Posts tagged mascarpone

Porcini and Chestnut Risotto, Truffle Cream

December 30, 2016 Comments Off read Vegetables and Salads

fter the indulgence of Christmas sometimes something a little less meat-dominant, goose fat roasted or gravy soaked is required. Although don’t get me wrong, it still is a festive, celebratory and just that – indulgent – season so lets not be eating green salads and spag bol just yet. Risotto is perfect for using up leftover scraps and cheeses but can still be pimped with indulgence and provides a warming hearty bowl of soul food when the fun of Christmas is behind you but the frost and cold still linger outside. Feel free to tag team in any other ingredients you prefer or have hanging around using rice, parmesan, shallots and stock as the foundations in all variations.

This recipe was particularly perfect after Christmas when chestnuts, cheese and leftover mushrooms were lingering in the fridge! And if you were lucky enough to be given a nice bottle of truffle oil..ahem..then a spike of it here goes a long way into disguising even the greediest of carnivores into noticing that this is in fact a vegetarian supper….

Happy New Year everyone. If not made before 2017 this is certainly one to make in the cold and bracing January days!

Serves 4

Ingredients

350g arborio/risotto rice (about 4 large handfuls)
3 shallots/2 onions, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
30g butter and tbsp olive oil
Large glass dry white wine
Hot vegetable stock (about 700ml)
30g dried porcini mushrooms
250g chestnut mushrooms, chopped roughly
100g parmesan, grated
50g butter, diced
Large bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
180g pre roasted and peeled chestnuts, finely chopped or grated.
Juice 1/2 lemon
200g mascarpone/creme fraiche
Truffle olive oil (You can also use fresh shaved truffle here!)

Begin by soaking the dried porcini mushrooms in a jug with enough boiling water to cover and leave for about 15 minutes until softened and hydrated again.
Next, heat 15g of the butter and a splash of olive oil in a large high sided frying pan or saucepan. Soften the chopped shallot gently on a low heat until translucent and soft. After about 10 minutes, add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes.
Next add the rice and turn up the heat to medium and toast the grains while stirring consistently. The grain should begin to turn translucent too and ‘toast’.
After a minute or so of toasting, add the white wine which will bubble briskly and stir until just absorbed.
Drain the soaked mushrooms, chop and set aside. When draining, reserve the mushrooms soaking liquid but discard the final part that will contain any grit from the mushrooms.
Use this hot liquid first before using the hot stock to add to the rice. Stir in the liquid ladle by ladle absorbing the liquid into the rice before adding the next but ensure it does not dry out. Add the liquid after 3/4 of the ladle before has been absorbed. This should take about 18 minutes stirring consistently.
Meanwhile, heat the other 15g of butter and a splash of oil in another frying pan. Fry the chopped chestnut mushrooms until golden and then set aside until needed.
When the rice is just al dente to taste, add in the chopped porcini and continue adding the stock until the rice is cooked to your liking and the texture is still loose. (Don’t allow it to stiffen). Taste and season as needed with plenty of black pepper.
Once the rice is cooked, add in the fried chestnut mushrooms, the chopped parsley and chestnuts and stir to combine.
Finally, scatter over the parmesan, the 50g diced butter and the juice of the lemon. Cover the pan with a lid and remove from the heat and allow it to rest.
Meanwhile, combine the mascarpone/creme fraiche with about 1 tbsp truffle oil or enough to taste depending on the strength that you like it.
Once done, remove the lid from the risotto and stir in the melted cheese to combine evenly. If the texture is a little stiff, add a splash of hot stock to loosen so you get an ‘oozing’ consistency.
Give the risotto once final stir to combine and then serve in warmed shallow bowls and top with the truffle cream and any reserved chopped parsley.

Coffee Drizzle Cake with Hazelnut Mascarpone

March 6, 2016 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

f you are, like me, an appreciator of all things coffee in flavour then this cake is certainly one to test out on a cold Sunday afternoon for a crowd that need pleasing. And more specifically a mother! (Happy Mother’s Day!) I’ll admit I’m no coffee nerd but even those that can pour a perfect patterned topped latte will love you for this moist sponge cake. I think many people these days are intimidated by baking with a preconcieved idea that it is difficult due to the eleborate disguise of the 21st century decoration, intricate piping and macaroon topped bakes. However like most cakes, the baking bit is extremely easy! Mix and combine. How you choose to refine your decoration is up to you. I don’t seem to have a natural knack for it sadly and my piping skills are far from successful on most attempts so this weekend I abandoned the fancy piping bag in place of the palate knife and went for a more welcomed rustic and homemade visual. It won’t win any show stopper rounds thats for sure but its all about the taste and texture…

This cake is based on a Delia classic. The sponge and syrup recipe have been taken from her ‘How to Cook – Book One’ with just a few adaptations in the ‘forage in the pantry’ style.

Sponge and Icing

1 1/2 tbsp coffee dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water
75g walnuts
175g self raising flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
250g mascarpone
8 tbsp sieved icing sugar
Handful of chopped toasted hazelnuts
Optional – 1 tbsp Frangelico/Amaretto
1 tsp cocoa powder

Syrup

1 tbsp instant coffee granules
50g demerara sugar
55ml boiling water

Preheat the oven to 170°C and grease and line two cake tins (18cm/20cm wide. No bigger than 20cm)
Toast the walnuts in a dry pan or hot oven for a few minutes until fragrant then set aside. Once cool, chop roughly.
Sieve the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a food processor.
Add the butter, sugar and eggs and mix until smooth and shiny. Add the coffee and combine well.
Finally fold in the chopped walnuts then divide the mixture into the two tins, spreadably evenly and flattening out the tops.
Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Meanwhile make the syrup. Combine the sugar and coffee in a jug before adding the boiling water. Stir continuously and thoroughly until he sugar has dissolved fully. Set aside until needed.
Next make the icing. Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl before beating in the mascarpone cheese. Add the liquor of choice if using and beat until smooth. Stir in the chopped hazelnuts, leaving some for scattering over the top. Taste and add more icing sugar if you like it a little sweeter.
Once the cakes are cooked remove from the oven and prick all over with a cocktail stick or similar.
Pour the syrup over both cakes until evenly absorbed. I find this is best done a spoonful at a time to avoid overflow.
Leave to cool completely.
When cool, remove from the tins and turn out onto a wire rack. For the base you’ll need the most even and flat looking cake. You may need to slice off the rounded top in order to get this but this little syrupy slice is an ideal tester!
Place this onto a plate or cake stand and spoon over half the mascarpone smoothing out with a palate knife.
Top with the second cake and the rest of the mascarpone.
Scatter with any remaining nuts and a sprinkling of cocoa powder

Chocolate Fondant with Frangelico Mascapone

February 17, 2015 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

I’ve always been in awe of the chocolate making process after watching an enlightening series featuring the modern day Willy Wonker, Willie Harcourt-Cooze. An enthusiastic middle class chocolate dreamer, he set about to live his dream of authentic chocolate making. To me, England feels like a country of chocolate addicts, or more likely, sugar addicts disgusing themselves as cacoa enthusiasts!? Without sounding like a chocolate snob, many of the milk chocolate bars that litter the countries newagents shelves have such a low cacao/‘chocolate’ content that in some countries it would be illegal to title this chocolate!

I’m an adorer of the dark stuff. The darker the better. I’ve always been amazed at how a 100% bar is created? With no sugar to bind it together its a pure cacao lovers heaven. Its painful sharing my 90% bar of goodness, when I just know that the majority will screw up thier faces in fright as they force down the ‘bitter soap’ they’ve just eaten as they compare to the likes of our dairy milk. But my chocolate interest has promted me to sample styles made from a variety of beans from all over the world and to really appreciate the differences in flavours. refining my love of the pure taste and the lower sugar content.

So when a work collegaue refreshingly and surprisingly bought in some tasty samples of his families homemade chocolate from their humble little Cotswold business – Doble & Bignall – I was keen to devour a piece and was taken by the first bite. Like beer, cheese and wine, chocolate varies in flavour substantially. Not just with the percentage but with the beans and country. Doble & Bignal have a small range of bars using beans from the likes of Panama and Venezuelan. The chocolate is smooth, tasty and distinctive. Perfect for a cheeky recipe. I kept the fonadant simple (I know…me not messing with a recipe!? Shocker) Firsty because shamefully this was the first fondant I’d attempted ever to make and the goo-cented, molten chocolate lava that should sterotypicaly weep from the middle like a happy sobbing child was far too much pressure to meddle with at this stage. So instead, go crazy on accompaniment. Frangelico mascapone, vanilla and orange ice cream or just heavily doused in a thick wall spporting, cement-like spatula of whippped double cream.

Serves 6

Fondant

85g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter
150g dark chocolate (E.g. Doble & Bignal’s bar)
3 whole free range eggs
3 whole eggs yolks
1 tbsp plain flour
Soft butter and cocoa powder to line the moulds

Start by greasing 6 small dariole moulds with butter. Dust with cocoa powder and shake of any excess. Set aside on a baking try.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
In a heatproof bowl combine the sugar, butter and chocolate and melt over a pan of barely simmering water. Allow to melt fully then set aside to cool slightly.
When it is luke warm, whisk in the eggs continuously. The mixture will begin to thicken but keep whisking (don’t be tempted to add the eggs while the chocolate is still too warm of the eggs will scramble…yuck). Then fold in the flour.
Pour the mixture evenly into the moulds and then chill for at least 25 minutes.
Bake in the oven for about 12 minutes. Take out of the oven, run a knife around the edge and turn out onto a plate. Serve with a dollop of your chosen cream and watch and enjoy in awe as (hopefully) your gooey fondant melts all over your plate…!

NOTE: I took my first test fondant out of the oven after 10 minutes and it still felt a little squishly in the middle to the touch. With the risk of having an overocoked fondant I took it out anyway. Shamefully on turning out it collapsed all over the plate….hence the additional mintues. However, oven will vary so perhaps cook for less time and do a touch test before remving the whole batch if the pressure is on…!

Frangelico Mascarpone

Please note – I did this by taste so the below measurements are a total guide. Start with less and keep adding more sugar and liquer until it is to your taste.

250g mascarpone
About 4 tbsp sieved icing sugar (or as much as you like just to sweeten)
1-2 tbsp frangelico liquer (to taste)

Whisk the frangelico and icing sugar into the mascarpone, tasting as you go along to sweeten as you like.

Coffee and Date Drizzle Cake

January 8, 2014 Comments Off read Sweet Treats

This cake is moreish, moist and had me (who has the most pathetic of sweet tooth) eyeing up my second piece as I licked the crumbs clean from my greedy fingers after my first piece. Its not as ‘coffee-ey’ as a traditional coffee and walnut sponge but the use of this Percol fine powdered espresso coffee works wonderfully to create a deep coffee background hum. Super fine and smooth and a good way to get your coffee cake hating friends to relish the joys of this treat.

Feel free to experiment a little here with the icing flavour or dried fruit. Figs or prunes would be effective for example instead of dates. Try soaking them in brandy, cognac or even rum first! Try flavourng your icing with cinnamon or cocoa for a mocha effect. However, I feel the icing needs to be coffee flavoured to really bring out the flavour in this cake!

1 small Cake

110g unsalted butter
220g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 small eggs
75g ground almonds
100g self raising flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
12g cocoa powder
160ml strong coffee (I used Percol espresso powder), cooled slightly
65ml buttermilk
80g dates, sliced (reserve a few for decoration)

Icing

250g mascarpone
80g sieved icing sugar
1 tsp coffee mixed with a splash of boiling water.

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Line and grease 2 cake tins. I used 2 small 6inch tins so the sponges were fairly thick. Make up the coffee and soak the dates in the hot liquid briefly if you like.
Cream the butter and caster sugar together until fluffy. Whisk the eggs and vanilla and add, a bit at a time, until combined with the buttercream.
Sieve together the bicarbonate, flour, almonds and cocoa and fold in to the egg mixture.
Mix in the cooled coffee and the buttermilk to form a smooth batter and divide equally between the tins.
Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes and then turn the temperature down to 180C°. Bake for a further 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Meanwhile, make the filling. In a large bowl beat the mascarpone with the icing sugar and add the coffee. Chill until needed.
Make the syrup by mixing together about 1 tbsp of coffee with 50ml hot water and a tbsp of caster sugar.
Once the cakes have cooked, remove from the oven and leave in their tins to cool for 10 minutes or so. Prick the cakes and spoon over the syrup and leave to cool completely.
Once cooled, they are ready to ice. I could have got away with cutting each of my sponges in half horizontally to make a 4 tiered cake but do as you please. Divide the icing over the sponges.
Decorate with some slices of dates and some crushed cocoa nibs if you like!

Wild Mushroom and Marsala Risotto with thyme and mascarpone

September 17, 2012 Comments Off read Vegetables and Salads

An oozing, Autumnal, deep, rich, silky and moorish risotto. This can be, and I assure you- will be, eaten with nothing but a trusty fork, eyes closed with a satisfied smile on your face. As the last rays of sunshine tiptoe off back to Australia leaving behind a dark gallery of evenings and a steady chilly drizzle….not to worry, this will solve any post summer blues, I promise. Because, honestly, who doesn’t love cheesey buttery and smooth warming dinners (unless of course you don’t like mushrooms)…

Risotto is the most relaxing way to spend a evening in the kitchen, unwinding with a glass of iced white, music and some mindless stirring with a wooden spoon….bliss. [See my tips for risotto making] (Serves 4)

Risotto Base

300g risotto rice
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
Bunch thyme, leaves picked
150ml Marsala wine (or white wine)
Vegetable stock- About 1 ½ pints
1 bulb garlic
50g grated Parmesan
60g unsalted butter, cubed
1 tsp lemon juice
Flat-leaf parsley to serve, chopped
Mascarpone, to serve
Salt and pepper
Olive oil

Mushrooms

500g mixed mushrooms- I used chesnut and button, sliced
Handful of dried wild mushrooms, soaked in 200ml boiling water for 20 minutes
1 clove garlic, crushed
Handful of parsley, chopped
Olive oil
Knob of butter

Preheat the oven to 220°C and roast the garlic bulb whole, drizzled with a bit of oil for 30 minutes. Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling water.
Now begin with the risotto base by heating a tbsp of olive oil and a knob of butter in a large frying pan on a medium-low heat and soften the onion, celery and thyme leaves until translucent but not coloured. Season
While this is softening, heat 1 tbsp of oil and a knob of butter in another frying pan and saute the raw mushrooms to release and evapourate the juices (about 8-10 minutes) and to brown them. Don’t be tempted to crowd the pan, so do this in batches if necessary. After about 10 minutes, add the garlic and the parsley and cook for a few minutes.
Reserve the mushroom soaking liquid and chop the soaked dried mushrooms and add them to the frying ones. Then set aside this mixture.
Using forks, remove the (should be) softened, sweetened garlic and crush to a thick garlicky paste in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt.
Back to the risotto, add the rice to the softened veg and toast on a medium heat until translucent and hot to touch. Add the Marsala wine (or white wine) and simmer gently. Now add a ladle of hot stock to the mixture, and on a low heat, simmer gently until it is all absorbed. Continue adding ladles of stock, making sure it does not dry out but is also not swamped. The rice should expand as it absorbs the liquid and this process should take about 18-20 minutes. Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked, with a slight bite and the texture is oozy. Now add the garlic paste and mix in.
Now, the rice should be cooked. Stir in the reserved mushrooms.
Take the pan off the heat, add a squeeze of lemon juice, the parmesan and scatter with the cubed butter (you can add as much butter as you like, the more you add the shinier and creamier it will taste- restaurants are known to use up to 200g to get that decadent texture and taste). Cover with a lid and leave for 2 minutes off the heat.
After this time, mix gently to mix in the melted additions and add a touch of reserved mushroom stock if to thick. It should ‘ooze’ and be served in a shallow soup bowl- not dry and stiff on the plate.
Serve topped with chopped parsley, a spoonful of cool, creamy mascarpone and drizzle with truffle/olive oil if you want!

WINE: The depth and richness of this dish is robust enough to stand up to something regional from Italy. Here I’m thinking a hearty red from Valpolicella, Italy. While you could in fact use a splash in your risotto or make a devine Veronese Risotto as a replacement of the Marsala, better still enough a glass of Amarone della Valpolicella such as the 2010 Musella available at Armit Wines.