Hot chocolate soufflé

Tonight was pudding night on the bake off so in it's honour I turned to Mary Berry's Baking Bible which I bought for my daughter (who is a promising baker/cook but way too lazy to ever make anything) last year and who has yet to use it. I added the juice of an orange to Mary's recipe, replacing the water, but the flavour didn't really come through and was more chocolatey than anything - which wasn't a bad thing in this instance. My daughter, her boyfriend and me are all underwhelmed by chocolate flavour things but all really enjoyed this and I think the reason is that it's made with real high quality chocolate rather than cocoa powder.  It tasted good. I will make these again as they'd make an excellent dinner party dessert but I think I'd add an orange liqueur instead of orange juice next time.  Watch this space as I'll update when I try this.

Cranberry and pistachio biscotti

It's Bake Off night again and they're doing biscotti, so I thought I'd give it a go.  Nigellisima again.  It was ridiculously easy, if a bit sticky to make - the GBBO bakers made it look more difficult.  I did keep an exceptionally close eye on them thoughwhich paid off as they are a perfect biscotti in crunch terms and gorgeous dipped in the accompanying port. 

Pasta with mackerel, Marsala & Pine nuts

I think I've said before that you only need to whisper the word Marsala to me and I'm there. I took the opportunity of an otherwise empty house tonight to make something only I will like and so went to Nigellisima for inspiration.  I confess I left out the dill but only because I couldn't be bothered going to the shop and I had all the other ingredients in (I felt very domestic goddessy when I realised that!).  This had such a range of flavours, sweet and sharp combining beautifully and felt quite decadent for a Wednesday night dinner. Would make again.

Madeira cake

My daughter and I have been very excited this week about the return of The Great British Bake Off.  Their first challenge was a Madeira cake and I realised that even though I've made a huge number of cakes over the years, Madeira cake has never been one of them.  We ate this still warm as we are incredibly greedy and impatient.  My other half, whose comments generally range from 'uh huh' to 'nice' said 'oh God, it's melt in the mouth'.  I can't see us having this cake sitting around for long.

Hot and sour rhubarb and crispy pork with noodles

I was in Wales yesterday at a village fair - we have friends living in said village and so have been a few times. To bulk the fair up there is a small car boot sale and I managed to feed my cook book addiction with 'Jamie At Home' for a mere 50p. I'm not a huge fan of Jamie Oliver but appear to have acquired a large number of his books at mostly bargain prices.  No 1 recent rule, however, is to cook from a new acquisition as soon as possible. With extreme good fortune I had some pork belly defrosting for this evening's dinner and no idea what to do with it.  I stumbled across this in my new book so had to go for it.  And, wow, so glad I did - this dish is packing so much flavour, the fresh herbs make it zing, the lime and coriander a marriage made in heaven and the rhubarb sauce complementing the whole affair.  I might have to revisit my other Jamie books as I suspect I've been a bit hard on him.

Cheesecake Ice Cream

The weather is picking up again so my thoughts return to Nigella Summer, which was responsible for last year's purchase of an ice cream machine.  It's scandalous that we're already in August and I've not used it this year so this was my choice.  The cheesecake has lemon juice in it making a very subtle lemon cheesecake flavour - very nice.