Rich Almond and Chocolate Cake

This recipe is adapted from the classic Elizabeth David recipe. When you first take the cake out of the oven it will look perfect, only to sink in the middle and crack while it cools. Don't fret - it's normal! I like to dust the cake with icing sugar, rather than trying to hide the huge dent and cracks with icing. If, however, you're feeling like a failed cooked or you just want to impress, the cake looks fantastic with a pile of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries in the middle.

250 g good quality dark chocolate (I use Lindt 70%)
100 g ground almonds
150 g soft butter
150 g castor sugar
5 medium eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 180˚C, and grease and line a 23 cm round cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Melt the chocolate and the butter together in the microwave, being careful not to burn it, then mix in the sugar, almonds and egg yolks. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add 1 tablespoon of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and stir in well. Gently fold through remaining egg whites.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (although this cake is also delicious with the centre still gooey!). Allow cake to cool in tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with a dusting of icing sugar and plenty of double cream.

Chocolate Meringue Logs

I love making my own vanilla bean ice-cream, which uses an absurd number of egg yolks. This recipe is my solution as to what to do with the left over egg whites. The meringue logs are crisp on the outside and nice and chewy in the middle. I like to use a dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa, to counteract the sweetness of the meringue.

3 egg whites
150 grams caster sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa
100 grams dark chocolate, melted
Preheat the oven to 120˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add the sugar, one third at a time, beating after each addition until the sugar has dissolved. Fold through the cocoa.

Spoon the meringue mixture into a large piping bag, and pipe into logs approximately 10cm long the on the baking trays. Bake for approximately half and hour, or until crisp.

When cool, drizzle with the melted chocolate.

Pita crisps

We often go to Sydney road to stock up on Italian, Lebanese and Greek ingredients. The highlight is always the A1 bakery, where you can get a packet of the freshest, tastiest pita bread for around $1. Usually this is devoured in the car on the way home, however sometimes (okay, rarely), some manages to survive the journey home. This recipe is perfect for using up any stale pita bread you may have lying around, and works equally well on pita bread that has been frozen.

4 Pita breads
2 tablespoons Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
sea salt flakes

Preheat the oven to 180˚C and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Pull the pita breads apart so that they form two circles, and tear the circles into rough chip shapes, placing them on the baking trays.

Combine the olive oil, garlic and oregano in a small bowl and brush onto the pita crisps. Sprinkle with the sea salt flakes and bake for approximately 5 minutes, or until golden and crisp.

Chicken Stock

Nothing beats home made chicken stock for soups and risottos. Some people are scared off from making their own stock, thinking that it's either too hard or too time consuming. Well, it's not hard (in fact it's bloody easy) but it is time consuming - a good stock needs to simmer for several hours to develop a good flavour. Luckily the time involved requires bugger all effort on your part - unless you really want to watch a pot boil!

4 chicken carcasses
2 carrots , roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
6 black peppercorns
2 onions, peeled and halved
5 - 6 Litres water
salt, to taste

Place all the ingredients in a large stockpot, except for the salt, and cover with the water. Bring to the boil, skimming off any gunk that forms on the surface. Turn the heat down to very low and simmer for approximately 5 hours to concentrate the flavour of the stock. Taste the stock while it's hot, and add salt to taste (this could end up being quite a bit of salt - don't panic!).

Strain the stock and place in the fridge overnight. This solidifies the fat on the surface of the stock, making it easy to remove. The next morning, skim off the fat and pour the stock into containers and freeze. I like to use 1 litre milk cartons to store the stock in the freezer for use in soups, risottos, etc. and little plastic bags to store half cup quantities for all those times when you need just a little stock.

Gnocchi

Gnocchi is a tricky little dish with everyone having a different opinion as to how it should be made. Gnocchi should be light and fluffy, not dense and heavy. It should melt in your mouth and make you feel all warm and fuzzy, it should not make you feel as though you have indigestion! Through much trial and error, I have discovered the secret to the perfect gnocchi. Firstly, you must use the right potato. Toolangi delights are perfect if you can get a hold of them, if not, use desiree. Secondly, the potatoes should be baked, rather than steamed or boiled. Boiling or steaming the potatoes adds extra moisture, which results in dense, heavy, evil gnocchi. Finally, the potatoes should be passed through a potato ricer rather than being mashed, as mashing the potatoes also results in dense, heavy evil gnocchi. If you remember these rules (and don't cheat!), you will end up with beautiful, light, fluffy, heartbreakingly good gnocchi.

1 kg potatoes, such as Toolangi delights or desiree
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
200 - 300 grams flour
extra flour for dusting

Bake the potatoes in their skins until just tender, then cool and peel. Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer onto a large board and then spread out. Cover the potatoes with 200g of flour and then tip on the egg. knead the potatoes, flour and egg into a firm dough. If the dough is too sticky and won't hold its shape add a little extra flour. Take a small amount of the dough and roll into a long thin log around 1.5 cm thick. Cut the log into small pieces around 2-3 cm long. Repeat with the remaining dough. You can shape the gnocchi with the traditional little ridges by using either a gnocchi board or a fork. Drop the gnocchi in batches into boiling salted water. They are ready when the float to the surface. Remove the gnocchi with a slotted spoon and toss with desired sauce.

Penne All'arrabiata (Penne with Tomato and Chilli)

This is a traditional Roman dish that I instantly fell in love with when I was in Rome. It's fiery and hot, with a good whack of chilli - serve it with caution! The trick to this dish, as with most pasta dishes, is to allow the penne to absorb some of the sauce on the stovetop before serving.



6 tablespoons olive oil
5-6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
½ teaspoon dried chilli
825 g tin chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped.
500 g penne

Heat the olive oil in a large fry pan, and then add the garlic and chilli. Gently fry the garlic and chilli until fragrant and then add the tomatoes. Bring the sauce to a low simmer and add the sugar and salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add the penne and cook until al dente. When the pasta is cooked, strain and reserve some of the cooking liquid. Toss the pasta in the frypan with the sauce and stir over low heat for 1-2 minutes to allow the pasta to absorb some of the sauce. If the pasta becomes too dry, moisten with some of the cooking water. Stir through the chopped parsley and serve.