Every body knows that I’m one of these people who (almost) will eat anything (within boundaries) and what makes matter worse it’s not just the quality of the food but also the quantity, albeit the size of my belly.  My Achilles heel is dessert. I find this extremely annoying as I’m really into baking sweet and cute pastry. I don’t particularly like them because I find them too sweet and a tad too rich which is ironic because I love candy and I’m so addicted to creamy ice cream.

I have a list of sweet things I would like to make, some I have tested and amended to meet my taste bud which turns them into bitter and plain dessert. The rest are still waiting in my cookery Journal to be brought into live.

The last sweet dish I made was a Rocky Road Cake which turned out into a huge success both for me and  Hangman, I even brave enough to made a special version using only dark chocolate (85% cocoa content) instead of milk chocolate to bring as a gift for my dearest friend Raw Junkie in Holland. And to my relief, she loved it.

I like this recipe because I can control what I put in, as most Rocky Road Cake in stores are made with raisin (I just can’t eat this dried dark grape), nuts (I prefer my nuts mixed with chilli and serve with grilled meat on skewer) and marshmallow from pork gelatine - I just had to make some amendments. I substituted the raisin with dried apricot and pork gelatine based marshmallow to bovine based or even vegetarian marshmallow. And no nuts, period.

Rocky Road Cake

400g bar milk chocolate (you can mix and match the chocolate with dark or white chocolates)

1 tin of condensed milk

100g butter

Bag of marshmallows (I diced to smaller bits)

Packet of chopped nuts (optional – I don’t use nuts)

Packet of digestive biscuits (chocolate chip cookies is even better!)

Two handfuls of dried apricots (chopped to small bites)

Direction

1.       Put the digestive biscuits in a thick plastic bag and roughly crush so that you end up with nice chunky biscuit pieces, then set aside.

2.       Melt the chocolate and the butter together on a low heat on a ban marie (or in the microwave), then once melted, add the condensed milk, mixing thoroughly.

3.       Take the chocolate mixture off the heat and add in the digestive biscuit and all the other ingredients.  Mix well.  You can add as little or as much as you like of the other ingredients and vary it to suit your tastes.

4.       Tip the mixture into a tin lined with cling film (this well help you later!), flatten out into the tin, and place in the fridge to set.

I'm really bad with pictures so I will have to leave this post (again) imageless.

Potatoes

I have always loved potatoes but growing up in Indonesia limited my knowledge on 'tatties' is to normal potato (white) and sweet potato. Sweet potatoes are more considered as a dessert item rather than a staple ingredient in our daily meal and I remember my dearest mum used to make us warm fruity punch of bananas and sweet potatoes cooked in coconut milk, sugar and excessive cinnamon, every time the cold weather came around (which is odd since cold weather in our island is around 20 degree!) She would serve it with warm sweetened jasmine tea. Oh, the good old day.

Not until I moved to Edinburgh that I realised how many type of potatoes are actually available. Along the years, I've learnt what to buy (depending on the season), how to cook them and what I actually like. And I'm proud to say that I have gained the skill to recognise them by appearance, well some of them anyway. Actually, I think have became a Tattie snob. Every time somebody told me they just had a meal with potatoes I would immediately ask what kind of potatoes and how was it served. My work colleagues are happy enough to indulge me in this new obsession but it is my poor friends abroad who struggles to keep up. Apparently the Dutch are not so into different type of potatoes as the British, which I pity as they really don't know what they miss.

I like idea of having different type of potatoes a long the year, Rooster in the winter and Jersey Royal in the summer. Slow roasted potatoes, golden and crunchy when it's cold out side and simply boiled with a knob of butter when the weather is warmer. My favorite is Jersey Royal with Chives. Simple and just unforgettable. I embarrassed to say that I only found out about Jersey New Potatoes this summer, when I had to cook something 'Scottish-ish' for our Canadian relative. I've Googled on how to cook these potatoes and stumble into one Chef who suggests to keep it as simple and I'm so glad I followed his advise.

Jersey Royal with Chives

450 grams of Jersey Royal Potatoes
A handful of Chives, finely chopped (or snipped)
50 grams of butter (or a knob)
Sea salt and Black Pepper

Method

• Wash the potatoes but don't peel the skin. Place the larger ones on the bottom of the pan and the smaller ones on the top. Pour boiling water enough to cover all the potatoes and add some salt.
• Cover with lid and on medium heat cook for about 20 minutes.
• Test the potatoes with fork or skewer. Don't overcook them as they need to retain the shape but do make sure they're well cooked. Under cook potatoes are probably worse. 
• Turn the heat off and drain the cooked potatoes.
• Mix the butter, pepper and chives together.
• Add the herb butted into the pan and mix it together. Be careful not to crush the potatoes. Another way to mix everything without crushing the potatoes is by putting the lid back on and swirling the pan around to get each one thoroughly coated. 
• Enjoy!!!

My next obsession is the rare and probably out of season Purple Potatoes.