Bacon And Egg Risotto

Yonks ago I thought about doing a bacon and egg risotto but forgot all about it, then the other day saw just that over at the more-ish Last Night's Dinner. My idea had been to fry an egg until the edges were crispy and serve that over the risotto, but the original idea from An Obsession With Food was to poach the egg yolk, and I had to try it. I forgot to saute the pancetta first (I was probably too busy scoffing it on it's own) but added it towards the end, when there was hardly any stock left and could easily fry it, the oil coating the rice deliciously.

Going back to look at the recipe now, I see we've served it the same with lots of chopped chives and also pancetta instead of bacon. Perfect packing-with-SATC-on-in-the-background comfort food.

Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken

Rasa Malaysia had me craving her recipe for Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken and even though mine didn't turn out a gorgeous caramel colour like hers, it became an instant fave. I have found a couple of butchers doing hormone-free chicken so that makes me happy.

It's easy to make (especially while cutting up the chicken during my favourite show, A Place In Slovakia) and very flavoursome.

Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken, adapted from Rasa Malaysia, servces 4.
1 kilo chicken thigh fillets cut into inch cubes
3 good tablespoons fish sauce
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons sugar
4 tablespoons water
2-3 tablespoons peanut oil
2 lemongrass stalks, white parts either finely sliced or shreded with a grater/Microplane
1-2 chilies, long or small, seeded and finely sliced
1 inch of ginger, grated or finely sliced
Salt

Combine the chicken, fish sauce, garlic, sprinkling of salt and 2 teaspoons of the sugar. In a small saucepan, melt the remaining 3 tablespoons of sugar with 2 tablespoons of the water and cook over high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved, then leave until a deep caramel colour. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining water, then pour into a bowl. In a frypan or wok, heat the oil and add the lemongrass, chilies and ginger and cook until fragrant. Add the chicken and caramel and cook until the chicken is browned, then pop a lid on and cook for around 7 minutes, then remove the lid and cook for another 10-15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened. Serve with rice and sliced spring onions on top.

Sometimes, I Surprise Myself

At The Bentley on Saturday night one of the dishes for the degustation, which wasn't anywhere to be found on the menu, was a square of steamed white fish dressed in an avocado and jamon sauce. It was just so good that it was pretty much all I could think about this week. The delicate, clean-flavoured fish balancing with this interesting sauce, slightly tacky on the palate. I had to have it again. So last night I went about recreating it, amidst clicking for Spice Girls tickets, curing another salmon and making my own icecream (more on that later).

And, it was 9 out of 10 close to the original version. I was mighty impressed.

Quality Spanish jamon is fairly new to our shores and while iberico is the Chanel of Spanish hams, serrano is perfect for this sauce. At $99 a kilo (as opposed to $360 for iberico), $10 worth will give you a few very happy moments, including this sauce. I think Spanish ham is better in this dish than Italian, it needs that meaty oomph, that macho-ness, as opposed to the delicate sweetness of prosciutto.

It was as simple as pureeing an avocado and thinning it with a little cream, although light stock would be just as good. Finely, finely dice a thick slice of jamon serrano, and warm it in a frypan. Don't add oil as it will start to release it's own oil which will flavour the sauce. Add the avocado and warm through, season, then set aside.

Cut a fillet of bream or white fish in half, and steam for 4-5 minutes till cooked. Remove, and serve with the sauce. On the side I sliced a King Brown mushroom and sauteed it seperately until just coloured. It's such a meaty mushroom that was the perfect, minimal accompaniment.

Corn Salad (With Perfectly Crispy Skin Salmon)

I have a reputation. Completely unfounded. When I was living with A I bought a cheap eggplant and didn't cook it. It was left soft and mushy at the bottom of the fridge. The same thing may have happened with a cauliflower. "But it was cheap!" I protested as he shook his head. "It's not so cheap when you have to throw it away!" I always end up with these kinds of fellas. The ones that just don't understand.

But I can't help it sometimes. Like on the weekend when I saw two perfectly symetical pears, and they were too pretty to leave behind, or four corns in their silky husks for $2. I'd never cooked fresh corn before, but to me, their crunchy taste and chartreuse coats are the epitome of spring. With inspiration from MattBites, I made this delicious salad, which ended up being one of the most delicious salads ever. Oh yea, ever.

For four serves, take two fresh corns and peel away the husks and silk. Slice the corn off - it slices off easily - and what's nice is you have clunks of kernels which look pretty. In a little butter saute the corn in a frypan over low-medium heat for about five minutes. Taste so that it's cooked but has lots o' crunch. Transfer to a salad bowl. Dice half a red capsicum and add to the corn, along with a good handful of coriander leaves and a crumbling of feta. Season and chill before eating. It would also be great with steak, grilled chicken or prawns.

I had a nice fillet of salmon which I was going to slow-roast but my oven was occupied, so I heated a little olive oil in a frypan until very hot, and added the fillet (after it had been washed and dried and well-seasoned) skin-side down. Don't touch until you can see the fish cooked about a quarter way up from the bottom, then flip over, and cook for another few minutes. As you can see, I like my salmon rare. The skin is so good, crispy and salty like chips.

How To Make A Grown Woman Squeal

Apart from the obvious?

Last night I made macarons. Proper, French macarons. After weeks of consternating, after reading every known recipe and technique, after convincing myself I would fail abysmally...

They turned out just about perfect.

I cannot tell you how excited I was. I squealed when I saw the frilly 'feet' through the oven door. Yes, I squealed. Anyone with a half-interest in cooking and/or food blogs will know how delicate the issue of macarons are. They are the 'it' indulgence around the world. Laduree, Pierre Herme et al are on par with the Eiffel Tour as essential pit stops for visitors to Paris; at least, the queues waiting to go in are as lengthy. D and I ourselves this trip stopped at Laduree, La Maison du Chocolat and a random bistro in the 6eme for a macaron hit (as for Pierre Herme, well, we walked in only to find we had no money between us, oh, the horror!).

They are the loveliest, daintiest of sweet, made only more precious by the kaleidoscope of colours and exciting flavours and combinations available. In the queue at Laduree I had to just go with my instinct of caramel a la fleur de sel, and then a last-minute quip for coconut. I'd planned on taking photos of them, of us munching on them - that never happened. We gobbled them up before we even crossed the street. Such is the macaron.

So, to making them. As David Lebovitz, who's recipe I used, says, it's about the technique, and the precision of, which seems quite intimidating and I think this is what puts so many off, myself included. But it's mum's birthday on Sunday and to me she is a little macaron, cute and delicate, and I thought how nice it would be to bring some to her picnic. So a trial had to be done, and a basic chocolate recipe chosen.

I'm an impatient person, and a person of extremes. I knew that if my first effort didn't turn out I would get very stroppy and never attempt to make macarons again. Luckily D was over with wine. I made the ganache and started on the meringue batter. To be honest, as fixed as I was beforehand on following the recipe to the letter, I didn't. I didn't measure the ingredients all that precisely but I looked out for the technique. I sifted my almond meal (essential, as store-bought almond meal is too coarse) and got the mixture to fairly resemble motlen lava. I couldn't find my plain icing tip so had to use my star one, so some had a little wave on the top. I tapped the tray a few times on my table to get rid of bubbles and flatten them slightly. I didn't fuss with doubling up of baking trays, just piped them onto baking paper and onto the middle shelf. I lowered the temp to about 170C fanforced and after five minutes stuck a wooden spoon in the oven door to keep it ajar. I took them out at 14 minutes, and they came off the paper easily. I spread the ganache with a knife, and voila, chocolate macarons, which were scoffed down easily. The trademark crisp shell and chewy texture. Frilly 'feet'. That's all I could want for a first attempt. And the few leftovers this morning have the same crisp/chewy consistency.

I think making macarons is hit or miss for the amateur cook, dependant on so many factors, but even the miss are delicious. You could break them up and stir through icecream or marscapone cream. Maybe my next time will be a miss, but I'll keep trying.

Ooh la la.

Three Warm Days

I love that Sydney has three Colombian restaurants, and Friday night I joined Kath's friends to try the newest - any excuse to eat more empanadas. Which we did, along with lots of meat. God bless Central/South America.

Pilates the next morning is not to counteract but because I enjoy it again, and later D came over. It's spring and spring food is beautiful: green of peas and beans and sunlight of squeezes of lemon and pecorino and olive oil. So dinner is a real Liguarian pesto spaghetti, with steamed discs of kipflers but with spinach instead of basil for a softer finish, and tarts with frangipane and sauteed rhubarb, that prettiest of pink anything.

For the tarts, I was excited to try Careme pastry, a company making real pastry, unlike that stale, frozen-tasting stuff you get at the supermarket, which is so bad I refuse to buy it. Although I'm starting to make my own I wanted to support this local business and am so glad I did - the pastry was incredible. I chose the vanilla bean shortcrust which is perfect for individual dessert tarts, and tastes just like fine patisserie pastry. They include helpful hints on using the pastry which is a really nice touch. What I love even more about Careme is the adorable packaging, something out of Laduree, with pastel coloured boxes and elegant font. Bravo!

Sunday afternoon was dolling up for mum's pre-birthday high tea at The Victoria Room. A lovely couple of hours sipping cocktails and scoffing finger sandwiches and little sweet bites and the best scones (with lashings of berry jam and fresh cream) I've had. Although Kath and I learnt another Russian superstition - don't give mum her present one week early, she didn't want to know about it.

And to round off the long weekend the first swim of the season. I expected the water to be icey but it was the perfect temperature, and to dry off in the warm sun - just bliss. Will be spending as much time as I can at the beach until we go.

In the evening mum and I went to see I Have Never Forgotten You, the documentary on the amazing Simon Wiesenthal. I love how it starts, with a montage of journalists asking why he still pursues the war criminals, why not just let it go and let them grow old in peace. He describes trying to find his mother on the cattle car and tells the interviewer, "I can only hope she died on the train and not in the gas chamber", before pausing to say, "do you know what that means to say 'I hope my mother died on the train?'". His passion for justice and love for humanity, his humour...a truly rare individual and I hope everyone sees this documentary.

Vic's Meat III

I never cook chicken. I can't remember the last time I did because in those days-be-gone it always turned out dry and tasteless. But my recipe folder had a few chicken curry recipes that were singing out to me, so I ordered some La Ionica chicken from Vic's. And yesterday the weather couldn't be more perfect for a curry, grey and autumnal.

I chose Gordon Ramsay's Malaysian Coconut Chicken Curry from his cookbook Sunday Lunch (or you can find the recipe here) and I'll just get to the point - it was absolutely delicious. You make the aromatic curry paste (easily with the food processor) and then simmer with beautiful star anise and cinnamon. The chicken was so tender and flaked at the fork. Wonderful! I'm back to being healthy so I was careful to skim the fat and when it cools you can skim the solidified fat even more.

Verdict: The chicken tasted incredible and is chemical-free and free-range - I'll definitely be ordering La Ionica from Vic's again.

Yoghurt-Simmered Fish Curry

I'm not a huge curry fan, but this recipe, from Anjum Anand - I think she must be England's new Nigella Lawson - caught my eye, and instantly became a favourite. It's healthy and so quick to make.

Yoghurt-Simmered Fish Curry, from Anjum Anand's column in The Times, serves 4
2 Ts vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 green chillies, whole (I used one long red chili with most of the seeds and this was spicey enough)
2 ts garlic paste (I pounded 3 garlic cloves in a pestle and mortar)
1 rounded ts ginger paste (I pounded a 1cm piece of ginger in a pestle and mortar)
¾ ts turmeric powder
2 ts coriander powder
20g ground almonds
180ml yoghurt, beaten
1 medium tomato, cut into large pieces
4 x 175g portions of firm white fish fillets (I used bream)

Salt and pepper to taste
¾ ts garam masala
Handful of chopped fresh coriander, stalks and leaves

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and fry until golden and shrivelled, about 10 minutes. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds. Add salt, turmeric and coriander powder and stir for another 30 seconds. Add the yoghurt and almonds, over a low heat and stir to incorporate. Add a splash of hot water at the same time. Simmer over a low flame for 10 minutes. If the yoghurt looks grainy, do not worry, turn the heat up and stir, it will come back together. Add tomatoes and cook until softened, about 6 minutes, adding splashes of hot water whenever the pan starts to dry out. Stir in 150ml water and bring to a boil*. Add the fish, bring the heat down, cover and simmer until the fish is tender, about 5 minutes, turning halfway. The gravy should be thick but not clinging to the fish. If the gravy is too watery, remove the fish and boil down the gravy until you have the right consistency.
Sprinkle over the garam masala and coriander and serve.
* I added a little water and a little lite cream for a creamier sauce.

I Had A Dream

Just like Martin Luther King Jr. His was about equality. Mine was about a spaghetti with bacon, garlic and chili. Had to make it come true, with a twist.

Halve 250g love bite tomatoes/punnet of cherry tomatoes and mix in a bowl with a good lug of olive oil, one chopped clove of garlic, a handful of chunky, fresh breadcrumbs, a shaving of pecorino or parmesan. Sprinkle in some dried chili flakes, and if you like, fresh chopped herbs, like marjoram or basil. Season well. Bake in a moderate oven for around 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cook spaghetti, and grill strips of bacon until nice and crispy - always grill more than you need because who can resist munching on grilled bacon along the way.

Stir the bacon and the roast tomatoes with all the juices and oil into the spaghetti, and enjoy.

Have not-watched-in-ages Seinfeld on the background while cooking, and laugh yourself silly.

Chips An' Egg

One of my top ten movies is Shirley Valentine. When she starts to work in the cafe an English lobster couple come in and seemed over - and under - whelmed by the Greek menu. She suggests slow-cooked lamb in origano, they groan. So she leans in and conspiratorially offers to whip them up chips and egg, and it's "smashin'". They come in every afternoon for her "chips an' egg".

Chips an' egg. There are many comfort foods, but chips and egg might just top my list. Mum makes the best, frying the chips in the pan till golden, scrambling in the eggs and scraping up the crunchy bits on the bottom. If I'm over, and she makes a batch, not much makes me happier.

So last night when I didn't have much time to make dinner, but still wanted something delicious, I made a posh chips an' egg. Rosti with wilted spinach and poached egg.

Peel and parboil two potatoes. Allow to cool a little, then coarsely grate and season. In a frypan wilt a handful of baby spinach, then set aside. Melt some butter in the same pan, and fry the rosti for a few minutes on each side until crispy and golden. While the rosti is frying poach an egg. When all is ready assemble and enjoy.

Funnily enough after when I went to have a drink at the Paddo Inn this was their special of the day, and it looked good. I'll definitely have to try their version, $15 with a middy of pale ale, how can you beat that?

Sidenote: The Cook And The Chef is such a fantastic cooking show, the rapport between Simon and Maggie is so watchable, and the recipes inspiring and real. Bravo to the ABC for staying with this show amongst abominable TV programming across the board.

I Did It!

Tonight I made my own pasta!

Taking advantage of my second last night housesitting chez maman, with her lovely biggish kitchen, I got all excited. Literally, I was thinking about it before I went to sleep. Because you see, it has to be perfect. It is one of my three cooking challenges. I can't love pasta this much, study recipes, drone on wax lyrical about the food of Italy, and then when I finally make it, make slop. That would hurt.

And...for the First Pasta, which sauce? I thought about it, and thought about it, and remembered my beloved parpadelle with chicken liver and sage, a Stefano di Piero recipe that I picked up years ago and hold dear.

So off I went. 100g flour, 1 egg. What a fabulous equation. Hmm, too sticky, there's not much here. I added more flour, still not much. I should say that I didn't really measure the flour, I just used rough tablespoons. I'm arrogant like that. At this point I realised this was not a portion going to make, so I doubled the proper amount of flour and another egg. Voila. A nice elastic dough.

I stumbled upon this clip of Gennaro Contaldo with Jamie Oliver on Youtube the other day, showing how to make pasta without a pasta maker. A pasta maker to me looks like a two-person job, at least for a newbie, so I was besotted with Gennaro's "romantic" method, rolling and slicing with a knife.

Except mum didn't have a rolling pin, but she must because she makes rugaliki, so it means I couldn't find it (I am a man after all). So I improvised with a long pasta container. Who the hell knows, but I got it as thin and as light as I could. It even passed Genaro's 'blowing' test. Wide slices, floured. My parpadelle are ready!

The chicken livers are my own recipe now, so I prepared them and got the water ready. In went the pasta ribbons - ooh the excitement, what would they do, stick together, float? no they were just as described - and after a couple of minutes they were done. Mixed into the sauce, into a bowl, and the verdict?

Delicious! Real pasta! A little rustic, which was good, and I'm sure it's because the dough couldn't get a proper rolling. Better rolling would make a silkier pasta. And the whole thing, with sauce, took less than an hour.

So I'll keep perfecting it, and bask in the excitement of having made my own pasta!

Parpadelle With Chicken Livers And Sage, serves 2
Adapted from a recipe from Stefano di Piero

Handful of chicken livers, trimmed if needed
1 Spanish/red onion, thinly sliced
6 sage leaves
Lug of cream

Cook the parpadelle while you make the sauce. Heat some oil in a frypan and add the livers. When browned, add the onion and sage leaves and stir to coat. Lower the heat so as not to overcook the liver, and saute until the onions have softened. Add the cream, season* and cook for another minute. You can add a nob of butter to enrich the flavour and loosen the delicious browned bits.
Drain the pasta reserving a little pasta water and add to the pan with the sauce. Stir through and serve.
* Don't season before as the salt will toughen the livers while they are cooking.

Firsts

I just poached my first egg.

Some people are scared of souffles, baffled by baking. I have three cooking 'challenges' (fairly basic ones) that I've always been daunted to try.

One is preparing an artichoke.
One is making pasta.
One is poaching an egg.

The artichoke I tried a few months ago according to Mark Bittman's instructions but they didn't quite work. It was a breadcrumby mess. I've yet to make my own pasta, which is crazy since pasta is my favourite thing in the world.

But tonight, I poached my first egg.

I adore poached eggs and probably order them more than any other menu item at weekend breakfasts. A good poached egg is a delight, but often ruined by too much vinegar.

But it looked complicated, delicate. I just knew the raw egg would go everywhere, boiling to a mess. Why try and fail when fried, scrambled, boiled are guaranteed delicious?

My beloved Gordo whipped up a watercress soup with poached egg on The F Word and it looked gorgeous. He makes everything look so easy on that show, and between the cookbooks, and that kiss, I realised I'd never even tried any of his recipes! I love the peppery sharpness of watercress, and picked up a huge bunch at the markets on Saturday, so it was now, or never.

Turns out - incredibly easy! I'm a bit excited because I've turned down so many recipes with poached eggs and now they'll definitely be a regular.

How to poach an egg:
Leave the egg/s to get to room temperature. Crack each egg into it's own ramekin.
Fill a saucepan 3/4 full with water, and add one teaspoon of white vinegar. Do not salt.
When the water starts to boil grab a whisk and create a whirpool. Carefully slide the egg into the whirlpool. The egg will wrap around itself and form a nice little ball. Some of the egg white might ribbon away or the egg might be a funny shape; you can trim the egg white afterwards.
Poach for 1.5-2 minutes, then remove with a slotted spoon.
If not using immediately carefully wash it with a little cold water to stop it cooking (don't bung it under the tap or it will break the yolk).
That's it!

Gordon Ramsay's Watercress Soup With Poached Egg (serves 1 for an easy, luxurious dinner, what, you don't deserve it?)

1 big bunch of watercress
1 potato, peeled and very thinly sliced
1 Ts butter
1 cup boiling water
1 poached egg

Heat a little olive oil in a frypan and add the watercress. When it starts to wilt, add the potatoes and butter and cook for a few minutes until the potatoes are soft (the thinner the potato slices the quicker this will take). Pour in the boiling water (you may not need all of it, depending on how thick you like the soup. It's best to add about half and then add more at the next step if it's too thick). Puree with a stick blender until completely smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Place a poached egg in the centre of a flat-ish bowl and carefully pour the soup around the egg. Drizzle a little olive oil over the soup, or dress with chopped chives like I did.
So easy, healthy even, and very delicious!

Weekend

It's funny, I spend the weekend with the niggling worries of moving overseas to a cold, grey city under a dome of cloudless blue sky. This weekend gave us perfect winter weather, sunny and warm with a chilly whisper every now and then to remind you of the season.

Friday night reminded me that cooking a delicious two-course dinner doesn't have to be a melodrama. D came over for dinner and a DVD and I got to try the one Jamie Oliver recipe I've been dying to make since I first saw it on tele, what, ten years ago?! His Fantastic Fish Pie, and a trip to the fish markets yielded some beautiful snapper fillets and Yamba prawns (and plump Tasmanian oysters as a personal snack). It was quick and easy to make and to tweak it I finely sliced a potato (oh, for a mandolin) and overlapped them over the top like fish scales instead of his mash. They turned out crispy and delicious. Dessert was Bill "white teeth white pants and now white hair" Granger's recipe for chocolate self-saucing puddings, which I made in my beloved Bodum glasses. Incredibly easy to whip up after dinner and dark chocolate delicious, so if you prefer sweeter add more sugar and/or use milk cooking chocolate.

DVD was It's All Gone, Pete Tong. Obsessed? Muy!

Saturday was up for the Good Living Grower's Markets and the beautiful weather meant all of Sydney was out, clogging up any chance of a parking spot and the many coffee cart queues. Seriously - 20 minutes for a coffee? Keep that. The $40 I had to last me till Monday (note, this is a new concept) meant I showed quite a bit of restraint but still came away with great buys: pure organic lamb sausages, lovely beetroot and cauliflower and watercress, roo treats for Nut.

D and I spent the afternoon annoying travel agents with flight questions, as we want to get our tickets asap. We found someone who actually knew what they were talking about (and quite cute) who gave us the info we needed to buckle down and make a decision re: departure dates. Lots to think about this week so we can get the tickets next weekend.

Curled up with Le Mepris. Incredible, especially after reading the novel last year in Europe (which was not a great idea when you have all that time to think, think, think...).

Sunday caught up with I then took Nut for a big walk. Dinner of lamb sausages and baked polenta, when I usually hate sausages but this post had me hankering. And the first good night's sleep in a week...

Memory Lane Food

After getting stupendously pampered (my wallet less so) at the Banyan Tree spa, Phuket, in 2001, I treated myself to lunch at one of their restaurants and had an incredible pasta dish that I still linger over in my memories today. Penne with swordfish, asparagus, tomato and basil. It was creamy and full-flavoured and a complete contrast to the hours of svelte-inducing massages and facials I'd just had.

You never try and replicate favourite meals. They never quite match and there's the fear that the initial taste might be replaced with your substitute. But I was willing to try with this one.

I don't know if it turned out quite the same, but it was delicious and surprisingly quick to make. While the pasta is cooking you make the rest, so you're ready in 15 minutes. Pour yourself a glass of wine and pretend you're in a tropical resort. Or laugh over Thank God You're Here like me.

Penne with swordfish, asparagus, tomato and basil, serves 4

4 serves of penne
1 swordfish steak
1 bunch of asparagus
Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
3 Ts thick cream
6 large basil leaves, thinly sliced at the last minute

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the ingredients. In some olive oil and/or butter, cook the swordfish over low-medium heat. About 3 minutes on one side and 2 on the other - leave it nice and rare in the middle. Make sure you do not overcook it, as tough swordfish is rubbish. Take it off the heat and let it rest. Pop whole asparagus stems into the pasta water while the penne is cooking and remove with tongs two minutes later, it should be nice and crisp. Slice on the diagonal into inch-long pieces. Slice the fish with the grain into nice chunks - too small and the fish will flake apart. In the same pan as the fish, add the cream and basil leaves and warm through. Add the vegetables and the cooked penne, season with salt and generously with pepper and carefully mix together, making sure not to break the fish apart.
Remember, we don't serve cheese with fish.
Note: Make sure everything is al dente in this dish for it to taste it's best - the penne, the asparagus - the warmth of the dish will keep the ingredients cooking slightly anyway.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes - The Best Yet?

Back into the kitchen for the domestic goddess pleasures of Sunday afternoon baking.

I've never made a Nigella Lawson recipe before but if the ease and success of this recipe is anything to go by, I may have to go and buy all her cookbooks - like every other woman out there.
Seriously, these were the simplest and most delicious cupcakes I've made yet. A one pot (ie saucepan) wonder. The cupcake is how I've always wanted a cupcake to turn out, moist but not dense with a good crumb and not-too-heavy-not-too-light flavour. And they came out beautifully flat and even which made icing the best.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes, makes 12
125g unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
300g morello cherry jam
100g caster sugar (Nigella calls for 150g but I cut back 1/3 and it was plenty sweet)
pinch of salt
2 large eggs, beaten
150g self-raising flour
Icing
100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
12 natural-coloured glace cherries (I used red glace cherries as I've no idea where to get natural-coloured ones from in Sydney, if you know please let me know, or any cherries with the stem attached).

Preheat the oven to 180C. Put the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan on the heat to melt. When nearly completely melted, stir in the chocolate. Leave for a moment to begin softening, then take the pan off the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter and chocolate are smooth and melted. Now add the cherry jam, sugar, salt and eggs. Stir with a wooden spoon and when all is pretty well amalgamated stir in the flour. Scrape and pour into the muffin papers in their tin and bake for 25 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before turning out.
When the cupcakes are cool, break the chocolate for the icing into little pieces and add them to the cream in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat and then whisk – by hand or electrically – till thick and smooth. Ice the cupcakes, smoothing the tops with the back of a spoon, and stand a cherry in the centre of each.
Note: I added a mint leaf to my cherries.