Kitchen Diary #4

Well it is getting close to Halloween so here are a couple of ideas for spooky themed snacks that I have made this week.

First are my Rice Krispie Monster cakes which are basically a scoop of chocolate rice krispie cake mix set into a crude face shape, dipped into more chocolate and then decorated with smartie eyes.

They went down very well at work along with a tub of chocolate rice krispie rocky road.

If you are trying to steer away from total sugar overload for Halloween then these spooky breads might be fun. The dough was based on a fougasse recipe, but shaped into small portions and modelled as best I could on spooky faces. Here they are proofed and ready to bake.

I used large round piping nozzles of different sizes and a 3cm round cutter to stamp out the holes and then just pulled them into shape. The dough is quite a soft one so this makes shaping relatively easy.

And here are two after baking:

The dough baked up a little pale which was quite appropriate for the theme but perhaps really a fault.

I served them with a carrot, ginger and chilli soup.

Another soup for the week was this version of the classic Spanish Ajo Blanco.

Ajo Blanco is basically a garlic and bread soup served with an egg. I tried a more classical version the first time in which the bread is cooked in small pieces in the soup, but I am really not a fan of mushy bread. After a bit of recipe hunting I found a version by Rick Stein where the egg is served on a bread croute which is just placed in the soup at the end. It is a very simple and delicious dish if you enjoy garlic, paprika and poached egg. You can optionally add some cubes of Spanish ham (or any other ham you like). It makes a great lunch for for one.

You need very fresh eggs for poaching and I was lucky the day I made the soup as my only hen still laying, the rather raggedy tailed Fondant, had obliged with a beautiful large egg.

I am a huge fan of scones and on Sunday I made a batch of chocolate and orange scones. I am getting close to what I would say is a good and reliable scone recipe so will post that here soon.

   I kept the chocolate chips small to help with stamping out the scones

Recipe
Finally back to Halloween for my recipe, which this week is a cocktail, the Zombie. Well it seemed appropriate!

There seem to be lots of different versions but this is a rough guide:

1 part white rum
1 part golden rum
1 part dark rum
1 part apricot brandy
2 parts pineapple juice
1 part lime juice
dash of grenadine (or pomegranate molasses)

Shake over ice and then pour into a cocktail glass and garnish with a fruit pick. My fruit pick has a lychee and cherry 'eye ball' but not sure it really works.

Cheers!