It was my sister in laws birthday yesterday and that gave me the perfect excuse to create a new dessert. Yes I need excuses to make dessert, coming from a family of over weight and diabetic people stops me from making desserts too often. 

I knew she likes chocolate and strawberries and that to me is a sinfully perfect match the kind you have when you are feeling extra decadent or simply a bit naughty.

There really weren't any easy to make combinations of the two that I could find online that could also pass off as a birthday cake.

So I took a recipe from my Cordon Bleu days and added my own twist on it. It was as indulgent as I had imagined and tasted way better than it looked (I really need to improve my cake decoration skills!).

Hope you do try it!

 Ingredients

Cake

Flour - 100 gms 

Eggs - 4 whole eggs + 1 yolk

Sugar - 120 gms

Cocoa powder - 20 gms

Ganache

Dark chocolate  - 500 gms

Cream - 500 gms

Strawberry compote

Fresh strawberries - 1 box

Imbibing syrup - 100 gms sugar, 125 ml water, vanilla essence

Cake tin

Use a 8" mold.

Making it!

The Cake

Ok so this is a cake with no baking powder and no butter and therefore requires extra effort to make it rise. Start with beating the eggs and the sugar over a double boiler for those who don't know what that it is basically take a bowl and keep it over a pan of boiling water so that the bowl gets indirect heat and keep whisking the eggs and sugar till it is double in volume and has turned a pale yellow almost white. You could use a hand whisk but I would recommend an electric one. The mix (Sabayon) should come up to about 36C and then you can take it off the heat and keep mixing. If you feel the temperature is dropping put it back onto the double boiler.

Then sift together the flour and cocoa powder and then slowly little by little fold into the Sabayon. This is a very critical process and should be done gently else the air you have incorporated will be lost.

Pour into a buttered and flour dusted baking pan (you could line the bottom with baking paper) and bake at 180 till done. The time will depend on your oven as well as the dept of your cake tin. You will know your cake it done when you pierce the center with a knife and it comes out clean.

The Ganache

Making ganache is super simple. Simply chop up your choclate. Heat the cream and pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for a min and then slowly start folding it starting from the center. The chocolate and cream will miraculously amalgamate. In case the temp drops just put it onto the double boiler and stir till it has melted and it gooey and rich and shiny.

The imbibing syrup

Pour the sugar into the water and boil till melted! Add vanilla essence.

The strawberry compote

Add chopped strawberries to the imbibing syrup and boil for 1 min do not over boil! Drain and reserve the syrup.

Putting it all together!

Once the cake has cooled (preferably cold) slice in the center to make two equal circles. Pour the imbibing syrup onto the first circle till it has soaked through. Slather on the ganache onto the cake and top with the strawberry compote. Place the second circle on top with the top of the cake touching the strawberry compote basically place it upside down this makes it easier to ice as well as the syrup gets imbibed properly. Pour the syrup on top and let the cake cool for 15-20 mins. Add as thin layer of ganache all over covering the sides of the cake as well. Cool for another 30 mins. Remove and add another layer of the ganache all over and smooth the whole thing down.

Decorate as you wish!

Enjoy with a glass of milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Spicy pork curry

I have been trying to perfect pork curry for the last few months now. Its an easy meat to cook with and tastes incredible when cooked right. I dont know why people tend to be queasy about eating pork.You do need to clean it well and make sure you get all the stray hair off the skin before you cook it. I rather enjoy the process of plucking the hair out with a tweezer. So back to my pork curry, after reading through endless recipes and trying it out a few times myself I have hit upon a curry which is fabulous.

Serve this hot hot hot with steamed rice and trust me you wont want to eat anything else.

Ingredients

Marinated Pork 1 kg with bones

Onions 2 sliced fine

Ginger/Garlic paste 2 tsps

Green chillies 3-4

Haldi 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Pork Masala 3 tsps (recipe given below)

Oil 2 tsps

Pork marinade

Vinegar 2 tsps

Soya Sauce 2 tsps

Tomato ketchup 3-4 tsps

Salt to taste

Marinate the pork for about 2 hours before cooking.

Pork Masala

Star anise 2 pieces

Green Cardamom 5-6 pieces

Black Cardamom 2 pieces

Cloves 5-6 pieces

Black pepper 1 tsps

Cumin 2 tsps

Cinnamon large stick

Dry red chillies 2

Preparation of Pork Masala

Dry roast masalas till they get slightly smokey and coarsely pound. Make the masala fresh don't make and store.

Cooking instructions

Heat oil in a kadai and add the onions, sliced green chillies and ginger/garlic paste and saute till soft. Add haldi, salt and most of the masala and immediately add the marinated pork. Coat the pork pieces with the masala and let simmer for 5 mins. Cover with water and let it cook for about 45 mins till tender.

Sprinkle with masala and serve hot with steamed rice.

Lunch with family

I had my parents come home for a meal the first time since we got married. I was preparred for a long morning of cooking but it was fairly enjoyable.
Made mutton, rajma, fried karela, mutter paneer, raita, salad, mutter ke chawal and roti. Three kinds of ice cream finished the meal very well. London Dairy has some yummm flavours, we tried Strawberry cheesecake, Tiramisu and Praline & Cream. Everyone unmanimously voted for Tiramisu as the best of the lot.

My recipe for the mutton is below

Kosha Mangsho (spicy dry mutton)
Serves : 4
Preperation time : 15 mins
Cooking time : 60 mins
Ingredients:
Mutton – 1kg cut into small pieces
Oil- 2-3 tbs
Curd- 150 gms
6 Onions - finely chopped / grated
Ginger/Garlic paste - 2 tbs
Dry Red Chillies - 2-3
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Corriander Powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - Whole pieces (clove, green cardammon, black cardammon, cinnamon, bay leaf)
Salt- To taste
Coriander leaves- finely chopped- to garnish

Method
Marinate mutton with curd, salt, turmeric, chilli powder, cumin powder and corriander powder for 1 hour.
In a pressure cooker heat oil and roast the whole spices, add ginger/garlic paste and onions, dry chillies and cook till oinions are brown.
Add marinated mutton and fry well. There is no need to add water as the mutton and curd will release water.
Pressure cook for 4-5 whistles and garnish the mutton with fresh corriander.
Serve with rice or chapattis.

Lasagna

So I tried making lasagna for the first time last week when I got chicken and apple crumble to work. There were a few mistakes I made which I will definitely learn from.

First I realized I have no bloody clue how to cook lasagna sheets! The pack doesn't tell you how to cook them and when I checked online I didn't really get any great clues. So after many failed attempts and many sticky sheets I realized what the trick was; you get the water up to a boil, add salt and oil and then drop the sheets in one by one. You wait for the first one to cook a bit before you drop the next one in and you never add more than 3-4 sheets at a time. Then you remove the sheets and drop into iced water so that they don't stick to each other.

Now you begin lining the lasagna with the sauce and once you have layered it all, the last layers should be sauce topped with cheese with the sheets not sticking out at all.

You can layer the lasagna with anything, but it seems the traditional layering is of bechamel sauce (white sauce) and tomato sauce and often minced meat. I had layered mine with ricotta and mozzarella cheese, tomato, garlic and basil sauce and spinach, mushrooms and corn cooked in olive oil and garlic.

So I cant stop thinking of food for the last few days. I don't want to eat any I just want to cook and cook and feed and feed.

I am planning to make a thai curry for office colleagues tomorrow. I am giving the recipe for the paste below. This paste can be used to make veg, chicken or prawn green curry.

Green Curry Paste - Gaeng Kieow Waan

6 green chillies
1 large onion
4-5 gloves garlic
1 inch ginger / galangal if you can get
2 tsp ground corriander seeds
1 tsp ground cumin seeds
Handful fresh corriander leaves
1 root of lemon grass
1 lime rind
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 lime juice
2 tsp salt

Grind all ingredients to a fine paste. Fry in little oil and add coconut milk. I like to then strain it and then add any pre-cooked veggies or pre-cooked chicken or then prawns. Finish with basil leaves, kaffir lime leaves and slit red chillies.

Lunch in office

So I cooked lunch for the fellow foodies in office. I missed it but heard it was a resounding success. Keeping in mind the holiday season I made stuffed chicken, apple and date crumble and lasagna. The chicken and crumble were adapts of recipes I have found on this brilliant website www.taste.co.au. The recipes are given below so are a few cooking tips.

Apple & Date Crumble Ingredients

• 6 crisp apples, peeled, cored, chopped
• 1 tbs butter
  
• 150 gms dates, pitted, chopped
• 1 tetrapack orange juice
• 2-3 1 inch pieces of cinnamon
• 50 gms margarine (I prefer Nutrilite)
  
• 2 tbs shredded coconut
• 3 tbs Cornflakes
• 2 tbs brown sugar (you can use white)
• 2 tbs maida
• 4 digestive biscuits
  
• Vanilla ice cream, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Sautee apples in butter and then add dates, orange juice and cinnamon stick in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer covered for 2-3 minutes or until just tender.
2. Discard the cinnamon stick and place mixture at the bottom of an ovenproof dish.
3. Crumble together margarine, flour, sugar, digestive biscuits, maida and coconut. Sprinkle over the top and bake for 20-30 minutes. Serve with ice cream if desired.

Stuffed roast chicken

Ingredients

• Whole chicken with skin on
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Olive oil
• Butter
• For the stuffing
• 1 pkt bacon, cut into cubes
• 1 medium sized onion, diced
• 4-6 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 pkt mushrooms, only the top, diced
• 3 slices stale bread, made into crumbs
• Hand full parsley, chopped
• 10 leaves basil, chopped
• 1 egg
• Salt & pepper

Method

1. To make the stuffing sautee bacon bits in oil till slightly coloured but not crisp. Add onions and garlic and cook till soft. Add mushrooms and cook for 2-3 mins. Remove from the gas and add remaining ingredients. Season as required.
2. To prep the chicken, cut the wings at the second joint, cut off the tail of the chicken (it tends to taste a bit off) and rub salt, pepper and olive oil inside and all over the chicken*. Stuff the chicken till full and then close the hole by tying the legs together either with cooking string or then just with aluminum foil.
3. Heat a pan and add a touch of olive oil at the bottom, place the chicken breast side up and once it sizzles put it into the oven for 20 mins. Then cook on either leg for 20 mins, at this point sprinkling rosemary and thyme on the chicken. Now remove and melt butter on the breast and baste the chicken with the chicken juices. Repeat the butter and basting on both legs and cook after the butter and basting for 10 mins more on each of the sides.

If you don't understand this, call me and I will make it for you!! *Chef's tip: add more salt that you think you need, most of the salt falls off at the time of cooking it

Best Salad in town

I have gone to Spaghetti Kitchen about 6 times in the last 2 months and somehow everytime I am there I always land up ordering the same thing; Chicken Caesar Salad. I LOVE this salad. The lettuce is fresh and crunch, the dressing is perfect and never too much and the sliced chicken is to die for. Its cooked to perfection and has a slight roasted flavour to it that very few places can manage to get.

I usually ask for the dressing on the side (trying to watch extra calories) and have sometimes asked them for extra bacon on top.

I remember making Caesar salad at the Cambers but I feel mine never turned out this great, or maybe because I was making it that I was so critical of it.

So in sum...go get the greens!