chocolate tarte

the (mis)adventures of an aussie girl in a kitchen somewhere in europe

31 August 2006

Waiting for pay day polenta pie


















It's painfully, excrutiatingly close to pay day. The challenge is to cook something a tad more photogenic than yesterday's visual disaster without spending any of your not-yet-hard-earned euros. You have bugger all in the pantry. Obviously you make polenta pie.

You lovingly layer any not-yet-perished mushrooms, cover with some polenta cooked up in broth, add diced tomatoes and frozen salmon triumphantly defrosted and cubed, squeeze over some lemon juice, season with s+p and incredibly old dried herbs, add slices of mozzarella and then locate 7 pathetic basil leaves found on a plant close to death. You know your mother (who will be seeing this far away in Australia!) would approve of the existence of something green that is not mould. You weep with pride.

You bung in the oven and serve up your baby. And Mr Big decides he doesn't like polenta.

You tried. At least pay day is on its way.

B

30 August 2006

Off with a whimper!


It's Wednesday, it's cold and wet and you don't have to go to work, so it's a perfect opportunity to air your laundry in the indulgent form of a blog.

How ridiculous to call this blog "chocolate tarte" and then go ahead and bake a brownie. Which isn't square like a brownie should be. And it's relatively sinless in it's fat content. And it's not even particularly sightly. But it is beautifully gooey in the centre. And Mr. Big likes it (hello by the way!). It is a recipe called Michael's Fudge Brownies from Alice Medrich, THE goddess of low-fat, conscience-free desserts. I'm not sure if I am allowed to share her recipe on the internet without making significant changes. I'll have to ask someone about that...

B.