Treacle Chocolate Ice cream

My previous attempt at ice cream was not too successful, I lost patience with having to stir it regularly for hours to break up the ice crystals so it became too hard and the flavours weren't right. To be honest, this is second try is not really ice-cream, more like a frozen pudding, the end result is much smoother and denser than ice-cream, but until I get an ice-cream maker, it will do quite nicely. Of course, the condensed milk makes this very sweet and I recommend a chocolate with a high cocoa content so that you get a more chocolatey and less sugary end result. The treacle or molasses adds a great depth and nice liquorice aftertaste. This makes enough for two, I put them in two separate plastic containers as individual servings.

1 can of condensed milk

Fresh milk – enough to fill the empty condensed milk can

90g of dark chocolate

2 dessertspoons of treacle/blackstrap molasses

• Combine the milk and condensed milk in a pan over a moderate heat
  


• Add the chocolate broken into pieces
  


• Stir until melted
  


• Add the treacle and blend well
  


• Continue to heat the mixture until you have all the ingredients combined well with no streaks
  


• Simmer for a few minutes
  


• Pour into you plastic container or containers
  


• Wait for it to cool before popping into the freezer
  

Leave for at least 6 hours

My Xmas Breakfast

On Christmas morning I usually have the ubiquitous smoked salmon on a bagel or maybe in scrambled eggs. But how about something a little different that is equally as yummy and luxurious?

This really is a posh Welsh Rarebit and it is absolutely delicious!

2 slices of granary bread

1 egg

About ½ a cup of finely grated cheese – gruyere, strong cheddar or a combination. I added a little parmesan for an extra strong cheese taste

A dash of cream, about 1 dessertspoon

¼ cup Finely chopped wild mushrooms

¼ cup wilted spinach finely chopped

A pinch of mustard powder

Salt and pepper

Toast the bread on one side.

Mix all the ingredients together, the mixture should be stiff and not at all runny

Season

Spread onto the untoasted side of the bread, cover as much of the bread as you can so none of the bread singes

Put under a low to moderate grill – if the heat is too high it will cook on the outside and be raw and liquid inside

It's done when it's lightly brown on top and when you press it, no liquid comes out

*make sure there is something under the toast to catch drips*

Delicious Christmas Stuffing

I made this stuffing after having some sausage meat left over from something else. It has a wonderful, complex flavor which goes really well with chicken and turkey but would probably be great with goose too. The amounts here are for a chicken of about 1.3kg which should serve at least 2-3 people. This stuffing is so good, you could use to stuff vine or cabbage leaves or make a meatloaf. I didn't add any salt to my mixture but it may depend on the sausage meat you have.

• 1 dessertspoon of canola or light olive oil
  
• A teaspoon of ground fennel seeds
  
• A teaspoon of cumin
  
• 1 large, good quality pork sausage
  
• 1 medium sized onion finely chopped
  
• 1 dessertspoons of walnuts
  
• 1 dessertspoon of raisins
  
• One dessert spoon of balsamic vinegar
  
• A large handful of fresh herbs (thyme, parsley, rosemary, sage, basil, tarragon), roughly chopped
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  

Under a low heat, lightly fry the cumin and fennel in the oil

Next add the onion and soften

Add the walnuts and sausage meat (remover the sausage from its skin)

Fry until the sausages starts to brown

Add the raisins and vinegar and reduce

When the sausage meat is cooked add the fresh herbs and check for seasoning

Nursery Beef Stew

I call this nursery beef stew because it tastes like the food my mum used to make for me when I was little and that I loved. I would imagine many children would like this because the taste is very 'safe' - not spicy, no garlic and everything is soft and mellow. The stew has incorporated two cooking ideas I have recently been turned on to – slow cooking meat for tenderness and using fewer ingredients to intensify flavours. I made this in the morning to serve in the evening. Real comfort food.

Serves 3 – 4

• 1 tablespoon of oil
  
• Shoulder of beef (wonderful dark meat with a little fat and some bone for flavor) cut into bite sized pieces
  
• ½ cup of white flour
  
• 2 heaped teaspoons of mild or smoked paprika
  
• Salt and pepper
  
• 1 large onion slice
  
• 2 large carrots split lengthways then cut into 3 inch pieces approx
  
• 1 litre of stock ( a mixture of beef and vegetable works really well)
  
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
  

On a large plate combine the flour with the paprika and a good grinding of salt and pepper

Coat the beef in the flour, massage the flour into the meat

Heat the oil in a large, heave based saucepan over a moderate heat

Sweat off the onions and carrot, turn up the heat

Add the beef and brown on all sides

Turn the heat to moderate and add the hot stock and mix well

Add then the tomato puree and mix well

Simmer covered for half an hour then turn down to the lowest setting

Leave to barely bubble, covered for about 1 and a half hours - until the carrots are soft and the meat is very tender (can be easily pulled about with two forks or chew a piece)

If it is still chewy leave to cook for longer, don't be tempted to reduce the cooking time.

Chinese five spice gravel

Since coming back to Zambia, I have developed certain cravings (and no, I'm not pregnant!). This is because some things you just can't get here or they are not as nice as back home or they are so expensive. I have been in mourning for cheese, good quality chocolate, mozzarella di bufala (*sigh*)Thai and Chinese food. My yearnings were only exacerbated after watching a programme about the Cantonese food traditions. I have really missed 5 spice powder which I used to use a lot back in the UK. Thanks to the aforementioned programme however, I was able to have a go at making my own. I couldn't get all of the spices needed, but did my best with some biryani mix and my trusted sense of smell.

My powder isn't really a powder, more like gravel as I had to pound my spices with a little pestle and mortar!

I used fennel seeds, star anise, cinnamon stick, some black peppercorns and cloves. I ground each spice up separately then combined them gradually until it smelled about how I thought it should smell! I have to say, it worked out quite well and was used for this following dish.
Five Spice Soy
I love soy pieces and they are so cheap in Zambia, they also keep forever. In past I remember making the mistake of storing my dry soy pieces in an airtight container that also contained a bag of cloves. The soy pieces tasted pretty awful but showed just how effective they are at absorbing flavours!
My thought was then, that if I soak the soy pieces to rehydrate them, in a mixture of water, spices and soy sauce, they should taste pretty good.

• So in a small bowl I emptied enough soy for 2 people (about to big handfuls)
  


• Add a mug of cold water
  


• A generous dash of soy sauce
  


• A heaped teaspoon of my 5 spice gravel
  


• I also added a small teaspoon of honey.
  
  
• After soaking for abou 1 hour, I added the pieces to stir fried vegetables and cooked for about 10 minutes.
  


• Serve with rice, mmmm!