Chocolate Panna Cotta

Panna Cotta always scares me, simmering milk, over boiling it. Oh the horror, I am sad to say that actually happened to me. I left the milk simmering and turn my head to check on something else and BOOM! the milk frothed over! But I have learned that with second tries and lower heat that you just have to stand there and simmer the milk on medium low heat and you would be all good. 

Panna cotta (means cooked cream in Italian) is an Italian dessert made by simmering together cream, milk and sugar, mixing with gelatine and letting it cool until it sets. I was inspired when I when to GiGi's Pizzeria, their pizza is great, but what blew me away was the Panna Cotta, ooh it's creamy and melts in your mouth with the slighted touch of your tongue. I decided to add some chocolate into the mix and wow, it works so well with the fresh golden kiwis.

Chocolate Panna Cotta

Serves: 4 

Cooking time: 20 mins 

Setting time: 6 hours min - 1 day 

What you will need

600ml thicken cream 

3 tablespoons caster sugar 

1 1/4 teaspoons flavourless gelatin powder

120g good dark chocolate or semisweet chocolate

3 teaspoons vanilla extract 

Pinch of salt 

1. Grease 4 panna cotta moulds with flavourless oil.

2. Use 60ml of cream and warmed in microwave   sprinkle the gelatine over it and stir until the gelatine dissolved.

3. Meanwhile, in a deep saucepan over medium low heat, bring the remaining cream, sugar and salt just to a light simmer. Simmer for 3 minutes, adding the vanilla extract and stir to combine. 

4. Remove cream mixture from the heat, add the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Add the gelatine mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir until well combined. Pour through a fine strainer and into the 4 panna cotta moulds. Let it cool to room temperature.

5. Cover the Panna cotta loosely and refrigerate until set and throughly chilled, at least 6 hours or up to 1 day. 

To Served, dip the moulds one at a time into a bowl of hot water for about 5 seconds to loosen the mould and invert onto a serving plate. Served with fresh fruits or sauce.

Balsamic Baked Chicken

Here's an all-in-one dish, no fuss no mess dinner that you can prepare in a jiffy. It's so simple you just have to cut the vegetables, arranged them as neat as you wish. 

I love zesting the lemon then slicing the lemons and leaving them on the chickens and as they bake, the lemony juices will seep into the pan and combined with the balsamic 'dressing' it makes an awesome awesome sauce.

While the chicken is getting baked, the vegetables get marinated in the juicy, lemony, balsamic sauce. You can easily put this together and pop it into the oven for and hour and voilà! 

Balsamic Baked Chicken 

Serves: 4-6 
Cooking time: 1hour 15mins

8 chicken thighs 
400g of potatoes, quartered 
1 medium red onion, cut into this wedges
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
4 medium sized carrots, cut into wedges
1 whole lemon, zested and sliced 

Dressing 
1 tablespoon of dry mix herbs
1 teaspoon of dry thyme 
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoon of olive oil
2 teaspoon of sugar
salt and pepper 

Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Arrange chicken, potatoes, onion, garlics, carrots. In a separate bowl, whisk balsamic, oil, sugar and dry herbs until sugar had dissolved. Drizzle over chicken and vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. 

Bake for an hour and serve. 

Chicken mushroom

I love simple recipes like this, it's for weekdays when you come home from a hard day of work and you can whip this baby up in less then 30mins tops. You can easily cook a larger batch up and save it for later days when you feel lazy.

This recipe is really flexible, if you wish to omit white wine, go right head and replace it with the same amount of chicken stock. No fresh herbs? Dry works well too. It work well with rice, mashed potato, bread, pasta, anything to your fancy. 

What is your favourite weekday meal?




Chicken Mushroom


Sprinkle of flour
500g of chicken (I use breast but thigh would work wonders too)
Salt and pepper
2 eschalot
4 cloves garlic 
1 Teaspoon of dry Oregano (if fresh use 1 tablespoon)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
3 Tablespoon unsalted butter
500g Mushrooms, trimmed and sliced 
200ml of white wine 
250ml of chicken stock 
fresh parsley 

I like to put the chicken in between cling wrap and give a good pounding to flatten it out. A great stress reliever.




Season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides, coat chicken with flour and shake off the excess. 

In a large skillet, heat oil and butter over medium high heat. In batches if needed, cook chicken until well browned on both sides. About 3 mins per side, remove from heat.

Reduce heat to medium, brown eschalot and add garlic stir for 1 min before adding mushrooms. Sweat the mushrooms before adding dry oregano, cook until soften about 5 mins 

Add wine and broth and cook, stirring until reduce by half about 3 mins. Taste to season. Return chicken to the pan and simmer for another 2 mins, top with parsley.

Wontonly preview

Wonton

Because it's a rainy day, because I miss eating wonton, because I miss home. 

A little preview before I cook these babies over the week. These wontons freeze really well so you can make a big batch which can be kept up to 6 months, but these babies never really last that long in my house. The recipe for these will be up soon. 

Spaghetti Boscaiola

Spaghetti Boscaiola

I have read so many good food blogs lately, and decided to make one myself. The name reflects how I feel all the time after a good meal or desert. My favourite food is bacon, mushrooms and chocolate, I firmly believe that any recipe is better with either one added.


This is one of my favourite go-to-recipes for my quick night meal, which includes both mushrooms and bacon. When you are home from a long day of work and you want something warm, comforting and familiar.

Spaghetti Boscaiola

5 rashers of bacon, thinly sliced
40g of butter
400g swiss mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 green shallots, thinly sliced
425ml (1 3/4 cups) pouring cream
handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
30g (1/3 cup) shredded parmesan, to serve



Boil some water and season the water generously and cook pasta following the packet directions until al dente.

Place the bacon into a cold pan and turn the heat to medium high.

Let the bacon fat render out and become crispy. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon (remove some bacon fat if you prefer less oily)

Melt the butter in the same pan. Sauté the mushrooms , season with salt and pepper. Add shallots and bacon, stir to mix.

Stir in cream, season and simmer for 5mins or until sauce is reduced  slightly.

Drain the pasta and return to hot pan. Pour over the sauce and add parsley, toss til combined. Served with parmesan cheese.