Gilli's Net Diary: Kid's Favourite Lasagne - and Chocolate Lava Puddings

The request for Thursday dinner this week, was "Your Lasagne Please Grandma"
Of course Old people and kids eat early, so we were eating the lasagne as well, and I was pleasantly surprised how few calories I consumed, from such a lovely rich dish.
Mind you I didn't do my usual "clean up everyone's plates" tricks.
I was under control!!!
This quantity fed the six of us.
You could stretch it to 6 adults with a salad and some yummy garlic bread

Gilli's Basic Meat Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil    120 cals
930 gms Beef Mince    500 cals
100 gms carrot              41 cals
145 gms onion                60 cals
2 cloves garlic                9 cals
1 stalk celery                 40 cals
1 tablespoon tomato paste 13 cals
150 mls white wine                   125 cals
100 mls milk                              60 cals
2 teaspoons dried oregano       6 cals
1/2 teaspoon sea salt                0 cals
Freshly ground black pepper 0 cals
1 teaspoon sugar    15 cals
400 gms can tomatoes           68 cals
Massel’s beef stock cube       11 cals
Hot Water 250 mls                 0 cals

Heat oil in a hot pan
Add mince
Season with Salt and Pepper
Brown well
Remove and set aside
Put all vegetables in the food processor to chop very finely
Throw into pan and scrape up all of the meaty bits
Cook about 5 minutes
Add tomato paste
Cook that out for a couple of minutes

Add white wine
Reduce
Add milk
Mix well
Season with oregano, a little salt and freshly ground black pepper
not too much there is salt in the stock cube
Pop tomatoes into food processor to whiz them up
Add to pan
Return beef to pan
Add sugar and beef stock cubed dissolved in hot water

Bring to boil and simmer gently for about 1 hour

This yields 1775 gms of sauce 1330 calories.

First make a Basic Bechamel Sauce
1 litre whole milk 619 calories
1 bay leave
1/2 onion studded with 3 cloves
8 black freshly ground black pepper corns
75 gms butter 538 cals
50 gms white flour 182 cals
110 Cheddar cheese grated 443 cals
1 egg    61cals

Heat milk with the bay leave, black peppercorns onion and cloves to infuse flavour
The melt butter in pan
Add flour and cook for about 5 minutes to get rid of raw taste
Strain milk and add to pan

Whisk well to combine and bring slowly to the boil stirring all of the time
To make sure there are no lumps
Simmer for about 5 minutes

Take off heat and add cheese.
Weight 1327 gms
Calories 1872

Now to assemble my Lasagne

Meat sauce 400 gms 302 cals
Dried Lasagne Pasta 12 sheets 210 gms 757 cals
Bechamel Sauce quantity as above

Lightly Grease a Gratin dish
Place a little Bechamel Sauce to just cover the bottom
Layer pasta
1/2 of Meat sauce
More Pasta
1/3 of remaining Bechamel sauce
Then add beaten egg to rest of the Bechamel sauce
Set aside
Layer pasta
Rest of the meat sauce
Final layer pasta
And top off with reserved Bechamel sauce

Cover with foil and bake about 40 minutes @ 180C

Cook to this stage earlier in the day or even overnight
Bring to room temperate

Cover off and back into 180C oven till golden brown and bubbling
Finished lasagne weight 1939g
Calories 2930

My portion 245 gms only 370 calories

Yipee... Room for this delicious Chocolate Fondant Pudding

I have never made a Chocolate Fondant Pudding before... on TV Shows, it seems there are frequent disasters. But thank you Laura Calder "French Food at Home", screening on Food TV.
I love her food and her recipes are dotted around my blogs.
This is so so simple
The beauty of this is, that you can prepare it earlier in the day and just pop into a hot oven, just before serving.
So I have "Calorised" it...Surprising how much you can eat, providing you are not too greedy
Thumbs up from the kids and Dale

115 gms dark chocolate        633 cal
160 gms butter 1147 cals
4 eggs                           240 cal
130 gms sugar                      17 cals
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

60 gms flour 218 cals

Weight 705 gms
Calories 2368

Method
I used Dariole Molds and I think they are better than Ceramic Ramekins
Butter six molds
Line with a disk of parchment,
Then butter the parchment.
Very gently melt the chocolate and butter together over a water bath.
Beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and ribbony.
Beat in the flour, and finally the chocolate mixture.
Pour into the molds and chill.
Just before serving, heat the oven to 400°F/200°C.
Place the molds on a baking sheet and bake until the top is set, 12 to 14 minutes.
Remove.