Drunken Chocolate Soufflé

A week later, not much has changed with me! But recently got a new job with the local Go Karting centre, we had a staff championship Grand Prix yesterday. An hour down the road to Bristol for our regional heats and it's pretty safe to say I came dead last. Yeah, I thought it was going to be a friendly few laps around the track. Boy was I wrong, I got up to the changing rooms and half the lads strolled up with a duffel bag filled with their own jumpsuits and helmets. Oh crap. This is going to be pretty serious. I looked at another recently hired guy and said, it's just me and you. Head to head. It's going to be a free for all. It was, I gave it my all and didn't spin out once! But as an overall centre we won!! So hey, round 2 next week I best get some practise in no?

Anyway to the soufflé, I was attempting to make a gorgeous chocolate and mango tarte with a luxurious chocolate and caramel ganache. I failed terribly at the first hurdle of home made custard mixing in a fresh mango puree. If anyone has a good recipe or tips for this please help me out! I was left with a lumpy brown mess... so that went in the bin. Waste?! I wanted a new challenge and gave up on the mango. This is incredibly easy and I was so shocked that I actually got a good rise from it! Score, smile returned to my face at last. I hate defeat. This recipe only takes 4 ingredients and if your an avid Baileys drinker you've just saved yourself a trip to the shops.

Ingredients:

3 Egg whites

35g Dutch press cocoa powder (unsweetened)

30g Caster sugar

40ml Baileys (or liqueur of choice)

Prep: Using 1 tbsp of cocoa powder and 1 tbsp of sugar. Grease the ramekins and dust with cocoa sugar mixture. To evenly coat. Preheat oven to 190 degrees.

Recipe:

1. Mix liqueur and cocoa powder in a small bowl.

2. In a separate bowl whisk egg whites adding sugar in parts to form stiff peaks. This is roughly 6-8 minutes using an electing hand mixer.

3. Once stiff (You can try the over the head trick if your confident enough!) Spoon half the mix into the choc mix and fold in using a figure of 8 motion.

4. Once mixed in well add the remaining egg mix and repeat.

5. Spoon into ramekins and bake for 13 minutes.

Top Tips: 

 - Be sure to completely coat the ramekins with butter and cocoa sugar mix! This will help the rise.

 - Completely mix in the eggs. No streaks or marbling. This will again effect the rise and flavour, leaving patches of tasteless egg white.

 - Do not knock or disturb the air you've built up or you'll get a flat blob.

This is best served within the first 2 minutes after removing from the oven. This leaves such little time for any other decoration. So if you have something in mind make sure you have it ready! I just dusted with icing sugar because I didn't think they would actually work, hence the lack of photos! They needed a little whip and my usual photo shoots, but there was just no time haha! They look a little grubby on the edges but that never effects the taste eh ;)

Until Next Time xo

Dont forget my giveaway is closing soon, win 4 pieces of diva jewellery! 

Click here to enter.

DIY: Wagamama Oyster and Chilli Spiced Salmon and Udon

If you haven't been to wagamama's then you've probably been living under a rock. Well maybe thats a slight exaggeration, but this Japanese restaurant I would say is the Asian answer to Nandos. A meal costing roughly the same, while being healthy, tasting fresh and with fast service. Your quickly seated in and amongst other dinners to give a more friendly and informal feeling. Or rather my initial reaction a few years ago, saving on space and cramming more customers in. Apart from my mums grudge of paying for Asian fast food, when she could do it herself to her taste, I love a guilty Waga's. But I just warmed my bones up from the frosty, wasteland that is Cardiff city and couldn't bare to leave the house. Sorry Waga's, you just weren't worth dawning the gloves, hat and balaclava again, this time. Time to DIY my favourite recipe.

It was painful cutting this gorgeous slab of fresh Salmon in half, but there was no way I could handle that whole thing. Unless it was in sushi form. Then, Yes. Good bye salmon, hello belly.

As with the majority of Asian cooking, the biggest portion of your time is taken up by prep, once you've got this down. The rest is literally in the wok and serve. 

So, chopping celery diagonally. 1 whole onion diced. 1 segment of garlic diced. A big handful of coriander chopped and some bean sprouts washed.

Gently fry off the onions, garlic and celery. 

Add udon (or noodles of choice)

Add 100ml of boiling water, simmer until moist noodles.

Gently fry off salmon in separate pan.

On high heat add sesame seeds, bean sprouts, coriander and oyster sauce.

Plate up, garnish with more coriander, fresh chilli and wedge of lime.

Until Next Time xo

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Ciabatta Bread

After eating about 30 different cupcakes, my Auntie came out with 'You should make bread, everyone makes cupcakes. Make bread, I love bread!' So I thought, fuck it! I love bread too! Well maybe not that much, but a cold meat stuff sandwich is a pretty good damn lunch. Plus having so many people tell me about all the preservatives and chemicals they put in food these days, I'm trying to make more things myself and keep it simple. Fresh and REAL ingredients. This didn't quite pan out this time because I wanted to keep student budgets in mind and ease, so I picked up a mix from Lidl. But without this it would be roughly the same price, just flour and some dry active yeast!

Quick and Delicious

After having one of those days where your just so busy you forget to eat or mainly just don't have the time? We got home and realised how hungry we were and couldn't wait for a take away or to even cook a big meal. So instead here is another fast recipe meal!

For the starter:

Using some ready made fish goujons (cheating I know!) put in the oven on 200 degrees for 15 mins.

Simply wash off some lettuce and stack roughly on a small plate. 

Chop some avocado, red pepper and dress with olive oil, salt, pepper and a wedge of lemon. To add a bit more flavour I sprinkled some oregano too, but its still delicious without.

Main:

Even more simply, fry the steaks in olive oil with a slight seasoning of salt and pepper with some garlic in a shallow pan.

Slice tomatoes in half and fry lightly with bacon. Grill chips in the oven alongside the goujons.

Garnish and serve. 

A very basic recipe, I think when your rushing you should have some quick and easy things in mind and in the freezer to avoid the fast food. I've fallen into that trap many times before! What do you think? Something you would try, I personally think it looks like a lot more effort than is actually needed. Which is also great.

Heres a great tip for testing your steak. Touch the tip of your thumb to the finger which stands for the wellness of your steak. Then touch your steak (remember its hot) and compare.
Until Next Time xo