Seven Minute Steamed Chocolate Pudding

Easily the worst thing i've cooked so far.  It's cooked in a microwave, which rang alarm bells immediately, and seeing as we don't have one at home, i thought i'd better cook it at wittering, where surprisingly, there is one.  The ingredient list sounded nice, but putting everything in a bowl and then into a microwave for 7 mins, sounded dodgy - and it was.  I didn't have any clingfilm so i used baking parchment, which is maybe the reason it didn't work - however, i'm not going to try it again to find out!

- Grate 250g dark chocolate into a food processor and process together with 120g of butter and 100g brown sugar until combined.
- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, 125ml double cream, 40g flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 3 eggs and process until smooth.
- Put into a buttered pudding basin, cover with clingfilm and cook at 100% for 5 mins in a microwave.
- Pierce clingfilm, cover with a plate and let stand for 10 mins.

Good luck!

Quinces Poached in Muscat

Quinces aren't around outside november/december, so i had to grab my chance this year to cook with them and am i glad i did - they were truly amazing.  As you can see from the picture, the quinces go from rock-hard and white/lemon in colour, to a soft gorgeous pink and taste delicious.

- Fill a bowl of water with cold water and a squirt of lemon juice to put the quinces in and stop them turning brown.
- Peel 4 quinces, quarter and core them, putting them into the water and keeping the peelings/cores.
- Add 700ml muscat, 300ml water, 500g sugar, 1 stick of cinnamon, 2 bay leaves, 4 cloves, 3 cardamon pods and 6 peppercorns to a pan and bring to the boil.
- Put the peelings and quinces in an ovenproof dish, pour over the wine, cover and cook at 150C for 2 1/2 hours.
- Remove from the dish, strain the syrup into a saucepan, and reduce for a few mins.
- Serve the quinces with the syrup poured over them.

Nigella warns about over reducing the syrup and creating quince toffee, which of course, i did!  In fact, the syrup i was left after 2 1/2 hours in the oven, didn't need reducing at all once it had cooled a bit.  I do however now have quince jelly which is delicious on toast.  So i suggest taking half the syrup out, to have with the quinces, and creating quince jelly with the rest.  You can always increase the quantities for the syrup to have more of both.

Aubergine Moussaka

This is a great recipe - a good moussaka with a lebanese theme according nigella.  I think the addition of the chick peas makes it a bit more middle eastern, as does the use of pomegranate molasses.  However, given that i was at wittering rather than home in london, this was a bit tricky to find.  I had to use dark sugar with a squeeze of lemon as a substitute which seemed to work.

- Peel 500g aubergines in lengthways stripes, cut into 1.5cm cubes and saute for a few mins in 3 tablespoons olive oil.

- Remove to a dish covered in kitchen roll.

- Add 2 more tablespoons olive oil and saute 1-2 thinly sliced onions and 10 cloves thickly sliced garlic for about 5 mins until soft.

- Add 150g chickpeas (don't use the whole 200g tin or they will dominate) and cook for another 5 mins.

- Add 1 1/2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses and return the aubergines to the pan.

- Peel and quarter 500g tomatoes and add to the pan together with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and 200ml water.

- Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 1 hour.

- Serve sprinkled with parsley or coriander.

We had this a couple of times, once with the couscous, which didn't really do the moussaka justice, so the second time, i made some fresh chappatis which were perfect with it.

The chappati recipe i got, not from nigella, but from a guide on a 2 day camel trek in the Great Thar Desert in India.  In the middle of the dunes, he got out a small bag of flour, added a bit of salt and water to it, and gently kneaded it for a few mins.  Then he flattened it out as thin as possible into small chappatis, heated a metal pan over the fire until very hot, then cooked them without oil for a couple of mins on each side.

I have used this method of making bread many times since, and its as easy as bread making gets.  Whether or not, you've ever made bread before, i suggest you give it a go.

Fine Pasta with Crab

Along with the dover sole and king prawns that we bbq'ed, we also bought a couple of crab from the fisherman's hut in east wittering.  It makes a perfect seaside lunch for 2.  

- Gently cook 1 chopped clove garlic, 1/2 finely sliced red chilli, 1 tablespoon coriander, grated zest 1/2 lime and 2-3 finely sliced spring onions, until soft.

- Add 35g brown crab meat, 150ml white wine and simmer for 10 mins until quite a thick texture.

- Cook some 150g linguine.
- Just before the pasta needs draining add 60g white meat to the brown meat, together with another tablespoon coriander, the zest of the other 1/2 lime and a squeeze of lime juice.
- Add about 1 mug of the pasta to the sauce, then drain the pasta, add to the crab and sprinkle with parsley.

The chilli gives a lovely bite, and the cooking of the brown meat, gives it a great strong flavour that is missing from some crab dishes - a great recipe.

This recipe also reminds me that with nigella's cooking, you really to have quite a lot of white and red wine on the go - best stock up on some cheap wine otherwise it gets expensive!

Mushroom Ragout

While Ian, Annabel and I had the lamb, i made this mushroom ragout for Tara.  The key is obviously in the mushrooms you use. I used large portabello mushrooms which give a lovely meaty texture.  This has a good depth of flavour.

- Saute 1 finely chopped white onion, 1 red onion and 2 stalks of thinly sliced celery in a pan with 1 teaspoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter.
- When they begin to soften, add 3 chopped cloves garlic, some salt and pepper.
- As the garlic and onions brown, add 90 ml red wine, 35 ml marsala, a bay leaf and 1/2 teaspoon thyme.
- Simmer gently until the wine boils away.
- In a separate pan, saute 800g mushrooms in 2 teaspoons olive oil and 2-3 tablespoons butter.
- Add some salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
- When they colour, add 85ml red wine and 40 ml marsala.
- Allow the wine to cook down, then add the onions.
- Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a pan, add 1 tablespoon flour and stir for a few minutes while it browns.
- Then whisk in 500ml hot vegetable stock.
- Add this sauce to the mushrooms, add 3 tablespoons parsley and simmer for a further 10 mins.

Cinnamon Hot Rack of Lamb

Cinnamon and lamb don't sound good bed-fellows, but this dish was great.  So good, ian, annabel and myself had eaten most of it before remembering to take a photo!

- Mix 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon chilli oil.
- Rub over the meat, place on a baking tray and cook for 30 mins at 220C and the meat should still be pink.
- Let stand for 5 mins and serve.

Simple but delicious.  As you can see, we had it with the couscous and some mushroom ragout that i made tara.

Treacle Tart

This was much more successful, although i slightly overcooked it, so it was nice and chewy as nigella says it should be, but perhaps 10 mins per mouthful is a bit much even for toffee lover!  I exaggerate of course, but i should still have listened to tara when she told me it looked done.  But being faithful to nigella, i gave it another 5 mins.  Nigella and her cooking times - what can i say!

- Make the pastry as before, using 100g plain flour, 50g butter, a few tablespoons iced water and 2 tablespoons lemon juice, but leaving out the icing sugar.
- Roll out to line a 20cm flan dish and put in the fridge for 30mins.
- Heat 225g golden syrup in a pan and when runny, add 60g white breadcrumbs and the zest and juice of 1/2 lemon.
- After 5 mins, stir in 3 tablespoons double cream and add the mixture to the pastry case.
- Cook for 25-30 mins at 180C (nigella says 15 mins at 200C then 15 mins at 180C).

It was delicious and would have gone great with vanilla ice cream, but the freezer was broken at merula, so no ice cream for us.