slow roast lamb, white chocolate souffles and julie/julia...

after a rather long old time of it at work and a brain full of annoying life decisions to be made, I felt I had rather been neglecting my quest for culinary excellence...and especially after going to this scrumptious restaurant for my mum's birthday, and buying the below pot with special bonus money from work, I had to get out of my funk.

not that I have not been a'cookin..I've had cakes and pie coming out of my ears, but this has meant my dinners have been not so elaborate.  This changed tonight.  ok, that is a bit of a lie, I made chicken kievs on wednesday, but that doesn't count compared to this...

Slow cooked lamb shanks in red wine, served with sweet potato mash, roasted parsnips and flagolet beans...

this in itself, I do have to say, was YUM!  though I do think this is in part due to my new shiny le creuset dish which is not allowed to be put away for at least a month.

but what this blog is really about is the sweet things, and this leads me to dessert...now my mum, for whom this dinner was cooked, is just a little bit fond of white chocolate so I went a little nuts on the white choc front...

dark chocolate and lemon souffles

I was looking for the perfect dessert to follow my Lamb Kleftico from trusty Rick Stein, and thinking something lemony would go rather nicely I thought it was about time I tried out my new ramekins with a souffle! Now, having never made a souffle before I thought a basic recipe would suffice and this one was splendid, adding in the dark chocolate element to make it even more moreish!

Recipe makes 8 1-cup ramekins, the link says 6 but maybe my kitchen-aid just made GIANT meringue to prove to me it was worth the small fortune it cost!

Ingredients

3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp milk - lots of recipes say use whole, but skimmed was fine

3/4 cup caster sugar

3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

3 large egg yolks

5 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)

1 tablespoon lemon zest

5 large egg whites

100g dark chocolate - grated

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200C/400F

2. Coat your ramekins liberally with butter, then coat with the grated chocolate to create a nice thick layer on the inside - chill (the ramekins, not you)

3. Pre-zest a lemon, then juice with the rest into a bowl & set aside

4. Bring the milk to a simmer in a medium sized pan over a med/low heat

5. Mix together in a bowl a 1/4 cup of the sugar, the cornstarch and egg yolks to create a paste

6. Pouring slowly, whisk in the hot milk, then return to the pan over the med/low heat - whisking constantly until it begins to thicken

7. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice and peel, stir in then cover & cool (I put mine in a large bowl to cool as the volume of egg whites is quite large)

8. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl until frothy

9. Gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, continuing to beat until stiff but not dry

10. Fold 1/4 of the whites into the cooled lemon mixture, then add the remainder and fold in gently

11. Spoon the mixture into the prepared ramekins, leveling off the tops and running the side of your thumb just round the inside of the edges

12. Sprinkle any leftover chocolate gratings on top & wipe the rims off clean

13. Bake until puffed and brown on top....most recipes say 18mins but mine only took 13, though this may be due to my oven being rather over enthusiastic...