O ... what a night.

Having been slapped over the wrists for not posting sooner, my apologies. "O" was a very tasty letter as there were some very good options to choose from. My menu was a 3 course meal, soup for entree, salad for mains and a delicious cake for dessert.

French Onion Soup
This soup was made with a little bit of help from Heston Blumenthal and a little bit of help from Matt Preston. Heston wanted 7 hours of my time and Matt only wanted 1 hour. I compromised and went with 3 hours and shared recipes.

Grapeseed oil
1kg brown onions, peeled and sliced
2 star anise
30g unsalted butter
150g dry white wine
1 litre of beef stock
500g shallots
a slurp of red wine

Croutons
a few slices of sourdough bread
unsalted butter for frying
Dijon mustard
100g gruyere cheese grated
1tbs chopped chives

1. Preheat oven to 90C. 
2. To start, layer a thin layer of oil on the base of a casserole dish over a medium heat. and sweat the onions with the star anise until lightly caramelised (approx 15 min), stirring regularly. 
3. Add the butter and 25g of cold water, stir and put the dish covered in the oven for 3 hours (Heston says 7 hours and Matt says 1 hour. I put it in the oven for 3 hours)
4. After the oven time, remove the star anise and discard. Place the dish over a high heat and deglaze the onions with the wine. Allow to reduce until almost dry.
5. Add the stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Add some red wine if you want at this point and simmer for a further 20 minutes.
6. When ready to serve, fry the slices of sourdough bread in a little melted butter over a medium heat until golden and crisp. Spread each slice with Dijon mustard, then cover them with cheese and sprinkle with chopped chives.
7. Ladle soup into bowls and place slices of cheese topped croutons on top. Place under the grill until the cheese turns golden brown.

For the main course I returned to an old favourite, Orange and Poppy-seed salad with Spanish Pork. You can find the recipe at the following link. http://oitcfood.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/anyone-for-some-orange.html

Olive Oil Chocolate Cake

150 ml regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
50 grams cocoa
125 ml boiling water
2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
150 g ground almonds (or 125g plain flour / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
200 grams caster sugar
3 large eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 170°C. Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
2. Sift the cocoa into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
3. In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
4. Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a mixer and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.
5. Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.
6. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour into the prepared tin. 
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean.
8. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.