Gabriel Gate recipes: February 09

Chocolate Custard Cream

So many people love chocolate, and this lightly set Chocolate Custard Cream is delicious.

Beat together 8 egg yolks and 150g of caster sugar for 1 minute.  

Stir in 3 cups of hot milk and 100g of dark grated chocolate.

Pour this custard into 8-10 individual porcelain ramekins or soufflé moulds, then place the moulds in a roasting tray and fill the tray with boiling water reaching three-quarters of the way up the sides of the moulds.

Cover the moulds with baking paper and bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 25 minutes.

Allow to cool then refrigerate until ready to serve.  

It serves about 8. 

Goat Cheese And Pear Salad

Sometimes it's great to finish a meal with something that's not too sweet, and this Goat Cheese and Pear Salad is quite special.

Wash 1 cup of crisp raddicchio or witlof leaves and dry well.

Place these salad leaves in a bowl with 2 ripe peeled, cored and segmented pears.  

Add 100 grams of cubed soft goat cheese of your choice.  

Add about 10 walnut halves and sprinkle with 1 tbsp of finely cut chives.

Drizzle with a bit of your best extra virgin olive oil and voilà!  

A lovely salad for 2.  

Fresh Tomato Sauce

I think it's very useful to learn to make a fresh tomato sauce to serve with pasta.

In a saucepan, place:

•    6 large ripe tomatoes cut into pieces
•    Half a diced onion
•    1 diced stick of celery
•    1 medium diced carrot

Add 2 or 3 sprigs of parsley and 2 chopped cloves of garlic, and cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes.

Remove the parsley and pass the sauce through a vegetable mouli or fine strainer.  Season with salt and pepper and stir in 1 tbsp of olive oil.

Voilà!  A lovely Italian-style fresh tomato sauce.  

It serves 4 to 6 people.

Potato Omelette

When I'm on my own, I love egg dishes, and a Potato Omelette with Chives is a treat.

First, peel and dice a medium-sized cooked potato.  

Heat half a tablespoon of olive oil in a small non-stick pan.  Stir in a quarter of a diced onion and cook for 3 or 4 minutes.  Then add the diced potato and stir for another 3 to 4 minutes to heat through.

Continued...