KEEPING AN EYE ON ALL THINGS BRITALIAN

Up-cycled Easter eggs! 

Kids (and the big kid in you!) will love making these super-cool hot chocolate spoons. The odds might be slim, but if you’ve got any Easter eggs leftover, melt them down for this recipe and give them a new lease-of -life!

Hot chocolate spoons 

To make 6 spoons, divide 50g melted white chocolate between 3 small glasses (See Britalian Tip) and 50g dark chocolate between 3 more small glasses. Transfer to the freezer for 10-15 mins to set. Remove from the freezer, then divide 200g melted white chocolate between the white bases and 200g melted dark chocolate between the dark bases. Push in 6 disposable spoons so they stand upright.

Transfer to the fridge for 15-20 mins until they are almost set. Scatter with suitable sweets and chocolates (I used crushed Crunchie, marshmallows and Smarties) and push down gently. Chill to set completely. Once set, dip in a bowl of just boiled water for 20 seconds each, and gently pull on the spoon to remove. Serve with a cup of hot milk, dip in and keep stirring until melted.

Britalian Tip

I love Italian wine glasses (their small tumbler-style is much harder to knock over!). Smaller than a tumbler and larger than a shot glass, they’re perfect for this. A wide shot glass or espresso cup would also work  – you may not need as much chocolate and just make sure your spoons fit inside!

Italian hot chocolate

I couldn’t write this without a nod to traditional Italian hot chocolate, so thick and rich, it almost leaves me feeling a bit dizzy (and piggy) but so indulgent and delicious it’s worth the cocoa-sweats:

Melt 100g dark chocolate in a pan with a splash of milk (taken from 375ml), stir frequently, then gradually add the remaining milk, add 1tbsp caster sugar and mix well, then whisk in 1tbsp corn flour and simmer, whisking, for 3 mins. Remove from the heat, allow to cool a little, to thicken, and whisk again just before serving. Serves 2

Must go

This week’s ‘must go’ is The House of Peroni, set in a stunning town house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, it returns to London with a top-floor restaurant, a feast of special events, artwork and three innovative bars. I’ll be checking out the street food vibe at the Alfresco Feast & Italo-beats – running every friday throughout May. Sadly the Art of Gelato workshops are all sold out, so I might go a bit off-piste and try the Modern Vintage: Create Your Own Silk Scarf. Note to self: Do not eat ice-cream whilst wearing new hand-painted silk scarf.

Visit http://www.thehouseofperoni.com for more info

Illustration and further review www.elekonchicboutique.com

Italian tomato in London update! 

Mummy ‘E’ found herself in the garden at 6.30am with a pencil (!) and plant pots desperately trying to bring the Italian tomato plants back to life! ‘They weren’t producing any extra leaves and the stalks were getting really thin and kept falling over, I kept turning them around, I thought they were trying to grow towards the light but it didn’t seem to help!’

An internet search late in the evening showed the plants were ‘leggy’. Tomato plants have one long root, so they apparently do not fair well in shallow seed trays. Fortunately mummy ‘E’ had some compost and deep plant pots – the long thin root urgently needed room to grow. So picking them up by their leaves and not the stalk (as directed by the internet), she made a deep hole in the compost with a pencil and lowered them into their new homes. ‘They look ok now’, says one relieved mummy ‘E’ who now has her own ‘experiment within an experiment’ going on – she has 2 pots inside and 4 pots outside. Watch this space….

For previous Italian Tomato in London post – see Food News #1:

https://britaliankitchen.com/category/food-news/