Best Brownies

THIS IS A YELLOW RECIPE

I have a good friend to thank for this recipe for brownies. A decent brownie is a very special thing and so often I find when I buy brownies they are either far too sweet of dry and spongy (basically like a chocolate cake). These brownies are dense, dark and chocolatey as any brownie should be. I use walnuts for these because I think the slightly bitter taste goes so well with the chocolate, but also because the brownies my mum used to make had walnuts in too.

8 tablespoons of butter

A 100 gram pack of chocolate – 70% cocoa solids

¼ cup of cocoa

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

1 tspn vanilla (optional, I suggest substituting for espresso for extra depth)

Pinch of salt

½ cup flour

Handful of nuts

Pre-heat the oven to 160 °c

Melt the butter with the chocolate and cocoa

Add the sugar, leave to cool (if you're impatient, plunge saucepan into cold water)

Add the rest of the ingredients and beat well

Pour into a lined tin (I use a loaf tin)

Bake for about 40 minutes, until the batter is set and starts to smell cooked

Don't do the skewer test because you want the mixture to be a little undercooked

Stir-fried aubergine (eggplant) with tomato and chili

THIS IS A BLUE RECIPE

I went for lunch at a Chinese restaurant and had this more-ish dish so decided to try and make it at home. It goes very well with the my adobo recipe from a few days ago.
For 2

2 tablespoons of oil

1 large aubergine cut lengthwise into sticks of about 1 inch thickness

1 large tomato finely chopped

1 dessertspoon of sweet chili sauce

A dash of hot chili sauce

½ dessertspoon of rice vinegar

1 couple of dashes of light soy sauce

Heat the oil and add the aubergines, add some salt

When softish, add the tomato and soften

Add the rest of the ingredients and turn the heat down, cook until the aubergine is soft and transparent

Chicken or Pork Adobo

THIS IS A BLUE RECIPE

I love adobo and this one is so fragrant and lovely. You can use chicken or pork or a mixture of both. Choose chicken thighs not breasts which are dry and bland. For pork, pick pieces with some bone and a little bit of fat, this adds to the flavor and keeps the meat tender. I like to eat this with brown rice and my stir fried aubergines with tomato and chili, the recipe for which will be coming in a few days.

For 2

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

1 large stalk of lemongrass bashed but still whole

4 small chicken thighs or two pork chops

½ dessertspoon of fish sauce

2 tablespoons of rice vinegar

1 mug of chicken stock

Fry the garlic in oil until brown

Add the lemongrass and meat and brown off the mear

Add the other ingredients, cover and simmer for 20 minutes

Remove the lid and reduce the liquid for 10 minutes

Chocolate Almond and Fig Clusters

THIS IS A GREEN RECIPE

This is the perfect snack, the chocolate is the 70% cocoa kind, so less calories and the almonds and dried figs are sweet, crunchy and very good for you.

Melt your chocolate 100 gram chocolate bar in a bowl over hot water

When melted add enough almonds and chopped up figs so that they are covered in chocolate and there is no excess chocolate in the bowl (like when you make rice crispy cakes) – ½ cup of each or more

Use a teaspoon to spoon the clusters onto a greaseproof paper lined tray or plate

Put them in the fridge to set

When cold and hard store in a rigid container in the fridge, they can last for ages if they are not eaten up in a few days!

*you can use half dark and half milk chocolate if you find the chocolate too rich but this will increase the fat content*

Pork with Sage and Beans

THIS IS A BLUE RECIPE

The hardest part of this dish was cooking the beans – they took hours and hours! But it was worth it to get the creamy texture I wanted, and I did a big enough batch to freeze for another time.

I used white beans that are commonly sold here in Zambia, they look a bit like cannellini beans. I simmered them unsalted for about 3 hours, keeping an eye on the water level, eventually they will soften and then after a while longer the starches will turn the consistency creamy. Then I added salt.

Serves 3 – 4

4 large pork chops or steaks

1 large onion finely chopped

3 large cloves of garlic finely chopped

2 large carrots

4 large slices of salami finely chopped

½ pint of vegetable stock

1 large handful of fresh sage roughly chopped

2 cups of cooked beans with the liquor

Salt and pepper

Fry the onions until soft

Add the garlic and carrots and fry for a little longer

Add the pork chops and brown

Then add the rest of the ingredients

Check for seasoning.

Cook for about 1 hour – the longer you cook the more tender the pork should be

Finish off with a few fresh sage leaves.

Serve with boiled new potatoes and cabbage sautéed with butter and lemon juice.

Aubergine/Eggplant Baked Pasta

I know, I know, yet another pasta al forno dish! I can’t help it, I find baked pasta so comforting and easy for larger numbers. Make sure you make enough sauce otherwise it gets really dry when baked.

Serves 3-4

- One 500 gram packet of short pasta (rigatoni, macaroni, gomiti, penne etc)
- 1 tablespoon of light olive oil
- 800 gram tin of plum tomatoes
- ½ pint of yoghurt
- Tablespoon of pesto (the best you can get or homemade is ideal)
- 1 large aubergine (eggplant) finely sliced into rounds
- Salt and pepper
- 1 cup of hard Italian cheese – a mixture of pecorino and parmesan would be great

- Heat the oil and add the tomatoes

- Cook down to make a thick sauce (this takes quite while, about 40 minutes) , add salt to taste

- At the same time cook the pasta in well salted water

- Add the pesto and mix well – remove from heat

- Add yoghurt and mix well

- Put the cooked pasta in a baking dish

- Pour over the sauce

- Top with aubergine and cheese

- Cover and bake for 30 minutes

- Cook uncovered for another 10 minutes until cheese is bubbling and the aubergine is cooked through

Since I live in the Southern Hemisphere, you would imagine that hot chocolate is not the best choice for the time of year being as it is hot and humid. However it is also the rainy season and when it rains it definitely cools down and then hot chocolate doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
I’d also heard that really good quality hot chocolate is a great pick me up and is filling, as well as tasting wonderful.

The first time I tried this it was very satisfying and stopped me snacking all afternoon, however in the morning I was hungry a couple of hours after (but I also didn’t use quite enough chocolate that time, maybe that’s why). Either way, make this with low fat milk or soy milk and your calorie intake can’t be massively high. I also imagine almond milk would be really good too.

Use a chocolate bar high in coco solids, a standard large one should last about 4 cups.

2 heaped dessertspoons of grated chocolate (or break into chunks) *
¼ tsp each of dry ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg
1 couple of drops of vanilla
2 tsps of golden cane sugar
½ mug of milk

Heat all the ingredients together in a small saucepan until the chocolate has completely melted. Make sure you stir well to blend everything together – enjoy!

*Experiment with amounts of chocolate because everyone's taste is different*