Update on defacebooking

Posted by trish on Oct 31, 2011 in Blog | 2 comments

Do I miss it?

No, not at all.

‘scuse the mess

Posted by trish on Oct 30, 2011 in Blog | 1 comment

PJ has had to do some technological backflips to get the spam code out of my blog. It’s a long and involved process that he could only explain to me with the help of a diagram… I won’t try to recreate that for you; suffice to say as a result of all the clean-up the photos are all over the place and will be for a week or so or for however long it takes me to export every single one onto my desktop then import them back again into the right spot.  I’ve also lost a fair bit of formatting in the actual text of the posts so that will also take me some time to fix up.

He’s confident that this will solve the problem once and for all. I really hope so, for his sake, because he’s spent a lot of time and effort cleaning it all up, and almost as much time trying to explain it to me in language that makes sense. I still only half-understand what’s going on.

Thanks to all of you who have stuck your hands up to help me with NaNoWriMo this year. I’m going to have a quiet evening in front of a very large PDF tonight and just check that it’s all ship-shape before I post it for you to read. I’ve already thought up another major change in the formatting but I’ll leave that for the 2nd draft. (Just on that… did I lose a few comments in the clean-up? Can you please repost, or send me an email directly? thanks!)

Cheers,
Trish

Here we go again

Posted by trish on Oct 26, 2011 in Blog | 8 comments

I sincerely, honestly thought I’d have my book – the one with the working title of ‘Plan C’ – done and dusted by now.  I really, really thought I would.

But life got in the way, things happened, we moved house, I turned 40 and well, you know, there’s that whole lazy-gene I am constantly battling.

But I’m fired up for NaNoWriMo this year (National Novel Writing Month, if you’re new around here) and this November I am going to attempt to write the next 50,000 words of that very same story.  And FINISH it, goddammit.

If you were with me last year and would like to help me out again this year (oh please oh please oh please) then you’re going to need the PASSWORD to access the Top Secret First Crappy Draft File.  It’s been a while since you’ve been able to read the first 50K words and you might want to refresh your memory, in which case you will need the password.  Leave a comment, making sure you fill your email address in where it asks for it (email addresses aren’t published), and I’ll send you the password.

If you weren’t with me last year but you’re curious this year and would like to help out, leave me a comment.Here are the rules/guidelines for helping out:

1.  You must send encouraging emails at every opportunity.  Try not to use the f-word but it’s quite acceptable to tell me to hurry the heck up if you’re worried I’m taking too long.

2.  You must provide feedback.  This could be anything from ‘did you know you called that waitress character Sue in chapter 14 and then you called her Matilda in chapter 21?’ to ‘I really loved the way you described the cute guy in the nightclub’s arse.’  All feedback is helpful, and appreciated.  But again, be nice, and no f-words.  Feedback is especially welcome in the comments, so you can all see what each other is saying and discuss plot points and character development.  That was really fun last year, watching you all TALKING ABOUT ME LIKE I WASN’T EVEN THERE.

3.  You must not share the password with anyone.  At all.  Ever.

4.  You can send me chocolate to Trish Smith PO Box 1234 Dickson ACT 2602.  Jaffas are my favourite.

5.  The nicest most supportive and wonderful helpers get characters named after them.  Yay!

So, who’s with me?? Anyone??

pasta with prawns & rocket

Posted by trish on Oct 26, 2011 in Eat | 0 comments

The weekend that PJ took the girls to the coast to watch whales, I stayed home to host a Girls’ Weekend with several of my old school friends who are all turning 40 this year.  We booked in the weekend sometime last year when I discovered that there was a very cool date coming up – 7,8,9/10/11 (sorry, that doesn’t really work for you Americans who write it MM/DD/YYYY – oh well).  We talked about what we might get up to in order to appropriately mark the occasion of our 40th Birthdays and in the end Nina’s suggestion to stay in, cook dinner and drink excellent wine got the most votes.  So that’s what we did.  And here’s what she cooked:

JAMIE OLIVER’S SPAGHETTI CON GAMBERETTI E RUCOLA

(SPAGHETTI WITH PRAWNS & ROCKET)

Serves 4.

455g dried spaghetti

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1-2 dried red chillis, crumbled (Nina used a fresh one, the rebel)

400g peeled raw prawns

1 small wineglass of white wine (that’s about 200ml, I reckon)

2 heaped tablespoons of sun-dried tomato puree, or 6 sun-dried tomatoes blitzed in a blender

zest and juice of 1 lemon

2 handfuls of rocket, roughly chopped

Cook your spaghetti in a large pan of salted boiling water according to packet instructions.  Meanwhile, heat 3 good lugs of extra virgin olive oil in a large fying pan and toss in the garlic and chilli.

As the garlic begins to colour, add the prawns and saute them for a minute.  Add the white wine and the tomato puree and simmer for a couple of minutes.

When the pasta is ready, drain it in a colander, reserving a little of the cooking water.  Toss the spaghetti with the sauce, squeeze in the lemon juice, add half the chopped rocket, adding a little of the reserved cooking water if you want to loosen the sauce a bit, and correct the seasoning.

Divide between 4 plates and sprinkle with grated lemon zest and the rest of the rocket leaves.

Can I just say – the lemon zest makes this dish.  Yum.

hacked

Posted by trish on Oct 25, 2011 in Blog | 6 comments

If you’re reading my blog from your iPhone or iPad, you will have noticed there are a bunch of links to unrelated websites floating around on top of the images and text. My blog has been infiltrated by a nasty hacker-thingy (PJ can explain it better, but this seems adequate for now) that has dumped code into some of my old blog posts that makes these links appear. I have to go through every single post and look for the code and delete it (I found it in every single one I’ve looked at so far). I’ve got 152 posts so this might take a while. It’s not bothering the functionality of the site, thank goodness, but it’s messy and unwanted and is an example of the kind of thing that really, really annoys PJ about IT security and the internet and advertising. It’s right up there with finding one of the kids’ hairs in his morning bowl of muesli.

Shameless Puppy Post

Posted by trish on Oct 24, 2011 in Shoot | 5 comments

All images by our in-house photographer, PJ.  Click on each thumbnail to see ALL the cuteness.

basics

Posted by trish on Oct 22, 2011 in Eat | 0 comments

When the weather is a bit cooler we have risotto a couple of times each month. When the weather starts to warm up we have it less frequently, but with spring vegetables.  Asparagus is perfect for risotto.

I always use the bones from a roast chicken to make stock which I then freeze, ready to use for risotto.  I’ve been using the same basic recipe for risotto for years but changing the ingredients I add to it.  I’m sure this method would horrify some risotto purists but it works for us so I continue to do it this way.  One day I might branch out and make a different basic risotto, but we all love this one so much I can’t really see the point.

My risotto is basically made with rice and chicken stock, with other stuff added.  The kids’ favourite is leek, chicken and roast pumpkin.  I recently made this version (pictured) with asparagus and fetta.  Peas and prawns are delicious.  There are a million combinations, just think about what pasta ingredients or pizza toppings you like and thrown them in (though less is more… two or three flavour combinations should suffice).  You can cook the meat and vegetables separately beforehand then add them when the rice is almost cooked to reheat them through.

RISOTTO WITH ASPARAGUS & FETTA

At least 4 cups homemade chicken or vegetable stock, simmering on the stove

2 cups Arborio rice

2 leeks, finely sliced (or one brown onion if that’s all you have)

2 garlic cloves, crushed

one bunch of asparagus spears, stalks finely sliced.   If you prefer larger pieces, pre-cook them and set aside.

100g crumbled fetta + extra for garnishing.

60g butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat the stock in a pot on the stove and allow to simmer.  Put the kettle on to boil as well so you have some more hot liquid ready if you need it later.

Heat the olive oil and butter in a heavy based saucepan over medium heat.  Add the leeks and garlic and stir with a wooden spoon until softened.

Add the rice and stir to coat in buttery goodness.  Stir for 1-2 minutes.(You could add a glass of white wine at this point if you like, then keep going with the recipe after the liquid has been absorbed).

Add the stock to the rice about 1 cup at a time, stirring well after each edition.  The heat should be not so high that the liquid quickly bubbles up and evaporates; you want the rice to absorb it.  Aim for what looks like a gentle simmer.

When all the stock has been used up, taste a couple of grains of rice and see if they’re cooked yet.  They should be al dente, with a bit of bite.  If not, add hot water from the kettle half a cup at a time until the rice is cooked.

Add the fetta and stir through to melt.  Taste for seasoning.

Add the asparagus and stir.  Divide onto plates, sprinkle with the remaining fetta and asparagus spear tops if you’ve got them set aside.  Drizzle with a little olive oil if you like.

de-facebooking

Posted by trish on Oct 20, 2011 in Blog | 6 comments

Earlier this week I started thinking again about cancelling my facebook account.  I do this on a regular basis, like thinking about getting a tattoo or joining a Pilates class, but I usually talk myself into just limiting the number of minutes and hours and days I spend watching the tide that is my facebook Wall, rather than opting out altogether.  (I also dismiss the notion of a tattoo on account of being scared of pain.)

And that’s what it’s like, isn’t it?  The tide?  You can sit and watch the tide for hours, seeing what gets washed ashore, poking about in the flotsam and jetsam for some interesting tidbits.  Ooh!  Look at that!  Isn’t that cool?  Isn’t that peculiar?  Isn’t that odd?  Err… Isn’t that a little bit too much information??

I think I joined facebook in the same way that a lot of people did: somebody whose opinion I value suggested I join up.  As a long-time blogger, the whole notion of writing about myself ad nauseum was completely familiar to me and so I signed up with enthusiasm for this new opportunity to tell the world about the new recipe I had found or to complain about the weather or announce my plans to find a Pilates studio.

Then it became a useful – almost necessary – tool for keeping in touch with old friends.  For a while, I think I believed that this was a really valuable function, and it quickly replaced the phone calls I used to make.  I wouldn’t call someone to say hello, even if I hadn’t spoken to them in months, because I knew they were OK because facebook said so.

And then I started getting requests to play Farmville.  Or change my status update to support a worthy cause.  Or to ‘friend’ someone whom I had no real need to ‘friend’ (nor desire to, in some cases).  And then I stayed up late, chewing my nails and worrying about how someone might feel if I unfriended them or even just unsubscribed to their updates.  Because there are only so many times I need to be told how deeply and passionately and madly in love you are with your husband, or your car, or your mountain bike.

And then, oh my goodness, I started posting complete and utter rubbish on my own Wall, out of some sense of duty to keep my profile updated and fresh and current even if that meant writing about Sarah Palin.

And then?  Then facebook did that thing AGAIN where they change the Privacy settings and I have no idea if someone whom I declined to ‘friend’ was now able to see the photos I was posting of myself doing tequila shots at the school reunion because they were the friend-of-a-friend and so had access.

And then I started getting notes in that sidebar-scrolling thing, where a friend of mine commented on a photograph of a friend of theirs whom I’ve never met, and I could click on that notification and suddenly see that person’s whole photo album.  That bothered me a lot.

Oh, and also?  I have two daughters, aged 11 and 13, and I would like to set a good example for them.  See?  It is possible to live without facebook, girls! I don’t want them to get sucked into the vortex of facebook.  Especially when they’re supposed to be doing their homework.  And since I’ve always had access to Madeleine’s account*, just so I can check it periodically for signs of cyber-bullying or worse, I’ve been able to read what some kids are saying to each other.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure I was having the same sort of conversations with my friends at that age.  BUT I WASN’T HAVING THEM ONLINE WHERE SOMEONE COULD TAKE A SCREEN-SHOT AND EMAIL IT TO MY MOTHER OR SISTER OR THE GUY I HAD A CRUSH ON.  The world is different, and not in a good way.

So these are the reasons I’m closing my facebook account**. In case you were wondering.  I’ll let you know what deep impact this has on my life, if any.  What I do hope will happen is that I’ll rediscover the art of letter writing and phone calling and actually visiting people face-to-face.  I think I’ve let a few friendships atrophy a little in the mistaken belief I knew how they were going because we comment on each other’s status updates.

*I told Madeleine I was de-facebooking and she revealed that she’s been considering doing that, too, because “I don’t have time for it now I have a puppy, and nobody says anything interesting anyway.”  That’s my girl.

** I’m doing it right now.  Goodbye, facebook!

pancakes my way

Posted by trish on Oct 15, 2011 in Eat | 3 comments

Years of making pancakes on a Sunday morning for the pancake-loving second daughter in my life has taught me a couple of things.  First, it’s possible to under-cook a pancake and serve it up with a wet, squishy middle.  Second, pancake batter tastes remarkably better with a bit of sugar and/or some vanilla bean paste.  And third, you can get them extra-fluffy and light if you let the batter sit for half an hour after you’ve mixed it before you cook them up.

My Pancake Recipe (which is actually Donna Hay’s Pancake Recipe, slightly tweaked)

This makes about eight 15cm-diameter pancakes.

Add an extra cup of flour, an extra egg, an extra teaspoon of baking powder and some more milk to make 12-16 pancakes.

2 cups plain flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs

75g butter

1 1/2 to 2 cups milk (or 1 cup milk plus buttermilk OR cream OR Philadelphia Cream For Cooking)

1/3 cup white sugar

splash of vanilla or equivalent amount of vanilla bean paste

Put the butter into the frying pan you’ll use to cook the pancakes and melt it over a low heat.  Meanwhile, combine the milk, eggs and vanilla before adding to the dry ingredients.  When that is all mixed in, add the melted butter and stir thoroughly to incorporate into the batter.  You won’t need to oil the pan any further, in fact you might want to wipe it out with some paper towel before cooking the first pancake.

I like the pancake batter to be thin enough to pour easily from the jug, but not so thin that they spread out immediately in the pan and you end up with a crepe.  Experiment with the batter until you get it how you like it.

Make sure the pancakes cook properly.  Don’t flip it over until the large bubbles have formed and then popped, and then don’t remove from heat until you’ve had a peek underneath to check it’s nice and brown (the pancakes in the first picture were undercooked by my impatient daughter).  Better to overcook slightly than undercook, I always say.

Serve with berries and vanilla yoghurt and drizzled with maple syrup.

are we back here again?

Posted by trish on Oct 13, 2011 in Blog | 10 comments

We were playing a board game (Balderdash) with the kids the other night and Ella asked ‘what does procrastinate mean?

‘Procrastinate means putting off doing something you’ve been meaning to do, or you are really meant to have done already, for no good reason that could possibly explain or excuse the delay.  Like when you’re supposed to be out in the backyard with the puppies, picking up truffles*, but instead you’re inside getting yourself a glass of milk?  That milk is no excuse for not being outside.  Truffles trumps milk.

I received a letter in the mail a couple of weeks ago, letting me know that my Trademark Application has progressed to the next phase.  That was supposed to give me a little forward momentum, enough to get going on the prototype of my design.  I bought some raw materials, then stuck them on a shelf somewhere and went to make myself a coffee.  Coffee trumps raw materials.

Over the weekend I talked to a few friends about my idea, and they all agreed it was good enough to pursue (thanks, girls).  And yet the raw material sits on a shelf, waiting for me to stop procrastinating.

Is it fear?  Fear that if I get this started I might hit one of those walls that has graffiti all over it – TRISH YOU ARE NOT SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW TO FIGURE THIS OUT.  Fear that I’ll hit a wall and be completely crushed by the enormity of knowing that I don’t know how to get past it and that I won’t even know where to begin to try to find a solution?

Like… who do I get to manufacture this?  How do I find a distributor?  How do I set up PayPal on my website so I can sell it online?  What happens if nobody buys it?  What happens if I have a garage full of these things and nobody is buying them?  What about all the legal stuff?  The accounting side of the business?  Do I need a comprehensive business plan?  How am I going to fund this venture?  Where am I going to source the materials?  What if someone starts selling cheap knock-offs?  What if… How… When… ?

Yep, I reckon that’s it.

I’ve had a completely shit time of it, trying to find a career/vocation for myself that I’m really good at.  I’m pretty good at a lot of things, I know that, but none of them have ever resulted in what I had hoped to achieve by this age – career success.  On the one hand I’m really glad that I don’t have to work and that I can stay home with the kids and take care of them when they get home in the afternoon, that I don’t have to ship them off to school holiday programs or arrange for friends to bring them home from school or drive them to tennis… I get to do all that, and it’s awesome.  But a little part of me knows that a little part of the reason I’m so glad I don’t have to try to be a ‘career woman’ is that I tried to be a ‘career woman’, several times, and I failed miserably.

I truly, genuinely want to make a success of this project.  I see myself building up a company based on this initial product and then some additional products, and then selling them online to millions of people.  I can see this happening, I really can, I can see myself enjoying being successful. I just need to get past this great big graffiti wall that is telling me that even though I have a great idea, I don’t have what it takes to make it happen.  So there’s no point in trying, even.

How f*cked up is that?

I need to write a list.  Top Ten Reasons To Get Off My Arse Stop Doubting Myself And Make The Prototype And Become A Successful Business Woman:

1.  Set a good example for my girls.

2. Have my own income that allows me to go on trips overseas and not worry about how much this beer in Oslo is costing.

3.  Because this product I’m going to make will actually make life easier for a lot of people.

4.  So I can create an income stream for myself and PJ that will continue to flow well into our retirement.

5.  To prove to myself that I can do anything if I get off my arse and put my mind to it I believe in myself.

6.  So I have something to tell people when they ask me what I do.  I’ve never, ever had an answer to this question that I have felt 100% comfortable saying out loud.  H.F.U.I.T?

7.  So that I can feel challenged by all the steps that I will have to take in order to get this product made and online and distributed rather than just utterly overwhelmed and defeated before I’ve even taken the first one.

8.  Set a good example for my girls.

9.  Set a good example for my girls.

10.  Set a good example for my girls.

OK, I’m going to do this. I’m going to sit down with my raw materials and not get back up again until I have something resembling a decent attempt at my first draft.

As soon as I’ve made a coffee.

*my friend Brooke started calling our puppies’ pooh ‘truffles’ and the name has stuck.  I’m still giggling.

salad

Posted by trish on Oct 13, 2011 in Eat | 0 comments

I had several of my school friends over for the weekend for a combined 40th birthday celebration (sooo much blog fodder) and Nina made this salad for dinner on Saturday night.  It’s from ‘Jamie’s Italy’ by Jamie Oliver, and it’s called Insalata Amalfitana – Amalfi salad.

This summer I am going to try very hard not to serve up the usual combination of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and capsicum.  I am going to try instead to find the most unusual combination of ingredients and see how that goes over with the family.  This salad was generally well received by the kids, and enthusiastically gobbled up by the grown-ups.You need lovely sweet oranges for this one.

JAMIE OLIVER’S INSALATA AMALFITANA

1 bulb fennel, washed

1 red onion, peeled

1 cucumber

a large handful of radishes, with tops, washed.

optional: a small handful of ice cubes

1 tablespoon good-quality herb or red-wine vinegar

good-quality extra-virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 oranges, peeled, segmented and pips removed

Remove the herby tops from the fennel and put them to one side, then trim the fennel at both ends and, if need be, lose the outside layer – it’s sometimes a bit dry.  Split the fennel in half and slice lengthways as finely as possible.  Put into a large bowl.  Remove both ends of the onion, then half it and slice it as finely as possible.  Slice the cucumber finely.  When it comes to the radishes, leave about 1cm of stalk on them.  Then slice a little off each radish, roll it on to the flat edge and finely slice.

If you want to throw a few ice cubes in the bowl and toss them together with everything, bizarrely enough this does cause the veg to go even crunchier.  Just keep them in there for a few minutes.  The cowboy way of doing this is to add the veg to iced water, but if you’ve ever done that then yes, the veg goes crunchy, but most of the flavour drains into the water.

Remove the ice cubes from the sliced vegetables. In a bowl mix together 2 tablespoons of good herb or red wine vinegar and 6 or so tablespoons of a good quality extra virgin olive oil.  Mix well, then taste.  You might want to add a little extra vinegar, depending on how sweet your oranges are.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.  Dress the salad with this and then add the orange segments and any juice.  Toss a few times, then divide between your plates and sprinkle wit hthe saved fennel tops.  Serve straight away.

Baby Humpback

Posted by trish on Oct 11, 2011 in Shoot | 4 comments

PJ took the girls and Katherine to Jervis Bay for the weekend to go whale watching.  They were very lucky to see a humpback whale and her baby frolicking in the water near Point Perpendicular.  The captain of the boat said it was likely the baby had just had a big feed because he (she?) was leaping about in the water like a toddler on a sugar rush.  For PJ, it was a photographer’s dream come true.Just confirming – PJ took all these shots, not me.  But I’ll be going along next year!

stuff&nothin’

Posted by trish on Oct 7, 2011 in Blog | 1 comment

My friend Karen B is the personfication of your collective frustration at my lack of blogging… she berates me, with the cheekiest laugh, every time she sees me.  Blog more! Write more! I miss you!

She’s lovely, she’s completely sincere, and she is who I think of and feel most guilty about when I know it’s been days since I wrote anything useful.  The poor woman must be so bored at work.

I have had a nasty cold this week.  I think it was hayfever, run amok.  I’m on the mend, but it has had quite the impact on my productivity this week.  As you can see.

We have a houseguest for the forseeable future.  Her name is Katherine, she is PJ’s mother’s brother’s second eldest daughter.  She is 26 years old and Madeleine and Ella adore her.  I love her because the other morning I came out to find she had done all the dishes from the night before.  She is in Australia on a 1, possibly 2-year working visa and has come to Canberra in search of work and to play with the puppies.

She’s going to do some side-trips to Melbourne and other Far More Interesting Places but for now, she’s here, and it’s fun having her around.

I bought some raw materials and I’m going to make a prototype for my Top Secret project.  I need some glue and a sewing machine and probably a glass of wine.

Puppy’s first bath.  Sorry about the focus in the first picture, I think I was just too overcome with emotion to get the camera ready for the shot.

The second one is better, with a bit of obvious post-processing from PJ.

You cannot be serious.

This weekend PJ is taking Katherine and our girls to the coast to see the whales.  I’m going to stay in town with the puppies and have a combined 40th birthday party/weekend with several of my dearest girlfriends.  There will be much champagne-cork-popping and late-night-giggling.  And shaking of heads, as in I can’t believe we’re all 40… remember being 6? 12? 21? 30? Yeah, me too…

nom nom nom

Posted by trish on Oct 2, 2011 in Shoot | 4 comments

Our local butcher takes lamb bones and splits them lengthways down the middle, so small puppies with tiny teeth can get stuck into the marrow.

Sucking the marrow out of life… who said that?  Robin Williams in ‘Dead Poets Society’, I think.

This was the puppies’ first introduction to marrow bones.  They went a little nuts.  Five seconds after Darcy had claimed her half, she growled at anyone who came too close.

They’re so cute when they get all territorial and primal.  This is Darcy, getting in touch with her Inner Wolf.  Grrr….

*UPDATE Our Vet does not recommend splitting bones for puppies, as they can easily break their teeth on them.  And the marrow is basically just fat which, at this young age, is not good for puppies at all.  So, no more split bones for them.  Sorry puppies!  Instead we give them raw chicken necks and raw chicken carcasses, which they love.  They just chew the bones up and swallow them – though you should keep an eye on them as they’re eating, in case they start to choke on bits.

muddy chocolate cake

Posted by trish on Oct 2, 2011 in Eat | 2 comments

I have used this recipe for Chocolate Mud Cake every time I’ve needed a really good chocolate cake for a special occasion.  The cake looks light and airy, but the first mouthful is intense and moist and very, very rich.  I only make it for special occasions because, to be honest, it’s a bit fiddly to put together.  But it is sooo worth the effort.  Give it a try next time you’ve got the inlaws coming for dinner and you need something to serve with all the new season berries.  Add a dollop of thick cream and you’ve got dessert.  You don’t need icing or ganache or anything else… just the cake.  Yum.

I don’t have a picture of this one, presented on a plate, because PJ took this – in its tin and wrapped in paper and Gladwrap – to the coast this weekend for the boys’ annual Footy Grand Final Weekend which happened to coincide with the 40th birthday of one of his best mates, Hugh, whom we went to high school and college with.  Happy Birthday Shug! Hope you enjoyed the cake!

‘Muddy Chocolate Cake’

from the marie claire book ‘flavours’ by Donna Hay (2000)

300g (10oz) dark couverture chocolate, chopped

250g (8 oz) butter

5 eggs, separated

1/4 cup caster (superfine) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup self-raising flour

berries, to serve.

Preheat the oven to 130C (260F). Yes, that’s quite low.

Place the chocolate and butter in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted and smooth.  Set aside.

Place the egg yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer with the sugar and vanilla and beat until the mixture is thick and pale.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Fold* the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture, sift the flour over the top and gently fold through.

Carefully fold the egg whites through the mixture and then pour in a 20cm (8 in) round cake tin,  lined with non-stick baking paper.**Bake for 75 minutes or until the cake is firm.  Cool in the tin.

Serve the cake with berries.  Serves 8-10.

The flavour and texture of this cake are best when it is served at room temperature, not chilled.

*Folding is one of those weird cooking techniques that makes you really nervous that you’re doing it wrong.  The point of folding is to maintain the air content in whatever it is you’re mixing.  The egg yolks will be quite light and airy, and if you beat the chocolate into the egg yolks you’ll beat all that air out of it.  Same goes with the egg whites.  So get a big wooden spoon or a large spatula, and try to stir in a way that lifts the mixture up and over itself, using big swooping light strokes that go up and over rather than around and around in the bowl.  The egg whites are tricky to mix in, and you’ll wonder how on earth it is possible to incorporate all that egg whitey-foam… just keep going.  You’ll end up with a really lovely moussey-light batter.  I fold the chocolate into the egg yolk gradually – if you can, get someone else to pour it into the yolks in a thin stream as you are folding, I think that just seems to make it easier for it all to mix together evenly.  Also,  I worry that the chocolate might still be warm enough to turn the eggs into scrambled eggs, so adding the chocolate in a thin stream means you don’t hit the eggs with a sudden wave of heat.

**I also spray the tin with cooking spray before I add the paper.  It’s an extra guarantee that the cake won’t stick, but it also helps to adhere the paper to the bottom and sides of the tin which is useful because that stuff has a tendency to want to roll back up again.I’ve been making this recipe in a 10 inch cake tin which serves 10-12 generously.  Obviously I increase the quantities of everything:

450g chocolate

375g butter

7 eggs

1/4 plus 1/8 cup of sugar

180g self-raising flour

80-90 minutes cooking time.