Staying awake with Seafood Paella & Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

Finally, I can sit down and bring some life back into this neglected spot! I was in Sydney during the Easter long weekend and then battling an onslaught of assignments, tests and practical assessments; all of which were due in the same week. I definitely have a backlog of cook-ups and my Sydney pig-out sessions to write about but for this entry, I’ve decided to start with the most recent thing I cooked and that was dinner on Saturday night of seafood and chorizo paella accompanied by a dessert of flourless chocolate and hazelnut cake. Although a pretty much impromptu affair, dinner was made all the more awesome with the company of my sisters, cousin and his girlfriend. We dined, we laughed and even conducted a  spontaneous and ridiculous blind-taste test on different brands of Ginger Beer/Ale.

Saxby’s Ginger Beer took the winning crown; spicy, gingery with a kick-factor of 10/10 while a well-known brand ( I’m not telling which one) tasted and smelled like the toilet cleaner and it isn’t Home Brand.

But I digress. My paella was ok as I made it on a whim; I had no time to make a fish stock and simply tossed in chorizo, mussel meat, green prawns, chopped capsicum, tomatoes, paprika and medium grain rice, cooked in chicken stock and coloured it with turmeric because I was too cheapskate to buy saffron, which I will only splurge on when I decide to cook it the proper way in a proper paella pan. 🙂 It was ok considering I had been awake for more than 24 hours after finishing my kitchen unit assessment during the first half of Saturday.  But the flourless chocolate and hazelnut cake was a blast! The recipe is from Citrus and Candy ; a divine treat for chocoholics. The combination of grounded hazelnuts and luscious bitter chocolate made it a gorgeous treat. Mind, you, it is a very rich cake so a small wedge or slice  is enough to send your eye-balls rolling back or so I think that was the effect it had on me. I did not make the sexy oozing ganache but I added a generous tablespoonful or two of Frangelico into the cake batter.  On Sunday, we went raspberry-picking at Kinglake and brought home a tub of lovely raspberries so I decided to decorate this leftover cake slice (pictured above) with our bountiful pickings and guess what; it was definitely a match made in heaven! The burst of slightly sweet and sour flavours of the berries complemented the bitter-sweetness of the chocolate. Love it! Love it! and Love it!

And with all that; good food, good company and great entertainment, I stayed up for a record, 40 hours!!

Insane!!

speak to me, you sexy thing!

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4 comments to Staying awake with Seafood Paella & Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

  • Moyang

    Speak to you sexy thing?
    AM i the one? Haha..yeah was fun taste testing all that ginger beer/ale. Left my tummy feeling a bit too gassy though. Lol

  • Vyanne

    U bet the cake is sexy! I have goosebumps just thinking about the combination of chocolate, hazelnuts and raspberries. It is the little black dress in cake world. 🙂

  • shirls

    wow.. the food looks heavenly, babe.. as per usual 😉 do share ur recipe of the seafood paella! i’ve had the best seafood paella back in malaysia. can’t seem to find any good ones here though =( perhaps i should attempt one on my own! lol

  • Mei Sze

    When I make it the proper way, I will document the recipe. I too have not tasted awesome paella in melbourne. The best one I ate was in Spain but that was eons ago. The key is the fish stock, fresh seafood and of course the prized saffron…hehehehe