First flourless chocolate cake

My first attempt at baking a flourless chocolate cake - Damien Pignolet's.

I think I like Rick Steins Sunken Chocolate cake better....but I'm not sure!

Eve’s Chocolate Cake

Recipe by Damien Pignolet from Short Orders

Ingredients

12 eggs, separated

360 g best quality cooking bitter

chocolate

30 g soft unsalted butter

30 g caster sugar

cocoa powder or grated chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150C.

2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water off

the heat.

3. Beat in the butter and sugar and the yolks,

beaten for a few minutes.

4. Stiffly beat the egg whites, beat a quarter of

this mass into the chocolate base and fold in the

remaining whites.

5. Pour two thirds into the cake tin and put the

remaining mixture in the fridge covered with

plastic film.

6. Bake the cake for 40-50 minutes.

7. When the cake feels firm and springy, remove

from the oven.

8. Turn it out upside down onto a serving platter

and remove the spring form tin.

9. Allow the chocolate cake to cool for at least one

hour. The centre should fall in.

10. Fill this space with the cold remaining mixture,

dust with cocoa or chocolate and serve with

whipped cream.

Notes & Tips

For 8-10 serves you will need a 26-28 cm spring

form cake tin, which should be greased and lined

with greaseproof paper or ‘Bakewell’

Serves 8 to 10

Fine Fish Indeed - Part 2

The blue glass tumblers were a 'cooling' and calming touch to this seafood restaurant, which has a takeaway arm downstairs.

I thought the red canvas pouch containing Sonoma grain bread was a nice touch - cute.

I was too full to eat dessert, but J & J indulged. I was amused by the panacotta as the basil seeds looked like tiny sea creatures....

Warm Chocolate Tart

salted peanut, strawberries, ricotta

Coconut Panna Cotta

mango, kaffir lime, basil seeds

Fine Fish

75 Grosvenor Lane

Neutral Bay NSW 2089

(02) 9908 4448

http://www.finefish.com.au/

Fine Fish Indeed - Part 1

Some friends and I dined at Fine Fish in Neutral Bay last night. It had been recommended by a few people we know.

For a tucked away restaurant in a local area it was pretty impressive - the ambience, the service and the food. The company goes without saying. : )

Only one of us had entree:

Char Grilled King Prawn Salad nham jim, green papaya, coconut, pomelo

Mains:

Crispy Skin Toothfish

prawn, asian greens, rice dumplings, sour plum vinaigrette

Crumbed Eastern School Whiting

brinjal pickle, yellow lentil purée

Oven Baked Ocean Trout

sumac, tahini yoghurt, walnuts, sesame leaf

Green Beans

confit garlic, eschallots

Special request of Hand Cut Chips (versus side of french fries)

A Hat for Cyril

A bunch of us put in for a new hat for Cyril - to replace the crumpled old beige cap he wears to church. He has been attending Cammeray Anglican Church evening service for years before I started 5 years ago.

CP and I chose the hat and agreed it's not too casual and not too trendy. We didn't go with a full brimmed hat so he can drive in his car (yes, he still drives) with it on.

We are having a party for him this Sunday.

Happy 90th Birthday Cyril!

Back to Feet

Feet - is something I know I took for granted until I discovered that my chronic back problems were partly due to my flat feet. Flat feet also cause bunions - partly hereditary and made worse by flat feet unattended.

For several years I have avoided using orthotics given the fashion sacrifice it entailed.

For the past 3-4 years I've had visits to remedial massage and physio to alleviate my back pain.

6 months ago I decided to take up pilates and look into getting orthotics (you can see from the first picture above the orthotic - they are alot less chunky than when I investigated 10 years ago). My back pain is no longer there - I still get the ache in the hips slightly and shoulder/upper back aches but this is more from sitting at the computer all day. In a nutshell I feel alot better than I was.

Pilates requires a once a week commitment to class and some stretches at home - I can handle that.

The use of custom made orthotics on the other hand sent me into a spin.

I have spent months pounding the pavement for shoes I can wear to work which fit my orthotics and are acceptable to my eye and taste. The journey has been long and at times I've wanted to give up. Given my narrow foot the orthotic was less of a problem than finding a shoe that didn't rub or irritate my bunions. My podiatrist was fantastic encouraging me to not give into buying a shoe I wasn't happy with - she was confident I would find shoes I wanted to wear.

First, I found the buttery soft leather Camper flats which I've been living in alot.

Just before Christmas I was scouring the shops for a hopeful 2nd pair of shoes to alternate with to work. Without success....

Christmas sales bought a few new options which I can live with for a while now for work.

Funnily enough, the two new options (on sale!) are patent blue double straps flats by Maloles - a french brand. And the two tone mary janes are by The Corner Shop - an Australian brand made in Italy....got to be happy with that! When I found them, I thought - God knows me well and has provided once again - sensible but fashionable shoes. He He : )

http://campershoes.com.au

http://www.maloles.com/

http://www.belinda.com.au/ (The Corner Shop is an arm of Belinda Seper's stores)

Canned Chicken?!

I just saw an ad for chopped chicken in a can, likened to tuna in a can. Now, I'm not sure about you....but I don't think I will be trying it!

I googled and found someone's post with pictures of chicken in a can - that is a WHOLE chicken in a can.....what is this world coming to! More pics can be found here:

http://ihatemymessageboard.com/2009/04/23/a-whole-chicken-in-a-can/

Cooookkiiiieeeesssss

Sydney weather has been very humid and hot the past few weeks, or that could just be a very long week given my memory is failing me lately.

I've been hankering to bake some Bill Granger choc chip cookies - CP style. I say CP style as my friend CP substitutes choc chips for a real block of chocolate chopped up. Dad recently gave me some macadamias which would not be my nut of choice to just snack on. Given that my Dad highlighted how expensive macadamias are I thought I better use some up....so I've added some chopped ones in and they taste pretty good....

I'm wondering whether I should even take them into work to share now that I think these are probably the best batch so far?

CP-Soho Modified Chopped Choc Cookies (modified from bill granger's 'sydney food')

125g unsalted butter, softened 1 1/4 cups tightly packed brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence 1 lightly beaten egg

1 1/2 cups plain flour 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt 200g block of chocolate (dairy/dark/white) chopped up

Handful of macadamia nuts chopped up

******

Preheat oven to 180°c (350°F).

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until light and creamy. Do this literally - merely mixing the butter and sugar will not work. Add vanilla and egg and stir to combine.

Stir in sifted flour , baking powder and salt until just combined. it will initially look dry but stick to the recipe. Fold through chopped choc and nuts.

Place spoonfuls (Use tablespoon for smaller bite size or larger spoons for larger cookies) of cookie mix onto a lined baking tray allowing room for expansion.

Cook for 10 (tablespoon/small cookies) - 20 mins (larger cookies) until golden.

Cool on the tray for 5 mins, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

(Makes approx 30 small cookies, or 16 larger cookies)