Chocolate Mousse with Honeycomb and Sea Salt

I’ve always loved chocolate, who doesn’t? But I LOVE the dark stuff, just a little bit of insanely tasty chocolate. I’ve never been one for milk chocolate or overly sweet bars but a small taste of dark chocolate is irresistible. I’ve always got a few types at home hidden away somewhere to satisfy that craving. 

At one point, a few years ago, I almost changed what I was doing career-wise to become a chocolatier at the thought of tempering chocolate all day, filling moulds and flavouring ganaches. In the end I decided against it but as you can probably guess it fuelled an already ridiculous passion for chocolate. It’s also one of those things that I like playing around with in the kitchen because it’s not easy - it’s more of a challenge; it can be super tricky, it can burn easily, it can split but there’s something about that that I love. Luckily this recipe isn’t like that, it’s actually really easy, it’s just got quite a few steps to it. Follow the steps and it’s worth the effort. Trust me. This is a great dessert to have ready for a barbecue or big event as you can do this the day before just have it ready to serve from the fridge. You could do it in individual pots but I really like serving it as a blob of hole-y mousse on a plate. Mmmmm.

The honeycomb is also really easy and actually really quick! (I say it’s quick but you have to leave it for about an hour before it’s ready to use as it takes time to cool) It’s also really cool when you add the bicarbonate of soda as it froths and bubbles. Definitely get the children to watch but be careful as it’s super hot!

Ingredients -

Chocolate Mousse -

• 110g Dark Chocolate (at least 75%), broken into small pieces
• 40g Butter
• 3 Eggs Yolks
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 75ml Water
• 100ml Double Cream
• 90g Egg Whites (2 large or 3 small eggs)
• Sea salt to serve (I use Maldon)

Honeycomb -

• Butter, for greasing
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 5 tbsp Golden Syrup
• 2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Method -

Chocolate Mousse -

• Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and then set aside, stirring occasionally
• Dissolve the sugar in the water in a heavy based saucepan over a low heat, when dissolved increase the heat and bring the syrup to the boil.
• Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl until pale and creamy
• Boil the syrup until it reaches 120 degrees C on a sugar thermometer
• With the whisk on fast slowly trickle the hot syrup onto the beaten egg yolks
• Keep whisking until the mixture is thick, smooth and has increased in volume
• Whisk until the bowl no longer feels hot and then set aside, this is called a Pate à Bombe
• Whip the cream to soft peaks in a separate bowl
• Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks in another bowl
• Fold the chocolate mixture into the pate à bomb (sugar syrup and egg yolk mix), then fold in the whipped cream and lastly the whisked egg whites
• Transfer into a container for the fridge, it’s best left for a few hours in the fridge before serving

Honeycomb -

• Grease a 20cm tin with the butter
• Put the caster sugar and syrup into a heavy bottomed pan and dissolve on a low heat
• When dissolved increase the heat and bubble until you have an amber coloured liquid
• Quickly turn off the heat, add the bicarbonate of soda and beat with a wooden spoon until the bicarb has been fully incorporated and the mixture is bubbling
• Transfer the mixture into the tin and leave to cool before using (this will probably take 1 - 1 1/2 hours)

When you come to serve simply put a spoonful of mousse on a plate and then add crushed honeycomb and sea salt!

Both of these can be kept for a while and so it's a really good one to prepare hours before and will certainly impress your guests

Enjoy

x

Wild Garlic Pesto from Joshua's Wood

I went home the other weekend to Preston and whilst out walking the dog we came upon seas of wild garlic covering the floors of 'Joshuas Wood'. You never really see wild garlic as a tiny crop but instead it grows like a weed, literally covering the floor, usually on banks or near to a stream. It grows in damp conditions and you’ll usually find that you smell it before you see it! As the dog happily ran herself mental with all the woodland smells we got to work picking a hearty crop of wild garlic, or ramsons as some people call it. However much you decide to pick doesn’t really dent the amount that grows so you don’t need to feel guilty about picking a ridiculous amount, which we did, obviously.

Firstly we ate it like spinach, simply washed and then wilted with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice but I had bigger plans for the leaf. Delicious as it was I wanted to try wild garlic pesto which sounded great and thought it’d go great with some braised lamb and butter beans. Man was I right! Here’s the recipe for the pesto. If you see wild garlic please try this recipe as you’ll be massively rewarded. This recipe is massively influenced by River Cottage's Recipe so credit goes to them!

WILD GARLIC PESTO

Ingredients -

- 50g Wild Garlic leaves

- 30g Pine nuts (briefly toasted)

- 30g Parmesan, freshly grated

- 80ml Olive Oil

- Sea salt and Fresh Black Pepper

Method -

- Finely chop the Wild Garlic leaves

- Grind the leaves with the pine nuts and parmesan in a pestle and mortar

- Add olive oil to make a paste at the end, if storing make sure the pesto is covered with oil to preserve

*If you keep the pesto covered in the fridge it should last several weeks in the fridge

Apple Cake

As usual the gap between blog posts has become even bigger, big apologies but I've had a word with myself and I'm going to try and get more done as I've always got loads to say!

I've recently been busy shooting and am working on my own shoots which is great. I've been doing bits of food photography and fashion photography, weird combination? I don't think so...food is the new fashion right? Anyway if you're interested in seeing what I've been up to then check out my usual website www.robertbillington.com and if you're interested in working with me then get in touch.

The other week I ended up with some spare apples that weren't looking that great anymore but were nowhere near going off so I decided to make a cake with them. Usually you'd use baking apples but this was a case of using the old apples so they were actually Braeburn apples - they didn't crumble and actually made a beautiful cake. If you use baking apples throw a bit extra sugar over them. It's well easy to make and you've probably got all the ingredients in your cupboard!

Fact about apple cake - I travelled around Poland a few years ago and there's a cocktail they have called a szarlotka (pronounced: sharlotka) which is simply Zubrowka vodka and apple juice but szarlotka also means 'apple cake' and so many times we were served a drink when we wanted cake and visa versa. Note to self - if you ever go to Poland be sure to order both Szarlotka's!

Enjoy!

Rob

APPLE CAKE

Ingredients –

2 eggs

175 g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

85 g butter

75 ml milk

125 g plain flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

2 Braeburn apples, cored and thinly sliced

Method –

-       Preheat the oven to 200C. Prepare a 9in cake tin by putting parchment on the bottom, brushing with butter and then sprinkling first with caster sugar and then with flour. (Tip any excess sugar and flour out in between each step)

-       Arrange the apple slices in a concentric circles until the bottom of the tin is covered, don’t keep stacking up loads of apples as the cake will become too wet and will take longer to bake.

-       Using an electric whisk, whisk the eggs, caster sugar and vanilla extract in a large bowl until the mixture is thick and leaves a trail for a few seconds when the whisks are lifted (obviously turn the whisk off when you do this). It should take about 5 minutes

-       Melt the butter in a saucepan with the milk, then pour onto the eggs, whisking all the time. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold carefully into the batter so that there are no lumps of flour. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.

-       Bake for 15 minutes on 200 degrees

-       Reduce heat to 180 degrees and bake for a further 20-25 minutes

Let the cake cool slightly before taking out of the tin and then while it’s still warm make sure you have the first slice as it’ll get eaten very quickly (I’d intended on taking a full cake shot but couldn’t resist eating some

Hope you're all well and I'll be sure post soon

Rob

x

Bistrotheque, Rice Pudding and a good lump of jam.

Every time I go to a decent restaurant and see rice pudding on the menu I have to have it. In my opinion to impress someone with a mille feuille is easy, you don’t have them often and they always taste great but to impress someone with as simple a dish as rice pudding is a challenge.

This happened last weekend at Bistrotheque in Bethnal Green (@BISTROTHEQUE). We had a 3 course meal, every dish as perfect as the last. We started with cocktails – I had a cucumber flip which was sublime. The glass had been rinsed in Ricard before pooring in the flip and so with every refreshing cucumber-y sip came a faint aniseed taste – INCREDIBLE. (Recipe to follow when I buy Ricard)

Then came the starter, lardons, frisee, poached egg. To be honest at first it looked pretty but basic, after I started eating it I realised that the egg was done to perfection and the lardons were some of the nicest smoked bits of meat I’ve ever had. Confit duck leg and green beans followed, literally a leg of confit duck on a pile of green beans. It looked as if I was going to be left hungry but I wasn’t at all. The portion size was perfect. I haven’t had as nice confit duck in the Dordogne!

And then came the pudding, the rice pudding, damson jam, toasted almonds. Simple but perfect! A few glasses of wine later and it’s definitely one of the top 3 meals I’ve eaten in London! Bold statement I hear you say, maybe, but it’s definitely worth the visit.

There are certain things that you don’t realise how brilliant they are until you’re older, for me rice pudding is one of them. I don’t think I ever appreciated as a little boy the subtle flavours you can add and versatility of the dish. Also, it’s very easy to make, is filling and you can make it very cheaply. This is my version of the one I ate at the restaurant, please don’t be put off by the long cooking time as you literally don’t have to do anything, the prep time is about 3 minutes!

(Serves 3-4, Cooking time including prep: 1-2 hours)

RICE PUDDING

Ingredients –

75g pudding rice

1 ½ pint whole milk

3 tbsp sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

butter

nutmeg (optional)

Method –

-       Turn your oven to 160 degrees centigrade

-       First you need to rub butter onto the buttom and sides of your casserole/baking dish

-       Put rice, sugar and milk in the pan

-       Place in the oven

-       After about 45 minutes take out the oven, stir well and grate a good amount of nutmeg over the surface

-       It’s done when there’s a thin layer of skin on the surface (my Sisters favourite bit) and there’s still a bit of a wobble in the centre

-       Serve with toasted almonds and whatever jam you have in the cupboard, I went for dark cherry jam.