Whoo, boy. Back in Brooklyn and scurrying around: groceries, coffee, Barnes ad Noble--just the necessities!
Bought a few things for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day cooking. Thanks to an English friend, I recovered the all-important digestive-biscuit "cake" recipe, as below.
Couldn't find crowder peas in the grocery; instead, I got a couple of bags of things that look similar/passable. Forgot the turnip greens (not to mention all the ingredients for the cake), so back to Steve's C-Town tomorrow I go.
Books I'm reading or about to dive into:
Cross-X
What is the What
And here's the recipe (the original is here):
Chocolate Biscuit Cake
Ingredients: 125g (41/2 oz) unsalted butter
75g (3oz) Lyle's golden syrup
200g (7oz) Green and Black's Chocolate, broken into pieces (try 1/3 milk choc and 2/3 dark)
1 egg
50g (2oz) digestive biscuits (McVitie's)
50g (2oz) whole walnuts
OPTIONAL: 50g (2oz) sultanas, 50g (2oz) glacé cherries, reserving a few for decoration
Instruction: Line the loaf tin with greaseproof paper or baking parchment and set aside. Melt the butter and syrup together in a small saucepan over a gentle heat until they begin to boil. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl suspended over a saucepan of barely simmering water, then mix thoroughly with the butter and golden syrup. Pasteurise the egg by beating it slowly and continuously into the hot chocolate mixture. Break up the biscuits into large chunks; remember, they will be broken further when mixed, so don't make them too small. Add the walnuts, sultanas and most of the cherries. Pour the chocolate mixture on to the dry ingredients and mix together with a spatula or wooden spoon. Press the mixture into the tin and decorate with reserved glacé cherries. Leave to set in the fridge for about 4 hours. Remove from the fridge, peel off the paper and cut into slices or cubes. Serve chilled.
Serves: Makes: 10 large, very rich slices Preparation
Time: Preparation time: 15 minutes Chilling time: 4 hours
NB: I make this without sultanas/raisins or cherries.Enjoy. Happy New Year, everybody!