Boozy Choccy Bread Pudding

Alcohol! Chocolate! White Bread! Pudding! You're happy now right? This dessert requires absolute minimal effort with maximum delciousness at the end of it. You can even put it together whilst cooking your dinner, and who thought they had time to do that anymore?

This is a bit stolen and adapted from a Nigella recipe, and I'm told that the consistency is a bit more 'bread and butter pudding' than 'bread pudding'. But as long as you're shoveling chocolate and boozy bread into your mouth, it's pretty much impossible to notice. 

Boozy Choccy Bread Pudding

Serves 2 fattys like myself and Rob, or a normal family of 4.

• 4 slices of white bread (as stale as possible) cut into chunks
• 1 120g bar galaxy chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 2 eggs
• 40g soft light brown sugar
• Half a cup of creamy liqueur of your choice (I used Marks and Spencers Toffee and Pecan Cream)
• Half a cup of double cream or crème fraîche
• Half a cup of milk
• Demerara sugar for sprinkling
   

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Place the bread and chocolate (evenly mixed) in an ovenproof dish.

In a jug, add the milk, cream, liqueur, brown sugar and eggs. Whisk until combined. 

Pour the mixture over the bread and chocolate and press down on the bread so that it soaks up as much of the liquid as possible. 

Sprinkle over a good helping of demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 20 mins or until the top is golden brown and crispy.

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed peppers... the kind of thing your vegetarian hippy mum used to try and force you to eat. They'd be full of things like brown, overcooked rice and lentils and barley and children's fingernails and death.

NO LONGER. I make a half arsed effort to be healthy and eat nutritious meals, but sometimes the urge for meat and cheese becomes so overwhelming that I walk into Waitrose and inhale everything with a saturated fat rating of 10g or over. This recipe is a relationship. It is built on compromise and trust. Healthy enough for you to feel smug but also enough tasty components to comfort any cravings for fatty food that you may have.

Mexican Stuffed Peppers

To Serve Two

• 2 large peppers
• 1 can of refried beans
• Half a mug of uncooked rice (I used a mixture of Long Grain and Wild Rice)
• 2 large tomatoes
• A Handful of fresh chillis 
• 1 onion
• Tomato Puree
• White Wine Vinegar
• 2 cloves garlic
• Fresh lime for squeezing
• Cumin Seeds
• Ground Coriander
• Fresh Thyme
• Paprika
• A cheese of your choice (I used Halloumi)

Directions

First of all, preheat your oven to around 200C. 

Cook your rice and put to one side.

Chop your tomatoes and chillis into sizeable chunks and place on a baking tray. 

Take your cloves of garlic and crush them with the flat of your knife so that they split open - no need to peel them! Add these to the baking tray.

Roast these in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes, or until they start to blacken. Don't turn the oven off once they're done.

When done, take these out and whizz in a food processor until they form a 'salsaeque' consistency. Put to one side.

Chop your onion finely and sautee in a lightly oiled frying pan at a medium heat. 

Once the onion is soft and translucent, add all of your spices plus some salt and pepper for extra seasoning. Fry for a couple of minutes.

Add your 'salsa', along with 1tbsp of tomato puree, a squeeze of lime juice and a splash of white wine vinegar.

Ensure the ingredients are fully combined and cook for a couple of minutes. Take off the heat.

Get a large bowl and empty your refried beans into it. Add your rice and the salsa. Stir well until all the ingredients are well mixed.

Slice the top from your pepper and scrape out any remaining seeds. 

The easiest way for these to cook is to place them upright in a muffin tin. If not, you might want to cut your peppers in half so that you can lay them down on a baking tray. 

Fill your peppers with the mixture and top with your choice of cheese. 

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the cheese is golden brown.

My Month in Pictures

A little peek into my life for the last month or so...

The Neighbours birthday victoria sponge that I lovingly created for my friend Ray.

Homemade pizzas evening - My super healthy version with a menagerie of veggies.

Alex comes to visit us in London

Delicious soup from Nuntee Thai in Fulham. Served in the cutest bowl ever.

Homemade peach and blueberry galette.

My attempt at the cauliflower pizza crust craze. Rob was not convinced.

My wonderful mum and bride to be having a makeover.

I bought a new hat.

Chat-en-Oeuf wine. Literal translation is Cat on Egg.

Raspberry Sorbet to celebrate the sunshine.

Peanutella Ice Cream from Dolce Crema.

Sausage, Red Wine and Broad Bean Risotto

Continuing the Foodie Pen Pal theme, after my delicious 'Broad Bean, Beetroot, Pea and Ricotta Ciabattas', I still had more broad beans to use up. Alongside these was a jar of Soffrito paste, a creation unknown to me before now that I was given by Paula of 'All About the Bake' fame in my parcel. She had told me that she uses it as a base for risotto. I've never been a particularly big fan of risotto and my one previous attempt to master the tricky dish was nothing short of a disaster. But I'd had time to think over our disagreement and had decided that I, Georgie, would be queen of the risottos. 

This is an adaption of a Waitrose recipe.

Sausage, Red Wine and Broad Bean Risotto

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 6 Extra Lean Italian Pork Sausages
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 red onion, chopped
• A good handful of fresh Broad Beans
• 1 jar of Soffrito Paste
• 250g Riso Gallo Carnaroli Risotto Rice
• ½ pack fresh rosemary
• 100ml Italian red wine (e.g. Chianti, Montepulciano or Sangiovese)
• 500ml Boullion
• 1 tbsp freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, to serve
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the sausages completely. Remove and put to one side.  
2. Add the onion to the oil in the pan and cook until the onion has softened.
3. Add the garlic, broad beans and soffrito paste and saute for 2 minutes.
4. Stir in the rice and rosemary and let the rice crisp slightly.
5. Add the wine and blast with a high heat until all of the liquid has disappeared.
6. Pour in the stock and cook until the liquid has been absorbed and the rice is soft.
7. Chop the sausages up into smaller chunks and add to the risotto. 
8. Season with salt and pepper.
9. Divide the risotto between 2 plates and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano and freshly ground black pepper. Serve with a peppery rocket salad.