Chocolate And Raspberry Roulade ©
Merry Merry Christmas To You All!
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Teach yourself how to make this delicious Chocolate Roulade! It’s never to late to start learning how to cook, these recipes are written for first timers!
Medium/Easy
Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 8-10 minutes
Oven Temperature: 200.C
Special Equipment
23 x 30 cm Swiss Roll Tin (Non Stick)
Piping Bag with star nozzle
Serves 6
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge
2 eggs
3 tbs Caster Sugar
4 tbs plain flour
2 tsp cocoa powder
a little melted butter for greasing tin
Filling
150 ml cream for whipping
2.5 tbs icing sugar
200 g fresh raspberries
Decoration
100 g fresh raspberries
50 ml cream for piping
Cocoa powder and icing sugar for dusting
Method : To Make The Sponge.
1. To make the sponge, preheat the oven to moderate hot, 200.C, 400.F/Gas 6.
2. Rub your swiss roulade tin, size 23 x 30 cm with a little melted butter and line with grease proof paper/ baking parchment, even if the tin is ‘non-stick!’
3. Break the eggs in a large glass mixing bowl and add the sugar. ( Caster sugar for you new ones, is ordinary fine grain sugar, that you put in your coffee.)
4. Half fill a saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and place your glass bowl over the saucepan, making sure it does not touch the water.
5.Using an electric beater, or balloon whisk, whisk for 5-7 minutes, or until the mixture becomes thick and creamy, has doubled in volume and leaves a trail as it falls from the beaters. The temperature of the mixture should never be hot, but just warm. Remove the bowl from the heat and beat until cold,( to quicken this you can stand your bowl in another bowl of cold water.) Test with your freshly washed little finger!
6. Sift the flour and the cocoa powder together into a bowl. Then sift again over your mixture. Using a large metal spoon, or special spatula, carefully fold into the mixture. ( Remember to fold by cut across your mixture with your spoon, lift up lightly and turn mixture over. Now give the bowl a half turn and repeat until the flour is just incorporated. At no time press down on your mixture, as it will lose its volume and lightness.)
7. Turn your mixture out all in one so as not to lose the volume and lightly spread out evenly to cover tin. Do this quickly and put straight into pre-heated oven.
8. Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until springy to the light touch of your finger. You want it just cooked, so that it is soft and can be easily rolled! If you over cook it it will be hard and crack when you roll it.
9. Remove from oven and using the corners of your baking paper slide off onto a cooling rack to cool.
10. Once cool to the touch, lay over the top a large piece of baking paper or clean tea towel and carefully turn over. Peel off the paper it was cooking in. See how this is done in the photos below.
To Make The Filling.
1. Pour all your cream, including that for decoration, into a clean medium sized bowl, together with icing sugar and whisk until you have firm peaks. ( If using “real” cream, take care not to over beat, or it will curdle.)
2. Wash your raspberries gently under a running tap and lay out on kitchen paper to drain. Pat dry with with kitchen paper.
3. Saving a little cream for piping, spread the rest of your cream with the use of a spatula onto the sponge evenly. Reserve a few raspberries for decoration and sprinkle the rest over the sponge.
4. Roll up by picking up the paper or cloth at one of the longer ends and pushing it down and away from you while rolling, finish with the seam underneath.
5. Trim each end by cutting off a small slice and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
6. Using a sieve, sift a little cocoa powder followed by icing sugar over your roulade and place on serving platter. Decorate with raspberries and rosettes of whipped cream.
***** This is a delicious light delicate sponge and can be served for tea and as a dessert. It has a ‘light’ chocolate flavor.
Yummyyyyyy !
FOR THIS RECIPE YOU NEED TO READ RECIPE FIRST AND THEN FOLLOW PICTURES!
Pre-heat oven!
You need to have a swiss roulade tin 23 x 30 cm in size, non stick. Grease tin with melted butter and line with baking paper.
Half fill saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Take off heat, place glass bowl on top of saucepan. The base must not touch the water. Place eggs and sugar in bowl and beat for 5-7 minutes, until mixture leaves a trail as it falls from beater and is twice the volume and is thick and creamy.
Wash and drain raspberries.
Pat dry with kitchen paper.
Meanwhile beat together cream and icing sugar until it forms peaks.
Dot with raspberries, reserving 10-12 for decorating later.
With the help of the tea-towel, role up by picking up one of the long sides and pushing it down and away from you while rolling finishing with the seam underneath.
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Place on serving platter and tidy up ends by cutting off a thin slice.
Dust with cocoa powder followed by icing sugar. Decorate with raspberries.
Mouthwatering !
Pipe with cream…….
MERRY CHRISTMAS! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR !
Avocado And Smoked Salmon ©
Christmas is coming! Tree decorated, presents wrapped, quick quick Santa is on his way!!!!
This is a family favorite for a special occasion and is perfect for the avocado and smoked salmon lovers. Our avocado tree is laden………this is just the recipe!
Quick and simple to prepare and makes an excellent starter.
Easy
6 Persons
Special Equipment : Piping bag, star nozzle
Ingredients
1/2 Ripe Avocado per person > 3 Avocados in total
2-3 Slices of Smoked Salmon per person >18 slices
(* Buy smoked salmon freshly cut from a whole salmon)
150g Crème Fraîche or Cream Cheese
Finely grated zest of one lemon or lime and a few drops of lemon/lime juice
Paprika to garnish and frizzy lettuce leaves, green and red
Vinaigrette Dressing
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dijon (only) mustard
1 tbs vinegar or lemon juice
3 tbs Olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Wash lettuce leaves thoroughly and place in lettuce spinner to remove water. ( If you don’t have a lettuce spinner, place lettuce leaves in large plastic bag and whirl in the air, old fashioned style! The water will collect in one corner of the bag and you then pour it out. Otherwise pat dry between two pieces of kitchen paper, or two clean tea towels.)
2. In a bowl place crème fraîche or cream cheese. Add the fine zest of your lemon or lime peel and a two drops of lemon/lime juice to make it softer. Mix well and place in star nozzle piping bag. Reserve in refrigerator until ready to use.
3. Make up vinaigrette putting first salt, pepper, then dijon mustard in cup and add slowly the vinegar or lemon juice. Once this is well mixed, add the olive oil stirring continuously, so that you get an emulsion. This should be fairly thick, so that it coats the avocado slices.
4. Place two lettuce leaves, ( harder center stalks stalks removed,) on your serving plate. Arrange the two or three slices of salmon, depending on size, partly covering the lettuce. (See picture.)
Up to this point you can prepare ahead of time.(Max 4 hours.) Cover with cling film and reserve in fridge.
5. Ten minutes before you are ready to serve, peel avocado carefully and evenly. Slice into stone 1 cm slices long ways and place on a separate plate. Pour over vinaigrette and one by one lift off plate with a spatula and arrange in a fan shape on serving plate.
6. Finely decorate your dish with rosettes of crème fraîche and sprinkle with a little paprika. ( If you don’t have a piping bag, use a small teaspoon and spoon a small amount onto the center of your dish.
Cook’s Note : Always remember once you peel an avocado after a short while it will discolor. You should therefore, only peel it at the last minute and pour a little lemon juice or vinaigrette over it straight away so that it does not brown.
**** If your Paprika is hot, use very sparingly, if sweet you can be more generous.
****The “Zest” is the outermost peel and does not include the white pith, which is bitter. One short grate on the grater while moving your lemon round produces enough zest, about two teaspoons in all. Always use the finest holes on your grater, it should be barely noticeable. Large lumps are not what you want, it then becomes similar to eating peel!!!!!
***** Smoked salmon freshly cut from a whole smoked salmon is the best. The ones bought ready cut in envelopes may be more economical, but are not always as good.
***** Dijon is the best mustard to use for a good vinaigrette, other mustards do not give the same taste!
Planted from seed about 25 years ago!!! If you would like to try I can send you the details :))
Beautiful Avocados……..
Wash lettuces and dry, remove stalks and reserve. Remove salmon from cellophane and arrange partly over lettuce leaves.
Peel avocado carefully and evenly, so your slices come out a good shape.
Make up vinaigrette. Place salt, freshly ground pepper and a teaspoon of dijon mustard in a small cup or bowl.
Mix well until it emulsifies.
In a separate bowl make up crème fraîche. Place in star nozzle piping bag. If you don’t have a piping bag, use a small teaspoon.
Prize out the slices carefully……
…….and place on a separate plate. Drizzle over vinaigrette dressing.
Start by arranging two lettuce leaves of different colors on your serving plate. Partly cover with two to three
slices of smoked salmon, depending on their size.
Fan out avocado slices and decorate with a large rosette of crème fraîche.
Sprinkle with paprika.
Final result! This arrangement, looks particularly good on my English Great Grandmother’s plates, only used for very special occasions!
What to do with “Leftover Turkey? ” ©
Just a quick one, which I love, “What to do with Leftover Turkey?”
Leftover Turkey makes the most delicious soup and the meat, an excellent ‘meat melee sauce,’ to be eaten with rice, pasta, and vegetables of your choice.
Food For Thought
My daughter is an excellent cook! She has understood how important “Taste” is! Her question used to be, “Why doesn’t it taste like it does when you make it Mummy?” I would reply, “Taste Taste and Taste again and it will slowly come.” So often people are so concentrated on following the recipe, that they forget to taste it at all! Or sometimes, because a recipe they are cooking reminds them of another recipe they like, they are surprised when it doesn’t taste the same with the one they know. To tweak a recipe, as I call it, you need to think about the vital ingredient SALT. This is, despite the ‘anti-salt campaign,’ the essential ingredient in bringing out ‘full taste.’ Other ingredients include lemon and sugar, depending on the recipe. A squeeze of lemon, livens up mushrooms considerably for example. Then there is cream and butter, which often ‘make’ a recipe, and lastly a hint of ‘heat’ from the wonderful ‘chili pepper.’ It can make all the difference, when a recipe is a little flat, even if you can only barely detect it. Next time you are cooking experiment with what I have said and let me know the result.
“On average, taste three times!”
For my children who are celebrating Thanksgiving, to Jonathan and his family for asking me last year, “What to do with left over turkey?” And for all of you out there who will be participating in this feast.
Easy
For 6 persons
Preparation Time 30-40 minutes
Ingredients
4 medium onions quartered
2 cloves of garlic
6 medium carrots cut into chunks
2 leeks cut into chunks (opt)
1 stick of fresh Lemon grass cut in three
1 red chili
1 small sprig of Mediterranean celery or parsley
1 tsp salt
6 black pepper corns
Avgolemono
2 egg yolks
juice of one lemon
1 heaped tsp “Corn” flour. ( Not “Plain/ordinary flour! New Cooks take note!)
Parsley leaves to garnish
Sauce for Turkey Meat ( Double up recipe if you have a lot of meat)
25 g butter
1 onion diced
6 cloves garlic pressed
Thumb piece of ginger
Turkey meat
2 tbs chopped fresh or died tarragon
200 ml cream or more
Method
1. Remove carefully most of the meat off the turkey bones, removing any skin or gristle and arrange in mouth sized pieces in the center of a large dish with sides to hold your sauce. Place all the bones and skin in a large saucepan.
2. Clean and was your vegetables, cut onions into 4 segments, carrots and leeks into 3 centimeter chunks, peel and leave garlic whole, peel outer leaves off lemon grass and cut longways and into 6 centimeter pieces. Add whole chili, or remove seeds first for less heat. Place your ingredients on top of your turkey bones, season and add cold water to nearly cover the contents. Do not add more, or your turkey stock will not have a strong taste.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for one hour.
4. Pass your stock through a sieve a discard turkey bones and reserve vegetables to place in food processor, including your ginger but not, the lemon grass and black pepper corns. Process until smooth and velvety. At least three minutes.
5. Add vegetable puree to stock and gently heat through, but do not boil. Remove your saucepan off the heat!
6. In a bowl place your egg yolks and add your corn flour which you have diluted in a tablespoon of cold water. Mix well and add lemon juice. Add to your eggs two table spoons of turkey stock and then return this to the saucepan of stock by passing it through a sieve.(You don’t want any lumps of egg in your soup!) It is important to do it precisely in this order, so that your eggs do not curdle.
7. Return your saucepan to a medium heat and stirring continuously bring the soup up to heat WITHOUT BOILING!
You need to be a little patient while doing this and when you taste the soup, it should be velvety and have no trace of flour on the tongue. It will take 4-5 minutes to do this. At no point must it boil, or it could separate out. Once the soup gives off steam, it is near boiling point!
8. When you have tasted your soup and are satisfied it is well seasoned and smooth, remove from the heat and serve straight away. Do NOT leave covered on the hot plate, as this may also cause the soup to separate.
This is a wonderful Greek Avgolemono soup, well known and easy to make!
N.B. Do not worry about there being too much garlic, when it is boiled the garlic tone is much more subtle, than when fresh.
****** New Cooks Note! Corn flour is a special thickening agent, made from corn and can not be replaced by ordinary plain flour, so be sure to buy ‘corn flour’ when you shop for your ingredients!
If your soup is too thick at the end, dilute with a little stock or water.
Sauce For Turkey Meat
Prepare turkey meat into mouth sized pieces, removing skin and gristle. Have at room temperature, before you add the meat to your sauce:
1. Peel and finely dice your onion. Peel and pass through the garlic press your garlic. Wash, pat dry your tarragon with kitchen paper, remove leaves off stalks and finely chop. Keep tarragon to one side.
2. Melt butter in saucepan, add the above ingredients and sweat over a low heat for 3-5 minutes until transparent, but not colored. ( I place a layer of ‘grease-proof paper’ over the vegetables, so that they really sweat and don’t brown.)
3. Remove grease-proof paper and add cream, seasoning, tarragon and turkey meat which is at room temperature and not straight out of the refrigerator.
4. Heat through, with out boiling and serve with rice or pasta or vegetables of your choice.
Clean the meat into mouth sized pieces, removing skin and gristle.
Place turkey bones in large saucepan.
Place on top your vegetables, parsley and nearly cover with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for one hour. Remove vegetables, adding the ginger, but taking care to discard the hard woody lemon grass and black pepper corns.
Process vegetables,( keeping a few carrots for garnishing,) for at least three minutes until velvety and completely smooth. This is a delicate soup not a chunky one, but the choice is yours.
Squeeze lemon. More lemon juice may be required at the end, once tasted.
Place corn flour in glass and dilute with 1 tbs cold water.
Add to egg yolks.
Mix thoroughly with fork. Add two ladlefuls of warm turkey stock and then return to saucepan with remaining stock.
Pass through sieve into saucepan of warm turkey stock and processed pureed vegetables.
Over a “medium” heat, heat through until the soup looks glossy and the flour is cooked and is not noticeable when you taste it. Try tasting it at the start to realize the difference. DO NOT ALLOW SOUP TO BOIL! Or the egg will separate out.
Usually when steam starts to come off the soup, it is just below boiling point. Stir continuously. This process should take 3-5 minutes.
Here I have kept back some of the carrot to add as a garnish.
Final result garnished with a leaf of parsley.
What's Cooking In Jane's Kitchen 