Chocolate Valentino or the February Daring Baker's challenge

I never made a cake without flour or if I did, I don't remember doing so. It makes great photographs but I am a not so sure about the taste. I think I got the wrong kind of chocolate. Yes I can hear you say is there a wrong kind of chocolate. Well may be there is because these valentinos were not lovely.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef. "We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

Inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

CHOCOLATE VALENTINO

• 16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• ½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
• 5 large eggs separated

Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.

While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.

Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).

With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.

Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds.

Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and

bake at 375F/190CBake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.

Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

BloggerAid

Sometimes, there are things one NEEDS to do and this was one .

I read a post about a project to publish a cookbook to raise funds which will be directed to programmes led by the World Food Programme.

A book of collective recipes to help alleviate hunger what a marvellous and generous idea, I had to participate to BloggerAid project

Rules state that I can post a picture of the recipe but I can't unveil what it is until the book gets published later at the end of the year. Does not stop you guessing what it is though.

So here is my contribution to a really worthy project:

Smoked Salmon & Crab Terrine

You may recall that I have "a" thing about terrines. So when Karl & Janice came for dinner on Thursday, I wanted to prepare something they would remember. Got Xmas smoked salmon out of the freezer, put that gewurztraminer in the fridge and started on one of Stephane Reynaud's recipe.

Now I have had my doubts about his recipes as the first one, I made from his book "Terrine" which I reviewed for "PP" was a real flop.

This was his second chance and he might not have got another if the recipe had not work. Instead, the end product was a real success though the proportion in the book had to be wildly amended because they were far of the mark nevertheless I am now thinking of getting one of them lovely terrine dish to make some more.

Crab and smoked salmon terrine

Ingredients:

For the cocktail sauce

1 egg

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

olive oil ( you will see how much you need as you go, start with 50ml)

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp tomato ketchup

dash of brandy

salt and pepper

To make the cocktail sauce, whisk the egg with the vinegar and a pinch of salt then gradually add the olive oil 1 teaspoon at the time, whisking constantly. add all the other ingredients and last but not least 300g of crab meat, patted dry.

300g smoked salmon, diced

fresh dill (I used dried and it worked fine)

1 shallot (I forgot that and it worked fine too)

200g spinach

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper

Mix the salmon with the dill & shallot. Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the spinach and cook over a low heat for a few minutes

In ramekins, make layers of smoked salmon mixture, spinach and crab, press down well and chill in the fridge for 1 hour

Turn out the terrines before serving

PS: I think that if you want to avoid making the cocktail sauce, use a tartare ready made sauce or a light mayonnaise to which you add ketchup, that is possibly what I will do next time.

Tuiles : a Sweet Daring Bakers' challenge

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Baking Soda and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.
Completed by me at the very last minute and posted a tat late, but enough of my domestic difficulties especially since I had no good reason for lateness: I have always wanted to make tuiles. Light and smart perfect with coffee at the end of a meal, excellent for parties and so easy to make

TUILES
Recipe:Yields: 20 small tuiles

Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

Ingredients:

• 65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
• 60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
• 1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
• 2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
• 65 grams / 1/2 cup /4 ounces sifted all purpose flour
• 1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
• Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Method:
Oven: 180C / 350F

1. Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste.
2. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites.
3. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste.
4. Be careful to not overmix.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).


5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as circle or butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes.
6. Bake tuiles in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.
7. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape.
   These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.If you don’t want to do stencil shapes, you might want to transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with a small plain tip. Pipe the desired shapes and bake. Shape immediately after baking using for instance a rolling pin, a broom handle, cups, cones….

The Tale of 2 Mangoes

As usual when there is a painting instead of one of my picture, it means that something went wrong. This time nothing much more than the cake got eaten before I could photograph of it.

It all started with these 2 mangoes which I bought for a reason which sadly to this day eludes me.

However with time passing, mangoes ripened, so they do. I had to take a decision. I consulted my friend Google which point out a couple of cake recipes that I happily mixed into one, removing some of the ingredients, adding some others to produce a 2 mangoes cake.
Ingredients:
225 g white flour
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
2 mangoes
150g caster sugar
75ml milk

Method:
Heat the oven to 180C, butter the sides a round cake tin.
Peel the mangoes, cut one lengthwise into thin slivers, place enough to cover the bottom of the tin.
In the food processor mix the rest of the ingredients, remove the blade and add the second mango which will have been diced
Pour the mixture in the tin
Bake for 40-45 minutes.
Et voila

painting by Susan Abbot- see properties for website address-

Best Buns

Lovely Sarah is 15, she adores chocolate, her "bete noire" : onions. She and her parents came to visit from Ireland over the week-end. To welcome them I had baked so they would arrive to the sight and smell of warm buns. We all sat down, swapping news when suddenly a little voice interrupted the conversation with a "off the record" these are the best buns I have ever ever had in my entire life". They are very nice indeed. Here is the recipe, extracted from this month Waitrose's free magazine:

RICOTTA and BLUEBERRY BUNS

425g strong white bread flour, plus extra dor dusting
7g sachet esasy-blend dried yeast
75g slightly salted butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
100g caster sugar
250f tub ricotta cheese
50g Vanilla sugar, plus 1 tsp to sprinkle ( or use vanilla extract springled on caster sugar)
150g fresh blueberries (or use frozen, without defrosting)

1. Mix the flour, yeast, butter, eggs and caster sugar in a bowl. Add 100-150ml hand hot water and mix to a soft but not too sticky dough. (If necessary, add a little more flour to make the mixture more manageable.)
2. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Put in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.
3. Cut out 12 x 14cm squares of baking parchment. Mix the ricotta in a bowl with the vanilla sugar and 50g of the blueberries.
4. Preheat the oven to 220C, gas mark 7. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in the remaining blueberries. Cut into 12 even-sized pieces.
5. Flatten each piece down on the surface, stretching it until slightly larger than the palm of your hand. Spoon a little ricotta mixture into the centre of each piece of dough. Pull the edges of the dough up over the filling to enclose and pinch the edges together to make bundles. (Don’t worry about making them look neat!)
6. Press a square of parchment into one section of a muffin or Yorkshire pudding tin and drop a bundle of dough into it. Repeat with the remainder then cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place until risen to about half the size again.
7. Bake the buns for 15 minutes, until golden. Lift onto a wire rack and sprinkle generously with the extra vanilla sugar. Serve warm or cold.

Pearl-fect Barley

When Sue moved to Toronto, I inherited the content of her kitchen cupboard. There were ingredients I had never seen before, Pearl Barley was one of them.

Next time I saw the little pearls they were still snug in their packaging and I wrote an article about buried and forgotten ingredients.

Third time lucky, I was considering to clean the cupboard when I thought it would be much more pleasant to find a recipe which would "get rid of" these pearly things. The complete idiot's guide to vegan cooking came to the rescue with its pearl barley risotto.

This is a story with a happy ending : yes you have guessed it! Sue's packet disappeared only to be replace by a new one, I love this ingredient, its only problem to have stayed away from my taste buds for so long.

Mushroom-Barley Stew

• 300g cup carrot, chopped thinly
• 300g celery, chopped thinly
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 onion, diced
• 250g crimini mushrooms or other mushroom of choice, chopped
• 2 tsp olive oil + 2 TB
• about 20 small mushrooms, chopped
• 150g pearl barley, rinsed
• 1/4 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp rubbed sage
• 1/4 cup tamari
• 50g cup barley flour (I used rice flour)
• 2T sherry
• salt
• pepper
• vegetable broth to cover
• 50g chopped fresh parsley

In a large pot combine carrot, celery, onion, 2 teaspoons olive oil, saute and stir for 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, garlic, herbs, saute for 2 more minutes. Stir in 2 cups of broth, bring to boil. Add barley, cover, reduce to low for 30-40 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together remaining oil, flour, sherry, tamari, salt, pepper, cook over low heat. When the barley is tender, add the mixture, adjust seasoning.

Wishing Every Single One of You, a Sweet 2009