Valentine’s Day- Trio of Desserts

Every year on Valentine’s day I try to do something special. Last year it was chocolate. As you know that I am obsessed with chocolate and baking so this year it had to be baking. On top of that I got a chance to be one of the 15 bloggers who would take part in Baking Mad UK’s Valentine’s Day competition. Baking Mad UK had sent me a box full of baking goodies for this competition hence I had twice as many reasons to do some baking.

This year I thought of being brave and attempt to do not one, not two but a trio of desserts. Because I was making 3 different things I had to go for the low effort, high reward combination. After a brainstorm I decided to go for a shortbread biscuit, a cake and a combination of white and dark chocolate mousse.

Although it may seem like a lot but all of these are very easy to prepare desserts and the best part is you don’t need to make them all together. I made the chocolate mousse a day earlier and kept it chilled in fridge for overnight. Also the dough for the shortbread can be made in advance and kept in the fridge but I only kept it for couple of hours to set.

White and dark chocolate mousse

Let me begin with the white and dark chocolate mousse. Initially I thought of making white chocolate heart surrounded by the dark chocolate but wasn’t sure how will it turn out so as a back-up plan I went for the popular angular presentation. But when I finished making both the glasses, I couldn't decide which one to put forward. So here you go, both the glasses full of delicious white and dark chocolate mousse.

For white chocolate mousse I used:

100 gm Silver Spoon white chocolate

200 ml extra thick double cream

1tsp of Silver Spoon Vanilla Paste

Silver Spoon Sugar balls (optional)

Method:

Melt the white chocolate in the double boiler on a simmering heat. Keep stirring till it is a smooth mixture. Remove from the heat and keep it aside. Beat the double cream till it forms soft peak. Be careful while doing that as the cream become harder if you continue to beat. Now add the vanilla paste to the melted white chocolate and the add the cream to it and keep mixing until every thing is mixed properly and no lumps remaining.

For the angular presentation, I used a wine glass which I placed on one corner of an empty container and lean the glass on the other side of the container in a way that when the white chocolate is poured it covers the wine glass diagonally. Keep the whole arrangement, in the fridge and let it chill for 6-7 hours or even overnight.

When the white chocolate mousse is set, I started making the dark chocolate mousse. For this I used the recipe that I had made before only thing the I changed is the type of alcohol. This time it was cherry liquor, quantity was same.  Once ready pour the mousse on the wine glass by keeping the glass straight now the chill the glass in the fridge for another 6-7 hours or until set.

For the heart shape I simply placed a heart shape cookie cutter  in the glass and pour the white chocolate through it and filled it only half. Once set then pour the dark chocolate around the cutter and let it set. Once that is done then I took the cookie cutter slowly out and filled the heart shaped cavity with white chocolate mousse again. keep in the fridge till it is set.

For serving I used Silver Spoon Sugar balls and few orange peals on top. Trust me you wont be disappointed.

Shortbread Biscuit (makes 12 biscuits)

To go with this creamy mousse I made these shortbread biscuit which will provide the change in texture to the dish. I didn’t know making shortbread biscuit will be this easy. All I needed was four ingredients listed below.

Ingredients:

130 gm plain flour

115 gm Butter (at room temperature)

30 gm Icing Sugar (I used the lemon flavoured Icing sugar from Silver Spoon)

1 tsp of Silver Spoon Vanilla Paste

Method:

Beat the butter (I used an electric mixer) till smooth and creamy then add the sugar and vanilla paste and keep beating. Now add the flour and keep mixing till it forms a dough like consistency. Take it out of the bowl to make a round dough, cover it with cling film and chill in the fridge for couple of hours. This is also something you can make in advance. When you are ready to make the biscuits, take the dough out of the fridge and keep it in room temperature for 15 –20 minutes or until the dough is soft enough to roll and cut cookies out of it. Place the dough between two cling film and start rolling till the dough is quarter of an inch thick. Using the cookie cutter of your choice cut the cookies from the flattened dough.

Line a baking sheet on a baking tray and pre heat the oven to 180 degree. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes or until the cookies are lightly brown on the side. Cool them in a wire rack and they are ready to eat. I drizzled some melted dark chocolate from Silver Spoon which you can melt on bag and cut a small corner to drizzle on them but that is purely optional.

Coffee cake with Nuts and Chocolate Ganache

Finally to complete the trio of dessert I made this cake. Can’t think of celebrating Valentine’s Day without a cake and not just any cake, a coffee cake.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

75 gm flour

75 gm butter

75 gm lemon flavoured Icing sugar from Silver Spoon

1 tsp of Silver Spoon Vanilla Paste

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

For decorating the cake, I used:

Handful of mixed nuts pieces

Coffee and walnut cake Icing

50 gm Silver Spoon easy melt dark chocolate

25 gms butter

2 tbsp cherry liquor

 

Method:

Beat the eggs first until light and fluffy, to that add the melted butter and sugar and continue beating. Once you have a well combined homogeneous mixture add the flour slowly, little by little to the mixture while continuing to beat. Add the baking powder, baking soda and the vanilla paste to the cake mix and continue to beat. Pre heat the oven to 180 degree C, grease a cake tin/loaf tin and pour the cake mix in. Bake for 25 minutes, insert a thin skewer in the cake to check if it has baked properly. if the skewers come out clean then its done else if it comes out sticky then bring the oven temperature down a bit and bake for some more time until its done.

For building the cake I used a ring cutter to cut a round portion of the cake then slice in horizontally. Make the coffee cream icing then spread between the cake layers and sides.Now on a plate spread the nuts and roll the cake on it to cover the sides of the cake. Make the chocolate ganache by melting the chocolate with the butter and the cherry and pour on top of the cake and serve. Sending this to English Mum’s ‘baked with love’ Bakeoff and Teenz’ Yummy Delights Valentine’s Day Event.

Rocco’s - Restaurant Review

I love Italian food. Whenever I get a chance, I try to make some at home, but last night we went to a family-run Italian restaurant and with the first bite I could feel the authenticity. After the meal I came back home with a warm feeling and desire to return as soon as possible.

Rocco’s, the Italian restaurant is located on Gloucester Road in Bristol, near the Arches and next to a Sainsbury store. Although the  restaurant is right on the main road but it’s easy to miss if you don’t look for it. We went in on a weekday evening so parking wasn’t so bad otherwise getting parking on Gloucester road can be challenging on weekends.

As I walked in through the doors, the first thing that I felt is the cosiness and the warmth of the little place which has lots of character to it. A warm and affable elderly lady, who I think is the owner of the Restaurant came and greeted us in person and showed us to our seat. The interior of the restaurant is decorated with lots of copper pots and pans placed on the wall. There were some hand drawn pictures of Venice on the wall and a huge wooden pepper crusher.  The restaurant could hold around 40 people at a time and the kitchen is visible from most parts of the restaurant.

The stained and not-so-perfect hand-written menu card made me feel like I am in some village pizzeria, in Sicilian countryside. For starters we ordered king prawns on crostini which was served with fresh leaves salad and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. The prawns were also mixed with olive oil drenched sundried tomato's which added extra flavour and dimension to the dish.

For mains we ordered braised beef tortellini in cream sauce and  wild mushroom risotto with truffle oil.The owner offered us with extra parmesan cheese on top and Sicilian chilli oil to go with both the dish. Trust me when I say it was good. Even while writing this I can actually feel the taste of those lovely flavours. Our check was way under £30 for two people but we came out fully satiated and now I can’t wait to go back again.

Cadbury Silk India–Orange Peel

Cadbury Silk India has come up with a new flavour called the Orange Peel. The classic Milk chocolate and orange combination with a silk factor in it. Looks like its going to melt before it reaches our mouth, have a look at their latest commercial below.

I particularly find this one funny. Please have a look here. Enjoy your Cadbury Silk with a kiss of Orange.

Speedy Chicken Soup Noodles

Now that Christmas and New Year celebrations are over, most of us are back to work. I am not joining work as yet. With my hands full at home with the little one, I hardly get time to do anything else really. I guess that’s what is making me think of all the shortcuts I can make in the kitchen and try and cook speedy one pot meals which are ready in least amount of time yet tastes good.

I try to keep some cooked meat in my fridge most of the time, they are such a life saver when you need some easy meal to be prepared. You can either buy them in the supermarkets or could be the left-over meat from last night’s supper. I had some store bought cooked chicken in my fridge which I have used to make this easy-peasy soup noodles. I made this up on the go so the measurements are really up to you. I used Lee Kum Kee brand spicy chilli-bean paste for this dish. This magic ingredient is available in most Asian food stores and truly transforms this noodle soup. You can adjust the quantity of chilli bean paste based on your tolerance/preference to hot and spicy food. 

Ingredients:

200 gm thick noodles (udon or soba)

100 gm cooked chicken (sliced into small pieces)

1 and 1/2 cube of vegetable stock powder

Spicy chilli bean paste (to your taste, I added 2 heaped teaspoon)

400 ml boiling water for the soup

1 onion chopped

1 capsicum thinly sliced

3 Chestnut mushroom thinly sliced

Oil for frying

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan and start frying the onions till they turn golden. Now add the chopped capsicum and mushroom to it and continue frying. Meanwhile in a sauce pan pour boiling water and cook the noodles according to the instructions on the pack. In a bowl pour the 400 ml boiling water and make the stock by dissolving the stock cube. Add the cooked chicken in to the onion and capsicum mix and stir well. Cook for a minute or so then add the chilli bean paste to it. Now add the stock into it and mix it well. Bring it to boil and cook for a minute or so then add the noodles and take it off the heat. Serve hot.

I garnished the soup with fresh coriander leaves.

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

I am addicted to food programmes. Whenever I switch on telly, invariably I end up watching some food programme. On Christmas day, one of the food channels was showing Nigella Lawson’s Christmas Kitchen for the whole day. Can you believe it one whole day of Nigella’s cooking videos, uninterrupted? Well, it wasn’t uninterrupted for me, as with my little-one in my arms, I hardly get time to do anything else. But I am a big fan of Nigella hence couldn’t let go of the urge to watch the show. Obviously I didn’t manage to watch the whole day but I did catch-up some bits and pieces of it. That inspired me to make these Chocolate Pistachio Fudges. Although I must admit I had two other reasons to make these, one I was going to a pre-Christmas party and wanted to take some homemade edible gift for the host and two, I will be publishing regularly at www.thisisbristol.co.uk from now on on their Lifestyle section. I wanted something that’s festive and Christmassy for my first contribution to the website. I made my own little tweaks in the recipe. So here is my version and the original can be found in the BBC website .

Ingredients:

400 gm dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

1 can of evaporated milk (about 410 gms)

30 gm butter

100 gm unsalted pistachios

Coco powder for dusting (My touch and completely optional)

Method:

Take a heavy bottomed pan and place it over low heat. Place all the ingredients but the pistachio nuts in the pan and stir until melted and well combined. In a freezer bag place the nuts and bash them with a rolling pin to get smaller pieces of them. Now mix the nuts with the melted chocolate and stir well. Take a rectangular / square tray and line it with aluminium foil. Pour the mixture in the tray and make sure the mixture spreads evenly. Cover and let it cool and set in the fridge. Take it out of the freeze after 4-5 hours but I left it over night. Cut the chocolate fudge into small pieces. You can store them in the freezer and can eat then straight away. My version some how turned out to be little softer than I saw in the video hence I coated them in cocoa powder. it had two advantages, one it looked like truffles and two it helped holding them while eating.

I packed them in a home made gift box and took it to the party that evening. It was a hit. People simply loved it. Thanks a ton Nigella for this beautiful, delicious, easy to make recipe. Oh! I almost forgot..these are very rich delights, so a small piece is enough for most people, unless you are a chocoholic like .. ME! I guess. Enjoy! Sending this to Mission Cupcake’s forever Nigella contest.