Spiced red wine, pear and chocolate tart.

Flavour of the week: 84% Ecuador Dark Chocolate. It has definitely been a dark chocolate week. We should be thankful for dark chocolate daily because nothing gives such a warm and satisfying feeling as a square or two (or ten) of dark chocolate. Especially the salted caramel variety, but I’m getting distracted.

Cook book of the moment: Cooking with Quinoa: The Supergrain   (expect a quinoa heavy week of posts).

Recently I moved house (flats to be precise), I moved in with my equally food obsessed sister (much more on her and her very exciting new venture in months to come). The reason I moved was the kitchen, it is huge and it has a centre island. A CENTRE ISLAND, which obviously means filo pastry, which means baklava (of course), which means (in my case) hazelnuts. Anyway, once I had settled in it was my turn to repay one of the many Sunday dinners that my very talented mother has made me. (I have 23 years of dinners to repay, this is promising for constant blog material.)

Given it was a Sunday and my family are somewhat traditional (this is an understatement), it had to be a roast. I chose roast gammon because in my eyes there is no other way and accompanied it with my favourite brussel sprouts, rosemary & lemon roast potatoes, smothered cabbage (much more on this in the future), carrots, leeks, broccoli and stuffing. The gammon was maple, honey and mustard glazed with cloves, the greatest gift my mother gave me was this recipe.

As is the way with me, all this main course business is just a waiting game until we get down to the real business, dessert. This week was a recipe that caught my eye back in November on Pinterest. I saw it and I fell hook, line and sinker. With all the indulgences of Christmas I didn’t get round to making it until last week and well, quite frankly, it was divine. I adapted this recipe by warming the wine and then melting the sugar in it (after a disastrous first attempt) and it is worth noting that the recipe makes two (such a shame….). It was a hit with all the family and it is beautifully rich and comforting, like being curled up in a blanket and having Elvis sing to you. I paired it with some homemade hazelnut ice cream and let me tell you, bliss.