Random Recipes ~ Grand Marnier Chocolate Colettes

Dom decided this month was back to basics for the Random Recipe blog event, so I sent Hubby into the 'library' to randomly select the book for this month.  I'm not so sure his selection was all that random!

I tried to stick to the rules, honest I did, but my first random page was Striped Cylinder Cookies which looked vile!  No point in making something we wouldn't eat ourselves ... or be seen dead offering to friends! So I decided to randomly select another page.  Hello Jewelled Elephants!  Things weren't looking good but my Granny always told me "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again", so on Granny's orders I got Cointreau Chocolate Colettes.  Thanks Granny ;0)

This was still not something I would eat but they did make a lovely little hostess gift for last Saturday's party, eat your heart out Nigella!  I had to make a couple of changes to suit the booze cupboard and so mine are Grand Marnier instead of Cointreau but I guess any kind of liqueur could really be used.  I'm thinking of making Frangelico ones at Christmas.

Grand Marnier Chocolate Colettes
50g dark chocolate
65g milk chocolate
Icing sugar, for dusting
For the Filling
25g dark chocolate
40g milk chocolate
25g unsalted butter
30ml Grand Marnier
60ml double cream, whipped

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl.  Stand the bowl over a pan of hot water and heat gently until the chocolate has melted.

The first (of many) layers are applied

Using a small, clean paintbrush, brush the insides of 14 petit four cases with a thin coating of melted chocolate and leave to set completely.  Repeat three or four times (I applied easily double this number of coats!).  When finally set, carefully peel off the paper cases.

Make the filling.  Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring until smooth.

Remove from the heat.  When cool (but still liquid), stir in the Grand Marnier and fold in the whipped cream.

Chill this mixture until firm, then pipe into the chocolate cases.  Dust with icing sugar.

Makes 14
The Cookie and Biscuit Bible

I'm not going to lie, these are a bit of a faff to make and require some series dedication to the cause.  Given how labour intensive they are I am sure you can imagine how horrified I was to overhear one guest at the party telling others not to eat them because they were 'revolting'!  Did I say horrified?  I meant mortified!!!  I sheepishly headed over to the table with the aim of removing them only to be told by the host that it was actually a devious ploy by the guest to stop others from eating them so as she could have them all for herself.  Immediately relived as I was, it did take a little while for the red flush to leave my face!!!

Random Recipe Challenge ~ Botham Burgers

Firstly I feel I need to apologise for my lack of blogging lately.  Not only has finding the time to post my antics hard to come by, but visiting blogs and catching up on all the gossip with my friends has also been difficult.  Sorry!  To add insult to injury, blogger is just not playing fair and has thrown a complete tantrum over photos which is why they have been few and far between on the posts I have completed!!  My picasa work around is quickly wearing thin too as I am now nearing the full storage limit and the increase the limit means handing over cold hard cash!  And now my email has decided to join the club too ...

Pressing on to more important matters, the time is drawing near to get my post completed for Dom's Random Recipe challenge this month, which he very cleverly decided should come from the first cookbook that started all our collections off.  I decided to settle on the first cookbook I got in the UK ... if I went for the proper first cookbook I would have had to ask my Mum to send it over, a classy kids book with cartoon pictures of a cat and a dog let loose in the kitchen complete with chef's hats!  Can't seem to recall any of the recipes!

So, the first cookbook in my UK collection came courtesy of my big brother.  It was part of a birthday gift I received in my first year in the UK and contained a lovely hat, scarf and glove set from Accessorise (which I still use by the way!  My big brother knows me so well!) and a copy of Jamie Oliver's new book "The Return Of The Naked Chef".  To this day I still don't know what on earth possessed him to buy me a cookbook, my love of food didn't develop for another few years but clearly he knew something I didn't.

Following along with the 'what on earth possessed' theme was the choice of recipe from the book for the challenge.  The day after the challenge was set Hubby and I were talking about having a barbie, Hubby was lamenting his recent love lose of the classic burger just as I should flick to the page with the Botham Burger ... I'm pretty sure you can guess the rest!

Jamie Oliver's Botham Burger
1kg minced beef, preferably organic
2 medium red onions, finely chopped
2 eggs
1-2 handfuls of fresh breadcrumbs
1 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 small pinch cumin seeds, crushed
1 heaped tsp dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 230C.  Mix and scrunch all the ingredients together.  Use the breadcrumbs as required to bind the mixture.  Divide into 4, then gently and lightly mould and pack each burger together into a smallish cricket ball sized shapes.  Place in the oven and roast for 25 mins, which should leave the middle slightly pink and the outsides nice and crispy.  Serve with regular burger style sides!

Makes 4
Jamie Oliver's 'The Return Of The Naked Chef'

The above is how Jamie makes them.  I make them pretty much the same, apart from the burgers are flattened to ensure even cooking (Hubby doesn't like pink in his meat!) and we cook them on the barbie for roughly the same amount of time.  I have now made this recipe twice more, Hubby is totally addicted and last weekend we took them along to a barbie with friends and everyone raved about them, so there is some strong testimony from some finicky eaters!  The biggest thumbs up seems to come from the 'Chilli-Cheese' Burger, where these are cooked with a healthy layer of homemade hot chilli sauce and topped with slices of cheese which are then left on the barbie (with the hood down!) to molten lava stage.

Random Recipe Challenge ~ Ricotta and Herb Baked Chicken

For this months Random Recipe Challenge, Dom decided to mix things up a little bit.  We each had to select the 18th book in our collection and select something from that to cook.  Book number 18 for me is Donna Hay's 'Simple Essentials - Chicken', oh how I wish the number had been number 17, then I would of got Donna Hay's 'Simple Essentials - Chocolate'!!!  But I wanted to do Dom's challenge justice this month seeing as I had slightly adjusted the rules last month and stuck fast to the chicken book.  Keeping true to my blog I needed to find a baked recipe and Donna did not fail ... as if she ever would!

Ricotta and Herb Baked Chicken
190g ricotta
1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind
1 tbsp chopped basil leaves
1 tbsp chopped oregano leaves
1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley leaves
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
4 x 200g chicken breast fillets
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
125ml chicken stock
Extra basil leaves, to serve

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Place the ricotta, rind, basil, oregano, parsley, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well to combine.  Use a sharp knife to cut a slit in the side of each chicken breast to create a pocket.  Spoon the ricotta mixture into the pockets.  Place the chicken in an ovenproof dish.  Add the tomatoes, garlic and stock and bake for 25 mins or until the chicken is cooked through.  Sprinkle with basil to serve.

Serves 4
Donna Hay, Simple Essentials - Chicken

We had this for dinner last Sunday night served with char grilled asparagus and some cherry tomatoes.  It was OK, not as special as I had hoped for but not a disaster either.  We would probably have this again but next time I would rather that the tomato sauce was a wee bit thicker so it could be served alongside the chicken, the vast majority of the sauce remained in the pot and was ultimately wasted because it was far too soupy to serve on a plate.  A shame but with a few tweaks here and there it has some potential ;0)

Random Recipe Challenge ~ Basil, Mascarpone and Ricotta Tart

We had friends around for dinner last night, one is a veggie, the other is a 'freedom' eater (vegetarian although he eats meat as and when he chooses, which usually tends to strikearound about the time we are at the German Christmas Market and he's had a few gluhweins!) and then there are the fussy eating habits of Hubby and I.  No pressure when planning the menu there then!

Fearing this challenge wasn't fraught with enough danger already I also decided to up the ante by taking part in Dom's  Random Recipe Challenge, and find a recipe for our main meal from one of my neglected and seldom appreciated cookbooks.  Dom's idea is to randomly selected one of your books and then randomly select a recipe from the index which you then need to make, if you've made it before then you should turn to the recipe on the next page and make that instead. 

Forgive me Dom but I cheated!  While the book was randomly selected, it was actually shortlisted from a whole host of books that I've had in my collection but either haven't used at all or I've used quite sparingly.  Then given the constraints of my dinner guests I selected a recipe from the index that was not only vegetarian but would also suit the carnivores.  But I figure the point of the challenge is to encourage everyone to use books that are often neglected and to try recipes that maybe wouldn't be considered normally, in which case I didn't cheat at all ... at least that's my excuse and I am sticking to it ;0)

Basil, Mascarpone and Ricotta Tart

1 pre-baked 26cm tart shell (another cheat!  I used store bought shortcrust to make the tart shell as I was short on time)
Filling
250g mascarpone
350g creme fraiche
370g ricotta
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
3 big handfuls of basil leaves (or 3-4 tbsp pesto if stuck for fresh basil)
80g freshly grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Make the tart shell!

Then pile all the ingredients for the filling in to a food processor and whiz them until they're thoroughly mixed together, stopping to scrape down the sides once as you go.  Don't over mix or the texture can turn grainy.  Taste to see how strong the basil is and add more if required.

Pour the filling into the prepared tart shell and bake for 40-50 mins, or until the filling is wobbly set and a bit puffed.  Remove the tart from the oven and leave it to settle in the tin for a few mins.

When you are ready to serve, carefully remove the tart from the tin and slide it onto a serving plate.  Its best served warm rather than hot.

Serves 6-8
Belinda Jeffery's Tried and True Recipes

I confess to being slightly disappointed with this tart.  It was a bit luck luster really ... but now I've typed the recipe out I realise that I forgot to put the parmesan in!  Doh!  It did create some lively conversation around the dinner table though once I had stated that it seemed to be missing something.  The freedom eater thought maybe blue cheese would do the trick , I wondered if maybe parmesan would add the missing sparkle (20:20 hindsight!) ... possibly the addition of a very finely chopped semi dried tomato or two?  At lunch time I even tried it with a dollop of caramelised onion chutney, which was delicious but totally overpowered the basil in the tart.  Well ... now I know what was missing ... we'll just keep that one between us ;0)