Monthly Archives: October 2023

Good Food

Best cooking happens when it rains.

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And it has been really, really bloody wet. For over a week now. At times it’s really intense, so yesterday when we were driving home from school, we were looking at this….

Country roads resemble small rivers, so this morning we decided to give Izzie a day off school, weather forecast for next 3 days looks a bit more optimistic.

I baked some doughnuts today, the recipe is already on the blog, exactly the same, I took my time though, all the lights were on most of the day, as outside is grey and dark- I ended up with one of the best ones ever. They are disappearing quickly too.

And a few days ago I fancied kotlety mielone. I had some minced veal, which was a first for mielone, normally it is pork. I added lots of chopped, fried onions, some stale bread soaked in milk, a handful of parmesan, seasoned them well with salt and pepper. Tossed in breadcrumbs, panfried, served with truffle mash, as you do, when it rains and one can be bothered! They were fantastic, I might make them for the dinner with Blackmores in 2 weeks time.

Baking

Molly’s Mum’s chocolate cake.

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Last weekend Molly and Enrico came over for dinner, Molly brought a chocolate cake, which she advertised as ” almost gluten free”. The cake was a hit, we loved it, the kids loved it, I asked for the recipe, though I’m not massive on chocolate cake normally. What was left of the one Molly brought was devoured the next day and both Bankses urged me to get on with it and bake another one, pronto!

Some help from Molly was required, as the recipe was her mum’s and I had no idea how much ” 2 sticks of butter” were, but we got there in the end and yesterday I took out of the oven a well risen, moist, light, great cake. A keeper and not at all complicated.

While the oven was warming up to 160 degrees I got the cake tin ready with baking paper all around, 230 g of butter and 280 g of good quality dark chocolate melted together in bain marie. 5 eggs were beaten whole with 200g of sugar, I did half and half caster and brown. All treated with the whisks of kitchen aid until they were light and fluffy. To this 5 tbsps of plain flour went it, alongside 1, 1/2 tsp of baking powder ( Ewa has just sorted me out with good English baking powder and soda for baking!). Chocolate and butter combo went in, all nicely combined together.

The cake was in the oven for about 1 hour, I kept checking till the stick came out dry; about half way though I covered it with alu foil to make sure it bakes inside, but stays fairly moist on top.

A dusting of vanilla icing sugar completed the picture. Superb cake!