The Chocolate Casket

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I came upon this story form Laura Davies at the South Wales Evening News and couldn’t resist putting it here - the ultimate in curry - a White Chocolate Chicken Curry. Im going to have to visit ….

Anybody for hot chocolate? A Llanelli restaurant is offering the ultimate sin for any chocoholic - a chocolate curry.The invention of two brothers, who thought they would use their culinary skills to experiment with the much-loved ingredient, has become one of the best signature dishes at Moods Indian Cuisine on Station Road.

Dubbed the Indian alternative to the battered Mars bar, co-owner Mohammed Ahmed said the dish had become a talking point at the restaurant which opened six months ago.

He said: “We wanted to do something different. Chocolate is used in lots of cooking. In Mexico they use it in hot dishes, and, of course, you have the battered Mars bar so we thought we would experiment with it ourselves.”

The dish, chicken cooked with white chocolate and vanilla essence, is much like a Chicken korma (more…)

This is one of those Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes you just keep coming back to, time after time after time… They are quick and easy to make and absolutely delicious! You can vary the types of chocolate chips that you use, I always try to use at least two different sorts – my particular favourite combination is white chocolate and bitter-sweet or plain chocolate.

Ingredients:-

120 gms (½ cup) Butter
90 gms (½ cup) Soft Brown Sugar
100 gms (½ cup) White Sugar
60 gms (½ cup) white flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of (baking) soda
½ tsp baking powder
45 gms (½ cup) oats
¼ tsp salt
1 large Egg (more…)

Cooking with Chocolate needs to be done carefully if you don’t want to spoil the textures of what you are making. having to grease a baking sheet can often give your cookies an odd texture. I get round this by using the Silpat 11-5/8-by-16-1/2-Inch Nonstick Silicone Baking Mat

I particularly like this one because it is made of silicone and fibreglass so is durable and easy to care for. I have been using mine for ages - the manufacturers say it can be used up to 3,000 times! Whilst I haven’t used mine that much - it has certainly been in and out of the oven, freezer and microwave with no problems.

It can be used at temperatures up to 480º F. It can be used for things other than chocolate - pastries, caramels - anything that might stick to a pan. It just needs to be washed in warm water and only takes a few seconds as absolutely nothing sticks to it.

This is one of my favourite chocolate muffin recipes, you can use plain yoghurt if you prefer or miss out the vanilla essence if it makes it a bit heavy on the vanilla flavour for your taste. These freeze very well and are great for lunch boxes.

Ingredients

135 gms or 3/4 cup light brown sugar- packed but not too firmly
120 gms or 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
250 mls or 1 cup vanilla yoghurt
1 egg
5 mls or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
210 gms or 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
50 gms or 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
8 gms or 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
150 gms or 1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350F, 180C.
Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases.
Mix the sugar and butter together in a medium bowl.
Add yogurt, egg and vanilla and mix until well combined.
Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder together into a large bowl.
Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture, stirring until just barely blended together.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
Spoon the mix into the muffin cases and bake for approx 25 minutes.

I have spent the last few days in anticipation of a new delight. A Farm Shop opened at a local Garden Centre complex nearby the other week and we went to check out the fare on offer, we do try to buy most of our food from local sources. Imagine my delight when I saw nestling on the shelves some rather elegant looking bars of chocolate – very simply packaged to show off the contents. Granted it wasn’t going to be local but given the nature of the shop, the quality of the display and the price I thought to myself ‘this should be good’.

Eventually I got round to taking a photo (not brilliant I’m afraid) before getting down to the serious business of eating it. The manufacturer’s ‘Ko-Koa’ had done a good job with the point of sale material and the smaller bars were simply mounted on gold board and wrapped in cellophane so that you could see exactly what you were getting. The bar I chose was the Marbled plain chocolate with white chocolate swirl, small size – about 3 inches square, weighing 75gms.

It was such a disappointment. The smell when I opened the packet was of vanilla, not chocolate and that should have forewarned me. Granted the cocoa solids were only 55% in the plain and 28% in the white, but there was absolutely no discernable chocolate taste at all, the overwhelming impression in your mouth was of a sweet, hard lump. The texture was smooth but you felt that you needed to chew to try and wring some flavour out of it rather than the more common experience where the chocolate flavour develops in your mouth as it melts gently on your tongue. I wondered if it might just be me having an ‘off’ day but sad to say, my daughter felt exactly the same as I did. At almost 3GBP ($6) for a small bar – we were distinctly underwhelmed by it and will not be trying it again.

My friend Iain made this Chocolate Tart for a Buffet Supper - I thought I had died and gone to heaven! This is his recipe just as given to me - it is something really special and ideal as a special treat for the Easter festivities.

For a 12 inch flan dish

Short Crust Pastry (sufficient to line dish) – the ready-rolled stuff is fine
350 ml double cream
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Pinch salt
115g unsalted butter
455g milk chocolate (I use good quality Belgian cooking chocolate)
100ml cold milk
cocoa powder for dusting

Pastry case
Line 12 inch flan dish with short-crust pastry
Bake blind* for 25 mins at gas mark 6
Allow to cool

Chocolate filling
Soften the butter
Put the cream, sugar & salt in a pan and bring to boil
Reduce heat and add the softened butter & chocolate - stir until melted
Allow to cool slightly and then whisk in the cold milk until smooth & shiny
Fill the pastry case brim-full with the chocolate mixture and leave to cool for 1-2 hours or until it reaches room temperature.

Dust with cocoa powder & serve

* Bake blind = pre-bake the pastry in dish on its own, lined on top with foil and weighted-down with baking beans or rice so as to stop pastry rising.

Note – Can be kept in fridge for a few days. It can be served chilled straight from fridge, but I prefer to let it come to room temperature, which gives the chocolate filling a lovely soft texture