Mmm...

Chocolate fondant with a spicy surprise! This calorie-packed dessert is really worth the sacrifice, a dark chocolate cake with creamy, gooey inside. Just dig a spoon (or a fork!) in there, and watch the warm chocolate fondant unveil - Yum!











Makes 4
Fondants
100g Butter (Cut into smaller pieces)
100g Dark Chocolate (Chopped)
100g Flour
100g Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
Crushed&Dried Chilli


For the moulds
20g Warm butter
Cocoa powder

Preparation...


- Start with the moulds, creme brulee moulds (5-6cm diameter and 5-6cm deep) fit perfectly. Using the warm butter, brush over the inside of the mould. Place the moulds into a freezer. When the butter is frozen, brush more butter over it, creating two layers.
-Add cocoa powder, turning the mould and tapping lightly so the powder completely coats the butter. Tap the excess powder out.
-In a larger pot, heat up some water (don't let it boil) and place a smaller bowl or pot over it, then melt the chocolate and butter together.
- Add a pinch of crushed & dried chilli (careful with this one, make sure you know how strong it is.) and remove the bowl from the heat and stir until smooth. Let it cool down for about 10 minutes.
-Whisk the eggs and sugar together until it thickens (easier with an electric whisk). Sift the flour and  gently mix together with the eggs.
-Carefully pour the melted chocolate and butter into the egg and flour mix in thirds, carefully mixing until you get a thick, consistent chocolate cake batter.
-Grab your prepared moulds from the freezer and divide the batter evenly into all four moulds, easier if you take a spoon dipped in water. (The chocolate fondants can easily be frozen and cooked from frozen, letting you keep the desserts for up to a month in your freezer. Just add about 4-5 minutes to the cooking time.)

About time...


-Heat your oven to 200C/Fan 180C/ Gas 6. Place the fondants on a tray and cook for 10-13 minutes until you can see the tops forming a crust. Take them out and let them sit for a minute or two.
-Carefully pick up a mould with a thick kitchen towel and very gently move the tops so that they start to come away from the sides.
- Tip on a plate and serve with caramel sauce, vanilla sauce, berries, jams... It's your call! Don't forget the ball of icecream, though...

                                                                Enjoy!

Tastes like chicken! But with flavour!

Colourful, tasty and healthy!

Sweet and Spicy chicken with thyme and garlic served with green tabasco rice and turkish beans with fresh chilli.









Serves 2

400g Chicken
50g Turkish beans
3 Chillies
2 Lemons
6-7 Garlic cloves
100ml Sweet Chilli Sauce
Green Tabasco Sauce
Jasmine Rice
Dried thyme, brown sugar and salt.

Preparation...

- Clean the Chillies and Garlic, chop finely.
- Wash the beans, cut off the edges if needed.
- Prepare the chicken, rinse under cold tap, cut off excess fat and slice into even strips.

Get to it!


-Bring water to boil with a pinch of salt in a pot for your rice and cook as instructed.
-Heat up a skillet, adding some olive oil, brown sugar, thyme, garlic and chilli.
-Add the juice from one lemon and the Sweet Chilli sauce, stir and let it simmer.

The chicken will take only a few minutes to cook so prepare your rice first, letting the sauce simmer.
Add the cooked rice back into a clean pot, add a touch of olive oil, juice from one lemon and spice it up with the Tabasco Sauce, make sure to taste!

Grab a pot with a lid and heat it up with some olive oil, drop in some brown sugar, a pinch of salt and chopped chilli then add the beans and close the lid, cooking for 2-3 minutes, occasionally stirring.
Place the chicken into the simmering sauce, turn up the heat and stir, then let it cook under a lid until ready.

Using a simple trick to serve the rice - Grab a creme brulee mould, add a drop of olive oil inside and smear it around. Fill it up with the rice, pressing down with a spoon and flip it over on the plate.
                                                                    Enjoy!

                                                                               

Spicy, beefy goodness!

Spicy beef strips with a sweet chilli coconut sauce served on rice noodles

A simple yet so delicious creation that takes little effort yet the end result is just too good to pass by.

Beef strips with crushed & chopped garlic, fresh chopped chilli braised with a drop of  olive oil,
sweet chilli sauce, coconut milk and lemon.







Serves 2

400g Beef
2-3 Chillies
1 Whole garlic
1-2 Lemons
200ml Coconut milk
100ml Sweet Chilli sauce
Salt, Brown sugar
Rice noodles

Preparation..
-Clean the chili beans, cutting them open lenghtwise and clean out the seeds, then chop finely.
-Crush the garlic gloves with your knife, clean and chop.
-Slice the meat into strips and cut away the fat if needed.
-Press the lemons.

Whip it up!
Heat up a skillet, adding some olive oil then garlic and the chilli. Heat for a minute, adding a spoonful of brown sugar then mix lightly.
Add the chilli sauce and coconut milk and let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring once in a while.
Place the beef strips into the skillet and stir with the sauce, and let it simmer under a lid for about 30 minutes.
Season with salt and add half of the lemon juice and let it simmer for a little while longer.
Prepare the rice noodles as instructed, drain them and place back into the pot, adding some of the lemon juice and mix it together.

                                                          Serve it and Enjoy!

Chili pepper - Fruit of the Immortal.

 

This sometimes feared fruit (spice.) could be considered a medicine instead of a culinary spice, and often is considered both, and not without reason.
Vitamin A - Improves eyesight and helps fight viral infections.
Vitamin C - Lowers cancer risk, helps cells and improves iron absorption.
Potassium - Aids muscle and nerve functions, lowers risk of high blood pressure.
Iron - Helps your immune system, oxygen distribution and energy production.

A strong, relaxed heart, clean blood circulation, a powerful immune system, and weight loss by eating?
Sounds like something out of a top-of-the-line medicine Ad?
The truth here is much simpler, cheaper and better looking - Chili peppers! (dried, crushed, fresh, any form.)
Red chili peppers are a great natural remedy that helps lower blood cholesterol, prevent blood clots and relax your heart (lower resting heart rate, also more blood reaching the heart.)
The A and C vitamins in Chili pepper are vital for a healthy, strong immune system.
Feeling hot after having your chili?
Great - all that heat produced by your body is energy, burned calories.
Chili pepper also greatly boosts your metabolism!

Unfortunately some have the false idea  that chili pepper causes stomach ulcers, in fact, chili peppers help  prevent them by killing the unwanted bacteria and also aiding the protective "layer" in your stomach. (stimulates the cells lining your stomach to secrete protective juices.)
Capsaicin - A great natural pain reliever, stuff that chili pepper is full of. (quantity depending on the potency of the fruit - the more capsaicin, the hotter the burning sensation.) 
Also helps clear congestion from your lungs, throat and nose.


René's Chili Sauce.
A great universal sauce/additive.

- 3-4 Red chili peppers.
- 3-4 Cherry tomatoes.
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice. (1 lemon.)
- 2-3 teaspoons of olive oil.
- A pinch of salt and crushed pepper.
- 1 teaspoon of brown sugar.
- 1 teaspoon of Oregano.




Wash the tomatoes. Cut the chili peppers open lengthwise with a small knife, wash under cold tap water. (If you want a milder sauce, take the seeds out.) Cut them into slightly smaller pieces (Not finely chopped.) Place everything into a food blender, and mix well.

This sauce can be a base or amplifier to many dishes, pasta sauces, soups, stews, salads and so on.
Try using some in Pasta Bolognese, Lasagne, Veggie soups or even as a pizza sauce.

                                                                        Enjoy! 

Lemon Sourface.

This amazing sunny fruit tends to be quite underrated in today's kitchen.
Perhaps because we let our tastebuds grow accustomed to the sweeter tastes instead?
This wondrous yellow fella is packed with so much goodness it's literally bursting. (Give it a little squeeze and the juice will seep from the pores.)
It's used in foods, medicine, aromatherapy and cleaning - favoured for its refreshing aroma and the citric acid (Roughly 5-6% in freshly squeezed lemon juice.)


Vitamin C - one of the most important antioxidants in nature and half a glass of lemon juice provides you with enough for a day.
The contents of freshly squeezed lemon juice are extremely useful for your body, blood vessels and helps regulate cholesterol in your body, also aiding your kidneys.
Last but not least, your immune system - Vitamin C is vital for your immune system to function properly.

Let's talk about it's culinary uses - it has a wide variety of them, too ; the juice itself can be used for waking up the flavours in almost any dish, also a great natural preservative (Try on cut bananas, apples, avocados - foods that oxidize.) 
Lemon peel is widely used in baking , porridges, puddings, marinades (Try marinating chicken with fresh lemon zests, drop of olive oil, pepper and a pinch of crushed chillies - rub all the ingredients nicely into the flesh and pack tightly with cling film. Let it marinate in the fridge for some hours.)
There are other uses for it in your kitchen, it serves as an excellent, natural cleaning agent.
Rub half a lemon over your kitchen surfaces and cutting board, gently squeezing the fruit.

Half a squeezed lemon juice and water makes a great refreshment, too. Also helps neutralise the tastes in your mouth. When having a glass with your meal, the juice makes the taste more flavoursome!

Hope this helped you to befriend that yellow fella - if already a fan, hooray to you!

Millet - Bird food or Culinary delight?

Millet - Another stranger in our culinary world, perhaps due to the widespread rumour of millet being used as bird and animal food.
It's much more than that, in fact, millet is another less known grain(actually seed but considered grain in the kitchen.) that does not contain gluten thus making it a great choice for celiacs.


Millet is also very easily digestible and highly nutritious; A great source of phosphorus(Vital for your cells.), magnesium, manganese and tryptophan. Also contains Copper (19-20% Daily value in 1 cup.) and Iron. (8-9% Daily value in 1 cup.) 
Good for neutralising the acid levels in your body, too.

As food, it can be enjoyed as either salty or sweet dish in sides, salads, main courses or consumed on its own as porridge. Has a very similar consistency to polenta and Couscous.
Like preparing any kind of grains, you must wash the millet seeds before cooking, rinse well with warm water in a sieve, recommend doing so several times in order to wash out all the dirt.
Try roasting the seeds on a dry skillet before cooking, allowing them to turn slightly golden, giving your porridge a nutty hint.
There are several methods when it comes to preparing millet, you can boil it in a pot with a lid.
Use a 1: 3 ratio (1 Cup of millet, 3 cups of water or as instructed on the package.) with a drop of salt, the cooked millet will become grainy like rice.
You can also give it a nice creamy consistency by adding cream or milk.
When cooking with cream/milk, be sure to stir it often.

Sweet millet porridge with Vanilla & Cinnamon apples.
Serves 2


- One cup of millet.
- Two cups of water.
- Cup of milk/lighter cream ( when using thicker cream, use less of it and balance with water.)
- Pinch of salt
- One teaspoon of brown(Demerara.) sugar.

Thoroughly wash the millet, put them into a little saucepan, add water and a pinch of salt.
Turn the heat to medium and let it cook under a lid for 10-15 mins.
Add milk/cream and sugar, stir to prevent the porridge from sticking to the bottom.
Turn the heat lower, let it cook slowly for about 10 more minutes, stirring often.
Taste - if you feel the seeds are undercooked, add a drop more water.
The porridge is ready when the whole thing has a thick, creamy consistency and the seeds are almost soft.

Serve with : Simple Vanilla & Cinnamon apples.


Dice an apple into 1cm cubes, grab a frying pan, drop in a little chunk of butter or use a drop of olive oil, add apples, spoonful of brown sugar, half a teaspoon of cinnamon and a spoonful of vanilla sugar.
Let it all heat for a few moments, letting the butter / oil mix with the ingredients, then add a splash of water (Roughly 3-4 spoonfuls.) 
Heat it under a lid, stir once in a while. Ready when the water has mixed with the ingredients, turning the apple soft and leaving a thick cinnamon & vanilla sauce.

                                                                                     Enjoy!

A stranger - Buckwheat.

This hearty plant is actually not a grain nor grass, buckwheat is not related to wheat, instead it's a fruit related to rhubarb and sorrel - thus it's great for wheat(protein gluten) sensitive people.
Buckwheat is also helpful for keeping your cholesterol levels normal and helps prevent high blood pressure and helps lower your blood sugar.
The grain-like fruit has various commercial uses - Beer, Flour (Also providing many flour products.), Honey. There are even buckwheat pillows!



As whole buckwheat, this food is crammed with nutrients, you've got your fiber, magnesium, manganese and tryptophan. It's also has one of the highest hunger satisfication levels - Amazing plant, isn't it?

The most common way of preparing Buckwheat would be porridge, either cooked in a large pot or in a frying pan with a lid on. You can use water for boiling buckwheat, or broth (Either self-made or using a stock cube.). When preparing buckwheat in a frying pan, it's easy to chuck in some cut vegetables or meat if you prefer and let it simmer together, allowing the flavours to combine under the lid.

Simple Buckwheat. (20-35mins.)
Either pot or a frying pan. 
Serves 2
- A cup of whole Buckwheat
- Two cups of water or broth
- A drop of butter

Prepare your buckwheat in a pot if you prefer to have the porridge on its own or as a side dish.

Turn the heat to medium, drop in your butter and add the buckwheat, heat for a few moments, add water. (Use a kettle to bring the water to boil.)
Add a dash of salt, and let it simmer under the lid, stirring once in a while. The porridge is ready when all the water has been absorbed.

Buckwheat porridge on it's own can be served with milk, a drop of butter, or sour cream. (Try flavouring the sour cream with a drop of either green or black pepper, dried dill, pinch of salt and some freshly squeezed lemon.)


                                                                                     Enjoy!