Choccy Fudge for Poppy

Here's a bomb proof recipe for soft, creamy fudge - not the crystalline kind.
Excellent for xmas gifts, or fund raisers

It's a NIGELLA LAWSON recipe ... I think.


INGREDIENTS
350g dark choccy - chopped to bits (or, keep it in its' wrapper and slam it had down on the work surface 2 or 3 times.
397g can condensed milk.
30g butter
Pinch of salt.


METHOD

1. Heat everything together in a pan.
2. Keep stirring
3. Heat off when everything combined
4. Add any extras (nuts, cherries, pistachios - 150g)
5. Pour into 9in trays
6. Smooth the surface with a wet palette knife
7. Set aside to cool then pop in the fridge to chill.
8. Cut into 8x6 lines = 52 pieces (I am now licking the window)

REMARKS

• Can be eaten straight from freezer
•  The paler the choccy the softer the fudge
• White choc = keep v. cool
• Milk choc = 450g choc
• Triple quantity, of any variety of choc, will make  enough for 2 Swiss roll trays.
• The white fudge pieces are good dropped on top of a classic choccy tart just before it goes into the oven - yum

Vegs With Everything

What do any of us do with a surfeit of veges?

Give them away? Been doing that.
Compost them? Not on your life.
Eat them? Definitely.
Sell them? only if I have huge surplus, and I don't really.
Keep them for later? I'm using a friends freezer, it's the cheapest electricity I know of!


But how to freeze/store courgettes .......now there's a question.

Here was yesterdays attempt, I wanted to fill up the oven, because Helen had explained permaculture to me. Apparently, everything MUST have 3 uses. It's what the reat of us skinflints have always done, but with the addition of the OCD part, that involves the ritual of counting every use!


So I made:-
 *Courgette and Choccy cake - in thin slabs, to layer up into a 4 layer gateaux 15 - 20 mins, and with the spare mix, a cake (in the pink mould) 30-40 mins.
*Stuffed courgette flowers in a tomato sauce - STUFFING, finely grated cheese:  finely chopped, fresh parsley, lemon balm and marjoram herbs: mustard: enough yoghurt to bind it all into a paste. Stuff into flowers and lay them into a pretty dish. Pour over a simple tomato sauce - fry onion in a table spoon of oil, add tin toms and a D spoon tom purée, cook for 10 or so minutes. Take off heat and throw in chopped garlic. Stir and pour over stuffed flowers.15-20mins.
*Bread rolls with grated beetroot in them - any vegetable/rice/potato bread recipe will do for this, switching your veg of the day for the one in the recipe.15mins
*Jacket potatoes to go with the courgette flowers. 30-40mins.


All in oven at 180C 


If I had time, a second set of food would have filled the oven for the last 15-20 mins. But I had to go swimming - like you do, and left the timing conundrum to MeWally!

Chocolate and Courgette Cake

I bought a bright pink GIANT CUPCAKE MOULD. It cost 6 quid from Wilkinsons and came in 3 sections, a top, bottom (you stick the 2 bits together) and a scooped lid that gives a hollow in the cake that you can fill with 'stuff'.

Here's mine.


It's a fantastic recipe, similar to a black forest gateaux sponge ( this means something to those of us of a certain age) . Click HERE to use it. 


You can't tell there's any courgette in the cake, but this cupcake used 3 cups of it, that's one very BIG COURGETTE.


I stuck the 2 parts together and covered the cake in GANACHE (CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE MIX), finishing with a dusting of edible glitter,

When the 2 parts of the cake are cooked, you'll need to cut off the tops = where they have risen. I decided to use these yummy parts to make ....

RUM BALLS.
Mix together any GANACHE, and CAKE CRUMBS you have left over .
Add rum (they're just as good without - mine were without the rum).
Roll into bite size balls.
Melt chocolate and spoon some over each ball.
Dust with edible glitter.

Steak For Breakfast - Monday 1.8.11

We're on holiday, it's MeWallys' birthday and I've got a giant puffball!

Sounds like a euphemism ...... it's not

 ....

Looks good,

Smells good,

and Giant Puff Balls taste very, very good: very mushroomy. Slice them anything up to a cm. thick and fry in real butter. Garlic's good too.

Cook both sides - lid on - add more butter, if  you need to.

Serve with other brekky things - YUM!

Wild British Blueberries

Yummy fruit from the garden, shop and hills.

Wortle Berries - get them while you can.

Make a pancake batter and chuck in the fruit,

Looks great, tasted even better.

Onion Shoots Stir Fry Curry

The onions I'm growing are bolting like crazy, so I had to cut them off.

They look rather good in a jug of water. But 5 or 6 stems will go into this VERY QUICK CURRY - 10 minutes to make, at the most. 

Put rice on to cook. Put potatoes and sweet potatoes on to boil with a good amount of chopped spinach.The onion stems are very mild and crispy, crunchy. Cut them up and fry them in oil with a tea spoon each of cumin, coriander, fenugreek, turmeric and half a teaspoon of salt.

Once the spuds and spinach are just done, pour the whole lot, including the liquid, onto the onion and spices. Stir together, thicken with a little cornflour, serve with the rice.

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake - Friday 20.5.11

This little number came out rather well. We ate it cold, but warm, it would have been a DREAM WITH CUSTARD 

: )

It's basically a DEVIL CAKE RECIPE - 

666

6OZ SR flour, butter, caster sugar and 3 eggs.

 Cream butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, then throw in flour.

Mix well.

Chop up the fruit so it's about 2cm thick/square- it can be any sort  of fruit that you fancy.

Cover the bottom of the cake/loaf tin with one layer of the fruit  Sprinkle brown sugar over the fruit - about 3OZ. Spoon the cake mix on top and bake at 190C for about 45mins. 

EASY!