A light and tempting chocolate cake recipe, delicious when paired with tea.

Serves: 6-10
Prep time: less than 15 mins
Cooking time: 20-25 mins

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. Cream butter and sugar
2. Gradually add beaten eggs
3. Fold in flour and cocoa powder
4. Pour in equal measure into two greased cake tins
5. Preheat oven to 180c / 350f
6. Place both tins on same shelf
7. Cook for 20-25 mins
8. Cooked when knife comes out clean.

Butter Cream Filling

1. Put in bowl and stir till smooth

Serves: 4
Prep time: 15 to 30 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins to 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 pint / 570 ml milk
4 oz / 110 g fresh white breadcrumbs
1/2 oz / 10 g butter
2 oz / 50 g caster sugar
Grated rind of a small lemon
2 eggs
3 level tablespoons raspberry jam

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c / 350f / Gas mark 4
2. Generously butter a 1 1/2 pint / 845 ml oval pie-dish
3. Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter, breadcrumbs, 1oz (25g) of the sugar and the lemon rind, and leave for 20 minuted to allow the breadcrumbs to swell.
4. Separate the eggs, beat the yolks and add them to the cooled breadcrumb mix. Pour it all into the pie dish and spread it out evenly. Bake in the centre of the oven for 30 – 35 minutes or until set.
5. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt the jam over a low heat and, when the pudding is ready, remove it from the oven and spread the jam carefully and evenly over the top.
6. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then whisk in 1oz (25g) of caster sugar and spoon this meringue mixture over the pudding. Finally, sprinkle a teaspoon of caster sugar over it all and bake for a further 10 – 15 minutes until the topping is golden brown.

Serves: 8 or more
Prep time: 15 to 30 mins
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

100g / 3.5 oz digestive biscuits or graham crackers
190g / 7 oz milk chocolate
60g / 2 oz softened butter
40g / 1.5 oz icing/powdered sugar
drinking chocolate

Preparation:

1. Crush the biscuits.
2. Put the chocolate into a bowl and melt.
3. Add the butter to chocolate, icing sugar and biscuits and mix. Leave the mixture in fridge for 10 mins roll into truffles roll in choc powder to coat.

Lasagne by WordRidden on flickr

Serves: 2
Preparation time: around 1 hour including cooking time.
Cooking time: around 50 minutes.

Ingredients:

300 grams of beef mince
1 Jar of bolognese sauce (will update in due time with proper ingredients for bolognese sauce)
25 grams of plain flour
25 grams of unsalted butter
300 ml of milk
A sprinkle of ground nutmeg
125g of fresh Mozzarella
4 Lasagne Sheets
Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

First off we will start off making the bolognese. Take the meat and put it in a hot pan with heated oil, brown the meat but don’t cook it just yet. Add the bolognese sauce and lower the heat to just below a simmer. Leave this for 35 minutes.

Now you need to make the Béchamel Sauce, before you start make sure you have a whisk with you. First off, take the 25 grams of butter and put it in a small pan, bring it to a simmer and then add the flour, have the milk on hand as it with thicken quickly and if you leave it to sort the milk out it will burn. Keep this on a medium heat while you start adding milk and mixing it together before adding more, do this slowly to reduce lumps. When all the milk has been added you will need to keep mixing it with the whisk until it gets a bit thicker, you may have to reduce the heat if it starts bubbling a lot. After it thickens, season salt and pepper and then add in a sprinkle of ground nutmeg for flavour.

Boil some water in a pan and add in some olive oil and a pinch of salt, then take the lasagne sheets and boil them for 5 minutes, i know this point may seem pointless, but it reduces the overall cooking time so is worth doing. After boiling them, take them out and put them in another pot with cold water to cool them down, take them out and dry them. It’s now ready to put together.

You can either wait for the bolognese sauce to cook fully or add it now, it doesn’t matter as it will finish off cooking in the oven anyway, at this point it may be a good idea to preheat the oven, 240c is a good temperature i find for most ovens. To put together the lasagne, first take the container you are going to use and rub it over with some butter or something similar to stop it all from sticking. Then we need to take the sauces and Mozzarella, split the Bechamel into 5 servings, the Bolognese into 3 servings, and the Mozzarella into 4 servings. Then put down a small layer of Bechamel Sauce and then put one sheet on top of this. Then add another layer of Bechamel Sauce, followed by a layer of bolognese, and then sprinkle with one of the services of Mozzarella and then finish with another sheet of lasagne. Do this a total of 3 times, so that you have Bechamel on the bottom with the sheet on top, then one layer of Bechamel, Bolognese and Mozzarella, then another, and then another. After this you should be left with a blank sheet of pasta, one serving of Bechamel Sauce and one serving of Mozzarella. On this final layer use up the rest of the Bechamel, and then add the Mozzarella on top. Put the finished Lasagne into the oven at the said temperature for around 15 minutes (check after 12 to be safe) or until the cheese has gone golden brown on top.

Ingredients:

2 x 300g / 10 oz packs “straight to wok” noodle
8 spring onions/green onions/scallions, sliced
1 red onion, finely sliced
1 red chilli, sliced
4 large handfuls spinach
2 tsp vegetable oil
350g / 12 oz sirloin steak, fat removed
1.1 ltr / 4.5 cups fresh chicken stock
4cm / 2 in fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
2 tsp miso
2 large handfuls beansprouts
2 tbsp chopped coriander (optional)
1 lime, quartered

Preparation:

Divide the noodles, spring onions, red onion, chilli and spinach among 4 deep bowls. Brush the oil over the steak and season with salt and pepper.
Fry the steak for about 5 minutes, turning once. Leave to rest.
Put the stock, ginger and 1.1 litres of boiling water into a pan. Bring slowly to the boil and stir in the miso. Take off the heat and stir into the bowls.
Leave to stand for one minute. Slice the beef, divide among the four bowls and top with beansprouts and coriander. Serve with the lime wedges.

Chicken Liver Pate by Nick W

A smooth pate which should be heavy on the garlic

(2 FAT cloves really is the absolute minimum!)

Serves: Plenty as part of a buffet
Preparation time: 30 – 40 minutes
Cooking time: 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours

Ingredients:

½ lb chicken livers, cleaned
3 rashers green, streaky bacon, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, (more if you like), chopped
Unsalted butter or ghee
½ tsp English mustard powder
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp dried thyme
1 – 2 tbs Crème Fraiche
glug of Armagnac
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Bay leaves

Preparation:

Heat the butter in a large frying pan, add the chopped onion, garlic and bacon, fry until the onion is softened.

Add the livers, dried thyme, mustard powder and grated nutmeg, cook, stirring until the livers are coloured.

Remove from the heat, add a tablespoon or two of Crème Fraiche and a good glug of Armagnac, add ½ tsp salt and pepper, stir to mix.

Blend to taste with a food processor, (don’t over-process if you like a bit of texture), and pour into and ovenproof terrine dish, garnish
with a couple of bay leaves and, optionally, cover with more rashers of streaky bacon.

Pre-heat the oven to 80C, place the pate in a bain-marie and cook for 1 ½ to 1 ¾ hours.

Allow to cool for 30 – 45 minutes before weighting overnight.

Refrigerate as soon as cool.