amuse bouche

One of my favourite words in french meaning literally an 'amusement for the mouth'.  Little glorious tasters, tinier than hors d'oeuvres, sent from heaven to tingle your tastebuds. A few I've played with recently... but you could go wild!

Melon sorbet with honey and palma ham.

Fresh figs with blue cheese crumbled, walnuts and balsamic glaze.

Avocado drenched in lemon juice piled with small strips of smoked salmon, creme fraiche and dill.

Miniature onion creme brulee.
Chunk of cucumber with a splash of tuna and yoghurt/creme fraiche topped by wasabi cavier and a sprig of parsley.

"There is not an ounce of excitement, not a whisper of a thrill.  This relationship has all the passion of a pair of titmice.  I want you to get swept away out there.  I want you to levitate.  I want you to sing with rapture and dance like a dervish"  Meet Joe Black.

velvet salted caramel chocolate torte

My contribution to a BBQ - looking pretty gorgeous if I do say so myself! Recipe from Green & Black's ORGANIC ULTIMATE CHOCOLATE RECIPES THE NEW COLLECTION

Ingredients
For the salted caramel
175g caster sugar
3 tablespoons water
120ml double cream
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes
120g unsalted butter
For the torte
250g dark 70-85% cocoa solids chocolate broken into pieces
160g unsalted butter cubed
175g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g ground almonds
5 medium free-range egg yolks
6 large free-range egg whites
Cream or good vanilla ice cream, to serve
Begin by making the salted caramel. Pour the sugar into a heavy based pan and add the water. Heat gently, stirring only until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat to medium high and allow the syrup to come to the boil undisturbed. Simmer briskly and watch like a hawk until the caramel turns a rich amber colour. Swirl the pan to prevent 'hot spots' but don't stir (stirring causes the caramel to clump and crystallize). Remove the pan from the heat and carefully stir in the cream and salt:  there's sure to be a hiss and a goood splutter. Now stir in the butter cubes until a smooth caramel forms and set aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 23cm cake tin with baking parchment.
Melt the chocolate, butter and sugar together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl doesn't towch the water (or you can melt everything in a saucepan set over a very low heat, but don't allow it to burn). Remove from the heat and stir until smooth then mix in the vanilla and almonds, followed by the egg yolks, one by one.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until they form stiff peaks. Fold 1 large tablespoon into the choclate mixture with a metal spoon or a spatula to loosen it, then fold in the rest, being careful to retain as much air as possible.  Scrape about two-thirds of this batter into the tin. Make a slight dip in the centre and spoon the salted caramel into the dip and over the surface. Top with the remaining choclate mixture, smoothing it right to the edges. Bake for about 40 minutes, unitl puffed and barely firm. There might be some caramel bubbling up at the edges but that's absolutely fine - resist the temptation to touch it because it will be scalding hot. 
Leave to cool completely in the tin, the cake will gently crumple in the middle.  Slice and serve each velvety piece at room temperature with chilled whipped cream, or some really good vanilla ice cream.

"The cucumbers are pretty this year" Driving Miss Daisy.

scallops ala risotto

A simple summer feast which made my heart swell. You know... sometimes when you cook something that is beautiful as well as drop dead delicious. Just make a risotto by finely chopping one or two onions with a few cloves of garlic sliced finely into shreds. Cover the bottom of a large frying pan with about one centimetre of oil and fry these for a minute or so. Then add enough arborio or carnaroli rice to feed all the people you want to feed, I always estimate half a teacup per person. Let the hot oil coat the rice for another minute then add a cupful of chicken or vegetable stock and let the rice slowly cook on a low to moderate heat until it has soaked up the liquid. Add some wine if you've got some handy, I tried a sweet wine from the Loire - Coteaux du Layon - strangely that worked... or maybe champagne! Cook for approximately twenty minutes or until the rice is cooked to al dente perfection adding more liquid as necessary. Throw in some herbs of your choice, I had chives and parsley and grated some parmesan in at the end. For the scallops... due to fortune smiling upon me, I found a bag of frozen scallops in the freezer fancy! The secret I've been told, is to thaw them in fresh milk for a few hours which worked well. Cook quickly on a high heat maybe one minute each side with melted butter and garlic, adding cream and spring onions at the last minute.  Serve piled high with garlic cream drizzled and spilling over onto a bed of risotto. And that is all you need.

sometimes it happens that some stories have a strange opening