Never Fail Chocolate Cake

Ok Keda, here it is!

I have been making this cake since I was about 6yrs old and as the name suggests, it never fails. It originally came from the 1980 St Gerards Primary school cookbook (the school next to my primary school) and was contributed by a Mrs Gwen Ilic, bless her. The page is covered in chocolate cake, which is further proof of what a favourite it is. It is incredibly easy and makes a beautifully moist rich chocolate cake without being too heavy or sickly, allowing you to go back for that second or third cupcake hehehe. The mix makes enough for two cakes to be sandwiched or a deep round or probably 18 cupcakes. Next tasting will be at the kids 3rd birthday party, unless Keda whips one up first ;) .

2 1/4 cups S.R Flour
1 tsp bi carb
2/3 cups cocoa
1 3/4 cups castor sugar
5oz butter (141g) that's how old the recipe is
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs

Sift dry ingredients into mixer bowl. Add softened butter, water and vanilla. Beat on med for 3mins. Add eggs, increase speed for further 3 mins. Pour into well greased tin/s and bake in mod oven. Enjoy!

When to much cheese just ins't enough

I had always made my cheesy bechemal fairly randomly and although it always tasted good, it was always a bit of a hassle because of the constant stirring and anxiety about getting it right. Tim must have witnessed this and finally gave me a recipe for Bechemal sauce. Although he gave me the recipe several YEARS ago, it has taken me until last week to actually try it, however, I'm completely sold! It's quick, easy, reliable, makes a huge quantity and you can freeze it. Yep, that right, make a massive amount, freeze it in plastic containers and anytime you want a hit of cheesy goodness, it's yours for the defrosting! Let me let you in on the secret (and let me write the recipe somewhere less likely to be lost than my 2006 diary!).

Bechemal
~120g butter
~120g plain flour
1 litre milk
150 g grated tasty cheese
Salt
Pepper
An onion - optional

Make a roux - in a large heavy based saucepan melt the butter, add the flour and cook it on medium heat, stirring it frequently, until it resembles wet sand.

While you are poking your roux, put the litre of milk in a saucepan with plenty of pepper (and the onion if you want. Personally, I'm not a fan of the onion, I think it gives the whole thing an odd taste) let it come to the boil.

Pour the milk, through a strainer to catch the peppercorns/onion, into the roux and, whisking it enthusiastically, turn up the heat until it boils.

Season with plenty of salt and more pepper (white pepper, finely ground, at this point is preferred so you don't have black specks of pepper in the final product). I like to add a dash of nice vinegar at this point.

If you have lumps use your stick blender to eradicate them, otherwise just add the cheese.

Taste it - you may need to add more salt. I ended up adding a lot more cheese - probably because I had cheated and was attempting to use pre-grated cheese which actually has starches in it to stop it glomping together and therefore has less flavour. On the other hand, maybe it's just because I like a very cheesy sauce rather than a traditional bechemal.

Pour it onto your dinner and/or into plastic take-away containers to put in your freezer for a wet Sunday.

Donna Hay - Chickpea patties

Ok, so a donna hay magazine miraculously landed on my desk recently (I don't buy it!) and it's full of table fashion, and food styling and recipes for sweet things and thing that we already make (presented fancily of course). Sorry to sound so disparaging, but it really feels to be almost content-free, although I don't read magazines much these days, so perhaps I'm just re-sensitized to the style-over-substance thing. Anyhow The Wine Dept saw a little recipe on the 'cheats and nibbles' page and thought it would be fun to make with the little guy, and after they had made them and we had enjoyed them I thought I might post the recipe here, so you can get the recipe without looking at any trendy white-on-white table layouts. I have, of course, incorporated our small changes.

Chickpea Patties

Put half a 400g tin of chickpeas in the bowl of a blender or food processor (the little bowl on our Braun stick blender was big enough) with:
1 egg
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/3 cup flat leaf parsley
a little bit of chilli
salt and pepper

Process that together, then add the rest of the chickpeas and give a few more pulses so the rest of the chickpeas are chopped up but not quite as mushy as the rest. Shape the mixture into patties (Our 2-year-old reckons small patties are best, I concur!) and fry the patties in a little olive oil. 'Donna' suggests serving the patties with shop-bought tzatziki and flatbread but we just mixed some plain greek yoghurt with salt and lemon juice and it was delicious.



The patties were literally childs-play to make and they were tasty. As they are, they would be a good source of vegetarian protein and would travel well for picnics and/or lunchboxes, if you could manage to have any left over (double the recipe if you have more than two people or if you want lunch the next day!).

I personally would also like to experiment with the addition of either a handful of cooked brown rice or some chicken mince (obviously *not* vegetarian) but they really are just fine as they are!

Chocolate Brownies

I think this recipe came from a magazine many years ago. It was probably Cleo or Cosmopolitan something (does Cleo still exist?) but it has been my 'go to' Brownie recipe for so long I consider it mine. I will write it out here the way I do it, which I believe is superior!

When Sanj and I make this together it takes us less than 10 minutes to put together and around 20 minutes in the oven and because the ingredients are all usually kicking around our kitchen we make this recipe pretty quickly.

INGREDIENTS

• 100g good quality chocolate - this *must* be 40% cocoa or more, but I find the 80% Lindt slightly too bitter so we usually use a mix of whatever we have lying around.
• 2 large eggs
• 150g caster sugar - I either use vanilla sugar or put half a teaspoon of vanilla in
• 100g plain flour
• 125g butter
• 100g shelled walnuts - feel free to use any nuts you like here. I'm not particularly fond of walnuts, though they do make a nice grown-up flavoured brownie. I usually use hazelnuts for a kind of Nuttella richness or macadamias because the texture goes so well. The recipe doesn't specify using toasted nuts, but the flavour and texture are both superior if you do. If I have no nuts at home or there are going to be kids eating the finished product I use chunks of chocolate or even, on one memorable occasion, Smarties!

METHOD

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C
• Melt the chocolate and butter carefully in a glass or ceramic bowl in the microwave. You can of course use the traditional stovetop method if you don't have a microwave, but it isn't as easy.
• Carefully grease and flour the 25cm square tin. If I'm having the kind of day where everything is going wrong I might partially line the tin with paper so I can be a bit more confident it won't stick.
• Whisk the eggs, either by hand or preferably with an electric mixer. Add the sugar (and vanilla if you're using it) and if you are using a powerful stand mixer remember you aren't trying to make meringue.
• Stir in the flour.
• Stir in the nuts (or chocolate!)
• Pour all the mixture into your prepared tin and pop it in the oven.
• It should be done in around 20 minutes, coming away from the sides, looking cooked, not wobbling when you shake it and smelling delicious (and the skewer should come out relatively clean).
• Let it cool in the tin