Ron’s staying with us for Easter. We went to The Montpellier Chapter this evening, as I wanted to go for a long time, since my hairdresser Rob told me about this place and “the beef that he cut with the fork, so tender it was”. I checked the menu beforehand, as usual and their tuna carpaccio starter appealed to me straight away. We both had it, Florek and I and we both loved it. I might even try to recreate it one day. On the menu they call it tuna carpaccio, I’d say it’s more tataki than carpaccio, but it still tasted fabulous. Light miso dressing, some kind of green vinaigrette like in a small amount. Served cold and fantastic. I’d be going back to the Chapter just for that tuna, the steaks that followed were great too, must be said.
Monthly Archives: March 2016
Fresh gnocchi, again.
Yup, I did it again. Better. I baked my spuds slowly, while we went for a lovely, sunny walk to Stanton and Toddington. Once cooled enough to handle, I pushed them through the ricer, it does make the difference to the consistency. I ended up with about 470 g of potatoes, I added 120 g of 00 flour and 1 egg. The amount of dumplings was perfect for the 2 of us, not a piggy amount, but we’re not craving a dessert either.
They cooked a lot faster than the shop bought ones, as soon as they floated to the surface I removed them, drained them and placed in the lovely, tomato-chili sauce waiting on the hob. A sprinkle of parmesan and to the gob. 🙂
Chocolate and matcha cake.
I liked the look of it on Dorota’s blog (where else), chocolate and matcha is always a winning combo, what do people pay for chocolate bento box in Nobu? That reminds me I haven’t made matcha ice cream in a long time, time to do something about it.
My cake this afternoon is made of half a portion, so that it was enjoyed and not wasted, good decision, there is now half left. Florian seems to be starved of chocolate cake, as he destroyed a large chunk of that half. 🙂 But that’s what makes baking so rewarding, we’ll see if Iz likes it tomorrow.
I used 110 g of butter, creamed with half of my tall glass of sugar, 2 egg added one at a time. A glass of plain flour with 1 tbsp of potato flour, less than 1 tsp of baking powder, a touch of vanilla paste- needn’t have bothered, can’t taste it-and about 1/4 a glass of milk. This mix I then divided in two, added 2 tbsps of cocoa to one and 3 tsps of matcha to the other.
Baked in 150 degrees for about 45 minutes, till the skewer came out clean.
Glazed with a simple chocolate ganache, 50 of dark chocolate melted in 20 g of butter. My own personal touch were a few chopped hazelnuts on top. It is going. Quickly.
Yuzu, raspberry and white chocolate muffins
Nigella’s.
I came across the recipe when looking for muffins that would be similar to those from M&S I used to buy, the lemon and white chocolate ones. This recipe appealed to me a lot, the addition of raspberries unplanned, but I had some frozen, so why not indeed.
60 g of melted butter, 200 g of plain flour, 2 tsps of baking powder, 0,5 tsp of baking soda, 130 g of sugar, a pinch of salt. Nigella’s recipe called for a zest and juice of 1 lemon, I used the zest as asked, but instead of the juice I used 3 tbps of yuzu. Then about 120 ml of milk, 1 beaten egg. A good handful of chopped white chocolate chips.Dry ingredients mixed with all wet ingredients, only just mixed till combined, I actually used a KA bowl and a spatula. 150 g of frozen raspberries thrown at the end.
Filled the muffin cases, 11 of them, baked in 200 degrees for about 20-22 minutes. Finished with a little smear of melted white chocolate and yuzu juice. Florian just had 4 and that’s having had pizza for dinner. Therefore good! 🙂
Snickers flavoured macaroons
We were supposed to have guests this weekend, but the guests cancelled, so I changed my Ocado shopping list, got rid of some items, added some other and decided to make these, recent from Dorota’s mojewypieki.com. When it comes to macaroons I do prefer the fruity ones, the lemon, blackcurrant flavours of the filling against sweet meringue, but one has to try things.
I had a little help with preparing the nuts- 
The macaroons are made the same way as always, only not with ground almonds, but with finely ground peanuts. They smelled great in the oven and I was also extra careful not to overmix the Italian meringue with the nuts. Experience now shows that makes them spill and crack in the oven- very frustrating to watch.
There are 2 fillings; chocolate ganache, made of 150 ml of double cream, hot, 150 g of dark chocolate melted in it, excellent, I must say. Not too bitter and once cooled, nice and easy to pipe onto the macaroons.
Then the caramel one. I used the Bonne Maman Caramel spread, 130g of it mixed with 250 g packet of mascarpone. This one didn’t make me sing. It took quite some time to cool it, but it still spilled out. And when tasting the ready macaroons I decided I’m not getting much of the caramel, so I nuked a bit of the caramel spread in the microwave and drizzled some over the top.
They are lovely. Decadent. Nutty. Sweet, but not sickly. Happy me. 🙂