If Barbie ate pudding she'd have Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry & Roses

I'm not a massive pudding person but every now again I do have a dabble. This one was rather inspired by the fact that we sell Crystalised Rose Petals in the shop I work in and, frankly, the sparkly-tinkerbell-loving-9-year-old-girl in me absolutely adores them! So I made a normal chocolate mousse, layered it on top of some whizzed up raspberries and a splash of rosewater and then topped it off with one of the lovely crystalised rose petals. A pudding fit for a dolls tea party! 

Makes about 6 little cups of mousse

150g very good dark chocolate 

2 eggs - separated into 2 yolks and 2 whites 

150 ml double cream 

30g granulated sugar 

1 pack of raspberries 

A splash of rosewater 

The all-important crystalised rose petals 

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water and allow to cool a little while you whisk egg yolks and the sugar together. Add the melted chocolate into the egg mixture. Next whip the cream and add the chocolate/egg yolk mixture to it - folding in gently. Whip the egg whites until stiff and then fold these into the chocolate mixture. That's the mousse done. 

Blitz the raspberries & rosewater in the blender and then pass through a sieve to get rid of the pips. Pop a blob in the bottom of a little bowl/glass and then fill up the rest of the glass with the mousse and refrigerate for a couple of hours. 

Just before you serve the mousse, add your sparkly crystalised rose petal and enjoy. 


Perhaps while wearing a tutu? 

Normal service has been resumed (plus poached chicken with chilli sauce)

Hello. Sorry, I've been a bit remiss about this blogging business recently. It's been one of those months where we had a tonne of distracting stuff going on - people visiting, people working late, people in hospital and some minor DIY. So I left the blog alone for a while and then left it a bit longer and left it a bit longer still .... and in the end got a bit panicky that my next post would have to be so groundbreaking that I left it a little bit longer still! 

Anyway, having realised that I am being ridiculous, I'm just going to dive right in with some things I've been cooking - nothing groundbreaking but a couple of yummy things that we liked. 

Poached Chicken with a Chilli Sauce 

I made this for dinner tonight and it was honestly delicious. The recipe was 100% inspired by something  ate at a brilliant (but weird!) little Szechuan restaurant near Liverpool Street called My Old Place. It's a canteen-y style, no-frills  sort of place but it was full of chinese people when we went which seemed to bode well. The menu is amazing - loads of interesting-sounding dishes and a few "OMG ingredients"  like Sea Whelks and Pigs Ears - anyway we ordered 2 starters and 2 main courses between 2 of us which was WAY too much food! So you have been warned, the portions are enormous so you really don't need many at all. It was all really tasty but one of the starters really stood out - a cold dish of poached chicken on the bone with a super-hot, spicy chilli sauce.  It was really remarkable - you know when you have really "chicken-y" tasting chicken? Well it was like that. And with the fiesty but flavoursome sauce, it was genuinely brilliant. Anyway tonight I had a crack at a sort of homage to it - not exactly the same but lovely, very quick - and pretty healthy too. 

2 chicken breasts

Some chicken stock for poaching 

A good glug of sesame oil 

Teaspoon of chilli paste 

A slosh of red wine vinegar 

A slosh of dark soy sauce 

A couple of tablespoons of the liquid from a jar of stem ginger 

Bunch of spring onions, finely chopped 

Handful of finely chopped coriander (probably not as much as I used - you can see from the photo that I got a bit carried away...)

I brought the chicken stock to the boil (and threw in some ginger and lemongrass but I'd say that this was unnecessary with hindsight), then I turned the heat right down and added the chicken breasts. I poached the chicken on this super-low heat for about 15 minutes. Meanwhile I made the sauce by combining all the remaining ingredients in a saucepan and heating gently. I served the chicken sliced, on top of some plain boiled rice and with the sauce heaped over the top. 

It was really spicy in a good way - giving you a proper Ready Brek sort of glow!  

Peposo: A Tuscan peppery stew

Sorry about the pic - I know you can barely see the stew as I've managed to obscure it with a blanket of rocket....but just imagine you're looking at chunky flakes of slow-cooked beef shin in a dark and spicy gravy served on some griddled sourdough with just a FEW rocket leaves and a healthy glug of peppery olive oil.

I'd never heard of it before but internet research reveals that Peposo is a Tuscan stew made traditionally in a town near Florence which is famous for terracotta production. It makes sense as the stew is often cooked overnight and I guess a terracotta pot would be a good vehicle to do this. I've never been brave enough to cook something overnight but I made this in the morning and then left it cooking until the evening - just topping up the pot if it looked like the liquid was running low. Yes, I know, I can't seem to help myself....I'm afraid it's another "make-it-and-leave-it-cooking-while-you-get-on-with-other-stuff" recipe...

So, I used the other half of the beef shin I bought at Smithfield Market for last week's Ragu which I'd frozen - so, aside from the bottle of wine used for the sauce, the recipe was super cheap. And the results were quite surprising considering how few ingredients were involved - it was really spicy in a good way and although the gravy was quite light and thin it was very savoury and full of flavour.

You'll need: 
About a half a kilo of beef shin
A bottle of good italian wine - ideally something Tuscan like Chianti
8 cloves of garlic slices
Couple of tablespoons (yes, tablespoons) of ground black pepper
Couple of sprigs of rosemary
1 Bay leaf

And it couldn't be easier to make. First pop the oven on at about 150 degrees. Then layer the uncooked beef in an ovenproof pan with a few slices garlic cloves and a REALLY generous sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper and a sprig or two of rosemary. Continue to layer up the ingredients until you've used everything up. Add the bayleaf and pour on a whole bottle of wine and then cover the pan tightly with foil.  Put it in the oven for as long as you can manage - I did about 9 hours. All you'll need to do is check there's enough liquid in the pan every hour or two. I served it on some chunky griddled sourdough bread to soak up the sauce but I imagine it would be really good with polenta too.