It’s not a fluffy, aerated type mousse, but a rich, solid one that I swear is a smooth as silk. The secret ingredient, which I defy anyone to identify if they’re not in the know, is olive oil — yes, that’s right: olive oil.

This recipe calls for Cointreau or Grand Marnier, but I think other liqueurs would work just as well, so I  plan to experiment with some different flavours next time round — a dirty job I know, but someone has to take one for the team!

Anyway, try it out. You won’t be disappointed.

Ingredients:
350g quality dark chocolate
3 eggs, separated
1/2 cup light olive oil
1/4 cup orange liqueur

Method:

1. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, stirring constantly. You can also melt the chocolate in a microwave  — cook on high in 30-second bursts, stirring between cycles until chocolate is almost melted, then remove from the microwave and continue to stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.

2. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add yolks one by one, beating after each addition until well combined.

3. Add cooled melted chocolate to the egg mixture, beating as you go until mixture is smooth.

4. Gradually add olive oil and orange liqueur, beating as you go until well combined.

5. Spoon into small dessert glasses or dishes (or dainty teacups as a novelty serving idea) — you’ll only want very small servings, as it is decadently rich. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 4 hours. Can be made the day before.

Serves 6.

If I had to pick my last meal, it would definitely have chocolate as an ingredient — and lots of it. Let’s face it; too much chocolate is barely enough!

One of my favourite winter ‘comfort food’ desserts is chocolate self-saucing pudding; an oldie but a goody. This one is an absolute corker — a coronary in every bowl!

Chocolate self-saucing pudding

Ingredients:
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup cocoa, plus 2 tblspn extra
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
50g butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
2/3 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/4 cups boiling water

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius (160 degrees Celcius fan-forced).

2. Sift flour and cocoa together into a mixing bowl, then add caster sugar and choc chips and stir through.

3. Mix the melted butter and milk in a jug, then pour into the dry ingredients. Stir until combined and put into a greased ovenproof dish.

4. In a jug, combine boiling water, extra cocoa and brown sugar stir until combined. Pour over the cake batter — if you pour it over the back of a spoon, it won’t disturb the cake layer, giving a better-looking finished pudding.

5. Cook for about 45 minutes, depending on your oven. The pudding is cooked when the surface springs back when pressed lightly.

5. Let the pudding rest for about 5 minutes before serving. Transfer to bowls and top with cream or ice cream.

What with it being winter and all, I was in dire need of some comfort food, so I decided to have a go at making a massaman curry myself for dinner on the weekend. I’m so good to me!

Anyway, now I’m going to be good to you, because it was delicious and here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 600g diced beef chuck steak
• 440ml can coconut cream
• 440ml can coconut milk
• 1/4 cup massaman curry paste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1 onion, peeled and sliced into reasonably thin strips
• 300g sebago potatoes, peeled, cut into 2cm cubes
• 1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• Steamed rice to serve (see my foolproof microwave rice recipe here)
• And you can add some coriander now as garnish if you absolutely must!

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook beef, stirring, for 4 or 5 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate.
2. Reduce heat to medium. Spoon the thick top layer from coconut cream and coconut milk into pan. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes or until oil separates and floats to the top.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and add the curry paste and half of the coconut milk and cream to  to the pan. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Return the beef to the pan. Add the cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, water and remaining coconut cream and coconut milk. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for one hour or until the meat is tender.
5. Add the potato, onions and peanuts. Cook for 35 to 40 minutes or until the onion is soft and the potato tender.
6. Remove the bay leaf. Stir in thet fish sauce and sugar.
7. Serve in a bowl over steamed rice.

The original recipe is from the Taste site, but I made quite a few changes to suit my own tastes.

This dish was so yummy that I got tucked into it before I took a photo of it, so next time it’s on the menu, I’ll post one for you.

In the early days of cooking for myself, I will admit to my relationship with cooking rice being a bit hit and miss — that is, until I got my first microwave.

It was an early Sanyo model and a hulking big thing that took up half the kitchen, but boy could it cook rice! I learnt to cook perfect rice with the cookbook that came with it and have never looked back — perfect rice every time.

So, if you’re a rice tragic, here’s how it’s done:

Empty one cup of long grain rice into a large microwave-safe bowl (a large microwave-specific rice cooker is perfect, but not necessary), add two cups of hot water, cover and cook on High for 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium (50% power) and cook (covered) for a further 10 to 13 minutes (depending on your microwave) until all liquid is absorbed.

Fluff rice up with a fork and serve immediately. Serves four people.

The beauty of this method is that, besides its foolproof results, you can take the rice straight to the table to serve, so there’s only one dish to wash up — and no sticky saucepan to wash up!

The cake has a German-style cake texture and is very moist, and because it contains buttermilk, it is quite moist and keeps well — that is, if there’s any left over at all!

You’ll find the recipe and detailed, illustrated instructions here on the Smitten Kitchen site.

Well, I was allocated the task of bringing the dessert, as I tend to be when we get together once or twice a year. Ordinarily, when I was working full time, dessert would be courtesy of a local patisserie, but since I’m now working from home, I thought I really should make the effort to make something myself.

The result was the best cake I’ve ever eaten, even though I say so myself! It was delicious and moist and kept its shape beautifully when cut.

I got the basic cake recipe from here and the ganache topping recipe from here.

Note: Finding myself castor-sugar-challenged at 11pm at night, I substituted raw sugar and I think it probably enhanced the recipe, as the ‘molassesy’ flavour is very complimentary to the other ingredients.

I was also a bit shy about making the ganache, as I assumed that it was going to be a bit tricky. Quite the contrary, though; it was dead simple and it’ll be making many return appearances in my dessert creations in the future.

Anyway, the cake was a bloody triumph!

Do yourself a favour and try it out. I guarantee word will spread and you’ll be a regular on everyone’s guest list  — as long as you bring dessert. of course!

Well here it is; another of my cousin Kerrie’s scrumptious creations.

INGREDIENTS:

4 egg whites

¾ cup of caster sugar

¾ cup of brown sugar

1 tblsp of cornflour

1 tspn of white vinegar

Cream, whipped

Chocolate, grated or shaved

METHOD:

Beat sugars and egg whites until it forms just firmer than soft peaks. Fold in cornflour and vinegar. Spread the mixture to form a circle onto baking paper on a baking tray, then pop it into the oven at 120°C (100°C fan-forced) for about 2 hours.

Let the pavolva cool in the oven with the door open.

To serve, top the pavlova base with whipped cream and shaved chocolate (or anything else you fancy).

And here’s how it looks when served: crunchy on the outside; marshmallowy and yummy on the inside.

The pavolva base can be stored in an airtight container until later if you want to make it ahead of time or have it on hand to impress unexpected visitors.

As they say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Here’s my cousin Bartholomew giving it his seal of approval.

At a recent family morning tea, Kerrie had baked up a storm and we are still trying to work off the extra inches —but hey, was it worth it!

Here’s the first instalment of the recipes she so kindly consented to share. These chocolate tarts are absolutely devine.

Stay tuned for more goodies in coming days!

CHOCOLATE TARTS

(Makes 18 tarts)

INGREDIENTS:

Tart bases:

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup ground almonds

(also nice to add some crushed walnuts if you have them)

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

125g melted butter

Grease standard-sized muffin tins. Mix all ingredients together and press mixture into the base of each muffin tin hole and up the sides.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180°C (160°C  fan-forced).

Chocolate custard:

½ cup caster sugar

2tblsp cornflour

300ml cream

100g dark chocolate

4 egg yolks

METHOD:

Grease standard-sized muffin tins. Mix all the base ingredients together and press mixture firmly into the base of each muffin tin hole and up the sides to form a tart case.

Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180°C (160°C  fan-forced).

Combine caster sugar, cornflour and cream in a saucepan. Cook, stirring  constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens. Reduce heat and stir for about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in egg yolks and chocolate. Stir until the  chocolate melts and is smooth. Spoon the chocolate custard mixture into the tart shells (each tart will hold about one-and-a-half tablespoons of chocolate custard).

Return the filled cases in the muffin tins to the oven for 10 minutes.

Stand for about 10 minutes, then pop the muffin tins into the refrigerator to set completely.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

You will have 4 egg whites left over, which is perfect for making tomorrow’s recipe: a small caramel pavlova!

Thanks, Kerrie!

June 1 may be the first day of winter in Australia, but winter doesn’t begin in the Lipscombe household until the first pot of pea and ham soup makes its appearance for the year.

Our pea and ham soup is not for the faint-hearted — it adds a new meaning to ‘hearty’, as you can literally stand your spoon up in it!

It’s the best comfort food for lunch on a cold winter’s day and it freezes well to take to work for lunch through the week.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

1 large ham hock
500g green split peas
1 cup of pearl barley, rinsed
3 large brown onions, chopped
1/2 bunch of celery, chopped
4 large carrots, chopped
3 bay leaves
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Place the ham hock in a large boiler of water and bring to the boil, cooking for just a couple of minutes — this helps remove any impurities or scum on the hock skin. Remove the hock and set aside; discard the water and wash the boiler in preparation for cooking the soup.

While the hock is blanching, chop the vegies (I put my vegies as they’re chopped into a large Glad cliplock bag, as there are a lot of vegies here and I can just discard it when I’m done — one less thing to wash up!).

Add a good splash of oilive oil to the boiler and add vegies, cooking for about 10 minutes until they’ve started to lightly brown.

Add the ham hock and remaining ingredients to the vegies and add enough water to cover. Bring to the boil and cook on a slow simmer for around 3 hours — you’ll need to stir occasionally, as this soup can stick, and top up water periodically as needed, depending on how thick you like your soup.

At the end of the cooking process, remove the ham hock. Strip the meat from the bone, shred it and return it to the soup. Stir through and serve with crusty bread.

Bon appetite!

I went looking for a recipe and, as is my usual practice, ended up combining a few recipes to make one that I was happy with — I hate doing that whole bain marie thing, so I wanted to be able to just cook it in the dish I was going to serve it in.

Here’s what I came up with and it turned out a triumph. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo, so we’ll just have to have it again so I can add a pic to this post. Ah well, a dirty job, but I don;t mind taking a hit for the team.

Ingredients
8 slices of stale bread (you can substitute croissants, brioche or panettone for the bread if preferred, but they are probably a bit too rich if you plan to serve the pudding with the caramel sauce below)
6 large eggs
350ml cream
250ml milk
Dash of vanilla (to taste)
1/3 cup sultanas
Castor sugar (add 1/4 cup of caster sugar to the custard mix for sweetness if you don’t plan to serve the pudding with the caramel sauce)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 195C. Grease a medium-sized baking dish (or line it with baking paper if it’s not a very sturdy dish to avoid it overcooking on the bottom and sides and then grease the paper). Lightly butter the bread slices on both sides.

2. Put eggs, cream, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and whisk until combined. Add buttered bread slices to the mixture, pushing them doewn into the liquid. Cover and refrigerate for around 30 minutes until bread has absorbed some of the mixture.

3. Arrange half of the bread slices on the bottom of the dish, tearing slices where necessary to cover the base. sprinkle half of the sultanas over the bread slices, then pour over about one-third of the liquid. Add remaining bread slices in the same manner as before and sprinkle the remaining sultanas, pour over remaining liquid and dust with caster sugar.

4. Cook in the centre of the oven for 30-40 minutes until top is golden brown and the custard is firm. Serve with caramel sauce.

Caramel sauce

Melt 100g of butter in a saucepan. Add 1 1/3 cups of brown sugar and stir constantly until the sugar is melted and the mixture begins to caramelise.  Add 1 1/3 cups of cream slowly, stirring constantly over a low heat until the caramel sauce starts to thicken. Decant into a heatproof jug for serving.