Gougeres with spiced cheese and chocolate mole recipe

This is one to impress your friends or have them reel in horror


Gougeres

100g butter
150g flour
325 ml water
4 med eggs
1 heaped tsp grain mustard
50g grated mature cheddar

bring water, a little salt and butter to a boil (butter melted) and fling in the flour (sieved). Beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and cook out over a gentle heat, moving all the time, for a couple of minutes. Allow to cool for ten minutes.

I’m very lazy and if the next step goes wrong, don’t blame me. Put all the eggs, the mustard and the cheese in with the flour mix and beat. I use a hand mixer with dough attachment and blitz it with that for five minutes. If you have a stand mixer that is brilliant but I can’t be bothered with the cleaning. If you are doing it with a spoon, do it one at a time. Once all the egg is beaten in the mixture will be nice and glossy and is ready for piping (I use a teaspoon for speed) onto a baking sheet. This is just a choux pastry recipe and without the salt, mustard and cheese and the addition of a little sugar will make lovely éclairs and profiteroles.

Cook you teaspoons of mix in a 200c oven until nicely risen and brown.

Cheese: I used a mix of goat’s cheese, quark and greek yoghurt. To this add some peppadew peppers, parsley, coriander, lemon juice, lime juice and a little agave.

Chocolate mole: this baby takes some making.

Round one: cascabel, ancho and pasilla chillis, epazote and cocoa powder. Boil these up in some water and blend. Then pass through a sieve.

Round two: fry some onions in oil, add some nuts (almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts work best) and fry until golden. Add a tin of tomatoes, some veg stock and the round one chilli mix and cook out. Blend and taste for sweetness. Add a little chocolate (min 55%) and a little agave if necessary.


Plate: cut gougeres and re-heat in a med oven for a couple of minutes. Take out and fill with some of the cheese mix. Top with some mole and finish with a little salsa.


The last recipe is a response to a very nice French chef who came in on Saturday night. He worked at antony’s, a swish Michelin starred place in leeds and he was interested in the smoky element in our meze and was interested in its authenticity. For him

This is the base element in two of our starters, baba gannoush and baigan bharta.

Take an aubergine and place it straight on the gas flame on your hob. Turn once in a while, making sure to scorch the whole aub. Allow to cool and peel. This gives a very intense smoky flavour, you can adjust this by first cooking in the oven and then finishing on the direct flame.

Baba gannoush(this week’s): aubergines as above, yofu, salt, pepper, lots of lemon juice, tahini. Chop aubergine and mix everything together to your taste. Oh and parsley.

Baigan bharta: fry onion in oil. Add cumin seeds, black or conventional or both, chilli powder (kashmiri if possible) and turmeric. Add tinned or fresh tomatoes and cook until oil separates. Add green chilli, aubergine as above, and cook a little longer. One of the nicest curries we’ve made.


Another recipe from Canteen on Clifton Street, Cardiff CF24 1LR
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