Tuesday 6 December 2011

Beet and chocolate cake

So having seen this recipe from the gorgeous blog Bon Appétempt and having just purchased my organic goodies from the market, I came straight home and decided that my purchased beets just had to be mixed with my dark dark chocolate.
So I changed the recipe a little…I'm not a fan of cocoa powder or baking powder so skipped both of these…I find that if you whisk the eggs more you actually don´t need rising agents…yay!
I also don't have cup measurements so just guessed really…but it turned out fabulous!
And instead of the poppy seeds I added some wasabi to my cream and let me tell you…genius. Beetroot and wasabi are one of my favourite combos and it did me proud yet again.
















































































































So for this deep red velvety cake all you need is :

roughly 8oz cooked and mashed beetroot
roughly 8oz dark dark chocolate (fork out on the good stuff!)
a handful of fine sugar
1 cup of flour
5 eggs seperated and whisked
about half a block of butter cut into small pieces.

Melt the chocolate over hot water and add the butter in small pieces. Adding butter to the chocolate increases the richness and the texture.
Get your mashed beetroot (I used a food processor but doesn´t matter) and put in a big bowl.
Once the melted chocolate/butter mix is slightly cooler add to the whisked egg yolks (this slightly cooks the egg yolks and will become thicker)
Fold into this the whisked egg whites and then add the flour and sugar.
Mix all together and put in a spring pan and cook….I'm rubbish with times and heat so I just go by smell…once you smell it, its normally cooked!

A couple of things that I would change for next time though is add more chocolate…and maybe even some chilli!


Caminata

At the beginning of December lots of things start happening in this part of the world. The first and second of December villagers do the Caminata of the Virgin of the Guadalupe. This is basically where the the churches congregation remove the statue of the Virgin and walk it around the village for others to see. Its a reminder of who they worship and give thanks too.
I was invited to a caminata in my local village. It was lovely to see that sense of community is still alive. The kids got dressed up, the men cooked the food and then the women served it up.There was dancing and singing, old wives tales, gossip and a really lovely day…


















































Friday 2 December 2011

Leftover day

I, normally hate leftovers. I would rather give my guests a doggy bag than face the spare bits and pieces that are left in my fridge for the next day. But having given away 6 ample doggy bags there was still spares left.
It got to 4pm and realising that I hadn´t yet eaten I raided….
Take a couple of boiled potatoes, left over roast lamb and fry it all together in some top quality butter. Garnish with baby roquette and what do you have. MAGIC!

































































Ten minutes and an awesome meal..