Dinner with Rachel

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December 18, 2012

Salted Caramel Chocolate Fondants

Posted by Kim under Baking, Desserts, Dinner with Rachel, Sweets | Tags: , , |
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I was having a dinner party last weekend for some good friends of mine, so I thought I’d push the boat out. Chocolate fondants are still ‘on trend’ in the  foodie world – and quite rightly so. They are the most impressive dessert if done correctly and look a lot harder to make than they actually are. Plus, they taste bloody fantastic.

I was watching Rachel Khoo’s show ‘The Little Paris Kitchen’ and saw her make these. I knew right away that it was going to be on my dinner table a few days later – dinner party or no dinner party!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Fondants

Salted Caramel Chocolate Fondants

Thankfully, I found the recipe on Elspeth’s seasonal kitchen.

I followed the well written recipe to the letter and I think they turned out pretty well. The recipe is supposed to make 8, but I found that it made 6 (4 for the dinner party and the remaining two were eaten the next day!)

Ingredients

Makes 8 chocolate fondants

  • 170g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
  • 170g unsalted butter, cubed
  • 170g light brown sugar
  • 85g plain flour
  • 6 eggs, beaten

For the ramekins

  • 30g butter
  • 30g cocoa powder
For the salted caramel filling
  • 150g white caster sugar
  • 150ml double cream
  • 1 tsp coarse sea salt

To make the caramel, put the sugar in a heavy bottom pan and put over a medium heat. Swirl the pan around as the sugar begins to colour, but do not stir! When the caramel has turned a deep brown, add the cream and salt. Watch out here, as it will bubble up in the pan, so don’t lean over it. Use a sugar thermometer and wait until the temperature is 108c. Remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and cool. (If you don’t have sugar thermometer, the caramel should coat the back of a spoon).

Salted Caramel

Salted Caramel

Butter the ramekins and dust liberally with cocoa powder.  Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain marie (a bowl over simmering water). When just melted, remove from the heat to cool slightly.

Chocolate and butter

Chocolate and butter

When the chocolate/butter mix has cooled slightly, mix in the eggs. Meanwhile, put the flour and sugar in a seperate bowl. Add the chocolate mix to the flour/sugar  and mix.

Chocolate fondant mix

Chocolate fondant mix

Fill the ramekins so they are three quarters full and put in the fridge for at least an hour. Like me, f you’re cooking these for a dinner party, you can prepare these in the morning and then bring them out of the fridge to prepare just before serving.

Put your salted caramel into a piping bag. (Or, as Elspeth says, use a food bag snipped at the corner – genius!). Pipe a good amount of the caramel directly into the puddings, inserting the piping bag into the puddings, but not so far that you touch the bottom of the ramekin.

Salted Caramel piped in and ready to go.

Salted Caramel piped in and ready to go.

Put in the oven at 180c for 15-18 minutes. I use an oven thermometer, because my oven lies to me. As temperature and timing is so important for this recipe, I would highly recommend purchasing one and using it for this recipe.

You’ll know they’re ready to come out when the edges are firm, but the top is still very slightly wobbly. Slide a knife around the edges and turn out onto a plate.

If done right, it should look like this on the outside:

Before the reveal...

Before the reveal…

And like this on the inside.

Awwww yeah.

Awwww yeah.

This is my pudding heaven.

 

August 17, 2012

American Buttermilk ‘Biscuits’ and all the rest.

Posted by Kim under Baking, Dinner with Rachel, Lunch, Main Courses, Recipes | Tags: , , |
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This post is going to be about the dinner we had on 4th July. THAT’S how far behind I am with my posts. But I wasn’t going to skip on this post, because these were all good eats and my half american friend Rach, who prepared most of it, deserves a shout out! Also, I want to share with you a recipe for american ‘biscuits’ which was one of my contributions to the dinner.

I’d never had them before and assumed that they were going to be like savoury scones, which as it turns out, is exactly what they are!

American biscuits

I’m not sure an american would think these are the most authentic biscuits ever – I rolled them out too thinly and I used wholemeal flour instead of plain – but they were beautifully soft in the middle and went very well dipped in some chicken gravy, which I made specially for them.

Recipe here! 

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the board (if you can get White Lily flour, your biscuits will be even better)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 tablespoon baking powder (use one without aluminum)

1 teaspoon kosher salt or 1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, very cold

1 cup buttermilk (approx)

Directions: 1 Preheat your oven to 450°F.

2 Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor.

3 Cut the butter into chunks and cut into the flour until it resembles course meal.

4 If using a food processor, just pulse a few times until this consistency is achieved.

5 Add the buttermilk and mix JUST until combined.

6 If it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk. It should be very wet.

7 Turn the dough out onto a floured board.

8 Gently, gently PAT (do NOT roll with a rolling pin) the dough out until it’s about 1/2″ thick. Fold the dough about 5 times, gently press the dough down to a 1 inch thick.

9 Use a round cutter to cut into rounds.

10 You can gently knead the scraps together and make a few more, but they will not be anywhere near as good as the first ones.

11 Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet- if you like soft sides, put them touching each other.

12 If you like”crusty” sides, put them about 1 inch apart- these will not rise as high as the biscuits put close together.

13 Bake for about 10-12 minutes- the biscuits will be a beautiful light golden brown on top and bottom.

14 Do not overbake.

15 Note: The key to real biscuits is not in the ingredients, but in the handling of the dough.

16 The dough must be handled as little as possible or you will have tough biscuits.

17 I have found that a food processor produces superior biscuits, because the ingredients stay colder and there’s less chance of overmixing.

18 You also must pat the dough out with your hands, lightly.

19 Rolling with a rolling pin is a guaranteed way to overstimulate the gluten, resulting in a tougher biscuit.

20 Note 2: You can make these biscuits, cut them, put them on cookie sheets and freeze them for up to a month.

21 When you want fresh biscuits, simply place them frozen on the cookie sheet and bake at 450°F for about 20 minutes.

Burgers and Pulled Pork

Rach prepared loads of tasty food, including homemade burgers, green bean and mushroom casserole and my favourite potato salad ever. Aside from the biscuits and gravy, I contributed some pulled pork - because, well, any excuse to eat it really!

Green Bean Casserole

Rachel’s famous potato salad

Of course, an american themed dinner wouldn’t be complete without an apple pie – which Rach made with crisco – which is by far the weirdest substance I have seen in my life. It does, however, make great pastry.

Apple pie and cream

As it was a lovely day, we decided to take a blanket and go and eat in the park, which I think is the best way to eat anything.

Happy 4th July everyone – perhaps I’ll get around to writing about my holiday in July sometime before Christmas :)

 

January 18, 2012

Fajitas!!

Posted by Kim under Dinner with Rachel, Main Courses | Tags: , , |
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I love fajitas. Quick, easy and tasty, they were a staple meal of mine when I was at university. However, Kieran will not eat them, so I don’t get to have them that often. So I jumped at the chance to make them when Rachel was over for dinner last week. Usually, I just use a packet mix, but I really wanted to make my own this time. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a recipe for homemade fajita seasoning. My two usual recipe websites, bbcgoodfood.com and deliciousmagazine.co.uk both had fajita recipes – but they both called for a packet seasoning mix. Yeah, thanks, I could have worked that one out for myself!

So of course, the answer was found in the blogging world. I found a great looking recipe at the cooking nurse and decided to use that! I had all the ingredients already in the store cupboard and took no time at all to put together. And it was lovely – exactly the right level of spice for me. I had a couple of pork loins that needed to be used so I sliced them thinly and fried them up with the spice mix, chopped onions and peppers and a dash of honey. Delicious!

Pork fajita mix, with peppers and onions.

With it, I also decided to take advantage of the fact that I could eat raw tomatoes (Kieran can’t bear them) so I made a mild salsa from chopped cherry tomatoes, coriander, spring onions, oil and white wine vinegar.

Tomato and Coriander Salsa

Throw it all together with some mashed avocado, sour cream, salad and grated cheese and you get one of these:

Ohh yeah.

 

January 8, 2012

Come Dine With Me – night 3

Posted by Kim under Desserts, Dinner with Rachel, Gluten Free, Main Courses, Starters | Tags: , , , , , |
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Myself, my boyfriend Kieran and my friend Rachel and her boyfriend Chris have a little Come Dine with Me contest going on. We’ve all been taking turns to cook a three course meal for each other and so far we have had some tasty food! First it was my turn, then Rachel’s. Last night it was Kieran’s.

Of course, we haven’t actually been scoring each other, but I have to say that Kieran’s effort is definitely a contender for the imaginary £1000 prize.

Starter was a twice baked cheese soufflé. It was made with goats cheese and I have to say, was much nicer than my Christmas Day smoked salmon soufflé. The recipe is from Delia Smith, and is therefore foolproof.

Twice baked goat's cheese soufflé with mustard dressing.

I loved the salad dressing with it too.

The main course was a chinese braised beef dish with five spice and ginger. There is a chinese beef stew dish that we make quite often and love, so Kieran decided to make something similar, but try a different recipe. I have to say that we much preferred this recipe. The sauce was sweeter and smoother and the beef is totally melt in the mouth.  We’ll definitely be using this one from now on. Recipe from BBC Good Food.

Chinese Braised Beef with ginger

There was only one option for dessert: panna cotta. It’s Kieran’s favourite dessert, so he was always going to make it. He also made a strawberry and blueberry coulis, which complemented it perfectly. Absolutely delicious!

Vanilla panna cotta with strawberry and blueberry coulis

My boyfriend can really cook! I don’t know whether to be overjoyed, or threatened. I think I’ll be fine until he starts a food blog – then I’ll worry :)

Next up – Chris’ meal. Can’t wait!

Also, if you want to read Rachel’s reviews of these fabulous meals, amongst other whimsical musings,  check out her blog!

 

November 17, 2011

Cornbread

Posted by Kim under Baking, Dinner with Rachel, Recipes | Tags: |
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One of my best friends is half american, so I often try and make some american themed dishes when she comes over for dinner, but usually adapt them a little. See Italian Meatloaf, for example.

After our recent delicious dinners at Southern 11, I thought I’d give some good old southern american cuisine a try. I’ve made my own version of southern fried chicken many times and served that with corn on the cob, fries, spicy mayo (mayo mixed with harissa) and cornbread.

I’ve never tried cornbread in my life so have no idea what it’s supposed to turn out like.  However, from pictures on the internet and the general look and feel of it, I think it turned out pretty well. It was soft and well, like a savoury cake really.

Cornbread

It tasted quite nice, but I’m just not sure what you’re supposed to do with it or how you’re supposed to eat it…does it mop up gravy? Do you eat it in the same bite as the chicken? Do you make a sandwich out of it? I’m confused. Any americans out there, who can enlighten me, please do!!

Fried Chicken goujons, Chips, Corn, Spicy Mayo and Cornbread

Makes 20cm square loaf

  • 115g strong white flour
  • 115g fine cornmeal or fine polenta
  • 2tbsp sugar
  • 2.5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 250ml milk
  • 25g butter, melted
  1. Preheat the oven to 200c/fan180c/gas6. Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs and stir in the milk and melted butter.
  2. Pour the wet ingredients onto the dry and stir just enough to combine. Overmixing will make the cornbread tough. Pour into a buttered 20cm square baking tin and bake for about 30 mins until firm and golden.
 

October 26, 2011

Come Dine with Me Night 2

Posted by Kim under Desserts, Dinner with Rachel, Main Courses, Starters | Tags: , , |
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Night 2 of our Come Dine With Me evenings belonged to Rachel. After I force fed my guests with three heavy courses, Rachel sensibly gave us a lighter starter, so we actually had room for mains and dessert!

The starter was stuffed peppers.

Pepper stuffed with mushroom rice and mozzerella.

I love stuffed peppers and they’re the perfect starter as they’re light and healthy. i loved Rachel’s addition of pine nuts as a garnish – which added a lovely crunchy texture, as well as flavour.

Mains was sausage casserole.

Sausage Casserole with broccoli, corn and a bread roll.

 

I’ve had Rachel’s sausage meat casserole before and this was just as nice as the first time. Creamy and waming – Kieran has already requested I make this for him at home!

Dessert was the best thing ever. Mini sticky toffee puddings with toffee. And Rachel was good enough to make them with gluten free flour, so I could eat them without guilt.

Sticky Toffee puddings with toffee sauce

They were everything a sticky toffee pudding should be; gooey, dense and sweet. The meal was a triumph!

Of course, we’re not scoring each other like the real Come Dine With Me but if we were Rachel would have a big fat 10.

 

October 5, 2011

Dining at Rachel’s

Posted by Kim under Dinner with Rachel, Gluten Free, Main Courses | Tags: , , |
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Rachel and I eat a lot of minced beef. Or, at least we do in each other’s company. Only last week, I served her up a lasagne and recently, I have been served these minced beef creations by Rachel:

Pasta Bolognese-ish

I love Rachel’s bolognese, or ‘spaghetti’ as she calls it, like a true american, despite there being no spaghetti anywhere :) Rachel puts chunks of peppers in hers, so hers is a lot sweeter than mine and texturally more chunky! Delicious – of course served with an obligatory sprinkling of cheese!

Meatloaf with roasted carrots and potatoes

And our second minced beef dish: meatloaf. I had never tried meatloaf before Rachel made it for me, but was an instant convert, as you can see from my experimentations with meatloaf wellington and an italian style loaf. Thanks, Rach!

 

October 2, 2011

Come Dine with Me Night 1..

Posted by Kim under Desserts, Dinner with Rachel, Main Courses, Recipes, Starters, Sweets
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My friend Rachel and I cook eachother dinner once per week and have been talking for ooh at least a year about getting our partners involved and having some ‘come dine with me’ type evenings. In case you’re not aware, ‘Come Dine with Me’ is a TV programme where strangers get together and have dinner parties at their houses, scoring their competitors. The winner gets a thousand pounds.

Now obviously our evenings do not involve scoring or bucketloads of cash. What they do involve though, are three courses, good food and plenty of drink. And it was my evening first, so I had to set the standard! Eep!

Starter was fried cheese salad, which is a lot nicer than it sounds. I made this up a few years ago after having breaded camembert in a restaurant and loving it. I added the cranberry because it complements the brie really well and the ham provides the saltiness.

Fried Brie and Goat's Cheese Salad

This is really tasty and is also good as a lunch dish. Take your cheese and cut into chunks. I give everyone one piece of each cheese. Dip in egg and then in panko breadcrumbs (though normal crumbs would be fine). Repeat the process, so all pieces of cheese are completely coated in two layers of crumbs. This is important, as if the cheese isn’t coated properly, the cheese will leak out during cooking.

Assemble some spinach leaves on the plate and dress with a little olive oil. Tear some cured ham (parma ham would be fine) over the leaves and dollop some cranberry sauce on the leaves. Fry your cheese. These should be shallow fried in hot oil. You’re just looking to heat the cheese to melting temperature and brown the sides, so 30 seconds – 1 minute on each side is perfectly sufficient. When browned and crispy, place on top of the salad and serve! When you cut into the cheese, it should be warm and oozy!

Main course was lasagne, mainly because I could make it up the day before and just put it in the oven when my guests got there.

Lasagne with Spinach

To make my lasagne, I just make up a double batch of my ragu recipe and layer with gluten free lasagne sheets. The top layer consists of wilted and drained spinach and homemade cheese sauce. Pop in the oven for about 45 minutes on 180c and you’re done.

I served my trusty carrot cake and a cheeseboard for dessert – but it barely got touched. To be fair, I did serve mammoth portions…

Delia's Low Fat and Moist Carrot Cake

I served the cheeseboard with some of my mum’s poached pears in belgian syrup – which came off the tree in her back garden. I love them and always manage to wrangle a jar off her whenever I visit.

Brie, Wensleydale with cranberries, smoked cheese with paprika

My mum's poached pears.

I’m so glad my night was over first. Bring on the other three!

 

August 3, 2011

Indoor Barbecue at Rachel’s

Posted by Kim under Dinner with Rachel, Lunch, Main Courses | Tags: , , |
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Rachel, being half american, always provides the goods when it comes to american foods. And like true american food, it is served in large quantities!

This time, we have a homemade cheeseburger (without the bun for me), sausage, mushrooms and her famous potato salad, which I believe I have already explained is heavenly.

 

June 12, 2011

Parmesan and Mozzerella Chicken with Potato Salad

Posted by Kim under Dinner with Rachel, Main Courses | Tags: , , , |
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My love of Rachel’s potato salad is well known. So I was delighted to see it on the table with some chicken breasts, covered in parmesan and breadcrumbs, which was grilled with some mozzerella. It was perfectly moist, like probably one of the most moist chicken breasts I’d ever had. Well done Rach!!

 

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