Monday 14 December 2009


A touch of rich chocolate for the festive season


Although not a huge chocolate fan myself I do appreciate that my guests will usually love it and this one is a proven winner – it’s really rich so goes a long way – I picked the recipe up from a magazine recently but can’t remember where, so some of you may recognize it.


The cake needs a lot of eggs and my friend Jan had arrived the previous day with some wonderfully fresh laid eggs from her chickens, which made the baking all the more pleasurable. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare the mixture and 30 minutes or so to cook.

You’ll need:-
200g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate (70% or more)
5 eggs
1 tbs self raising flour
200g icing sugar

Put your oven on to 180 degrees (gas mark 4)

Using the bain marie technique – melt the butter and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water. When the ingredients have melted together tip the chocolate and butter in to another bowl and add the eggs one at a time to avoid curdling, mixing well all the time. Then beat the flour and icing sugar in until all is well blended together. Pour the mixture into a cake tin which you have previously greased and floured – I used a 23cm one as I wanted to cut thin slices.

Bake in the oven for about 25-35 minutes until solid but with a slight give to the touch. When the cake is cool serve with a scoop of good vanilla ice cream with fruit coulis drizzled over it for added colour. I make batches of fruit coulis when fruits are in season and store them in small plastic containers in the freezer – strawberry, raspberry and apricot in particular look lovely with this sort of dish in the winter.

Hope that all you chocaholics enjoy this one – Happy Christmas to you all.

Thursday 3 December 2009

Susie’s Provence style chicken


This week's recipe is our interpretation of a popular recipe from the South of France that we have perfected over the years and can easily be adapted for a supper for 6 or a meal for 30. We cooked this for a visiting choir last summer in the height of the tomato season when there was an abundance of fresh basil in our herb garden and the market was full of the wonderful fresh purple garlic tresses which inspired Susie's pastel painting.

This recipe will serve 6 people. You will need:
• 6 chicken breasts
• 750 g of fresh or tinned tomatoes
• 3 medium size red onions (you can use others but the red ones are sweetest)
• 20 black olives (stoned)
• 1 large lemon
• Bunch of fresh thyme leaves
• Bunch of fresh basil
• 4 large cloves of garlic
• 1 glass of white wine
• Salt and fresh ground black pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons of good olive oil

1. Squeeze the lemon and pour the juice into a bowl. Add the garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and a dash of olive oil – blend together to make a paste. Cover the chicken breasts with the paste and place in a bowl in the fridge for about an hour.
2. Meanwhile skin your tomatoes and roughly chop them up and put on one side.
3. Gently fry the chopped onions in a heavy based oven -proof pan with the olive oil until soft, then add the tomatoes and torn up basil leaves. Cover and simmer on a low heat for about 20 minutes (the scent will be wonderful at this stage)
4. When the chicken has marinated for an hour place in a pan with the remaining olive oil and sauté until browned, then add the wine and stir gently for a few minutes.
5. Add the chicken and all the juices to the tomato and onion mixture and cook in a preheated oven (175°C/Gas mark 4) for about an hour, until the chicken is cooked through, adding the black olives for the last few minutes.
6. Serve with a crusty loaf and green beans or green salad.