"Chocohola" Truffles, Pure Decadence!

For those, like me who are obsessed with anything chocolate related, especially when rich and decadent and covered in more chocolate or nuts....will appreciate this one. 

I actually recently made these for the first time and they were so successful that I have decided to share with you lot! 

The batch I made made up about 50 chocolates in total! I literally couldn't believe how far the mixture went, it just kept going!

I personally made them for the guys I work with as a little Christmas treat and they seemed to go down really well, which was pleasing. I packaged them up (about 8 truffles each) in a box, that I decorated with my own home-made paper with a tag noting their name and what truffles they could choose. I had so much mixture left over I used some for a dinner party I had with a great food and restaurant blogger friend of mine!

Ingredients:

280g good-quality dark chocolate , 70% cocoa solids

284ml pot double cream

50g unsalted butter

The Making Process:

• Chop the chocolate and tip into a large bowl. For mine, I used 2 100g bars of 70% orange chocolate and 80g of 80% chocolate.

• Put the cream and butter into a saucepan and heat gently until the butter melts and the cream has started to simmer. Do NOT stop stirring as the cream can stick and burn really easily.

• As soon as it's really begun simmering, remove from the heatand pour over the chocolate. Stir the chocolate and cream together until you have a smooth mixture of chocolaty velvet!

• Add any flavourings to the truffle mix at this stage - I added a tsp of Vanilla essence. But you could also try bourbon, Grand Marnier, coconut rum or the zest and juice of an orange), or just leave plain. 

• Leave in the bowl to cool and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hrs.

• To shape the truffles, dip a melon baller in hot water and scoop up balls of the mixture- or you could also use spoon measures or just a plain old tsp (so long as the mixture is malleable enough!
• Roll the truffles into a ball - can be VERY messy!!! -  then drop the truffles onto greaseproof paper. Apparently a good tip is to - lightly coat your hands in flavourless oil (such as sunflower) and roll the truffles between your palms. I however just totally went for it and was head to toe of quickly melting  chocolate. 
• Now the fun part: Cover your truffles immediately after shaping. Tip toppings into a bowl and gently roll the truffles until evenly coated, then chill on greaseproof paper. 
• Try: crushed, shelled pistachio nuts; lightly toasted desiccated coconut; chopped up flake, or shave some white chocolate, or roll in cocoa powder, or just stick a plain old whole almond on top of the truffle. 
• To coat in chocolate, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Melt 100g milk, dark or white chocolate for 10 truffles. Allow chocolate to cool slightly. With a fork, pick up one truffle at a time and hold over the bowl of melted chocolate. Spoon the chocolate over the truffle until well-coated. Place on the baking tray, then chill.
• Serving is totally up to you. For me I placed 8-10 truffles in a grease proof lined card box, tied with ribbon and a label, noting especially that "THIS ITEM CONTAINS NUTS"!! You could also put them all in individual foil or paper cases inside small, lined boxes tied with ribbon. Keep in the fridge until you're ready to give them as they melt VERY quickly!

I took this recipe off the BBC Good Food Guide but have heavily adapted it to my own personal experience.

Skinny Prawn Curry for Kings

This is one of my favourite winter dishes. A quick, simple, colourful and extremely tasty dish for all! 

What you need, to make for two.

Ingredients:

One pack of cooked peeled king prawns (you can use any type of prawn though, the larger ones just tend to be more flavoursome and soak up the juices better)

One red onion 

One tin of chopped tomatoes

1 clove garlic

4 tsps paprika (smokey paprika would also be amazing)

1tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 bag spinach 

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1tsp curry powder

With my dish I normally make Irish potato flat breads but you could also have, brown rice, (or whatever you want) pitta bread, couscous, a baked potatoe... Oh the list is endless with this one! 

To make:

Fry off in a wok your red onion with some olive oil.

When soft and browning throw in your garlic for about 40 seconds or until it starts to colour. 

Now put in your spices, salt and pepper so it covers all the onion and garlic. You may want to add a couple of tbsps of water incase it's sticking! 

You can now add your tin of chopped tomatoes and let it simmer away for 5 minutes to let the flavours disperse- giving a regular stir to check its not sticking. 

Now add the prawns, you don't want to over cook them, I usually let them simmer in the mixture for about 4-5minutes. The flavours will infuse the prawns quickly.

Serving:

In a wide or shallow bowl place a hand full of fresh spinach. 

On top ladle in your curry- as much as you want as this is a healthy one!

On top add a dollop of Creme fraiche with a sprinkling of rock salt (if you want) and a sprig of coriander.

For the flat potato bread follow this recipe: 

And voila, a delicious meal in around 25 minutes! What more could you ask for? It tastes pretty great too!