Chocolate Mousse with Savoiardi and Vanilla Cream

Oh my, is this yum! A recipe from an anonymous donor that I have adapted a little. Can chocolate mousse ever really be bad though...?

Chocolate Mousse with Savoiardi and Vanilla Cream

2 king-sized bars (250g) of very dark chocolate
2 eggs, separated
1tsp ground coffee
2tbsp brandy or cointreau
300ml (approx) whipped cream
1 small packet Savoiardi biscuits (italian sponge fingers--available at Nosh & Farro)
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 vanilla bean

Reserve a few slabs for decoration, then melt the remaining chocolate in a double boiler. Cool slightly then add egg yolks and ground coffee. Mix well. Add alcohol, beat egg whites until peaks form, then gently fold into chocolate mixture. Whip the cream, reserving some (unwhipped) for garnish, and fold into mixture. Pour into individual serving dishes (always think would look lovely in a mixture of assorted vintage tea cups) and refrigerate until set (about an hour).

Vanilla Cream

Slice open vanilla bean and scrape out seeds with a knife. Mix seeds and icing sugar into remaining cream and whisk to soft peaks. Crush the savoiardi with your hands and sprinkle onto chilled mousse. Top with vanilla cream and a sprinkling of grated dark chocolate.

Beef Mince with Snake Beans

This is actually a winner!  Tried this a couple of weeks back after a rave from Sarah and Phil.   Fast and yummy!  And you can use it with pretty much anything on hand...beans, brocoli, zuchnini.....

300g prime beef mince

1 tsp chicken stock powder

1 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

600g snake beans (or french beans) trimmed into 3cm pieces

1/2 onion finely chopped

1 tsp ginger finely grated

1 tsp oyster sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce

Place beef in small bowl with stock and cornflour and combine. Set aside. Heat half of oil and sizzle half garlic until fragrant.  Add beans and stir fry for 1-2 mins until just cooked.  Remove and set aside.

Heat remaining dollop of oil. Add remaining garlic, onion and ginger. Stir fry over high heat until fragrant.  Add mince nd cook for 2-3 mins until browned.  Add sauces and cook 1-2 mins. Return beans and cook for another 1 minute.  Serve with steamed rice. Let me know what you think!

Pistachio Lemon Bites

Thank you Rae Candy for the recipe for these tasty little numbers!

Pistachio Lemon Bites

300g (10.5 oz) butter, softened

3 tbsp caster sugar

150g (5.5 oz) pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

2.5 cups plain flour

1 tbsp lemon rind

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180C (355F). Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 4 minutes or until light and creamy. Add the pistachios and beat for 2 minutes. Fold through the flour and lemon rind and mix until well combined. Roll tablespoonfuls of the mixture into balls, place on a baking tray lined with baking paper, flatten slightly and bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar. Makes 30.

Jo's Choc Bit Slice

A delicious slice (recipe given to me by the lovely Jo Thom). So bad but SO good!

Jo's Choc Bit Slice

100g melted butter

1 packet plain biscuits, crushed

1 packet Nestle choc bits

1 cup long thread coconut

1 cup slivered almonds

1 tin sweetened condensed milk

Melt butter, pour over biscuit crumbs and mix. Press into the bottom of swiss roll tin.

Then sprinkle over choc bits, coconut, almonds and drizzle over condensed milk. Bake at 180C for about 20-30mins or until golden brown.

Cool in tin, then slice and store in fridge.

Nan's Sultana Cake

All I can say is...yum!

Nan's Delicious Sultana Cake

500g saltanas

250g butter

1.5 cups sugar

3 eggs

1.5 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp each vanilla essence, lemon essence, almond essence

Wash saltanas, put in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 5 mins. Strain and pour hot fruit over butter in large bowl. Cream sugar and eggs together then add to butter mixture when butter is melted. Sift in flour and baking powder and add essence. Bake in tin lined with baking paper for 1.5hrs at 180C.

Taco Soup and Corn Bread

I added an old favourite to the mix this week. My husband had been craving Taco Soup (a recipe given to me by my auntie) which I've enjoyed many times but never actually cooked myself.

Verdict: SO EASY (didn't realize quite how easy--a zillion cans of things mixed together an heated, really) and a bit of an all-round winter winner. Yum.

Husband's craving: satisfied.

I thought I'd combine it with a corn bread recipe I added to my scrap book a year or so ago. I'd been reading a book set in Georgia at the time, full of descriptions of southern food. The book made me hunt this recipe down. It's a bit of a winner also.

Taco Soup

750g mince

2 red onions, chopped

2 tin corn in brine

2 tins whole tomatoes

2 tins kidney beans

1 large tin tomato puree

1 packet taco soup seasoning (I used chilli con carne)

Brown mince and onions. Add remaining ingredients and cook slowly for approx 1.5hrs. Serve with sour cream, corn bread and green beans.

Corn Bread

2 cups cornmeal (strangely, the only place I can find it in Auckland is Countdown Greenlane)

1/2 cup flour

1 tbsp sugar

1tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups buttermilk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tbsp butter
2 cups corn kernels
1/4 oil for the pan/skillet

Preheat oven to very hot, pour oil on to skillet and allow it to heat up in oven, remove and pour off the oil. Mix dry ingredients then stir in wet. Mix in corn kernels. Reduce oven temp slightly and bake until golden.

baby chocolate banana bread loaves

I tied these after a random but very mouth wateringly successful magazine browse. SO so good! I made a fresh batch and took them down to the beach with a hot pot of coffee. Great way to start the day! They were the perfect start to Friday morning on the beach!

makes 8

3 ripe bananas

3/4 cups caster sugar

100g butter, melted

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp milk

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate bits

1 Heat oven to 190C (170C in a fan bake). Spray or line with baking paper 8 3/4cup capacity loaf tins with baking spray. In a bowl, place mashed bananas, sugar, melted butted, egg, vanilla and milk. Stir to combine.

2 Sift flour, baking powder and baking soda onto banana mixture and stir to combine. Stir in the chocolate bits.

3 Spoon mixture into prepared loaf tins and bake for 20 - 25 mins or until skewer inserted in middle comes out clean but moist.

4 Remove to wire rack to cool. Serve warm or cold (warm is out of this world).

Hot tips - Make sure mixture is cool before adding chocolate bits or else they will melt. I used dark choc block chopped and it was sublime! Also being a bit of a hurried baker...I used the food processor. just don't over mix once the flour goes in or it will go stodgy. Bless the food processor!

Nan's Peanut Brownies

Peanut Brownies: another of my Nan's old recipes. I say old because A) it's another childhood favourite, B) my grandmother used pounds and ounces and all those archaic measurements despite living in the 21st century, so I had to do a haphazard conversion (not sure whether it worked for me) and C) it includes shreddo. Does anyone bake with shreddo anymore? I'm such a baking novice I really have no clue.

Verdict: the RECIPE is amazing, we devoured these things as kids, however I think that winging the metric conversion was not the best idea. The texture was not what it should be, from memory. I'll stick the old measurements in here (easy for you Americans) and suggest that any Kiwi reading use an internet conversion site to get the recipe just right--it's worth it. I'll have to try again I think.

Extra baking tip: Spoon the mixture on to the tray in lumps and don't press them flat. I did. They all spread into one another and I had to break up chunks of biscuit like peanut brittle. They looked a little rustic compared to Nan's perfect cookie bundles. :)

Nan's Peanut Brownies

1 lb peanuts
1 dessert spoon cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
3 oz butter
1/2 oz shreddo
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 small cup sugar
vanilla essence (a few drops)

Cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla essence, then dry ingredients. Bake at 350F for 20 mins.