Open Table

Chocolate Fudge Cake

I was lucky enough to grow up in Aldeburgh, a small seaside town in suffolk.  This weekend was the Aldeburgh Carnival.   

The weekend is full of old fashioned fun activities: swimming races in the sea, children's running races, mini marathon, the carnival procession, it is great fun. 

The events culminate on Monday evening with the lantern procession, which is my favourite part of the weekend.

A few thousand people gather in the high street, holding chinese lanterns, there is a sea of colourful bobbing candle lights, it is simply stunning and so magical.

 The crowd of lanterns walk down the high street and then spread on to the beach to watch the fireworks.  Before, during and after the display people send floating lanterns up into the sky so there are glowing lights all over the place.  Looking on in wonder our two year old son said ‘Mummy can we stay forever’.  

Thea made us all laugh at the end of the display be shouting ‘Thank you fairies’ ... she is convinced that they make the fireworks with their fairy dust!  It really took me back to all the years we sat on the beach as children.  

This year, for the first time in a while, lots of my childhood friends have come back with their children to enjoy the magic ... to celebrate we had a dinner party for twelve on Sunday.  I cooked this wonderful cake for pudding.

I would really recomend trying it ... as with all Ottolenghi recipes it is wondeful.  Do pop a comment below if you do make it as I would love to know how you got on.  Also please give details of any wonderful events that you are taking part in this summer ... or took part in when you were children.

OTTOLENGHI’S CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE - Serves 8-10

Ingredients

240g unsalted butter cut into small cubes, 265g dark chocolate (52% cocoa solids) cut into small pieces, 95g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) cut into small pieces, 290g light muscovado sugar, 4 tablespoons water, 5 large eggs (separated), pinch of salt, cocoa powder for dusting

• Preheat your oven to 170°C.  Grease a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment.
• Place the butter and  both types of chocolate in a vary large heatproof bowl - it should be big enough to accommodate the entire mix.  Put the brown sugar and water in a small saucepan, stir to mix, then bring to the boil over a medium heat.  Pour the boiling syrup over the butter and chocolate and stir well until they are melted and you are left with a runny chocolate sauce.  Stir in the egg yolks, one at a time.  Set aside until the mixture comes to room temperature.
• Put the egg whites and salt in a large bowl and whisk to a firm, but not o dry meringue.  Using a rubber spatula or large metal spoon, gently fold the meringue into the cooled chocolate mixture a third at a time.  The whites should be fully incorporated but there is no harm if you can see small bits of meringue in the mix.
• Pour 800g (two thirds) of the mixture into the prepared cake tin and level gently with a palate knife.  Leave the rest of the batter for later.  Place the cake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer comes out almost clean.  Remove from the oven and lave to cool completely.
• Flatten the top of the cake with a palette knife.  Don’t worry about breaking the crust.  Pour the rest of the batter on top and level the surface again.  Return to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.  Thea cake should still have moist crumbs when checked with a skewer.  Lave to cool completely before removing from the tin.  Dust with coco powder and serve 

Cooking notes

When you pour the hot sugar over the chocolate I found that the sugar did not completely dissolve, it went slightly grainy until I added the yolks and gave it a good beat.  This sorted it self out in the cooking so don’t panic!

The cake will keep covered, at room temperature for 4 days.

The recipe states that this will feed 6-8 ... it is so rich that it stretched to 12 very happily.  

Adapting

I love cold chocolate so I placed the cake in the fridge after it had cooled ... it was delicious.

Lemon Mousse

I had a wonderful afternoon in the garden this afternoon.  All this rain has done wonders for my sweet peas ... it finally feels like summer is on the way!

We have friends over for dinner tonight.  I am cooking duck breast and I thought I would make one of my favourite summer puddings, Lemon Mousse. 

I adore it, I was taught how to make it by my mummy, it is quick easy and tastes wonderful ... I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

LEMON MOUSSE - Serves 8

Ingredients

1 x 397g Tin of Condensed Milk, 300ml Double Cream, 4 Lemons, 4 Eggs 

• Separate the eggs.  Place the whites in one mixing bowl and the yokes in a second
• Add the condensed milk, and the juice and rind from the lemons to the egg yokes.  (I squeeze the lemon juice by hand, if you have an amazingly efficient machine you may only need the juice from three lemons)
• Put the cream in the third bowl
• Using an electric whisk, whisk the egg whites into soft peaks (pull the whisk out of the egg and if a little peak forms and stay then that is a soft peak and you are done with whisking)
• Tap of as much of the egg white as you can off the whisk and then whisk the cream until it is thick.  (You are looking for the same thickness of cream you spread on scones a scoop full should stay on a teaspoon if turned upside down for a few seconds)
• Mix the cream into the egg yoke mixture
• Once the cream is mixed in, fold in the egg whites.  To start add in a large spoon full of the egg white to the egg yolk and cream mixture and fold in with a large spoon.  Once this is throughly folded into then add in the rest of the egg whites.  Try to do this quite quickly as if you stir the egg whites for too long they will lose the air that you have just whisked into them
• Once combined line a ceramic flan dish with some cling film (my dish has a diameter of 28cm and is 3cm deep). 
• Pour the mixture into the flan dish and place in the freezer for a minimum of six hours
• Before you guests arrive you need to remove the pudding from the flan case.  Have two large plates that are 28cm in diameter to hand.  Remove the pudding from the freezer and place in 1cm of hot water for ten seconds.  Remove from the water and place a plate face down on top of the pudding.  Carefully turn it over, remove the cling film from the pudding and place the second plate face down where the cling film used to be.  Using both plates carefully turn the pudding over, remove the top plate and you should be left with your pudding looking great face up on a plate
• Place the pudding back in the freezer
• 30 minutes before you are ready to serve remove the pudding from the freezer so that it can soften to a moussey texture.  

Cooking notes

You need three mixing bowls for this recipe, if you have an electric whisk it will be a lot quicker, if not you might need some help with the whisking, my husband normally has to step in with this one.  

Make sure you mix the egg whites before the cream ... if you do it the other way round then the cream in the egg whites will stop them from foaming.  

If you do not have time to remove the mousse from the flan dish then pour it directly into a serving bowl.  As mentioend above you will need to remove the bowl from the freezer 30 minutes before you eat the mousse, to give it time to relax.

Adapting

If you don’t have lemons you can use limes .. or two of each would work well.

APPLE CRUMBLE

There is no better end to the week than having friends for Sunday lunch.  Last weekend we had Jack and Emily with their two boys.

I cooked Roast Chicken followed by apple crumble.  

After a slightly stressful moment ... my oven broke and I had no heat ... I managed to finish cooking the chicken.  I carved it, placed the meat into the juices in the bottom of the roasting tray and cooked the meat through on the top of the hob.  

After Roast chicken we had Apple Crumble with cream and ice cream ... Luckily I had cooked the crumble just before I popped the chicken in the oven so it was still warm.

APPLE CRUMBLE - Serves 6

Ingredients

6 Royal Gala Apples, 75g Self raising flour, 50g Light brown sugar, 50g Butter, 2 Teaspoons of Ground Cinnamon, 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar, 150mil of Water

• Heat the oven to 170 
• Peel, core and slice the six apples into eight slices per apple.  Place these slices into an oven proof dish.  They should almost fill the dish leaving 2-3 cm at the top of the dish.
• Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and the water on top of the apples and mix.  Once mixed flatten the apples so they fit snugly in the bottom of the dish
• Now we make the crumble.  Place the remaining ingredients (flour, sugar, butter and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon) into a food processor.  Blitz till the ingredients have mixed together, it will look like very fine breadcrumbs
• Pour the crumble mixture over the apples, fill in all the gaps and press down lightly with your hand
• Place the pie on the middle shelf in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  When cooked the top of the crumble should be golden and the apple liquid should be bubbling round the side of the crumble.  If this is happening take a sharp knife and place it into the crumble to check that the apples are cooked through and soft.
• Serve with custard, ice cream or cream ... or all three!

Cooking notes

I use eating rather than cooking apples for this recipe as they are sweeter and do not need cooking before they are put in the crumble.  I used Royal Gala today, as they hold their shape when cooked.

The butter should be room temperature.

When the crumble cooks liquid can bubble up over the top of the crumble, as you can see in the photo I don't worry about this.  If you do then add slightly less water to the apples.

Adapting

You can make crumble with all kinds of fruit.  I do not like the tartness of berries in a crumble but if you do try adding a handful of blackberries to the apples.  If I do not have enough apples I have used pears to bulk out this crumble.

 

CHOCOLATE ROULADE

We have a few friends popping over for dinner tonight so I thought I would cook Chicken with Spelt followed by one of my favorite puddings ... Chocolate Roulade 

With Thea in nursery, Charlie and I went shopping for all the ingredients then came back to cook.  He got a bit carried away when I was clearing up and managed to break off a quarter of the first Roulade ... apparently the huge bit he broke off was “for Daddy” ... I could not get cross with his very cute face.  So while he tucked into the first chocolate base I got the mixing bowls out again and made another.

I will post the recipe tomorrow for Chicken with Spelt ... pop back then if you want a great one pot dish that I think is a good alternative to risotto ...

CHOCOLATE ROULADE - Serves 8

Ingredients 

200g Plain Chocolate (70% Coco), 50ml warm water, 5 Eggs, 150g Caster sugar, 1 Teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1 Tablespoon of Organic Coco Powder, 300ml Double cream, 100g Chestnut Spread, Icing sugar for dusting

Equipment

40cm x 27cm Baking Tray, Baking Paper, Tea Towel

• Turn you oven to 160
• Get out the baking tray (40cm x 27cm).  Place a piece of baking paper on to it.  I tend to scrunch the baking paper up into a ball the place it on tray to help stop the paper rolling up
• Break up the chocolate and place in a mixing bowl with 50ml of warm water.  Place the bowl over a sauce pan of hot water.  The saucepan should be on a low heat and make sure that the bowl doesn't touch the water.  Then, keeping the heat at its lowest, allow the chocolate to melt slowly; it should take 6-7 minutes.
• Once melted remove from the heat and give it a good stir until it's smooth and glossy.
• Separate the eggs, place the whites in one mixing bowl and the yokes in another.  
• Add the caster sugar, vanilla extract and coco powder to the yokes
• Whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks ... to check pull the whisk out of the egg and if a little peak forms and stay then you have a soft peak and can move onto the next stage.
• Now whisk the yokes mixture.  
• Pour the melted chocolate into the yoke mixture and mix together.  
• Stir 1/3 of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture, repeat with the rest of the egg whites until the egg whites and chocolate are throughly mixed
• Spoon the mixture on the the baking paper and spread out so that the chocolate fills the tin
• Place in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, when done the top will be firm and slightly crisp.  
• While the Roulade is cooking wet the tea towel
• Remove the roulade from the oven and cover with the wet tea towel, this stops the roulade going crispy which will make it difficult to roll
• While the roulade it cooling, place the cream in a mixing bowl and whisk it until it is thick.  You are looking for the same thickness of clotted cream you spread on scones (a scoop full should stay on a teaspoon if turned upside down for a few seconds). 
• Once the cream is thick mix in the chestnut spread
• Layout a piece baking paper.  Sprinkle the baking paper with icing sugar.  You are now going to put the roulade onto of the icing sugar.  Remove the tea towel, lift up the cold roulade and carefully place it face down on the baking paper covered in icing sugar
• Carefully remove the baking paper from the back of the roulade
• Spread out your cream mixture on to the roulade, cover it completely and equally, the cream should be about half a cm thick
• Now is the tricky bit, using the baking paper to help you, slowly roll the roulade and place on serving dish
• Gently cover with tin foil and place in fridge till you guests arrive
• When you are ready to serve dust with icing sugar and bring to the table 

Cooking notes

I use a hand held whisk for this recipe.  You can do it by hand but be prepared for quite a bit of whisking. 

Make the Roulade on the day you plan to serve it.

Adapting 

If you don’t like Chestnut spread then leave it out ... if you want you could add some raspberries or a couple of tablespoons of Grand Marnier would be delicious.

RASPBERRY MERINGUE ROULADE

We had a fantastic dinner at my cousin’s last night.  He cooked a wonderful Chilli con Carni for me, my siblings and our other half's.

It was great we covered every topic under the sun, had lots of laughs, took the mickey out of each other and had a brilliant evening ... which is par for the course in our rather crazy wonderful family.  

We generally have great evenings together ... from small diners to birthday parties ... there are quite a few of us so their tends to be lots of parties. 

Mummy is one of six ... there are 20 cousins ... I think part of the reason we all get on so well is that we all grew up holidaying together in a small seaside town ...

There is no better way to bond with your family than packing up a picnic ... jumping into a selection of rickety sailing boats and heading up the river to eat sandy sandwiches.  Throw in a capsize or two, boats getting stuck on the mud, mud fights ... a few tantrums and you soon have a recipe for lots of fun ... and a little bit of disaster ...

I will always remember the moment my sisters brand new mobile was pulled out of Daddy's soaking wet trouser pocket.  She had given it to him for safe keeping ... he had been pushed over board by Hugh and Flic ... The phone rang once and died in Daddy's hand ... such a bad moment for my sister ... very funny for the rest of us. 

So a big thank you to Hugh for another great evening (next time cook from my blog ... !) and here is the recipe for the pudding we ate. 

It was given to me by my friend Tiff a few years ago and is now one of my favorites: 

RASPBERRY MERINGUE ROULADE - Serves 8-10

Ingredients 

5 Egg whites, 10oz Caster sugar, 300ml Double cream, 200g raspberries, 2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, Icing sugar for dusting

• Turn you oven to 160
• Get out a baking tray that is about 36cm x 24cm.  Place a piece of baking paper on to this.  I tend to use reusable baking paper as it peels easily of the meringue.  If you are not using reusable paper then turn the normal baking paper upside down to stop it rolling
• Separate the eggs, place the whites in a mixing bowl.  You do not use the yokes so if you want you can pop them in a freezer bag and place in the freezer for when you need them
• Whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks ... to check pull the whisk out of the egg and if a little peak forms and stay then you have a soft peak and can move onto the next stage.
• You now need to slowly add the caster sugar.  I tend to do this in four batches.  Roughly pour a quarter of the sugar into the egg whites, whisk until the sugar is mixed in, then repeat until all sugar is mixed in and the mixture looks nice and glossy
• Spoon the mixture on the the baking paper and spread out forming a rectangle, the mixture will slightly spread when cooking so leave about a cm round the edge
• Place in the oven for about 20 minutes, when done the top will be crisp and will have turned a light gold
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool
• While the meringue it cooling, place the cream in a mixing bowl and whisk it until it is thick.  You are looking for the same thickness of clotted cream you spread on scones (a scoop full should stay on a teaspoon if turned upside down for a few seconds)
• Once the cream is thick add the raspberries and sugar to it and mix until the raspberries are mixed into the cream
• Layout a piece of tin foil that is bigger than the meringue, on top of this lay a piece of normal baking paper.  You are now going to put the meringue onto of this paper.  Lift the cold meringue, it should still on its baking paper, and carefully place it face down on the new piece of baking paper (so the crispy brown side is on the new piece of baking paper)
• Carefully remove the baking paper from the back of the meringue
• Now spread out your cream mixture on to the meringue, cover it completely adn equally, the cream should be about half a cm thick all over the meringue
• Sprinkle with the sugar ... if you are using very sweet raspberries you might not need the sugar
• Now is the tricky bit, have your serving dish next to the meringue as you are going to roll it and you will need to place it on the plate as soon as it is rolled.
• Using the tinfoil and baking paper to help you, slowly roll the meringue up into a roulade and place on serving dish
• Gently cover with tin foil and place in fridge till you are ready to use
• When you are to serve dust with icing sugar and bring to the table

Cooking notes

I use a hand held whisk for this recipe.  You can do it by hand but be prepared for quite a bit of whisking.  

I am aware that this sounds ... and looks really complicated but is not.  The most fiddley bit is getting the meringue off the baking paper.  I tend to use reusable baking paper as then there is no sticking so it is less nerve wracking. 

Make the Roulade on the day you plan to serve it.

Adapting 

If you don’t like raspberries you can use any fruit you like ... slightly tart fruit like passion fruit would work well so the pudding does not become to sweet.  

TREACLE TART

I love gathering round the table for lunch on Sunday.  Today we had Roast Chicken with Treacle Tart for pudding.  My Mummy taught me how to make this wonderful recipe.

It is quick, delicious and the prefect end to any meal.

TREACLE TART  - Serves 8

Ingredients

320g Pre-rolled shortcrust pastry, 200g Bread crumbs, 1 Lemon, 1 454g Tin of golden syrup

Equipment

1 x 11 inch flan tin with removable base 

• Heat the oven to 180
• Pour two inches of hot water into the sink or a bowl and place the tin of golden syrup into the water, this will slightly melt the syrup making it easier to pour
• Line the flan tin with the pastry and lightly stab the pastry with a fork to help the heat escape from the pastry when it is cooking.  
• Run a knife around the top edge of the tin to trim the pastry in line with the top of the flan tin, this gives a neat finish to your crust.
• Fill the pastry evenly with the bread crumbs
• Using a zester, remove the zest from half the lemon and sprinkle over the tart
• Cut the lemon into quarters and squeeze the juice from quarter of the lemon over the bread crumbs
• The golden syrup should now be slightly runny.   Pour half a tin over the bread crumbs as evenly as possible, don’t worry if it is not perfect as it will even out when cooking
• Pop the tart in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is cooked and the tart is golden
• Serve with cream or ice cream ... or both if your my Daddy ...!

Cooking notes

If you over cook the tart it will be very hard and chewy, this is not the result you are looking for.  It should be be slightly gooey and slice easily.

I did not have long this morning so I cheated a little and used Justrol shortcrust pastry.  I would recommend this if you are short of time.  I find it is best to remove the pastry from the fridge 20 minutes before you need it.  This way it won’t crack when you unwrap it.  If it does crack use your fingers to push it back together.  In the same way .. if it is not quite wide enough use scraps of pastry to fill in any gaps.  I will post my pastry recipe in the next couple of days.

Cut any left over lemon into wedges and freeze ... they are great when you need a little bit of lemon ... you can also add them to gin and tonic ... ice and lemon in one.

I tend to have breadcrumbs in the freezer as I make breadcrumbs and freeze them when ever white bread, especially baguette, has gone slightly stale.  If you don't then they are easy to make.  Place 200g of white bread (normally about 4 slices) in a food processor and blitz for 30-40 seconds.  If you are making them it is worth making double and freezing another 200g for a later date.  To store seal in a plastic food bag and place in the freezer.

Adapting

The tart tastes just as good without the lemon so don’t worry if you don’t have one.  If you prefer orange in your puddings you can replace the lemon with an orange.

 

BANANA ICE CREAM

It always amazes me the little things that can turn my children from little angels to complete demons in a matter of seconds.

One of them is my sons refusal to share a banana ... apparently he needs to have his own packet (skin) and nothing is going to change his mind.  What makes the whole process more frustrating is that he tends to get half way through, hand the banana back and tell me his is finished.

The way I get round the waste is to make what I call Banana Ice Cream.  It is not really ice cream (although it tastes just like it) and can not really be called cooking ... but I love the taste and even more love the fact it enables me to pick my battles ... which with my two year old is essential: 

Banana Ice Cream - Serves 1 (or two children) 

Ingredients 

1 Banana (or two halves!)

• Mash the banana and spread out on a plate so it is about 1 cm thick
• Cover in cling film
• Place in freezer for two hours, it will go rock solid
• Remove from freezer 20 minutes before you want to serve the ice cream
• After twenty minutes mix the banana with a fork, this will break up any ice lumps that may have formed, place in bowl and serve

 

BAVARIAN CREAM

Party day started with my sister rescuing the cake from our son, he was halfway through turning it upside down when she removed it from his rather firm grip ...  With 12 pack lunches, drinks, muffins for parents, swords, fairy wands, party games, rug, assortment of balls and golf clubs ... we were off to the park.  The weather held and we had a great treasure hunt, crocodile pinanta, picnic and lots of cake.

Our afternoon was spent opening wonderful presents, we managed to keep all cards witht he right pressie, which is no easy feat ... my daughter could win awards for her speedy unwrapping. 

With the remnants of the picnic unpacked and wrapping paper cleared up I had to think about dinner.  We have six friends coming over for an relaxed supper.  After such an exhausting day I am serving a really easy pudding that my Mummies best friend calls Bavarian Cream. 

BAVARIAN CREAM - Serves 6

 Ingredients 

300mil Double cream, 500g Total greek yogurt, 60g Dark muscovado sugar

• Whip the cream till thick, once whipped it should stay on a spoon if turned upside down.  Watch you don’t over whip it, cream can take quite a long time to thicken up, but, once it thickens it happens quickly.  If you over whip the cream it can split, you know when you have done this as it starts looking a bit odd in the bowl
• Thoroughly mix the yogurt into the cream
• Transfer the mixture to your serving dish
• Sprinkle the sugar evenly over the dish
• Keep in the fridge until you are ready to serve 

Cooking notes

It is a really simple recipe and takes minutes to make.  It is best made at least two hours before it is eaten as you want the sugar to melt into the cream mixture and it needs a while to do this.  I like to serve it in quite a flat bowl, the yogurt and cream should be no more than 2/3cm thick, so everyone gets lots of the melted sugar on the top if the pudding.

Adapting

A good alternative to the muscovado sugar would be raspberry compote.  Drizzle it over the top of the cream and yogurt.