Christmas Rocky Road with Turkish Delight and Pistachios

 

I posted my take on Christmas Rocky Road adapted from Nigella Lawson’s recipe in Christmas a few years ago, by changing the dark / milk chocolate ratios. Here I’ve taken it further away from the original. This year I felt like changing it up a little. 

 

Last year I was frantically busy for most of December, so much so that there was no Christmas Rocky Road made.   I have been toying with the idea of adding pistachios and chopped up Turkish Delight for a while, and when I eventually tried it is was really gorgeous. Give it a go!  

 

 

Christmas Rocky Road with Turkish Delight and Pistachios
Adapted from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson 2008.

85g soft unsalted butter
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
100g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tablespoons golden syrup
100g amaretti biscuits (the hard ones), crushed into crumbs and lumps
65g mini pink and white marshmallows,
75g glace cherries (bright red ones look best here!)
40g pistachio nuts

1 x Fry’s Turkish Delight bar chopped into 12 pieces

1 teaspoons icing sugar, to dust

Edible white glitter, to dust (optional)

(1)Heat the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan over a gentle heat, then cool a little for 5 1 10 minutes.

(2)To the melted chocolate mixture add the biscuit crumbs, marshmallows, glace cherries, pistachio nuts and Turkish Delight, fold in well to coat everything.

(3)Tip the mixture into a 7” square baking tin and smooth the top the best you can with a spatula.
Refrigerate until set.

(4) To serve, cut into 12 bars and dust with icing sugar and optional edible glitter for the festive factor.

 

 

Nigella Christmas and Happy New Year

Well, Happy New Year everyone =) I hope that 2010 is a happy, healthy and blessed good one. I’ve been awol once again due to the ongoing flu-ey bug, the general hustle and bustle of December, followed by my Father passing away at Christmas time. It’s been good, but also extremely sad. I’ve been cooking though, it has been a calming act in my grief, surprisingly enough. I have to say I didn’t really ‘get’ Nigella’s comments before of taking solace through calming kitchen activity. I do now.
It’s a little late to be posting this in January, but here are some of the new things I’ve made from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson this December past. A look through Nigella’s great Christmas book fairly puts you in the swing for Christmas cooking. A year on I’ve still cooked a good bit from it, and of course it is such a cheery book. I do wonder what her new one due out in September 2010 will be about… Anyhow enogh of my disjointed ramblings, here is the food.

Chocaolate Almond cake with Cointreau Cream
This was a knockout! We really loved this, I down scaled the coffee a bit, as hubby isn’t keen on it, also sweetened the cream a little to take the edge of the alcohol. Gorgeous.

Lentil and Chestnut soup
This is a Nigella stalwhart, wwe liked it, but not sure I’d make it again, there was too much chestnut and not enough lentil for us.

Red Bean salad
A good all rounder salad, very pretty too.

I know the jar is out of date, but I do put fresh stocks in!
Trifle
I made this as per the recipe, and it was too boozy and not sweet enough in my opinion. I had high hopes as Nigella’s trifles are usually fantastic, maybe this one wasn’t quite to our taste. It’s very pretty though, the pistachio and rose petal topping is one to be used on other trifles.

Crab Cakes
I loved these lovely little mouthfuls.

Boston Baked Beans
I made this and reheated it, they were good, my little people were not keen, it being too far removed from the famed tinned variety.

Chocolate Cookies
Chocolate (sort of) shortbread for Christmas time, with a chocolate glaze for the vibrant sprinkles to stick to. Mmmm.

Chocolate Peanut cups
My hubby doesn’t like Reese cups, so I didn’t expect him to be wild for these, but Missy and I love them, so I knew we would be. I’ve made the bigger ones in How To Be A Domestic Goddess. Did a half quantity of the recipe to get 24 and that worked out fine. Baby peanut chocolate cups, sweet and yummy, Missy enjoyed helping with this one too.

Rum Butter
Did this as a change from brandy butter, it was delicious. We had to restrain ourselves not to eat it with a spoon!

Butternut Squash Soup with Blue Cheese Swirl
Lovely soup this one, smooth and velvety with the fabulous blue cheese swirl to kick it up a notch.

Date and Lamb Tagine with Red Onion and Pomegranate Relish
I made this one for Christmas Eve, which worked out fine, as made it the day before and it only needed a little work before supper time. It is sweet with the dates and also the lamb, not that I have issues with sweet (!) and the relish balanced it our perfectly. I served it with plain seasoned couscous with a big know of butter tossed trough the grains.

Chestnut Stuffing
Here is the stuffing I made for Christmas Day, I make it on Christmas Eve ready for the oven on the big day itself. It’s not a looker by any stretch of the imagination, but it tastes really, really good.

When It’s Snowing Outside

Panforte
Well, I am a Nigella fan, and although I (obviously) have many other cookery writers that I much admire and enjoy their recipes, it is first and foremost Nigella books that it feels comfortable to come back to read and cook from. Although I’m so looking forward to new ones from Bill Granger’s Feed Me Now and David Lebowitz’s Paris book and Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes in April, May and June respectively.
I’m far from done with Nigella Christmas, so much of it is just perfectly suited to the Winter and colder Spring months that it wouldn’t feel right to confine it to the bookshelf just because it’s not December anymore. So here are a few more bits and pieces that I’ve cooked recently from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson.

Chocolate Pudding for Christmas Pudding Haters with Hot Chocolate Sauce
A deeply comforting pudding with lots of good chocolate sauce. I made this as our pudding on Christmas Eve.

Chargrilled Peppers with Pomegranate
Fast to put together, especailly if you get your peppers from a jar or deli counter. I liked this one a lot, and it’s colours are gorgeously Bollywood and pretty. I think this would be a lovely buffet salad or even BBQ if you can get the pomagranate seeds then.

Triple Cheese and Onion Strata
A baked savoury sort of bread pudding. I think I put in too much baguette as mine was a bit dry I thought. I’ll need to play about with it; it was still all eaten though!

Spruced Up Vanilla Cake
I think of this one as fir tree cake, for obvious reasons. It was very cold and snowy last weekend when I made this, and it’s shape and the icing sugar snow was just beautiful. A sort of dense, but light cake with the strong aroma and taste of vanilla.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Compote
This is an unusual recipe, but very worth trying. It’s basically forced rhubarb simmered in strawberry jam. It works so well, there is still a faint tartness from the fruit, but the jam offsets it beautifully. It makes a lot of compote, so I used the rest for a rhubarb fool, which was so good. I make a fool of rhubarb that has fresh strawberries sliced into it in the Summertime, if you think the two together are a bit odd; give it a go – match made in Heaven.

Rhubarb and Strawberry Fool

Choc Chip Chilli & Loaded Potato Skins
This is a good chilli. I halved the recipe, but it would be good for a party, the chunks of beef and chorizo makes a bit more of it. It’s spicy enough, but not too much for a chilli shy girl like me! It went really really well with the loaded potato skins suggested, I didn’t bother with the bacon, I have made them with the bacon, but I prefer them without. Great supper anyhow =)

Chocolate Convered Clementines as used in

Panforte
I’ve had it in mind to make my own panforte for a number of years now. Really since I saw one of the River Café ladies making it on TV. I have that book, but haven’t gotten around to trying their one yet, but I hope to eventually. You know the problem, so many recipes and not enough time / energy. Anyhow Nigella’s is wonderful, many of the bought ones I’ve tried would nearly break your teeth, but not this one – fortunately! It’s chewy, nutty, fruity a little chocolatey and a lot spicy. I put in a very small pinch of white pepper as I was a little scared to use more. I also used some pistachios, as didn't have quite enough of one of the other nuts - I forget which one now. It would be beautiful at Christmas time on a platter, I’m not sure why it looks so good, but it does!

I made the Christmas Spiced Chocolate cake this morning, looking forward to dinner tonight =) More about that next time.

It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

It’s so busy just now, my schedule is jam packed. It feels like there is no breathing space. Mind you schedule is maybe a bit overstated, I’m running round like a wild thing trying so hard to pack in more than I’ve really got time for! Festive moan over, I hope you all understand =)
Here is a brief post on some of my latest cooking from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson.

Cranberry mincemeat
This is a mincemeat without suet, the first of it’s type I’ve tried, and the smell in the kitchen, no the whole house when cooking it it so christmassy. It tastes lovely too – not to mention the amazing colour. I’ve stashed mine to make mince pies next week.

Ultimate Christmas Pudding
This is the pudding in the making, will post about it after Christmas Day. Nigella describes it a light, and there are no nuts in it, so I think it will be.

Christmas Coleslaw
Nigella suggests this to go with a chilli, and I will try the chilli, but the coleslaw fitted in better with my time at the moment. My goodness was it good! I made a big bowl and hubby and I ate the lot! It was quite compulsive!

Gleaming Maple Cheesecake
A lovely cheesecake, you must douse liberally with maple syrup to eat, mmmm.

Loaded Skins
This one I’ve made loads of times since I got Nigella Christmas. I used to do stuffed baked potatoes all the time, and I stopped and then forgot about them. What a rediscovery! I like them best without the bacon, but if you would like the whole schbang go for the crispy rashers too.

Christmas Nuts
I have long been a fan of the bar nuts in Nigella Bites, these are a very worthy Christmas rendition, really really good! I’ve tried them on (obviously people without any nut allergies!) youngsters, oldsters and lots in between – everyone likes them!

My pretty Reindeer bowl
If you like Gisela Graham crockery, the platter used by Nigella on the front of Nigella Christmas and also the cake stand that she uses for her fir tree cake can be found at Sally’s Saucepans, I bought mine a little while ago, and there are more like me as at the time of writing they are out of stock, but if you want then do keep checking for more stock. Really reasonably priced too. I bought a number of Gisela Graham Christmas decorations this year to give as presents from Sally's Saucepans, and they are really fabulous!

More Nigella

Here is the next instalment of my cooking from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson. Now that Christmas is much nearner, indeed December is nearly here, reading Nigella Christmas is such a joy, not just for the recipes either, the pictures too, of both food and serving / kitchen bits and pieces. I’ve bought a few new bits of Christmas crockery recently, and will cover them all between now and Christmas, here are the first couple though.

Nigella’s Christmas mixing bowls in melamine. I wasn’t sure about the melamine reading about it online, but it’s actually every bit as good as it’s pottery counterparts. I imagined the melamine would be light, but it’s not, it’s substantial and also has a rubber (?) bit on the base to make them non-slip on a kitchen worktop. They are great in the different colours in each set as well.

Next is a Maxwell Williams round platter, a local kitchen shop to me had these on sale for half price, so it was only £8.oo – bargain I thought!

De Luxe Macaroni

Food wise I’ve made a hodge-pode assortment of recipes! Starting off with De Luxe Macaroni, I made a bit of a booboo with this one, because I halved the recipe, but left the cheddar at the full amount. I obviously didn’t plan this but we loved how cheesy it was with the (in effect) extra cheese and will leave it as such next time. If you are worried about the evaporated milk in the recipe don’t be, my hubby doesn’t like evap milk, but he had thirds!

Hot Scnocolate

Hot scnocolate next, very yummy and I made this on a day last weekend when we had snow, and it was delicious, the peppermint schnapps was pretty subtle in the drink, not very boozy tasting, but nicely minty.

Tiramisu Layer Cake next, a real party piece, creamy, chocolate-y and a bit of coffee, but it wasn’t overpowering - a good balance we thought. Next time I’ll decorate it with the chocolate coffee beans on top.

Apple and Onion Gravy

I did roast pork last weekend, and tried ont Nigella’s apple and onion gravy to go with it, she describes it as a mixture between sauce and gravy, very good it was too. I reheated the leftover sauce to go with some butchers sausages – fabulous!

Pecan Sprouts, I make Christmas Sprouts from Feast as my regular Christmas Day ones, and I love them so much. The pecan sprouts were lovely too, although I did decrease the butter a bit!

Gingerbread, here spread with some butter, I’ve made this one before as Christmas gingerbread cupcakes, and it’s as good as ever.

This morning I made the cranberry mincemeat (more on this next time) - our house smells so devine and Christmassy. Now time for some present wrapping…

More Nigella Christmas

Girdlebuster Pie
Time for a bit more Nigella Christmas. Now that the shops area bit more Christmassy, I’m happy if a little frazzled by the thought of how much I have to do between now and then! My cards are half written though, and I’ve found it’s a lot easier to write them in the morning when the sun is shining through the window than at night when the curtains are drawn and it’s a cold night.

Jewelled Couscous
For any non regular readers by Nigella Christmas I mean the book by Nigella Lawson out last month. I have been consumed by the need to make her GirdleBuster Pie since I saw a picture of it. It is so lovely I changed the recipe slightly by making the crust and freezing it with the ice cream, vanilla in our case. Then sliced it and served the toffee sauce with bourbon in it (a taste sensation for sure) in a jug, this was mainly because I wanted to be able to give little people sauce without alcohol in it as well. I was really quite worried that I might not be able to cut it smoothly, indeed I was worried about even getting it out of the dish, but it was fine, I had no need to worry about it. It’s bonus is it lives in the freezer and can be whipped out at any time when a gorgeous pudding is required.

Party Chicken
Party Poussins with jewelled couscous and a butternut squash side. I made this with skinless chicken breasts, which is not what Nigella suggested, I’d use thighs next time. Spiced roast squash is a must make, I kept snaffling bits - it is butternut squash at its most spectacular, well in my opinion anyhow. The recipe is in the text introduction for the party poussins.

Spiced Roast Squash
If anything would make life at this time of year easier it’s these fabulous Rocky Road bars, my goodness they are good, and with the amaretti in place of the more regular plain biscuits they are knockout. I’ve been trying them out on friends to gauge reactions, and they go down really well, people tend to think there is booze in them, but it’s just the amaretti biscuits, you must give them a go!

Notes: Nigella used 250g dark chocolate and 150g milk chocolate, plus mini marshmallows, I really don’t like mini marshmallows, so even though it is a bit tiresome, I think it’s worth buying the big ones and snipping them into 4 to replicate the mini ones, but with a bit more taste.

Christmas Rocky Road
Slightly adapted from Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson 2008.
175g soft unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
200g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
4 tablespoons golden syrup
200g amaretti biscotti (the hard ones), crushed into crumbs and lumps
125g marshmallows, large pink and white ones, scissored into 4 each
150g glace cherries
150g brazil nuts
2 teaspoons icing sugar, to dust (optional)
(1)Heat the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based saucepan over a gentle heat, then cool a little
(2)To the melted chocolate mixture add the biscuit crumbs, marshmallows, glace cherries and brazil nuts, fold in well to coat everything.
(3)Tip the mixture into a 13 x 9"baking tin and smooth the top the best you can with a spatula.
Refrigerate for about two hours or overnight.
(4) To serve, cut into 24 bars and dust with icing sugar and edible glitter for the festive factor.