Once again I’ll be taking a break, as my exams are commencing. I’ll be back early June with delicious summery dishes. Here are some food related gifs that I saw and liked. (Click on the picture to go to the owners blog)
See you guys soon.
Adeola x
Tag Archives: Chocolate
Novikov Restaurant Review
I recently dined with fellow Blogger Abimarvel at the Novakov Restaurant in Mayfair. The restaurant is split into two. There is an Asian Restaurant and an Italian Restaurant. We ate at the Asian Restaurant.
The manager of Novakov gave us a tour of the resturant and showed us the Resuarant’s Market. Within this market there were different fruits, vegetables and fresh seafood. You could pick anything you like and they would create a meal from the ingredients you chose.
We then decided what we were going to have meals from the menu. The manager recommended that we should have the black cod spring rolls with a mango sauce for a starter. We thought why not and so tried it and instantly knew why he recommended it. It was a very unique combination but worked so well together.
The Manager came over and told us the chef had made us raw seafood platter just for us which was extremely generous of him. We had no idea what to expect as all I really heard were the words ‘Raw’ and ‘Seafood’, which I had never tried so got a little bit nervous as I had no idea what to expect. A plate of raw scallops arrived and so we thought that was the platter. The actual platter arrived and it was huge. It looked very pretty and so was hoping it would taste good. We would try different things to make sure we tried everything and give each other feedback on each .Some were delicious. And some were well interesting. I was surprised to find that caviar is actually delicious. It was definitely a very interesting and new experience for us.
We then decided what we were going to eat. Abi ordered the Roast Half Duck. She had the duck with Special Pork Char Sui fried rice.
I had Scottish diver scallops with yuzu mayonnaise & crispy lemon grass.
For Dessert Abimarvel had pineapple ravioli for dessert. I know ‘Pineapple Ravioli’. I didn’t know such a thing existed. It was delicious though and had a berry centre. On top was a scoop of berry sorbet.
Here’s the menu! Take a look!
I would definitely recommend you going to this restaurant. Here is the info.
50a Berkeley Street
Mayfair, London
W1J 8HA
T: +44 (0) 207 399 4330
email: info@novikovrestaurant.co.uk
Website: Novakov
Picture Credit- Abimarvel
Adeola x
Chocolate Macaron
Recipe from here
Makes about 10
65g ground almonds
85g icing sugar
25g cocoa powder
75g egg whites
Pinch of salt
60g caster sugar
For the ganache:
100g whipping cream
100g dark chocolate, chopped
20g butter, cut into small pieces
Pinch of sea salt
1. Make the ganache first. Heat the cream in a small pan until it’s just beginning to boil, then take it off the heat and add the chocolate. Leave it be for a couple of minutes, then stir furiously until smooth. Gradually beat in the butter and finish with a pinch of salt. Set aside to … set.
2. To make the macarons, you’ll need a template. Cut two pieces of baking parchment to fit your baking tray and, using a glass or pastry cutter about 3.5cm in diameter, cover one piece with dark ink circles spaced about 2cm apart. Put this on the baking tray and cover with the other piece of parchment: you should be able to see the circles through it. Prepare a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle, or cut the end off a disposable one so you have a hole about 1cm in diameter.
3. Blitz the almonds in a food processor or spice grinder for a couple of minutes, then sift these, the icing sugar and cocoa into a bowl. Repeat, so they’re well mixed.
4. Put the egg whites and a pinch of salt into the mixer and begin whisking. As soon as the whites begin to hold their shape, whisk in the caster sugar, and continue whisking at high speed until you have a stiff meringue – you should be able to hold the bowl upside down without fear (go on!).
5. Fold in the dry ingredients, and then beat the mixture vigorously until it’s of a consistency which falls off the spatula: if it’s too thick, it will be hard to pipe. Don’t worry about beating the air out of it: you don’t want too much trapped in the shells.
6. Spoon the mixture into the piping bag and carefully pipe on to the circles. Pick the baking tray up and drop it on to the worksurface a couple of times, then leave to rest for about 30 minutes until the macarons feel dry to the touch: they should not be sticky. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 180C.
7. Bake the macarons for about 17 minutes until firm, opening the oven door briefly a couple of times during cooking to let off any steam. Once you’re sure they’re cooked, slide the baking parchment off the tray immediately to stop the macarons cooking. Cool completely on the paper, then carefully peel off: if they’re cooked, they should come away easily.
8. When cool, match up equally-sized macarons, and then, using a small palette knife or spoon, sandwich them together with ganache. Refrigerate for 24 hours, then serve at room temperature.
Adeola x
Happy 1st Birthday Dee’s Basement!!
So Today is the Blog’s First Birthday and so to celebrate it I wanted to do a monthly review of the blogs most popular posts from July 2011 to June 2012. The months of April and May 2012 have no blog posts as I was on a Blog Break.
Enjoy!
July 2011
August 2011
September 2011
October 2011
November 2011
White Chocolate Covered Pretzels
December 2011
January 2012
February 2012
March 2012
April 2012
Blog Break
May 2012
Blog Break
June 2012
Just in time for Summer(Lemon Curd)
Thanks to all the Subscribers and Comments I’ve received over the past year and I hope I will gain more as the Blog develops and I also hope you continue to enjoy my Blog posts.
Adeola X
Philadelphia With Cadbury (Choccy Philly)
Philadelphia have brought out a new flavour. CHOCOLATE! They have collaborated with Cadbury’s and created the Choccy Philly.
The spread contains 86 calories and is available from most UK supermarkets for £1.62 per 160g tub.
It is refrigerated so look for it in the fridge section of the supermarket. It is also available in a 4 pack, so look out for that one as well.
I’m definitely going to find it and try some of the recipes on the website.Some of the recipes on the site that stood out for me were-
Philly Chocolate and Fruit Cheesecake
Philadelphia with Cadbury Fairy Cakes
No Cook Chocolate Crème Brûlée
Adeola x
All Pictures from Philadelphia.
Le cordon bleu- Chocolate Tart
Preparation time: 50 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
For the Sweet pastry dough
- 110 g butter
- 110 g powdered sugar
- 45 g ground almonds
- 210 g flour
- 1 large egg (60 g)
For the Soft chocolate filling
- 105 g “couverture” chocolate 70 %
- 60 g butter, softened
- 60 g ground almonds
- 90 g egg whites
- 75 g sugar
- 45 g flour
For the Ganache glaze
- 150 g chocolate, chopped
- 150 ml whipping cream
- 70 g sugar
- 60 g butter
- 120 ml water
- fresh raspberries (for decoration)
Method-
- Sweet pastry dough: Rub the butter into the dry ingredients, add the egg and combine. “fraiser” - mix the dough evenly by smearing it with the fleshy part of the palm of the hand. Form into a ball and refrigerate approximately 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C.
- Roll out the sweet pastry dough to a thickness of approximately 3 mm and cut disks 12 cm. Line tartlet molds and refrigerate for 10 minutes. Bake the tartlet cases in the preheated oven for approximately 10 minutes.
- Soft chocolate filling: Melt chocolate over a bain-marie, remove from the heat and mix in the softened butter. Add the ground almonds. Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating until the egg whites are smooth, shiny and stiff peaks form. Delicately fold in the meringued egg whites, followed by the flour. Fill the tartlet shells to 2/3 and bake for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Ganache glaze: Put the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the whipping cream, butter and sugar, pour onto the chocolate and add a little water to obtain a smooth consistency. Coat each tartlet with ganache glaze.
- To serve: Present the chocolate tartlet warm or cold with fresh raspberries.
I found this recipe on the Le Cordon Bleu Website and it sounded really nice. Hopefully will be making it soon.
Recipe Link-Recipe: Chocolate Tartlet
Adeola x
Just in time for Dessert!
Gu Chocolate Souffle(£3.29-Most leading supermarkets) and Asda Strawberry Cheesecake Ice cream(£2).
I was feeling a bit hungry and so decided to have a souffle that was in my fridge and since my favourite ice cream is strawberry cheesecake I decided to have the two together and it was delicious. Would definitely recommend it. I normally have haagen dazs strawberry cheesecake ice cream, but the Asda brand was ok.
Adeola x
Christmas Day:Desserts
Christmas Shaped Scones-
Using the Scone recipe I have on my blog already I just used festive cookie cutters to shape the scones and they came out a perfect shape.
Gu Chocolate and Raspberry Bauble (13.99 Now £6.99 from Waitrose)
I got this mousse from Waitrose and it was a really nice. The Chocolate and Raspberry really blended well together. I’m not a huge fan of Dark Chocolate but this dessert was really nice with the Dark Chocolate.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
Adeola x
White Chocolate Covered Pretzels
Ingredients-
- 168 g white chocolate
- 15 g mini pretzels(can be salted)
- 50 g red and green candy sprinkles (optional)
Method-
- Melt white chocolate in the top of a double boiler, stirring constantly.
- Dip pretzel into the white chocolate, completely coating of the pretzel. Roll in topping if desired, and lay on grease proof paper.
- Continue the process until all of the white chocolate is finished. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes to harden. Store in airtight container.
It was a pretty messy job, but the pretzels came out pretty well and tasted really nice. I used salted pretzels which gave it a really nice flavouring with the white chocolate.Adeola x
Pizza Express Restaurant Review
My Mum, Little Sister and I went to Pizza Express in the Birmingham Bullring Shopping Centre for lunch. It was all going well until my little sister received her pizza and found out it was burnt and mine was also burnt but I didn’t realise until I ate about a quarter of it.
My Mum decided to get the Mare E Monti which is Pizza Expresses Leggera Pizza which is when they take the middle of the pizza out and fill it with salad. It costs £9.45. It also contains about 500 calories. The toppings on this pizza is King prawns, mushrooms, red onions, olives, light mozzarella and Cajun spices.
My Little Sister had a Pepperoni Pizza which was 1 of the three food items she got with her children’s meal which cost £6.25. She also got a starter which was garlic dough balls and she also got a drink which was Gü Hot Chocolate which is steamed milk with Gü Chocolate. Her pizza was burnt, so we asked for them to get another one.
I also had a Leggera Pizza but mine was Margherita Leggera which costs £8.50. It has Light mozzarella, santos tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, garlic and basil leaves. A piece of my Pizza was burnt but I didn’t notice it until I had eaten about a quarter of it.
Overall the experience was good and the service was also good. I’ll definitely go to Pizza Express again but maybe not the Birmingham one only because I have one closer to where I live. There is nothing wrong with the Birmingham Pizza Express, so don’t let me stop you going there. The address is-
Level 7 & 9 Bullring
Birmingham
B5 4BU
Tel: 0121 643 7209
Adeola x
