Chocolate Black Bean Cake

Our friends Guy and Sarah came round with some of this cake the other day. Chocolate cake with a hint of orange flavour. How complicated is that, I wondered, and it turns out it isn't complicated at all.......not even finding the black beans (in Leclerc, next to the white beans and red beans of course)

So the ingredients are:

100g sugar
normal sized tin of black beans (drained)
3 eggs
3 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of instant coffee
half a vanilla pod, scraped
1 teaspoon of baking powder
juice & zest from half an orange
pinch of salt

You just stick them all in a blender, whizz it up til it's smooth, pour it into a cake tin then break up 50g of 70% dark chocolate and spread it across the top of the cake mixture. Bake at 175 degrees C for about 35 minutes. Easy peasy. And very delicious, and in this house it has disappeared rather rapidly, I wasn't even quick enough to get a photo of it in one piece!!

(Chilli) Chowder

So after having to make carrot soup three times as Éowyn has been eating it non stop for two days, I decided to try and come up with something different. That doesn't contain carrots......

So I fried up some leeks and bits of bacon (I managed to find some proper British bacon in the freezer, but I guess those lardon thingies they have over here would do just as well), added a load of chicken stock, put in a couple of chopped spuds and peppers (Éowyn likes chopping peppers for some reason so that bit was very easy for me), salt & pepper and a few sneaky chilli flakes when no one was looking. Left it to boil along merrily for 20 minutes or so, then added a tin of sweetcorn to heat through and there you go.

Bluddy loverly, even if I do say so myself......