Kerry's Chocolate Cake

Not a family recipe - but who cares. It's delicious.

For 8 people:

3 eggs
125g sugar
100g flour
200g dark (70%) chocolate
15cl water
125g semi-salted butter

In a big bowl beat together the eggs and the sugar. Then add flour and beat until the mixture is completely homogenous.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 – 7 (200 degrees). Break chocolate into a bowl, add water and melt in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Mix the melted chocolate and water then add the butter cut up into little pieces. Put in the microwave for another 1-2 minutes and give it another stir.

Pour the melted chocolate mixture in with the flour, eggs and sugar and stir well.

Pour the mixture into a buttered loaf tin and put in the oven for 15 minutes.

It shouldn’t be cooked all the way through, but still gooey in the middle – you can test this with a knife. Let it cool for 15 mins before turning it out.

Grandma's Date Filled Drop Cookies

For date mixture: In a saucepan cook, while stirring, 2 cups chopped dates, 1/2 cup sugar and 3/4 cup water until thick. Cool to lukewarm and add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts.

For batter: Sift together 3 1/2 cups flour and 1 tsp each of salt and bicarbonate of soda. Cream one cup butter with 2 cups light brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Beat in 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture with 1/2 cup sour cream.

For each cookie, put in a pattypan 1 tablespoon batter, then 1 heaped teaspoon date mixture, then another tablespoon of batter.

Back at 350F (or 400F?) for 12 minutes or until golden.

Makes about 45 cookies. Can be frozen.

Grandma's Almond Crescents

Beat until soft 1 cup (8 oz) butter. Add 1 cup fine sugar - beat until very light and creamy - beat in 1 egg yolk - stir in 2 1/2 cups (10 oz) bread flour (plain flour). Add 8 oz almonds blanched and chopped and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Chill the dough. Roll to 1/4 inch thick. Cut in crescent shapes. Bake on a greased tin in moderate oven (355 F) until light golden. Sprinkle with sieved icing sugar.

These cookies freeze and keep for ages.

Lemon Cream by Maman (by way of Grandma, I think)

Lemon Cream (NOT a slimming recipe)
I large pot of DOUBLE cream (single won't do)
1/3 of this volume of caster sugar
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
4 tablespoonful of dry sherry

Beat up the cream till it thickens. Add the sugar and beat again. Add
the zest and juice of the lemon and beat again. Add the sherry and
beat again. Taste to check if it tastes good...It will set and keep a
couple of days if you do not eat it all up at the first session.

Roasted Garlic Soup

By Dr. Ben Kim

If you're big on soups and you enjoy fresh garlic bread, this dish will likely cause you to do a little jig before going for seconds. Garlic is a surprisingly good source of vitamin C, which partially explains why it's long been thought to boost immune system strength. Garlic is also rich in organosulphur compounds that are known to promote healthy blood flow throughout the body.

Makes about 4 servings

Ingredients:
8 heads of garlic
6 cups of vegetable or chicken broth
Baguette (enough to transform into about 8 slices)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (165 degrees Celsius).

2. Cut top third of garlic heads off so that you can properly carry out step three.

3. Arrange garlic heads in a baking dish, cut side up, and drizzle with olive oil so that each garlic head gets exposed to just a touch of olive oil.

4. Loosely cover the baking dish with a sheet of aluminum foil, and roast for 1 to 1.5 hours, or until cloves are super tender, almost like soft butter.

5. Give the roasted heads several minutes to cool down, then squeeze roasted garlic flesh into a bowl.

6. Slice baguette into 1/4 or 1/2 inch slices, then toast in a light coat of olive oil over medium heat in a large pan - toast both sides until baguette slices are light golden brown and crispy. Set toasted baguette slices to the side.

7. Combine roasted garlic flesh and 6 cups vegetable or chicken broth in a pot and warm over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring often. Use a hand-held blender or a food processor to bring the broth and garlic together into a substantive soup. Season with sea salt and pepper, to taste.

To serve, place one or two toasted baguette slices in each bowl and ladle garlic soup over them.

Enjoy this heavenly roasted garlic soup with toasted baguette slices.

Maman's Beef and Carrot Stew

You'll need a kilo of beef, cubed, and a kilo of carrots, chopped. And some other stuff. (You'll not be surprised to hear that Maman didn't write this, I did.)

Brown the beef. Remove. Fry up some onions and garlic, then the carrots till they look slightly soft, then bung the beef back in. Put in half a bottle of red wine and the same amount of stock. And some herbs, I use Herbes de Provence and a couple of bay leaves. Cook in the oven, covered, for three hours at 150. Check after a couple of hours that it hasn't boiled dry, if it is looking a bit dry put in some wine, stock or water.

Result: lovely, sweet, sticky, delicious stew. My favourite.

Chicken in White Wine by Marie

Pour about 2/3 of a bottle of wine, a cup of stock, the juice of a lemon, a couple of flattened cloves of garlic, a couple of bay leaves and a splash of white wine vinegar into a saucepan, and simmer until it has reduced by half. (You do not need to be particularly precise about quantities. Which is true for the entire recipe, actually.)

Heat some olive oil in a large pan, get your whole chicken and brown it in the olive oil. Bit fiddly, I tend to find it's easiest to manoeuvre the chicken by shoving a wooden spoon into the cavity. Take the chicken out, turn the heat right down and sweat some garlic, celery, carrots and leeks. The garlic and celery are just for flavour but you need to put in enough carrots and leeks to act as a side dish. I tend to allow one leek and one carrot per person, or slightly less, depending on the size of the veg. Chopped up, obviously. Once they are looking soft, put the chicken on top, and pour the white wine liquid into the pan (fish out the flattened garlic first). You can add some herbs at this point, anything you like really. I reckon fresh thyme would be nice, or maybe tarragon. I usually use a dried Herbes de Provence mix. Lid on, simmer for about an hour, depending on the size of the chicken. I've got to say I don't actually remember how long I usually cook it for, so check for doneness.

Once it's done, carefully lift the chicken out and place on a serving dish, and pour out the veg and wine mix into another dish. Serve with mash or rice. Or anything you like!