Now THIS, is sex. I challenge you to find a better red velvet cake anywhere in LA. I dont' remember where it was from, but I will find out soon. No matter how far no matter how long, I will find you!!
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Red Velvet Wonderfulness
Beard Papa for the Win
Have you ever made love with a Tupelo honey rainbow made out of Ewan McGregor's smile? Or kissed a melted buttery, chocolatey pot of gold at the end of that rainbow that was actually made out of Ewan McGregor's entire BODY? Or maybe just done a little waltz on the caramel coated rooftop of Hogwarts Castle with Matt Bellamy dipped in custard cream...? if so, you may have come close to the heaven of what this Japanese cream puff den of bliss has to offer.
OMG oozing!
Monday, October 01, 2007
A simple beauty
If you don't think this is sexy, you shouldn't be here.
(Or France, for that matter.)
I love it because both the 'chocolat chaud' I drank here, and the counter woman, were completely below my expectations, proving that even when the reality of the image doesn't live up to your expectations, you still get the image! And sometimes that's all you need.
(Or France, for that matter.)
I love it because both the 'chocolat chaud' I drank here, and the counter woman, were completely below my expectations, proving that even when the reality of the image doesn't live up to your expectations, you still get the image! And sometimes that's all you need.
A 1000 Words Are Worth a Picture
Truffles, black chocolate truffles, nearly unmentionable they were so perfect and dark as I knew they would be. I ate them simply with a paper cup of hot chocolate.
I was looking out at the rain and watching the meter, time slowing down in the daze of consumption. So delicate they were, the gluttony barely had a chance. I snapped their shells and swallowed: taste so exquisite there is nothing to do but taste. My silent moment, my reward, as normal a task as any. Dusted fingertips the only trace of it.
I do miss you in these times, but without overthinking you are merely another earth sign. Perhaps I don’t need another. Sex substitutes well with widened eyes from chocolate intake, fresh baked bread, it sticks to your mouth, tempts the fingers to go inside, touch, tip, sip a rounded head of macchiato foam...it’s all sex. There was the missing ingredient in us. But the missing link that kept us what we were.
In any case it’s not about that. It’s not about that right now. It’s about white bread yielding to white beans soaked in vinegar. White daylight in a pastry shop and Serge Gainsbourg singing while we cut vegetables.
I was looking out at the rain and watching the meter, time slowing down in the daze of consumption. So delicate they were, the gluttony barely had a chance. I snapped their shells and swallowed: taste so exquisite there is nothing to do but taste. My silent moment, my reward, as normal a task as any. Dusted fingertips the only trace of it.
I do miss you in these times, but without overthinking you are merely another earth sign. Perhaps I don’t need another. Sex substitutes well with widened eyes from chocolate intake, fresh baked bread, it sticks to your mouth, tempts the fingers to go inside, touch, tip, sip a rounded head of macchiato foam...it’s all sex. There was the missing ingredient in us. But the missing link that kept us what we were.
In any case it’s not about that. It’s not about that right now. It’s about white bread yielding to white beans soaked in vinegar. White daylight in a pastry shop and Serge Gainsbourg singing while we cut vegetables.
Rise and Shine
I went all out one sunday morning with the eggs in the fridge, the frozen sausage, and the potato that had been sitting there for way too long. Sometimes old friends make the best lovers. Especially when you get up in there with a macro lens and some barely melting cheese. EUH YA!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
I left my stomach in San Francisco
OMG Stack
My sister and I waited for almost an hour to eat here. As always, breakfast is better in the bay!!!!!! (even when it's just pancakes with walnuts on top). I dont' even want to eat it, I just want to stare.
Dark Chocolate Terrain
Nothing says LOVE like a gently cracking chocolate cake just out of the oven. Naked, untouched, waiting... heheh.
Monday, July 16, 2007
CONFESSIONS OF A CRAZED POPCORN LOVER - the glory of movie night.
When I was in Paris last year we popped corn kernels in a wide skillet without a drop of oil, and strung it on our little Charlie Brown-sized Christmas tree. (His name was Norman).
In early June when it was my mother's birthday and we were settling in for a cozy night of movie-renting and popcorn-candy binging, my desire for making fresh, un-microwaved popcorn struck hard. I remembered Paris and fell under images of a deep, heavy skillet spilling over with mounds of crackling light, homemade popcorn. And butter too! Bowls of butter bathing every crevice, and steaming sweet salty nothings onto our dissolving tongues.
Soon enough I was clanging about the cupboards, digging for the giant stove top pot and smacking alarmingly large wedges of unsalted butter off and into a small saucepan for melting. My mom became tense with all this calmour, and led herself to fretting at the slightest indication of a burnt pan, or the lack of (or over abundance of) coconut oil being used to heat the sweet yellow seed. I rattled and shook, covered and uncovered the pot, peering at the thin layer of glistening kernels bobbing slightly under the pressure of all that growing heat and ignored her. My hair separated and frayed, grew larger over eyes crazed with desire, my face blurred in the maddening steam... She would just have to wait and see.
Mountains! Glorious glowing bright butter colored mountains of pale white yellow popcorn began to erupt from the pot. A few soared like flying fish from The Muppets while I reigned over the rest with my aluminum sheild. A few shakes more and my crop was delivered to the crayola blue bowl waiting on the table. Then came down the warm, heavy rain, drizzling two sticks of unsalted, freshly melted butter over the billowing bowl of hot, dry popcorn. And what could be better than that? (Perhaps dishes of sea salt plucked from their shelves, the thin flakes crushed lightly with all 5 fingers in a flurry and zeal as yet undiscovered since the days of the freshly-picked garden basil or the peppercorns-cracked over homemade vichyssoise. )
In a giant bowl, butter pooling lightly at the bottom and sides scraped with invisible grains of salt, I brought the glory into the den, and we ate. we dug we dug we dug down deep into the bowl, hungry, happy and heavenly fresh.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Food Muse - BROWNIES aka SWEET HEAVEN DIPPED IN CHOCOLATE FOG - the best BROWNIE RECIPE
Our local paper is pretty cool, but not a place where an occasional food snob like me would assume I would find the BEST BROWNIE RECIPE EVER. I stumbled upon this recipe in an article that covered a few different types of how to make the luxurious chocolately fudgey cakey dream confection-thing known as our beloved brownie. This recipe is attributd to Nick Malgieri from the book Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers .I made this brownie recipe for my aunt's 64th birthday after making them once before just for us (my mom, stepdad, me and my boyfriend Danny boy) Imagine late night wedges cracking as you gently lift them up from the pan, cheeks stuffed with heavy, hidden warmth as you sneak a bite for breakfast, and spontaneous ziploc bag stowaways anytime you fear you may be gone long enough to need a light, throat sticking, sweet chocolate humming brownie injection.
ahem. heh...
THE BEST BROWNIE RECIPE:
SUPERNATURAL BROWNIES
you will need: a 13x9" baking pan and parchment paper.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2 sticks (16 Tbls.) unsalted butter, plus more for the pan and paper.
8 oz. bittersweet (not unsweetened) chocolate
(I highly recommend Trader Joes Belgian Pound Plus bar for major bang for the buck)
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, or 3/4 cup whole walnuts, optional. (as is any preferred nut)
Butter a 13x9 inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper.
In the top pan of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, melt the 2 sticks of butter and the chocolate together. When all have melted together, remove from heat and cool slightly.
In a large bowl or mixer, whisk eggs.
Whisk in salt, sugars, and vanilla.
Whisk in chocolate/butter mixture.
Fold in flour until just combined.
If using chopped walnuts, stir them in.
Turn batter evenly into prepared pan. If using whole walnuts, arrange on top of the batter.
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 40-45 minutes until shiny and beginning to crack on top.
Cool in pan on rack.
makes 15 large to 24 small brownies.
let cool and store tightly wrapped.
(Enjoy the brownie recipe you heavily lidded chocolate addicts!)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Someone's in the Kitchen
Obviously I love food, but in browsing through my photos I noticed there is one thing I love nearly as much, and that's a nice kitchen. I'm certainly not talking one that has to be stainless steel and marble (though when we can all afford that, wouldn't it be nice?) What I love are the kitchens that have so seen the celebration of food and company, day in and day out, that they just look like another member of the family. The kitchens I love in my life are inextricably bound to the food memories they gave me. 
Here is my mom's kitchen, the daily ritual of very long, late morning breakfasts, my sister and her boyfriend reading the paper. One of my favorite things about my childhood kitchen (and most others) is the light. ahhh, so loverly.
This is my friend Thea's kitchen (that's Thea at the sink) I love the light and the blue curtain. Everyone was piling stuff all over the counter and making drinks and getting the place well worn in and messy, it was great.
London! Staying with my friend Sean, at his friend's place in east London, they made potatoes and 'veg', with baked lemon chicken and wine. (or was this the day with roasted parsnips? mmm heaven) I was entranced by the light and the steam (as you can see here) It was a simple meal that seemed appropriately British, and I just watched from the couch as they calmly prepared it, chatting away at the counter.
Julien's kitchen! St. Mande. What can I say? cracking bread, half pulled apart baguette and cheese on the counter, popcorn popping on the stove for stringing on the christmas tree, French boys cooking pasta for 8 people making a mess, and a small cold glass of blood orange juice in the morning before anyone is awake...this is the first kitchen that felt like home to me in a foreign country. (and so far the only one!) 
Yay echo park! Bright light coming in from the garden window and any assortment of fresh vegetables or fruit, known or unknown, that we can test, slice, suck, slurp, chomp and sample in the spread of culinary comraderie (and maybe a slice of toast with butter or jam) that is Thea's parent's kitchen. Love it.
OMG crepe parties. Laure's dad's Kitchen. What can I say? This says it all.
My sister Bridget lives in SF, needless to say for anyone who knows me, I absolutely adore it there. This was the day her Turkish boyfriend made a Turkish feast. He was wearing a dark green shirt cutting green scallions and I crowded the table deboning two hot, steaming chickens. He made zucchini fritters and white beans soaked in vinegar with onions and tomatos, swathed with bread soaking up the juices, and my sister made fresh roasted babaganoush from the electric stove top burners. I ran downstairs 3 times in the cold, approaching evening to the store on the corner to get ice, fresh parsley and other last minute additions. I have rarely been so content.
Here is my mom's kitchen, the daily ritual of very long, late morning breakfasts, my sister and her boyfriend reading the paper. One of my favorite things about my childhood kitchen (and most others) is the light. ahhh, so loverly.
This is my friend Thea's kitchen (that's Thea at the sink) I love the light and the blue curtain. Everyone was piling stuff all over the counter and making drinks and getting the place well worn in and messy, it was great.
London! Staying with my friend Sean, at his friend's place in east London, they made potatoes and 'veg', with baked lemon chicken and wine. (or was this the day with roasted parsnips? mmm heaven) I was entranced by the light and the steam (as you can see here) It was a simple meal that seemed appropriately British, and I just watched from the couch as they calmly prepared it, chatting away at the counter.
Julien's kitchen! St. Mande. What can I say? cracking bread, half pulled apart baguette and cheese on the counter, popcorn popping on the stove for stringing on the christmas tree, French boys cooking pasta for 8 people making a mess, and a small cold glass of blood orange juice in the morning before anyone is awake...this is the first kitchen that felt like home to me in a foreign country. (and so far the only one!) 
Yay echo park! Bright light coming in from the garden window and any assortment of fresh vegetables or fruit, known or unknown, that we can test, slice, suck, slurp, chomp and sample in the spread of culinary comraderie (and maybe a slice of toast with butter or jam) that is Thea's parent's kitchen. Love it.
OMG crepe parties. Laure's dad's Kitchen. What can I say? This says it all.
My sister Bridget lives in SF, needless to say for anyone who knows me, I absolutely adore it there. This was the day her Turkish boyfriend made a Turkish feast. He was wearing a dark green shirt cutting green scallions and I crowded the table deboning two hot, steaming chickens. He made zucchini fritters and white beans soaked in vinegar with onions and tomatos, swathed with bread soaking up the juices, and my sister made fresh roasted babaganoush from the electric stove top burners. I ran downstairs 3 times in the cold, approaching evening to the store on the corner to get ice, fresh parsley and other last minute additions. I have rarely been so content.
Friday, July 06, 2007
Goat Cheese
The Wonderful World of Chavrie
I have become very enamoured with "Chavrie", the spreadable goat cheese. My mom bought it on a whim, and I find it to be the perfect new staple for my many kitchens to come. If you place it on it's bottom, on the lid, and unhook the lid squeezing the opposite corners of it's semi-pyramid box, it opens like Collignon's shopkeeper's secret stashes in Amelie - TADAH! My god the cool of it, the density, the depth of it's mellow tart taste back pocketed in your mouth...it's tremendous. I have taken to spreading it on toast for a morning meal, it's so bright and happily tanging, it's as it it's yogurt. I am quite so very fond of it.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Simple Things - food as unexpected beauty
When I eat, I don't just enjoy the process of consumption. What matters to me nearly always as much, is what I see and how it makes me feel about my experience. Everywhere you look, there is art. Or more precisely, beauty in the details.
Monday, June 04, 2007
Roots-Beets-Vegetables
From my "Foody" book dated 10/20/06
I feel so so blessed. So blessed that I know it has nothing to do with anything but food.
Buying vegetables, big brown bags of them, being inspired by the silver terrain dishes of the Getty exhibit...I sliced carrots big and round, thick wedges of discs between my fingers as I cradled them, falling, into the bowl. Beets are roasting in the oven! Oh glorious beets! So delicate-they always spoke of delicate skin-I never even realized it. So nutricious, beautiful red blood, magenta. The root, real, vitality, earthiness... that sound in your mouth when you think of them- roots-vegetables- potatoes, beets - the oven and the stove is creaking like the calm sway of a rigging on a ship. What simplictiy and quiet lovliness. The clock ticking, the plastic bags I have loosely bundled on the table. Maybe I need to live in another time. I know the great joy of this and savoring it with my mom, will bring me the only happiness I truly seek, as I grow up and learn to share it with others.
I feel so so blessed. So blessed that I know it has nothing to do with anything but food.
Buying vegetables, big brown bags of them, being inspired by the silver terrain dishes of the Getty exhibit...I sliced carrots big and round, thick wedges of discs between my fingers as I cradled them, falling, into the bowl. Beets are roasting in the oven! Oh glorious beets! So delicate-they always spoke of delicate skin-I never even realized it. So nutricious, beautiful red blood, magenta. The root, real, vitality, earthiness... that sound in your mouth when you think of them- roots-vegetables- potatoes, beets - the oven and the stove is creaking like the calm sway of a rigging on a ship. What simplictiy and quiet lovliness. The clock ticking, the plastic bags I have loosely bundled on the table. Maybe I need to live in another time. I know the great joy of this and savoring it with my mom, will bring me the only happiness I truly seek, as I grow up and learn to share it with others.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Of Japanese tea and Portuguese pastry - the joy of Food Writing
I've been sick the past couple of days so fortunately it's been all about having permission to do nothing but read and watch movies. Fortunately, as well, my mom majored in English and has rows of thin, breaking books whose delicacies I have oftened dreamt of devouring. Well, this time I finally have.
As if moved by some greater force of fate, I plucked out "The Book of Tea" by Kakuzo Okakura, a 65 page book about Japanese culture as seen, partially, through the eyes of the tea ceremony. It's one of those books where the love of food, art and culture all come in handy, (not to mention an interest in history, philosophy and flower arrangement) and I feel as though I've "done my job" after reading it, and have actually become a more well-rounded person.
I am now committed to learning about the Japanese tea ceremony. I was also charmed beyond belief at his amazing ability to capture the simplicity and purpose of 'taking tea':
"Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life."
Yay!
In my foggy headed days I am also catching up on a wonderful travel novel "A Year in the World" by Frances Mayes
In a similar fashion of art history-ishness and foodie-isms, she's enraptured me with Portuguese food. Especially pastry. (are we seeing a trend here? perhaps this blog should be about tea and creme anglais)
Today I will visit the Portuguese bakery I have noticed for over a year now, owning to passages such as these:
"Down the street we come to another cause for celebration--this one dedicated to the famous pastry of Lisbon, pasteis de Belem. The Antiga Confeitaria de Belem, a crowded bakery-cafe, lures you from yards away with the toasty scents of the tarts that children must be given from year one. A chaos of mutable lines forms at the counter, where people order sackfuls to take home for Saturday lunch. The delicate layered pastry shell is filled with voluptuous custard, a creamy, irresistible treat. Ed has two. And will, I imagine, every day for the remainder of our trip."
I am suddenly in love with the food of Lisbon just from hearing paragraphs like this and other simple lists of what they ate on their trip. The words fall out of my head and tumble like heavy honey, good, drinkable wine, and the easiness of eating well and often. hooray! A sample below:
-Rissoles, 'pronounced 'ree soysh', "it's a pastry-savory-filled with prawns. or fish or pork. I have to have rissoles everyday"stuffed spider crab, baked bacalhau, dried cod, light, rich chocolate cake with a "quality of chocolate that speaks of tropical earth and rainforests", "tiny glasses of Amarguinha, a dessert digestivo made of almonds", "Green wine, Vinho Verde Muralhas de Moncao, and then a red Azeitao Periquita Fonesca" "goat cheese wrapped in gauze, and almonds suspended in honey", "massa de piemiento" and "a salad of dried fava beans, plumped again with oil, garlic and coriander, then strips of savory roast pork, a round of ricotta seasoned with oregano, and a bowl of tempura-style green beans."
Hotdamn, take me to Portugal!
As if moved by some greater force of fate, I plucked out "The Book of Tea" by Kakuzo Okakura, a 65 page book about Japanese culture as seen, partially, through the eyes of the tea ceremony. It's one of those books where the love of food, art and culture all come in handy, (not to mention an interest in history, philosophy and flower arrangement) and I feel as though I've "done my job" after reading it, and have actually become a more well-rounded person.
I am now committed to learning about the Japanese tea ceremony. I was also charmed beyond belief at his amazing ability to capture the simplicity and purpose of 'taking tea':
"Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life."
Yay!
In my foggy headed days I am also catching up on a wonderful travel novel "A Year in the World" by Frances Mayes
In a similar fashion of art history-ishness and foodie-isms, she's enraptured me with Portuguese food. Especially pastry. (are we seeing a trend here? perhaps this blog should be about tea and creme anglais)
Today I will visit the Portuguese bakery I have noticed for over a year now, owning to passages such as these:
"Down the street we come to another cause for celebration--this one dedicated to the famous pastry of Lisbon, pasteis de Belem. The Antiga Confeitaria de Belem, a crowded bakery-cafe, lures you from yards away with the toasty scents of the tarts that children must be given from year one. A chaos of mutable lines forms at the counter, where people order sackfuls to take home for Saturday lunch. The delicate layered pastry shell is filled with voluptuous custard, a creamy, irresistible treat. Ed has two. And will, I imagine, every day for the remainder of our trip."
I am suddenly in love with the food of Lisbon just from hearing paragraphs like this and other simple lists of what they ate on their trip. The words fall out of my head and tumble like heavy honey, good, drinkable wine, and the easiness of eating well and often. hooray! A sample below:
-Rissoles, 'pronounced 'ree soysh', "it's a pastry-savory-filled with prawns. or fish or pork. I have to have rissoles everyday"stuffed spider crab, baked bacalhau, dried cod, light, rich chocolate cake with a "quality of chocolate that speaks of tropical earth and rainforests", "tiny glasses of Amarguinha, a dessert digestivo made of almonds", "Green wine, Vinho Verde Muralhas de Moncao, and then a red Azeitao Periquita Fonesca" "goat cheese wrapped in gauze, and almonds suspended in honey", "massa de piemiento" and "a salad of dried fava beans, plumped again with oil, garlic and coriander, then strips of savory roast pork, a round of ricotta seasoned with oregano, and a bowl of tempura-style green beans."
Hotdamn, take me to Portugal!
Ktichen Delights - a trip through breakfast and other essential works of art.
I haven't written a food blog in over a month! I'm sad to say I even missed my birth month, glorious April, rounded up well with new, improving clarity and many cups of tea. Taken of course with the proper pleasure of awakening spring.
So with the inspiration from my friend Laure who recently was a top 16 finalist for Apartment Therapy's contest, I have decided to dig back into something that is "so me", something that I love. Of course, that is taking pictures of food.
Every time I make something and the light in my lovely kitchen happens to hit it just so, or I catch a gleam of some strange edge of cake, cream or crust, I must capture it. Thank god for digital cameras. Usually the desire strikes me in the morning.
Ode to the little light of spring above, the little joys of eating something lovely.
Monday, March 12, 2007
PICTURES OF CHOCOLATE!
(Z. Cioccolato in San Fran! best fudge I've ever had)wheee!
mmm melty chocolate goodness.
What could be better than picutres of chocolate? well, ok, maybe eating it. but let's say you dont' have your pick of the litter, or enough money to to indulge all your chocolate dreams?
I say slap yourself silly with imagination and gentle lust looking at chocolate pictures.
In the slow and ever changing attempts to start a small business focused on chocolate, I have my share of pictures! After just writing my hot chocolate blog I got amped up and spazed out on the thought of the lovely stuff, and I just want to share some of my pictures with you. enjoy.
This is probably my favorite picture of all time (that I took)
Not only is a picture of a chocolate 'gateau' like this enough to knock me out for days, but the fact that I have the glorious glory of remembering what it was to EAT it...? whew, lord hold me back. Everyone go to Paris.
These pictures are from 
my days of obsessive chocolate truffle/candy testing.
my days of obsessive chocolate truffle/candy testing.
mmm melty chocolate goodness. more chocolate pictures to come, I'm inspired!
The best HOT CHOCOLATE RECIPE ever
Hello everyone! Are you ready to get the best hot chocolate recipe of your life? yea.
Although it's been a while since I've indulged on a nightly basis, I got a hankering for hot chocolate today, even though it's sweltering outside.
The Valley. psh. whadya gonna do?
Months ago when I was in the throes of trying to develop gourmet hot chocolate to sell, I did a lot of research on thick, rich and european inspired recipes. This is the result of my labors. Now we are not, or course, talking your normal cocoa powdered drink. If you are a chocolate lover, than the versatility, ease and induglence factor of this recipe will soothe your soul. or any other parts of you, mm. (easy now!)
Hot Chocolate Recipe part ONE (the joy of anticipation)
To make the ganache: (hot chocolate base)
8oz DARK chocolate, very finely chopped (food processor/blender if you got it) bittersweet is of course fine too, if you are not into super dark chocolate.
(This is the best part, where you get to pick your favorite chocolate to really tailor-make the taste)
8oz (plus 2 tablespoons extra) HEAVY CREAM
2 tbls Honey
Sea Salt 1/8tsp/pinch
In a small saucepan bring the cream to a simmer on low heat (Keep your eye on it, it will happen fsat, when bubbles start to form all around the edge of the pan, that's when you take action!)
Pour HALF of the cream over your bowl of chopped chocolate, and let it SIT for about 30 secs or a minute. The idea is to let all the chocolate start to melt and get used to the temperature change.
Take a rubber spatula (wood has too much potential moisture, and chocolate hates moisture!) and SLOWLY start to stir, from the inside out, until all the chocolate is melted well with the cream and glossy. Add the remaining cream (you may want to throw it back on the burner to give it a quick heat, that's what I usually do) and incorperate it into the chocolate mixture in the same manner.
Give a semi-generous pinch of sea salt to the mix while it's still warm and stir to dissolve. Add the 2 tbls. honey and stir to dissolve.
*NOTE* Don't worry TOO much about being precise and slow, the idea is just not to maniacally stir and smash and rush it. There is an emulsification process that has to take place. Gentle, consistent stirring is good.
You can now store your Hot Chocolate base in the fridge for 2 weeks, tightly covered, or in the freezer for a month, OR set at room temp if you are not in a rush, for 4-5 hours.
Hot Chocolate Recipe Part TWO (the joy of acquisition!)
This is the easiest part of all!
Get yer cup ready and:
In a small saucepan over low heat melt 1 Tbls whole milk for every 1Tbls hot chocolate base (ganache)
When everything is all melted nice and warm, pour the elixir into your cup of choice and top with some freshly whipped heavy cream, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, chocolate fudge, heck anything you want!
mmmmyum! I think I want to go have some right now. hopefully you live in a cooler climate than me.
Nothing compares to homemade, gourmet hot chocolate. Especially when the recipe is this easy.
hold me back.
:)
Although it's been a while since I've indulged on a nightly basis, I got a hankering for hot chocolate today, even though it's sweltering outside.
The Valley. psh. whadya gonna do?
Months ago when I was in the throes of trying to develop gourmet hot chocolate to sell, I did a lot of research on thick, rich and european inspired recipes. This is the result of my labors. Now we are not, or course, talking your normal cocoa powdered drink. If you are a chocolate lover, than the versatility, ease and induglence factor of this recipe will soothe your soul. or any other parts of you, mm. (easy now!)
Hot Chocolate Recipe part ONE (the joy of anticipation)
To make the ganache: (hot chocolate base)
8oz DARK chocolate, very finely chopped (food processor/blender if you got it) bittersweet is of course fine too, if you are not into super dark chocolate.
(This is the best part, where you get to pick your favorite chocolate to really tailor-make the taste)
8oz (plus 2 tablespoons extra) HEAVY CREAM
2 tbls Honey
Sea Salt 1/8tsp/pinch
In a small saucepan bring the cream to a simmer on low heat (Keep your eye on it, it will happen fsat, when bubbles start to form all around the edge of the pan, that's when you take action!)
Pour HALF of the cream over your bowl of chopped chocolate, and let it SIT for about 30 secs or a minute. The idea is to let all the chocolate start to melt and get used to the temperature change.
Take a rubber spatula (wood has too much potential moisture, and chocolate hates moisture!) and SLOWLY start to stir, from the inside out, until all the chocolate is melted well with the cream and glossy. Add the remaining cream (you may want to throw it back on the burner to give it a quick heat, that's what I usually do) and incorperate it into the chocolate mixture in the same manner.
Give a semi-generous pinch of sea salt to the mix while it's still warm and stir to dissolve. Add the 2 tbls. honey and stir to dissolve.
*NOTE* Don't worry TOO much about being precise and slow, the idea is just not to maniacally stir and smash and rush it. There is an emulsification process that has to take place. Gentle, consistent stirring is good.
You can now store your Hot Chocolate base in the fridge for 2 weeks, tightly covered, or in the freezer for a month, OR set at room temp if you are not in a rush, for 4-5 hours.
Hot Chocolate Recipe Part TWO (the joy of acquisition!)
This is the easiest part of all!
Get yer cup ready and:
In a small saucepan over low heat melt 1 Tbls whole milk for every 1Tbls hot chocolate base (ganache)
When everything is all melted nice and warm, pour the elixir into your cup of choice and top with some freshly whipped heavy cream, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, chocolate fudge, heck anything you want!
mmmmyum! I think I want to go have some right now. hopefully you live in a cooler climate than me.
Nothing compares to homemade, gourmet hot chocolate. Especially when the recipe is this easy.
hold me back.
:)
Friday, March 02, 2007
FOOD FANTASIES IN THE TIME OF CAVEMEN or OMG, SUGAR.
I just cleaned the oven. It wasn't terrible, it wasn't great, it just was. And now here I am, Friday night wondering not, "why am I cleaning an oven on Friday night?" but rather, "why am I not CARING that I'm cleaning an oven on Friday night?" eh?It was in my semi-dazed sort of scrub-up that I began to really feel the pull of my current, 1-week, 'see if this clears up my skin' diet of no carbs (no sugar)
It started out as a hearty "hell ya!" for health and is now dribbling somewhere between a mess of overly browned meat and vegetables, and a 5th grade altercation between my best friend and I over the, supposed, perils of bacon fat.
Wikipedia explains the caveman diet thusly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caveman_diet
I just go "ooga."
I cannot for the life of me make sense of (read: DECIDE) which diet is the one I am on. If I truly want to avoid all sugar and carbs, then fruit is out...dear, innocent fruit. Which means then I am NOT on the caveman diet. But if I stick to my no carb thing really truly, then I AM on the caveman diet...but without the fruit...? like...right?
So what I am discovering now in my heavy-lidded stupor of hunger pains after dinner, is that it's an utter complete mess if I'm left trying to eat only frickin' meat and veg!
I want my sweeeeeeeeeets!!!! waaahugugu..
So instead of caving (ahem, aha, ahememamgugururug), I am sending my unrequited love song for sweets out into the universe with a particularly hearty and tragic fog of yearning in the direction of my dear pastries.
As I wiped vegetable flotsam off the kitchen counter just an hour or so ago, a gentle phantom pressed it's pasrty self upon my memory, and in it I tasted something so fresh, so light and richly trembling with delicacy... oh, oh my, my dear baked and breaded, bready puffy sugar puffs of bread and sugar butter puffs.... I stumbled into the memory of BEARD PAPA's cream puffs.
It hit me so suddenly as if some long lost kiss from a long lost first love had magically appeared so strongly out of time and memory that I could swear it was there on my tongue. I had never even realized how much I was missing it until now, in the paleolithic age of my life.
pimples, i curse you!!!!!!!!!
ladies and gentlemen
BEARD PAPA.
http://www.muginohousa.com/
you eat now.
you love.
ooohh woooo whoa whoaaaa is mee!!!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
SUGAR AND DOUGH AND SEX
I haven't blogged for a while and I've been inspired by my friend's great blog (athomeathome.blogspot.com) to put up photos and just let the URGE get you. Just let the images do all the pillow talking. mmm.
Whenever I have nice lighting in my kitchen, I takey pictures. I seduce myself with the crinkle, puff and yield of fresh baked dough, the color and give and take of weighted bread, or bright circles and shapes of somethind edible. Well, I dont' feel naturally wordy, so much for the Blarney Stone, so, oh yea, I'll just post the pics.
Whenever I have nice lighting in my kitchen, I takey pictures. I seduce myself with the crinkle, puff and yield of fresh baked dough, the color and give and take of weighted bread, or bright circles and shapes of somethind edible. Well, I dont' feel naturally wordy, so much for the Blarney Stone, so, oh yea, I'll just post the pics.
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