers of peel of the same size and use a sharp knife to slice these at the same time.

3. Remove as much of the pith as possible and set aside in another bowl.

4. Cut a thin strip from the top of the mandarins with a knife for easier removal of the seeds. Place the seeds into the bowl with the pith.

5. Using a muslin cloth wrap the seeds and pith together and tie tightly with piece of cotton twine (used for cooking).

6. Add mandarins, peel, the parcel of pith and seeds, lemon juice, sugar, water into a large pot (something that is going to hold 2.5L at least).

7. Make sure you have a long wooden spoon as this will give you some distance from the bubbling sweetness and stir constantly over medium heat until sugar is dissolved.

8. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat down to medium and let it bubble away for about 1.5 hours, stir occasionally until setting point is reached.

How to test your setting point?
Put a plate in the freezer and chill it. Take it out when ready to test, add a dollop of marmalade onto plate. Let it stand for a 30 seconds. Then draw a line through the jam with your finger, if the line disappears, its means the jam is still runny, so keep boiling the mixture for another 5-10 minutes and test again. When the you draw a line through the jam and the line remains, your marmalade is ready for bottling.

9. Once ready, remove the parcel and discard the pith and seeds.

10. Pour the marmalade into hot sterilised jars.

11. Seal when the jars are cool enough to handle which is about 10mins later.

How to sterilise jars?
This is when the baby bottle steriliser comes in handy. Or if you don't have this preheat oven to 160C. Wash jar with soapy water, rinse and shake well, place the jars on a baking tray and put in the oven. Leave jars for at least 20 minutes. If you time it well, you'll just need to take the jars out of the oven when your marmalade is ready. Seal the jar when is cool enough to handle.

Handy hints

You can mix up the marmalade by adding Cointreau, whisky, brandy for an adults only version of mandarin marmalade.

Quick apple pie

I love apple pie and I thought I'd share my love for these with the kids. This is my quick option for a midweek dessert. It's easy to add different fruit such as pear to mix it up. It's a definitely hit and I've been asked twice this week if I'm making this again for dessert. 'Of course' was the answer.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 apple thinly sliced (I keep the peel on)

1/2 pear thinly sliced with skin (optional)

2 sheets of puff pastry

Sprinkle of cinnamon

1 tsp of brown sugar

20g butter

20g currants

 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius
 

2. Cut the sheets of puff pastry in half so you end up with 4 rectangular pieces of puff pastry. 

3. Place 6-8 slices of apple and 2 slices of pear on the bottom half of each of the rectangle of puff pastry

4. Sprinkle cinnamon on the apples

5. Add 1 tsp of brown sugar on each of the apples

6. Sprinkle a few currants on top of the apple filling

7. Add a knob of butter on each apple filling 

8. Fold the puff pastry over to close the parcels and press the edges down with a fork. 

9. Brush melted butter over the top of each square parcel. 

10. Bake for 12-15 mins until golden in colour. 

Lime syrup cake

With limes in season and hubby's birthday coming up, it was perfect timing to bake a lime syrup cake for the family get together lunch. I've made this once before and found this cake so moist with a sweet sour taste. As this was to be the birthday cake, I added a few strawberries for the finishing touches.

 

Ingredients

350g caster sugar
30g self raising flour
90g desiccated coconut
zest of 1 lime
250g unsalted butter melted
2 eggs
250mL milk

Lime syrup
225g caster sugar
zest of 1 lime
juice of 5 limes
180mL water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

2. Lightly grease a 19cm (7.5inch) square cake tin. Line the base and side with baking paper.

3.Place together the sugar, flour, coconut and zest in a bowl.

4. Pour in butter, eggs and milk and mix until smooth.

5. Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour (or until skewer put into the centre comes completely dry).

6. Put foil over the cake at 40minutes to prevent it getting too brown and continue cooking.

7. Make the syrup when the cake has 10mins of cooking time to go. Put sugar and 180mL in a heavy based saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar is fully dissolved. Add the lime zest and juice bring to boil and reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 8 minutes then strain.

8. Remove cake from the oven and use a skewer to poke a few holes evenly over the cake. Slowly pour the hot syrup over the cake and let it stand for 20mins to soak though.

9. To serve simply slice and serve on its own or with strawberries.

10. Cut up the baking paper into triangle edges and tie up with twine for a quick and easy presentation.

Handy hint

Pour the hot syrup over the cake whilst its still hot to soak up all the liquid.

Braised pork belly & toasted quinoa & broccolini

Another favourite childhood food memory is mum's braised pork belly. I haven't quite replicated the way my mother makes this dish but I was happy with the result. The smell of this dish cooking away in the oven is divine, my visitors were commenting how good it smelt as the fragrant spices wafted through the house.

Having recently eaten at One Red Penny in Summer Hill, I was quite taken with the use of the toasted black quinoa and black barley for one of their dishes. Toasting quinoa is quite easy to do and I think it just lifted this dish to another level with the nutty crunch. It's so good that hubby has told me that this is his new favourite dish. May have to make this dish again soon.

 

Ingredients

2 tbs sugar

1 tbs rice bran oil

1 tbs Shao Hsing cooking wine

500g pork belly

4 cups of water

2 tbs dark soy

3cm thick piece of ginger cut into large slices

4 crushed garlic cloves

3 cardarmon pods

1 star anise

1 cinnamon quill

1 cup of water during cooking 

1 tbs black quinoa

1 tsp rice bran oil

1 bunch of broccolini 

 

Method

1. Preheat oven at 170 degrees Celsius. 

2. Cut pork belly into strips 2cm wide and 2cm thick.  Pour 1 tbs shao zhing wine over pork belly to marinate for 20 mins. 

3. Add sugar and oil to a heavy based pot over medium heat until sugar dissolves. 

4. Add pork belly to the pot to melted sugar. 

5. Add 4 cups of water into the pot. Add dark soy, garlic, cardarmon, star anise and cinnamon. 

6. Put into the oven for 2hrs.

7. Add another cup of water after it has cooked for 2 hours and continue cooking for another 1 hour. (The pork will be melt in your mouth tender) 

8. Cut broccolini in half so you end up with stems and florets. Boil water and blanch for 2 mins. Drain water and cool with cold running water. 

9. Add 1 tsp rice bran oil to a fry pan over medium heat. Rinse 1 tbs of black quinoa through a sieve before adding to the frypan. Shake the pan every 1 min for approximately 3mins until you hear quinoa popping and pour into a bowl to use for later.
 

10. Place broccolini on plate and pile with braised pork belly. Sprinkle toasted quinoa on top before serving. 

Tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad

This dish is ode to One Red Penny in Summer Hill when I tried their ox heart tomato, golden beetroot, toasted black barley and fresh Italian cheese made of mozzarella and cream (burrata) salad. The toasted barley just added that extra pop drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar.

Ingredients

1 red truss tomato
1 buffalo mozzarella
1 tbs pearl barley
1 leaf of kale
leaves of parsley
100g red quinoa
1 cup of water

1 tbs of olive oil
1 tbs of aged balsamic vinegar

Method

1. Cut the tomato into 6 round slices and set aside.

2. Blanch kale for 2 minutes until it turns a bright green in colour, drain, cut into 3cm thick pieces and set aside.

3. Rinse 100g of red quinoa and add 1 cup of water to quinoa in saucepan. Cover with lid and bring to boil. Once boiling, bring head down to simmer for 12-15 mins.

4. Place frypan on medium heat and dry roast the pearl barley for 5 minutes.

5. To serve, place tomatoes around the plate, add blanched quinoa, parley leaves, before topping with buffalo mozzarella. Sprinkle toasted barley on top before drizzling the olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar.