Chocolate brownies, Version 2.0

I wasn't planning on writing about these when I made them yesterday. I was working on another post, something savory and doughy and all kinds of wonderful, but then these brownies happened. They went ahead and stole the show.

I couldn't just sit here and not share them with you. Good things need to be shared, and in this case, as soon as possible.

Back in February, I waxed poetic about my favorite chocolate brownies, but little did I know that they were going to be replaced in my heart only a few months later by these dark beauties. Don't blame me, it's all Nigella Lawson's fault.

These are better and got rave reviews from everyone who tried them. They are fudgy and gooey and rich and moist and dense and they have a small surprise hidden inside; white chocolate chips. Double chocolate threat, double chocolate goodness.

The chocoholic in me has awakened, once again. I think I ate too many brownies for my own good. I'm gonna have to exercise twice as hard tomorrow. Treadmill, here I come!

Fudgy Chocolate Brownies with White Chocolate Chips
Slightly adapted from Feast

As with all brownies, the secret is in the baking time. Bake them for too long and they'll become cakey and crumbly and that's the death of a good brownie. Take them out of the oven a few minutes sooner and they'll be a gooey mess. So, trust the recipe, your oven and your cake tester, or toothpick.

I urge you to use good quality white chocolate with at least 25% cocoa butter content. The cheap white chocolate from the supermarket is generally awful. The cocoa butter content is very low, substituted mostly by other (unhealthy) fats, and all you get is a foul tasting chocolate. I'm not suggesting that you spend your month's salary on chocolate, just be aware of what you use and buy.

You can use either a hand wire whisk or a hand held mixer for these. I opted for the hand held mixer. It's easier.

Yield: 24 large brownies

Ingredients
350 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
380 g good quality dark chocolate (55-60% cocoa solids), cut into small pieces
6 medium-sized eggs
350 g caster sugar
1 heaped tsp vanilla bean paste or 2 tsp vanilla extract
225 g all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
250 g good quality white chocolate chips (I use Callebaut)

Special equipment: wire whisk or hand-held mixer, 32 x 22 x 5 cm rectangular baking pan, baking paper


Preparation
Butter the bottom and sides of the pan and line the bottom with a piece of baking paper.

Place the butter and the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (bain marie) and melt, stirring often. The bottom of the bowl must not come in contact with the simmering water. Once the mixture is smooth and melted, remove bowl from the top of the pan and set aside to cool slightly.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius / 360 Fahrenheit.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, add the sugar and eggs and beat well with a wire whisk or a hand held mixer (on medium speed), until the mixture is frothy and well blended. Add the vanilla and beat to incorporate it.
When the butter and chocolate mixture has cooled down a bit, add it to the sugar and eggs mixture. Beat well with the wire whisk or the hand held mixer (on medium speed), until incorporated. Add the flour and salt, and mix well with a spatula until the mixture is smooth and there are no visible white patches of flour. Add the white chocolate chips and fold them in with the spatula.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared baking pan and place on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Bake for 25-26 minutes, until the top has cracked and has taken on a light brown color, and a cake tester, knife or toothpick inserted in the middle, comes out with moist crumbs attached. Start checking at the 24 minute mark to make sure you don't overcook it. Keep in mind that the brownies will continue to cook as they cool down.

Once the brownies are ready, take the pan out of the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool. Then, remove the brownies from the pan by inverting it onto the wire rack. Remove and discard the baking paper and allow the brownies to cool completely. Invert them onto a cutting board and cut them into 24 squares.
They taste better once they have cooled completely rather than warm.

Keep the brownies covered, at room temperature, for 3-4 days.

Enjoy!

Frying

Corn used to conjure up the same image for me for many years; stalls on the streets of Athens, selling grilled corn on the cob, their irresistible, smoky smell penetrating my nostrils, commanding me to stop, inhale and occasionally succumb to buying one.

That was for me the best way to eat corn; barbequed or grilled. Sure, boiled was nice, slathered with lots of butter and sprinkled with a generous amount of sea salt and I liked it in salads, with its sweet flavor and vibrant, yellow color livening them up but other than that, I had never done much more with it.

For the last couple of years, things have changed. I no longer view the corn in the same way. I value it, I cherish it and I cook it in many different ways, trying to get the most out of it. Granted, I don't have to try too hard, it's incredibly flavorful on its own.

I don't normally deep-fry things, take a look at my recipes, you'll not find many for deep-frying, actually, you'll only find one, but in this case, this was what needed to be done. Because, this is delicious.

Deep-fried sweet corn fritters. You may imagine something greasy and stodgy but that couldn't be further from the truth. They're light, fluffy and airy and most importantly, unbelievably crunchy. Everything you want from a fritter, that is.

They're not made with a large amount of batter, the corn is the protagonist here, and when you bite into one, the juices from the kernels burst in your mouth. The flavor of the corn is deep and intense and needless to say, the freshest the corn, the better the fritters will taste. They need to be sprinkled with lots of dried chilli flakes, or in my case boukovo, which adds a welcomed touch of heat and spice, and a good squeeze of lemon on top gives them a sharpness that contrasts their sweet flavor.

The only thing you need to be careful of is to make enough, because trust me, they'll vanish within seconds.

Deep-fried Sweet Corn Fritters
Barely adapted from The Telegraph

Use fresh oil and fresh sweet corn. You'll get the best results and your fritters will be more tasty and light. Don't use canned corn, it's too soft and wet, and the fritters won't be as crunchy.
Also, when you buy fresh corn, eat it as soon as possible, because it releases its sugars and becomes very starchy.

Yield: 4-6 appetizer servings

Ingredients
4 fresh ears of sweet corn
1 liter sunflower oil
200 g all-purpose flour
1 large egg
200 ml sparkling water, very cold
Salt
Boukovo or any other type of dried chilli flakes
1 lemon, cut into wedges, for serving

Special equipment: fine sieve, hand whisk


Preparation
Take the fresh ears of corn and peel off the husks. Then remove the silk, making sure not to leave any stuck between the kernels.
Using a thin-bladed and sharp knife, cut the kernels off the cob. The best way for me to do this, is by cutting the corn in half crosswise with my hands, stand it up on its flat side and cut the kernels off.
Be careful not to cut too close to the stalk. If you do, you'll feel resistance, because the stalk is hard, so you'll know where to cut.
Place all the kernels in a small bowl.

In a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed pan, add the sunflower oil. Be careful not to use a pan that's too small, because the oil will rise and bubble and triple in size when you add the fritters. You don't want the oil spilling out of the pan.
Heat the oil over medium-high heat. You can check if the oil is ready for frying by dropping in it a 2.5 cm cube of white bread and if it browns in 60 seconds, it is ready. If it browns in less time then your oil is too hot!

In the meantime, prepare the batter. It's crucial that you prepare the batter at this point and not earlier, because this way it will retain the bubbles from the sparkling water and the fritters will be more airy and crispy.

In a medium-sized bowl, sieve the flour and create a well in the middle. Add the egg in the center and whisk (not hard) using a hand whisk, gradually incorporating the flour from the edges of the bowl. Add the sparkling water, pouring it little by little and whisking continuously until it comes together into a somewhat thin batter (not too thin but much like thick cream). Add the corn kernels and mix well with a spoon.

Once the oil is hot enough, deep-fry heaped tablespoonfuls of the corn-batter mixture. Do not overcrowd the pan because they will not be uniformly fried. Fry them for 2-3 minutes, until they take on a golden color and crisp up.

Remove the fritters from the pan with a slotted spoon and place them on paper towels to drain excess oil. Then transfer them onto a platter, sprinkle them with some salt and as much boukovo as you want (I add a lot!), and serve with the lemon wedges.
Eat them while they're still hot.

Sunday

I have started writing this post about three times, and every time, I end up creating a new Word document and starting all over again.

I don't like the things I'm writing, my stories seem boring and I can't shake the feeling of tiredness when it comes to formulating a thought and writing it down.

I have been cooking a lot, well, I always cook a lot no matter what. It's what keeps me sane sometimes.

The other day, I was feeling very low. I guess it's the September blues, the days are getting shorter, it's a little chilly now in the evenings and early mornings, and in everyone's mind there's that sense of renewal, the season for starting new things blah blah blah. I'm not in that kind of mood.

I have a lot of things happening myself that need my undivided attention but I'm kind of, I don't know, down. When I woke up on Sunday, I had an overwhelming desire to do nothing, to wallow in my thoughts and feelings, but they were driving me crazy. S was studying, he has an exam coming up, he's renewing certifications, IT-network stuff, don't ask me about it, and I didn't know what to do. Not until I got up and went into the kitchen.

I was cooking and photographing, for what it seemed like hours. I was in the zone, I wasn't thinking about anything other than cooking the tagliatelle to perfection, al dente of course, being reminded of my brother who likes them almost raw, slicing the figs just so, not crushing their skin, trying to keep their shape, realizing that my knife needed sharpening, crumbling the goat's cheese in beautiful little pieces, tearing up the prosciutto, chopping the rosemary, thinking about what I heard a chef say once, that when you chop herbs, your board shouldn't end up green, you need those herb oils in your food not on your chopping board, finding the right plates, or perhaps we should eat the pasta straight from the pan, wondering why I don't use this copper pan more often, picking it up by its hot handle and burning my hand, realizing that's the reason.

And then I called S to come. Time to eat. He was in the kitchen in a flash and when he spoke, I was startled, I was brought back. The ritual of preparing food has ended and now I couldn't wait to taste. It needed salt, one-two-three grinds of the pepper mill, oh, should we try some parmesan on top, nah. We dug in. We ate greedily, and it was magnificent.

Perfect balance of flavors. Sweet figs, with their seeds escaping from the fruit, adorning the glistening from the olive oil tagliatelle, salty prosciutto with the fat livening up the taste buds, fresh, aromatic rosemary, creamy, tangy goat's cheese melting from the heat of the pasta creating a light sauce. Sunday was a bright day, after all.

Tagliatelle with Fresh Figs, Goat's Cheese and Prosciutto

Use whichever goat's cheese you prefer, as long as it has a slightly sharp flavor rather than sweet, to counterbalance the sweetness of the figs. I may have opted not to grate parmesan on top of my pasta but S eventually couldn't control himself, he's a parmesan junkie, and I have to say, it works perfectly. If the dish is a little too sweet for your liking, don't hesitate to add the parmesan.

As far as the figs are concerned, I could only find the purple variety but you can use the green ones as well. They need to be sweet, not too sweet, we're not making a dessert, and not bruised too much because you'll use them whole.

Yield: 2 main-course servings

Ingredients
200-250 g dried tagliatelle all'uovo (made with eggs)
4 Tbsp plus 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 large, fresh figs, cut into 8 wedges
100 g goat's cheese, crumbled
4-6 slices prosciutto, roughly teared up
The leaves from 1 fresh rosemary sprig, roughly chopped
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan, grated (optional)

Special equipment: colander, grater (optional)


Preparation
Bring a large pot of water to the boil over high heat and add the salt, followed by the tagliatelle. Cook until al dente (firm but not very hard), or cook to your liking, stirring every so often so the strands of pasta don't stick together.

Meanwhile, add 4 Tbsp of olive oil to a large and preferably deep skillet or frying pan, and warm over medium heat. Add the fig wedges to the pan and heat them through, turning them gently around the oil, for a couple of minutes. Turn heat off.

When the tagliatelle are ready, reserve 2-3 Tbsp of the pasta water and drain them in a colander, discarding the rest of the water. Add the cooked tagliatelle to the skillet with the figs and toss well to coat the pasta with the olive oil. I use tongs to do that, it's easier than using a pasta fork and you avoid squishing the figs too. If you find the pasta to be too dry for your liking, add some, or all, of the pasta water you reserved earlier. Add the crumbled goat's cheese and the teared up prosciutto slices to the skillet along with the chopped rosemary and one extra Tbsp of olive oil. Add some freshly ground black pepper and salt, if you think it's necessary, and toss gently. Serve immediately.
You can add a grating of parmesan on top if you want.

A rocket salad dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar is a perfect accompaniment to this dish.