This Chocolate Salami is a simple and delicious treat to give to friends and family. There’s no baking required and it’s better than Rocky Road! Tie your finished ‘salami’ with kitchen string then rub with icing sugar to look like the real thing. Finally, wrap in baking paper and tie with ribbon.
Makes 2 x 15cm ‘salami’
250g dark chocolate, good quality, at least 69% cocoa 100g butter, unsalted 80g soft brown sugar 1 large egg 1 egg yolk 150g Marie biscuits, crushed to ½ cm chunks 1 tsp vanilla essence ½ orange, finely zested 1 tsp Bundaberg rum 75g whole almonds with skin on, roughly chopped 50g whole hazelnuts with skin on, roughly chopped 50g pistachio nuts, shelled, roughly chopped
Place the chocolate and butter in a medium stainless steel bowl. Over a pot of water acting as a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter, stirring with a spatula. Now add the brown sugar, vanilla essence, egg and yolk and stir to combine. Over a very gentle heat, you want to cook the mix for 5 minutes.
Cook until the mixture becomes smooth and the sugar has dissolved. It will be hot to touch. Now take off the heat, discard the boiler. Stir in the crushed biscuits and nuts and mix to thoroughly combine. The mixture will cool and thicken.
Lay out a 40cm x 30cm double layer of cling film. Spoon the mixture along the edge of the cling film in a long shape to roll into a sausage shape with roughly a 6cm diameter. Now using the end of the cling film, roll up the sausage. Secure the ends with some string, then set in the fridge for 3 hours. Remove the cling film, cut, eat and enjoy!
Celebrating 23 years of tradition and a Donovans classic! We hope you enjoy cooking our much loved Old-fashioned Chicken Pie at home for your loved ones.
Makes 8 serves. Any left over pie mixture is delicious served with pasta the next day!
You will need x 8 individual pie dishes with a 1.5 cup capacity. At Donovans we use Lion’s Head Terrine containers (410ml) – to serve the pies in. You can find these at Chef’s Hat in South Melbourne or Essential Ingredient at Prahran Market.
INGREDIENTS
For the Chicken Poaching: 1 chicken, size 1.8kg – use organic or free range
4 tarragon sprigs
½ lemon
Mirepoix for Poaching Liquid: 2 bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppercorns
1 medium carrot, large dice
1 brown onion, peeled and large dice
2 celery sticks, chopped into 2cm lengths
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4 litres good quality chicken stock – store bought is fine
For the Vegetable Garnish for the Pie: 32 button mushrooms, washed
8 asparagus spears – cut into 2cm lengths
8 baby carrots, cut in half
8 baby turnips, cut in half
For the Velouté Sauce: 300g plain flour
300g butter, unsalted
2 litres chicken stock that you have reduced, re-heated
2 litres pouring cream
4 lemons, juiced
1 bunch of tarragon leaves, finely chopped
For the Puff Pastry Lids: Carême Puff Pastry sheets (see here for stockists)
1 whole egg, whisked
METHOD
Poaching the Chicken:
Stuff the chicken with the lemon and tarragon.
Place into a large pot and add the mirepoix and fill the pot with chicken stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes, make sure the chicken is fully submerged. Remove chicken with a large spoon, set aside and allow to cool.
Strain the stock through a fine strainer, then place back on the stove and reduce by half. You need to ensure you have 2 litres for this recipe. Reserve reduced chicken stock.
When the chicken is cool enough to touch, set yourself up with a large tray. Carefully pull away the breast meat and leg meat and tear into large chunks. Reserve refrigerated.
The Vegetables:
While the chicken stock is reducing, prepare your vegetables. Sauté the mushrooms off in a pan with a little bit of butter and oil until caramelised. Blanch the asparagus for 30 seconds in boiling water then cool immediately. Blanch the carrots and turnips for 4 minutes in boiling water then cool immediately. Reserve refrigerated.
The Velouté Sauce:
In a large pot, melt the butter fully then add the flour to make a blonde roux.
Stir with a wooden spoon to ensure the roux does not stick or brown on the base of the pot. Add the hot reduced chicken stock to the roux, whisking constantly to avoid lumps.
Add the cream, reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes. Take the velouté off the heat and season with lemon and salt. Taste and adjust seasoning if required, then strain through a fine strainer. Now add the chopped tarragon and you are ready to go. The sauce should be creamy and thick like a custard and pale white in colour and it should have an even balance of lemon and tarragon to contrast the cream.
Cooking the Puff Pastry Lids:
Pre-heat your oven to 190°C. You will need to cut out rounds slightly larger than the tops of the dishes. Take a baking tray and line it with baking paper. Place the puff pastry rounds onto the paper – making sure they don’t touch.
Brush the lids with the whisked egg white.
Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until the puff has risen and is a deep golden brown. Take out of oven, allow to cool for 15 minutes.
Take some clean scissors and cut the interior base out of each lid, leaving a 2cm edge
This will enable you to snugly fit the puff lid on the mould so that it doesn’t fall off
Finishing the Pies:
Re-heat your puff lids in a moderate oven.
Line up your individual pie dishes and distribute the vegetables evenly in each bowl.
Heat the sauce and add the chicken meat that you picked – mix it all in. Bring to a simmer and then turn off the heat.
Using a ladle, scoop out the pie mix and evenly distribute into the bowls. Use it all up and if there is some left, save it for a pasta for the next day!
Place the cooked puff lids on top of the pie dish and you are ready to take to the table.
To serve, place the pastry lid up-side-down onto a serving plate, creating a puff pastry bowl. Spoon the chicken pie mix into the puff pastry bowl. (see photo above to see how we serve the Chicken Pie at Donovans).
1kg heirloom tomatoes, eg, oxhearts, cherry tomatoes, green tomatoes 3 peaches, ripe but still slightly firm ½ kg buratta ½ red onion, peeled and sliced paper thin 2 cups sourdough croutons 12 basil leaves, washed 200ml cabernet vinegar 100ml verjus 300ml extra virgin olive oil 1 baguette sourdough bread coarse salt & freshly cracked black pepper
Pesto 250g basil leaves, washed, leaves only 1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped 220ml extra virgin olive oil 100g pinenuts 5tbsp parmigiano-reggiano, grated 1 lemon, juiced coarse salt
For the Pesto: Place the basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts in a food processor and blend until smooth. Transfer to a bowl and add the cheese by hand. Add a bit of lemon juice and season with salt.
For the Salad: Cut your peaches into wedges. On a cake rack, grill them lightly on an open flame, just to add a bit of colour and draw out some of the natural sugars.
Tear the sourdough baguette into 2cm chunks. Toss with a bit of olive oil and season lightly with salt. In a sauté pan, toss over medium heat until lightly toasted. The outside must be crunchy and the inside still a bit chewy.
Cut your tomatoes into a variety of shapes, eg, slices, quarters and/or leave some of the cherry tomatoes whole. In a bowl, macerate the tomatoes with 100ml of the cabernet vinegar for 5 minutes. Prepare a vinaigrette with the balance of the cabernet vinegar, verjus, extra virgin olive oil and salt. Toss your tomatoes and peaches in the vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper. Bring the buratta out to room temperature.
On a decorative platter, arrange the tomatoes and peaches. Place the buratta in the middle of the platter. With a teaspoon, dot the salad with pesto and tear basil leaves around the salad.