Chocolate Squiggle Cookies

If you're a baking novice, but want to make something really easy, but gorgeous looking... these are the biscuits for you.  You need just 5 ingredients (4 if you want to leave them plain) & you can cut them into any shape you like.  I stuck to traditional round shapes, mainly because I couldn't be bothered to root out the star cutters which are packed in a box in the SuperShed.

My one piece of advice is to roll the dough as thinly as possible as it makes the cookies really crisp and crunchy.  Decorating the top with the chocolate is very easy - just melt the chocolate & either pour into a ziplock bag, snip a tiny piece of a corner & you have an instant piping bag.  You can even just use a spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the cookies.  Oh, and the extra chocolate that lands on the baking paper... that's a Chef's Treat!

Chocolate Squiggle Cookies 

250g Plain Flour
85g Golden Caster Sugar
175g Butter, cubed & at room temperature
1 Egg, lightly beaten
50g Dark or Milk chocolate, melted
50g White Chocolate, melted

Preheat your oven to 180c/Gas Mark 4

Put the flour, sugar & butter into a food processor & whizz until the mixture turns into sandy rubble.
Add the egg & mix until the mixture forms a soft ball.

Turn onto a floured surface & roll out until about 1/2 cm thick.

Place onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake for 10-12 minutes until pale golden brown - don't throw out the baking paper.  Transfer to a wire rack & allow to cool completely before decorating.

Place the cooled cookies back onto the baking paper & drizzle with the melted chocolate.  When completely dry, remove from the baking paper & store/eat/give as beautiful gifts.

This is the Chef's Treat (but The Hubs stole half of it!)

Iles Flottante with Roasted Rhubarb

Just because it's Easter, it doesn't mean that all the eggs you eat have to be painted or made of chocolate...  Iles Flottante is a classic French dessert made up of poached meringues, a creme anglaise (thin custard) sauce and a drizzle of caramel over the top.  It's very light, sweet and delicious and it's a dessert I'll always order if I see it on a menu.  The process sounds really scary, but if you can poach an egg, you can make this.

Seeing as the first rhubarb is in the shops now, I decided to cut the sweetness of the meringue with some rhubarb roasted in the oven with some orange juice & vanilla.  This is a chop, pour & bake dish, so absolutely no technical skill required beyond turning on an oven.

I had some cartons of Creme Anglaise in the SuperShed from my last visit to France, so I opened one & used this rather than make it from scratch - very lazy I know, but I've already defrosted the freezer, made 36 Chocolate Banana Cupcakes, Marinara Sauce & Pizza Dough for tonight, so I think I can take a few shortcuts!!!

Speedy Tortizzas

When you're pushed for time, it seems easier to pick up the phone & call for a takeaway.  But it's not.  You know it will take a smidge under 30 minutes to arrive and the pizza will be soggy when you lift the lid.  This recipe gives you a thin & delicious snack in 10 minutes flat. The trick is to use tortilla wraps as a base for a very thin pizza.  I invariably open a packet of 6, use 3 or 4 and the last few linger in the cupboard, or if I'm particularly organised, get put into the freezer.  This means they dry out & are utterly useless for soft sandwich wraps, but they are perfect for Tortizzas.

Heineken Cup Hog Roast

So, Brian is missing Catherine & William's wedding on Friday because Leinster are playing Toulouse in the Semi-Finals of the Heineken Cup in Dublin but Amy's going alone to mingle with royalty - the lucky girl!  A little birdie tells me that Amy will be wearing a Louise Kennedy creation in Westminster Abbey...

If you're going to the match to shout your support for Leinster (oh I'm jealous) or are in the Ballsbridge area on Saturday, Roast Restaurant (above Crowes Pub) plans to feed the fans by holding a traditional Hog Roast to celebrate the match in the Aviva.  They're also doing a fantastic pocket-friendly deal with a choice of main course & a soft drink for just €10... that should keep even the hungriest of rugby fans satisfied.

Roast is at 10 Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 (above Crowe's Pub) & you can have a look at their many menus at www.roast.ie

Asian Marinaded Pork Fillet

We've had such lovely weather over the past week, that most people have dragged out the barbeques from the shed to fire them up for outdoor dinners.  Luckily I had the sense to clean our barbeque last autumn before we put it away in the SuperShed for the winter, so I didn't face a grotty, greasy, cobwebbed horror unlike half of my friends.  I'm a bit hyper about keeping it clean so I line the base of my gas barbeque with tinfoil before I use it (I do the same to my grillpan & roasting tray) so it can be cleaned really easily.

Anyway, enough of my obsessional cleaning quirks - I wanted to grill some pork fillet on the BBQ and thought I'd make a sweet and sticky Asian Marinade to keep it moist during cooking.  Most people would only ever stuff and bake pork fillet because it's perceived as being very dry due to the lack of fat.  Well I can guarantee that this pork was really juicy and tender - myself & The Hubs were really surprised with the result and therefore there were no leftovers for today's lunch... whoops!

I keep old screwtop pasta sauce jars to make marinades - it's very easy to throw all the ingredients into the jar, shake it up & then pour over your meat.  I trimmed the pork fillet & then sliced it into 2cm thick slices - any thinner and the meat will dry out.  Marinade the meat for at least 2 hours before cooking as you want those flavours to really penetrate and make a difference.

Possibly... The Best Carrot Cake Ever

This is not my opinion, but that of a work colleague.  He loves his carrot cake & was very vocal in his praise of my most recent baking offering.  That's praise indeed as far as I'm concerned!  This cake works really well as either a classic two layer 9-inch round cake or a large traybake and is very moist - no crumbly dry cake here.  I don't like dried fruit in Carrot Cake, so I didn't use any.  If you are partial to some plump sultanas, feel free to throw some into the mix.  I made a very thin lemon cream cheese icing for the top because I wanted the cake to be the star of the show, but I know this would be fantastic with a really thick buttercream or cream cheese frosting piped onto the top.

This is also an all-in-one method, so you've only one bowl to wash up afterwards - always a bonus!

I'm Crackers About CrackBird

A few months ago, Joe Macken of Jo'Burger fame decided to open a pop-up restaurant in Temple Bar.  Armed with €15,000 from a credit card, he leased a premises, fitted it out on a (chicken) wing & a prayer and decided to sell chicken, nothing but chicken.  And in a stroke of marketing genius, he offered free meals in the restaurant to some very lucky Twitter followers - known as TweetSeats.

People, I was one of the chosen ones.  And this is my story...

Cooking Doesn't Get Tougher Than This...

MasterChef has come a long way from it's original UK roots, with the US, Australia & New Zealand (my personal favourite) giving the show a local edge.  John & Gregg have transformed into Gordon Ramsay, Ross Burden & Matt Preston amongst others.  There's been Celebrity, Junior, Professional and Large spinoffs too - most of which I've watched.

Now MasterChef has made the biggest leap of all - across the Irish Sea.  The Irish version will be hosted by Nick Munier of Pichet fame (and already a reality TV star) and Dylan McGrath formerly of Mint & now Rustic Stone (also a reality TV star...).  These two hardcore culinary chaps will be slurping, sniffing & perhaps even spitting out the best and the worst offerings by the contestants through the show.

The search is now on to find Ireland's first ever MasterChef champion.  Are you up to the task?

Vodka Penne - Inspired by La Cucina & the Kitchen Hero

On Monday, I was invited to a lovely afternoon tea in the Westbury Hotel by fellow food blogger & now TV celebrity and author of not one but two cookbooks, Mr. Donal Skehan.  Donal's newest book, Kitchen Hero has just been launched - and there's a TV series to accompany the book, coming to our screens very soon.  The Westbury have just launched the Kitchen Hero's Tasty Tea, featuring some of the delicious food from Donal's latest book which was served to us on the daintiest cake stands by some of the friendliest staff I've ever encountered.  It's €40 per person but it does include your very own copy of Kitchen Hero - a fantastic offer.

The Kitchen Hero Tasty Tea

One of the recipes in Kitchen Hero actually came from the lovely Lorraine (@italianfoodie) - the beauty behind La Cucina in Limerick. Aided & abetted by the handsome Bruno (@mritalianfoodie), they produce stunning Italian dishes at their award-winning restaurant in Castletroy.  It's fast, simple and utterly divine - perfect for a speedy supper during the week and I guarantee that you'll make this again and again.  Halfway through his plate of pasta, The Hubs turned to me & said that he'd quite happily eat double portions.  Praise indeed! My quantities feed two hungry people, so simply double, triple or quadruple to feed a crowd.  By the  way, I changed the ingredients slightly to suit our palate - more pancetta, some shallots, sundried tomato puree & I didn't add any salt.  To be honest, I don't think it needs any additional salt because of the pancetta & parmesan.  Taste it when you make it & decide for yourself.

Chocalong : Gianduja Brownies

I knew that I wouldn't get away with just the Chocolate Infused Vodka for the Irish Foodies Chocalong, so I decided to gild a classic decadent brownie with a really easy, but delicious Gianduja topping.  Gianduja sounds very posh, but it's just a mixture of chocolate & hazelnut - in this case, Nutella, chopped roasted hazelnuts & some lovely dark 70% chocolate.

This recipe easily makes 24 brownies, so if you don't have a giant brownie pan, use two loose-bottomed deep cake tins.  Although this mixture doesn't contain any raising agents like baking powder or bicarbonate of soda, it definitely rises in the oven, so don't take a shortcut & use a shallow tin - you'll only spend the next few hours cleaning brownie mix out of the oven & swearing loudly...

By the way, if you don't like hazelnuts, don't stress.  The unadorned brownie is stunningly moist, squidgy & delicious when it's naked.  I'm just pimping my brownie...