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Lindsay Lohan\’s Changing Face – 25 Years in 60 seconds morph
This is a really depressing video. So many people have so much time on their hands for this young lady; wonder if that energy will ever be put to good.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Chocolate Mousse
I saw a really nice chocolate mousse on TV, but they didn’t’ gave anything away. So I will give everything away 
Or as much as I can, since I had to imagine the quantities and the rest of the stuff.
The recipe is a chocolate mousse, made from a pâte à bombe, and it is much easier than what it seems. The TV show where I saw the making of this mousse it’s Cookery School and was made by Master Pâtissier Eric Lanlard.
This is my version, and it is truly good.
What you need (for 6 mousses)…
…for the base
200g of nut praliné – you can just prepare it the day before or buy it (if you make it, do it like this, NOT like this)
100g of crushed wafers
…for the mousse
1 pinch of patience
180g of caster sugar
6 egg yolks
120 ml of water
150g 70% cocoa chocolate for the mousse
100g 70% cocoa chocolate for the coating
350 ml whipping cream
450g of raspberries
decorating acetate wrap from Jane Asher
Preparation
Firstly prepare your acetate wraps inside the molds, and have everything ready. It will make a much easier if you use molds with no base when you have to take the mousse out or just make molds with clear acetate wrap, but this option will make it more difficult to make all the molds the same size.
Mix gently the praliné paste with the crushed wafers, don’t over do it, otherwise it will be a paste and won’t be crunchy or airy. Then poor it to the acetate molds. Then let it set so the base hardness enough.
The mousse will have an unusual making, it will be made form a Pâte à Bombe (don’t worry, very easy to prepare) which doesn’t use the egg whites
Pâte à Bombe: Make a sugar syrup with 180g of sugar and add 120 ml of boiling water, then when dissolved bring it to boil and wait for 6-7 minutes. While you are taking care of your syrup (don’t let it crystallize), beat 6 egg yolks in the food processor at high speed until they get a lot of air and then add the boiling syrup while still at mixing. That will cook the egg, and also make a mixture that is full of air. You’ll be surprised of the volume of the mix.
At the same time you should be melting chocolate on a glass bowl over a medium heat casserole with water, when it’s melted, add it to the pate a bombe. Gently fold the chocolate in the egg mix.
Whip the cream and mix it with the pate a bombe very gently. folding it without taking any air out of the cream. And then… there you have it, this is the mousse.
Then with a piping bag you fill the molds, at half way you put a layer of raspberries and then you keep filling it with mousse. With the back of a knife or a spatula flatten the mousses and let set set for a couple hours (or more) in the fridge.
When you’re done, coat with melted dark chocolate some acetate wrap and wrap it around the mousse (previously take it out of the mold) and put it back to the fridge, to set for another hour. If you want to really make it fancy use a decorative acetate wrap like the pink once I used, they have a cocoa butter print that will transfer to the chocolate when you take the wrap off.
When you are done put raspberries on top and sprinkle some icing sugar to make the mousse shine. Just a tiny sprinkle, it doesn’t need more.
If you have the time, try it. It’s a real treat.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Posted in sources Tagged chocolate mousse, Cookery School, Eric Lanlard, Jane Asher, pâte à bombe Comments closed
Uncle Ben’s meets Duck
The other day I was wondering with a friend what to cook, and he told me to try to make a meal which included a bag of instant basmati rice bag from Uncle Ben’s. So I did.
The inspiration came from a basmati rice recipe I made before with rabbit thigh and cooked basmati rice added when the sauce is done. It seemed easy. When I went everywhere around Notting Hill and Bayswater and I could find no rabbit at all so here it was when I began to think of something else to prepare. I intended to keep the meal around 30 minutes since you want to keep it quick when you are also using a quick prepared rice, however I also wanted it to be a top notch meal so I opted to go for a duck liver creamy rice with a quick roasted duck leg.
I also introduced to this dish a very special Catalan addition. In Catalonia some traditional dishes use a thing called Picada. It could translate as “mince”, but is not accurate. Basically, always using a mortal and pestle, you crush one garlic until pasty, then you crush some nuts, some herb and maybe some hard bread and finishing it with a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil. This very Mediterranean mixture is used in many dishes for several purposes; to thicken and/or bind the sauce and also to enhance the flavour of the dish.
What you need…
…for the duck’s leg
25g of butter
2Tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 duck drumsticks
…for the rice
1 Uncle Ben’s basmati rice microwave bag
1 big minced shallot
25g of butter
3 Tsp of extra virgin olive oil
150g of duck liver
50 g sliced shiitake mushrooms (discard the stalk)
1 shot of Armagnac (or cognac)
1 glass of white wine
…for the picada (mince)
1 garlic clove
8 toasted almonds
8 toasted hazel nuts
1 pinch of saffron (optional)
extra virgin olive oil
Preparation
Preheat the oven at 220ºC, then prepare the “picada”, crush the garlic clove in the mortal and then add the saffron, the hazel nuts and almonds, crush them but don’t make a paste, some crumbs must be there. Leave aside.
At medium-high heat in an oven-proof saucepan add the butter and the olive oil and sear the duck’s leg until golden, specially on the skin to make it crispier. When all sides are golden, put the pan in the oven and lower the temperature to 180ºC. Open the oven 2 or 3 times to pour the juices over the legs. Then slice the shiitake mushrooms, medium heat for 5-10 minutes, and set them aside.
Next heat another saucepan, medium heat, add the olive oil and the butter and when melted add the minced shallot until transparent, a bit golden. Then add the diced liver, after a minute pour the Armagnac and flambe. Then fry for 3-4 minutes and then mash it in the saucepan with a potato masher. When this it’s mashed, cook the rice in the microwave and add the wine into the sauce, and let it reduce at low heat for 3 minutes. Add the rice and mushrooms. When you have the texture you like, if it gets too dry you can add a splash of milk. Then add a 2 or 3 tsp of “picada” and mix and a quick squeeze of lemon.
There you have it … simple, delicious and fast to make with a fancy first class restaurant result.
Popularity: 75% [?]
My meatballs for London
Tomato sauce meatballs were a treat when I was growing up. We usually ate very healthily so saucy dishes rarely made it to the table. My mum made these meatballs and even though she always made too many they were always devoured. The reason we didn’t eat them very often is simply because we always chose to have a lot of variety in our diet, but it’s a very healthy plate which is low in fat and, if made at home, has no preservatives or chemicals.
Preparing the sauce
2 cans of whole tomato (or 1kg of ripped pear tomatoes)
1 big red onion
3 cloves of garlic
3 dry bay leaves
a pinch of caster sugar
salt and pepper
Preparing the meatballs
500g of mince beef
500g of mince pork
2 free range eggs
1 or 2 handfuls of bread crumbs
a bit of paprika
a bit of parsley
salt and pepper
To make the tomatoe sauce, grate or cut the onion in pieces of about half an inch and sweat the onion with abundant olive oil in a big pan with the peeled cloves of garlic (remember all the tomatoes have to fit in it afterward). When it’s not too golden add the tomatoes and the bay leaves. If they are from the can just make sure you remove the hard end where the stem was. If you make it from scratch peel the tomatoes and remove the seeds and cut them in quarters.
After five minutes on medium high heat add a teaspoon of sugar and have it at medium low heat for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on which texture you prefer for the sauce. At the end season with salt and pepper to taste. Simple and fabulous tomatoe sauce.
For the meatballs I mix beef and pork because the fat from the pork will make the meat juicier, but you can make them just with beef if you prefer. First mix both meats in a bowl and then add the two eggs and mix again, then add the bread crumbs (depending on how ‘bready’ you want the meatballs add one or two handfuls) and a couple of teaspoons of salt, a teaspoon of pepper, half a teaspoon of paprika and two teaspoons of chopped fresh parsley. You could also add one clove of garlic chopped very finely. Mix well.
Roll the meat with your hand to make balls the size of a ping pong ball. This is the ideal size for frying. You can deep fry them of fry them in a pan with olive oil until they are golden on all sides but not too brown.
Add the meatballs to the tomato sauce and that is it! If you want to make it more Italian just mix it with some spaghetti!
Serves 6.
Popularity: 75% [?]
The Icecreamists, first but not last try.
As the whole world heard, including me, The Icecreamists are producing – and selling back after the health issues – an ice-cream called Baby Gaga made with human breast milk. As I should have known they didn’t had any left and I was promised that I could find some on Monday.
Since I was there I decided to try some other ice-cream and it struck me one that was made with chilli, ginger and lemongrass – named Cold Sweat – and decided to have a citrucy one (fior di latte and citrus, Sex Bomb) on the side since choclit or pistachio didn’t seem to go well with chilli and lemongrass. Surprisingly the hot ice-cream was so tasty and a bit spicy but not overwhelming and the fresh cheese and citrus one went so well with it. Well done you guys, the ice-creams were delicious!
And Monday… back for the baby!
Popularity: 83% [?]
Pumpkin Cream Soup
I am not normally of creamy soups, but at my mum’s recently she served a pumpkin soup she prepared the day before. It was so good that I have to share it with you. This soup is so easy to make and perfect as your last soup before Spring gets here.
What you need
1kg of pumpkin
3 medium onions
3 carrots
1 ham bone
250g of black pudding
50g parmigiana
butter
salt and sugar
Preparation
You need to prepare a broth with the ham bone, one onion and one carrot. Once it boils bring it to medium heat for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile cut the pumpkin, the onions and the carrots into medium cubes. Put olive oil into a pan and and fry it all at medium-low heat, when everything is tender and almost done, add 100g of black pudding and pinches of salt and sugar. The black pudding is to enhance the flavour, so even if you don’t like it, add it anyway since you won’t notice the specific flavour of it.
Next cover the vegetables with the broth you have prepared and boil it for around 20 minutes. Keep the rest of the broth in case we want to thin out the cream later.
Then pass it through a food processor or beat it until you have the desired texture. Add more broth if it’s too thick for you.
To serve the cream add some grated cheese and dices of black pudding (fry it before if you like it this way).
Popularity: 89% [?]
Fish Pudding
This is an inexpensive, perfect starter, enjoyed hot or cold. Light and delicious, it is best prepared a day in advance before. If you are on a budget you can sacrifice a bit and use some frozen ingredients.
What you need
4 hake fillets
100g of prawns
4 eggs
400g fried tomato (home made or supermarket but with no bits)
250ml of white wine
1 medium onion
1 clove of garlic
bay leave
lemon zest of a quarter of a lemon
parsley
Preparation
Preheat the oven at 180ºC and place a tray with water in it for the bain marie.
In a pan with 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil and some butter, sweat the onion (grated) and then bring it to high heat and fry the fish and the prawns for two minutes. Then add the lemon zest, the bay leaf, a clove of garlic, a pinch parsley, 75ml of water and white wine. Then leave it at medium-high heat for around 10 minutes.
Remove the fish and prawns out, then peel the prawns and put the heads back into the pan and reduce the sauce until there is a quite small amount.
Roughly chop the fish and prawns, filter the reduced sauce and mix it with the fish and prawns.
Whisk the eggs and then add the chopped fish and prawns and the tomato sauce into the eggs. Put the mixture into a plum cake mold and put it into the oven bain marie for 1-1.5 hours.
Poke with a sharp implement and if it is clean when you take it out then you’re done.
Popularity: 87% [?]