Pistachio Cream Chocolates and Amaretto Chocolates

So I bought some new fun cooking bits and pieces. I got a macaroon tray, some chocolate moulds and some silicone cupcake cases... yes I'm finally entering the world of silicone cooking utensils. Its ridiculous, and I obviously know better, but every time I put them in the oven I expect them to melt!! 
Yesterday I had a really good day playing with my new heart shaped chocolate moulds and invented quite a few little chocolate. Some better than others I must say. So for your benefit I will only share with you the two best resulting chocolates from my experiments. These are a pistachio cream stuffed milk chocolate and white chocolate filled with dark chocolate amaretto ganache. The latter was my favourite.
I'll tell you how I made these chocolate by chocolate. For both of these recipes you need a mould, although you can do them with out one but if you choose to do that you will have to figure it out on your own :) though I'm sure you lovely people will have no problems with that. When I made them I only made four of each (I was making testers) so bear that in mind and if you want more double or triple, etc, the recipe. 
First, the amaretto truffles. 

Delectable Day Out in York

The other day my sister went on a little day trip to York. Now I asked her nicely to stop at the fudge kitchen to bring me back some lovely fudge but sadly she didn't. On the other hand she brought back some absolutely lovely macaroons from Betty's Tea Room and some good pictures of other lovely things. I asked her to write me a little bit about Betty's and other fun things, this is what she had to say:

"I decided to take a trip to York, just to explore a little bit of Yorkshire and to visit the dungeons and Betty's tea room. During my visit I managed a mass amount of exploring of all the little bakeries and chocolatiers in the city centre. I fully recommend a wonder down 'the Shambles' a little back road where the window displays alone literally made my mouth water. 

A stroll along the canal, in the surprisingly glorious sun, brought me to a cafe on the canal called 'La Place Verte'. Here I discovered a make-your-own hot chocolate (where you were given a tall glass of hot milk and a mug of chocolate chips) and a mixed fruit chutney and ham ciabatta to die for, which had a wonderful contrast of both sweet and tangy. My friend had I chicken ciabatta which he ate so quickly I can't vouch for how good it was, but I think his speed might!

Finally it can't go without saying that Betty's tea room was every bit as elegant and glamourous as I hoped it would be. Full of all sorts of beautiful cakes and treats. The ladies and gentlemen were all smartly dressed and dapper, enjoying their afternoon teas. I felt like I kid in a candy shop or at least a lady in a tea room. If my friends hadn't been there to hold me back I'm sure my bank account would have been quickly been emptied. 

Besides the food, the thing I loved most about York was the little surprises you can find inside the city centre. I found a lovely quiet park just off the main road and sat and chatted with friends surrounded by birds, just seconds from the main road but completely tranquil. A wonderful city."

I love her more than I can say for the little box of macaroons she brought back for me to try. We've just sat and eaten all of them :) (don't look at me like that, they are delicious!). A chocolate and pistachio one each and a strawberry and lemon one to share. They were all absolutely delicious, crisp shell but just a little gooey and chewy on the inside. Nom nom. The strawberry was my favourite, followed closely by the lemon; the fresher, fruity flavours were much tastier.

(P.S. Pictures by sister)

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

Ok so originally this recipe was for a chocolate fudge cake, however I always feel extremely guilty making a whole cake just because I fancy a piece. So I halved the recipe and made cupcakes instead :) that way I can have just one and then I can pass around the rest to spread the joy (and calories). Hello gardener, would you like a cupcake with your coffee? Sometimes recipes don't adjust easily from cake to cupcake but this one came out really well. 

I have to say, this recipe isn't mine. Well the cake mix recipe isn't but the frosting recipe is all mine :). I don't usually like chocolate cake as I find it really dry, but I was once again hunting for recipes online and came across this one on the BBC website. The cake is lovely and moist and although the cupcakes are slightly dryer they are still better than all other chocolate cupcakes I have tried. Now I always give credit for recipes that I find and would love to give you the address of the site I found it on, however I have looked for the recipe online for the last half hour and can't find it anywhere. So you will have to make do with knowing that it was on the BBC website when I found it a year ago. 

Sun-dried Tomato and Basil chicken.

Oh blog, how I have missed you! It's only been a week but the rubbish microwave meals I have been living off, over exam week, have made me miss making lovely food for this blog. So I am glad to be back with you :). My exams went well, thank you for asking but now I am left with the lovely task of job hunting. On top of that I have bikini season to worry about so expect to see lots of fresh, healthy things appearing over the next few weeks. 

To start my bikini season off I made lovely baked, tomato and basil coated chicken tonight, which I had with rocket salad. Super easy to made but so delicious and really good for you. Try it :)

Away for a week - Almond truffles

This week I have my finals for my Law exams and so I don't think I will be posing anything until next weekend. So goodbye for a week and I will leave you with one last little experiment until then, almond truffles. These are made in the exact same way as the pistachio chocolate truffles, except I swapped the pistachio for ground almond and used white chocolate for the ganache and milk chocolate for the coating.

Enjoy :) and see you in a week.

Pea and Asparagus Gnocchi

This meal was a complete creation tonight for dinner.  I made a white wine, cream, pea and asparagus sauce and popped it on gnocchi and it was delicious! Though at first I has my doubts as it didn't get really good until it thickened. In fact I doubted myself so much that an alternate blue cheese sauce was made. But this one ended up being really good. 

It's pretty simple to make but looks good and I think it would be ideal to make for friends. Plus its full of greens and wine, how can it be bad?

What you need (to make the sauce for two) is:

• 1 small glass of Dry White Wine;
• 250ml of Double Cream;
• 3 heaped tbsp of Peas (give or take);
• 1 small bunch of Asparagus; 
• Gnocchi for two (I reckoned a big handful each); and
• Salt and Pepper to taste.

Okra Curry

This okra (bhindi) curry is my all time favourite curry and coming from an indian background I feel that that is quite a big claim. I have made this a thousand times and every time it tastes slightly different. This is primarily because until yesterday there has never been a set written down version of the recipe. It has always been "a little bit of that...a bit more, yeh that's about right" for all of the ingredients. However, yesterday my Dad made dinner and his version of this curry has always been the best so I got him to write down what he puts into it. 

So here it is, just for you guys, the official version of my family's okra curry. Made by my Dad and photographed by my Mum. 

Greek Influenced Summer Salad

I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I absolutely love Mediterranean food. This mostly came from all the summers I spent in Greece. One of my favourite things to eat when on holiday in greece has always been some fresh bread, a 'Greek' salad and tzatziki. The greek salads in greece are amazing which I think is mostly due to how incredible the fruit and vegetables over there taste. 

This salad is loosely based on a greek salad, by that I mean the key ingredients are feta, tomatoes and olives, however I have (as always) made quite a few adjustments. I also finely chopped everything so that with forkful you get all the flavours. Dicing the ingredients for the salad also mean that the salad becomes quite a versatile side/accompaniment for other meals. You can pop it in a wrap with chicken, top a burger with it, use it as a sandwich filling... etc. 

When making this you can vary the amounts of the ingredients depending on what you like. Also red onion goes nicely in it (or so I've heard) but I have left it out.

Raspberry Mojito

Super easy to make but utterly delicious! I won't tell any tales here, I'll get right to the point. Though I will again add the disclaimer that this is not the 'official' way to make a mojito, it's my way.  

What you will need for one drink is:

• 6 Mint Leaves;
• 5 Raspberries;
• 40ml Sugar Syrup;
• 1 tbsp Lime Juice;
• 25-35mls Bacardi (depending on how strong you like it);
• Soda water, enough to fill up the rest of the glass (about 60ml); and 
• a couple of ice cubes.

I used tonic water instead of soda water, because we didn't have any and i was too lazy to go out and get some. I worked just as well but gave the drink a slight tang, you know the one I mean. The odd bitter taste that tonic water has. I counter-acted this by using more mint and sugar syrup.

Mango Lassi

When I was little and used to go for curries with my family I would always order a sweet lassi to drink. I loved it. However, stubborn as I was I didn't try any variation of the lassi until I learnt to make it at home. Since then I have literally tried loads of different variations and this is my favourite. Mango.

If you don't know what lassi is, it is a yoghurt based Indian drink and the basics come in sweet and salt. It is ideal to serve with curry, especially spicy ones. But it is equally as good to have as a treat when you fancy something sweet and fruity. 

This is seriously easy to make and only requires four ingredients. Also I should mention I like the lassi very thick but if you like your drinks a bit lighter add more milk to it.

Pistachio Chocolate Truffles

I love the fancy chocolates you get from places like Hotel Chocolat, Simon Dunn and Lindt, but unfortunately I am much too poor to be able to afford their chocolates on a regular basis. So the other day I decided I would make my own. Now I have to say this was an entirely made up recipe and was mostly founded on my desire to procrastinate. (I have my final exams in my law course next week.) However I can happily report that they are incredibly tasty chocolates (and my bank holiday weekend guests concur).

I will warn you that, although not that complicated, these chocolates are quite time consuming to make. They also taste better if you have the chance to leave them in the fridge overnight to set. However if you feel you need to eat them immediately I will completely understand. 

Also this recipe that I am about to give you makes like 40-50 chocolates, seriously! So you might want to half the recipe for the filling... or not :). Also I should mention that you can use fancy confectioners chocolate if you like, it will probably improve theses, but I just used cheap supermarket own brand chocolate and they still tasted lovely.

Focaccia

We have guests at our house for this bank holiday, so last night we made a fancy dinner. For starter we had baked camembert (which I have wanted since my visit to Dough) and home-baked focaccia bread. Which was fantastic!! I am a big fan of cheese and fresh bread so for me there is no better combination. But if it could get any better it would have been the array of oils and vinegars that we had as dips on the side; truffle oil, chilli oil, herbed oil, balsamic vinegar and balsamic syrup. Yum yum yum :). 

If you've never made it before focaccia is such an easy bread to make, you don't need to leave it to raise for days and days and you only need 4 ingredients for the basic dough. Well if you do it this way. As I have said before there is probably a better and more culinary correct way of making this however this recipe works well for me.

Pesto Crusted Cod with Sweet Potato Mash

I made this last night and it may not look anything special but trust me when I say it tasted incredible!! So good! 

For this I used the Coconut and Coriander Pesto so I decided to add a bit of coconut milk into the sweet potato mash to tie it all together. Also I kind of think that you could put this pesto with any fish but I picked cod as it has quite a subtle flavour.

So what you'll need to make this for two:

• 1 portion of Coconut and Coriander Pesto;
• 2 small Sweet Potatoes;
• 1 tbsp of Coconut Milk;
• Dash of Lime; and
• 2 Cod Fillets.

How you make it:

1. Before you start pop the oven onto 180C.
2. First make up the Coconut and Coriander Pesto (follow the link for the recipe).
3. Then put your cod fillets onto a lightly oiled oven tray and smother in the pesto (yes smother, because if you don't you will regret not putting more on) and pop into the oven for 12-15 minutes (until the fish is cooked through).
4. In the mean time, make your mash. I recently learnt you could do potatoes in the microwave so I did that yesterday. To do this you peel them and cut them into quarters then put them in an oven proof bowl, cover it with cling film and microwave on high (800W) for 7 mins. Depending on your microwave you may need to put them in for a bit longer. 
5. When the potatoes are soft, mash them in the bowl with the coconut milk and lime juice. 
6. Finally put everything together on a plate and enjoy :) 

Coriander and Coconut Pesto

This stuff is amazing. I came across a recipe in in one of my cook books (the '200 Veggie Feasts' by Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook) and thought I'd try it. After a few amendments and a lot of taste testing (not that I'm complaining) I think I've finally gotten it perfect.

The main ingredients are coconut milk, coriander and pistachio nuts; when is that not an awesome combination? It tastes so good and has loads of uses. Some of my favourites have been: as a dip with sweet potato fries of tortilla chips, in a pasta in fajitas and as a crust for baked fish.

What you'll need:

• 40g Coriander;
• 1 Clove of Garlic;
• 1 Chilli (red or green) deseeded;
• 1/2 tsp Caster Sugar;
• 1 tbsp Pistachio Nuts;
• 6 tbsp Coconut Milk;
• 1 tbsp Creamed Coconut;
• Juice of 1 Lime (if I were you I would buy two though incase you like your's a bit limey); and
• Pinch of Salt and Pepper. 

Like a lot of my recipes this is really easy to make. All you need to do is to throw all the ingredients into a wee food processor and blitz it until its smooth. Then pop into a bowl and serve with dipping foods or smother on meat and bake in an oven or use to add a bit of flavour to fajitas or ... well you get the picture. 

Feel free to let me know if you find any other fabulous things to eat this with.