Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 25

Continuing my predilection for Friday night baking I whipped up the Dark Chocolate & Amaretto Cake from The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook when I returned home from work. My thinking was that if I made it early we could enjoy it all weekend, and so we did! Though I did make the mistake of having a piece later that night when it was still slightly warm and the chocolate was still gooey - I should have waited as it was much nicer the following morning. The crunch of the chocolate and the biscuits was delicious with the soft texture of the sponge; this was a very easy cake to make and made for one very happy weekend!

When it comes to special occasions I always like to bake something, to find something that I know the other person likes, and knowing my Dad’s fondness for the chocolate orange I baked the Chocolate Orange Brownies from Cook in Boots by Ravinder Bhogal for a special Father’s Day treat. Although I used the size tin specified in the recipe they came out a lot bigger than the picture indicated, and took a lot longer to cook – but what finally came out were some proper man-size brownies that smelt wonderfully orangey. Following a very enjoyable afternoon in the pub with my lovely Dad we headed home for beer and brownies (though I just shared one as they were fairly substantial, and for testing purposes only you understand).

Having neglected the mighty aubergine recently my next recipe of the week was Baked Aubergines with Spinach & Pecorino from Fantastico! by Gino D’acampo (recently donated to me by a friend, I love friends like that!). The aubergines took a bit longer to cook than was specified, but that simply gave me longer to complete my ironing (multi-tasking at its best!). They were stuffed with tomatoes, spinach, pine nuts, cooked aubergine flesh then topped with mozzarella and baked. While the dish was very nice there seemed to be something lacking in the flavour, if I make it again I would probably add a pinch of chilli (big surprise there!) or some more herbs. I have only been satisfied with one stuffed aubergine dish that I’ve made and that was from the master himself, Ottolenghi – why did I think that could be topped?

 

Another cracking recipe this week was the Creamy Pea and Chive Risotto from BBC Good Food, and while I may have fudged it by using risotto rice instead of pearl barley it was still absolutely delicious – I do love peas in a risotto! And I know the addition of the cream cheese was to make up from the lack of creaminess of the barley, but what the hell I threw it in anyway…and it was scrummy. I haven’t cooked a risotto for a while (there was a time when we’d have one every other week) and I’d forgotten how much I like the soothing stirring action, it gets quite hypnotic after a while. A nice and simple recipe for the midweek dinner table, you can’t ask for more than that. 

 

Rigatoni con Asparagi Piselli e Funghi was my final recipe of the week, from Gino’s Pasta, though obviously I omitted the mushrooms – my intolerance to them is too painful to ignore. I loved the combination of peas and asparagus, coated in a creamy sauce spiked with smoked paprika, but I have to say that I could have done without the leeks. I mean I like leeks but I’m not sure they added anything here and if I were to make it again I may just leave them out too. A nice simple evening meal, especially after whipping up pavlova and chocolate ice cream…but that will have to wait until next week’s write-up!

Recipe Count: 79
New Target: 104