Moelleux au Chocolat - Molten Chocolate Cakes

This recipe comes from a novel called 'Lunch in Paris'. I loved the book - a story set in Paris with recipes related to the story scattered through the book.

I've made this one a lot. I was trying to perfect it for a dinner party for a friend's birthday where each couple served one of many courses. I eventually decided it was too easy to have it go wrong in someone else's oven. The timing is really important, if you cook it too long it does not have the molten centre, too short a time and the outside is to fragile and breaks. Needless to say my family LOVED the experimentation trying to get it just right.
If I have made it sound difficult, it isn't. You just have to be prepared to have a few collapse.

Tonight's verdict was 'Magnificent'!


Moelleux au Chocolat - Molten Chocolate Cakes
150g unsalted butter
150g dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa - I use Whittakers Dark Guarna)
A good pinch of course sea salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp flour

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C

Melt butter and chocolate together in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave. Add the sea salt.

Meanwhile, beat together the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar with a whisk or electric beater until light in colour and foamy.

Add the egg mixture to the warm chocolate; whisk quickly to combine. Add th flour and stir to just combine. The batter will be quite thick.

The unmoulding is the tricky part. I used well buttered silicone muffin cases. The recipe in the book suggests foil cupcake liners (5-6 stacked together) or small ramekins, generously buttered.

Divide the batter evenly amount the moulds. (You can make the cakes in advance to this point and chill them until you are ready to bake. But be sure to bring the batter back to room temperature before baking).

Baking time will depend on your oven; start with 7 minutes for a thin outer shell with a completely molten interior, 8n minutes fr a slightly thicker crust and a gooey heart.

Tip: These also cook well straight from the freezer. Freeze directly in foil cup holders. Take out of freezer about 10 minutes in advance. Bake at 200 degrees C for approximately 15 - 17 minutes.

Lemon and Broccoli Soup

I've made variations of this soup for a while now. I actually searched this blog for the recipe thinking I must have already posted it.
It's different every time depending on what I have in the fridge or garden. Broccoli was on special at the supermarket today and the weather is a bit cool and wet so it seemed the ideal day for this soup for lunch.

My stick blender is broken so today's soup had a more 'chunky' texture. The food processor didn't give the same smoothness.
I didn't add the cream while cooking but we did have sour cream on the table to put in it.

I made a double recipe and froze some in snap lock bags for easy thawing at a later date.

Lemon and Broccoli Soup - recipe
50g unsalted butter
1 leek, ringed and sliced
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 broccoli head chopped
4 cups of vegetable stock
100g baby spinach leaves (I used silver beet and have also used frozen spinach in the past)
1 cup cream
1 tbsp lemon juice (I use a bit more)
Sea salt and backed pepper (check before adding this as the stock can be salty enough)
80g fresh ricotta cheese

Heat a deep, medium saucepan over a high heat. Add butter, leek and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes until tender.
Add broccoli and stock and bring to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the broccoli is tender. Add the spinach and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.
Hand blend the soup until smooth.
Stir in the cream, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Ladle into bowls and top with ricotta to serve.

The French Cafe

I've been wanting to go to the French Cafe for years and can't believe I have lived in Auckland close to eight years now and never been. What makes it worse is that it has been about a 5 - 10 minute drive from each of the places I've lived.

We finally got there this week. The entire experience was fantastic.
We chose the 9 course chefs tasting menu with each course matched with wine.
Each dish was very different and had numerous components making up the overall effect.
I didn't get picture of all courses and those I did get were not fabulous due to the low light...and trying to be discrete!

The evening was one to remember and possibly a one off for us. It cost A LOT!

By the end of the night - a whole 3 and a half hours of eating, I was incredibly full. The final dish was too good not to eat though.

Marinated Kingfish

Whitebait Sandwich

Spanner Crab Risotto

Quail B'stilla

Seared Duck Breast (I forgot and ate some before taking the shot)

Roasted French Goat's Cheese

French Chocolate

Free Form Fruit Galette - recipe

I needed something quick and easy as a dessert to go with today's lunch and that used ingredients that we already had. This recipe comes from Sophie Gray's 'Everyday Smart Food For Your Family'.

It was really easy to make and looked great. We had it with vanilla bean ice cream which it really needed to balance the flavours out. I think I'd add a little bit of icing sugar to the pastry next time.







Free Form Fruit Galette
175g flour
80 g butter
cold water
1 egg
2 tbsp semolina (I used almond meal - ground almond)
About 700g of fruit i.e. preserved, tinned or fresh plums, peaches or apricots or a combination, intact any fruit at all (I used uncooked apple and plums and it worked well)
Sugar, approximately 1/3 cup to sprinkle and to sweeten the fruit if required.

For the pastry crust, combine flour and butter to crumb stage, either in a food processor or by hand, then add water to bring it together to smooth dough. Rest in fridge for 20 minutes before using.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
Roll out the pasty to a circle approx 35cm in diameter; don't; worry about the ragged edges. Place on a greased baking sheet. Separate the egg yolk from the white, set the white aside, and paint the middle of the pastry with the beaten egg to seal it and prevent it from getting soggy, then sprinkle with semolina. The semolina will absorb some of the fruit juices during cooking and give a creamy texture, trapping in all the flavour.
Simply pile the prepared fruit in tot eh centre, leaving a border of a couple of centimetres uncovered. Sprinkle the sugar into the fruit if you think you need it. Then fold the pastry edges towards the middle but not covering the middle. the open circle in the top displays the cooked fruit.
Brush pastry with the egg white and sprinkle with sugar - the sugar caramelises during cooking, creating a rustic golden crust. Bake for 35 minutes or until golden.

Poached chicken, Israeli couscous, fennel and grape salad

It's starting to cool down and signs of autumn are beginning to show but still easily warm enough for lazy Sunday lunches with friends out on the deck. When looking for ideas for today's lunch my criteria were low(ish) fat and reasonably light and for some reason I wanted poached chicken. I went as usual straight to the Cuisine Magazine website and came across this one from Ray McVinnie. I like the way his recipes have ingredients that are reasonably simple and don't complicate the flavours too much.

This salad was really popular. It had a great combination of textures and the dressing which I thought wasn't going to be enough mixed well throughout the salad.

We then finished the meal with a Free Form Fruit Galette and yummy Rush Munro Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Not so low fat but really nice.

Oh and the wine and cocktails were pretty good too...and not so healthy.

Poached chicken, Israeli couscous, fennel & grape salad

BY RAY MCVINNIE | CUISINE ISSUE #151

SERVES: 4-6This combination of crunchy fennel, sweet grapes and creamy chicken with couscous and a herb dressing enlivened with toasted cumin is delicious.
1 small carrot, peeled, sliced
1 stick celery, sliced
1 small onion, sliced
1 bay leaf
8 black peppercorns
4 single free-range chicken breasts
300g Israeli couscous
100ml extra virgin olive oil, plus 2 tablespoons extra
1 fennel bulb, coarse outer leaves and stalks removed, bulb halved, cored and very thinly sliced
1 cup halved white grapes
1⁄2 cup green olives
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
small handful each basil leaves, dill and parsley sprigs, plus extra to serve
1 clove garlic, chopped
Put the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaf and peppercorns in a saucepan and cover well with water. Bring to the boil then add the chicken. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken to a plate and discard the cooking liquid. Cool the chicken in the fridge.
Bring a large saucepan of well-salted water to the boil then add the couscous. Boil until al dente then remove from the heat and drain. Transfer the couscous to a large bowl and toss with the 2 tablespoons of oil.
Slice the chicken and place on top of the couscous. Place the fennel, grapes and olives in another bowl.
Blitz the 100ml oil, vinegar, cumin seeds and herbs with a wand blender or in a food processor until smooth. Taste and season then add to the fennel mix. Spoon the fennel mixture over the chicken and couscous then sprinkle with the extra herbs and serve.

Chicken, Fennel and Olive Tagine

Another night and another recipe from Annabel Langbein's 'Free Range In The City'.
This was another very successful dish. While it seems like a lot of ingredients, there are not too many steps.

I don't have a tagine so just used a large heavy pot. The chicken was close together and well covered by the sauce, which I suspect was not the idea.

This meal is enough for 2 nights for us so I froze half for use on another night.



Chicken, Fennel and Olive Tagine
10-12 skinless chicken thighs, bone in
1/2 cup flour
salt and ground black pepper
1 tsp paprika
about 5 tbsp olive oil
2 onions finely diced
4 cloves of garlic finely diced
2 bulbs of fennel finely sliced
400g can cherry tomatoes
3 cups of chicken stock
1 strip each lemon and orange peel
1/4 cup currants, mixed with 2 tbsp sherry
1 cinnamon quill
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground ginger
16 saffron threads
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1-2 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp honey
1/2 gren olives

If cooking in oven preheat to 200 degrees C. Place thighs a few pies at a time in a bag with flour, salt and pepper and paprika. Shake until well coated. Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a large heavy based pan and brown the chicken in batches, adding more oil as needed. Place chicken in a single layer in a tagine dish, baking dish or pot and set aside.

To make the sauce, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil you have used to brown the chicken in. Add onions and cook over a medium heat, stirring often until the onions have softened but not browned (about 5 minutes).
Add garlic and fennel and cook for a further 2 minutes to lightly soften without browning. Add tomatoes, stock, lemon and orange peel, currants in sherry, cinnamon, cumin, ginger, saffron, chilli flakes, fresh chillies and honey. Bring to a simmer and stir well to lift brownings. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Pour sauce over chicken. Add olives and bake, covered in oven for 1 hour or simmer for 45 mins on stovetop. Remove cinnamon quill and lemon and orange peel before serving.

tis dish can be stored in fridge for up to 48 hours or frozen. To serve, bring back to room temp and then reheat at 180 degrees C in oven until fully heated through (20-30 mins).

Ginger Chilli Sweet and Sour Chicken

I have just bought Annabel Langbein's 'Free Range In The City'. I suspect that her recipes are going to feature heavily over the next few weeks.

This chicken dish was the first one I tried and it got the best responses I have had in a long time from the family. This will get made again...and again.

It was easy to make and what I especially liked was that it could be partially prepared in advance then finished off later.
I browned the chicken, caramelised the sugar and vinegar and then put eh rest of the ingredients in, then the chicken.
I did the main cooking later.




Ginger Chilli Sweet and Sour Chicken
4 chicken marylands (thigh quarters) or 1 whole free range chicken quartered (I just used big pieces)
salt and ground black pepper
2 tsp of neutral oil
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp while vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)
1/2 cup while wine
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 long red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (or more to taste) (I used a whole one and it was still really mild)
1 1/2 tbsp grated ginger
2 fat cloves of garlic crushed
1 tbsp fish sauce

To garnish
neutral oil, for frying
small handful of mint, basil or vietnamese mint leaves

To serve

cooked rive 

lightly cooked greens

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large cast iron baking dish and brown chicken all over, working in batches so as not to over crowd the pan. Remove chicken and set aside.

Drain oil from the pan, add sugar and vinegar and cook over a high heat until mixture starts to caramelise. Add wine, stock, chilli, ginger, garlic and fish sauce. Bring to a boil ten return chicken to dish and cover with juices.

Bake uncovered, basting several times (this is really important) with the cooking liquids, until chicken is golden and fully cooked  (about 35-40 minutes) 

While chicken is baking, prepare the fried herb garnish, if using. Heat 2 cm oil in small pot until it shimmers and fry herb until the change colour (about 5-10 seconds). Lift out with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.

Serve chicken with rice and lightly cooked greens, with any remaining cooking liquids spooned one rth stop. Garnish with fried herbs, if using.