WCC No. 25 - Nigella! Plus! Petites Bouchées!

One of my very favorite events that I try hard not to miss often - although I do miss quite a few. :( - is Sara's Weekend Cookbook Challenge. This month is hosted by Ani of Foodie Chickie and she came up with the theme of Nigella Lawson. I loves me my Nigella. I have lurved her for many years. Ever since I had trouble sleeping one night and was flipping channels.. I hit the Style! network and saw this drop dead gorgeous woman cooking up something fantastic. I didn't know what she was cooking when I flipped to her show and I don't think I ever found out during the show.. all I know is that she made it look delicious, whatever it was. There isn't another cooking show shot the way Nigella's shows are shot. The graceful way she stirs a pot.. the sexy sizzle when the Extra Virgin hits the smokin' hot pan.. the way she can make a straight women, like myself, simply swoon while watching her shove a very large spoonful of something creamy in her mouth making it look like a delicate nibble.. Ahhhh yes.. I do loves me my Nigella. I think Brilynn will agree with my next statement. Many of Nigella's recipes suck. Yes, Yes, I know.. in some circles that could be construed as blasphemy, and for that I do apologize.. but it is a true statement for some of us! I've just not had much luck with some of her recipes. Bechemel sauce - chicken & ham dice (and last night's washed dishes) - filling ready to go - Hubbs and his master rolling skillz (nevermind his tattered old sweatshirt and the sink full of dirty dishes) :P But it's for a WCC and I haven't played in a while, so I hadda suck it up and try a Nigella recipe again. I could have went with a sure thing and picked one of her decadent cakes.. but instead I decided to be DARING (it's not just for bakers, you know) and chose a savory recipe. To be specific.. Nigella's Chicken Pot Pies. But I went singular.. only because I don't own smaller vessels to make individual pies. And lookie there.. I just bold faced lied to you all. I did not cook this recipe. Hubbs did! He had a day off yesterday due to the spankin' we got from Mother Nature, so he offered to make dinner.. bless his steel toed boots. :) He followed the recipe to a T.. almost.. the recipe only calls for peas, chicken and ham.. but we need more veggies.. so he added a carrot and a celery stalk. The rest was made by the book. It turned out quite lovely.. awwwwwwwwww! How romantic is that chicken pot pie?? :)) I enjoyed this, actually. The filling was creamy and tasty and I liked that we could add a lil smokey ham to the chicken and veg mix. The only thing I wasn't too keen on was the pastry. I think I would prefer puff pastry instead of the pastry called for in her recipe.. but even so, it was a decent recipe that we'll he'll make again one day. :) Unfortunately, it's wayyyyy past my bedtime and I've got a very busy morning tomorrow.. Daring Baker reveal day.. it's right around the corner! :) Not to mention, there is another very important bit I'd like to add to this post.. so I am not going to type out the 3 page recipe here. If you'd like it.. just drop me a line at lamiacucina-AT-adelphia-DOT-net and I'll send it to you. Thanks so much for hosting and picking a terrific theme, Ami! And thank you, as always, Sara my love.. just for being you. :) Okay.. I had to share with ya'll something that many of you might already know.. I've been excited since I first heard she was going through the process of getting licensed to bake for profit and it's lead up to what I received in the mail today. My Sis - the gal who shares my same brain and my love of scary movies - Veronica, of Veronica's Test Kitchen has launched a new baking business! Today, I was one of the very lucky recipients of a "test" package of luscious macarons. She wasn't sure how they would ship, so OF COURSE, I offered any assistance she might need in being on the disovery end of that shipment - seriously, what are friends for, right?? :D My package arrived by a very careless delivery driver who dropped the box on our stoop (totally ignoring the giant FRAGILE written all over the box). But after opening her very carefully packaged box, I found a small, sleek, brown box with a gorgeous slim pink ribbon tied around it. The little box was encased in a pretty cello wrapper with Veronica's business name and logo attached. I carefully opened the little bag and then slipped the ribbon off the box and peeked inside. Twelve perfectly shaped, colorful and sinfully delicious smelling macarons nestled in pretty tissue paper were inside. Out of the twelve, only one was marred by a couple small cracks. Excellent packaging, Sis!! I demonstrated the utmost in restraint by slipping the pretty box into my fridge until after we ate dinner. Later this evening when my sweet tooth started nagging me, I retrieved the box and first choose a Hazelnut with Salted Caramel Cream. Oh. My. God. Like no other macaron.. the cookie was crispy on the outside, soft, creamy and chewy on the inside.. different from other macarons I've had (that were delightful as well!) in that they weren't shells. Ya'll know what I mean? When you bit into these macarons, the cookie wasn't a crispy/chewy shell that screamed meringue and crushed nuts. These cookies had substance. And the filling? Just the right amount of salt in the caramel and it was creamy.. perfection. I next tried what I think is Pistachio with Chocolate Ganache that also had me swooning. Finally a Vanilla macaron with Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Buttercream filling. I could have died right then and been declared a very happy woman!! Yeah, some of you might be thinking that I'm saying all these wonderful things about Veronica's macarons because she is my friend, but you'd be wrong. These are some SERIOUS macarons and you shant judge me until you've tried one (or a dozen) for yourself! Click on over to her business site, Petites Bouchées and order yourself up a box.. You Will! Not! be Disappointed! Thanks for lettin' me be one of your testers, Sis.. you've done a beautiful job and you've definitely MASTERED the art of macarons! :) xoxo

WCC No. 13 or Nigella, the things I do for you...

Sick sick *sniffle* *cough* *nose blow* *sniffle* *sneeze* *cough* *cough* *cough* I believe that sums up my weekend. How was yours? I've always liked participating in sweet Sara's Weekend Cookbook Challenge and being sick wasn't going to stop me this month. Sara picked the theme of finding a recipe from a newly acquired cookbook, figuring most of us foodies more than likely received at least ONE new cookbook for Christmas. Well, at least for me, she was right. :D I was given Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson, because I've gushed so many times over Nigella's Feast cookery book in the past. As I've said more than a few times on this lil blog o'mine, Nigella Bites did not thrill me. I had even considered taking it back and trading it for something else, like Anthony Bourdain's The Nasty Bits (why do I find this man so very sexy??), but I ended up holding on to it hoping that I just wasn't in a true Nigella mood each time I've looked at it and that one day I'd browse again and fall in love with Nigella anew. 'kay so I am lazy and kept forgetting and now the 30 days has ran out so I can't take it back. What. Ever. :P Well this month's WCC gave me the perfect opportunity to see if I could look beyond the hum-drumness (It's my new word. Shaddap.) of this book and find something that will just knock the damn socks off everyone who lays eyes upon my wonderful salute to Nigella. Mmm hmmm... Yip, looks gorgeous doesn't it? Kind of like a can of wet dog food that's been inverted on a plate.. you know - the kind that has that slimy gel on the bottom? Mmm Mmm Good! *blech* That's Nigella's Easy Sticky-Toffee Dessert, and not really a can of dog food. Honest. I knew the minute I stuck a spoon into my pudding that something had gone drastically wrong. The sauce wasn't a deep rich brown color and it definitely wasn't sticky, it was goopy and thin. I wasn't exactly sure what went wrong until I tasted it. There is nothing like a spongy brown sugar cake laying over a pool of toffee sauce whose flavor has been washed away by too! much! water! NOTHING. So why am I wasting everyone's time looking at a nasty picture that tastes almost as good as it looks? Because, I have to admit, this was not Nigella's fault. It was mine. *sigh* You see, I didn't want to make one big pudding like her recipe suggests, I wanted to make 4 smaller puddings in my ramekins. And because I didn't alter the recipe at all and just divided it into equal amounts, I did not alter the amount of boiling water to be poured over the top of each lil pudding. I should have. Because I didn't, that extra water just washed out the flavor of the sauce completely. My bad. So, I firmly believe that this is most likely a fabulous, rich and ooey gooey dessert that deserves a chance. Do you know why I'm such a firm believer? Check this out.. go ahead, I'll wait. *tap* *tap* *sniffle* *cough* *whistle* *tap* Welcome back! Drooling, aren't you? Ivonne made this pudding the correct way and she was rewarded with caramelly toffee goodness. Pay attention to Ivonne's example when making this recipe! Or be a rebel like me and make it in individual portions but cut back the water by at least half. Easy Sticky-Toffee Dessert Adapted from Nigella Bites by Nigella Lawson For the cake: scant 1/3 c. dark brown sugar, packed 1 c. plus 2 TBS. self-rising flour 1/2 c. whole milk 1 egg 1 tsp. vanilla 1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted 3/4 c. plus 2 TBS. chopped, rolled dates (I'm not fond of them so I subbed jumbo raisins instead) For the sauce: 3/4 c. dark brown sugar, packed Approx. 2 TBS. unsalted butter in little blobs 2 1/4 c. boiling water Preheat oven to 375º F and butter a 1 1/2 quart capacity baking dish. Combine the sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring cup, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter then pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring - just with a wooden spoon - to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared baking dish. Don't worry if it doesn't look very full: it will do by the time it cooks. Sprinkle over the sugar for the sauce and dot with the butter. Pour over the boiling water (yes really!) and transfer to the oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes, though you might find the dessert needs 5 to 10 minutes more. The top of the dessert should be springy and spongy when it's cooked; underneath, the butter, dark brown sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche or heavy or light cream as you wish. Serves 6-8. Oh and if you were wondering about the title.. the things I do for Nigella? Yes well it was roughly around 3º F. yesterday with a wind chill factor of -18º. While gathering my ingredients to make this delicious dessert, I realized I had no dark brown sugar in the house. God. Rather than find something else to make, I got dressed and went out into the antarctic elements to buy dark brown sugar. While I am SICK, people. *sneeze*

Mocha Chocolata ya ya..

Yes my doc is going to give me hell again.. but let's be honest. I just am not cut out to be a diabetic. I am a chocoholic and that "ic" came way before the diabet"ic" so the way I see it.. chocolate wins. Hands down. So I was going through my Nigella and I found this recipe for Chocolate Espresso Cake with Caffe Latte Cream. Hello. Two of my favorite flavors - chocolate and coffee, how could I go wrong? Yeah well.. I couldn't. This cake is sinfully rich packed with a major decadently chocolate punch. And I even got a bonus surprise after cutting into it.. the middle is gooey and oozes like those lava cakes - not quite as much as a true lava cake, but oozey just the same. *swoon* I do have to admit to one error in judgement while making this cake. The Caffe Latte cream is made with white chocolate. Something I loathe. She even makes a comment about people who dislike white chocolate, "Don't be put off if you don't like white chocolate: you don't taste it here; it just counters the sharpness of the instant espresso powder in a slightly caramelly way, which in turn is softened by the cream." But because of my extreme dislike for the stuff, I don't keep it in my house so I decided that a good dark chocolate butter cream would be good on this cake. Well.. no, it wasn't so great.. it was more like chocolate overkill. The next time I make this cake (and ohhh I will make it again!) I will either try the Caffe Latte cream or I will go without anything as the cake really can stand on it's own - it's that damn good. The second small change I made, which really didn't effect taste at all but gave the sides a great deep dark brownish-black color, was I dusted my springform pan with Hershey's dark chocolate cocoa powder because I didn't have enough parchment paper to line the pan. If you are a chocolate/coffee addict as I am.. try this cake =) Chocolate Espresso Cake with Caffe Latte Cream courtesy of Nigella Lawson For the cake: 5 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used Lindt semisweet) 1 stick, plus 3 TBS. butter 6 eggs 1 1/4 c. superfine sugar (I used regular white sugar that I ran through my food processor to make it fine) 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1/2 c. all-purpose flour 5 tsp. instant espresso powder 1/4 c./4 TBS. Tia Maria or other coffee liqueur (I didn't have any so I omitted it) For the Caffe Latte Cream: 3 oz. white choclate, broken into small pieces 1 1/2 c. heavy cream scant 2 tsp. instant espresso powder Take anything you need out of the fridge to bring to room temperature. The only truly important thing, however, is that the eggs aren't cold, so if they are, just put them into a bowl and cover them with warm water for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 350º F. Butter and line a 9 inch springform pan. Melt the chocolate and butter in a microwave or double boiler and set aside to cool slightly. Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together until thick, pale and moussey. They should have at least doubled in volume, even tripled. If you're using a standing mixer, as I do, this is effortless. Gently fold in the flour and espresso powder, taking care not to lose the air you have created, and finally add the melted chocolate and butter, folding gently again. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, by which time the top of the cake should be firm, and the underneath still a bit gooey. Immediately pour over the Tia Maria and then let the cake cool completely on a rack before releasing it from the pan. For the cream, melt the white chocolate either in a microwave or double boiler, and let it cool. Fold in the cream and espresso powder, whipping the latte cream together to thicken it a little. For some reason the white chocolate seems to make the cream instantly thicker; if I whisk the cream first it can seize a little when it's stirred into the chocolate. Sit the sprung cake on a plate and fill the middle sunken crate with the caffe latte cream and dust with a little cocoa, or just put the buff-colored cream in a bowl with a spoon, to serve alongside the cake, dusting or not with cocoa or, indeed, instant espresso powder or a mixture of both, as you wish.