chocolate orange nutella cheesecake.

if you hadn't yet tried the stunning nutella cheesecake a la nigella lawson, you seriously need to get involved. this week i made a chocolate orange twist on the cheesecake recipe with the fabulous new 6 in 1 aura hand blender from russell hobbs. 

a cheesecake was the perfect recipe to try it out on, since you need to blitz, whip and blend like nobody's business. what's more, the lovely lot over at russell hobbs sent me a personalised nutella. absolute happiness in a jar, with my name on it.

nigella lawson's crab linguine with chilli and lemon.

I wish I could say that I invented this delicious crab linguine recipe but alas it another of the lovely Nigella's. 

With my fave combo ingredients of garlic, lemon, chilli, peppery leaves and of course seafood - I can't get enough of this dish. It's gorgeous as a main meal but any leftovers are amazing the next day served cold as a light lunch. 

Shopping list.
(Serves two)
♥ 120g linguine
♥ 170g white crab meat
♥ Two garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped
♥ One red chilli, sliced and deseeded
♥ Half a lemon lemon, juice and zest
♥ Sea salt and pepper
♥ 75ml good quality olive oil
♥ Rocket, to serve

I do get a bit frightened of de-seeding chillis and wash my hands every 3 minutes. but other than that this is such a simple recipe. In short, you boil the pasta whilst putting the rest of the ingredients together in a pestle and mortar, tossing them all together with the crab meat at the end. 

I made it with white crab meat, not with a mixture of white and brown in Nigella's recipe. It is quite expensive at £2-£2.50 for a 170g tin but it's so worth it when you think about how much you might spend on this in a restaurant. I also used a mix of watercress and rocket but ended up using mainly rocket. It's becoming an addiction.

Click to try the crab linguine with chilli and watercress a la Nigella! Or try out my other seafood recipes here...

super duper brownies with white chocolate chunks

I made these for a Bake Off we had at work :) And here's how...

♥ 375 g soft unsalted butter
♥ 375 g best quality dark chocolate
♥ 6 large eggs
♥ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
♥ 500g caster sugar
♥ 225g plain flour
♥ 1 teaspoon salt
♥ 300 g white chocolate, broken into pieces

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Line your brownie pan with foil or baking paper.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large heavy based saucepan.

In a bowl beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.

Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.

When the chocolate mixture has melted, let it cool a bit before beating in the eggs and sugar mixture, and then the nuts and flour.

Beat to combine and then scrape out of the saucepan into the lined brownie pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes.

When its's ready, the top should be dried to a paler brown speckle, but the middle still dark and dense and gooey.

Keep checking the brownies as they cook; remember that they will continue to cook as they cool.


If you like these - you might like the Peyton and Byrne recipe for raspberry and coconut cupakes. Very lovely!