Chocolate Decadence

I recently had the opportunity to wow 16 of my fans with one of my favorite chocolate desserts on a Tuesday afternoon- individual chocolate soufflé cakes with caramel sauce.  

Chocolate cake anyone?

This is a dessert I’ve made for several years, usually for high-end private dinner parties, where I can charge as much as $75 a plate. Until this particular day I didn’t realize the potential power of chocolate… I looked up and saw people in the room were practically swooning with pleasure! One bite and you’ll know what I mean-

It’s that good! This isn’t another Chocolate-Lava cake where the center is overflowing.  Instead, it’s more cake-like; it does rise slightly like a soufflé when the individual cakes are first removed from the oven.

This is not the place to use ordinary chocolate chips or inexpensive chocolate bars.

Chocolate, Strawberries & Wine

Your choice of chocolate as well as the sauce you add when plating the dessert is crucial in creating complex, layered flavors that take this simple dessert to the next level.   In this case, I didn’t use just any bittersweet chocolate. I did use some, 5 oz (my chocolate of choice is usually Schaeffenberger,  a Bay Area favorite) but this time I also added 3 oz of an artisan chocolate bar from Vosges Chocolates made with: Black Hawaiian sea salt, burnt sugar caramel and dark chocolate with 70% cacao. This company makes other flavors that sound just as intriguing: Blood Orange Caramel Bar -flavored with hibiscus flowers, blood orange caramel, Campari dark chocolate is another one I’d like to try.   After the response I received on that Tuesday afternoon, I won’t be happy with using the status quo bittersweet chocolate ever again.

Here’s the easy recipe

1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks), plus 2 tablespoons of melted butter for the cake molds
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (high quality/ 70% cocoa)
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
4 large eggs plus 4 egg yolks
2/3 cup granulated sugar
4 teaspoons, all-purpose flour (plus extra to coat the inside of the cake molds)
At least 8 individual Ramekins

Prepare the Ramekins

Use melted butter (or lightly spray your baking molds with vegetable cooking spray) and add 1 teaspoon of all-purpose flour (or cocoa powder) to each mold and tap out any excess. This will ensure that the cakes do not stick to your baking dish once you want to remove them after baking.

Melt chocolate and butter

Using a small saucepan (or double-boiler) bring 2 inches of water to boil and using a large glass or stainless shell bowl, combine and melt the butter, chocolate and espresso powder over simmering water. Let cool.

Beat eggs and sugar for at least 2 minutes

Using an electric mixer (or hand-mixer) combine and beat the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. Slowly whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture and mix until combined. Add the flour. Do not over mix the batter.

Divide the batter between the molds and bake in 450 degree oven.

For small 3 oz. cake molds, bake approximately 12 to 15 minutes– you will have 18 what I call “tasting portions;”  For larger portions, 6 to 8 oz cake molds can be used to make 8 portions. Bake these larger sizes approximately 18 to 20 minutes (or more if needed), until the top and sides are cooked dry.  The inside will be slightly runny.

Chef’s Note: make your cakes “Gluten-Free” by substituting Gluten-Free flour for the AP Flour.  Yes- even 4 teaspoons of AP Flour can be detrimental to those on a wheat-free diet!

Plating the dessert

I think this dessert is even better with a sauce.  In the original recipe from Celebrity Chef, Giada De Laurentis, she un-molded the cakes onto a dessert plate, added 1 tablespoon of hazelnute liquor to each plate and surrounded the cake with fresh berries.  I go a step further and use a dessert sauce, depending on the season  and the overall menu I’ve prepared:  In the Spring and Summer, when berries at their best, I’ll make a fresh Raspberry or Strawberry Sauce that I drizzle on the bottom of the plate;  I’ve also used a store-bought carmel sauce, hot fudge sauce or even vanilla ice-cream as my topping of choice. I think you’ll find this to be a memorable dessert that is easy to make and will wow your family and friends.  If you agree, I want hear about it!

Final tip: You may notice the cakes have a slight white coating once removed from the cake molds. This happens when using any kind of flour, so for a better appearance, use cocoa powder in place of the flour when preparing the cake molds for baking. This will add additional flavor and not compromise the outside appearance.

 

 

Posted in Uncategorized, What's for Dessert | 4 Comments

Crazy for Blood Oranges

 

Blood Oranges are long gone from the produce isle in your supermaket and you won’t find them at your local farmers’ market this late into the year; generally you’ll see them in January and February. We however, have 1 tree in our backyard that produced 10 pounds of fruit once I took the the time to do the harvesting.  This year, in particular, it took many months for the oranges to get ripe enough to eat.

What do you do with 40 blood oranges? My first thought was: “let’s make some jam,” or more specifically, marmalade.  My second thought was to make a blood orange cocktail for our next “appetizer night.”

Blood Orange Marmalade

One recent afternoon I spent a couple of hours and canned and processed twenty five, 4 oz jars of my marmalade to give away as client gifts.  If you’ve received one,  you can keep it for up to 12 months as long as you store the unopened jar in a cool, dry place.  The process of “canning” isn’t hard at all- it may be a little intimidating at first, if you haven’t made jam before, but quite rewarding once you taste your creation on toast or english muffins or even on a slice of my citrus almond-olive oil cake that I often serve at Brunch or as a dessert for my client parties.

What you need to do

You start by juicing the oranges, then adding sugar (I prefer using organic), pectin and pieces of fruit or orange rind. Marmalades can often be made without pectin, but if you decide to use traditional store-bought pectin (Sure-Jell or something similar), you may be shocked to discover that you will add as much sugar as fruit juice!, which means if you start with 4 cups of juice you will need to add at least 4 cups of granulated sugar, or more- even up to 6 cups in some cases, to your final product. I know many of you out there are more health conscience and are looking for alternatives when making jams and preserves.

The secret to healthy jam is all in the pectin

Luckily I found an organic alternative several years ago called: Pomona’s Pectin, which allows you to the control the sweetness you desire.  In comparison, I used only 2 cups of sugar (for every 4 cups of juice) in my recipe, which is 50% less than the national brand mentioned above. Another selling point is you can use honey, agave or even stevia in place of the granulated sugar– something you cannot do with Sure-Jell.  Pomona’s is available online or at organic stores/health food stores like Whole Foods Market.

Blood Orange Margarita

Blood Orange Margarita

My second thought was to make a blood orange cocktail for our next “appetizer night.” A blood-orange Cosmo anyone?  How about a blood-orange Margarita?  The color is amazing, the taste is fresh and with just a few key ingredients you can be minutes away from enjoying an icy cold adult beverage at your next outdoor barbecue or small dinner party. Enjoy your drink with some homemade guacamole and your favorite tortilla chips and get the party started! It doesn’t even have to be a Friday night.

Using the blood oranges from our garden, I made a quick drink, starting from one of the recipes here.

Recipe

  • 2 oz freshly-squeezed blood orange juice
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 oz Cointreau or Grand Marnier
  • 1 1/2 oz tequila

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake and pour into a margarita glass or rocks glass.  It’s so good you’ll have to pick yourself off the floor!

 

Posted in Appetizer Night!, In Season Now..., What's For Brunch | 2 Comments

What’s for dinner this Holiday? Try these vegetarian/ vegan recipes!

I’ve recently met a client who’s struggling with providing some vegan recipes this year for a family member for her holiday dinner.  “Cooking vegan” can definitely be a challenge; how do you get all the needed protein without using eggs, dairy or any animal products?  Here are a few products that I’ve found to be essential in my vegan and vegetarian recipes:

Earth Balance buttery spread: Made from canola oil; It looks and tastes like butter. It is packaged in tubs similar to margarine or packaged in ¼ lb sticks like regular dairy butter and can be easily used in your cooking or holiday baking. Buy it at high-end grocery stores or health food stores that carry other vegan products.  

Coconut Oil: This oil has a high smoke point compared to other cooking oils; there are many health benefits associated with coconuts; this oil that is highly stable and has an extended shelf life. 

Earth Balance Coconut Spread:  use this product instead of butter 

Alternative Flour:   Garbanzo Bean Flour; this flour can be purchased at Indian markets and is quite common in Indian cooking; it is higher in protein than other flours:

Dried Lentils: I often use the orange-colored ones in my recipes 

Vegan Cream Cheese: 

Chef’s Vegetarian Menu

  • Eggplant Rolls with Walnuts & Mint
  • Cold Lentil Salad
  • Spiced Sweet Potato Hash
  • Grilled Zucchini/ Summer Squash with turmeric

Eggplant Rolls with Walnuts & Mint

Recipe 1: from Aarti Party on the Food Network.  These make very nice, elegant hors d’oeuvre.

Chef’s note: if you can have dairy, use creamy ricotta cheese, as listed.

 To make it vegan:  substitute vegan cream cheese, either homemade, as in this link, Or you can purchase a ready-made product through your local grocery, as referenced at the beginning of this post.

Crispy Lentil Salad

Recreation of a dish we had while in France.  The salad has a nice fresh clean taste. The apples give it an unexpected crunch. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Recipe 2:

  • ½ cups, dried green lentils/ cooked until tender, 15 minutes
  • 1 bunch of radishes, sliced
  • 1 bunch spring onions/ green onions, chopped
  • 1 cup diced green apple
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • Simple Vinaigrette:  2 parts olive oil, 1 part cider vinegar,  1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, whisked together in a small bowl;  add Salt & pepper to taste

In a large bowl, mix together cooked lentils (cooled and drained after cooking), radishes, onions, apples, fresh herbs and vinaigrette.

Sweet Potatoes with roasted Poblano peppers, onions, Swiss chard and the Dinner Diva special spice rub.

Recipe 3:

  • 2 orange-fleshed sweet potatoes/ also called jeweled sweet potatoes; peeled and diced.
  • Chef’s note: do not use yellow-fleshed traditional yams for this recipe as your dish will not have the great color
  •  1 onion diced, can be yellow or red
  •  3 Poblano chilies, roasted, peeled & diced (see previous blog post for technique) OR 1 1/2 cups Diced bell peppers  (preferably a combination of red, yellow or orange) or 
  • 1 bunch of Swiss Chard,  chopped, stems removed ; can be green, red or rainbow chard 
  • Mary’s Spice Rub:  equal parts of cinnamon, chili powder, cumin (1 teaspoon each) plus ½ teaspoon each, kosher salt & black pepper.  Note: you will not use the entire spice blend; save extra for a later use; can be used as a substitute for pre-packaged taco or chili mix in your mexican recipes.

In a large skillet:  add 2 Tablespoons of olive oil or canola oil to your hot pan. Sautee the onions and bell peppers until soft; add the diced sweet potatoes and 1 teaspoon of spice blend. Cook until the sweet potatoes are tender, approximately 10- 15 minutes, depending on the size of your potatoes, adding a few tables of water or vegetable stock as needed to facilitate the cooking.  Once tender, add the chopped Swiss chard and wilt in the same pan. Serve immediately.

Chef’s note: you can substitute cooked spinach for the chard, as long as you drain the spinach before adding to the pan. I prefer starting with fresh spinach, but frozen spinach would be okay, too.

Recipe 4

Recipe  from Aarti Party on the Food Network.  If you don’t have the yellow summer squash, use what is locally available, like zucchini.

 To make this recipe vegan: substitute the regular dairy butter with a product from Earth Balance, as referenced above.

Posted in Fresh from the Farmers' Market, In Season Now..., Uncategorized, Vegetarian, What's For Dinner | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Entertaining Basics: 10 Party Tips from the Dinner Diva

One of the greatest things about the holiday season is that I see family & friends gathering together more often over a delicious meal.  Now, we all love our family and friends, right?  However, entertaining a large amount of people can be stressful if you don’t have a streamlined plan of action.

In the current issue of Aligned Magazine (pg. 32-33), I have written an article about entertaining basics that includes 10 valuable Slide 1tips that will definitely take the pressure off when planning your next big family gathering.

So sit back and let the Dinner Diva give you some entertaining basics.  Make your next gathering, stress-free and “Diva-licious”. ;-)

By the way, in this issue you will also find amazing women entrepreneurs who are not only successful in their own right, but making a difference in their communities as well.

Enjoy~

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What can you make with chicken, salt, fresh herbs & a couple of bricks?

Grilled Tuscan Chicken:

I genuinely LOVE being in the kitchen.  Everyday I enjoy doing at least one of two things:  creating NEW Dinner Diva recipes or adding the Dinner Diva’s unique touch to recipes I would like to try!

While watching the Cooking Channel, I was inspired by this recipe for Grilled Tuscan Chicken.   This recipe calls for marinating the chicken overnight, however, I added my own touch by seasoning the meat with Spicy Herb Salt and brining it instead.  I love how that works; finding two recipes that I enjoy and merging them together to create a new taste sensation!

ROSEMARY HERB SALTWhen making the Spicy Herb Salt, I used the sea salt I brought back from my time spent in Normandy, France earlier this year, in August .  I also used fresh rosemary, oregano, and dried chilies that came from my garden and garlic from my local farmers’ market.

Spicy Herb Salt is excellent for  brining chicken, pork chops, ribs and your Thanksgiving Turkey.  Brining is a technique that I use to make my meats more moist & tender.  I added 2 tablespoons of Spicy Herb Salt to a basic brine for chicken for extra added flavor.  Taking the extra time to brine the chicken, will make your taste buds sing, trust me on this one!

Basic Brine for Chicken:

4 cups water

¼ cup Spicy Herb Salt

¼ cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon Molasses

1 cup ice cubes

4 slices fresh lemon, optional

*Note: For Pork chops or Baby Back Ribs, omit the lemon.

Combine all ingredients in a large plastic bag.  Add whole chicken, chicken breasts or chicken pieces and secure tightly.  Refrigerate at least 4 hours, but no more than 6 hours.  Remove meat from the brine and add a dry rub before baking or grilling.

For brining a Turkey:  use a large ice chest and cover with water & lots of ice and start the process 1 day ahead.

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Now, let the grilling begin!

The best grilling techniques are the simplest.  At $0.43 apiece, these are definitely the cheapest utensils in the Dinner Diva’s kitchen!  These are to be used when grilling so you’ll want to wrap these in aluminum foil and set aside for kitchen use only.

 

Grilling tip:  You’ll want the finished temperature to reach 165 degrees.  Use a digital thermometer and remove the chicken off the heat once the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees, to allow for carry-over cooking.  Allow the meat rest 5 to 10 minutes before slicing or cutting.   Enjoy!

**Dinner Diva Tip:  If you want to make Grilled Tuscan Chicken  for a dinner party in your home, don’t worry!  You can still entertain your guests and make sure your chicken comes out perfectly by utilizing a remote digital cooking thermometer.  A remote digital cooking thermometer monitors temperature and doneness of food and signals when ready, via remote!  Here’s one you might like…I just love technology, don’t you?  Happy cooking!

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