Mary Berry chocolate mousse cake

From BBC's MB absolute Christmas favourites.

Celebration chocolate mousse cake

Mary Berry's rich, indulgent dessert is fit for a celebration and makes a stunning centrepiece.

Equipment and preparation: for this recipe you will need a 20cm/8in round springform cake tin.

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake

• 100g/3½oz margarine, plus extra for greasing
• 25g/1oz cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
• 3 tbsp boiling water
• 100g/3½oz caster sugar
• 100g/3½oz self-raising flour
• 1 level tsp baking powder
• 2 large free-range eggs
• 2 tbsp brandy

For the mousse

• 300g/11oz plain chocolate (no more than 40-50 per cent cocoa solids), broken into squares
• 450ml/16fl oz whipping cream

To serve

• 225g/8oz fresh raspberries and blueberries
• double cream
• icing sugar, for dusting

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease the tin with margarine and line the base and sides with baking paper. You need to line the tin right to the top even though the sponge will not fill it.
2. For the chocolate cake, measure the cocoa powder into a large bowl. Pour over the boiling water and mix to a paste with a spatula. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and the eggs and beat until smooth using a hand-held mixer.
3. Spoon the cake mixture into the prepared cake tin and level the surface with a palette knife. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the cake feels springy to the touch.
4. While the cake is still hot, brush the brandy over the top of the cake. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.
5. Meanwhile, for the mousse, place the chocolate in a bowl and melt over a pan of gently simmering water (do not allow the base of the bowl to touch the water). Stir continuously, taking care not to let the chocolate get too hot. Set aside to cool a little.
6. Whip the cream until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Carefully fold in the melted chocolate until smooth and not streaky.
7. When the cake has cooled, and while it is still in the tin, spoon the chocolate mousse on top and level with a palette knife. Cover the cake tin with cling film and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours, and preferably overnight, until the mousse is firm.
8. To serve, carefully remove the cake from the tin and transfer it to a flat plate. Dust the top with cocoa powder, then pile the raspberries and blueberries into the centre. Finish with a light dusting of icing sugar. Cut into wedges and serve with pouring cream.

Top recipe tip

Mary Berry Soufflé fish pie.

From BBC Mary Berrys absolute Christmas favourites

Fish pie with soufflé crouton topping

A classic pie of fish in white sauce, topped with a simple bread and soufflé style topping.

Equipment: You will need a 1.5 litre/2½ pint shallow, wide-based, ovenproof dish.

Ingredients

• 50g/1¾oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 1 leek, thinly sliced or chopped
• 50g/1¾oz flour
• 600ml/20fl oz hot milk
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 350g/12oz fresh haddock, skinned and cut into evenly sized cubes
• 350g/12oz undyed smoked haddock, skinned and cut into evenly sized cubes
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, each cut into 4 or 8 wedges

For the soufflé topping

• 1 small (400g/14oz) loaf white bread (about 2-3 days old)
• 50g/1¾oz full fat cream cheese
• 75g/2½oz butter
• 75g/2½oz mature cheddar, grated
• 1 large free-range egg white
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation method

1. Grease a 1.5 litre/2½ pint shallow wide-based ovenproof dish with butter.
2. To make the fish pie, melt the butter in a saucepan, add the leeks and gently soften over a low heat until completely tender but not coloured.
3. Sprinkle in the flour and stir over a high heat for a minute. Gradually pour in the hot milk, stirring all the time until the sauce is smooth, thick and has come to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the chopped dill, lemon juice, fish and season with salt and pepper. Cook for two minutes, stirring. Remove from the heat.
4. Spoon into a 1.5 litre/2½ pint shallow wide-based ovenproof dish. Arrange the eggs on top of the sauce and press in gently. Level the top and set aside until cold. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for about an hour or until firm.
5. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
6. To make the soufflé topping, remove the crusts from the loaf and discard. Cut into five slices then cut each slice into small cubes (about 1.5cm/¾in across). You will need 150g/5½oz of bread cubes.
7. Add the cream cheese, butter and cheddar to a saucepan, melt over a low heat until runny (the mixture may look curdled but do not worry). Set aside for a moment.
8. In a spotlessly clean bowl, whisk the egg white until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed. Fold the eggs whites into the cheese mixture. Season with salt and pepper and carefully stir. Stir in the bread cubes so they are all coated in the mixture. Spoon onto the top of the chilled fish mixture so the cubes are in a single layer.
   Technique: How to fold egg whites into a mixture
   Watch technique1:44 mins
9. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden-brown and bubbling. If it is getting too brown cover it with foil and continue to bake.
10. Leave to stand for five minutes then serve with salad or green vegetables.

Birthday Simple Roast Halibut Treat

Liking something special for a birthday treat, and wanting a change from fillet steak I bought a thick chunk of halibut from my fishmonger.  never having cooked such a beast I looked to the internet for instructions for Roast Halibut and fortuitously my favourite food guru Nigel Slater came up with the goods.  It was delicious, and even in my capricious cooker, was cooked to perfection - I always choose the shorter time)
Here is the extract from an article in the Guardian from 2005, along with a chicken dish that I will try in the future (no more need for a birthday for this one)

Roast halibut with capers, lemon and parsley

Given a spanking fresh piece of white fish I sometimes do nothing more to it than rub it with salt and roast it in a very hot oven, its only gilding, the juice from a fat Sicilian lemon and some lightly steamed spinach. Last time, I got the parsley out too and a few piquant little capers.

serves two 
2 x 225g halibut steaks olive oil 
2 tbsp salted capers 
flat-leaf parsley - the leaves from a small bunch 
juice of a large lemon

to serve: steamed spinach, halves of lemon

Set the oven at 230 c/Gas 8. Warm 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a flame-proof baking dish over a moderate flame. Rub the fish generously with salt and pepper and brown lightly on one side in the hot oil. A minute should suffice. Put the fish into the hot oven and bake for 7-8 minutes until opaque and the flesh comes easily away from the bone.

Chop the parsley and rinse the capers. Lift the fish out onto warm plates and place the baking dish over a moderate flame. Scatter in the capers and parsley, squeeze in the lemon juice and grind in a little salt and pepper. Drizzle in a little extra virgin olive oil and bring to a fierce bubble. Tip over the fish and serve.

Slow-cooked chicken with star anise and ginger

A mellow, earthy supper that fills the house with the warm, aniseed smell of a Chinese supermarket. The full hour of unattended cooking time here is a real bonus. Don't panic about the Shaoxing wine, you can get it in Chinatown with the star anise, but I must tell you I've used dry sherry, saké, even dry vermouth before now and it's been fine. You may want rice with this if you are very hungry.

serves 2-3 
6 chicken pieces on the bone, skin on 
groundnut oil 
a medium onion 
ginger - a thumb-sized lump 500ml chicken or vegetable stock 
3 tbsp soft brown sugar 
3 tbsp Shaoxing wine 
1 tbsp dark soy sauce 
a good half teaspoon sea salt 
1 flower of star anise

Warm a couple of tablespoons of groundnut oil in a heavy pan - a cast iron casserole is ideal. Lower in the chicken pieces and leave them to brown, then turn them and brown the other side. Lift them out and set aside in a dish.

While the chicken is browning peel the onion and cut it in half, then cut each half into six slices from tip to root. Stir the onion into the oil and leave it to soften, stirring occasionally so it doesn't stick. Peel the ginger, cut into matchsticks, then stir them into the onion. When the onion is soft and almost translucent return the chicken and introduce the remaining ingredients. Bring everything to the boil then turn down the heat so that the liquid simmers gently. Cover with a lid and leave for an hour, turning the chicken just once.

If you are taking the greens option, and I hope you are, then rinse them thoroughly

and get them and their water ready for steaming. Lift the chicken out of the sauce and keep it warm. Turn up the heat under the sauce and let it boil, furiously, for 6 or 7 minutes till there is about a cupful left. Taste it. It will almost certainly need a little salt. Put the greens on to steam - they will need about six minutes. Tip the sauce over the chicken and serve with the steamed greens.

Little fruit tarts

From emjoyable.blogspot.com

1 package pre-made refrigerated pie crusts, 2 crusts (like these)
1 package cream cheese (8 ounces)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 mango
1 pint blackberries
1 pint strawberries

Preheat oven to 450˚F. Open one pie crust and roll out flat. Place one of your tart pans upside down on the crust. Using a butter knife, cut a circle around the shell leaving about 1/2 inch. (Please disregard the price tag that I couldn’t get off the pan.)

Pop out the circle of dough and press gently into the pan. Be sure to press it well into the fluted edges.

Take a butter knife along the top edge of the pan, cutting off any dough that overlaps the edge and giving the pastry a clean edge.

Take a fork and poke several holes into the bottom and sides of the dough.

Place the pans on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Gently flip the shells over onto a cooling rack. The pie crusts have enough butter in them that they will easily slide out of the pans. Continue until you have used all your pie crusts. I had to do this in three batches because I only had four tart pans. The two crusts will make about 10 tartlets.

Next, prepare your filling by beating together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth.

This filling is pretty thick, so I used a 2″ cookie scoop (like this one) and put one scoop of filling in each cup. I had exactly the right amount. Use the back of a spoon to spread the filling evenly into the shell.

Cut the mango into cubes. Wash the blackberries. Wash and slice strawberries. Arrange the fruit nicely onto your tarts. I did all of mine with the same fruit in the same pattern, but feel free to get creative! Add more fruits or cluster your fruits differently on different tarts.

Smoked Salmon Filo Tart

Going through a 'fat' spell and having remains of a pack of Filo in my fridge I found this  recipe  on london-unattached.com. just what I was looking for

Low Calorie 5-2 Diet Fast Day Smoked Salmon Filo Flan

 

Serves	1-2
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	20 minutes
Total time	30 minutes
Allergy	Egg, Wheat
Meal type	Main Dish
Misc	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot

Ingredients

• 30g Smoked Salmon
• 1 Small Egg
• 20ml Low Fat Creme Fraiche
• 1 Small Tomato
• 4 thin slices Courgette
• 1 sheet Filo Pastry

Directions

Step 1	Pre-heat the oven to 180c. Take the Sheet of Filo Pastry and cut it into rectangles that are roughly the width of your pie or flan dish and about a third longer. Ideally you want three rectangles.
Step 2	Spray your pie dish with quick release or 1 cal. Brush the first strip of pastry with a little creme fraiche thinned with water
Step 3	Place the first strip of pastry across the dish
Step 4	Brush the second strip with thinned creme fraiche and place diagonally across the first strip. Repeat with the third strip and press down very gently
Step 5	Pull up any edges of pastry and crimp to make a rough 'shell
Step 6	Place in the oven for 5 minutes
Step 7	While the pastry is starting to crisp, make the filling by beating together the egg and remaining creme fraiche and stirring through the smoked salmon.
Step 8	Remove the pastry shell from the oven and put a mixed layer of tomato and courgette/zucchini slices in the bottom of the pan (mine took 2 tomato and 2 courgette slices. Then season with a little salt and pepper and repeat.
Step 9	Pour the filling over the vegetable mixture
Step 10	Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes till the pastry is crisp and golden and the filling is risen and set
Step 11	Can be eaten warm or cold.

Salt and Pepper Squid taste explosion

Squid reminds me of delicious meals on balmy evenings sailing in Croatia.  This is nothing like those Fritty Squitty as we used to call them, more like a tasty dish from our local Chinese.
vary the Explosive element by the amount of pepper and chilli (I like mine HOT)

For 2

Two medium sized squid, cleaned. (Or 250g baby squid cleaned, save tentacles but remove beak)
1 tblsp sea salt
1 tblsp black peppercorns (Szechuan if you have them - I use normal)
2 tblsp corn flour
Corn/sunflower/rapeseed oil enough to make 1cm deep in wok or deep frying pan
1 small fresh red chilli (if I haven't got one I sometimes use a dried one - see directions)
2 spring onions
Salad leaves to serve
1 lemon

Wash squid and cut into 1cm wide strips. If using baby squid I cut them in half depending on size, leave tentacles whole.
Cut spring onion into thin slices, and fresh chilli (if using) into very fine slivers and set aside.
Put sea salt and peppercorns into mortar and pestle and bash up until fine
NB if you are using a dried chilli crumble it into the mix now -removing seeds first if you want to reduce the heat)
Add corn flour and stir to mix well.
Tip the whole lot into a poly bag, add squid strips and shake to coat thoroughly.
Heat oil in wok or frypan until hot and nearly smoking (but not quite)
Drop coated squid into hot oil in small batches, cook for 1-2 minutes until crisp and golden (over cooking makes them tougher) drain and keep warm while you cook the remainder

Put salad leaves on plate, with hot squid on top, sprinkle with spring onion and chilli slices.  Serve with lemon to queeze over.

I prefer to fry these in oil that I will throw away afterwards rather than in a deep fryer as the salt and paper mix is quite strong and is hard to get out of the oil.

Baked Pears with Blue Cheese

Link to a nice recipe for baked pears with Stilton.  Lovely photos too.
http://arbuz.com/recipes/baked-pears-with-blue-cheese