A formula for Mousse au Chocolat

Light, airy, flavorful and good texture. Enough said.

Single Serving Mousse au Chocolat by Felicity Cloake

- 1 egg, separated
- 30 g dark chocolate (at least 50% cocoa)

- 1 tsp sugar (or to taste)

1. Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a bowl over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water. When the chocolate begins to melt, turn the heat off. Separate the egg.

2. Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks, add the sugar, and whisk briefly.

3. Mix the egg yolk quickly into the melted chocolate and then whisk in a third of the egg white. Fold the rest very gently into the mixture until just combined (be careful not to overmix), and then put into bowls and refrigerate for at least four hours until set.

I make - Overnight oats

Have been on overnight oats a lot this year as breakfast. Different brands of oats result in different creaminess for me. Glebe Farm Gluten-Free Oats gives me the best texture. After trying a number of variations, plain is the best for me so I've decided to write it down as a record. 

A single serving overnight oats

- 1/4 cup porridge oats 

- 1 tsp (5g) chia seeds

- 1 tsp lemon juice

- Water

- A Bonne Maman size jam jar with screw top

Combine all dry ingredients in a jam jar. Add in lemon juice and enough water to cover the oats. I add just over twice amount of water as my porridge (just eye balling the water level in the jar). The oats and chia will swell up and double the volume. Cover and leave it on the table or in the fridge before going to bed.

To serve:

- 1 tbsp peanut butter (I prefer smooth)

- 100 g plain 0% Greek yogurt

To eat, stir in peanut butter and 100 g of Greek yogurt. Enjoy.

2020 weekly - week 30 (18th week of confinement)

19/07/2020, Sunday

My physio morning and afternoon routines for the coming week.

I've reduced to three days per week for the afternoon exercise, but still doing the morning routine every weekday.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Found a mouse-like creature in the back garden. Seems injured as it's not moving much. Hubby moved it to a place with shades hoping that it would recover better. :-(

20/07/2020, Monday

One of my dental implants seems to have come loose. The gum is swelling and painful. The crown feels loose when touched by finger. So I've made an appointment to see my dentist tomorrow. 

It's not the first time I wonder about this but does feel like my body is having a go at me starting from the ankle injury. Big or small things keep popping up. And I only wrote a fraction of them here. It has made me realize how lucky I was before, health wise. I will continue to fight and get my health back again. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another Monday Magic!

Total running distance: 4800 meters (new record!)

Longest non-stopping distance: 2800 meters (new record!)

21/07/2020, Tuesday

Feeling frustrated after the dentist's visit. Problems identified and temporarily treated. But the underlying cause is worrying. To be monitored in 3-month's time. 

What's wrong with my body? 

22/07/2020, Wednesday

The every fortnight afternoon meeting has become quite therapeutic for me. These people from the other side of the continent are just about my favorite people to work with. They are competent, smart, scientifically curious, friendly and not judgmental. What more can I ask for? Cheers.

Total running distance: 4400 meters 

Longest non-stopping distance: 2400 meters

24/07/2020, Friday

Mask-must starting today in England. Better late than never, I suppose. 

Total running distance: 4400 meters 

Longest non-stopping distance: 2400 meters

2020 weekly - week 29 (17th week of confinement)

12/07/2020, Sunday

My physio morning and afternoon routines for the coming week.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is one of the few mornings when I woke up and feeling tired. Had three nightmares last night, two before dawn. The last one was driving in France and getting lost. Decided to pull myself out of the bed after that. Had enough of sleep making me more exhaustive.

Maybe I should stay off psycho drama for a while.

13/07/2020, Monday

Total running distance: 4400 meters

Longest non-stopping distance: 2000 meters

15/07/2020, Wednesday

Total running distance: 4400 meters

Longest non-stopping distance: 2400 meters (new record!)

17/07/2020, Friday

Total running distance: 3200 meters

Longest non-stopping distance: 800 meters

Yes, today is pretty warm. 

I make - Yogurt flatbread (no yeast no egg)

After failing no-yeast flatbread a few times, I finally got this to work. The key is to use thick Greek yogurt, preferably by Fage, or at 10% protein if using other brands (check the nutritional labels). Non-fat version works fine for me. If you want a richer taste, add a tablespoon of olive oil. The dough shapes up nicely which can be kneaded. And the cooked flatbread is chewy, just like the gluten-ful version I remember. The recipe below gave me three dinner size flatbread and I managed to get the third one puffed up nicely.

Yogurt flatbread/pitas

- 75 g Doves Farm Freee brown bread flour

- 75 g All-purpose gluten-free flour blend

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 (rounded) tsp salt

- 150 g thick Greek-style yogurt with 10% protein

In a mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients. Use a whisk to mix well. I use two types of gluten-free flour here but you can use 150 g of a single flour of either type.

Pour 2/3 of the yogurt in. Mix to combine and add the rest yogurt tablespoon by tablespoon (eyeball is sufficient) to form a dough. The final dough is slightly tacky with no dry flour/crumbs in the bowl. Lightly knead a few times. Cover and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. It can be used straightaway but resting for a while helps flour hydrate better.

Heat a skillet on the stovetop for 5 minutes. Portion the dough into 3-4 pieces. Roll each flatbread portion between two pieces of cling film or nonstick baking paper to a thickness of 2-3 mm. Dry roast each flatbread in a hot skillet, 90 sec for the first side and 60 sec for the other side. Or check with flat spatula to see how charred you like your flatbread before flipping over. My third one puffed up nicely creating a pita pocket. I guess that's when the pan is the hottest. Stack and cover them in a kitchen towel.

I make - Gluten-Free Pitta Breads (Yeast Risen with Egg)

The dough was pretty easy to work with. The description was spot on, slightly sticky but workable with light dust of flour. The original recipe makes four pitta but they are quite big. I prefer hand-size pitta so next time I will portion into 6 pittas. The overall taste and texture is good but psyllium husk powder does come out a bit too strong for me in the baked pitta.

Paul Hollywood's Gluten-Free Pitta Bread

10g psyllium husk powder (2 Tbsps)

200 ml water in two equal parts

250g gluten-free strong bread flour blend (such as Doves Farm), plus extra for flouring

1 tbsp nigella seeds

5g sugar

1 tsp salt

7g instant yeast

1 large free-range egg

1 tsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp olive oil

Method

Mix the psyllium powder with 100ml water. Set aside to allow the mixture to thicken.

Tip the flour and nigella seeds into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other. Crack the egg into the centre of the flour, add the vinegar, olive oil and the psyllium mixture. Combine the ingredients to form a soft dough. Gradually add about 100ml water - you may not need it all, although the dough should be soft and slightly sticky.

Place onto a floured surface and knead to form a smooth dough. Place back in the bowl, cover and leave to rest for 1½ hours, or until doubled in size.

Heat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 9 and place 3 heavy baking trays in the oven to heat up.

Dust your work surface with flour. Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and shape each one into a ball. Roll or press the pieces into oval shapes about 4mm thick.

Remove the baking tray from the oven and dust with a little flour. Lay four pittas on each tray and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until puffed up and cooked through. The pittas should have a slight colour to them. Remove from the oven and wrap in a clean tea towel - this helps keeps them soft.

2020 weekly - week 28 (16th week of confinement)

05/07/2020, Sunday

My physio morning and afternoon routines for the coming week.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pubs and restaurants are allowed to open starting yesterday. Also, after three weeks of enforcing a long list of quarantine countries due to oversea travel (most if not all are doing much better than UK), the UK gov is opening up suddenly. Now those countries do not require self quarantine. Three weeks really make the difference, right? This gov continues to amaze me in its whimsical fashion handling COVID-19, except this is no laughing matter.

06/07/2020, Monday

Must be Monday Magic.

Total running distance: 4400 meters

Longest non-stopping distance: 2000 meters (new record!)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blackberry jam. I have misunderstood you all my life! The only two memories I had with blackberries are that they smell lovely in the summer heat in the wild but they don't taste much when you pop them fresh in the mouth. 

But jamming of blackberries is a whole different experience. First, those dark jewels smell just like walking in the countryside on a hot summer day when I mash them gently at the end the sugar maceration stage. They are fruity, sweet, a little bit floral with a background note of woody. When they are gently heated on the stove to dissolve the sugar completely, they come to alive. Aromatic enough to make my smell-blind hubby pop in asking me what I was doing, and definitely more fragrant than I've ever expected them to be. Blackberries have more subtle smell than it's more flamboyant cousins. It reminds of a ripe orchard full of delicious smells but I can't figure out which one is which. 

So that's why I am now properly smitten by this pot of glistening black gold, made from 300 g of blackberries, 200 g of sugar and some lemon juice. Tastes like summer condensed in a jar and can be enjoyed in the cool shades.

09/07/2020, Thursday

Total running distance: 4400 meters

Longest non-stopping distance: 2800 meters (new record!)

I make - Gluten-Free Cinnamon Sultana Bread

After the tea loaf a few weeks ago, this time it's the yeasted version. Have to say, gluten-free bread benefits a great deal from the lift of the ingredients. So in this recipe there are baker's yeast, baking powder and 3 eggs! The end result did not disappoint me, light texture and really good taste. The original recipe came from Elizabeth Barbone and I modified slightly as below.

My weekend breakfast awaits! 

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Sultana Bread

- 200 g brown rice flour (or a mix of white and brown)

- 100 g tapioca starch

- 1 tsp xanthan gum

- 2 tsps psyllium husk powder

- 1 tsp table salt

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp instant yeast

- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 3/4 cup milk

- 2 tbsps brown sugar

- 2 tbsps butter

- 3 eggs, beaten

- 1 cup sultanas, soaked and drained

- walnut pieces to decorate the top (optional)

In a large bowl, combine rice flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, psyllium husk powder, salt, baking powder, yeast and ground cinnamon. Mix all dry ingredients well with a whisk or a rubber spatula.

Combine milk, brown sugar and butter in a microwavable jug. Microwave the wet mixture for 30-40 seconds until it's blood warm. Mix in vanilla extract and stir to dissolve the sugar. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture. Stir a few times before mixing in the beaten eggs. Beat the mixture really well for 5 minutes by hands or 3 minutes by machine. Mix in the rehydrated sultanas and stir to combine. The dough should look like a wet batter.

Grease and line a sandwich loaf tin and scoop the batter into the tin. Scatter a handful of walnut pieces on top if desired. Cover the tin and let the dough proof for 2 hours at room temperature or until the volume has doubled. You can speed up the proofing by placing the dough in a warm environment or double the amount of yeast (i.e. 2 tsp instead).

Preheat the oven at 180C for 10 minutes. bake the bread for 50 minutes. Rotate half way through. I remove the bread out of the tin and bake on the rack/or a sheet pan at 140C for another 10 minutes. 

Cool the bread completely before slicing.

I make - Flapjack cookie bars

Mr Oliver's recipe, easy to remember and to execute. No additional spices required as I simply enjoy the toasted oat flavor from the final goods. Warm and comforting. The cookies are crispy and with good taste.

Flapjack cookie bars

Ingredients

100 g salted butter, at room temperature

100 g dried fruit & nuts (I used 50 g walnuts/sunflower seeds and 50 g sultanas) + 2 tbsp chia seeds

100 g porridge oats

100 g gluten-free flour blend + 1/2 tsp baking powder

100 g maple syrup

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.

Line a deep 20cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper and rub with olive oil.

Pulse the butter, dried fruit and nuts, chia seeds, oats and flour in a food processor until the mix comes together and away from the sides, then pulse in the syrup until fully combined. I roughly chopped dried fruits and nuts before mixing with roughly blended oats, melted butter and the rest of ingredients.

Transfer to the lined tin, flattening to the edges. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden.

Remove from the oven, slice into 16 squares ready to cut, and leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes.

Use the paper to lift out on to a wire rack, and leave to cool completely.

2020 weekly - week 27 (15th week of confinement)

27/06/2020, Sunday

My physio morning and afternoon routines for the coming week.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good news, starting from last Friday, I have been able to walk down stairs 95% normally! It's taken me almost 7 months to do so, one foot per step. Still a bit stiff but I can pretend that I can finally descend normally. Small (perhaps nothing to you) achievement but I am beyond happy. To see that my body still responds to physio, that reassures me.

01/07/2020, Wednesday

July is here, can you believe it? I've spent most of 2020 at home so far. Not so bad, if I am being honest. More productive with work and more efficient in time usage.

Total running distance: 4000 meters

Longest non-stopping distance: 1200 meters

02/07/2020, Thursday

One more meeting tomorrow and my week shall be done!

03/07/2020, Friday

Total running distance: 4000 meters

Longest non-stopping distance: 800 meters