Fabio and I nearly always see spotted eagle rays when we go paddleboarding – to reach the sea we make our way along manmade canals where boats are parked moored, and something about these sheltered, sandy backwaters must appeal to the rays. Especially at low tide, there are often up to ten of them, feeding on the bottom, or swimming about nose-to-very-long-tail. If you’ve ever seen rays swim, you’ll know they’re the most elegant creatures in movement. Rippling their wings – there’s no other word to describe those fins – they glide slowly along and then with a sudden powerful flick fly off into the distance. We often hear them jumping right out of the water although it’s tough to catch them at it.
They genuinely seem curious of our boards, swimming slowly over at the surface to check us out. When Fabio was trying to surf in a little wave the other day, one ray stayed with him for ages, swimming below him again and again, turning belly side up and following him as the wave pushed them both along. I don’t want to anthropomorphize too much – but how else can one describe that but play? It is one of the joys of living in the Bahamas – paddling along silently in clear water means we’ve seen sharks, barracuda, rays, lobsters, trumpet fish as well as birds like enormous white heron, all from our vantage point perched atop stand up boards. So lucky.
Today though something truly special happened as Fabio and I were standing just off the shoreline, in water only calf deep. A spotted eagle ray, about two feet across, came zooming towards us from the sea. It must have known we were there, as we’d been walking around and splashing. It slowed right down and swam casually but deliberately right around our legs, between us and the shore – it was just incredible that a wild creature would put itself in that vulnerable position, so close to shore, in very shallow water with a possible threat (us) between it and the open sea. It came within a few inches of our feet, had what appeared to be a good look and then swam leisurely off to feed nearby. Amazing.
I’m not sure what makes me connect that experience with this recipe, except that if the ray was a sign from the gods that good fortune was with us, I decided take advantage and finally try this purportedly tricky recipe from the river cafe. Tenuous yes, but the dessert worked so let’s not knock it.
This is the famous chocolate nemesis cake, which defeated so many of the Notting hill set back in the nineties that even Julian Barnes was moved to write about it. Apparently people had serious issues in getting this flourless chocolate cake to set. Now, there are about a million versions of this on Google already, with quantities for a big cake so I’ll let you trawl for those if you need to. I made a mini 5″ version and, possibly due to that fact, had no problem at all with setting. It was the perfect size for two. I also followed advice online and let it cool completely in its water bath – some comments said out of the oven, some in it, so I split the difference and left it in the oven with the door cracked open. The final texture was a rich mousse, firm but bubbly – imagine a moist dark chocolate Aero that’s been compacted in a black hole. Anybody? No?
Mini chocolate nemesis
Makes a 15cm/6″ cake, enough for 2
Ingredients
- 108g 70% dark chocolate – I used Lindt Excellence, don’t even think about using crap stuff.
- 70g unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 eggs
- 65g sugar (split into 20g and 45g)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 120˚C. Grease a 15cm cake tin and line with parchment (it doesn’t have to be springform by the way). Cover the outside of the tin with a double layer of heavy duty foil as it’ll be cooked in a water bath. Find a baking dish that the tin fits into and put the kettle on.
- Chop the chocolate coarsely and melt with the butter in a bainmarie.
- Beat the eggs with 20g of the sugar until quadrupled in volume.
- Heat the remaining 45g of sugar with 30ml water (2 tbsps) until the sugar has just dissolved.
- Pour the sugar syrup onto the melted chocolate and leave to cool slightly.
- Add this chocolate mixture to the eggs and beat, on the slowest speed, until just combined.
- Pour into the tin and bang down once onto the worktop to released trapped air. Avoid fart joke.
- Put into the prepared tin in the oven and fill the tin with hot water to come up about 3/4 the way up the tin.
- Cook for 40 minutes and then turn the oven off, crack the door open and leave to cool completely. Unmold, serve and swoon.
Preparation time: 25 minute(s)
Cooking time: 4 hour(s)
Number of servings (yield): 2
Meal type: dessert
Culinary tradition: English
