Chocolate Pear Pudding with Hot Chocolate Sauce

Choco-holics pay attention. This is a recipe for you. There are a lot of desserts in this book and I cannot possibly eat them all myself. Firstly I'm not really that much of a dessert person. I am a pastry and salty person. Desserts just aren't my bag baby...that is unless they're pastry. So I'd volunteered to bring a dessert to a Sunday dinner at my inlaws house. This way I win points with the inlaws while knocking off a recipe at the same time. It's win-win really.

This afternoon I started on the recipes. The Pudding calls for a 22cm square pan. I measured the square pan I have. It was slightly bigger but I figured it would work - so it might be a bit thinner, no biggie. Well it turned out to be a biggie after all. I buttered my pan, laid down the pears. Set about mixing the batter and then went to spread it over the pears as per Nigella's instructions...only I didn't get very far doing this. I'd spread the batter as thin as I could and I had about 2/3's of the pears covered. Fuck. I know, it's a strong word - but what was I to do? I had to be at the inlaws in about 90 minutes and my recipe was in a downward spiral. So I think to myself..I guess I'll just make another batch of the batter...about a half portion should do it...but do I have enough butter???????

I hadn't bought a new pound of butter for this because I'd weighed what I had left the day before and I'd had well over the 150g required for the recipe...but not necessarily enough for a second batch...but all I needed was enough for a half batch. I went to the fridge holding my breath and when I looked at the butter my heart sank. There wasn't much there at all. I was certain I was screwed but I weighed it anyhow. And can you believe my luck - I had exactly 75g worth of butter. I mean EXACTLY. I let a massive exhale of breath, nearly said a Hail Mary - but I'm not Catholic, and started on batch #2.

Now batch #2 was a last minute effort to save this recipe from disaster and as such my butter was not a room temperature. But I didn't let that stop me. I was on a time limit and my mixer would just have to break that butter down for me...which it did nicely..until I got to the spreading part again. Because batch #1 had been made correctly with room temp. ingredients it was super spreadable. But with batch #2's cold butter it was very stiff to spread. This was not a good combination. It took me forever to get this so that there were no exposed pears. Just getting the spreading done was an accomplishment all it's own. But once I did I popped it in the oven and set to start the chocolate sauce.

The sauce went much smoother, thank goodness. I'd decided to make a double batch because one thing you don't want to be skimpy on is chocolate sauce. The sauce calls for 'double cream' which I decided was just a thick cream and bought 18%. However, doing some internet reading later I discovered that double cream is actually something like 50% cream - supposedly not even available in North America. But the 18% worked just fine and really isn't 18% enough of a fat content??? I mean really even that is pushing it.

Anyhow, the sauce came together great and in 30 min the pudding was ready to come out of the oven. I had enough time to rest for about 15 min, straighten my hair and we were off to the inlaws.

I got 9 portions from this recipe and all but one person liked it. The one tough critic who disapproved said a firm "yuck". Only to be corrected by his mother to rather say "No thank-you" and headed off to watch The Wiggles with a couple of cookies. But when you're 3 you're not always easy to please.

One thing I will say about this, is it's incredibly rich. It's like a brownie with pears smothered in chocolate sauce. For me this is not my dream dessert. But I fall firmly outside the realm of chocolohism. But if you do love yourself a nice chocolatey rich dessert this is your ticket to paradise.

***Note: this would be best served straight out of the oven.

Naan Pizza

I'm having a real wierdo day. I had a dermatologist appointment today so I didn't go to work. Instead I sat in an office waiting to get a biopsy on a mole on my face. Then when I finally get in there and am meeting with the doctor (who has botox ads every which way you turn) I find out I'm not getting a biopsy at all! He takes one look at my mole and says unequivically that it's no risk at all. And I've nothing to worry about. Which is good - really quite good. Not having cancer is always better than having cancer. But for the past 3 months I've been expecting that this mole would be removed for biopsy today..so it left me feeling a bit odd. But relieved none the less.

Anyhow, as I left I decided to stop at the Whole Foods near the derm's office. I'd never been in a Whole Foods before and was curious to check it out. It was sooooo busy in there..and for good reason too, this place is amazing. The bakery looked and smelled so delicious that I didn't dare go near it. But as I walked quickly through - I just happened to walk by the naan bread - and as I said before I've flipped though this booked about 100 times and this recipe has only 4 ingredients so I knew what they all were and I realized that I should make this recipe today. So I picked up the naan and headed to the cheese section for some fontina. There were so many kinds of cheese that I literally could not locate the fontina and had to get help! This is my kind of grocery store. Every row I turned down had the best of everything and the fizzy lemonades and what-not were so, so tempting. But I didn't have a lot of money to spend and my piece of cheese alone was $10. I managed to resist temptation and buy pretty much only what I needed. But, oh, the joys of Whole Foods.

When I got back home it was well past lunch so I made this right away. One thing that surprised me was that I wasn't to shred the cheese but rather just roughly chop it. This seemed odd to me and I was expecting it not to melt fully - but as you can see from the photo this turned out just fine.

This pizza is super-duper easy and pretty tasty. I think if you were making lunch for yourself and a friend splitting one of these pizzas and making a nice salad to go with it would be perfect. Then, of course, top it off with an "after-dinner" cappuccino or espresso. Your friend would thank you. This pizza is a perfect casual meal but has enough of a different flavour about it that it's not slouchy - just deliciously quaint.

New Orleans Coleslaw

You know what I love about this cook book? There are only a few ingredients to each recipe so it's cheap to make these foods. I had a hankering for this coleslaw today. I've flipped thru the pages of this cookbook about 100 times so I was very familiar with the photo of this recipe. The pecans are really what had me sold on this. Anyhow - I researched the ingredients online to shop on my way home from work.

Obviously I had to pick up cabbage - but other than that all I needed was green onion, celery and the pecans. Everything else I already had. I was planning to have coleslaw and tofu-kabobs for dinner - but when I got home Husband had made Shrimp Pasta for dinner. This was very thoughtful of him but to tell you the truth it wasn't the best. I tried not to let this show though because I don't want to deter him from cooking meals. Plus I know all to well how it feels to have someone come home to a dinner you just made them and have them say "Uh, it's just okay." Or even "ugh - I don't want that." So I ate dinner made by Husband and thought I can eat the tofu and cloeslaw tomorrow. And really cloeslaw is better after you've let it sit for a while and let the flavours really mix and settle.

After dinner, I start on the slaw. Right away there's an issue. Who other than Charlie Bucket knows how many kinds of cabbage there are? I thought there were only 2 red or green. So when I read the ingredient "1 head savoy cabbage" I am immediately shot back in time 35 minutes to when I stood infront of the cabbages at Metro, looked at the savoy cabbage and thought "What the hell kind of cabbage is that?" Well it turns out that's the kind of cabbage Nigella uses. So there I was with my green cabbage - but I thought "What else is new...The day I make a recipe to the letter from this book is the day Nigella Lawson shows up at my house."

My next little bit of realization was that this recipe makes a shitload of coleslaw. I started shredding the cabbage and was using my biggest pyrex bowl - This quickly filled up so I got and even bigger bowl - which filled up 1 minute later. I had to move to my stock pot. Can you imagine this? I stock pot of coleslaw!!!! Pretty ridiculous.

From there it was straight forward, chop and add. Chop and add. Then I made the dressing. At first when I started to mix this I thought it was going to curdle. It was looking like that. But I pressed on and kept whisking and it turned out great.

I also used the Bolivian Rose Salt to season this. This salt is amazing - it is miles above regular table salt. It can take a dish from good to excellent. Once I had this seasoned and mixed I did a taste test. I give this a passing grade. I'd be interested in tasting this with the savoy cabbage. But even made with green cabbage it's pretty yummy. Summer is on the way and nothing says summer like a good coleslaw. If you are looking for a taste of summer try this - and if you're looking for a taste of New Orleans the pecans can get you there.

Red Pepper Hummus

Did I want to make a recipe today? No. But I owe you one so I had to. I actually was planning to make this last week but never got around to it. So to crank out a recipe today this is what ingredients were on hand....well for the most part. I didn't have enough cream cheese - but I didn't really care. I'm too tired to care.

Anyhow, this hummus is really simple to make. Dump your ingredients in a food processor and puree. Bam -you're done. Exactly how much effort I felt like putting in today - which is none.

The taste is nice. It's not the best hummus I've ever had but it's tasty nonetheless. Will I make this again????? I don't really know. But if you're looking for a no brainer appetizer this will serve you well.

Quick Calamari with Garlic Mayonaise

I was afraid of this recipe. I don't know why but I was. I wasn't sure Metro would have squid. I wasn't sure I'd get the frying right. And I was afraid that I would somehow burn my face off when cooking this. But my fear was all for naught. This actually turned out pretty good.

Calamari is such a tricky food to cook. You don't want to under cook it - for obvious reasons. And if you over cook it, it gets all rubbery and gross. We've all had the rubbery restuarant calamari. But when calamari is done right it is delicious. And this one turned out on the side of delicious.

I bought my squid rings from the seafood freezer section of Metro. It was pre-cut and only 3.99. I was impressed with that, I was expecting something much more gross and expensive. I had to let it fully thaw because you really don't want even a microbead of water in your hot oil. So I rinsed it in cold water to be sure to have every little bit of frozen out of it. Then I towelled the rings dry and coated them in Nigella's special mix. From here it was just a matter of getting the cooking right.

Now like I said before I was having visions of me burning the house down and worse still burning my face off. I'm not sure why - I've cooked with oil many times before..but I was just spooked about this one today. So I put on my apron got out a metal lid (incase sudden grease fire broke out) and nervously put in one little ring to test the oil. It sizzled and fizzed but nothing started burning and my face was unharmed. So I put in a few more rings. This time I made sure I read 3 times how long Nigella said to fry these. And I quote "A couple of minutes per batch is all you should need." Okay...Thanks for nothing. But I decided that with my batches being about 5 -7 rings I would cook them for 1:30 - 2:00 minutes. This did the trick. I used a metal slotted spoon to put them in and take them out and this worked perfectly. I was able to stay back an arms length and go over what I remembered to do in the event of a grease fire over and over in my head. Husband lazed on the couch (which looks into the kitchen) while I did this - so I tried to act non-chalant while all these images of burning fire and destruction ran through my head. I didn't want him to know I was secretly afraid of burning my face off while doing this because then he would act like he's superior to me in the kitchen - which is something I cannot stand. Mr. I Used To Work At New York Fries goes around spouting his expertise of cooking with oil. Honestly you'd think he was the inventor of deep frying sometimes. Anytime he senses an insecurity with me in the kitchen he pounces on it and talks in an unidentified accent about how much better of a cook he is than me. I know he's playing around and having a round of cat and mouse with me but I can't stand it even knowing this. Mostly because when we first moved in together he once asked me how to boil water. Now I ask you - if someone who once asked you how to boil water (btw he fully denies this ever happened) started strutting around like a peacock whenever you were a little unsure of something wouldn't it just make your blood boil? I thought so. So now you see why I couldn't share this movie reel of nightmares in my head. So I kept that firmly in the back of my mind and acted like frying this squid was my #1 favourite thing to do.

Anyhow, once this was all done I breathed a massive sigh of relief seeing as I was unscarred and alive. And set to making the garlic mayonaise. Pretty easy - you add garlic to some mayonaise. I then plated the food and took it to the livingroom for us to snack on. We ate this in less than 5 mintes. So yeah, it was good. We sucked it up like a couple of Dysons. I will totally make this again - but maybe not for a while because I'm still getting over the stress of the deepfrying.

Sweetcorn Chowder with Toasted Tortillas

Well friends I'm a lot of things but I'm not a liar so I won't lie to you. This soup is a nice change from the ordinary but it's not an earth shattering revelation in chowders. Would I make this again? Yeah, sure...but only if I'm looking to change things up in the soup department - break away from the norm type thing.

The soup is easy enough to make - I didn't quite do my research to a Tee with this one. It was another one where I hmmmmed and hawed about making it then decided at work to do it and googled my ingredients and picked up what I needed on the way home. You use 1 kilo frozen corn that has been thawed.....I missed that part. So there I am sitting with 1 kilo frozen corn and a ticking clock. My solution to this was to run the corn under hot tap water in a sieve and call it defrosted. This worked well enough. My next issue was that it was tonight that I realized my "food processor" isn't a food processor at all. It's a "deluxe chopper". Really this looks JUST like a food processor but mini. They are from the same family but I'm guessing that the actual food processor is a little better and the "blitzing to a speckled primrose mush". My soup was a little chunky. But I liked it that way. I could dip the tortillas in it like a salsa (very tasty)... really if I'd wanted to I could have used my hand blender to finish the job once everything was in the pot. Make it all nice and smooth like. But my hand blender is all the way in the basement and really that just means more dishes. So I kept the chunks. So it wasn't finely pureed. Big deal right? It's not going to make or break the recipe. Although if I were making this to impress someone I may have gone the extra mile. Or heck even if it was a Sunday afternoon I'd have taken the 45 seconds and gone to the basement...but it's Thursday night people. I really just want to finish dinner so I can look at my US magazine and zone out.

Anyhow - despite my minor issues the soup is pretty good. Both Husband and I liked this one but neither of us had a life altering experience eating this. I do think that this would make a nice little appetizer soup if you were putting on a Mexican inspired meal. Or if you're looking for a new soup to try this one is good enough- just don't expect the earth to move.

Potato and Mushroom Gratin

Thank you sweet baby Jesus for potatoes! This recipe is a winner. Easy to make but takes a bit more time to cook - but can I just tell you, wait it out. You will not be sorry. I really don't even know how to describe the taste of this. It's like scalloped potatoes but better! I know, I know you didn't think it got better than scalloped potatoes. But just imagine your scalloped potatoes had booze in them. Whoa, I just blew your mind didn't I - actually it's Nigella that blew both our minds.

Now this recipe, like I said, is easy enough. Chop potatoes, then boil them in milk and wine. Chop mushrooms and saute with garlic (this is a substitute in place of using garlic oil). Then stir everything in together and bake for 30 minutes (Nigella says 45 but trust me it doesn't take that long). The addition of the wine makes this dish a wonderful curiosity of deliciousness in your mouth. That's the only way I can think to describe it. And the rating for comfort food on this is about 1000.

I wasn't even planning to make this tonight - but I decided around 230 or so that I would. I checked the recipe online to see what ingredients I needed to pick up and was pleasantly surprised that I already had everything I needed. Which just makes this recipe that much better. People will think you slaved over this but the hardest part is waiting to pull it out of the oven because the aroma is making you salivate. The next time you are making one of those traditional North American Family dinners make this!!!! I beg you. Your family begs you.

Curry in a Hurry

Well I had a pretty good weekend and I was going to cap it off with a pretty good meal. And I did but this was much more trouble than it should have been. Here's how I imagined my evening going:

I come home from my big day out - matinee film, shopping at Ikea and a quick shop at Metro. Then I would breeze home and make a fantastic meal and sit down to watch the red carpet of the Oscars without a care in the world.

Here's what really happened: I did come home from my big day out which did include a matinee film, shopping at Ikea and a longer shop at Metro. It didn't really take too long but I had to go to the washroom and Husband was going thru the ailses at a snails pace..or so it felt. So me and my bursting bladder get home and after relieving myself I wasn't able to start dinner because Husband decided he wanted to make himself ribs and not eat my Curry in a Hurry after all. No matter though right I can just take the other portion for my lunch. However by the time he's done in the kitchen and I can get in there to start on mine 630 and red carpet time are just around the corner. I'm feeling a little stressed. I need to see these dresses. I live to see pretty dresses. So I start getting out the ingredients and tragedy strikes. I don't have any chicken stock. I checked all over the damn house and no dice. I freak out.

I say to Husband...."Well I can't make my recipe tonight!!!"

Husband: Why not? (As his dinner cooks away in the oven)

Me: Because we don't have any chicken or vegetable stock!!!

Husband: Well just to back to Metro and buy some.

Me: [massive exhale of breath]

Well I did end up going to Metro again. But I was so stressed that I was missing dresses! I rushed back home and made this dinner as quick as possible. But I have to say that I was a little peeved at Nigella with this one. She never tells me what temperature to cook something at. I'm always guessing. Normally I can deal with this, but tonight I was missing couture and I just have no patience for that.

In the end though everything did turn out and it didn't take me too long once I got going. It's actually quite delicious. I'm looking forward to lunch tomorrow. This recipe does call for chicken but I left that out. It's really great as a veggie dish. And now back to pretty dresses. I loved SJP's Chanel...ugh to have a dress like that...

Linguine with Lemon, Garlic and Thyme Mushrooms

I am a very big fan of the "light" pasta. Maybe you're thinking "Huh? A light pasta??? No such thing." My response...Ahhh but there is. And this is it. Pasta in and of itself is a heavy food -all that starch and carbohydrates. Then usually you've got a heavy sauce on that too - an alfredo or a hearty tomato sauce. That's where you get into trouble. And I'm a firm beliver that generally our pasta protions are about 2 sizes too big here in North America. Pasta is so filling a food that you really only just need a touch of it. This pasta is made with just some herbed oil and lemon juice for your sauce. And it is delighful.

When I went to make this recipe the very first thing I did was check how much linguine I had. Turns out I had half what Nigella was calling for - so I halved the recipe and ended up with 3 servings. It took me very little time to make this also. The only thing your cooking here is the pasta itself. Everything else is just chopping and tossing. Now let me tell you the ingredient variations I used.

1. I used fresh pasta. - Can I just tell you now that there is a very significant difference in the flavour and texture of a fresh pasta versus the hard shit that you're buying next to your canned sauces in the supermarket. If you have the extra bit of cash to spend on the fresh pasta I HIGHLY recommed making the switch. It's like eating a fresh berry versus eating a frozen berry - sure the frozen berries are fine, nothing wrong with them persay but who in their right mind eats a frozen berry over a fresh one????

2. I used dried thyme instead of fresh thyme. Now I know what you're thinking here...don't think I don't hear your inner thoughts..."What the *%$@ is she talking about???? She just ripped me a new one for not using fresh pasta and now this lunatic is using DRIED herb!!!!!!" It's true and you know what...I agree with you. I should have used fresh thyme...but I didn't have any. No doubt about it that fresh thyme would have been better flavour wise...but I see the fact that I used dried herb and it still turned out as a positive though. Because that means that now you can use your dried herb too it you prefer. Spend that money you would have spent on the thyme on the fresh pasta maybe?

3. I used fresh parsley. - Okay by know I've done your head in with the flipping and the flopping. But I'm making a point to tell you that the parsley has to, just has to, be fresh for this recipe to work. This recipe just will not under any circumstance be good with dried parsley. So get yourself the fresh stuff.

4. I did not have a lemon on hand so I used bottled lemon juice - 2 table spoons (remember I was halving the recipe)

5. My "freshly grated parmesan" came in a Kraft container. I wasn't about to drop $10 for some Monday night dinner. Plus Kraft's grated parmesan is 100% parmesan. But if you're making this dinner to impress someone - drop the cash and get the real deal. But are your spouse or kids going to know the difference??? I think not.

So I had this dinner made in about 7 minutes I think. Perfect for a Monday night. I have to admit I was looking to add a protein to this so after I snapped this photo and did an initial taste, I added sliced chicken breast to Husband's and smoked salmon pieces to mine. Husband really like this dish and the addition of the smoked salmon was a pretty good call for me I'd have to say. The lemon in the sauce was a great compliment to the fish. Thumbs up all around.