I already know what you’re thinking : another chocolate cake? Yes but let me tell you the story first. My boyfriend asked me if i could make a cake because he was hungry. He begged for a chocolate cake but i haven’t any dark chocolate at home and i wanted to do the thing for either my D or F letter. Sadly i don’t have any car today so i can’t go shopping for ingredients and have to do with what i’ve got here : buttermilk (brought back from Charente by my mother), eggs (as usual - see my previous post), sugar, self raising flour, cocoa powder, coca cola… Then i remembered some Nigella’s cake from How to be a domestic goddess : Cola Cake; i couldn’t do any better so i whipped up the recipe and here it goes.

Tips :
- as i didn’t have ordinary flour i used self raising flour
- 30 minutes of baking were enough.
- i didn’t have any baking parchment so i only greased my tin with shortening and the cake unmoulded beutifully
- if i don’t think of that strange thing that happened : a hole (yes a hole) was there standing at the back of the cake. If anyone has a suggestion i’m open.

Before baking thoughts : this cake is no more than a plain chocolate buttermilk cake with less buttermilk and little cola.
I think you can taste the cola in the batter; it is subtile and add a little something that brings you to wonder what it actually is. Now i can’t wait to taste the cook version… 40 minutes to go

While baking thoughts : it seems to be one of those deeply aromatic cakes that fill the house with a delicious chocolate perfume.

Post baking thoughts : the cake is well-risen and looks airy and light - might be the bubbles from the cola? Who knows (i think it’s because of the buttermilk factor…).
We ate it warm and it was just delicious.

As i haven’t buy my D-ingredient i thought it was time to go for the E. And i’ve chosen Eggs as for me E is for egg as C is for chocolate. I couldn’t do without. I mean eggs are one of the ingredients i use most. I love a simple fresh “oeuf à la coque” (soft-boiled egg) with some good baguette and emmental for a great homey supper as much as i love a sophisticated poached egg with blanched asparagus and sauce hollandaise as much as i love cakes (and you know i love cakes). The combinations using eggs are endless as you can see. They are so versatile; you can go from fancy cooking to laid-back casual cooking.
I can’t live if i don’t have any eggs in the fridge; and no, i’m not exagerating. For me an egg represents life. Firstly because it’s oval-shaped and beautiful as the life is and then because some eggs contains embryos. OK, i see your face now saying “and then i’m eating live being”I even sometimes have periods when i think to myself “i can’t eat anymore eggs, that’s disgusting!”; but you know if you buy your eggs from the supermarket, most of them aren’t fecondated and don’t have that red spot, which is the embryo. Anyway i like to buy my eggs from a lovely farm market where you can get some extra fresh, extra large eggs. Actually my motto about the eggs is “the fresher they are the best they are”.

Another thing i love about eggs is their colours and by that i mean the differents shades of their shell but also the different shades of the yolks : i love to see how red they seem to be in Italy compared to the pale white-like egg yolks in England and the perfect yellow in France.

Now let me tell you a word about the recipe i’ve chosen. Ever since i met David, my English boyfriend, i’ve been introduced to the English kitchen and all my (wrong) ideas about English food vanished : it is indeed all the opposite of what is said in France; good, homey, tasty, exotic cooking.
One of my favourites is the Yorkshire pudding. It may be my n°1 dish ever. I think i could eat an etire plate of Yorshire pudding along with some good chicken gravy. I could have this every day, for every meal. I am a Yorkshire pudding addict and definitely proud of it. When i first have those it was very satisfying and then i asked my boyfriend’s mother the recipe and was very surprised there was no raising factor: sometimes the alchemy of food gives us wonderful things.

THE RECIPE : YORKSHIRE PUDDING
makes 6 and serves 3 or 1 if you’re like me (fanny : delia says it is enough for 8 as i’ve already doubled the quantities to feed my Yorkshire puds (as i friendly call them)

150g plain flour
2 eggs
150ml full-fat milk
100ml water
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp beef dripping for the pan (fanny : i use olive oil and a 6-buns muffin tin)

Preheat the oven to 220°C and place the greased tin in it to get a pipping hot oil. In a bowl sift the flour, make a well in the center and gradually incorporate the eggs, milk and water. Stir until you’ve got a smooth batter; add seasonning. Divide between the 6 buns muffin tin and bake for 20-25min or until golden-brown and puffy. Eat straight from the oven or don’t eat at all.

Recently i’ve been literally craving for sugar. It might be the stress of the new university year coming or it might simply be me. Anyway, just 2 hours after lunch i began to feel the hunger again. I wanted to make the cake for my D letter, but didn’t have the main ingredient at home so i decided i could make the never-fail scones from Mrs Beeton’s cookery and household management.

FRUIT SCONES
Makes 7

200g flour
1/2 tsp salt
50g sugar
50g cold butter
4 tsp baking powder
125ml milk (fanny : i found it was a little too much, 100ml would have been enough)
50g dried fruits (fanny : i used half raisin, halfs golden sultanas)

Heat the oven to 220)C. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. Rub in the fat. Add the milk and miw lightly to form a soft dough. Knead until smooth and add the dried fruits. Roll out on a flour surface to 1,5-2cm thickness (fanny : see the picture below) and cut into rounds, using a cookie cutter. Place on a floured baking sheet and bake for 7-10 minutes until well risen and golden-brown. Cool slightly on a wire rack. Cut each scones in 2 and fill with whipped creme fraiche and strawberry jam. (fanny : i like to use creme fraiche instead of double cream because i love the contrast between the intense sweetness of the jam and the great sourness of the cream; but use mascarpone if you prefer.

Admit it! You had a banana whithin the last month. Bananas are like apples, they’re everyone easy eating fruit. When eating a banana i don’t make a mess like the one i make when i eat a peach.
I probably love all the fruits in the world, but a banana is a banana and holds a special place in my heart. Maybe it is because of the mashed bananas my mother used to make for me, or because of the intense creaminess of the fruit, or because you can make just everything you want with a banana : from a luscious cake to a simple caramelised gorgious banana… The list has no end but i hope you understood : I LOVE BANANAS.
Look at the fruit : a moon-shape, a soft velvetiness, a lovely honey colour. What’s wrong with all that. Nothing and that is the point. There’s nothing about bananas i don’t like. Except the white thing (hope you know what i mean since i don’t know how to call it) that is under the skin and forms “stripes”. But this is easy to remove, so then i just love bananas.
My first banana experience was certainly a plain mashed banana without sugar. Then i grown up and could mash my own banana, what a glory. I started to add a little honey, or brown sugar. And by the time i could use the stove, the first thing i made was a caramelised pan-fried banana. It was just so delicious. From this time i’ve understood something very crucial : bananas and toffee are a match made in heaven.
I still love bananas (can you count the number of times i’ve already told you that…think i’m getting old and forget what i’ve just said). Maybe more than i ever did. I usually have a banana for dessert when i’m at school but i now use bananas iw lots of cakes; i reckon they give extra moisture and extra creaminess. Here i’ve chosen to make a cake with bananas and toffee-ish taste (provided by another much-loved ingredient of mine : maple syrup). In this case the bananas don’t give that extra moisture but a lovely perfume and a great contrast between the airy texture of the sponge and the smooth “fondant” (means melting) of the cooked bananas.

THE RECIPE : BANANA MAPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

50g unsalted butter plus 100g unsalted butter, softened, extra
55g brown sugar
60ml maple syrup
3-4 bananas, sliced in half lengthways
230g caster sugar
4 eggs (fanny : use only 3 if they’re large
1 tsp vanilla extract
155g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. To make the topping, place the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup in a small sauce pan. Cook on medium heat for 10 minutes, or until the sugar melts and the syrup is rich and golden. Pour the syrup into a 23cm geased or non-stick springform cake tin (fanny : i lined my tin with a double layer of foil and a layer of non-stick baking parchment) and arrange the sliced bananas, cut-side down, over the base of the tin.
To make the cake, place the extra butter and caster sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one a t a time, beating well after each addition, then add the vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt and gently fold through the mixture. Spoon the batter evently over the bananas and caramel and smooth the top with a spatula.
Place the cake in the oven on a baking tray to catch any escaping caramel and bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Transfer to a large serving plate. Serve warm with vanilla icecream if desired.

Note on “the mystery of the lost bananas” : as you can see (”can’t see” would be more appropriated though) on the picture, the bananas have disappeared. First i though they had melted but then i thought… Bill says to “spoon the batter over the bananas”, but my batter was to liquid to spoon. Actually the eggs i used were too large so the batter was thinner and the bananas were “swallowed by the batter”. The mystery was resolved. Elementary my dear Watson !!!

My boyfriend’s dad, Peter, went food-shopping to Valbonne today and brought me back some lovely and juicy raspberries packed in a sweet green paper case. The thing is that i deeply love the pink on green look. I love it so much i decided to take some pictures. Then a wonderful idea came to my mind : i could do an alphabet featuring all my favourite ingredients. But the word “raspberry” starts by an “r” and the first letter of the alphabet is an “a”. I had to find my favourite-beginning-by-an-a ingredient. And after a minute or so i chose riso Arborio (yes i am an Italian speaker) or less fancily Arborio rice.
The principle of Fanny’s Food Alphabet was born: each day or so i will pick up a new ingredient, take a picture of it , describe it and make a recipe using it.Since i was a child, i’ve always loved pearls, their lovely satiness… And i now love Arborio rice for the same reasons i used to love pearls. Arborio rice grains are round, pearly looking and soft. But as you can’t make necklace with them they must have something else. Hum, let me think, it might be their high-startch level. It is indeed. And this point is crucial because it allow to make the most delicious risottos.
I’ve come across risottos relatively late in life as my mother always said that risottos were hard work and also because i wasn’t so fond in rice. But then i discovered a way to cook rice i loved and crispy basmati rice became one of my classics. As the saying goes you may as well go swimming : I had to try a risotto, tried it and became a risotto addict; i mean they’re dead easy to make : just add some stock when there nearly isn’t anymore and so on until you’ve got a smooth, al dente, lovely risotto.

THE RECIPE : MUSHROOM RISOTTO WITH GARLIC, THYME AND PARSLEYFrom The Naked Chef (page 170-171 & 175
serves 6

255g mushrooms (one type or a mixture - fanny : i used half field mushrooms, half girolles)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 small handful of thyme, picked and chopped (fanny : i used a tsp of dried thyme instead)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
salt adn freshly ground pepper
1 handful of parsley, rougly chopped
1 pinch of chilli powder
a squeeze of lemon juice

Slice the mushrooms thinly, but tear the girolles, chanterelles and blewits in half. Don’t cook all the mushrooms at once - do them in 2 or 3 batches. In a very hot pan heat a tbsp of olive oil and add the mushrooms and thyme. Cook for about 1min, toss them, then add the garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook for another couple of minutes and then taste - if they’re nicely cooked add some parsley, a very small pinch of chilli poxder and a squeeze of lemon juice. Toss again, taste again - by now they should be pretty much perfect. Chop half the cooked mushrooms.
At basic recipe (fanny : below) Stage 2, after the first ladle of stock has been added, add the choped mushrooms, and add the remainder at Stage 3.

1L chicken stock
1 tbsp olive oil
3 finely shopped shallots, or 2 medium onions
1/2 head celery finely chopped (fanny : i didn’t use any)
maldon sea salt and black pepper
2 cloves galic, finely chopped
400g Arborio rice
100ml dry white vermouth (fanny : i just used a bottle of dry white wine i had in the fridge)
70g butter
85-100g freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Stage 1. Heat the stock. Then in a separate pan heat the olive oil, add the shallot or onion, celery and a pinch of salt, and sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and after another 2 minutes, when the veg have softened, add the rice. Turn up the heat now. At this crucial point you can’t leave the pan, and anyway this is the best bit.
While slowly stirring, continuously, you are beginning to fry the rice. You don’t want any colour at this point. You must keep the rice mooving. After 2 or 3 minutes it will begin to look transluscent as it absorbs all the flevours of your base. Add the vermouth or wine, keeping on stirring as it hits the pan - it will smell fantastic! It will sizzle around the rice, evaporating any hash of alcohol flavours and leaving the rice with a tasty essence.
Stage 2. Once the vermouth or wine seems to have cooked into the rice, add your first laddle of hot stock and a pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a highish simmer. Keep addind ladlefuls of stock, stirring and allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take about 15 minutes. Taste the rice - is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Check seasonning.
Stage 3. Remove from the heat and add the butter and the Parmesan, saving a little of the latter to go on the top if you like. Stir gently. Eat as soon as possible while it retains its moist texture.
This risotto is all i love about risottos : it’s creamy, earthy and delicious. I heart the slight taste of Parmesan that adds a little extra earthyness. It is definitely a wonderful dish for a cold wintry day. Indeed it is just what you need when it’s freezing cold outside : an easy but warming thing to make … and to eat.