Chilli-chocolate covered strawberries

With the weather becoming more miserable by the hour and the cold creeping in through every corner it was time to heat things up a little. Being Indian, I’m predisposed to liking the taste of chilli, so when I saw Lindt’s chilli chocolate on offer in Waitrose the other day I simply had to have it. Chilli and chocolate, which otherwise go very well together in a Mexican dish by a similar name, is a divine combination. The dark chocolate simply melts in your mouth leaving a fiery afterthought. The idea of chilli-chocolate is by no means a radical new one though, apparently the Mayans and Aztecs were incredibly fond of the flavours and chilli-chocolate has been popular in South America and Mexico since this time.

Having racked my brains as to how I could put this exquisite ingredient to use, I finally lingered upon the memory of balsamic dark chocolate-dipped strawberries I had at my friend Spence’s birthday picnic. A very unusual but successful combination – perhaps another unusual combination like chilli and chocolate may be quite tasty when put together with strawberries?

So I got to work, and what with the price of strawberries these days (I’m shaking my fist at you, Tesco) I ended up having to delay this delectable treat for a few days until my Sainsburys delivery came to the rescue (once again). My strawberries finally arrived, plump and bright red, in the arms of a drenched delivery man. It was time to get started:

• 40g dark chilli-chocolate (I used Lindt’s chilli chocolate)
• 40g 85% dark chocolate (again, Lindt is good but the better quality, the more exquisite the taste)
• 10 large strawberries, ideally with long stems

Firstly you’ll need to chop up the chocolate so that it melts more easily; this should be easily achieved using a sharp knife, slicing down the chocolate in 5mm slices so it fragments (as in the above photograph). Once both types of chocolate have been sliced up, put aside. Pick out your large strawberries, ensuring they do not have any rot and aren’t over-ripe. Wash them gently under a cold tap.

Pat them dry on a tea towel or kitchen paper to get rid of excess water – if the water gets into your chocolate when you dip the strawberries in, it ain’t pretty. To melt the chocolate you’ll need to set up a double boiler, or if you’re well-equipped you’ll have a bain-marie to hand. If not, you can set one up very simply, just put 1-2 inches of boiling hot water in a saucepan over a low heat, and set a glass bowl above it, not touching the water. This separates the chocolate from the pan and the water and so the heat from the boiling water will effectively heat the glass bowl and melt the chocolate. Meanwhile, halve your strawberries as so, and once your double boiler is set up, scoop all of your dark chocolate fragments into the bowl at the top.

Once your chocolate has melted to a smooth, shiny consistency, you can either reduce your heat to the minimum or switch it off altogether. At this point you should line a baking sheet with some parchment paper and set it next to the double boiler.

Then you can start dipping! Hold the strawberries by the leaves or long stems at the top, then dip into the melted chocolate, coating thoroughly and twisting the strawberry as you take it out to ensure smooth edges. Set the coated strawberries onto the baking sheet, leaving a little space in between each of the halves.

By the time I had finished dipping my strawberries the sun was already setting!

Once all of your strawberries have been dipped and set onto the parchment paper, put them into the refridgerator to chill for 10-15 minutes, so the chocolate hardens. They will lose their sheen, but will be ready more quickly – if you want them to stay shiny, you could try leaving them out until they are set but it’ll take a lot longer!

The result is a gorgeous treat, that is a lovely gift (especially for Valentine’s, which is ages away) that has a naughty kick to it, subtle but definitely suggestive.

Earl Grey cupcakes

I think I’ve become obsessed with cupcakes. Truly. Especially putting flowers and leaves in them, for some bizarre reason, because it always seems to turn out the best ever cakes I’ve eaten – and I don’t usually have a sweet-tooth. Now, before you start saying I’m tooting my own horn, try making these and then tell me it’s not better than the usual victoria sandwich you crack out at tea-time.

My fascination with Earl Grey tea is no secret, that’s for sure. I have turned many to its wily wonders, including my best friend Tim. Earl Grey is a distinctly British tea, having been presented to the second Earl Grey, the British Prime Minister in the 1830s. As the story goes, he was gifted with a present of tea leaves flavoured with the oil of the bergamot fruit, extracted from its rind. There’s different variations on the original Earl Grey tea, including French Earl Grey which apparently has additional rose petal flavouring (oooh) and also a concoction called “London Fog” which comprises of Earl Grey tea, steamed milk and vanilla syrup – a delicious combination. Incredibly rich in antioxidants, Earl Grey tea is an all-round winner when it comes to everyday tea-drinking.

So why put them in cupcakes? Well, why not? It seems as though the contents of teabags are perfectly delicious when added to cupcake batter, so it was time to test the theory out. The result is a tea-time treat that is a wonderful substitute between a tea-bread and a cake, that you can have with tea or quickly munch on the go. It’ll even give you a bit of a caffeine boost! To make about 15-20 cupcakes (give or take a few) you’ll need:

• 120g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 240g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 360g self-raising flour
• 120ml milk
• 1 tbsp Earl Grey tea (or 1 tea bag)

First you’ll want to preheat our oven to 175°C and line your cupcake tray with cases, alternatively greasing it generously. Beat the butter until creamy, adding the sugar and creaming them together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Then add the eggs one at a time, beating them well until properly combined to produce a smooth mixture.

At this point, you put the tea leaves into a pestle and mortar and grind until powdery, so you won’t get a mouthful of leaf when you eventually take a bite out of the cupcakes. Then add half of the flour to the egg mixture with the ground tea, mixing well. Add the milk to loosen the mixture a little, then the remaining flour, stirring until just combined.

While you’re adding the milk, the mixture will resemble cookies and cream ice cream but should become more sticky and firm after the second half of the flour is combined. Fill your cupcake cases with the batter so that they are two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

When you take the cupcakes out of the oven, cool them on a wire rack and then you can serve them with some tea (Earl Grey is you must) or eat them as they are. They’re really quite the treat, and as a thoughtful gift you could bake up a batch of these and give them with a tin of loose Earl Grey tea.

Olive, sweetcorn and parmesan pasta

I do apologise for the long delay between this post and my last – it’s been very hectic around here! Following my last recipe, Diwali celebrations were in full swing and the parents were preparing to depart to India the following weekend, so cooking up dishes has been a little bit difficult. I only have a tidbit for now, as I’m planning something deliciously wicked with chilli-flavoured chocolate, which will be making its way to you soon. I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful scent of lilies that filled our kitchen when making this dish – a relative brought over a bouquet to our dinner party and now all the lilies are in full bloom. They smell wonderful.

Quick pasta dishes are a godsend. When your stomach is growling and having a general tantrum, what better than a quick carbohydrate boost to keep it happy and smiling for a few hours? They’re great for lunch, a quick snack, even a family dinner if you’ve got young ‘uns who aren’t the most patient angels. Plus, you can pack them full of vegetables to fulfil some of your 5-a-day requirements, or meat for something more wholesome.

Storecupboard ingredients can go quite a long way for a quick pasta, if you don’t have the time to gather up a plethora of fresh ingredients. Cans of sweetcorn or jars of olives can last a long, long time and there’s always bound to be some lurking around at the back of the cupboard on a rainy day.

However, most pasta dishes benefit from having a little touch of authenticity, such as parmesan, or mozzarella cheese, as these ingredients bring together the tastes in the dish. Parmesan (actually called Parmigiano Reggiano)  is an Italian hard cheese that can be aged from a minium of 12-14 months, up until 2 years. When I visited the Taste Festival in Regents Park this summer, one stall had three types of parmesan that had been aged for different periods and the longer it is aged for, the more complex the taste… truly lovely – especially with port!

So, onto the pasta. You’ll need:

• About 100-150g of pasta per person, penne is usually the best to go for
• 6-10 olives,evenly sliced
• 1 can sweetcorn
• A jar of basic tomato sauce (or you can make your own with 400g chopped tomatoes, 1tbsp tomato puree, drizzle of olive oil, pinch of salt and sugar, and herbs to taste)
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 20g grated parmesan

Put your pasta in a pan of salted boiling water to cook while you make the sauce. Drain the pasta after 12-15 minutes, depending on whether you want the pasta al dente or softer. In a separate saucepan, heat 1tbsp of olive oil and add the chopped onion and garlic. Fry for about 5 minutes or until the onion has become translucent. Then add the tomato sauce, bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, drain the sweetcorn and rinse with a little cold water. Add the sliced olives and sweetcorn to the sauce and stir thoroughly. Then stir in half the grated parmesan into the sauce, season with salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have drained the pasta, add it to the sauce and combine the two. Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top. There you have it – a meal that takes a maximum of 20 minutes to prepare and will be on the table before you know it.

Vegetable moussaka with harissa

Yesterday was my sister’s 26th birthday. We started off the day by surprising her in her bed at 7AM with a coffee cake and a big box of chocolates, and while she was at work I planned out a birthday dinner for her. I wanted to make something with Middle Eastern influences, but really fresh flavours, so eventually settled on the idea of a vegetable moussaka. The last time I made moussaka for the family it felt like there was something missing from the tomato base, which made it a somewhat plain dish – tasty but not incredibly interesting. This time, I decided to use harissa to flavour the tomato sauce, which provided it with a much-needed kick that completely transformed the dish.

Moussaka comes in several different forms, as varying versions of the dish are made across the Middle East. The Greek dish is often layered with potato, aubergine (or courgette), lamb mince and a tomato sauce that includes kidney beans. However, Arab versions of the dish usually don’t layer the vegetables, giving the dish more of a stew-like appearance and taste. The Greek version of moussaka is the one I went with, layering aubergines, potatoes, cheese and tomato sauce to create a more substantial dish that kept together more easily when serving.

Harissa on the other hand, is used in a wide range of Middle Eastern dishes, from Tunisian to Moroccan dishes, but also in North African cuisine. It’s basically a chilli paste flavoured with various spices to create a hot condiment or ingredient for a wide range of recipes. The chilli peppers are usually smoked and combined with garlic to create the base for harissa, after which a combination of spices or peppers, tomatoes, even rose petals are added. I used rose harissa (from the world foods section of Sainsburys) which worked brilliantly with the flavours in this dish to combine Greek influences with Moroccan and Turkish tastes.

Making moussaka is fairly easy once you’ve done it a couple of times, but there are a number of stages which means you need a whole kitchen to yourself to get it done. The moussaka is made in two parts: filling and base.

For the filling you’ll need:

• 2 large potatoes, peeled
• 5 tbsp olive oil (or soya oil)
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 2-4 tsp harissa paste
• 1 tsp dried or fresh oregano
• a pinch of ground cinnamon
• a pinch of sugar
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• 1 x 400g can of red kidney beans (drain these and rinse gently under a cold tap)
• 2 aubergines, sliced
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Start off by boiling the potatoes until they are tender, then drain them and slice into 5mm pieces. Separately, in a heavy based saucepan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil and fry the onion and garlic gently until softened (which is usually around 5 minutes).

Add the tomatoes, harissa paste, oregano, cinnamon, sugar and tomato purée. Then bring the tomato sauce to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat some of the remaining oil in a large frying pan and fry the aubergine slices in batches until just soft and golden-brown on both sides. Add more oil as you go along because as you’ll notice, aubergine really soaks up oil quickly.

Your aubergine slices should be coming along nicely while you simmer the sauce. Set the fried slices aside on kitchen paper as you fry each batch in a single layer.

Going back to your tomato sauce, once your 10 minutes are up, remove the cover and add the kidney beans, seasoning and parsley. Then re-cover and simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Now you can preheat your oven to 190°C and get started on making your topping. Traditionally, moussaka has a yoghurt-based topping or cheese sauce topping that has eggs whipped into it, but as Diwali started from the next day (as in today) I decided to substitute the usual topping (which I didn’t really find appealing anyway) with a basic cheese sauce, for which you’ll need:

• 20g butter
• 20g flour
• 400ml milk (full-fat is the best to use for this sauce)
• 100g cheddar cheese, grated plus extra for sprinkling and middle layers (can be up to around 250g altogether)
• 20g parmesan cheese, finely grated
• ½ tsp mustard

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a gentle heat, adding the flour gradually and stirring well for 2 minutes to avoid lumps. Then pour the milk in gradually, beating well with a wooden spoon to a make a smooth, thin sauce. Simmer and stir until the sauce begins to thicken. Then add the mustard, stir well, the gradually add cheese to taste, stirring until fully melted. Add a little grated Parmesan (around 5-10g) to the mixture and stir well again. At this point, a pinch of nutmeg, salt and freshly ground pepper and a pinch of parsley will really brighten up the cheese sauce and bring out some delicious flavours.

Now to assemble the dish. In a large 9 inch square dish (lasagne dish will be suitable), spoon a layer of the tomato mixture, then arrange aubergine slices in a single layer, then a layer of grated cheese, topped with potato slices. Repeat and continue the layering, finishing with a layer of the aubergine slices. Pour over the topping and sprinkle with the remaining cheddar cheese, then grating the remaining Parmesan over the dish. Transfer the dish to the oven and bake for approximately an hour, or until bubbling and golden-brown on top. Remove from the oven and stand for 10 minutes before eating.

You can serve the dish with an olive, feta cheese and tomato salad if you want. Dress the salad with a good glug of extra virgin olive oil, a splash of lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper and some chopped mint. And there you have it! A delicious Middle Eastern moussaka with delicious harissa, which is not too spicy, but not too plain either. This dish is perfectly complemented by a New Zealand 2008 Sauvignon Blanc.

Chamomile cupcakes with a lemon glaze

A horrible, dreary day. It’s been pouring with rain since I woke up at 8 in the morning. I find the best way to turn a miserable morning around is a damn good cupcake. Having scored points with the family with my lavender cupcakes (recipe coming soon), I decided to do something a little different. Continuing on from the comfort foods theme, I thought about drinks that bring comfort and apart from a big mug of tea, chamomile tea is the first beverage that comes to mind.

Chamomile’s a notoriously relaxing herb that is often drunk as a tea for the purpose of promoting sleep, or soothing a sore stomach and various other conditions. The dried flowers are used in teabags, and I used these flowers to flavour the cupcakes. Chamomile is usually complemented by honey and lemon, however as these cupcakes are quite sweet as it is, I decided to leave out the honey.

So how do you get from tea to cupcakes? Well, the lavender cupcakes were lovely – aromatic to be precise, so why wouldn’t other flowers produce a yummy combination? Testing that theory was a good idea, these were so delicious…

These quantities will make about 24-30 cupcakes:

• 225g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 225g caster sugar
• 4 eggs (at room temperature)
• 3 bags of chamomile tea (I used Whittard’s)
• 270g self-raising flour
• 180ml milk

First, preheat your oven to 175°C and line your cupcake tray with cases, or grease it generously. Then you’ll want to cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Once smooth (and no lumps of butter remain), crack the eggs in one at a time and beat each of them for at least half a minute before adding the next one to ensure that they are fully combined. Mix in the contents of the teabags.

The flour and milk need to be added gradually, alternating between the wet and dry ingredients, ending with the flour. Stir until just smooth. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake for about 20 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean when poked in the middle.

They’ll be a beautiful golden colour when they come out, and if some look a little pale, don’t worry it’s just the milk. If you leave them in too long they’ll get hard!

Once they’re out the oven, cool the cupcakes before drizzling over the lemon glaze – which you’ve yet to make! It’s a really simple lemon glaze:

• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 6 tbsp icing sugar (also known as confectioner’s sugar in some parts)
• you can add 1 tsp of lemon rind if you really want to, but I couldn’t be bothered…)

Spoon the lemon juice over the icing sugar and mix well. The glaze should be slightly yellow-tinged and fairly syrupy. If it’s not enough you can make more with a 1:2 lemon juice to sugar ratio.

Then you’re ready to spoon the lemon glaze over the cupcakes. Just drizzle.. it’s not supposed to set as a hard opaque layer, but rather a transparent/translucent kind of sticky layer. Let it set for a moment, and then they’re ready to eat. These are guaranteed to put a smile back on your face!

Honey and oatmeal biscuits

For me, honey and oats are individually brilliant components for comfort food, and so combining them should ideally create an ‘ultimate’ comfort food? Perhaps not ultimate, but these biscuits definitely come close. The sweet combination of the honey with the warm flavours of the oats is a perfect pick-me-up for those days when everything’s feeling a bit stormy, outside or inside.

Honey is widely known for its applications in culinary practices but also as a remedy for various minor ailments such as sore throat, coughs and colds. Soothing and calming, it is often added as an alternative to sugar in various herbal infusions, like chamomile tea.

Oats can be crushed or rolled to produce oatmeal which is chiefly eaten as porridge but can also be very useful in baking, as well as for brewing beer. The therapeutic properties of oats are mainly for soothing the skin and minor conditions associated with the skin, while the oats themselves are deemed ‘healthy’ foods as they have cholesterol-lowering properties, are more slowly digested and thus make you feel fuller.

Therapeutics aside, both of these ingredients have the very things that comfort food should have: a soothing and calming effect that makes you feel full, but without having to overeat.

I started off with quite small quantities as I wanted to see how the biscuits turned out before making more, so I will probably make a bigger batch playing around with some of the ingredients at a later time. I will double the measurements here for convenience, but feel free to use the original quantities if you want to make a smaller batch.

You will need:

• 150g butter
• 150g demerara sugar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 150g plain flour (also known as all-purpose flour)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 150g organic porridge oats

Grease a large baking tray (or two baking trays) and preheat your oven to 170°C to start with. Then you’ll want to mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl: porridge oats, flour, sugar and bicarbonate of soda. In a saucepan, melt the butter on a low heat and then add the honey. Mix these together until they are golden in colour and smooth, but don’t overheat the mixture. Add the honey butter to the dry ingredients and combine well.

Flour your hands and then shape the dough into little balls, placing them on the greased baking tray (or trays if you need more). Compress each ball very slightly as you place them on the tray.

Bake the biscuits for 20-25 minutes in the oven, or until golden on top. Remove them from the baking tray and cool them on a wire rack. The recipe should make around 30 biscuits in total. Then, sit back, grab a few biscuits and a big mug of tea (or milk) and relax.

Upma

Upma is traditionally a South Indian breakfast dish, quite similar to porridge, but more savoury, using onion, ginger and coriander to provide flavour. As a kid I was terrible when it came to breakfast foods – I could never settle on one I liked! My parents would buy a cereal that I was fond of one day only to find that I’d refused to eat it the next… it was only when I returned home from university the first few times that I started to really develop a taste for this simple yet wholesome dish, and now it’s my breakfast of choice!

Ideally, you would use an ingredient called ‘rava’ which is a soft wheat semolina, however if you can’t find rava, semolina is a perfectly acceptable subsitute. To prepare the semolina as an ingredient for the upma you’ll need to dry roast it in a wide frying pan, with a touch of ghee or butter if you wish. You’ll also need a number of ingredients which you can easily find in ethnic stores or in the ‘World Foods’ sections of most supermarkets. These include mustard seeds, cumin seeds and turmeric, although lentils are also an essential ingredient to making this protein-packed breakfast. Natco is a good brand to go for, generally.

Start off by dry-roasting approximately 200g of semolina just until it turns golden. Don’t let any of it burn. Once you’ve done that, set it aside.

For the upma you’ll need:

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 inch fresh root ginger chopped
• ½ bird’s eye green chilli, diced
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander
• 1½ tbsp oil (olive oil or vegetable oil)
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp white urid lentils (Natco sells a bag of this in most supermarkets)
• ½ tsp cumin seeds
• ½ tsp turmeric (optional)
• a pinch of asafoetida (also known as Hing)
• ½ tsp salt
• 200g dry-roasted semolina
• 250ml boiling water
• salt and sugar to taste
• dessicated coconut to serve (optional)

From the outset it looks like a lot of ingredients but these can be used in plenty of different dishes, and a large variety of Indian dishes. To start, heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan on a high heat, first adding the mustard seeds, then urid lentils, cumin seeds and a pinch of asafoetida. You can add the turmeric at this stage however this will turn your upma a bright shade of yellow so its entirely optional. I chose not to add it to my dish. Fry the spices for around 2-3 minutes, promptly adding the chopped onion, ginger and chilli and giving the mixture a good stir. Fry the vegetables for around 5 minutes.

At this stage you add ½ tsp of salt to the vegetables, stir and cover the saucepan for a few minutes. Uncover and pour 250ml of boiling water into the pan, with 1 tbsp of chopped coriander for taste. Cover and let it boil through for 2-3 minutes.

The dry-roasted semolina is ready to go in to the boiled water at this point, so lower the heat and stir it through to thicken the mixture and to avoid lumps. Add a little bit of sugar and then salt to taste. You can serve the upma as it is, or with dessicated coconut sprinkled on top with a few coriander leaves.

And there you have it: a really tasty savoury breakfast dish that’s packed with protein and will keep you going right up until lunch. If you’ve got the time you can deep-fry a few cashew nuts and chuck them over the top!

Rose petal jam

Roses are red, violets are blue, one’s great for eating – perhaps the other one is too? Well, I don’t know about violets but roses are definitely a useful ingredient to have in the kitchen whenever you want to bring a Middle Eastern vibe to your cooking. Turkey especially use rose as an essential ingredient in many of their dishes, including the notorious Turkish Delight. My mother usually brings in the roses from our garden and dries them so that she can grind up the petals to make rose powder… it’s really flexible in its use! I even use a pinch of rose powder in tomato-based pasta sauces sometimes, and it imparts a really unique flavour which you can’t entirely pinpoint but accentuates the taste of the sauce on the whole.

This time I used rose petals for making jam. I’ve been wanting to try this recipe out for a long time, hopefully with scones, but as Navratri has started (Hindu religious festival) I’m not allowed to eat meat or egg, so baking scones is out for now. Jams, in my experience, are a wholly fruit affair and I’d never even experienced non-fruit jams until I went to the Taste Food Festival in Regents Park this summer with my best friend. I tried rosehip jam with flatbreads (and some gorgeous Greve cheese) and absolutely loved the taste, moreso than usual jam. Okay, rosehips are sort of fruit, but they’re not the kind that you pick off the bush and pop in your mouth (I hope?). So I finally decided to try out the recipe to make rose jam, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a good first attempt.

If you remember the chocolate truffles recipe a few days ago, I used a couple of the rose petals I picked for this recipe in that one. To make the jam I used:

• 50g rose petals (red or pink, strongly scented petals from roses that have not been treated with pesticides) – 2tsp powdered rose (optional)
• 400g caster sugar (jam sugar would have probably been better!)
• 200ml boiling water
• 6tbsp lemon juice

It may seem like a lot of sugar, and the end result is rather sweet, but you can always try and use less if it suits to you. Start off by washing and draining the rose petals, then trimming off the white parts of each petal using scissors. This eliminates any bitterness in the jam. After putting the rose petals into a large bowl you put 100g of sugar in with the petals and mix it in, bruising the petals thoroughly. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the refridgerator overnight.

The next day, put the 200ml water and 300g sugar together in a heavy based saucepan and boil through until you form a syrup that begins to coat the sides of the pan.

At this point you want to add the rose petal-sugar mixture to the sugar syrup you’ve just made, and also 6tbsp lemon juice so that the rose petals retain their colour and so an essential ingredient – citric acid – is also introduced (you could replace the lemon juice with 1tsp of citric acid, but I think the lemon juice gives it a nice flavour too).

Lower the heat and simmer the contents for at least 10-15 minutes, until setting point is reached. You can test for this by dropping a little of the jam onto a cold saucer and poking it with your finger to see if it wrinkles (be careful doing this though, the jam gets VERY hot… let it cool a little). I made the mistake of cooking it for a bit too long so it lost some of its colour and the gelling consistency was a little off, but as long as you don’t stray beyond 20 minutes, you won’t make the same mistake. I also added 2tsp of powdered rose while simmering, but this is entirely optional.

You should then pour it straight into a sterilised jar – I found that the jam fills a 230ml jar perfectly. Let it cool down before you store it in the fridge. And there you go! A different kind of jam that you could eat with scones, have with ice cream, put into a sponge cake, or just have it spread on toast.

Coconut bread

I’ve been preparing a little treat with the rose petals I picked (and used a couple of in the chocolate truffles a few days ago), which will be ready for tomorrow, so in the meanwhile I’ll update with a mini recipe that I made a long time back. I’ve only got a photograph of the end-product, but it’ll give you an idea of how scrumptious it is.

So, having spent a whole summer in Singapore and Malaysia during 2008 I spent a lot of time eating coconut and coconut-milk based meals. Needless to say I’m incredibly fond of Thai food, coconut desserts and coconut in cooking. Some of my companions were not so fond of having to force-feed themselves coconut on a daily basis and started to crave simple pleasures like bangers and mash (can’t say I blamed them). I didn’t want to attempt a Malaysian dish as I’ve yet to find pandan leaves at a nearby vendor, and while the pandan bread loaves I used to eat out in Singapore were yummy, they were also kind of boring after a while. So, I decided upon coconut bread: a cake-like loaf that wasn’t too tropical to have for breakfast or a snack.

For this delightful loaf you’ll need:

• 300ml milk (whole milk is best, but you can probably used semi-skimmed just as easily)
• 300g plain flour
• 70g unsalted butter
• 225g golden caster sugar
• 150g dessicated coconut
• 2 eggs
• 2tsp baking powder
• 2tsp ground cinnamon

To start, you’ll need to preheat your oven to 180°C. Then combine the eggs and the milk in a bowl, whisking them lightly. If the mixture isn’t very smooth, it’s probably because the eggs weren’t at room temperature or weren’t very fresh – try to use really fresh eggs for this.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan or in the microwave (be sure to keep an eye on it if you do it in the microwave or it might explode all over the inside – very messy), and put aside. Then sift the plain flour, baking powder and ground cinnamon into a large mixing bowl, adding the sugar and coconut on top. Making a well in the centre, gradually stir in the eggs and milk mixture until the ingredients are combined. At this point you add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is just smooth. Don’t stir it too much!

Grease and line an 8 or 9 inch loaf tin (approximately 21 x 10cm standard size), then pour the mixture into it and  bake for around an hour or until a skewer comes out clean when put through the centre. When it’s done, leave the loaf to cool completely before you remove it from the loaf tin.

You can then slice it up and serve it toasted and buttered, or just as it is! Tastes lovely with some Earl Grey tea.

Chocolate truffles

A very good friend of mine makes chocolate truffles on a regular basis, and tells me about the different variations of truffles he’s made over the last year or so. As this was my first attempt at making truffles it most likely doesn’t match up, but I reckon the outcome was quite nice indeed. Chocolate’s a wonderful thing to have at hand. It’s there for you when you’re happy, sad, hungry or bored and most of all it’s a brilliantly versatile ingredient. You can use chocolate in cakes, puddings, even chilli con carne! However, this time I used it to make chocolate truffles.

I’m a huge fan of dark chocolate, even though the rest of my family aren’t (hence why I’m eating all the remaining truffles). The little nuances in flavour that you get with dark chocolate are so much more interesting than milk chocolate, and I’ll be honest, I don’t really like white chocolate but that’s only because I’m not too fond of extremely sweet flavours.

The intense flavour of dark chocolate, at least in my honest opinion, is best coupled with delicate flavours that don’t overpower the main flavour of the chocolate. So I opted to make some plain truffles, some flavoured with rose petals, some with chopped slivered almonds and some with lavender sugar (with dried lavender buds!). After a bit of chopping and snipping I was ready to get started.

For the chocolate truffles you’ll need:

• about 400g of dark chocolate, at least 70% cocoa solids (I used 72% Belgian dark chocolate) chopped into small, even pieces
• 200ml heavy double cream, or whipping cream
• cocoa powder to roll them in

Optional ingredients:

• a handful of chopped slivered almonds
• a few fresh rose petals, snipped into thin strips (from red or pink roses with a strong scent that haven’t been treated with pesticides)
• a spoonful of lavender sugar

First, you need to chop the chocolate up. The best way to do this is by using a sharp knife and making cuts 5mm apart so that the chocolate fragments as you cut through the bar. You also get fairly small, even pieces using this method. Once the chocolate has been chopped up, heat the cream just until boiling point and then pour over the chocolate. Leave for a few minutes to allow the hot cream to melt the chocolate pieces, then stir. The ganache should be smooth at this point, with no chocolate pieces left unmelted.

You can add whatever additional ingredients you want at this point, so for example, add the chopped slivered almonds to the ganache mixture and stir, or a spoonful of lavender sugar, or the snipped rose petals. Then transfer the mixture to a bowl and refrigerate for approximately an hour.

Now, when you take the ganache out of the fridge it should be quite set but not too hard. Have a plate or baking tray lined with wax paper or greaseproof paper at hand and then using a melon-baller or two spoons, scoop out the mixture to form roughly shaped balls of ganache. Place each sphere onto the baking paper, as the chocolate will melt as you handle it. Once you have made as many balls as possible, put the tray or plate in the fridge for another 15 minutes.

After the 15 minutes are up, roll the balls in good quality cocoa powder (mixed with a little caster sugar if you prefer it a bit sweeter) and set aside. For the rose chocolate truffles I added any leftover rose petal snippings to the cocoa powder. They didn’t stick incredibly well, but they’re a nice touch.

You can present them as they are, or in a box or little cases to give as a gift, and they keep in the refridgerator for a little while too if you want to keep them all to yourself!