Deluxe and desperate dessert - yoghurt, pears, and chocolate hazelnut sauce

 

Picture from here 

Last night was a cold bleak July night in Ballarat.  I had been out for most of the day and it was too late to do the Apple Crumble I had planned for dessert. This should happen to-night.  So it was time to think outside the square or there would be no dessert at all ... and there is someone in the house who asks for it.

I have taken to the pear this winter since I substituted one night pears for apples in the Butternut, Apple & Cinnamon Soup.

What I rustled up - perhaps even invented - was a stunning close-yoour-eyes-in-rapture delight!

I had two pears and I fried them in a mixture of butter (yes, real butter!) and brown sugar. I sliced and chopped the pears into small pieces.  The butter and brown sugar melted together so I was effectively cooking the small pieces of pear in the butter & sugar mix to make a sauce.  I used Nestle's Ski Divine Vanilla Creme Yoghurt and spooned it over individual dessert bowls.  Onto this I spooned the pear, butter & sugar sauce.  Now this alone would have made a sufficient taste sensation - but there is nothing like luxury in one's desserts. 

I had in the store cupboard a bottle of Alice Langon's Chocolate Hazelnut Sauce.  It had been there for years unused.  I think I had purchased it at Simon Johnson's in Toorak.  I poured this around the circle of pear sauce.

Scrumptious! More-ish!  And the left-over of the dessert was wonderful for a Sunday morning breakfast as well.

More Mellah Mum

Over at Miscellaneous Mum, Karen is indulging herself with Chocolate Mousse.  For me, chocolate mousse always brings back memories from my long ago childhood in the 1950s of what may be one of Australia's first 'instant' desserts, Mellah.  You can pop down to the comments of Karen's post to see my comment.  Mellah used to be advertised on the radio with a child saying More Mellah Mum.

I went searching the net for Mellah and there is barely a mention - but I did find this...

 

Click to enlarge

Fair Trade is getting fairer: Tim Tams are moving it ahead.

Arnott’s ensure Tim Tams are free from child labour October 29, 2010 
Josette Dunn 

World Vision Australia today welcomed Arnott’s announcement that it will source ethical cocoa that has not been made with the use of child labour for all of its chocolate-based products, including the iconic Tim Tam biscuit.

In response to a public campaign by World Vision earlier this year, Arnott’s said on 30 March that it was “committed to playing its part by sourcing sustainable cocoa that avoids the use of child trafficking and unacceptable forms of child labour” by the “end September 2010″.

World Vision’s CEO Tim Costello met with Arnott’s last night and said he was pleased to hear the company had now committed to ensure its cocoa supply chains were free from child labour.

Arnott’s sources 24 percent of its cocoa from Ghana in West Africa where there is widespread use of child labour in the cocoa industry. As CEO of World Vision I have visited the cocoa fields in West Africa where kids use dangerous machetes and pesticides, work long hours and often don’t go to school, he said. World Vision understands that Arnott’s has signed an agreement to source its West African cocoa until 2012 through Fairtrade’s independent certification scheme. We are very pleased with Arnott’s commitment to source ethical cocoa. The lack of a fair and stable price for cocoa farmers is a root cause of the exploitative labour problem. Farmers typically receive only a very small proportion of the final retail price for their cocoa, which means they are forced to produce it below the fair cost of production. It’s these conditions that often lead farmers to use child labour. By sourcing its cocoa through the Fairtrade certification system, Arnott’s is helping farmers get a fair price for their cocoa. It will also protect Arnott’s supply chain from exploitative labour practices.

The US Department of State’s June 2010 Trafficking in Persons report said a majority of modern slaves were in agriculture and mining and that forced labour was prevalent in many products including chocolate.

The report also said reputable companies could profit from abuse when they did not protect their supply chain from modern slavery. World Vision Australia’s Don’t Trade Lives campaign is calling on the global chocolate industry to guarantee farmers a fair price for their cocoa and to eliminate all exploited labour from cocoa production by 2018. “If you want to enjoy your chocolate guilt-free, join World Vision’s Don’t Trade Lives campaign or contact chocolate manufacturers and ask them to commit to buying cocoa that is independently and ethically certified,” Mr Costello said.

Cadbury and Green and Black’s recently agreed to clean up their cocoa supply chains. The Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate block is now Fairtrade certified and 90 percent of Green and Blacks product's will be Fairtrade certified by the end of 2010.

KOFI BEANS AND HARIRA SOUP AT CROYDON

Yesterday, was Dentist Day and I was in Croydon. It is becoming something of habit to pop into Kofi Beans after my appointment to recover from all that drilling and poking before setting off full of (well not really - much diminished) anaesthetic to drive home.

Kofi's signage is not well seen from a distance.  If you come down Mount Dandenong Road and turn left into Main Street and look for the better signed Red Cargo, you will find  Kofi's next door on the northern side.

You will see Kofi's footpath dining area.

The weather has not been conducive to outdoor dining lately

and, while yesterday was sunny, it was still quite cold.

However, I haven't been in Kofi's during the lunching hours

when the indoors has not been packed. 

On the right as you walk in, there are comfy couches for curling up with friends and coffee.  Well, it wouldn't be Moroccan would it if there were not space and comfort for curling, reclining, slouching?  And then there are the homewares - stacks and stacks of Moroccan homewares.  Everything you can think of - almost - is there for the browsing and buying.

While coffee is the specialty of the house, I have to admit that I haven't got that far.  I get stuck on the hot chocolate.  Yesterday, I ordered orange and cinnamon.  It was a delight to warm the cockles of my heart and pour comfort into a body which had suffered the vicissitudes of the dentist, lovely though Andrew is.  The chocolate was so thick I am sure if I had put the teaspoon into it, it would have remained vertical.

 

Above is the menu board for the day, 

but the menu at Kofi's is quite extensive 

and has thoughtful menu markings 

for dairy, vegetarian, and gluten free.  

I ordered Harira Soup.  Find out more about this traditional Moroccan dish here.  There is a link to a recipe which includes meat - but Kofi's soup did not include meat and I think a really good rich vegetable stock would suffice well to provide a strong base for the chick peas, lentils, tomatoes, celery, and coriander.  The Harira was served with Phillippa's Bread which will always be my favourite.

The cake cabinet is a veritable assortment of culinary jewels.  But I have never ordered from there.  You see, atop the cake cabinet are trays of cholates - all sorts: champagne, caramel, lavender, tia maria and on and on.  I select three to take on my way.  And I leave well satisfied.

BTW, on Friday nights Kofi's opens their courtyard - covered and heated - for dinner.

These Chocolate Peppermint Drops are lovely morsels. They have a touch of glam which makes them at home on any occasion. The recipe is from the Carnation Cookbook lent to me by Gina. The drops are more a batter than a dough - which could mean other possibilities.

I have included the Vanilla Icing from the book. I used my usual butter icing for which I have no precise recipe. Cream butter and icing sugar, add vanilla or other flavouring, add milk (or juice). Then its a matter of varying that for desired consistency and/or flavour.

I left out the nuts. I am not a big nut fan. And I decided that if the icing had a peppermint flavour then it should be coloured green. So the biscuits are topped with green butter icing and chocolate sprinkles. I think they would look at home as Christmas Fare. Let me know what you think. And please let me know if you work any interesting variations.

CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT DROPS

Ingredients · 1 ¼ cups plain flour · ¼ teaspoon salt · ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda · 125g butter or margarine · ¾ cup castor sugar · 1 egg · 1 teaspoon vanilla essence · 60 g cooking chocolate, melted · ½ cup Carnation Evaporated Milk · ½ cup chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, etc) Method · Sift flour, salt and soda together · Cream butter or margarine, sugar, egg and vanilla until light and fluggy · Add chocolate, mix well. · Add dry ingredients alternatively with evaporated milk and mix well. · Lastly, fold in nuts. · Drop teaspoonfuls of mixture on to an ungreased baking sheet 5cm apart. · Bake in a moderately hot over 190 degrees Celsius for 8-10 minutes. · Cool on wire rack. · Decorate with peppermint flavoured Vanilla Butter Icing

VANILLA BUTTER ICING

Ingredients · 2 ½ cups sifted icing sugar · 40 grams (2 tablespoons) butter or margarine · ¼ cup Carnation Evaporated Milk · ¼ teaspoon vanilla essence Method · Combine sugar with butter/marg, milk, vanilla, beating until smooth and creamy Variations · PEPPERMINT CHIP: Lastly fold in ¼ cup crushed peppermint candy bar · ORANGE: Lastly fold in grated rind of 1 orange · LEMON: Lastly fold in granted rind of 1 lemon · COFFEE: Combine 1-2 tablespoons inst coffee with i/sugar, continue as directed.

Enslaved by chocolate: addiction or exploitation?

OK, dear Reader, time to experiment with the old adage that the pen is mightier than the sword. Dust off those ethical thoughts. Chocolate and the child slaves who produce it is the issue. For more extensive information, please go here and here.

You might, dear Reader, like to start with the following:

Cadbury

Cadbury Consumer Services, PO Box 200, Ringwood VIC 3134

Feedback link is here.

Are you interested, dear Reader, in doing a factory tour with Miss Eagle during which we can ask the question on the premises about where Cadbury's cocoa comes from and what they are doing about the exploitation of children? Currently, it would appear that their website is concerned only with obesity in children. But there are children involved in the chocolate process who will never grow fat - even though they might never go out to play!

Nestle

Consumer Services Department, GPO Box 4320, Sydney NSW 2001

You can email Nestle from here.

As you would be aware, dear Reader, Nestle has been the focus in the past for the promotion of breast milk substitutes in Africa. You will find them expounding their corporate philosophy of Good Food, Good Life here. A portion of Nestle's website is devoted to a discussion about coffee. You might like, in your correspondence, to ask them about their attitude to Fair Trade coffee. There is no mention of that on their site.

Mars

Mars Australia, Wodonga (Australian Headquarters), Petcare Place, Wodonga Vic 3690

Snackfood/Mars, PO Box 633, Ballarat VIC 3353 - Ballarat Ring Rd 3350

You can email Mars from here.

On the Mars site, there is this section, The 5 Principles. Mmmm....

• Quality: this segment says : "The consumer is the boss". So, dear Reader, use your consumer power to tell Mars who is the boss and that you do not want your love of chocolate to hold other human beings to ransom.
• Responsibility: Mars said it recruits ethical people. Challenge them to put their ethics on show in relation to child labour and child slavery.
• Mutuality: Mars says its "actions should never be at the expense, economic or otherwise, of others with whom we work". Now Miss Eagle understands that the child slaves are not direct employees of Mars but they are stakeholders in the industry nonetheless. Without companies such as Mars there might not be a cocoa industry to be exploitative. So Mars needs to put its actions in the ethical framework of how do we expect all children to live and enjoy life.
• Efficiency: Here Mars talks about its pursuit of "the least possible cost". To the child slaves there is a very high cost - loss of childhood development, loss of education. The least possible financial cost should not require the exploitation of sentient beings or the despoliation of the planet.
• Freedom: Mars claims for itself "We need freedom to shape our future: we need profit to remain free." Well, guess what! So do African children. Enslavement - even if it is the only hope for survival in an environment of despairing poverty - does not provide freedom and does not bring any profit to the people so that they can remain free of exploitative practices. The Christian adage of doing unto others as you would have done unto you needs to be extended by Mars to the poverty stricken people caught up in the cocoa economy to provide luxury goods for those with great economic freedom.

And then there is the industry body to contact, too:

Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia

Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia,PO Box 1307 (Level 2, 689 Burke Rd),Camberwell VIC 3124

Email Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia (CMA) at cma@candy.net.au

When you have completed this task, dear Reader, you might like to keep Miss Eagle informed.

From Devil's Food to Trifle Heaven

Miss Eagle is mad at her oven. Now I know when you hear this, dear Reader, the old adage that a poor workwoman blames her tools will come to your mind. But this oven is not the best one. That prize went to a convection gas oven in the home in the shadow of the World Heritage Rainforest which I sold a couple of years ago when I moved to Melbourne. Herself says my dud chocolate cake was all my own fault because I did make a side trip to the computer while the baking process was on. Anyway, I set out to make the above - Devil's Food Cake - which I have been making for more than three decades with great success each and every time. I have a tiny collection of Carnation Milk recipes in three-fold brochure form in my recipe book. They were picked up for free from the supermarket. The Devil's Food Cake recipe is in this collection. When Gina heard about this, she said she possessed a Carnation Cookbook and she has lent it to me for research purposes. On Page 136, there is the recipe from my brochure. Unfortunately, they didn't take a picture so you will have to make do with mine.

This is the best chocolate cake ever in the whole history of the whole world. It is a moist cake. It is rich but not as rich and heavy as a mud cake.

Here is the recipe.

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of vinegar
• 1 cup Carnation Evaporated Milk
• 1 1/2 cups Plain Flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/4 cups of castor sugar
• 140 grams of butter or margarine, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

1. Grease 2 deep 20cm cake pans and line the base with paper.
2. Add vinegar to evaporated milk to sour it.
3. Sift flour, salt, cocoa, soda and sugar together.
4. Pour in melted butter or margarine and 1/2 cup of soured evaporated milk
5. Beat well for 2 minutes
6. Add remaining ingredients and beat a further 2 minutes
7. Pour into prepared pans and bake in a moderate oven 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes
8. Allow cakes to cool slightly before removing from pans.
9. Spread frosting or whipped cream between, and frosting on top.

So here I was with a dud - but it became something luxurious and wonderful. Miss Eagle calles it Trifle Heaven. I chopped up the cakes into 2.5cm (1 inch) chunks. I mixed in chocolate custard. And then I chopped up the chocolate pictured below - Heaven: white raspberry creme. This is/was absolutely gorgeous. Herself and I have disgustingly tucked into this with a relish. I figure that if you want a quick luxury desert this assemblage is for you. You could buy any ordinary old chocolate cake - but the better the cake, the better the dessert and the best will be this moist Devil's Food Cake. The different chocolate flavours and the raspberry creme make this trifle every so heavenly.

Tarts: sweet and savoury

Mizz Zoe gifted Miss Eagle with the v-e-r-y thing.

The delicious diary for 2007!

Useful! Handy! And with recipes!

delicious boasts that it

celebrates food and the people who produce it, from celebrity chefs to passionate foodies from around Australia and the rest of the world. So whether you want a simple but scrumptious midweek meal or an impressive dinner-party menu, we've got the recipes you need.

Miss Eagle, needless to say, has embarked on trying them out.

Above is

COCONUT-CREAM TARTS WITH TROPICAL FRUITS

Ingredients

240 grams gingernut biscuits

200 grams unsalted butter

1/2 cup (125 ml) coconut milk

250 grams white chocolate, chopped

Tropical fruits, thinly sliced, to serve

Shaved dried cocount, to serve

Method: Grease eight 10cm loose-bottomed tart pans. Whiz the biscuits to fine crumbs in a food processor. Melt 100 grams of the butter, then add to the crumbs and process to combine. Press into the base and sides of the tart pans.

For the filling, place the remaining 100 grams of butter and coconut milk in a pan, bring to the boil, then remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth. Pour into the tart shells and chill for 2 hours or until set. Serve the tarts topped with tropical fruit and shaved coconut.

Miss Eagle's Notes:

• Miss Eagle's tart tins measure 11.5cm and the mixture filled 6 tins.
• Miss Eagle used a 250 gram pack of Arnott's Ginger Nuts. Now Miss E had not bought GNs for quite a while - and how things change when a multinational buys a national icon. GNs are no longer the same and nowhere near as good. Please remember, GNs are HARD. My whiz would not crunch the bikkies up completely into the fine crumbs required. Miss E had to take her trusty large wooden rolling pin to them to crush them. If there is a next time, Miss E might try using Arnott's Nice Biscuits - but that ginger flavour is a bit special.
• Miss Eagle used lite coconut milk. However, this could be seen to be neither here nor there in the overall scheme of things considering the fat content of this dessert. :-)
• Miss Eagle used white chocolate buttons. Clearly, chocoholics would want to try this dish again with dark chocolate. :-)
• Miss Eagle used banana but didn't bother with the shaved dried coconut because neither she nor the local Woolworths had any. :-)
• These tarts, while luscious and luxurious, are for the sweetest of sweet teeth! Even Herself found them too sweet. On the other hand, few will come back for seconds!

Then there are the

Feta, Zucchini & Mint Tarts

(scrumptious - will be repeating)

Ingredients

1 sheet ready rolled puff pastry, slightly thawed & halved

1 eggwhite

2 small zucchinis, cut lengthways into thin ribbons using a vegetable peeler

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

1/2 cup (70 grams) frozen peas, thawed on paper towel

40 grams Feta (recipe specifies Persian Feta but Miss E was not fussed either way), crumbled

1/4 cup mint leaves, roughly chopped

Extra virgin olive oil, to drizzle

Method: Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Line a tray with baking paper. Place the puff pastry halves on the prepared tray and prick all over using a fork. (Not the end of the world if you forget the pricking.) Place in the freezer until ready to use. Place a baking sheet on a pizza stone in the oven to heat. (If you haven't got this just put it in the oven in the usual way.)

Whisk the eggwhite in a bowl until frothy, then add the zucchini, onion and peas. Season with black pepper and toss. (The eggwhite will prevent the vegetables from over-browning.)

Remove the pastry from the freezer and divide the zucchini mixture between the pastry rectangles, leave a 1cm border. Top with pieces of feta. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and transfer the baking paper with the tarts to the hot baking sheet. Bake the tarts for 15-18 minutes until the pastry base is crisp and the sides are golden brown.

Scatter with mint and drizzle with a little olive oil. Serve with a baby cos, avocado and tomato salad, if desired.

Miss Eagle's Notes:

• This recipe does go on. Simplify, dear Reader. Do not sweat the baking stone, etc. Miss Eagle sprayed an enamel oven tray with oil (she had forgotten to buy the baking paper).
• Miss Eagle did one parcel. Left a 1cm border around the single sheet of puff pastry and then tucked the pastry up neatly around the veges. A sort of open pie. This pie will slice.
• Miss E used two egg whites. One was not enough to beat up with the trusty rotary beater. Two were nicely generous for tossing the veges. The two egg yolks were beaten and used to glaze the pastry with a pastry brush and glue the tucked up bits together to make everything nice and neat.
• Woolworths and Miss E did not have spring onions. She used eschallots (in the USA - scallions) instead. Quite satisfactory!

David Jones and Dreams

If Miss Eagle were to dream of food, it would not be of sugar plums but David Jones Food Hall.

The preferred placed would be DJ's Food Hall in Market Street, Sydney.

But their Food Hall in the Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne is rather special too.

Miss Eagle paid it a Christmas visit yesterday and wanted to let her readers in on the day dreams too.

The Greengrocery has all that is good, wholesome & absolutely luscious.

The confectionery from Australia and Europe is mouth watering.

Like the Koalas below - in a ganache to roll around one's mouth.

And if you plan on seeing that Queensland-boy-made-good George Miller's wonderful animation based on birds of our southern climes, Happy Feet, well why not mark the occasion with these delightful penguins - ganache, once more - and sweeten your happiness.

But choc-a-holics should look no further than the cakes below.

Skip the fruit cake and get down and muddy with these delights.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Pane e cioccolata : Bread and chocolate

Pane e cioccolata : Bread and chocolate

Much jollity at The Trad Pad on Sunday. Piece de resistance was the Bread and Chocolate Pudding from Steve Manfredi's recipe. If you are looking for a pudd that is great hot or cold; is lush and luxurious and yet traditional - then this is it. It is a bread pudding with the bread smothered in cream, mixed with a wonderful egg mixture, and laced with chocolate. It is served with a chocolate sauce which is to die for - and the easiest chocolate sauce ever. Refer to this chocolate sauce frequently because, being so easy, you will use it with everything.

Here is the recipe:

Warm bread and chocolate pudding

Moisten 400g of bread (crusts cut off, chopped in small pieces) in a bowl with 300ml of cream. Roast 100g of blanched almonds until they're golden and roughly chop them. Beat 2 egg yolks with 50g of vanilla sugar until pale. Whisk 2 egg whites with 50g of vanilla sugar to form stiff peaks. Add the almonds to the bread, along with the grated rind of an orange, the egg yolks and egg whites, and 80g of chopped dark chocolate. Butter six ramekins (or one pudding bowl) and spoon the mixture in. Bake in a preheated 160C oven for 40 minutes. Serve warm with chocolate sauce.

Chocolate sauce

Heat 250ml of single cream in a small saucepan. Roughly chop 300g of good chocolate and place in a bowl. When the cream is just about to boil, take it from the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for 30 seconds so the chocolate melts, then mix it well with a fork or a small whisk until it becomes smooth and shiny. The chocolate sauce is now ready to be used. Any leftover sauce can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator and can be remelted carefully by bringing a pot of water to the boil, putting the bowl containing the chocolate over the pot and slowly melting it. Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not sit in the boiling water.

Miss Eagle's notes: Because we had a large number of guests, Miss Eagle didn't use ramekins. Instead she made a double mixture and baked it in a huge dish. She did not include the almonds since we are not all that keen on them at The Trad Pad. Next time, to make it more luxurious and tasty, Miss Eagle will add a liqueur. Go to the link and you will find suggestions for what liqueur you might use. Miss Eagle served the pudd warm but went back for seconds when it was cold - and, if anything, it was even better.