food hits and misses

Vanilla yoghurt and strawberry yoghurt were just divine, but not enough to get the breadwinner to try yoghurt ahead of ice cream. So I decided to experiment with chocolate.



Now clearly this is neither low fat nor low carb, so pretty much off the menu for anyone with an eye towards losing weight by cutting macronutrients. If, on the other hand, you want a slightly less energy dense frozen treat than regular home made ice cream, then this could fit the bill.

It's got a great chocolatey flavour, but retains the tang of the yoghurt. If that's not your thing, then up the sugar or add some other sweetener to taste.

Next on my agenda is this course so I can make coconut frozen yoghurt for Smidge.

Chocolate frozen yoghurt

375g dark chocolate
1kg Greek yoghurt
3/4 cup sugar
1 tspn vanilla bean paste

Method

Place everything in a large saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat until the chocolate has melted and combined with the yoghurt. Refrigerate over night, then process according to your ice cream maker instructions.

Makes around 1.5 litres.

I've just finished auditing the pantry and discovered that we had way too many bags of chocolate melts. Clearly the solution to that problem is chocolate cake, and so I had a look around the internets and found Nigella's cupcake recipe. I figured they would be as good a base as any for some silky smooth chocolate buttercream frosting.



The original cake recipe calls for everything to get chucked in the food processor. Getting that out seemed like too much of a challenge, especially given there's a Kitchenaid permanently on my kitchen table. So here's how to make them with a stand mixer, or if you're feeling energetic, a wooden spoon.

Chocolate cupcakes

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn vanilla
1 cup flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn bicarbonate of soda
2 tbspn cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa. Add to the butter mixture and stir thoroughly. Add the milk and beat well until smooth. Add a tablespoon of mixture to each paper case. Bake 15 - 20 minutes until done.

Chocolate buttercream

3 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, cubed
200g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
2 tbspn cocoa
1 tspn ground cinnamon

Method

Combine the eggs and sugar in a heat-proof bowl. Place over a pan of simmering water and whisk until the sugar dissolves - around 5 to 10 minutes. Beat on high speed with a whisk attachment until the outside of the bowl is cool to touch. Slowly add the butter, beating with the paddle attachment on medium speed until all butter is incorporated. Mix together the chocolate, cocoa and cinnamon. Add to the meringue mix and beat well to combine.

Sunday night, traditionally reserved for left overs or salad in summer, toasted sandwiches and soup in winter. In other words, quick and easy, but not necessarily inspiring. I'd even go so far as to say somewhat boring after a while.



If you're after something, quick, easy and delicious, then scallops with linguine hits the Goldilocks mark. Served with a nice glass of wine and a simple salad, and you've got something  pretty impressive for very little effort. And that's my kind of meal.

Scallops with linguine

250g linguine
1 tbspn butter
1 tbspn chilli infused olive oil
2 cloves garlic
250g scallops
1 lemon, juiced and zested
2 tbspn chopped parsley

Method

Cook the linguine until al dente. Meanwhile, add butter and oil to a large frypan and heat until bubbling. Add the garlic and saute until lightly browned. Add lemon zest and scallops. Cook until the scallops are light golden but still tender - around 3 minutes - stirring occasionally. Add the parsley and stir through. Place scallops on drained pasta. Add lemon juice to pan and stir quickly to deglaze. Add the lemon butter sauce to the scallops.

Serves 2

Ever since the making spectacularly successful vanilla frozen yoghurt, I've been thinking of all the different flavours worth giving a shot. Afterall, the vanilla is fabulous, but who wants to restrict themself to a single flavour for eternity?



Strawberry is slightly more time consuming than vanilla, but worth the effort. This recipe gives you the tartness you want from a frozen yoghurt, without making the strawberries taste sour. It's a beautiful colour, too. Look for jam quality berries to get the best flavour.

Strawberry frozen yoghurt

250g strawberries
1/2 cup sugar
750g Greek yoghurt

Method

Cut the berries into small pieces, quarters or halves depending on the original size. Add to a saucepan with the sugar. Cook, stirring, over low heat until the berries have softened and are coated in a thick syrup, around 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Add to yoghurt, stirring well to get an even colour and flavour. Chill for at least an hour, before processing according to your ice cream maker instructions.