Yes, I know. I was supposed to post about the great freezer cook up - and I will, really I will, but the notes I took were atrocious (though I thought at the time they were great) and I’ve been very distracted by work (of which more below).

But I had to get this in - the J.D. Gross range of speciality chocolates are back at Lidl. Oh happy, happy day for chocoholics everywhere! The range has been expanded too, with several new ones alongside old favorites, including some very interesting looking fruit flavoured ones, which I haven’t tried yet.

As a lover of really, really dark chocolate I went first for the three bars pictured here, each of which cost €1.59 for 100g and all of which were sampled by a small group of chocolate lovers after dinner this evening.

Let’s take them from left to right.

San Martin 77% with Cocoa Nibs

This bar is studded with tiny nibs of roast cocoa bean, which give it a slightly coffeeish flavour. The chocolate is rich and smooth with a flavour that is deep but not bitter. When you bite on one of the cocoa nibs it’s like a small intensely chocolaty explosion in your mouth - sounds odd, but it’s very good!

This one was got the thumbs up from everyone.

I had one little niggle about chocolate from San Martin, which is, according to the package, in the north of Peru, close to the source of the Amazon. I just wondered were they growing their cocoa on areas of cleared rain forest, but it seems not. Apparantly this was an area where for generations a very different crop was widely grown - coca - but that has been pretty much entirely stamped out. So that’s good then.

Ambanja 72% with Red Pepper

Certainly different, this chocolate from Madagascar was not to everyone’s taste. I’ve had plain chocolate from Madagascar before and liked it - it has a naturally slightly fruity taste that’s very distinctive and very pleasant.

For some reason this bar has more of a minty flavour that the spicy one you’d expect from red pepper. Not entirely unpleasant, but sort of strange. The pieces of red pepper are quite large and a nibble that includes one is very different from one that doesn’t. I preferred the bits without.

I wasn’t really sold on it, but for one person it was the big hit of the three, so it really is a very personal thing. It’s certainly worth trying, if only for the novelty value.

Arriba Superier 81%

This is one for those who like their chocolate really dark - and I loved it! Arriba Superier from Ecuador is a king among cocoa beans and the quality tells in this bar. It is very intense and rich in flavour, but still smooth, with a sort of earthy taste.

If you are not a real dark chocolate lover though, it may be too much, as some found it this evening. But it would definitely be a fantastic bar for cooking and that that price no more expensive than the disgusting stuff often sold for that purpose.

This was the winner for me. It’s also very low in carbs for those for whom such things matter - even if you scoffed a whole bar at one sitting (which is unlikely, with chocolate this intense a couple of squares would satisfy most people) it would only be 22g of carb.

So, work. I’ve spent the last couple of weeks working with the slave driver outrageously talented Sabrina Dent on the Curious Wines website which launched yesterday, in good time for you to go along and pick up a case or two of festive wines for Christmas.

I was, to be honest, too concerned with making the site work up to now to pay all that much attention to what was actually available there, but I took some time to have a good look at the wines themselves to-day. There really is some excellent value there and some very interesting looking wines - some made from grapes I’ve never even heard of but would love to try. Do have a look.

And I promise I’ll beat the freezer stuff into submission in the next few days!

Tags: Chocolate, Christmas, Wine
Posted in Chocolate, Wine | 4 Comments »

10 days, no updates - I’ve been sorely neglecting this blog. And it’s not because I’ve been away, or lazy or had nothing to write. In fact it isn’t really my fault at all. You can pick any one of four people to blame. If I was pushed to pick I’d lay the blame at the feet of Sarah Palin, but to be absolutely fair I could equally choose her boss or either of the opposing team.

I’ve become obsessed with the US presidential election.

I am definitely spending way too much time reading about it, watching various clips on YouTube and talking about it with the increasing number of people who seem to be similarly and completely caught up in the strangely fascinating politics of another country.

Staying up into the wee small hours to watch debates has thrown my internal clock into complete disarray - my body now believes that 4 or 5 am is a good time to start thinking about going to bed, even though I still have to be up for a school run. It’s not good. Needing afternoon naps makes me feel old.

I’m also very busy at work (which I manage to fit in somewhere between intensive blog reading sessions) so by the time dinner rolls around in the evening I’m in no mood to start getting creative in the kitchen. The freezer has become my best friend.

But on Saturday, horror, the freezer was empty. With my obsession showing no sign of waning I decided to have a major cooking session and fill it with enough dinners to last until at least Nov 5th.

I kept scribbled notes about the whole process, with timing, which I’ll have made sense of (between the many food splashes) by tomorrow and will post here. But in around three hours I managed to ‘bank’ over 2 dozen very varied dinner-sized dishes, several side dishes and a load of soup into the now very packed freezer. All for less than €60.

!’ve never really cooked in this guerrilla fashion before, but it’s great! Last night ‘cooking’ dinner required just a little light defrosting and reheating along with rustling up some veg. This is what we ate - stuffed courgette with mozzarella.

I of course ate mine in front of the computer, while reading about the election.

Tags: Cooking for the Freezer, US Elections
Posted in This Blog | 7 Comments »

For all the excellent speakers and interesting talks at Podcamp in Kilkenny, I think few would disagree that among the biggest hits of the day were Deborah’s Chocolate Brownies, a huge pile of which disappeared with indecent haste!

Though they definitely are not low carb, I ate one (oh ok, two!) and all I can say is yum, yum, yum.

It sent me back to a recipe that resulted from a task that absorbed me off and on for months: to make a successful low-carb brownie. Not a pale imitation of what a brownie should be, but the real deal -succulent, rich, deep and luxurious.

It took a little experimentation, and a couple of almost inedible results, but these ones totally hit the spot. And they contain absolutely no flour or sugar.

This is what you need:

• 100g ground almonds
• 100g Linwoods milled Flaxseed, Sunflower and Pumpkin seeds *
• 10g Splenda
• 20g unsweetened cocoa powder (Green & Black is best, Bournville will do)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bread soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 80 mls cream
• 40g dark chocolate (ie. 4 squares Lidl Ecuador or Fair Trade dark chocolate)
• 1/4 lb butter, cut into dice
• 3 eggs

* The milled seeds are essential - I tried several versions using just ground almonds as the ‘flour’ and they were not good. The seeds are available in most supermarkets but are usually cheaper if you buy them in a health food store.

Mix all the dry ingredients (down to the salt) together.

Put the cream into a bowl with the chcolate and warm in a microwave for about 20-30 seconds. The chocolate should then dissolve into the cream with a little stirring. Add the butter to this and stir until the butter is soft, it doesn’t need to be completely melted.

Beat the chocolate mix into the dry ingredients. Beat in the eggs one at a time. You’ll end up with a slightly granular mixture.

I use this octagonal silicon tray which is 9″ in diameter for these, but any baking tray of about that size will do - the bigger the tray the thinner the brownie. I like ‘em deep as the picture shows!

Bake at 180° for about 30 mins - the centre will set but yeilding to the touch when they’re done.

The icing is sort of optional, but to my mind if you are going to be self-indulgent, don’t half do it! For it you will need:

• 40g dark chocolate (as above)
• 2 tablespoons cream
• About half an ounce of butter
• 125g Mascarpone cheese
• 1 dessertspoon Splenda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or real vanilla)

Melt the chocolate into the cream in the microwave to the point where there are still a few lumps in it. Stir to melt these. Add the butter and stir to melt. Beat the chocolate mixture and the splenda and vanilla into the mascarpone. Spread over the brownies in the tray when they have reached the point of being just warm.

The icing will take an hour or two to set, so leave the brownies uncut in their tray for this time.

This makes about 16 large or about 20 smaller brownies, depending on how you cut them.

For those interested in such things, they come out at just a little more than 2g net carbs per brownie - not bad for such a luxury and well under 10%, perhaps as little as 5%, of what’s in a ‘normal’ brownie of the same size. You can get them down to 1.5g if you use Lindt or Green & Black 85% chocolate. There is a tremendous amount of fat in them as you can see, so if low fat is your concern, these are a big no-no.

They are however horrendously expensive to make, no getting away from it. Compared to using flour, almond and milled seeds cost a LOT. Getting the chocolate, mascarpone and cream in Lidl helps, but doesn’t make them a bargain by a long shot.

Still, life isn’t ALL about bargains!

Tags: Brownies, Chocolate, Treats
Posted in Chocolate, Low carb, Recipes | 2 Comments »

A friend of mine was visiting relatives recently when he found himself sitting in front of TV with a distant cousin he had hardly seen since she was a child. She was watching a cookery programme, not sure which one, but she was spellbound, unavailable for conversation and completely absorbed.

When the programme ended he asked her if she enjoyed these kind of shows.

“I absolutely love them, I watch them all.”
“So, you must be a pretty good cook then?” he commented.
“Oh no, I hate cooking, I never cook at all” was her extraordinary reply.

I wonder how unusual she is? I know I am just as addicted to food on TV as she is - my current obsession is Masterchef, The Professionals and everyone knows not to even try speaking to me if Heston Blumenthal appears - but in truth I very rarely replicate precisely what I see on the screen.

I do pick up ideas though, and take away some tips, from these shows, but often adapt recipes to what’s readily available and also what’s low carb.

A few weeks ago on Saturday Kitchen on BBC, made Beef Koftas with Halloumi and Fig Salad, which looked just yum. So I had a go at something similar yesterday, but instead of fig (not low carb) and halloumi (couldn’t find it) tried an avocado and fried mozzarella salad instead. I also changed the beef recipe a bit.

So what I ended up with was Beef Koftas with Mozzarella and Avocado Salad and Cucumber Dressing - maybe not the same, but I’d never have made it if I hadn’t watched that programme.

There are quite a few potentially expensive ingredients making up this dish - but since the beef, avocado, mozzarella and yoghurt are all Lidl’s it ends up fairly frugal. In fact everything except the cumin and coriander came from Lidl.

First the Koftas. Here’s what I used to serve 2 people:

• 1/2 lb minced beef
• 2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
• 1/2 small onion, very finely chopped
• 1/2 red chili, very finely chopped
• Very generous pinch coriander powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• Salt and black pepper

Mix everything together well, divide into four and then form each portion into sort of sausages on skewers. I probably should have made them less fat than I did.

Fry these on a griddle pan or grill them under a hot grill.

Meanwhile make the dressing. This makes what looks like too much dressing, and I thought we’d have left overs. Not so, it was really tasty and we ate the lot:

• 1 tub Lidl Organic full fat yoghurt
• 5 inches of Cucumber
• 1/2 red chili
• 1 bulb Chinese garlic (this sort, which has a mild shallot-like garlic that is good raw)
• 1 scallion

Peel the cucumber and scrape out most of the seeds (they make the dressing too sloppy). Chop the cucumber into fine dice. Chop the scallion, garlic and chili finely, and everything with the yoghurt. Leave in the fridge to chill.

Make the salad at the last minute, because you want the mozzarella still hot:

• 1 pack Lidl (or any) Mozzarella, sliced
• 1 avocado
• Mixed leaves
• Lemon
• Olive oil

Peel and slice the avocado, squeeze over a little lemon juice and toss in a teaspoon of olive oil. Add a small amount of oil to a pan and heat until it starts to smoke. Add the mozzarella two or three slices at a time, don’t overcrowd the pan or it will cool down and the cheese will melt instead of frying. It cooks very quickly. Turn over after about 30 seconds. Repeat until all slices are cooked.

Toss the cheese and avocado together and serve on a bed of leaves alongside the Koftas with the cucumber dressing on the side.

Let me tell you now that the revelation here was the salad, which was wonderful, and I’ve never even thought of frying mozzarella before. It’s gorgeous, went very well with the Koftas and the hot mozzarella with the cool avocado and dressing was a great combination. I’ll be doing that again.

Tags: Avocado, Beef, Mozzarella, Recipes, TV food
Posted in Recipes | 4 Comments »

Summer arrived briefly last week and stuck around for a day or two, and apparently is to return for another short stay next week. With it came a longing for Ice Cream, which is one of the few things I admit to missing since I started eating low carb. My tongue practically hangs out when I pass the ice cream fridges at Lidl. I particularly miss their premium vanilla which has real vanilla in it and is a total gem - you should try if you have not already done so.

But there are alternatives, and while this dessert is not really ice cream at all, it ticks all the same boxes and is very delicious in it’s own right. Plus it has the enormous advantage of being ready to eat about 2 minutes after you decide to make it - hard to beat that kind of instant gratification!

Simple as it is to make I’ve served this to people who were incredibly impressed and assumed it had taken ages. I love those kind of recipes.

This amount will serve 4 people, generously.

• 1 tub Lidl Mascarpone
• 2 dessert spoons Splenda (or sugar)
• Seeds from about 2 inches of fresh vanilla pod (or a teaspoon of vanilla essence)
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• 1/2 lb frozen berries (I used a mix of raspberry, strawberry and blackcurrant)

Put everything except the berries in the blender and mix until smooth. Add the berries and blend thoroughy.

That’s it. Serve and enjoy!

You need a good strong blender for this - frozen berries will be too big a challenge for a flimsy one.

It’s good value too. Mind you that’s because I have such a wonderful source of frozen berries, Purcell’s Farm in Dunmore, just outside Kilkenny, whose home grown raspberries and strawberries are available year round for €2.00 per lb, with blackcurrants just €1.50 per lb.

Tags: Berries, Farm Shop, Ice Cream, Mascarpone
Posted in Low carb, Recipes | 9 Comments »