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The Ultimate Sophisticated Amaretto Chocolate Tart

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This is one for all the chocolate lovers out there. It is rich, dark and elegant. It is an easy tart to make as it requires no baking. Instead of using a pastry it has a biscuit crumb base and the filling is a easy chocolate custard using a milk and cornflour mixture to slake it meaning that you don’t have to use eggs, preventing any worries of having a chocolate scrambled egg filling.

Modest slices are adequate when portioning as I have said it is very rich. Serve alongside some softly whipped double cream or crème fraiche.

Easy Crowd Pleaser

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This is perfect for feeding a crowd. Although, that never stops me from making it for 2 to eat greedily, having many helpings. This is exactly the sort of thing I want to make when having friends over after a busy day. It requires very little work, chopping up an onion and stirring a few items together on the hob, then throw it into the oven, while you chill out and have a good time with friends.

 It is essentially a chicken and chorizo casserole with orzo.

Orzo is a pasta that looks very like grains of rice, it swells up when cooked in this fashion and makes the sauce become velvety silky and smooth. You will know exactly what I mean as soon as the first spoonful reaches your mouth.

You can modulate the heat easily with this dish if you like your food fiery use a hot chorizo and hot paprika. However, if you prefer it with a little kick use a sweet chorizo and hot paprika or if you like it very mild use both a sweet chorizo and sweet paprika, it will give you a smooth but still deeply flavoured dish.

I would suggest serving garlic bread alongside and why not it works well with it and the oven on anyways. You can find the recipe for my garlic bread here.

Warm Goat Cheese, Fig & Parma Ham Salad

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This is so good warm creamy goat cheese, salty Parma ham and voluptuous sweet figs nestled in a beg of green leaves and drizzled with delicious balsamic vinegar. I have specified spinach leaves for this salad however, you may use any leaves you like. I always have baby spinach in the fridge as I think it keeps better than any other packet of leaves.

If you find your figs aren’t as ripe and sweet as you would like them to be you can pop them under the grill, the heat somehow seems to bring out the sweetness.

For a meat free version, I would suggest swapping the Parma ham for some salty black olives. This is so easy it can hardly even be called a recipe, it’s so simple but here it is anyways

For more delicious salad recipes why not check out the following:

Watermelon & Feta salad Halloumi, Mint & Pomegranate Salad

Beetroot, Feta & Basil Salad

Summers Star Ingredient – 3 delicious recipes using limes

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This summer has been the season of the lime for me they have been my summer star ingredient. The colours so bright, vivid and enticing. The smell of a freshly cut lime makes me salivate, it instantly conjures images in my head of clean and refreshing temple achingly cold drinks, so cold that condensation trickles down the side of the glass. Everything from a wedge in the neck of a bottle of a cold beer, to flavouring water in the fridge, to cutting the richness of a meal and in my favourite capacity with something sweet. I think in part that the reason I love lime and sweet things together is that they remind me of those hard-boiled lime sweets with the chocolate centre a favourite of mines as a child.  I never thought that any other citrus fruit would over take lemons in my kitchen, this summer exactly that happened.  I just can’t get enough of them.

Below are three of my favourite lime recipes. What are your favourite lime recipes?

A Mid-Week Curry Feast

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Firstly, let me start off by saying that although I call this my Sri Lankan chicken curry it is very inauthentic, and I should probably call it a Sri Lankan inspired chicken curry instead. I sometimes feel that I may be too apologetic about recipes being inauthentic, this is after all what cooking is all about using the ingredients that you have and are readily available to you to create recipes that are authentic to you and your kitchen.There is a lot of ingredients in this recipe, but it isn’t complicated or difficult to make. I suggest reading recipe and gathering all the spices and ingredients together rather than rummaging through cupboards, looking for spices as you are cooking. Admittedly a major flaw off mines in the kitchen.

You can use chicken breast for this, although I highly recommend skinless boneless chicken thighs for one, they are cheaper and secondly, they have so much more flavour a winner on both counts. This is also a great make ahead meal and flavour develops and strengthens over time. This is a hot curry, so if you like it mild ½ the measurements of the hotter spices and for those that like their food fiery, use half the coconut milk and eat the ruby terracotta curry with fiery delight.  

Chicken Pot au Feu

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Chicken pot au feu, what can I say a bowl of this is comforting soothing and the sort of nursery food I want to eat when I feel under the weather. It is more soothing than a hug from a loved one. Deliciously sweet soft stewed vegetables with the mellow golden chicken broth is heaven. One pot cooking that requires little work is perfect when in this mood. I cook this so often and every time I do it changes a little depending on what I have in the house as with all stews and recipes in general this is a basic blue print chop and change it to make it your own.

What is your favourite dish to replenish when feel under the weather?

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes

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This is exactly what weekend breakfasts are all about.

These are fluffy and spongy American style pancakes and the best pancakes I’ve ever eaten. I can already see the barrage of comments about those Japanese style pancakes and how light and fluffy they are but in truth I don’t see them as pancakes more as souffle and yes, they take as much work as a souffle to get right. I do love them, but they require as much work and attention as a new born baby. These pancakes are simple and delicious just a matter of stirring wet ingredients into dry and dolloping into a greased pan for a few minutes. To get even sized pancakes I would recommend using a quarter cup measure it makes the perfect sized pancakes. Enjoy warm from the pan with an ooze of maple syrup, crispy bacon or with lemon juice and sugar.

I believe it is also very important not to use a whisk to combine the batter as this over works the batter making a tough pancakes. Instead, simply fold the ingredients together with a rubber spatula until just combined you want to remove most lumps but if the odd one remains it will not affect the pancakes.

Moussaka – The Perfect Crowd Pleaser

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Moussaka is a Greek dish of usually minced lamb, aubergine, potatoes and creamy sauce that is baked in layers like a lasagne. I really think of this as Greek lasagne and it is every bit as good as that sounds.

 I almost always use minced beef here as it is a dish I cook for a crowd and not everyone seems to be keen on minced lamb. Whichever meat you decide to use know that this will be delicious. It’s a great make ahead meal once put together you can allow to cool then store covered in the fridge and give it the final cooking in a hot oven for a little longer until piping hot within.

The aubergine are usually fried in quite a bit of oil as they are like sponges and it seems no matter how much oil they get they will drink this up and require more it is for this reason I use a non-stick pan and coat in very little oil. You can and sometimes I need to add a little more oil between batches. Aubergines are almost always salted to draw out moisture and make them less bitter. I have never found this step necessary. However, I do salt here only because I want to draw out a little of the moisture in them. It is about the only thing that can ruin this dish is having too much moisture and it being a horrible runny mess although, it will taste just fine.

The bechamel sauce needs to be thicker than normal and also contain egg yolks which make it set like a savoury custard. You shouldn’t require any seasoning as the parmesan should add enough. I love breaking through the very thin cheesy crust that forms on the top of this, it brings me great pleasure like cracking through a crème brulee.

I serve this alongside some roasted baby potatoes which I scatter with crumbled feta and thyme/oregano when they have come out of the oven and a simple green salad.

Breakfast on the go – Overnight Oats

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Overnight oats were ubiquitous across the web. Every time I was online, I came across pictures of these oats in mason jars topped with fresh berries. Beautiful, as these images are, I thought I would never enjoy them, cold raw oats, no thanks. now however I am so happy that I did I love the flavour, creaminess and the simplicity. The night before it is just a matter of mixing a few ingredients together or adding all ingredients to a mason jar and shaking them together. Pop into the fridge and breakfast is good to go. The real appeal to me was that it meant I had breakfast ready to go and they do keep you full up for a long time. If I’m eating them at home, I just remove them from the fridge 20 – 30 minutes before eating. If on the go they will probably have reached room temperature by the time you have reached your destination. These are perfectly good straight from the fridge, but you can give them a blast in the microwave to take the chill out of them.

There is an unending amount of flavour variations for these oats. Below is my favourite or at least my favourite so far, apple and cinnamon I add a little maple to sweet and any eating apple for crunch I prefer Pink Ladies as they are both crunchy and sweet. Here are some other variations I do regularly banana, peanut butter and cocoa, strawberry and kiwi and orange and rose water. You can also add a variety of nuts and seeds to top these toasted flaked almonds, pumpkin seeds, sunflowers seeds, chopped hazelnuts etc.

It’s Monday Treat Yourself – Dutch Baby Recipe

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It’s Monday, they can be tough, so treat yourself to this delicious breakfast and start the week off right. Although, these are pancakes they look very much like a large Yorkshire pudding and like a Yorkshire pudding they need to be eaten straight from the oven as they do begin to deflate the longer they are out of the oven. These delicious aerated pancakes aren’t difficult to make and have a very American diner style breakfast feel about them. It is in this fashion I like to eat them with crispy bacon, poached eggs and maple syrup. But you could have them sprinkled with caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice as is traditional or try with berries and a good dusting of icing sugar. Don’t worry if your pancakes have puffed up in the centre and there is no hollow to fill with whatever goodness you want. When this happens, you will find when you remove them from the oven that the hollow is on the underside so simply flip over. Kids love these and they make a great afternoon treat as well served with cream or ice cream, some chopped fresh berries and a drizzled with chocolate sauce.