ICCHFC - Week 53: Pear and almond muffins

Things took a bit of an interesting turn this week. It was the first time we have had a guest baker. In return for providing a cake the guest baker is being allowed a slice from each cake for an entire round.

So, this week MM treated us to a round of pear and almond muffins.

I'm not quite sure I believe it was MM rather than Mrs. MM who did the baking, nevertheless these were wicked: soft muffins just how I like them.

A rich almond sponge that had a heart of soft pear. Incredibly moorish, it was difficult not to immediately reach for another.

12/10/10 Update:
It was confirmed today that it was MM that baked not the missus. We can expect plenty more muffins to follow as they are "simple".

Sunday lunch: Beetroot soup, roast pork shoulder, apple and blackberry steamed pudding

After the wedding, where I didn't get to taste the cake but did manage to persuade the photographer to send me some pictures of the finished (decorated) beast, all the Lufbra gang stayed at mine so I felt duty bound to provide a nourishing full English breakfast and a traditional Sunday roast.

Since I was cooking for six and after a big night I needed things that could be done in advance and were relatively simple. Despite a request for roast pork putting the rest of the menu together proved quite troublesome. Anyway I ended up cooking:

Beetroot soup
***
Roast pork shoulder with mash, cabbage and apple sauce with a mustard cream gravy
***
Steamed apple and blackberry sponge pudding

Beetroot soup

This was deep crimson soup was garnished with soft goat's cheese, spring onions, green apple sticks and hazelnut praline. The idea of the garnishes was to provide a variety of textures and to bring alive the earthy flavour of the beetroot and to give the palate a new taste with every mouthful.

Roast pork shoulder with crackling, mash, cabbage and apple sauce with a mustard cream gravy

Now due to time and space constraints and cooking for six, I didn't plate this up quite as I would have liked. One of the highlights was the apple ring braised in cider which had a beautifully pink halo. The crackling was ok, but the crackling on the pork belly I did before was better. I think it was pretty good for a roast even though there were no roast potatoes.

Steamed apple and blackberry sponge pudding

Sweet seasonal fruit, billowy sponge and lashings of cream. That's the definition of "pud", isn't it?

I spent the majority of the day in the kitchen and people left almost as soon as the last spoonful was downed (pesky train journeys to the Midlands), but it was a lovely day even though there was a little bit of clearing up to do:

I'm going to try and eat off the leftovers for the rest of the week, so look out for a report about how it goes next weekend.

On to the recipes, which were adapted from a number of sources:

Beetroot soup (serves 6)
Taken from a Matt Tebbut recipe in Olive magazine and the praline from One Perfect Ingredient by Marcus Wareing

Ingredients:
750g cooked beetroot, large dice
3 bay leaves
1½ onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1½tbsp red wine vinegar
900ml chicken stock
To garnish:
75g hazelnuts
Pinch fine salt
1½tbsp water
60g caster sugar
3 spring onion, finely sliced
100g soft goats cheese
1 green apple, sliced into batons
Olive oil

Method:
1. Fry the onions and garlic in olive oil until very soft.
2. Add the vinegar, beetroot, stock and bay leaves and simmer for about 15-20mins.
3. Purée and pass through a sieve. If it is too thick add more water or stock until the desired consistency is reached.
4. For the praline, toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan. In the same pan gently melt the sugar and water together until it turns a golden caramel (swirl the pan occasionally). Add the salt and hazelnuts then poor onto silicon paper and leave to cool. Once cooled, roughly chop.
5. For the other garnishes, finely slice the spring onions on the angle and cut thin slices (approximately 3mm) from the apple then slice into batons (there should be a small amount of skin left at each end)
6. To serve, ladle the soup into bowls. Drop some onions into the middle and top with a few criss-crossed apple batons. Dot small pinches of goats cheese around the outside interspersed with the praline. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

Roast pork shoulder with crackling, mash, cabbage, braised apple and apple sauce with a mustard cream gravy (serves 6 heartily)
Elements taken from The Cook's Book, New British Classics by Gary Rhodes and Sauces by Michel Roux

Ingredients:
3.5kg pork shoulder, boned, rind left on
Sea salt
2 red onions quartered, lengthways
2 white onions quartered, lengthways
2tbsp honey
2 lemons, quartered, lengthways
2-3tbsp sage, chopped
1 savoy cabbage, shredded
For the apple sauce:
500g Cox apples, peeled, cored, finely diced
150ml water
20g caster sugar
Juice of ½ lemon
Pinch ground cinnamon
30g butter
For the braised apple:
3 red apples, cored sliced into ¾"(2cm) rounds
~300ml dry cider
For the mash:
2lb floury potatoes, peeled and chopped
4oz butter
~100ml cream
For the mustard cream sauce:
~100ml double cream
2tbsp wholegrain mustard

Method:
1. Score the rind of the pork with a very sharp knife (or get the butcher to do it). Pour a kettle of boiling water over the rind then leave to cool.
2. Pat dry and liberally massage the rind with coarse sea salt. Rub all over with a little vegetable oil and put in the oven on a trivet for 15mins at 220°C.
3. Turn the oven down to 150°C and cook for another 2 hours.
4. Remove the pork from the oven and take out of the pan. In the pan sauté the onions and lemons until just caramelised. Drizzle over the honey and sprinkle with sage. Place the meat directly in the centre of the pan and return to the oven for 1¼ hours.
5. Once cooked (the crackling will be crisp and the meat tender) leave to rest, covered with foil for 15-30mins.
6. To make the mustard cream sauce, deglaze the roasting pan with the cider reserved from the braised apples. Reduce and then add the cream and mustard.
7. Whilst the meat is roasting, all the trimmings can be made. For the apple sauce, put all the ingredients except the butter into a pan and cook over a medium heat for 15mins, until the apples are tender, but not dried out.
8. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in the butter and a pinch of salt. If required, loosen the sauce with water to reach the desired consistency.
9. For the braised apples, place the apple slices into a pan and cover with the cider. Bring to a simmer and cook for 1 min. Remove from the heat, cover with greaseproof paper and allow to cool.
10. Once cooled, remove the apples from the cider and reserve the cider for the cabbage and gravy. Prior to serving reheat the apples in the oven with a knob of butter.
11. For the mash, cook the potatoes in plenty of salted water until tender. Drain and then use a ricer to mash.
12. Beat in the butter and cream. Then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
13. For the cabbage, melt a knob of butter in a pan and add the cabbage. Then add a little cider (~50ml) and ~150ml chicken stock. Cook until the cabbage is tender and the liquid has been absorbed.
14. To serve, separate the cracking from the meat and cut into pieces. Carve the pork into thick slices. Sit one apple ring per person on a couple of spoonfuls of apple sauce. Dish up the cabbage and mash. Cover liberally with mustard cream sauce.

Steamed apple and blackberry sponge pudding
Taken from New British Classics by Gary Rhodes.

Ingredients:
4 green dessert apples, peeled cored and quartered
2oz caster sugar
8oz blackberries
1tbsp blackberry jam
For the sponge:
4oz butter
5oz caster sugar
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
7oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
¼tsp ground cinnamon
Zest of 1 lemon

Method:
1. Butter and flour a 2 pint pudding bowl (this is the minimum size bowl you can really use).
2. Cut the apple quarters in half lengthways and then again through the middle to give 16 chunks per apple.
3. Melt a know of butter in pan then add the apples and sugar. Cook for 2-3mins then add the blackberries and jam. Stir in and remove from the heat and leave to cool.
4. To make the sponge cream the butter and sugar until white and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs. Finally sieve the flour, cinnamon and baking powder then fold into the mix with the lemon zest.
5. Put half the apple and blackberry mix into the bowl then top with the sponge mix. Cover the bowl with a sheet of greaseproof paper and a sheet of foil folded together to create a pleat to give space for the pudding to rise. Tie the "lid" on with string.
6. Steam for 1¼ hours.
7. To serve turn out the pudding onto a plate and top with the reserved fruit.

Wedding cake

I took the day off work today so that I could do something I'd been thinking about for weeks. The day could only end in success, but it was how I was going to get to the end which had been troubling me. It was wedding cake day.

I did all the shopping last night and bought plenty of extra stuff too, just in case. The chocolate curls had been delivered last week. I'd spent last night giving the kitchen a deep clean. All was ready. Never before have I started cooking with such a mix of trepidation, excitement and burdened with the wait of expectation.

Thankfully, it all went pretty smoothly:

I cooked the three sponges sequentially and they turned out very consistently. They were standard 4442 sponge cakes, two chocolate and one vanilla (with fudge chunks) sandwiched together with fudge icing.

I had to make three times the amount of chocolate fudge icing as I did on the tasting day. Unfortunately I only realised this as the first batch was running out and it was a nervous few minutes while I whipped up the next. Fortunately a pallet knife dipped in hot water really was my best friend.

The finishing touches were the chocolate curls which were much harder to apply than I thought they would be. I've not idea how many rotations of the cake it took to completely cover the sides of the cake to an acceptable level. However, it was worth the effort. The annoying thing was that I kept dropping them on the top and so had to re-smooth it. Oh and here's a tip: when icing a the surface of a cake and trying to get it smooth, having a pallet knife that is larger than the actual cake would be REALLY helpful.

The most nerve-racking part was moving the cake from my icing board to the silver display board. I'm not sure I breathed whilst slipping the pallet knife under the whole cake and sliding it across. I was terrified that the cake would crumble or break and I'd have to start again.

The final touch were the fudge pieces around the perimeter. It was actually quite relaxing doing these as I was confident that it was job well done and all I had to do was wait for Paul to come and collect the finished cake and I would be absolved of any level of responsibility!

Goat curry at Sunjam

A late night finish to an evening EcoTeam event and a few days in Liverpool meant that there was no food chez Butters and so I made a rare takeaway purchase.

I've walked passed the Sunjam Caribbean takeaway at least twice a day on my way to and from the station but I'd not yet been in.

I'd been talking to Sara from the ICCHFC about where to get Caribbean food from and she had recommended this place. Apparently her Dad goes well out of his way to visit this Sunjam for the oxtail or curry goat. Apparently it's been there for over 18 years so they must be doing something right.

As a recent convert to the tender and deep flavours of goat, there was no way I couldn't go for this along with a healthy portion of rice and peas.

I wasn't disappointed: a hefty smack of West Indian spice was a good match to the powerful flavour of the goat. It was unbelievably tender too.

I'll definitely be going back for some oxtail.

ICCHFC - Week 52: Chocolate fridge cake

Despite not being in on either Monday or Tuesday there was still remnants of this Laura's cake left for me to have. I wasn't expecting such a mid-week treat so didn't take my camera.

Laura had made a truly wicked chocolate fridge cake: lumps of biscuit, dried apricots and sultanas suspended in a combination of chocolate, butter and golden syrup and coated in a chocolate fudge icing. Rich does not even begin to describe it.

A small hunk with a cup of coffee was perfect. None of us could cope with more than a nugget at a time. A great pick-me-up for a slow day at work but not for young kids (unless you want them going nuts on a sugar high) or those on a diet.

A Taste Adventure?

I helped run the SlowFood Taste Adventure at the Start Garden Party at Clarence House today.

The Taste Adventure is an interactive way of introducing people to the use of all five senses when eating and enjoying food. The key message that we aim to convey is: ‘To really enjoy food we need to use all our five senses’ and in order to start the journey of a life-long love of food, we believe it is vital that everyone understands:
• how to appreciate food using each sense individually
• how each sense affects the others
• the basic elements of taste
• the difference between taste and flavour

The Taste Adventure was set on the top deck of the CIAO Ark. Despite the cutting wind the number of children did manage to outnumber the number of people running the session most of the time.

At each of the five interactive stations (one for each sense) and the kids had to identify different foods using only that particular sense. There were some close up photos of food to identify, jars of aromatics to sniff, different drinks to taste, bags filled with different things to touch and then some other foods to listen to whilst eating them.

All of the kids seemed to enjoy it (especially when mum and dad helped with the answers). It was amazing just how knowledgeable some of the kids were; I'm not sure I could have identified the smell of rosemary when I was 10.

All in all a very enjoyable event which is more than I can say about the rest of the Garden Party (unfortunately), even with a flash of Charlie and the Missus.

RIP Konstam

I made a very interesting discovery on the interweb tonight when I came across the Sustain website.

Sustain is:

The alliance for better food and farming advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. We represent around 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local level.

The site is packed with interesting articles and information on campaigns about all different aspects of the sustainable food agenda. There's far too much for me to go into here so click-off and have a look now.

One of the things that I learnt was that the London branch of Sustain, the London Food Link, has a quarterly magazine, The Jellied Eel. However, I was dismayed to see that one of the cover stories is the closure of Konstam (finally bringing me to the title of this post) which means I'll never get to go there. The restaurant was famous for sourcing 80% of its ingredients from within the M25 and was a leading light of sustainability.

ICCHFC: Week 51 - Johnny’s granny’s fruit cake mash up (aka fruit loaf)

Sara used a secret recipe to create and incredibly light and yet rich fruit loaf. I have never had such a fluffy cake laden so heavily with fruit. An absolute beauty.

So it is with great pride that I bring you the secret recipe and I can promise you will not be disappointed.

Johnny’s granny’s fruit cake mash up

Ingredients:
6oz soft brown sugar
8oz soft butter
2 eggs
4oz self-raising flour
4oz plain flour
12oz mixed fruit
2oz ground almonds
Small glass of Amaretto (about 100 -150ml)

Method:
1.Combine the butter and sugar then add the rest of the ingredients. The mixture shouldn't be too dry but not runny!
2. Bake in moderate oven (gas mark 3 to 4, 160-175°C) for 1.5 to 2 hours (stick a skewer in to see if it's cooked)

Tas

Popped into Tas on Borough High Street tonight for what turned out to be a rather massive and tasty Anatolian (aka Turkish meze) dinner at extraordinary value.

We had the Renk menu and for a miserly £10.95 we had:

Tabule - Chopped parsley salad with tomatoes, onions, cracked wheat, olive oil and lemon juice

Humus Kavurma - Humus topped with diced lamb, pine kernels and paprika
Humus with a meaty addition. I didn't know humus could be made so much better.

Zeytin Yagli Bakla - Fresh broad beans cooked in olive oil with red & green peppers, coriander, dill, garlic served with yoghurt
Broad beans and lots of them - lovely.

Kisir - Cracked bulgur wheat with crushed walnuts, hazelnuts, tomato sauce, herbs, fresh mint, dill and spring onions
A tomato dish delivering a smack of umami.

Ispanakli yogurt - Spinach with fresh yoghurt served with or without garlic

Zeytin Yagli Patlican - Aubergine cooked in olive oil with tomatoes, garlic, pepper & chickpeas
Would have been far better if it was warm. I can't cope with "stringy" cold aubergine.

Midye Tava - Fried mussels on skewers with garlic sauce
I didn't realise we were having mussels until I was mid-way through my first skewer. Apparenlty deep frying really can improve anything.

Borek - Filo pastry filled with feta cheese and spinach
Unfortunately we only got one of the little parcel which we packed with creamy feta. I could happily have eaten a plateful.

Felafel - Ground chickpeas and broad beans tossed in spices, deep fried and served with humus

Kalamari - Fried marinated squid lightly battered served with walnut sauce
Not as bad as the aubergine, but three squid rings each was maybe three more than we wanted.

Just to make sure we wouldn't go hungry we also ordered Pastirmali yumurta - Fried egg with oak smoked cured beef and tomatoes. What an addition though. Really tasty beef salami mixed into scrambled eggs.

The place was buzzing from the moment we walked to when we left two and a half hours later at 9pm and it's obvious why. Lots of fresh food giving your tastebuds an extensive workout. With only a couple of exceptions, everything was delicious with a great blend of herbs and spices. All at phenomenal value.

This is the kind of small chain (there are 9 outlets currently) that I actually enjoy going to. Each outlet has its own identity but you can be sure that you'll get the same high level of food and service. I'd not hesitate in going back, if only for the lamb humus and a great hunk of bread.

Byron Bay cookies

I was sent a rather exuberant package of Byron Bay Cookies, from the master distributor in the UK, Beyond the Bean, to get my teeth in to, in return for my thoughts.

Well, now I have well and truly had the chance to eat far more cookies than is good for me, here are my opinions.

In my mind cookies are huge soft and chewy discs with copious chunks of chocolate/raisin/fudge. The Byron Bay cookies are really biscuits but I guess it's just a question of those Aussie's regional perversion of the Queen's English.

The cookies come in both regular and gluten-free variations and they are all vegetarian. Since I've never sought out gluten free fodder, I was interested to investigate what the differences are to "normal". Having regular (below left) and gluten-free (below right) versions of the white chocolate and macadamia cookies gave me a good chance to do a comparison.

Amazingly the gluten-free was better than the normal cookie. It had a more pronounced richer aroma and despite being much more crumbly actually had a very creamy taste.

The strawberry and clotted cream cookies went down extremely well with me and the guys at work. They were very rich with a soft shortbread texture and little nuggets of intrigue to keep you interested.

As for the lemon macadamia shortbread. This is the Audrey Hepburn of shortbread. An elegant short biscuit with a delicate hint of lemon zing. Absolutely sublime.

The Dotty was a decorated with Smarties and jammed full of milk chocolate lumps (these were the saving grace of the very dry biscuit). I have to admit that the triple chocolate fudge gluten-free was terrible, managing to convert my tongue to an arid wasteland in milliseconds.

Overall though the Byron Bay cookies left me with a positive impression. They are very generous with their fillings and make a great accompaniment to a cup of coffee.

My thanks to Beyond the Bean for providing me with the samples.

ICCHFC: Week 50 - Olive oil, fruit and nut cake

My turn to bake this week and I just hadn't had a chance to think what to bake. In an extraordinary turn of events I embraced the current tide of "baker's choice" which is sweeping the ICCHFC.

My choice of cake was borne out of perusing some of my recipe books for something that took my fancy. As usual, my in interest in the unusual won over so I went for an olive oil, fruit and nut cake from What's Cooking Baking by Emma Patmore.

Amazingly the cake went down really well. There was a lovely sweet taste of olive oil and the fruit and nuts were like little edible pearls held in the surprisingly light sponge. The top was particularly crunchy and pleasing.

The batter was one of the oddest I've ever put made. The batter just didn't seem to come together very well and had an very gloopy consistency; I put the whole lot in the baking tin in one spoonful.

My Olive oil, fruit and nut cake (taken from from What's Cooking Baking by Emma Patmore)

Ingredients:
8oz plain flour, sieved
1tsp baking powder
1¾oz caster sugar
4floz milk
4tbsp orange juice
50ml extra virgin olive oil
100ml olive oil
3½oz mixed dried fruit
1oz pine kernels

Method:
1. Grease and 8" baking tin.
2. Stir the sugar, baking powder and flour together.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the milk and orange juice and mix together.
4. Pour in the olive oil gradually and stir to mix evenly.
5. Mix in the fruit and nuts.
6. Bake at 180°C for 45mins until the cake is firm and golden.

Best ever duck risotto?

I think I may have made my best ever duck risotto tonight.

The risotto was made with red wine (hence the dodgy colour) and home-made duck stock. Topped with an egg poached in red wine and duck scratchings. My first mouthful of yolk, scratching, duck and rice really was as good as I hoped it would be. I'd been thinking about making this for ages and I was incredibly happy that this was one of those occasions when all the hard work really was worth it.

I think to improve things, I would use white wine in the risotto and include slightly more duck meat.

Here's the recipe for my duck risotto:

Ingredients:
700ml duck stock
200g Arborio rice
2 duck legs
1 bottle red wine
½ onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1tsp dried sage
2oz Parmesan
2oz butter
1 egg
Duck fat

Method:
1. Roast the duck legs and allow to cool. Remove the skin and slice into thin pieces. Pick the duck meat from the bone and chop into medium sized pieces.
2. Bring the duck stock to a low boil.
3. Sweat the onion in 1dsp duck fat. Once softened add the garlic and sage and fry for about 1min.
4. Add the rice and lightly toast until the grains start to turn translucent at the edges.
5. Add a glass or red wine and stir until it has all been absorbed.
6. Gradually add the stock one ladle at a time until it has all been absorbed and the rice still has a slight bite to it.
7. While the risotto is cooking make the garnishes. Fry the slices of duck skin in duck fat until crisp and golden.
8. Add the duck meat. Then beat in the cheese and butter. Leave the risotto to rest.
9. While the risotto is resting, bring the remainder of the wine to just under boiling and then poach the egg for about 2mins.
10. Spoon the risotto into a bowl and top with the egg and scratchings.

Wedding cake tasting

Today was the tasting for the wedding cake that I am making. The brief is to create an 8" chocolate and fudge gateau (based on the Capuccino cake I made the other week). The aim of today's session was to try out different flavour combos and icing types and hopefully finalise the design.

To that end I spent last night making the actual cakes. There are going to be two chocolate layers sandwiching a vanilla layer (with chunks of fudge in the cake). I'd identified four different types of chocolate icing to try so I stamped out rings from the large cakes to create four cake stacks (I kept the leftovers so that we had some cake to try out things that I didn't do with my trial cakes.)

Each layer was sandwiched together with some (surprisingly excellent) fudge icing. This gave me four cakes to try out different chocolate icings with.

Icing 1: Ganache

I had a hunch that this was going to be too much. And it was.

The 70% chocolate and cream was too rich and heavy and overpowered the rest of the cake.

Strike 1.
(This is one of those times when I want an experimental kitchen so I can play with different proportions of cream and types of chocolate to create different ganaches for any occasion. )

Icing 2: Buttercream

This was a twist on the traditional chocolate buttercream made with cocoa, as it actually used melted chocolate.

This was a good option and went down well, as expected. After all who doesn't like buttercream?


Icing 3: Chocolate glaze

This was somehting I hadn't tried before. Chocolate melted with butter and mixed with hot water to give it a shine.
This was really difficult to ice the cakes with. Unfortunately the shine was not enough to compensate for the overpowering flavour form this chocolate heavy glaze.

Game over for this option.

(Although I would like to try it again with different types of chocolate).

Icing 4: Chocolate fudge

I'd kept this one to last as I'd a good feeling about it as soon as I'd made it.

Within moments of tasting I saw the eyes of the betrothed light up. This was the perfect combination of flavour, texture and appearance.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

However, that's not the end of the story. We'd decided on the chocolate icing but how would the cake be decorated?

We'd already agreed on chocolate curls for the sides for the previous design. This has been carried through and I'll be using milk chocolate curls to provide a contrast in colour. The final embellishment is going to be small pieces of fudge around the edge of the top surface to demark the transition between sides and top. A bit like this:

The cake is going to be finished with printer's blocks of the bride and groom's initials.

It would seem I have a final cake, all that needs to be done is to order the chocolate curls and for me to make the cake. I've taken the day off to create. I just hope it works out...

Here are the recipes:

Fudge icing (taken from Special Celebration Cake Book edited by Pamela Dotter)
Sufficient to cover the top and sides of an 8" cake.

Ingredients:
9oz icing sugar
3oz butter
3oz soft brown sugar

Method:
1. Sift icing sugar into a bowl.
2. Warm the remaining ingredients over a low heat.
3. Once the sugar has dissolved then beat into the icing sugar until smooth

Icing 1: Ganache (taken from What's Cooking Chocolate by Jacqueline Bellefontaine)

Ingredients:
450ml double cream
375g chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped finely

Method:
1. Bring the cream to the boil.
2. Add the chocolate to the pan and stir until melted and combined.
3. Pour into a bowl and whisk for 5mins until the ganache is fluffy and cool

Icing 2: Chocolate buttercream (taken from What's Cooking Chocolate by Jacqueline Bellefontaine)

Ingredients:
6oz butter
2tbsp milk
6oz chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped finely
12oz icing sugar

Method:
1. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie and allow to cool slightly.
2. Beat the remaining ingredients together until pale and fluffy.
3. Whisk in the chocolate.

Icing 3: Chocolate glaze (taken from The Cook's Book edited by Jill Norman)

Ingredients:
3oz butter
4floz water
8½oz chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped finely

Method:
1. Place the butter and water in a pan and bring just to the boil.
2. Add the chocolate to the centre of the pan and remove from the heat.
3. Slowly stir from the middle drawing the liquid into the chocolate until well blended. Take care not to beat in air and the glaze will develop a shine.

Icing 4: Chocolate fudge (taken from Special Celebration Cake Book edited by Pamela Dotter)

Ingredients:
4oz chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
2oz butter
1 egg
6oz, icing sugar, sifted

Method:
1. Melt the chocolate and butter over a bain marie.
2. Once melted beat the egg and mix into the chocolate.
3. Remove from the heat and beat in icing sugar until smooth

Camino, Puerto del Canario

The week's eating out ended far better than it started with a magnificent lunch at Camino which is in its soft opening.

I had a delicious and massive Mixto platter:

Chorizo (simply beautiful slices of paprika spiced pork), chipirones (über crispy baby squid that was crunchy and tender), langostinos (very tasty, although I'd rather not peel and de-vein myself), croquetas de jamón, croquetas de eglefino, pan con tomate (refreshing and with a glorious smack of garlic) and pimientos de padrón (sautéed green peppers)

Every thing was fresh and delicious. Proper tapas that puts the La Tasca offerings to shame. With a lovely riverside location I can't recommend this place enough and it's not even open properly yet. This place is a keeper, I just hope it's here to stay.