Easy Chocolate Ganache Recipe

Now, my lovely pal Sarh (known as Sarah to many) may think this has been put on here to humour her disaster outs attempt at ganache, this is not so, as many people have asked me for a quick and easy ganache recipe.

It's great for chocolate fudge cake, for chocolate cupcakes and needed for Jess's Giant Jaffa Cake and most importantly it's so quick and easy to do - if you following the method correctly (try doing that Sarh!! Hehe!)

What do I need?

250g dark chocolate
250ml double cream

What do I do?

1. Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a heatproof bowl.
2. Pour the cream into a pan and bring to the boil slowly.
3. Pour boiling cream over chocolate and whisk until all chocolate has melted.
4. Place in fridge until spreadable.
5. Et voila - une chocolate ganache!

P.S. note the recipe does not melt the chocolate in a pan, it is melted by the boiling cream!

Sarh has learnt from her mistake and now has her very own 'chief ganacher' badge! :)

Pizza Party Pleasure

I had the lovely DriveWorks ladies over to my house on Red Nose Day to make some tasty Jess's Messes pizza creations completely from scratch, along with red drinks and red clothes and red lipstick!

I organised the most important thing first, the cocktails:

Ice
Strawberries
Vodka
Prosecco

- blend the ice strawberries and vodka together, until slush, place in glass, top with prosecco!

 Then it was time to concentrate on food. So I got making the base and Nicola made a fantastic tomatoey, garlicky, oreganoey sauce! As we waited for the dough to rise there was plenty of time to eat crisps and my famous Jess's Messes Slightly Spicy Salsa - that appears at every party I do!

Time now to make pizzas - so we all made the based - Sarah making a fantastically shaped one - very impressed!!!! Then it was time to add the best bit, the toppings. Maria had brought along some lovely deli meats, so we included them on the meaty pizza, whilst Jane piled on the mushrooms to the veggie pizza.

 After 20 minutes or so in a medium oven the feast could begin, it truly was fantastic, and I was so so impressed with everyone! It all tasted fantastic! The red drinks kept flowing, pink champagne, red wine etc... Pizza really is such a great solution when you have a mixed group of people: veggies, picky people (me and sarah) and meat eaters, as everyone can make their own perfect pizza!

I hope they all enjoyed the evening as much as me and will come back again soon!

Bibbidi Bobbodi Boo - Sweet Tooth Time (Fudge Recipe and Egg-less Cookies)

Hello food.....

Sweet Tooth Time

Sometimes it is essential to find a  form of entertainment that does not involve much money.... some baking maybe? But what if you don't have everything needed in the house for cakes and brownies and cookies? In this case I had a serious lack of eggs! So here are a couple of ideas of things to make that contain just ingredients most people have in their house anyway.

Egg-less Cookies

Egg-less Cookies

What do I need?

• 200g Softened Butter or Marg
• 120g Icing Sugar
• 1 Tsp Bicarb of Soda
• 180g Plain Flour (Self-Raising can be used if needed)
• 80g Porridge Oats
• 120g Chocolate chunks/chips
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

What do I do?

1. Cream together the butter and icing sugar.
2. Sieve in the flour and bicarb of soda and combine.
3. Add oats, chocolate and vanilla.
4. Place small blobs of mixture on a lined baking tray and bake at 180 degrees C / gas mark 5 for 15 minutes (until golden brown).
5. Et voila - Cookie time. (Leave to cool slightly before taking off baking tray)

Fantastical Fudge

Fantastical Fudge

What do I need?

• 300g Milk
• 350g Caster Sugar
• 100g Butter (unsalted)
•  1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

What do I do?

1. Place milk, sugar and butter in heavy based saucepan and heat on a low heat until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted, stirring all the time.
2. Bring to the boil and keep boiling for about 20 minutes, stirring continuously until it reaches the 'softball stage' 115 degrees C on a sugar thermometer.
3. When at the right temperatue, take off the heat and stir in vanilla essence. Leave to cool for 5-10 mins.
4. Beat for a minute or so until thickens, and pour in a lightly oiled tray to cool (not in fridge).
5. Cut into cubes and serve. 

The above recipes can be created very easily within an hour or so! Fantastic if you're craving sweet things, or just want to do a quick bit of baking!

ENJOY!! 

A fantastic student

Hello food.....

Sarh Pasta Making

Lovely Sarah Howlett (better known as Sarh) came for a Jess's Messes cooking lesson. We made: Fresh Pasta with Zingy Salsa Verde to start, followed by Seabass wrapped in Parma Ham with Dauphinoise potatoes and Tomato Ragout. Finally a lovely Chocolate Fondant with Creme Anglaise.

Sarh was the perfect student and made some absolutely wonderful food! I will be sending her all the recipes so she can make everything again! :)

Lovely!

Recipe of the Week: Fresh Pasta with Zingy Salsa Verde

Hello food.....

It was time to play around with the pasta machine again and make some sort of starter ravioli thing. I had limited supplies in the fridge, so the filling was just a simple cheddar cheese and spinach, therefore it was really important to have a tasty, tangy sauce. Therefore pasta with salsa verde was tested, and I must say went down pretty well.

What do I need?

Fresh Pasta with Zingy Salsa Verde

(Serves 4)
 
Pasta

• 2 Eggs
• 100g '00' flour
• 100g Semolina
• 10ml Olive Oil
• 30g Cheddar Cheese
• Handful Spinach (torn)
• Salt 
• Pepper

Salsa Verde

•  50g Basil
• 50g Parsley
•  50g Coriander
• 50g Chervil
• 1 Shallot
• 1 Lemon (zest and juice)
• 10ml Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Caster Oil
• Salt and Pepper

What do I do?

1. Place the flour and semolina in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Add eggs and olive oil and combine together using hands. When all combined and shiny place in the fridge.
2. Place all salsa verde ingredients in a bowl and blend using a stick blender.
3. Roll the pasta with a rolling pin and then keep rolling through the pasta machine until you can basically see through it, then cut with any shaped cutter you want your ravioli to be.
4. Combine together the cheese, spinach, salt and pepper in a bowl and place in your ravioli - stick each side of ravioli together with a little bit of water, or egg.
5. Place pasta in boiling water for 2 minutes, or until it rises to the top.
6. Serve straight away with salsa verde, a drizzle of olive oil and some cracked pepper.

 

Gorgeous Goats Cheese Tart Recipe

Hello food.....

I had plentiful supplies of Goats Cheese leftover from a different Jess's Messes recipe and this was the logical, pretty cheap thing to make. It's great to have with a little bit of salad as a starter, or with some potatoes and veg as a main course. When you've got the pastry made it's so quick and easy. There's no excuse not to make it :)

So to make 4 Goats Cheese Tarts:

Goats Cheese Tarts

What do I need?

• 1 Portion of Jess's Messes Shortcrust Pastry
• 3 White Onions
• 10ml Sunflower Oil
• 1 Tsp Thmye
• 30ml Cider Vinegar
• 30g Light Brown Sugar
• 110g Soft Goats Cheese
• 10ml Honey
• Salt and Pepper

What do I do?

1. Roll out the pastry to 1/2cm thick, cut and place 15cm diameter in tart cases. Place on top of the pastry some greaseproof paper and baking beads and blind bake 150 degrees C, for 10 minutes - until pastry has dried out but not coloured. 
2. Meanwhile, slice the onions thinly and fry slowly in the oil until softened. Add the vinegar, sugar, thmye and seasoning, cook slowly until onions become nice and sticky.
3. Place onions in tart cases (when paper and beads have been removed). Cut the goats cheese into 4 pieces and place one on each tart. Rub a little honey on the goats cheese, sprinkle on salt and pepper.
4. Place all tarts in the oven at 200 degrees C for 10 minutes, or until goats cheese has started to melt and colour.
5. Serve and enjoy! :)

Lovely!

Other people - Giant Jaffa Cake

Hello food.....

Another Jess's Messes Recipe put to good use: Aaron made the Giant Jaffa Cake for a work do. It looks fantastic and was referred to as 'a very tasty cake' - Well done Aaron, it's great!!

Aaron's Giant Jaffa Cake