Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

I am addicted to food programmes. Whenever I switch on telly, invariably I end up watching some food programme. On Christmas day, one of the food channels was showing Nigella Lawson’s Christmas Kitchen for the whole day. Can you believe it one whole day of Nigella’s cooking videos, uninterrupted? Well, it wasn’t uninterrupted for me, as with my little-one in my arms, I hardly get time to do anything else. But I am a big fan of Nigella hence couldn’t let go of the urge to watch the show. Obviously I didn’t manage to watch the whole day but I did catch-up some bits and pieces of it. That inspired me to make these Chocolate Pistachio Fudges. Although I must admit I had two other reasons to make these, one I was going to a pre-Christmas party and wanted to take some homemade edible gift for the host and two, I will be publishing regularly at www.thisisbristol.co.uk from now on on their Lifestyle section. I wanted something that’s festive and Christmassy for my first contribution to the website. I made my own little tweaks in the recipe. So here is my version and the original can be found in the BBC website .

Ingredients:

400 gm dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

1 can of evaporated milk (about 410 gms)

30 gm butter

100 gm unsalted pistachios

Coco powder for dusting (My touch and completely optional)

Method:

Take a heavy bottomed pan and place it over low heat. Place all the ingredients but the pistachio nuts in the pan and stir until melted and well combined. In a freezer bag place the nuts and bash them with a rolling pin to get smaller pieces of them. Now mix the nuts with the melted chocolate and stir well. Take a rectangular / square tray and line it with aluminium foil. Pour the mixture in the tray and make sure the mixture spreads evenly. Cover and let it cool and set in the fridge. Take it out of the freeze after 4-5 hours but I left it over night. Cut the chocolate fudge into small pieces. You can store them in the freezer and can eat then straight away. My version some how turned out to be little softer than I saw in the video hence I coated them in cocoa powder. it had two advantages, one it looked like truffles and two it helped holding them while eating.

I packed them in a home made gift box and took it to the party that evening. It was a hit. People simply loved it. Thanks a ton Nigella for this beautiful, delicious, easy to make recipe. Oh! I almost forgot..these are very rich delights, so a small piece is enough for most people, unless you are a chocoholic like .. ME! I guess. Enjoy! Sending this to Mission Cupcake’s forever Nigella contest.