Friday, January 2, 2015

New Year? Whoops, we forgot.

Christmas came and Christmas went, we enjoyed the company of friends, I enjoyed cooking. The last of our visitors were vegetarians and I wanted to do something a little different, thanks to another blog that I follow,  'Cornish Chickpea' I was inspired to make a lentil bake served with twice cooked jacket potatoes filled with cheese, our friends and Simon all enjoyed the lentil bake, I can't say the same for myself, it is reminiscent of Pease Pudding although with far more flavour, I just do not like Pease Pudding, but the twice cooked jacket potatoes were great. I must say it did look very nice though, although unfortunately I forgot to take a photo. Another variation of ensaladilla for starters and fresh Chocolate Mousse for desert, I hate to think how many calories are in this decadent desert.

Chocolate Mousse.
250 ml dbl cream, beaten until it thickens.
4 organic eggs, separated, whites beaten until very stiff.
Egg yokes lightly beaten, blend in two tbs. of Cointreau to the yokes ( you can use Brandy)
Zest of one half orange (optional) stirred in at the end.
6 oz Green and Black Organic dark chocolate I used 80%, well broken up, melted over a pan of boiling water with a nob of butter, do not allow the bowl to touch the water.
Fold the egg whites into the cream, fold in the yoke mixture, gently fold in the melted chocolate . pour into individual dishes. With a teaspoon gently scrape off the  remaining chocolate which will have set, to decorate the mousse.

Double cooked Jacket potato.
Scrub the potatoes, boil for about ten minutes, remove and place in baking pan, sprinkle with salt and drizzle with olive oil.
 Bake in hotish 400f oven for half an hour, test that they are soft before serving.
This will give you a light fluffy potato inside and a lovely nutty outside.

So back to the title of this post, we forgot it was new years eve until we switched channels and found a  Queen concert on BBC 1, by the time the penny dropped we couldn't be bothered to go anywhere or even to find a drink in the house.
 In Spain the new year is seen in by eating twelve grapes at each of the chimes, we had bought the grapes in readiness, they also were forgotten, it was only today that I remembered that we had them. So the  new year has come and we missed it.
Things are growing in the garden, don't they know it's still winter? rhubarb still trying to get above the mulch and the asparagus is showing shoots, and I still have not planted the broad beans.
A very belated Happy New Year everyone. 
    

8 comments:

  1. Happy new year to you, those desserts look gorgeous. We've just had homemade bread and butter pud, I'm sure my jeans have shrunk over the Christmas holiday ;)
    Twiggy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We also love bread and butter pudding served with home made custard, I haven't made it for ages, might do it this Sunday. Apparently it's HRH's favourite so we're in good company.
      I see your taste in TV viewing is similar to ours, wasn't 'Quartet' wonderful, I love to see it again.

      Delete
  2. My husband is drooling over your mousse. Its his favorite and we even served it at our wedding. No New Years celebration here either im afraid. Cant be bothered. Its hot hot hot at we are house bound with gale force hot wind coming down from the North. Fires out of control all over Victoria and South Australia.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lynda, I thought it was only a month or so back that your government was doing controlled burn off in the hazard areas, seems it didn't work. Are you in a safe area how about your family I seem to remember they live way out, it must be very worrying, I know how we felt when we lived in Spain and we were in the danger zone. I will reply to your post about yoghurt making tomorrow, we make a lot here, love the stuff.
      Hoping you and yours all stay safe.

      Delete
  3. Cool change arrived last night, thank goodness. Im in suburbia on the outskirts of city so im all good. I have lots of friends in bushy area though. All good at the moment. No amount of controlled burning can stop fire in forested areas. There is so much of it. My family are in NSW in agricultural areas so it is mostly cleared land with just a bit of forest around the rivers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad to hear that you and yours are in a safe area. I have replied to your post on yoghurt making, hope you will find it useful.

      Delete
  4. Happy new year Anne. Thanks for all the veg growing advice.

    ReplyDelete