Time for the Daring Bakers challenge for February. Its actually the first one I’ve completed, the other times I’ve been too busy, or I or the family has been ill.. just my luck.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.

We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

The cake itself is a flourless chocolate cake, which may sound wierd, but I figure, why use the flour if you can get the cake to stick togheter without.

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I’m not the big eater of courgettes, I don’t really think they taste of much. Still when i saw a recipe for Stuffed courgettes over at ItalianFoodies, I had to try to make them, since they were so delicious looking.

After trying them out (here in February), and it wasnt much of a success, I will wait till the end of summer to try them out again. Then the ingredients needed will actually be in season. Then you can get red tomatoes, and vivid green basil, and not “light orange” tomatoes, and green-ish basil. The idea with the recipe is all right, but when the only ingredients giving taste is the cheese and the garlic, it becomes a bit boring.

Ingredients:

2 courgetters (not too big)
200g cherry tomatoes
8 basil leaves
1 clove of garlic
1 ball of mozzarella
Grated parmesan
olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Turn on the oven at 190 grader C. (380F)

Split the courgettes lengtwise, and then grab a teaspoon and scoop the innards out.

Watch out for “cutting” the sides of the vegetable with the spoon. Chop the spooned out stuff, and put it into a bowl.

While the rest of the things are beeing chopped, drizzle some olive oil on the hollowed courgettes, and bake them in the oven for about 10 minutes. This will help everything cook evenly.

Chop the tomatoes, and send them the same way as the innards of the courgettes.

Chop the clove of garlic and the basil finely, and send it into the bowl also.

As olive oil to your liking, stir, and spoon the filling into the hollow courgettes (which by now should not be in the oven anymore)

Tilsæt olivenolie efter smag, rør rundt, og læg fyldet over i de udhulede courgetter (som er taget ud af ovnen)

Time to grate some parmesan on top, amount according to taste.

Last, chop the mozzarella, and put on top. The now stuffed courgettes are put back into the oven, and baked for about 20 minutes, or to the cheese has the wanted color.

I was at my local butcher buying some pork chops and got the skin with me. Time to make homemade pork cracklings.

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I got a rare craving for a nice cup of tea. Just a simple cup of Earl Grey with a spoonfull of vanilla sugar.  Homemade vanilla sugar is very easy to make and worth it. After you used the seeds, just chop op the vanilla beans. Put them in a container and poor sugar over them until covered.  The longer the sugar stays in the cupboard the better it gets.

Standing in the kicthen preparing the tea I suddenlig realised I had a bit of cognac left from my take on fruitsalat. Without hesitation i poured a few drops of it into my tea. Just enough to get a bit of taste.

It worked perfectly, a nice enriched cuppa. For those who really like their liquor, feel free to use more:)