NIGELLA'S CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE TOPPED WITH FRUIT

"This is the sort of cake you'd want to eat the whole of when you'd been chucked. But even the sight of it, proud and tall and thickly iced on its stand, comforts." what do you do when the cake is described as such?Bake it and frost it and eat it and go to heaven :-)
Well worth all the rave reviews on the net..this one is a keeper!The cake itself is pretty easy to pull together and has a fine, tender crumb but the buttercream frosting is a bit over the top, it calls for 250gms of butter which is a bit too much by any standards, I made it anyways but used it just to sandwich the cake and chucked the rest!, instead I opted for a lighter Chocolate frosting from one of my previous posts and also topped the cake with some fresh fruit, basically black grapes and kiwis, the end result...absolutely delicious!!.
Here's the recipe from Nigella's own website-

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:

• 400g plain flour
• 250g golden caster sugar
• 100g light brown sugar
• 50g best quality cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 142ml/small tub sour cream(I used yogurt with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 175g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 125ml corn oil
• 300ml chilled water

FOR THE FUDGE ICING:

• 175g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 275g icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Butter and line the bottom of two 20cm sandwich tins.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In another bowl whisk together the eggs, sour cream/yogurt and vanilla until blended. Using an electric mixer, beat together the melted butter and corn oil until just blended, then beat in the water, at this stage I was quite amused and excited to use chilled water, something I have never used before, it did cause the butter to harden up again but continue and things will be fine. Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix together on a slow speed. Add the egg mixture, and mix again until everything is blended and then pour into the prepared tins.
4. Bake the cakes for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake-tester comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their tins on a wire rack for 15 minutes, and then turn the cakes out onto the rack to cool completely.
5. To make the icing, melt the chocolate in the microwave - 2-3 minutes on medium should do it - or in a bowl sitting over a pan of simmering water, and let cool slightly.
6. In another bowl beat the butter until it's soft and creamy and then add the sieved icing sugar and beat again until everything's light and fluffy.DO NOT SKIP THIS or the icing will be unsoothingly lumpy. Then gently add the vanilla and chocolate and mix together until everything is glossy and smooth.
7. Sandwich the middle of the cake with about a quarter of the icing, and then ice the top and sides too, spreading and smoothing with a rubber spatula.
8. I did use a quarter of the icing for sandwiching the cake but used a lighter, glossier frosting(recipe here) for the top.Top with fresh fruit.

Serves: 10. Or 1 with a broken heart!

WATERMELON GINGER JUICE

Ingredients:
Watermelon pieces ... 4 cups
Water ......................... 2 cups
Sugar ...................... 1 tbsp.
Salt ....................... 1/4 tsp.
Ginger ................ 1/2 inch piece
Mint leaves ....... 4-5
Roasted cumin powder .. 1.4 tsp.
Black pepper powder .... a pinch
Lemon juice ......... 1 tsp.
Method:
1. Peel and cut the watermelon into pieces. Remove the seeds.
2. Peel and cut the ginger into pieces.
3. Blend all the above ingredients in a mixer adding water and strain the juice.
4. Add the lime juice and serve chilled.
This juice is very refreshing in summer.

Things I Recommend

I just started playing with the pages feature in Blogger and decided to put together a page of things I use all the time and would recommend to others. You can see it in the sidebar to the left. I'm not terribly happy with the content or formatting, but I figured I'd get started and modify it as I go along.

Something I Did Not Know

A friend invited me into a closed Facebook discussion on abortion and Libertarian morality. Thanks to my own warped view, it has devolved into a conversation about the first principles from which one might derive secular morality. In the process of the discussion, the topic of faith vs. science came up. I did some digging and here is the Catholic position on the two:

When a religious view is contradicted by a well-established scientific fact, then the sources of revelation have to be re-examined, and they will be found to leave the question open. When a clearly-defined dogma contradicts a scientific assertion, the latter has to be revised, and it will be found premature. When both contradicting assertions, the religious and the scientific, are nothing more than prevailing theories, research will be stimulated in both directions, until one of the theories appears unfounded.

If established science and accepted matters of faith collide, science wins and the matters of faith are re-examined. Way cool!

Hall-of-Famer science dude Louis Pasteur was a Catholic. Go team!
Update: Don't take this as a slap at anyone else. It's just something that made me smile.

How to turn soup into sauce

Ok this is very technically not right, but I'm not a chef in a fancy French restaurant, so there's no one to faint at this or fire me on the spot. What I do when I make (western-style, duh.) soup, after I blend the ingredients and before I add the extra liquid to turn it into the desired consistency, I set aside a bit. That thick velvety puree is wonderful as a sauce spooned over meats or fish or vegetables that are simply grilled/poached/steamed and you get a great sauce consistency without the need for flour or other thickeners!

Creamy Celeriac, Hazelnut and Parsley Sauce
refer to my previous post on Celeriac and Hazelnut Soup ;)
plus chopped fresh parsley

You can try adding some mustard to make a mustard and celeriac sauce, which will go brilliantly with stronger meats or even game.

This velvety sauce was poured over a simple pan-fried salmon steak.

This is part of Seasonal Sundays, Monday Mania, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, Real Food Wednesday, Pennywise Platter Thursday, SImple Lives Thursday and Fightback Friday.

Because Friday Is The Traditional Day For Catblogging

The air was cold and the hood was warm.

Flat or Fat?

I’m picky about chocolate chip cookies. I’ve perfected my system (which I learned at Star Provisions) of scooping the dough, rolling it into even-sized balls, placing them in neat rows on a parchment-lined sheet pan and storing them in the freezer. Those cute little balls go straight from the freezer to the oven and this technique keeps the cookies from spreading too much and flattening out while baking.

Well, usually. But when I made a chocolate chip cookie recipe from one of my favorite cookbook authors recently, they flattened out, despite my efforts. To the point (no pun intended) that the only that the only high spots were the chocolate chunks.  Perfectionist that I am, I made the recipe a second time, made sure the dough was fully frozen and tried again. It still didn’t work. I gave up, put the dough balls back in the freezer (labeled “Flat Chocolate Cookies”) and baked them up for the neighbors that day a few weeks ago when we were all down at the bottom of our hill shoveling snow and hacking up the ice that trapped us in the hood. No one except me cared what they looked like.

Remember that crème brulee I wrote about in a recent post? I gave most of it to my friend Dena, who lives down the street (she’s the mother of those amazing little red-headed girls Henry and I are so crazy about).

http://nevertrustaskinnycook1.blogspot.com/2010/08/flash-in-pan-cupcakes.html

I walked into her kitchen to make my delivery and saw a cookbook opened to “that” chocolate chip cookie recipe which didn’t work for me. I told her about my experience and she reminded me she had asked me some time ago how to avoid flat cookies. Little did I know she was using the same recipe that failed for me!

So here is a recipe that does work. These are crispy and crunchy (but not flat) and they are loaded with chocolate feves. In case you are unfamiliar with them, they are flat chocolate disks which will elevate your chocolate “chip” cookies to an entirely new level.

http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/ingredients-pantry/chocolate-fves-for-the-perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies-057094

This recipe comes from the esteemed chocolatier Jacques Torres and was published in the New York Times, which is where I foumd it.  Normally I would be terrified to try anything from him (a chocolatier, I am not), but this one is a winner and anyone can make it.  Even me!  You too, Dena.  Ditch that other recipe!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES THAT WORK (adapted from Jacques Torres)

2 cups minus 2 tablespoons cake flour
1 2/3 cups bread flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
1 cup plus two tablespoons granulated sugar
2 eggs (I used extra-large)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or feves (60% cocao content)

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 8 minutes, scraping down bowl several times. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract then reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients. Mix just until combined, 5 to 10 seconds. By hand, stir the chocolate pieces in and blend gently.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a disk. Wrap well and refrigerate for at least one hour then scoop out dough with an ice cream scoop. Roll with your hands into uniform balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in freezer and leave them in overnight.

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350-degrees. Place frozen dough balls on a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each ball. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate pan. Continue to bake for another 7 to 8 minutes or until just golden brown. Do not overbake. Remove to a baking rack to cool completely.

Yield: 70 cookies (if using a 1 ½-inch ice cream scoop)

*  Now if you want to use chocolate chips or chocolate chunks, no biggie.  I just like the way these present themselves with the feves.  "Thin streaks instead of gooey chunks," as Jacques says.  I concur.
 
*  Jacques also suggests sprinkling the cookies with sea salt before baking.  As much as I love salt, I resisted the impulse and decided to stick with the traditional version.  Bet they would be good with salt, though!
 
*  I used a 1 1/2-inch scoop, which resulted in smaller cookies, hence the yield of 70.  Obviously, if you want a bigger cookie, use a bigger scoop.  Just pay attention when you bake them as this may extend the baking time slightly.
 
*  Whole Paycheck Foods usually carries Valrhona feves.  For the batch of cookies I made, I used half bittersweet and half milk chocolate because that's what I had on hand and I like the contrast between the two.  Mix it up anyway you like!
 
I baked these off so Henry could take them to a co-worker in his office the next day (in exchange for a dozen farm-fresh eggs).  Just as I pulled them out of the oven, Henry suddenly remembered that the co-worker would not be in the office.  Are you kidding, Henry?  Now what am I going to do with these things, especially since they are stored in the pantry and calling my name?!

The Price Of Gold

A random observation: Every time we find out that the world isn't really going to end after all, the price of gold goes down.

Concentric Flowers

Houston's Farmer's Market: Urban Harvest

Aren't farmer's markets just wonderful?  

I have been to various farmer's markets all over the U.S.  I would love to put together a little book portraying some of them.  

Of the ones I have been to three stand out as my favorites: 

 the farmer's market in Midland, Michigan, 

the one in Troy, New York, 

and the market in Montpelier, Vermont.  

Then there is the ultimate in Seattle, Washington...Pike's Place Market.  

Awesome.

Last weekend I branched out again in Houston and went to the "Urban Harvest Market".  After visiting this market, I am ready to see more markets in this gi-normous city.

 Here are some of the goodies that I found.

Shaving Soap

This sweet couple epitomized the farmer's market "type".  So earthy, artistic, and all around interesting.

I didn't realize that Texas actually has a good climate for growing lavender.  

Just like in Provence!  

Well, that might be a tad debatable.  

This stall was selling quite a bit of their lavender soaps.

Something noticeably different at this market that my daughter and I picked up on right away were the smells. 

There was an area selling barbecued beef.  

Oh, it smelled heavenly.  

There was another area selling Mexican dishes.  

The aromas were both wonderful and so representative of Houston's diversity.

I was also surprised to learn that Texas has  olive oil farms.  

Apparently, the climate is conducive to olive growing as well as lavender.  

Now, if I could only convince myself that I am living in the next best place to Provence. 

Hmmmmm....

dulu, facebook? bosan lah.

assalamualaikum wbt :)

kalau dulu, aku ingat lagi, suka sangat aku main friendster dengan myspace. myspace pun kuranglah, sebab cam banyak mat rempit. then tah siapa-siapa yang add. dulu friendster yang paling aku suka, leh tau siapa skodeng profile kita - "who's viewed me". ha kantoi lah sesiapa yang rindu aku! :P lepas tu duk balas-balas komen guna grafik yang siap ade glitter-glitter lagi contoh cam "happy birthday" & "thank you for the add". dari comment, jadi testimonial. bukan main lagi, kalau tak de friendster tu, tak world lah. *lame*

lelame, muncul bukumuka - facebook. sibuk buat profile. mula-mula, pelik aih apa la korang duk suka sangat facebook ni? bosan gilaaaa. buka facebook pun jarang-jarang, susah pula tu nak guna. tak tau apa function dia. pelik je rasa. tapi... itu dulu! sekarang, PAPPP facebook jadi fenomena yang sampai tuan dia kaya raya jutawan mulawan, dan sampai masuk surat khabar, siap ada filem lagi. mama abah aku pun duk tanya, facebook tu apa dulu. haaa, yer lah kita banyak dengar kesan negatif je kan. ha, ni kesan positif facebook bagi aku! :D

1) aku boleh connect dengan kengkawan yang jauh di mata dekat di hati!

contohnya cam aku dengan kawan aku si Finaz yang berada di Russia ni.

memandangkan aku jarang on9 YM & Skype, so, tengoklah wall dia penuh muka aku :P

2) aku boleh chat, macam dekat YM & skype juga!

tapi, kawan aku pun cakap, kalau aku muncul dekat online chat tu, magic ah. :P

3) update tentang sekolah & bebudak & guru-gurunya!

sekarang ada group lah, page lah, kan ke mudah! nak reunion pun senang. nak tahu cikgu tu dah beranak, kawan tu dah kawin, semua ada.

4) hehe. ini mestilah untuk mengisi masa lapang aku! main game! FREE okay!

ni satu-satunya game yang aku masih main. tapi baru main sejak aku sakit hari tu. best, kejap je aku dah level 51! HAHA. tapi senang lah, sebab kengkawan pun main. so apa-apa, cepat je kau dapat.

5) melalui game Facebook juga lah, aku jumpa LOLA! aku sayang gile dekat dia :')

LOLA dilahirkan melalui game pet society. dulu hari-hari aku nak jumpa dia! aku rasa sunyi gila bila tak jumpa dia. sayang LOLAAAAAAAA!

6) yang ni, tentulah trend terkini, iaitu online shopping. dan aku pun tubuhkan RAINBOW SHAWLS

meh meh beli tudung dengan aku! hehe. memudahkan.

tapi sama gak, pembeli & penjual kena pandai-pandai, jgn kena tipu!

lepas tu, Facebook macam lagi pantas dari radio bergerak, sebab apa-apa news kematian ke apa, aku tengok je status kawan-kawan aku. hebat betul teknologi an! kawan aku putus cinta ke, kucing mati pun semua aku tahu. oh Facebook juga tempat aku tengok dari jauh blogger-blogger & fashionista hebat yang aku duk suka sangat! hehe. :)

aku pernah je deactivate Facebook sebulan, ok je aku rasa. tak bosan pun. malah mendekatkan aku dengan keluarga, cukup tidur, mata sihat, badan pun tak lemau akibat meniarap melampau :P dan, kesan buruk Facebook ni, apa aku boleh cakap, semua benda pun ada pro & kontra. pandai-pandai lah memilih. dan so far, bagi aku, sebab utama aku masih ada Facebook - kawan & business.

tapi bila fikir balik, besar betul pengaruh Facebook pada dunia kan? gila gempak! well, what to say, sepupu bongsu aku yang darjah 4 pun dah ada facebook :P