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On Top Of Spaghetti

Monthly Archives: May 2013

Hazelnut & Golden Syrup Rice Crispy Treats and Some “Preparing Ahead” Tips

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by On Top Of Spaghetti in Dessert

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

chocolate, dessert, golden syrup, hazelnut, honey, nut butter, nuts, rice crispies, rice crispy treats, sweet, vegan, vegetarian

Chocolate covered rice crispy treats in the pan ready for freezer
Well, this is new to me. Just diving in and writing about a recipe that is barely even ready to eat. In order to do this, I had to rely on Instagram for my photos, as there was really no time to find the right spot/light/props for each photo I was taking. But let me start from the beginning.

Tomorrow we are having friends round for a barbeque. The next day, we are going to a (different) friend’s house for another barbeque. I always make stuff to take to her parties, as she likes my food and.. well, any excuse for me to make stuff. This time, she has invited around 50 people (it’s a house warming do) and that’s not counting the 15 or so kids. Yikes. My friend has it covered, she always does, as she has a talent for throwing things together that taste lovely, but I would like to help out and do something special in support! Also, my friend and her partner are fitness freaks, so I’m the one who makes the really fattening sweets that their kids are normally deprived of! (just joking… but they do get an extra hit of sugar when I visit).

So after much thought, I set about planning my 3-day weekend. This is an operation that requires much organisation and fine tuning! Today was Day 1 – Prep Day. I don’t like making things too far in advance, as I get anxious about whether they will be good enough to serve when the time comes. But there are many little things that can be done; things that help enormously when it’s time to actually make the final dishes. Here are some tips.

Plan. Make a note of what you are cooking. If you’re like me, write them down, then cross at least two off the list. Try and include some things that can be made ahead, or at least have some steps that can be completed beforehand. Check you have the recipes, and check what ingredients you have/need. Then, do the shopping list.

Next, make yourself a schedule. I am a fan of schedules, so that’s not too difficult for me. I don’t mean down to the last 5 minutes of your day. But think about all the things you will need to do, like supermarket (allow for botched credit card machines and shops that don’t have rice crispies..), other irrelevant tasks that might take time (catching up on Twitter and Facebook), and a break for lunch.

An important part of the schedule are the “make ahead” steps for each recipe. For example. Salad. You think, I can’t possible make it a day in advance. True, but you can wash the veggies. And mix your dressing and keep it in a jar in the fridge. That has just saved you more than half the prep time on the day. Are you baking? You can probably bake a day in advance, especially brownies! But if you don’t want to do that, go through the recipe and complete any steps you can. For example, measure and mix the dry ingredients and keep them in an airtight container. Measure the butter or oil, chocolate, beetroot (brownies on my mind again) and mix if the recipe tells you to. It might seem that all this is unnecessary, but I find that measuring out ingredients is the most time consuming of all stages in baking. But that’s me! Label your containers so you know what’s what.

small tupperware containers with measured ingredients for baking

One has pieces of Twix in it!

For tomorrow’s BBQ, one of the things I’m making is a pasta salad. Again, I could probably have prepared the whole thing today, they are usually better the next day anyway, but mine will have raw courgettes (zucchini) in, so I don’t want it to get very watery overnight. So, I boiled the pasta, coated it in olive oil and it’s now patiently waiting in the fridge. The only downside to these methods, is the full-to-the-brim fridge, and the washing up of all the containers! But desperate times call for desperate measures! The dishwasher can do most of the work.

Collage, one photo of red peppers draining in the sink, and one of a courgette next to a dish sponge

If you are wondering what the sponge is doing next to the courgette, read on..

Finally, if you have a lot planned, splurge on something you wouldn’t normally, to save time and energy. For example, I am making a potato salad on Sunday. I like it with new potatoes, the little ones. My supermarket does these packets of pre-washed new potatoes that need 7 minutes in the microwave. Definitely worth the extra money. Pre-cut and washed salads are also life savers, although these can be much more expensive and not cost effective for a large number of guests. Washing lettuce though? One of my pet hates.
Collage, one photo with courgettes and the other salad stuff drying

At this point I would like to share another couple of tips, which have nothing to do with planning. As mentioned above, lettuce. Love to eat it, hate washing it. I do however have a good method that keeps it fresh for quite a while. If you’re eating it the same day or the next, chop (after getting rid of the outside leaves), put in a colander, wash and leave in the colander to drain, shaking up at regular intervals to get rid of water. If you’re keeping the lettuce for a bit longer, peel off the leaves whole (disgard the outside ones), wash them and spread them out on some kitchen paper to dry. Try to shake as much water off first, but be careful not to bruise the leaves. Do something else for a while. When they are just about dry (don’t leave too long as they will wilt), layer them in an airtight container with kitchen paper between the layers. Yes, I use lots of kitchen paper. If you have chopped the lettuce, pop a sheet of… kitchen paper in a zip lock bag, add the lettuce and seal, trying to push as much air out as possible without crushing the salad. Gosh, how long can one talk about lettuce…?
Collage of two photos with lettuce, one in a tupper the other in a bag

Courgettes/zucchini. Have you ever started to wash them only to find tiny prickly invisible hairs on them? Keep a clean dish sponge (the one with the rough green side used for pots) in your draw. Use it to lightly scrub the zucchini skin. You can also use it to scrub potatoes, if you want to cook them in their skins. You probably already knew that…

And now, a recipe. A recipe I never imagined would be this good. This is my own version of Chocolate Covered Katies’s 5 Ingredient Rice Crispy Treats. They can be stored in the freezer, so I decided to make them today. They’re for the kids on Sunday. Well, they were until I tasted them. Now I think the kids can have the beetroot brownies and the grown-ups will have the Rice Crispy Treats. The Hazelnut & Golden Syrup Rice Crispy Treats. Or maybe I won’t take them with me at all…
Collage of photos with preparation of rice crispy treats

Hazelnut & Golden Syrup Rice Crispy Treats

Ingredients

1/2 cup (8 Tbs) hazelnut butter (in the UK this is available at Holland & Barrett)
1/2 cup (8 Tbs) golden syrup (you could use honey, unless vegan)
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups rice crispies or similar puffed rice cereal (mine was the Lidl brand – use an appropriate version if you are vegan)
160g dark chocolate, cut into pieces
1 Tbs golden syrup
Optional: 1 Twix Xlarge bar (42.5g), cut into small pieces (I had one left over, it was either that or eat it..)

Instructions

1. Place the hazelnut butter, syrup, salt and vanilla in a small saucepan and warm over low heat till melted and combined.
2. In a large bowl, combine rice crispies and hazelnut butter mixture. Stir gently and patiently with a spatula till all the rice crispies are coated.
3. Transfer mixture to a baking tin lined with grease-proof paper. Put another piece of paper over it and press down on it with your hands or the bottom of a glass. Press down well making sure you get into the corners. Put the tin in the freezer for about 20 to 30 minutes.
4. In the meantime, melt the chocolate and 1 Tbs of syrup in the same saucepan you used earlier, over low heat, stirring constantly. When it’s melted, add the Twix pieces and stir until these too have melted. You will have some lumps from the biscuity part of the Twix.
5. Spread evenly over the rice crisy base and return to the freezer till the chocolate topping sets. Use the parchment paper to lift out the set mixture, carefully cut it into pieces (won’t be very easy!) and store in the fridge (or return to freezer). They would also be fine at room temperature (unless you are here in Greece) for a few days.

A sliver of rice crispy treat

A sliver, just to taste test!

Other Rice Crispy Treats from around the blogosphere
50+ Rice Krispie Treat Recipes from Something Swanky (need I continue?!)
Rocky Road Rice Krispies Treats from Brown Eyed Baker
Homemade Coconut Luna Bars from V. K. Rees Photography

Beetroot Brownies for Jamie’s Food Revolution Day Picnic

27 Monday May 2013

Posted by On Top Of Spaghetti in Cakes and Baked Goodies, Dessert

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baking, beetroot, brownies, cake, chocolate, dessert, picnic

a stack of beetroot brownies on a pretty white plate with pointy cornersHello there! It’s been a while… again. But I have a good excuse! We’ve moved house. Yup, we now live in an area outside the city on the coast – a 5 minute walk from the beach to be exact. For Athenians this is considered “a village”! Oh but it’s so lovely. See? a little palm tree on a lawn next to a sandy beach The move was an experience. I’ve moved house several times in my life, 9 to be exact – not counting my years at University in England and not counting the time when I was little and we started moving to a flat up the street only to find the fridge didn’t fit through the kitchen doorway. My mum just took everything back to the old flat that same day! I must say, this time was very easy. We hired professionals to do all the work; packing, dismantling, transporting, the works. The hardest part for us was trying to stay out of their way. Check out their fantastically clever wardrobe box! a cardboard box with a rack for hanging clothesAfter all 9,000 boxes were brought to the new house however, that’s when the tricky part for us started. Two weeks later and I’ve managed to get rid of all but four of them. Unfortunately, one of these contains my tupperware; it doesn’t fit in the kitchen, and I can’t live without it. So I have several trips to IKEA planned in a quest to find the right storage contraption. Any excuse to go get a hotdog!

A few days after the move, I got a message from a Greek food blogger friend (Wonderfoodland) inviting me to a picnic she and two other bloggers (Funky Cook and Sabor by Conna) were organizing for Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day. FRD is an initiative to help raise awareness about eating healthy meals made from scratch. I had to choose from a list of fresh ingredients and make something to take with me. Luckily beetroot was on the list, so I got to try something I’ve been meaning to for a while now. Beetroot brownies! I used a recipe I found on Milk & Honey, which is very easy and requires a minimum of cooking utensils (crucial for me at the time). The only thing I did differently to the original recipe was leave it to bake for longer, as I wanted a more “cakey” brownie rather than a very fudgy one (easier to eat while sitting on a blanket in a park!). What a great day it was! It was so cool to meet fellow bloggers who are based here in Greece, I really hope to see more of them in the future. As with all foodies, they are a supportive and welcoming bunch, always ready with a good word!

picnic shots of brownies, savoury tart, pasta salad and cherry pie

Photos by Wonderfoodland

Beetroot Brownies for Jamie’s Food Revolution Day Picnic

Ingredients

250g unsalted butter
250g dark chocolate
250g cooked beetroot (I use the vacuum packed type – make sure it’s not preserved in vinegar!)
3 eggs
250g white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
150g self-raising flour

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C on fan mode). Grease a baking tin and line it with grease proof paper, making sure the paper overlaps the long sides (creating a handle to pull out the brownies when cooked). My tin is 18×24.5cm (7×9.5”).
  2. Place the butter and chocolate in a bowl and melt in the microwave (in 30 second blasts, mixing after each blast). Alternatively, melt in a small saucepan over low heat, keeping a constant eye on it so it doesn’t burn. Let cool slightly.
  3. Cut the beetroot into pieces and whiz in a food processor until smooth. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl beat the eggs and sugar till well combined and lighter in colour.
  5. Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs slowly, while mixing constantly. Be careful if your chocolate is still very hot, you don’t want to cook the eggs!
  6. Sift the flour and salt over the bowl and fold it in carefully.
  7. When almost no flour is visible, fold in the beetroot until just incorporated. Don’t overmix. The batter will be quite runny.
  8. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 35-40 minutes if you want fudgy brownies, or about 50 minutes for cakey brownies. After 50 minutes my toothpick came out dry from some spots, slightly moist from others.
  9. Let the brownies cool in the tin for 10 minutes or so, then lift out using the paper “handles” and place on a wire rack. Mine were gorgeously moist (not gooey), even with the extra baking time.

Instead of other beetroot recipes, I am listing a few of the blogs that participated in the picnic. There were several more but I didn’t get a chance to chat with them. Take a moment to visit these guys; they are doing a fantastic job!
Wonderfoodland (picnic organiser) – posts in both English and Greek (her savoury tart with feta, tomatoes, onion and olives is pictured above – recipe not online yet)
Sabor by Conna (picnic organiser) – posts in both English and Greek
Funky Cook (picnic organiser) – posts in Greek
Elena’s Cooking (picnic attendee) – posts in English (Pasta Salad with Zucchini pictured above)
Donkey & The Carrot (picnic attendee) – posts in both English and Greek (Cherry Pie pictured above)
Food Daily (picnic attendee) – posts in Greek

For more photos of yummy picnic food, or in case you really want to “Like” it, head over to the Food Revolution Day Athens page!

A Glass of Dessert Part 3 – Lenten (and Vegan) Chocolate Mousse

03 Friday May 2013

Posted by On Top Of Spaghetti in Dessert

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

chocolate, coconut milk, honey, Lent, mousse, tahini, vegan

A martini glass with chocolate mousse garnished with sesame seeds around the rim

Antique English spoon dating from the late 1800s, on kind loan by The Collector

It’s Good Friday today, a day of strict fasting in Greece. It is really hard to believe this chocolate mousse is actually allowed. But it is. I, however, would make this any day of the year. Out of all the chocolate mousses I’ve tried, this might just be the best. And not a raw egg in sight!

I give you two versions and two methods of preparation. The original version, adapted from an insert in Ta Nea newspaper (Feb 2012), uses honey and a food processor. Honey is allowed during Lent even though it comes from bees; this is not the case with veganism. So, I thought I would make it again replacing the honey with golden syrup, making it suitable for vegans. This time I also ditched the processor, purely because I couldn’t be bothered to wash it. Surprisingly, this actually made a big difference in the texture of the mousse, and produced a much softer, lighter and well, mousse-ier result. The original is very smooth and dense, and might be better described as a chocolate pot de crème. Taste-wise they are very similar and I can’t choose which one I like more. But texture-wise, my own version wins hands down. You’ll just have to make a double batch, one of each, and decide for yourself!
Lenten and Vegan Chocolate Mousse 2

Lenten Chocolate Mousse – The Original (with Honey)

Adapted from Ta Nea insert Feb 2012
Makes 4

Ingredients

1 c. coconut milk (not cream, not water)
100g dark chocolate, chopped
3-4 Tbs honey
2 Tbs tahini
1/8 tsp cinnamon
sesame seeds and slivered almonds to garnish

Instructions

  1. Heat the coconut milk in a small pan till just below boiling point.
  2. In a food processor, whiz the chocolate pieces with the cinnamon.
  3. Add the warm coconut milk to the processor, along with the honey and tahini, and whiz till it froths up. Be careful, the warm milk might make it froth up too much, or even overflow and make a mess everywhere. That might put you in a bad mood.
  4. Empty the mixture into 4 glasses or small bowls, let cool and refrigerate till set (at least 3 hours).
  5. Garnish with the sesame seeds and serve. To get the margarita effect in the photo, I put some golden syrup on a plate, twirled the rims of the glasses through it, and then twirled the rims round a plate sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Note: The recipe in the newspaper used almond milk instead of coconut. I haven’t tried this; if you try it please come back and let me know what it’s like!

Lenten and Vegan Chocolate Mousse – My Version

Adapted from the same recipe
Makes 2

Ingredients

1/2 c. coconut milk
40g dark chocolate, chopped
2 Tbs golden syrup
1 Tbs tahini
a pinch of cinnamon
sesame seeds to garnish

Instructions

  1. Heat the coconut milk in a heat-resistant measuring jug in the microwave (in 15 second bursts, checking after each burst).
  2. When hot, add the chopped chocolate and stir till melted.
  3. Add the tahini and golden syrup and whisk till incorporated.
  4. Add the cinnamon and continue to whisk till smooth.
  5. Poor into glasses, let cool and refrigerate till set.
  6. Garnish and serve.

Other Chocolate Pot or Mousse Recipes
Instant Chocolate Mousse by Nigella Lawson (tried, tested and loved!)
Chestnut Chocolate Pots by Nigella Lawson
Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil and Sea Salt by The Kitchn (also tried and tested; gorgeously interesting and different)

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