It Tingles!

An update of the previous tune, now named Tingles. For now at least.

Food wise, there was Leek and Thyme Sausages with a tomato relish and mashed tattie, then Niall's Marbled Chocolate Chocolate Cake. Marvel at the pictures and the recipes below!

Leek and Thyme Sausages



1tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 Leek, trimmed and finely chopped
1tsp chopped Thyme
75g grated Cheddar Cheese
75g Fresh Wholemeal Breadcrumbs
50g Ricotta Cheese
1/2tbsp Wholegrain Mustard
1 Egg, beaten
25g Dried White or Wholemeal Breadcrumbs
Sunflower Oil
Salt and Pepper

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the leek and thyme and cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, for 5 mins. Leave to cool.
Combine the leek mixture, cheddar, fresh breadcrumbs, ricotta, mustard and salt and pepper in a bowl.
Stir in the egg and mix together to form a soft dough.
Shape into 6 sausages and roll each one in the dried breadcrumbs.
Heat a little sunflower oil in a frying pan, add the sausages and fry over a medium heat, turning frequently, for 10mins until golden and cooked through.

For the tomato relish: peel and de-seed a couple plum tomatoes, sweet some diced onion and garlic in olive oil, along with a finely diced red chilli. Add the tomatoes, then 2 tbsps of wine vinegar and 1 tbsp of brown sugar. Cook for 30 mins - 1 hr till a nice brown colour. Season and serve hot or cold.

Marbled Chocolate Chocolate Cake


175g margarine
175g Caster Sugar
200g Self-Raising Flour
3 Eggs
1tsp Vanilla
~150g Icing Sugar
2tbsp(?) cocoa
~100g dark or milk chocolate (I used Cadbury's Bourneville with Orange)
~100g white chocolate

Heat the oven to 180C.
Put the Margarine, Caster Sugar, Flour and Egges in a bowl, beat until light and creamy.
Divide the mixture in two.
Chop up half the dark/milk chocolate fairly small and add it to one half of the mixture, along with the cocoa.
With the other half, chop up half the white chocolate and add it to the mixture along with the vanilla.
Add both mixtures to a greased, base-lined cake tin (9", I think), keeping them separate (i.e. one half circle white, one half circle dark).
With a skewer, swirl the two mixtures together to get the marbling effect.
Bake in the oven for 18-20 mins/until a skewer comes out clean.
Once the cake has cooled, add some water to the icing sugar to make water icing (you want it fairly thick, not too runny), add to the top of the cake.
Now melt half of the remaining dark/milk chocolate in a bowl over some simmering water.
Take a freezer bag, snip a corner off it, and add the melted chocolate.
Use the bag to pipe the chocolate over the top of the cake, then take a skewer and drag it across the piping to get a kind of lattice effect.
Finally, grate some of the remaining chocolate (dark and white) over the cake. Eat whatever you have left of the chocolate.