Balcony. Lavender. Ginger.

Two friends decided to pay me a visit last night, and seeing that the weather is lovely I decided we should sit in the balcony. A small dinner calls for culinary show-off. I decided to go with chicken ginger stir-fry with brown rice, a lavender spritzer and leftovers from yesterday’s Nutella cake. Time sailed, and along came glassful after glassful of spritzer; before we knew it it was almost midnight.

The fragrant ginger kept us warm; the sweet lavender was just the right thing to compliment the flavor.

Chicken ginger stir-fry with brown rice

Basic ginger stir-fry.

Ingredients:

3 chicken breasts, cut into chunks (I use one plate of the chilled boneless breasts sold at the Sultan Center)

1 large onion, sliced

1/2 cup fresh ginger, cut into thin sticks (NOT grated) soaked for fifteen minutes in cold water.

1/2 cup carrot, cut into thin sticks (you can find ‘shredded’ carrots in the Sultan Center that are ready to use)

1/4 cup soy sauce

2 tablespoons white vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar, any kind

vegetable oil for frying

ginger powder (optional)

Method:

1. Oil a shallow pan and cook the chicken for about 8 – 10 minutes on medium-high heat, until cooked through. Set aside.

2. In the same pan, cook the onions, ginger, carrots for about 8 minutes until the onions begin to brown. Add soy sauce, vinegar, sugar. Cook for about three minutes.

3. Taste. If you don’t find it ginger-y enough, add ginger powder. It should taste OK as is, half a cup of ginger is really enough. But a friend of mine likes everything to be overwhelmingly spicy. The ginger powder should make it easier to adjust the ‘gingerity’ of your food.

Serve with brown rice, preferably cooked in chicken stock. Two cups of washed brown rice with four cups of chicken stock in a rice cooker or on your stove top in a pot. Or with chinese noodles, white rice, jasmine rice, couscous, whichever works for you.

Serves 4.

xoxo

Hello, Nutella!

Let me commence this post by saying that I am not a big fan of cake. I wouldn’t mind eating cake, but when I bake a cake I always look for recipes of moist cakes, crumbles, brownies, cakes that don’t bore your tasting buds with the dry sugary flavor.

Yesterday, feeling down and on the brink of depression, I had no other consolation other than cooking. So in the kitchen I barged,taking note of all the ingredients I could make use of. About three hours later I had a three-course meal ready, a kitchen that was beyond a mess, and a bolstered ego.

The itch to bake brought to my attention a recipe I have read in Nigella Lawson’s How To Be a Domestic Goddess of a Nutella cake. Luckily enough I had most of the ingredients at hand; I skipped the 100 gram of dark chocolate that the recipe asks for and used a small handful of semisweet chocolate chips that I had. I was sure it didn’t come up to the 100 grams necessary, so I upped the amount of Nutella a bit. I made a few changes from the Nigella recipe. I skipped separating the eggs, and instead beat them into the mixture as is. And I added a tablespoon of flour to make the mass a bit solid. I also skipped the frosting.

Forty minutes into the oven, thirty minutes on the rack, and I had the most amazing Nutella cake of all time at hand. It is very rich / heavy; a small wedge is enough to feed two people.

Unfortunately, my poor talent in photography have produced this one bad picture. Don’t mind the lame attempt at being decorative.

Following is the recipe.

the jar gives birth

Nutella cake (adapted from Nigella Lawson’s How To Be a Domestic Goddess)

Ingredients:

1 big jar of Nutella (750 grams)

1 half cup [preferably freshly] ground hazelnut

1 unsalted butter stick, at room temperature cut into small pieces

6 large eggs

2 tablespoons semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted.

1 – 3 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, preferably sifted

A 23-cm Springform tin, greased.

Method:

(Note that a food processor with a big bowl works better, but if you feel like working your hands then why not. Make sure you use a plastic spatula. You are probably not as kitchen-ignorant as to need this advice, but do NOT use a whisk!)

1.Get your oven ready. Preheat to 180 degrees celsius / gas mark 4.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter and Nutella. I put the Nutella jar in the microwave for about 30 seconds to get it out of the jar easy.

2. Add the hazelnuts, the eggs one by one, the melted chocolate chips and mix to combine. Add the spoonful of water to make the mixture smoother if it’s too hard to mix. Add tablespoon of flour. The batter should now be a thick dark cream. Leave to rest for a few minutes as you grease your pan.

3. Pour into tin. Bake for 40 minutes. Because of the eggs, the cake will rise, but will soon deflate upon cooling. Wait for the cake to cool completely on the pan.

I don’t like to transfer it to a seperate dish, simply because this cake does not use much flour and consists mainly of chocolate. Remember that a cake keeps cooking after you take it out of the oven as long as it stays in its pan; with this one, you want to use as much of the risidual heat of the pan as possible. The last thing you want is a sad dark pile of muddy cream. Leave it on the pan out of the oven for about 40 – 60 minutes. Slice, and enjoy with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee. Remember to portion reasonably; this cake is really heavy!

For the frosting, Nigella suggests a cream and dark chocolate spread. I like mine sans frosting.

xoxo