To celebrate our 25th edition, I have lined up some wonderfully chocolate delightful recipes for you to feast your eyes upon. Also I have one savoury recipe in this for those who aren't really the chocolate person! (: enjoy! And let us know if you've made this before or if there is any recipes that you would recommend!
How to make Jambalaya!
The dish originated from Louisiana in the USA. It's a colourful creole or Cajun rice dish and it tastes awesome! It's extremely easy to make and the recipe can be adapted for vegetarians by replacing the chicken and ham with extra vegetables, meat free sausages or tofu!
Ingredients.
2tbsp olive oil
3 skinless chicken breasts
1 large onion
200g smoked ham
2 large cloves garlic (chopped)
1 red pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 green chilli (optional)
1 tsp dried thyme
700ml warm chicken or vegetable stock
3 tbsp tinned chopped tomatoes
250g brown rice
50g peas
Salt and pepper.
Method
1. Put the rice into a sieve and rinse it under cold water until the water runs clear. Washing the rice prevents the rice from sticking together.
2. Chop the onion into small pieces. Then carefully cut the chicken and ham into edible sizes. Heat the oil in a large saucepan.
3. Fry the chicken and onion for 8mins over a medium heat until chicken is golden. Stir frequently.
4. Add ham, garlic, red onion and chilli into pot and cook for two mins. Add paprika, thyme, rice and stock plus tomatoes. Stir and bring to the boil.
5. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan and simmer for 35mins or until rice is cooked and stock absorbed. Season and stir before serving.
RANDOM RICE FACT: one seed of rice yields more than 3,000 grains! Highest yielding cereal grain!
How to make chocolate brownies!
Tips for making brownies: melt chocolate over a low heat, fold not stir (step 5) and always line a tin to prevent brownies sticking to it.
Ingredients:
90g plain chocolate
150g unsalted butter
125g plain flour
15g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1tsp of vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt
300g brown sugar
2 eggs
Method
1.) preheat oven to 180'C
Grease and line base of baking tin with non-stick baking parchment.
2.) break chocolate into a bowl and add butter. Melt the butter and chocolate over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stir occasionally.
3.) remove from heat. Allow to cool. Sieve flour, cocoa powder and baking powder + salt into separate bowl.
4.) in a third bowl beat the eggs and add sugar + vanilla extract. Stir ingredients together until combined.
5.) fold melted chocolate into the beaten egg mixture. Then fold in flour mixture. Should be no visible flour.
6.) spoon the mixture into the tin, smooth top with a palette knife and bake for 25 mins! Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
So that's this weeks recipes! If you have any recipe suggestions comment! :D
