Sophia Lindop - A Unique Food Experience

Stuffed Baked Potatoes

I was lazy last night, and we needed a light meal - stuffed baked potatoes were just the thing!  Besides, they are healthy and cleansing (depending on what you add to them), and I would say that stuffed baked potatoes are the answer to getting dinner ready in a rush.

Here's what I did.  Oops, ingredients first...

Ingredients
1 to 2 potatoes per person, depending on size and appetites (I used the Mediterranean potatoes)
200 g fresh baby spinach
240 g (1 small punnet) portabellini mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 to 3 T salted butter
About 150 ml fresh cream
Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
A sprinkling of nutmeg
Lemon rind

Method
1.  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.  Wash and dry the potatoes, and wrap each individually in heavy weight foil (the shiny side covering the potato.)  Baked in the oven for an hour to 90 minutes.
3.  After the potatoes have been in the oven for an hour, heat the butter in a pan, and fry the mushrooms until they turn brown.
4.  Wash the baby spinach and pat dry.  Add to the pan and cook with the mushrooms until it wilts.
5.  Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper to season.
6.  Now add the cream and cook over a medium heat until the cream has reduced slightly.
7.  To serve your stuffed baked potatoes, remove them from the oven, and remove the foil.  Using a sharp knife, cut a cross into the potato. Press inward on either side using four fingers, allowing a 'cavity' to form.
8.  Dish the spinach and mushroom mixture into the cavity.  Be generous.  Drizzle with the creamy part.  Grate lemon rind over the top using a fine Microplane.

Your stuffed baked potatoes are ready to go!  You can also add feta or blue cheese to the above mixture, but we were in the mood for something light.  Hope you enjoy!

Braised Lamb

This braised lamb recipe was born in the face of adversity...  We planned to do these chump chops on the open fire, and then came the rain!  So, braised lamb it was - I created this recipe that left us licking our lips!

Serve 1 to 2 chops per person, depending on appetites

Ingredients
4 lamb chump chops cut thick
Grapeseed oil
1 medium-sized onion, sliced
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
A big handful of fresh oregano
About 1 cup of dry Rose wine
1 can (410 g) red kidney beans
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to season

Method
1.  Heat the oil in a saucepan.  Cook the onion in the oil until it turns transparent.
2.  Add the lamb and brown the chops and the onion.
3.  Add the wine, the crushed garlic and the oregano. 
4.  Place the lid on the saucepan and lower heat to the minimum setting.
5.  Allow to cook slowly for about an hour.
6.  Add a can of red kidney beans with the juice and allow to cook for another 15 minutes.
7.  Season with salt and pepper, and serve on fragrant rice. 

Chocolate truffles

I found this recipe  for chocolate truffles in one of the recent food magazines, and it looked like something I had to make! So I tweaked it a bit, and voila!  The discovery coincided with my reading Peter Mayle's Toujours Provence, and the obsession with real truffles...  I loved forming these chocolate truffles because they needn't be perfectly round, and they reminded me so much of the real thing.

Makes between 40 and 45 truffles
Difficulty – very easy
Preparation time – 40 minutes in total (plus overnight in the fridge for setting)

Ingredients
230 g 70%-cocoa chocolate (I used Lindt)
250 ml whipping cream
30 ml (2 T) unsalted butter
30 ml (2 T) liqueur of your choice (optional) such as Cognac, brandy, kirsch, rum, bourbon, Kahlua, or even something South African like Amarula.  If you like your truffles a little more ‘boozy tasting’, you might want to use up to 40 ml...  I used an orange-flavoured Armagnac.
200 g (2 cups) cocoa powder

Method
1. Chop the chocolate up into shaving size bits using a sharp knife, and place the chocolate in a saucepan.
2. Heat 200 ml of the cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat until it begins to boil.  Pour the hot cream over the chocolate in the saucepan.
3. If you choose to use liqueur, add it at this stage, don’t stir the mixture – leave it to stand for 5 minutes.
4. Combine the remaining cream and the butter together.  I placed it in the microwave for an instant or two on the defrost setting – it helped soften the butter enough so that I could combine the two.)
5. Now stir the chocolate mixture until smooth (the chocolate should now have melted as a result of the hot cream – if your pieces weren’t cut small enough to start with, this will not be the case.  If not, place the saucepan on a very low heat and continue stirring while heating very gently for a few minutes.)
6. Gently whisk the butter mixture into the chocolate mixture.
7. When the mixture is smooth and well combined, allow to cool, then cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.  The truffle mixture should be firm enough to mould into balls the following day – if not, leave it in the refrigerator a little longer.
8. Remove the truffle mixture from the refrigerator the next day, and sprinkle enough cocoa powder on a plate.  Dust your hands with cocoa powder before rolling each truffle (much less messy.)
9. Mould the truffle mixture, using your hands, into bite-sized balls.  The nice thing about these is that they don’t have to be perfectly round.  As soon as the ball has been shaped, roll in more cocoa powder until it is well coated, and set aside.
10. Place the truffles in small cookie cups of about 30 mm in diameter, or on parchment paper.  Cover and refrigerate until firm – about 2 hours.

Tip:
Truffles can be refrigerated for a couple of weeks in an airtight container, or even frozen for a couple of months.  If frozen, bring to room temperature before serving.
If you are going to make these, you should buy really good quality 70% chocolate - it would be a waste not to!

My darling husband and best critic, gave these a wild thumbs up!