The Humble Loaf

Female food bloggers seem to be obsessed with banana bread. Molly Wizenberg of Orangette has more than four recipes on her blog, and then another woman at Obsessed With Baking (where I found the recipe) has run various tests on various recipes, complete with commentary and photos revealing the differences between using melted butter and unmelted. What is it about this humble loaf that keeps us coming back time and time again for more?

I don't want to go into a gender related discourse about why women seem to be jumping up and down slightly higher than the men are in celebration of this little delicacy, because I know men who make fantastic banana bread, cake, muffins and more (ie. My Dad!), but this is the observation I made while scouring the Internet for the Silver Palate Banana Bread recipe. Truth is, banana bread is extremely versatile. She can serve as a light dessert, when enriched with butter and sugar; she can dress down to a hearty whole wheat for breakfast or a snack; she can elegantly wear chocolate chips, nuts, coconut, and candied ginger, to name a few, or a thick coat of cream cheese frosting when she wants to get fancy.

I really love banana bread, just ask Fabienne, my tree-planting accomplice of four years. I loved this bread before going tree-planting, but after her loyal accompaniment (that of Fab's and the bread's) through all those years of slogging through mud and up and down hills, the bond is bound. Not to mention the fact that Fab had to witness and listen to my countless updates on how the banana bread was, or how much I'd eaten, or how much I just wanted a slice. In the morning I'd wake up groaning, sore, cold, uncomfortable, but would faithfully get dressed, pull on my boots, and walk to the mess tent where a delicious loaf of banana bread, a cup of coffee and Fab, full of life and stories, were waiting for me. Not a bad life I'd say. In fact, it's those mornings I miss the most.


This morning, I woke up to find the first snow dusting across the city. I kinda squealed with fright and excitement: I'm going to have to shovel my steps for the first time in my life! Oh Montreal, you and your seasons; I love you so much for it. But the real excitement came at breakfast. Last night I baked, for the second time this week, the perfect loaf of banana bread. Toasted, buttered, paired with fluffy scrambled eggs and a mug of tea, she's the perfect morning companion for reading the paper, or the new cookbook Ros gave me The Best International Recipe Cookbook, which is real winner by the way and a great introduction to cooking from around the world.

So without further ado, here she is:

Banana Bread

as adapted from the Silver Palate

I reduced the amount of butter to 1/4 c and the sugar to 1/2 C. I also added 1/2 C of coconut, and this time, 1/2 C of chocolate chips. She has a moist, tight crumb, and enough sweetness to satisfy; a nice mix between a hearty loaf and a cakey one. This means that I can eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner and only feel a little off after the 6th slice. Not bad if you ask me. It's very easy to make, without needing lots of special ingredients.

1/4 C butter (room temperature or melted)
1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
3 large ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 C whole wheat flour
1 C white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C unsweetened coconut
1/2 C chocolate chips or walnuts

- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Grease a 9X5X3 loaf pan.
- If using room temperature butter, cream together with sugar. If using melted butter, mix together with sugar.
- Add eggs and vanilla.
- Mash up the bananas in a separate bowl using a fork or a potato masher and add to butter and sugar mixture.
- In a separate bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet gradually, stirring the batter as you add the flour.
- Before the dough is completely blended, add the chocolate chips. This way you'll avoid over mixing the dough.
- When the dough has just come together, it's alright if some streaks of flour are still present, pour the batter into the loaf pan.
- The baking time may vary. I have a really thick, dark, non-stick loaf pan that cooks the loaf quite a bit faster than a regular aluminum one would. So my loaf takes about 45 minutes. However, the suggested baking time is for 1 hour. To avoid over or under cooking, check the loaf after 40 minutes. Push lightly on the top and if it springs back quickly under your finger there's a good chance she's almost done. Test further by inserting a clean sharp knife into the center. It should come out clean. Other indications of doneness are, a well-browned top and when the sides of the loaf start to come away from the sides of the pan.

- Don't forget, this recipe could easily be used for muffins. I imagine it'd make from 6-8 muffins made in regular sized muffin tins. But don't forget to reduce the cooking time to about 25 minutes, same temperature.

- murph

Triple Coconut Cream Pie

Tommy Douglas has changed my life. He's changed my sister's life and my parents' lives too. Our knowing he exists, like many culinary related things, is thanks to the Maki family. Without them, I'm not sure my family's legacy of good eats would be so strong. I forget the context, but one wintry evening, John (Kelsey's Dad) pulled out Tommy D's cookbook, The Seattle Kitchen, and gave it to us as a present. Since, we've made countless recipes from the book and bought his other one called Tom's Big Dinners. I can only recall one semi-failure when my Dad made baked trout with apple rings; the trout wasn't very good, so dinner wasn't very good, and Dad was kinda sad. But it really wasn't his fault, plus, success and deliciousness wouldn't be so good if they happened all the time.

Katherine and I have this phenomenal on-going dream where we move to Seattle, live in a tiny over-priced apartment near Pike Street Market looking out onto the harbour. We'd work in one of Tommy D's six restaurants, side by side, getting yelled at by the chef, furiously peeling potatoes, washing dishes with suds up to our ears, and stagger home very late at night, only to get up in the morning, groggily drink copious amounts of thick black Seattle coffee, get some exercise and do it all over again. It'd be amazing and probably very sweaty, dirty and frustrating. At least we'd have each other. Because you see, the other on-going dream is to open a restaurant, and we're going to need some training at some point about what this whole thing is about. We'll get there.

One of the first desserts I remember my sister making many years ago when she was probably 13 or 14, is the Triple Coconut Cream Pie. Her comments next to the recipe in the cookbook read: a bit rich... She wasn't exaggerating. A best-seller twelve years in a row at the restaurant (as of when the cookbook was written in 2001), there's coconut in the crust, in the pastry cream and on the top; not a pie for the weak-minded. After eating Katherine's pie, I rolled out of my chair onto the floor holding my stomach, groaning first of course with pleasure and then from the serious dairy overload. But I survived to tell the tale and ate it again last winter when the Makis and the Murphys went to Lola for an epic feast. (More stomach holding and groaning insued. Oh my phenomenal tendency to over eat!) Then finally, I rubbed my hands together, pulled up my socks, dressed to impress and made the pie. Ros and Ben were coming for dinner, and I wanted to impress. He didn't let me down; Tommy D never fails to impress. And despite the fact that pastry crust mystifies me every time, it turned out quite delicious, producing terrific comments from Ben's side of the table: pas real! oh, this is pas real!


Triple Coconut Cream Pie

As adapted from Tommy Douglas' Seattle Kitchen

I am not going to give you the 411 on Pastry Making. Despite all my reading about the mysterious, necessary procedures, I still don't really know what I'm doing. I have already given one recipe here for Max's mother's recipe, and it's really terrific, almost fool-proof, but since, my dad has modified it and I've lost track of which recipe I'm making. So I followed Tommy D's directions exactly, and well, the crust was fine. I knew it could have been more tender, but I have horrifically high expectations and we can't have everything.

This is definitely a time consuming recipe, so save it for those moments when everything else has gone totally wrong and you need some serious respite from this crazy demanding world, or when some super-excellent friends are going to grace you with their presence and you want to impress the hell out of them, ie., Ros and Ben. Thank you guys for being so incredibly wonderful! So here you go Ros, you can make pastry too, promise.

Coconut Pie Shell

You pre-bake the shell before filling it with the pastry cream.

1 C plus 2 TBS all-purpose flour
1/2 C unsweetened, shredded coconut
1/2 C (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt, or sea salt
1/3 C ice water, or more as needed

- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl.
- Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until pea-sized.
- Add the ice water gradually, flicking the dough with a fork so you don't over mix. This dough is on the drier side, so don't add too much water, but you still need to add enough just until it looks like it'll barely hold together (I needed about a TBS more). All this caused me great doubt, and much worrying, but with faith I persevered. Gather the dough into a ball (it will be crumbly), place it onto some Seran Wrap and form it into a disk. Completely cover it and refrigerate for at least an hour. It can be made the night before.

- When you're ready to bake the pie, get out a 9-inch pie dish.
- Roll out the dough on a floured surface, turning the dough clockwise after ever roll so you form an even round disk, until it's about 1/8 inch thick. (If it seems like it's not going to work, just exercise some serious patience and be gentle.)
- Transfer the dough by rolling it around the rolling pin and laying it very gently into the pie dish. Help the dough to reach the bottom by lifting it up at the edges and pressing it into the dish with your fingers. Try not to stretch it.
- Trim the outside edges so you have about an inch hanging over. Tuck the excess dough under itself and crimp the edges.
- Freeze the shell again for one hour. This is supposed to help prevent shrinkage in the oven. I think it helped, but who knows.
- After an hour, preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Place a sheet of aluminum foil inside the shell. Fill it with dried beans and bake the shell for 20-25 minutes.
- Take the pie shell out of the oven, remove the beans and cook for 10 minutes more, or until the bottom begins to brown.
- Let it cool before adding the filling.


The Coconut Pastry Cream

This will need a couple of hours to cool down.

2 C milk
2 C unsweetened coconut
1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
2 large eggs
1/2 C plus 2 TBS sugar
3 TBS all-purpose flour
1/4 (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softned

- Combine the milk and coconut in a medium saucepan.
- Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds from it. Add the seeds and the whole pod to the pot.
- Bring to an ALMOST boil on med-high. STIR FREQUENTLY. Otherwise, your milk is going to burn. Another way to do this is in a double boiler.
- Meanwhile, in another bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar and flour. When the milk is hot enough, add about 1/3 C to the egg mixture to warm them up. You don't want the eggs to curdle when you add them to the milk and coconut mixture.
- Add the warmed egg to the milk and whisk until the pastry cream starts to thicken. It should be hot enough so that when you stop stirring, it will kinda blurp and bubble. But it's very important to stir, otherwise it'll burn. This'll take about 5-7 minutes.
- When it's very thick, take it off the heat, remove the vanilla bean and stir in the butter. Place the pastry cream into a bowl over another bowl of cold water to cool it down. I made it the night before, so I just left it on the counter and stirred it around a couple of times before putting it into the fridge.

NOTE: Before you refrigerate the pastry cream, place some Seran Wrap directly onto the surface. This will prevent a film from forming.

- When the pie shell and the pastry cream have cooled, scrape the pastry cream into the shell, smoothing it out to make an even layer.
- Garnish with whip cream, large-flaked toasted coconut and white chocolate curls. (Recipe for whip cream follows.)

Sweetned Whipped Cream

1 1/2 C whipping cream (35 %)
1 tsp vanilla
1 TBS sugar

- Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks, add the vanilla and the sugar and beat a few more times.

* I always whip cream by hand, and as long as you use a metal bowl and big light strokes, it should take about 5 minutes. However, if you try stirring it, or just swishing the whisk around, it will take forever. So, use a lifting motion and hop to it.

- Put the whipped cream on top of the pastry cream and sprinkle on the large flakes of toasted coconut (you can find this at the grocery store, or if not, at the health food store) and white chocolate curls*.

* These curls can easily be made from a block of white chocolate using a vegetable peeler. I couldn't find a block of chocolate easily, so I bought some curls...I know, next time I'll make them myself.

The pie will keep at least four days in the fridge. I had to send some home with Ros and Ben because I didn't want to eat more than half a pie all by myself. Even though I made it on Wednesday, it was still delicious Saturday night after a meal of chickpea curry, broccoli and sweet potatoes. But I'd say four days is the max amount of time you'd want to keep it.


- murph

Slides of Chicago

Secondary only to networking in Chicago, was eating. The following are a brief excerpt of my dining exploits, which involved the lovely troupe of women with whom I traveled. They did not fully understand my zeal for meal planning (or food photography) but they played along.

1. Sally and I share a bacon burger at Epic Burger. Cops eat lunch here, I don't think there is a higher recommendation than that.
2. Baklava at the Artist's Cafe. A wonderful spot for people watching.
3. Bacon waffle with two eggs over easy at Yolk. We tried to go back on a Saturday and the wait was an hour (we passed, but weeped a little inside).
4. A Portillos polish. I walked for twenty minutes, after having a very strong drink, with a friend for this hot dog. We needed the hot dog (and the walk).
5. Scallop paella at Cafe Iberico. Sally ordered in Spanish and we drank Sangria while oggling the handsome waiter.

What's In The Fridge?

When I go to people's houses, I love taking a little sneak peak into the fridge. It's quite telling about their quirky habits, guilty pleasures and plain old taste. Do they eat packaged or processed? Organic or not? Fresh vegetables? Do they looovvee peanut butter? Sausage? Bacon? Cheese? Are they condiment hoarders? Is it empty? Too full? Do they even know what's in there? Don't worry, I won't make all my judgments based on the contents of your fridge, just half. And we'll look at mine for starters, so you can judge me first if you wish.

This week I caught a cold, a really nasty five-day-cold that is still in residence. I tried to rest, and I was, for me, but I had to go to the store because I had to eat, and I had to do laundry and sweep this dusty place. Needless to say, I wasn't flat on my back with my feet up like I am today. That's right, I took the day off work and slept for two extra hours. I still feel like hell, but I'm glad I don't have to go anywhere. I didn't have tons of energy to take pictures of my food while eating it, so now I'm going to tell you about what's left in the fridge. Even though most things are wrapped up in plastic, there are some good things hiding in there, because I did cook, and I did eat, well.

On the top-most shelf there are eight eggs next to two merguez lamb sausages waiting to be cooked. A row below at left is a block of peccorino romano cheese (more salty than parmesan) next to the almost finished jar of Katherine's golden apricot jam, a carton of soy milk, a small nip of real parmesan and a lamb garlic sausage that I haven't opened yet. Hiding behind all of that are some sad, forgotten black olives. Moving down a row is a bucket of rather strong tasting green olives which I love to eat chopped on a slice of bread with cream cheese. Next is a quinoa salad of canned salmon and roasted almonds with a sesame and rice vinegar dressing, followed by a massive container of lentil soup and more quinoa. Hiding behind must be my half round of blue cheese and block of emmanthal. The bottom row has a container of deliciously spiced, roasted sweet potatoes and parsnips, next to half an uncooked sweet potato and another parsnip, a bag of broccoli and a bag of green beans and a bag of carrots. On the door there are among other things, mayonnaise, mustard, ground flax seeds, some special ground chilli pepper that has to be refrigerated, ground cherry jam, cream cheese, fish sauce, chilli sauce, butter, and some almond butter.

Judy's Spicy Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Parsnips


I love parsnips and I love sweet potatoes. Roasted they're even better. I threw this together while watching All About My Mother, by Pedro Almodovar (well I paused the movie while I put them in the oven). They'd be perfect alongside a huge pile of steaming kale and grilled pork tenderloin, or my quinoa salad.....

The roasted tomato heat of the aleppo pepper (yes the special one that needs refrigerating!) and powdered ginger really spice these root veggies up, while the humble sweet potato softens the palate with her caramelized sugary flesh. Add an apple and you're laughing.

2 large sweet potatoes
3 parsnips
1 big fat cooking apple
1 TBS aleppo pepper (or more to taste)*
1 tsp ground ginger (or fresh chopped would be terrific)
a couple pinches of dried rosemary, or more if you have fresh around
enough olive oil to coat all the vegetables
rock salt and fresh ground pepper

-Preheat the oven to 400 F.
- Cut up the sweet potatoes and parsnips into same sized pieces and place into a large roasting pan.
- Cut up the apple, add to pan**
- Coat with a couple glugs of olive oil.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Add aleppo pepper, ginger and rosemary.
- Give the whole thing a good stir to evenly distribute the spices and slid 'er into the oven for about 45 minutes, or until the veggies are soft.

- I didn't try it, but I can't help thinking an added TBS of maple syrup would be KILLER.

- Don't have any pork tenderloin, kale or quinoa salad? Make up a peanut sauce, soak some rice noodles, fry up some tofu, steam some broccoli and wow, there's a good little meal.

* If you don't have the aleppo pepper you could use regular chilli powder or chilli flakes. The aleppo has a low humming heat, and a deep roasted tomato flavour that makes it less sharp than the average chilli powder you can buy. It's really super berther, so give it a shot if you can.

**About the apple: it will cook much faster than the vegetables. I added it at the beginning and it coated the veggies with a nice, sweet sauce, but you could add it about 15 minutes before the rest are done to have firmer pieces.


I think I'm going to go and have some more for my lunch.

- Murph

And I Came Bearing Cinnamon Rolls

They're really the epitome of delicious. I simply cannot resist them, or an opportunity to make them, especially for other people. I went to Ros and Ben's apartment for brunch this morning, gloriously warm for November, and brought some cinnamon rolls. Another Molly Wizenberg success, they have just enough butter and sugar to make them pillowy soft, but not enough to make the old stomach groan. You can, in fact, eat multiple ones, drink enough coffee, have a delicious "western-style" omlette (expertly made by Ben) and come out dancing. The real cincher is the cream cheese icing (no skimpy affair) which leaves you reaching our your knife for more and more and more. So while the sun poured through the open back door of their colourful apartment and stretched its lazy self onto the floor, we sat ourselves down and had one of the laziest, work-free Sundays in what feels like forever.

Cinnamon Rolls
as adapted from Molly Wizenberg

Makes enough to fill a 9 X 12 pan.

I always use instant yeast. It's less fussy and saves a bit of time. However, it's still important that your ingredients are WARM, but definitely not hot. Too much heat will kill the yeast.

* Kelsey asked me in the comments box if I made these the night before or the morning of. I made them the night before, but waited to bake them in the morning. You can let the dough rise, form the rolls and put them into a pan before you go to bed. Refrigerate the pan over night and in the morning, take them out an hour or so before cooking, or put them into a warm oven (but not too warm! Just so it's nice and cozy) and then preheat the oven and bake. I let mine rise a bit before baking, but they were still cold when they went into the oven and they puffed up great. Despite how cold it is in the fridge, they will continue to rise.

Dough

1 C milk
3 Tbs unsalted butter
3 1/2 C flour (and some more)
1/2 C sugar
1 large egg
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt

- Melt the butter in a skillet while warming up the milk. Do this slowly so that the milk doesn't get too hot, but so that the butter melts.
- In a bowl combine 1 C flour, the sugar, the yeast, the egg, the salt and the milk and butter mixture. Mix rapidly to combine.
- Add the rest of the flour and more if the dough is too sticky.
- Knead on the counter until smooth and elastic - about 5 minutes.
- Let rise in a warm place for 2 hours

Filling

3/4 C brown sugar
2 Tbs ground cinnamon
1/4 C melted unsalted butter

- Mix together sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.
- Melt butter.
- When your dough has doubled in size, roll it out until you have a big rectangle. You can make smaller buns if you roll it out thinner, or larger ones if you leave it thicker. Mine were on the smaller size, but were perfect because then you can eat more!
- Spread the melted butter onto the rolled out dough.
- Sprinkle on the cinnamon/sugar mixture.
- Carefully roll up the dough lengthwise and cut into desired sizes (about 1 3/4 - 2 inches thick)
- Place into 9 X 12 pan, or divide into two 9 X 9 square pans.
- Let rise 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes or until brown on top. You might need to rotate the pan half way through.

Glaze

4 ounces cream cheese (1/2 a block of philadelphia)
1 C powdered sugar
1/4 C butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

- Make sure your butter and cream cheese are soft, or room temperature, and mix all ingredients together.

- When the rolls are ready, find someone to make some tasty eggs the way you like 'em, or make them yourself, fix your breakfast beverage of choice, turn on some funky tunes, and sink your teeth in. These are real heart warmers.

-murph

Spaghetti Sauce

My mother was an hour late for their first spaghetti dinner. She drove down the highway in the wrong direction long enough to start questioning her whereabouts, eventually turned around, and successfully arrived at Dad's door. Although I imagine her tardiness hindered his confidence some what, he didn't miss a beat, serving wine in earthenware goblets, heaping his homemade sauce onto noodles, and playing the fourth movement (the adagietto) of Mahler's 5th symphony. A man who cooks is a man who impresses, and Sal was smitten. As was he, I'm sure, by her energy that fills a room, huge smile and paranormal drive.

As children we have no access to our parent's deep history; it is incomprehensible territory. But if I've learned anything from these two, it's that perseverance in matters of the heart and eating together are incredibly important. I can't help but feel the influence of these values, and will surely put them to good use when embarking on my own romantic endeavors, or try to. However, different I am, and magical fate has a tendency to play a role in such situations, making sure we're okay and headed down the right path, despite what everyone says. So patiently wait I will for the moment when another fellow world conqueror comes along, and we manage to look not only at each other, but in the same direction.


Spaghetti sauce was the backbone of week-night meals growing up. A meal to eat after a road-trip, an epic day on the ski slopes, a hysterical fight, a day in the life... Even if you have to buy mediocre ingredients, spaghetti sauce will always be good; it must be the love you make it with. I've watched both my parents make this sauce a gazillion times, and Sal always says: Brown the onions and the meat first! That's what gives it flavour.

Last night I sequentially listened to every Radiohead album I own and made spaghetti courtesy of Jamie Oliver, who bakes his sauce instead of simmering it. Kelsey's family enlightened mine to his existence one Christmas, and the following summer my parents gave me one of his books for my birthday. Countless terrific meals have followed, and yesterday's was no exception. Plus, in the company of my dear friend Rosalind and a delicious bottle of red wine, which resulted in a lot of fast talking and general hysterics, what more could you need?

chocolate mousse to end it all.....



Spaghetti Sauce

as adapted from Jamie Oliver

For 4 eaters

10 slices of bacon, diced
1 handful of fresh rosemary - or a tsp + a bit, dried
olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, pressed or finely chopped
1 lb ground beef (or you could grind your own chuck steak!) I used ground bison.
1 glass good red wine (that you're going to drink with dinner)
1 tsp oregano
1 14 oz can of tomatoes
1 5.5 oz can tomatoe paste (or he suggests a small jar of sundried tomatoes, yum!)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 1b spaghetti (or enough for whoever's eating)
2 handfuls of grated parmesan or peccorino for a saltier taste

Preheat oven to 325*

- In an oven-proof casserole (or in a frying pan and make the transfer afterwards) fry up the bacon, rosemary, onion and garlic in olive oil until slightly crispy and brown.
- Add the ground meat and cook until brown.
- Add the wine, reduce a bit.
- Add the tomatoes and the tomato paste.
- Season to taste.
- Put the lid on, or cover with wax paper or aluminum foil, and slide the dish into the oven for an hour and a half.

- 20 minutes before you take the sauce out of the oven, start boiling water for the pasta. When it's boiling, add lots of salt, and a bit of olive oil. Cook pasta how you like it, drain, and dish up! I went the granola route and made whole wheat pasta, it was delicious.

- Ros opted for something lean and something green, so I cooked broccoli, but a salad would be an equally nice touch.

* Jamie suggests you cook it at 350, but I found that was too hot and because when I took it out of the oven my sauce was bubbling to bursting.

AND THEN!


"Cheeky Chocolate Mousse"

As adapted from Jamie Oliver

For two people and a bit

This is not your "traditional" chocolate mousse recipe where the eggs are cooked with the chocolate to achieve a custard, and the egg-whites folded in at the end, but it's SO EASY. I made this recipe in 15 minutes, and Ros really loved it, well, so did I, who am I kidding.

Jamie suggests serving this mousse with his Sesame Seed Toffee Snaps, which I didn't make, but I kinda wish I had. A glass of port had to do...

I also halved the recipe, so you can double this to make enough for four.

4 oz GOOD chocolate (Just do yourself a favour and don't skimp. I used a 71 % bar of Coca Camino dark chocolate, which is not the highest of the highest quality, but it's organic, fair-trade etc., and pretty darn good)
2 1/2 TBS butter
1 C heavy cream
1 large egg
1 TBS port (Jamie suggests Amaretto, and you could use whatever else tickles your fancy)
1 TBS honey

- Melt butter and chocolate over low heat. I used a non-stick frying pan, but a stainless steel bowl over boiling water would be ideal. If you stir it frequently, there'll be no problem with skipping the double boiler method, just make sure you do this over a medium-low heat. Take the pan off the heat when the chocolate and butter have melted together.
- Whisk up the egg, honey and port vigorously until it's foamy.
- Whip up the cream until soft peaks form, not too stiff.
- Slowly whisk the egg into the chocolate. Slowly being the key word because the chocolate might still be very warm and you don't want the egg to curdle. It won't though if you let your chocolate cool, even for five minutes.
- Fold chocolate mixture into the whip cream using light stirring strokes to keep in as much air as possible.
- Pour into small jars, or various cups, little bowls, or into one big bowl and refridgerate for two hours before serving. If you use one big bowl you'll need almost 4 hours hours, or overnight to achieve the right texture.


- murph