Violet Creams

When we were in Alpes d'Huez I came across a bottle of Violet Creme Liqueur and thought immediately of Mum's love of Violet creams. So I thought I'd have a go at making some. I used a really nice 70% dark chocolate, which was probably a bit strong for the delicate violet flavour, so next time I'll have to go for a lighter filling, but tasty nonetheless.

100g 70% chocolate
40ml milk
2teaspoons violet liqueur
100g chocolate for coating
crystallized violet petals

Melt the chocolate and heat the milk to nearly boiling, then mix together and stir in the liqueur. I put the mixture into small domed molds and set in the fridge for a couple of hours. Then melted the chocolate for coating and dipped each one in leaving on a rack to set. Then topped with crystallized violet petals. This makes about 16 chocolates.

Evolution February - roast vegetable wraps with pesto and cream cheese

The February evolution comes from Muireann:

"Well evolve the recipe I have - although sadly without pictures due to the dementia which seeme to afflict me as I chomped through it. Two days ago I whipped up some roast vegetable wraps with pesto and cream cheese for dinner. The main vegetable I chose was an aubergine. My other half had done some Moroccan stew on Monday with aubergine in it but I decided it might be cheating if I didn't make something myself. The ingredients are:

1 Onion
Garlic - as much as you can handle
1 Aubergine
1 Pepper - any colour
2 Carrots
1 Courgette
Olive oil
Chilli flavoured oil
Salt
Pepper
Dried basil
Wholemeal wraps
Cream cheese pesto

Now it was meant to be vegetables and humous wraps but I forgot to soak the chickpeas and had none in a tin - hence you will see how the cream cheese and pesto got substituted. So I guess I even evolved my own recipe.

Chop up all the veg and place in a baking tin with the garlic crushed. Sprinkle over with the oils and salt, pepper and basil. Cook for 30-40mins at gas mark 6. Mix veg a couple of times.
When done heat up the tortilla wraps, spread pesto and cream cheese over them. Place veg on the wraps and roll up.
Eat and enjoy."

Tod Man Pla

This was a new recipe that I hadn't tried from a cook book I have had for about 10years - Rick Stein's Fruits of the Sea. Exceedingly easy and very tasty!

225g white fish (skinless and boneless)
1tsp fish sauce
1tsp Thai red curry paste
zest of half a lime
1tsp chopped coriander
1 egg
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt
6 french beans thinly sliced
oil

Blitz together everything but the beans and oil, to a smooth paste. Stir in the beans and then shape into 8 small patties. Fry in the oil until golden brown, it'll only take a minute on each side. Serve with rice and a sweet dipping sauce made from dissolving 100g caster sugar in 50ml white wine viengar and 20ml water, stir in 2tsp fish sauce and finely chopped cucumber, carrot, onion and chilli to taste.

Rather than braving the snow on Whistler this moring I sauntered down to the railway station, taking a shortcut across the end of the canal. It was looking so atmospheric I just had to stop for a quick photo!

ebi yakitori

We've been trying our hands at making recipes from the Wagamama cookbook - these prawn and veg skewers were really yummy! And really easy - just thread prawns, peppers, courgettes, tomatoes, spring onions and mushrooms onto skewers. Brush with ebi kuzu kiri sauce (2tsp sugar, 2tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp oyster sauce and the juice of three limes) and then grill for 5min until cooked. For the noodles we used soba noodles and once they were cooked stir fried them with spring onions, garlic and a smidge of sugar.