Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

For my birthday on Wednesday I was tempted to make a pretty fondant decorated cake, but flicking through the cookbook of the month 'Kitchen' one night while watching TV, this recipe and Nigella's preface to it caught my eye. The fact that it also contains 250g peanut butter also caught my eye! How naughty. How very very naughty...

Some of Nigella's words used to describe this cake will give you a pretty good picture of what this cake is all about:

"overindulgent vulgarity", "unashamed indulgence", "pleasureable, palate-cleaving clagginess"

Get the idea? ;)

Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake

Adapted recipe from 'Kicthen' by Nigella Lawson

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits

50g salted peanuts

100g dark chocolate chips

50g soft unsalted butter

For the filling:

500g cream cheese

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

200g caster sugar

125ml sour cream

250g smooth peanut butter

For the topping:

250ml sour cream

100g milk chocolate chips

30g soft brown sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius then process the biscuits, peanuts, dark chocolate chips and butter for the base in a food processor. Once it comes together in a clump, turn it out into a lightly greased 23cm springform tin and press into the bottom. Put in the fridge while you make the filling.

2. Process the filling in the cleaned or wiped-out food processor bowl, putting in the cream cheese, eggs, egg yolks, sugar, sour cream and peanut butter and whizzing to a smooth mixture.

3. Pour and scrape the filling into the base in the chilled springform tin and cook for 1 hour, though check after 50 minutes. The top only should feel set and dry.

4. Take the cheesecake out of the oven while you make the topping. Warm the sour cream and chocolate with the brown sugar gently in a small saucepan over a low heat, whisking to blend in the chocolate as it melts, and then take off the heat.

5. Spoon and spread the topping very gently over the top of the cheesecake, being as careful as you can in case you break the surface of the cheesecake. No big deal if you do though, you'll just end up with more of a marbled effect. Put it back in the oven for a final 10 minutes.

6. Once out of the oven, let the cheesecake cool in its tin and then cover and put into the fridge overnight. When you are ready to cut the cheesecake, take it out of the fridge, just to take the chill off: this will make it easier to spring from the tin.

The Verdict
If you are a die-hard peanut butter fan, this cheesecake would be right up your alley! Whilst I do like peanut butter, I did find this cheesecake a bit too much, and a little underwhelming taste wise.. I love the idea behind it - chocolate and peanut butter make a killer combination, but to be honest I'm just not 100% convinced that it's worth all the calories that are required to make it.

I was also a bit surprised by the fact that Nigella's recipe and the accompanying picture in the book don't match. Allow me to explain ... the recipe asks for the base to be pressed into the base and sides of the tin (as I did). However, after doing this with some difficulty (as there really isn't enough mixture to do it) and reaching the stage of putting the cake into the oven, I turned the page to see a picture of the cake with only the crust on the bottom of the cake. It is for this reason that I have adapted the recipe in this post, as this is the way I would do it next time. Although... it will be some time before I tackle this cheesecake again - it is certainly not for the faint hearted (or heart conscious!).


Ladybird x

Piña Colada Ice Cream

Cue the Pina Colada song, kick off your shoes and get that Hawaiian shirt on, it's time for Piña Colada ice cream!

Since I first got my hands on Nigella's latest book, I new I just had to try this ice cream recipe.This is another one of her fantastic no-churn recipes, so it's great if you don't have an ice cream machine (and even if you do have one)! I really love her no-churn margarita and pomegranate ice cream recipes, so I was sure this one would be good too...

No-churn pina colada ice cream
Recipe from 'Kitchen' by Nigella Lawson

125ml pineapple juice, from a carton
80ml Malibu (white coconut rum)
generous few drops coconut flavouring
2 teaspoons lime juice
100g icing sugar
500ml double cream*
75g sweetened shredded coconut (but not dessicated), to serve
* I used thickened cream as double cream in Australia has a much higher fat content than the UK equivalent

1. Pour the pineapple juice and Malibu into a large bowl, and add the coconut flavouring and lime juice.
2. Add the icing sugar and whisk to dissolve.
3. Whisk in the cream and keep whisking until soft peaks form.
4. Taste to see if you need more coconut flavouring or a squeeze of lime juice (and remember it won't be as strong once frozen), then spoon and smooth the ice cream into an airtight container and freeze.
5. Toast the shredded coconut in a dry hot pan until just turning golden and remove to a bowl. Sprinkle a little over each person's portion and leave the rest for people to add as they eat.

Freeze Note
The ice cream can keep for up to 3 months in the freezer, but will become icy, so it's better up to 1 month only and at its best within 1 week of making.

The Verdict
As with Nigella's other no-churn recipes, this one is quick and easy, and offers a pretty creamy result without the effort of making a creme anglaise and so on. I don't think it's quite as good as Nigella pomegranate ice cream, but this isn't bad at all. Flavoured with Malibu, lime and pineapple juice the ice cream is certainly a good tribute to its namesake cocktail. So if you like Piña Coladas (and getting caught in the rain) I say give this one a go!

Ladybird x

Slut's Spaghetti

(Sorry Mum...)

With a name like that, how could I resist trying this new Nigella Lawson recipe?! Here is what the lady formerly known as the 'domestic goddess' has to say about this dish, the first in the chapter entitled 'Off the Cuff'.

Well how could I resist this translation of pasta alla puttanesca, whore's pasta as it usually is described in English? The general consensus seems to be that this is the sort of dish cooked by slatterns who don't go to the market to get their ingredients fresh, but are happy to use stuff out of jars and tins... Or maybe I should just attribute the name to the fiery tang and robust saltiness of the dish?

The original recipe calls for sardines, but I've made this dish vegetarian by omitting them and amping up some of the other flavours.

Slut's Spaghetti
Adapted recipe from 'Kitchen' by Nigella Lawson
(serves 2-3)

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely sliced, chopped or grated
1/4 teaspoon crushed chilli flakes
250g spaghetti
half 400g can chopped tomatoes
75g (drained weight) pitted black olives, chopped a bit
1 x 15ml tablespoon small capers, well rinsed and drained
1-2 x 15ml tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
Parmesan cheese, to serve

Method
1. Put water for pasta on to boil, though you don't need to get started on the sauce until it is pretty well boiling.

2. Pour the oil into a wide, shallowish frying pan, casserole or wok, and put on a medium heat.

3. Add the garlic and chilli flakes and cook, stirring, for a minute. Add the tomatoes, olives and capers and cook for 10 minutes, stirring every now and again, by which time it will have thickened slightly. Taste for seasoning, then stir in the chopped fresh parsley.

4. Meanwhile, salt the pasta water and put your spaghetti on to cook.

5. Just before the pasta is ready, remove about half an espresso cupful of cooking water, and reserve it. When the pasta is cooked as desired, drain and add the spaghetti to the sauce in your pan, adding a little reserved pasta water, if needed, to help amalgamate the sauce.

6. Serve with some shaved/grated Parmesan cheese and tuck in!

The Verdict
Quick, easy and its flavour so punchy, this one is one of my new Nigella favourites. The name gets some giggles too, making it quite the talking point over dinner! ;)


Love,

Ladybird x

South Indian Vegetable Curry

This year has been a bit up and down for me health-wise, and so all things health have been on my mind of late. It will all be fine, but it's been a little emotionally and physically exhausting at times... In the spirit of good health I bookmarked this recipe in this month's Cookbook of the Month, 'Kitchen' by Nigella Lawson. It is a great way to pack loads of vegetables into a delicious curry.

Indian cuisines features regularly in the Ladybird household for two key reasons. First, Mr Ladybird and I both love indian vegetarian cuisine and all of its glorious diversity and, secondly, Mr Ladybird is Indian-Australian so indian food is close to his heart.

For me, dry roasting spices (cumin and coriander in this case) in a pan and then grinding them in the mortar and pestle is well worth the effort. It tastes so much better than packaged ground spices!

South Indian Vegetable Curry (serves 6)
Recipe adapted from Kitchen by Nigella Lawson - items in italics are either new additions, or ingredients where the original quantity has been altered.

2 x 15ml tablespoons canola oil
1 onion, peeled, halved and cut into half moons
1 large garlic clove, chopped
sea salt flakes
1 green chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
2cm chunk fresh ginger, peeled and cut into fine strips
1/4 teaspoon crushed chilli flakes
good pinch mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
600ml vegetable stock
approx 2 teaspoons raw sugar
1 x 15ml tablespoon tamarind paste
350g cauliflower, broken into florets
100g fine beans, trimmed and halved
125g baby corn, halved
150g sugar snap peas
2 x 15ml tablespoons chopped coriander

Method

1. Heat the oil in a thick-bottom casserole or large saucepan and add the mustard seeds. Once they have almost finished popping, immediately add the sliced onion and garlic sprinkled with some sea salt and fry until it begins to soften, then add the chopped fresh chilli and ginger strips and stir every now and again while cooking for a minute.

2. Now add the crushed chilli flakes, the turmeric, and ground cumin, coriander and ginger. Stir well and cook for another minute or so before pouring in the coconut milk, stock ,sugar and tamarind paste. Stir to combine.

3. Bring to the boil, add the cauliflower florets and baby corn first and cook for 10 minutes, then add the other vegetables. Check the vegetables after about 5 minutes or so to see if they are almost done, letting them cook for longer if they need it.

4. Once the vegetables are tender season well to taste with salt (and sugar if needed). Sprinkle with the fresh coriander, in a bowl on top of some basmati rice or with some warmed Indian flatbread on the side for dunking.

The Verdict
I tweaked this recipe quite a bit because I felt that it needed a bit more 'oomph'... not that it wouldn't have been nice otherwise, but because I personally found it slightly insipid without the extras. Everyone's palate is different though...


Till next time...

Ladybird x

Venetian Carrot Cake

Reading Nigella Lawson's book Kitchen is turning out to be quite an educational experience. She has certainly packed a lot of recipes in there, but there is also plenty of great tips, and very interesting facts about food.

For example, while reading this recipe for her Venetian Carrot Cake, I learnt that it was not the Americans that invented carrot cake, but rather, it was the Venetian Jewish community who made the first carrot cake. Unlike the American version which is usually quite big and accompanied with heavy cream cheese frosting, this cake is not a lot to look at. However, as Nigella promises "it is divine to eat". I couldn't agree more, but I'll give you more on my verdict a bit later.

The other great thing about this cake is that it is gluten free AND dairy free! Great to have another allergy-friendly recipe up my sleeve that isn't chocolate or orange and almond :)

First, here is the recipe for the cake, as well as the mascarpone cream to have alongside the cake if you wish.

Venetian Carrot Cake
(From 'Kitchen' by Nigella Lawson)

3 x 15ml tablespoons toasted pine nuts
2 medium carrots (200-250g)
75g golden sultanas
60ml rum
150g caster sugar
125ml regular olive oil, plus some for greasing
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
250g ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
finely grated zest and juice of half a lemon

For the mascarpone cream (optional):
250g mascarpone
2 teaspoons icing sugar
2 x 15ml tablespoons rum

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/gas mark 4. Line the base of your cake tin (Nigella suggests 23cm round springform tin, I used a 20cm tin) with reusable silicone liner or baking parchment and grease the sides with olive oil. Toast the pine nuts by browning in a fatless pan; the oven alone is not enough to scorch out the paleness.

2. Grate the carrots in a food processor (for ease) or with a coarse grater, then sit them on a double layer of kitchen roll and wrap them, to soak up the excess liquid.

3. Put the golden sultanas in a small saucepan with the rum, bring to the boil, turn down and simmer for 3 minutes.

4. Whisk the sugar and oil - I use my freestanding mixer, but it wouldn't be much of a faff by hand - until creamily and airily mixed.

5. Whisk in the vanilla extract and eggs and when well whisked, fold in the ground almonds, nutmeg, grated carrots, golden sultanas (with any rum that clings to them) and, finally, the lemon zest and juice.

6. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface with a rubber spatula. The batter will be very shallow in the tin.

7. Sprinkle the toasted pine nuts over the cake and put into the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the top is risen and golden and the cake tester comes out sticky but more or less clean.

8. Remove from the oven and let the cake sit in its tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes before unspringing and leaving in on the rack to cool.

9. Remove the cake to a plate to serve; mix the mascarpone with the icing sugar and rum and put in a bowl to spoon alongside, for those who want.

The Verdict

Delicious! This cake might not be the prettiest cake around, but what it lacks aesthetically it makes up for in flavour and texture. It is wonderfully moist, and the flavour is superb - not obviously carroty, and with a hint of lemon. This recipe is definitely a keeper!


Ladybird x

The perfect chocolate chip cookie (?)

Here is the first instalment of the featured Cookbook of the Month for October - 'Kitchen' by Nigella Lawson. I have been busy bookmarking all the recipes I'd like to try this month and there are so many that I had to get started early! What better time to start than a long weekend

These cookies seemed like a good place to start after I read what Nigella had to say about her pursuit of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe:

I've tried. I can't tell you how often I've tried. Many cookies have been baked, and many have been eaten. What do they say? Dirty work, but someone's got to do it. And the cookie recipe that follows i happy evidence that my hard work has not been for naught.

I've tried a lot of chocolate chip cookie recipes too (but probably not as many as Nigella though!) and I'll give you my review shortly, but first here is the recipe!

Chocolate chip cookies
(from Kitchen by Nigella Lawson)

(makes approx. 14)

150g soft unsalted butter
125g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg, fridge-cold
1 egg yolk, fridge-cold
300g flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
326g milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius/gas mark 3. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and let it cool a little. Put the brown and white sugars into a bowl, pour the slightly cooled, melted butter over them and beat together.

Beat in the vanilla, the cold egg and cold egg yolk until your mixture is light and creamy.

Slowly mix in the flour and bicarb until just blended, then fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the cookie dough into an American quarter-cup measure or a 60ml round ice-cream scoop and drop onto the prepared baking sheet, plopping the cookies down about 8cm apart. You will need to make these in 2 batches, keeping the bowl of cookie dough in the fridge between batches.

Bake for 15-17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.

Make ahead note
The cookies can be made up to 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container. Will keep for a total of 5 days.

Freeze Note
Unbaked cookie dough can be scooped onto parchment paper lined baking sheets and frozen until solid. Transfer frozen dough to resealable bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake direct from frozen, as directed in recipe but adding extra 2-3 minutes to baking time.

The Verdict

These cookies were tasty and I really enjoyed the texture - crisp on the edges with a slightly squidgy interior. Flavour wise they were good, a choc-chip cookie that I imagine children would devour. But for me I prefer a more grown-up chocolate taste, so I think I'd replace the milk chocolate chips with either semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips next time. Everyone's palate is different though, so you'll have to give these a go yourself!

Also, a note on the size of these cookies... If you follow Nigella's ice cream scoop tip (which is undoubtedly handy and quick, I cannot deny that), you will end up with HUGE cookies (pictured above). Some love the sort of cookies that are as big as your palm, but I myself am not a huge fan of this. I find them too much to eat, so I made some big ones, as well some smaller ones with my tablespoon scoop. Smaller ones (pictured below) of course cook quicker, and they fit a lot easier in my cookie jar :)

Stay tuned for the next instalment of Nigella's latest work!

Ladybird x

Cookbook of the Month - October

  It is with great pleasure that I announce this month's Cookbook of the Month - Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home by Nigella Lawson.

Yes that's right, Nigella, is back with one beautiful, engaging and tempting compendium with 190 recipes, including over 60 express-style at 30 minutes or under.

Here is what Nigella's website has to say about 'Kitchen':

“…this book is simply the story of my love affair with the kitchen. Whatever the opposite of the currently still fashionable genre, the misery memoir, might be, this is it: a comfort chronicle.”

Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home is Nigella’s first book since seasonal bestseller, Nigella Christmas, was published in 2008. In true Nigella style, Kitchen is about the food we eat now, the way we eat and live today; feel-good food from the most important room in the house.

Informative and engaging, Kitchen offers food for both cooks and eaters that is comforting but always seductive, nostalgic but with a modern twist, from “express” style recipes for the time-strapped, hectic week or leisurely slow-cook dishes for weekends and special occasions. It answers everyday cooking quandaries – from how to rustle up a meal for friends in moments to what to do about those black bananas – and since real cooking is so often about leftovers, Nigella makes “leftovers right”, by showing us how to morph one recipe into another, from ham hocks to peas soups and pastries, braised chicken to Chinatown salad.


As well as offering the reader an array of inspired new recipes – from clams with chorizo to Guinness gingerbread – Nigella rounds up her no-nonsense kitchen kit must-haves in the way of equipment and magical standby ingredients. Above all, she reminds the reader how much pleasure there is to be had in real food and in reclaiming the traditional rhythms of the kitchen.

Photo courtesy of Daily Mail, UK


Over the next month, I'll be bringing you recipes from Nigella's latest book and I simply cannot wait to get started. There are some absoultely fantastic recipes in there that I just have to try and share with you all. Venetian carrot cake, Butternut, rocket and pine nut salad, Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake, Haloumi with Beetroot and Lime, Pina Colada ice cream .. it certainly is going to be a difficult task choosing the recipes, but I think I'm up to the challenge ;)

Photo courtesy of Daily Mail, UK



 'Kitchen' has just been released in Australia and Nigella is currently filming the latest BBC series to accompany the book. So.. by following this month's Cookbook of the Month you could well be some of the first people anywhere to get your hands on these recipes, and that just has to be a good thing! Hopefully then by the end of the month you'll be able to make up your mind as to whether or not this book has a place in your collection of cookbooks (but something tells me this one is a no-brainer!)

Stay tuned...

Ladybird x