Freezer, plants and cooking

So freezer died, we had been expecting it, but still lost a little bit of stuff, not too much and most of what is in there was on offer or short dated, but we don't like to waste anything.  At least it gave us a clean start, there were lollies in there for at least 3 years and some coriander that was probably old enough to vote.

So to christen it, made ragu, chilli, curry, bought a short dated chicken for breasts and legs, cooked the wings and made stock, all for the freezer.

I got a good harvest of toms and chillies from plant-pots and green-house respectively:


As I needed egg white to clarify the stock, I made mayo with the yolk, looks pretty, but I did slightly over vinegar it...
 

I also made some truffles:

250ml double cream, 50 grams of vanilla sugar (had it lurking, but recipe days soft brown), into a pan bring to boil, chop up 50g of butter and 250g of good dark chocolate (2 bars cheap in JCs) in a bowl, add in cream and stir until smooth - if it is still lumpy and cooled, out over a pan over water (a bain marie) to warm up and stir - this is a ganache.  Put in fridge for a couple of hours to set.

Use a melon baller to scoop out onto a tray lined with greaseproof paper.  I then left overnight in fridge.

I made 4 coatings, ground almonds, ground coconut, cocoa powder / vanilla sugar mixture and white chocolate (messiest, soften in microwave or bain marie, pick up truffle with a tooth pick and drizzle chocolate over it.  For the others just into a shallow bowl and rolled the truffle in them.  Back into fridge to re-harden.
a few examples below



Also made flapjacks from a very simple recipe with a slight change.  Half a bag of muesli ( had some I didn't like), tin of condensed milk and mix together, I added chopped figs, currants, crushed nuts, dessicated coconut and then a bit of honey, as it was a bit dry.  Into a medium oven for about half hour:




Risotto with pork later