April 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge- A pan-Southern Classic

I finished my April challenge way ahead of time. It was the lenten season here in Manila and there were two (2) non-working holidays which meant time on my hands. Yay! No rushing!

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

Brunswick Stew has a long, and oft debated history. Brunswick, Georgia claimed that the first Brunswick Stew was created there in 1898. There is, at the Golden Isles Welcome Center on Interstate 95, a bronzed stew pot with a plaque proclaiming this fact.
However, Brunswick, Virginia claims that the first Brunswick Stew was created there by a camp cook named Jimmy Matthews in 1828, for a hunting expedition led by Dr. Creed Haskings, a member of the Virginia State Legislature for a number of years. He was said to have used squirrel in the original Brunswick Stew created for the group when they returned. The hunters were at first skeptical of the thick, hearty concoction, but upon tasting it, were convinced and asked for more.
Every year, there is an Annual Brunswick Stew Cookoff that pits ‘Stewmasters’ from both Virgina and Georgia against their counterparts, and takes place every October in Georgia.
In the early 20th Cent, the rivalry of the two Brunswicks helped make this dish as popular as it is today, and it quickly became a pan-Southern classic. Some recipe call for the original addition of squirrel, but most allow for chicken, turkey, ham, or pork, even beef on occasion. Rabbit is also used. The vegetables can vary widely from variation to variation, however, the Brunswick Stewmasters recipe says *exactly* what is used in competion stews, and states that “Adding any additional ingredient(s) will disqualify the stew from being an original Brunswick Stew.”

All the yummy goodness of a hearty stew

However, most agree that, Brunswick stew is not done properly “until the paddle stands up in the middle.”

We were given 2 recipes, one long and one short. I chose to make the long version because I'm a firm believer that longer cooking time makes it more tasty and develops the flavors better.

Recipe One, the Long Way-From “The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-Be Southerners” by Matt Lee and Ted Lee
Serves about 12
1/4 lb / 113.88 grams / 4 oz slab bacon, rough diced

2 Serrano, Thai or other dried red chiles, stems trimmed, sliced, seeded, flattened

1lb / 455.52 grams / 16oz rabbit, quartered, skinned

1 4-5lb / 1822.08- 2277.6 grams / 64-80oz chicken, quartered, skinned, and most of the fat removed

1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / ½ oz sea salt for seasoning, plus extra to taste

2-3 quarts / 8-12 cups / 64.607-96.9oz Sunday Chicken Broth

2 Bay leaves

2 large celery stalks

2lbs / 911.04 grams / 32oz Yukon Gold potatoes, or other waxy type potatoes, peeled, rough diced

1 ½ cups / 344.88 grams / 12.114oz carrots (about 5 small carrots), chopped

3 ½ / 804.72 grams / 28.266oz cups onion (about 4 medium onions) chopped

2 cups / 459.84 grams / 16.152oz fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob (about 4 ears)

3 cups / 689.76 grams / 24.228oz butterbeans, preferably fresh (1 ¼ lbs) or defrosted frozen

1 35oz can / 996.45 grams / 4 cups whole, peeled tomatoes, drained

¼ cup / 57.48 grams / 2.019 oz red wine vinegar

Juice of 2 lemons

Tabasco sauce to taste

*I used ham, chicken and carabao (water buffalo) sausages for my meats

*Instead of Sunday chicken broth, I made ham stock by boiling ham bones, celery, carrots, onions, garlic, peppercorns and bayleaf for 3 hours and straining the liquid

Directions:

1-In the largest stockpot you have, which is hopefully larger than the 5 qt ones I have, preferably a 10-12 qt or even a Dutch Oven if you’re lucky enough to have one, fry the bacon over medium-high heat until it just starts to crisp. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside. Reserve most of the bacon fat in your pan, and with the pan on the burner, add in the chiles. Toast the chiles until they just start to smell good, or make your nose tingle, about a minute tops. Remove to bowl with the bacon.
2- Season liberally both sides of the rabbit and chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper. Place the rabbit pieces in the pot and sear off all sides possible. You just want to brown them, not cook them completely. Remove to bowl with bacon and chiles, add more bacon fat if needed, or olive oil, or other oil of your choice, then add in chicken pieces, again, browning all sides nicely. Remember not to crowd your pieces, especially if you have a narrow bottomed pot. Put the chicken in the bowl with the bacon, chiles and rabbit. Set it aside.
3- Add 2 cups of your chicken broth or stock, if you prefer, to the pan and basically deglaze the4 pan, making sure to get all the goodness cooked onto the bottom. The stock will become a nice rich dark color and start smelling good. Bring it up to a boil and let it boil away until reduced by at least half. Add your remaining stock, the bay leaves, celery, potatoes, chicken, rabbit, bacon, chiles and any liquid that may have gathered at the bottom of the bowl they were resting in. Bring the pot back up to a low boil/high simmer, over medium/high heat. Reduce heat to low and cover, remember to stir every 15 minutes, give or take, to thoroughly meld the flavors. Simmer, on low, for approximately 1 ½ hours. Supposedly, the stock may become a yellow tinge with pieces of chicken or rabbit floating up, the celery will be very limp, as will the chiles. Taste the stock, according to the recipe, it “should taste like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had”.
4- With a pair of tongs, remove the chicken and rabbit pieces to a colander over the bowl you used earlier. Be careful, as by this time, the meats will be very tender and may start falling apart. Remove the bay leaf, celery, chiles, bacon and discard.5 After you’ve allowed the meat to cool enough to handle, carefully remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go. Return the meat to the pot, throwing away the bones. Add in your carrots, and stir gently, allowing it to come back to a slow simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for at least 25 minutes, or until the carrots have started to soften.
5- Add in your onion, butterbeans, corn and tomatoes. As you add the tomatoes, crush them up, be careful not to pull a me, and squirt juice straight up into the air, requiring cleaning of the entire stove. Simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every so often until the stew has reduced slightly, and onions, corn and butterbeans are tender. Remove from heat and add in vinegar, lemon juice, stir to blend in well. Season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce if desired.
6 You can either serve immediately or refrigerate for 24 hours, which makes the flavors meld more and makes the overall stew even better. Serve hot, either on its own, or with a side of corn bread, over steamed white rice, with any braised greens as a side.

*I was surprised by how tasty the stew was. I ate some of it right away and then packed away the rest in the fridge. I brought it with me to work after two days, and the flavors became more pronounced as it was reheated. My friends loved it and pretty soon the steaming bowls of stew were emptied and pronounced as "one of the best we've ever tasted!"

Thank you Wolf for this challenge!

Is it a Spring Roll or a Salad?

I think the intense heat of this year's summer has been affecting my mood. I feel so lethargic which is so not me--not energetic at all. If I had a choice I would be eating salad for every single meal of the day. But alas, that is not possible at the moment so every chance I get, I have salad and fruits. Papaya in the morning with my toast and coffee. Ripe yellow mangoes with my lunch and a banana with yogurt for my afternoon snack. But sometimes, when I'm not lethargic I make a simple salad from raw papaya and carrots. All the good stuff. Then I wrap it in a crepe flecked with parsley to make it pretty with some grilled chicken and salad greens thrown in for good measure.

CREPES:

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted

parsley, roughly chopped

Mix all ingredients, except the parsley in a bowl and whisk until smooth and lump-free. Pass through a sieve. Add chopped parsley and whisk again. Preheat a teflon pan, brush it with a little oil and drop 1/4 cup of the mixture. Swirl the pan to evenly distribute the batter. After about a minute, the crepe will start to pull away from the sides of the pan. Move the pan to make sure crepe is cooked and not stuck to the bottom. Slide on to a plate. Repeat until batter is finished. Crepes can be stored in the refrigerator. Cut wax paper and put between crepes, cover with cling wrap.

I found an excellent recipe for fresh spring rolls and sauce from The Filipino- American Kitchen by Jennifer M. Aranas which I incorporated into this salad:

DRESSING:

2 tablespoons mirin

2 tablespoons vinegar (apple cider)

2 teaspoons soysauce

Mix all ingredients together to combine. Set aside.

HOISIN-TAMARIND GLAZE:

1 teaspoon Olive Oil

1 clove Garlic, minced

1 teaspoon Ginger, peeled and minced

1 teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

1/2 cup Tamarind Juice

1/2 cup Hoisin Sauce

Heat oil and saute garlic, ginger and red pepper flakes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Remove from heat, add tamarind juice and hoisin sauce. Stir and cool.

Transfer to a sauce dispenser and set aside. This glaze can keep for a week inside the refrigerator.

ASSEMBLY:

I peeled and sliced raw papaya and carrots into even sized matchstick pieces. Tossed it in some of the dressing.

Lay one crepe, put salad greens on the bottom, layer the papaya and carrots. Top with grilled chicken. Roll crepe carefully and drizzle with the hoisin-tamarind glaze.

Mango Mousse Chiffon Cake

Summer is definitely here to stay...the weather is unusually warm even by tropical country standards. Is this the effect of El Nino? Even the breeze is not refreshing, it's hot and sticky.
Heavy food won't be appreciated, no hot stews, just fruits and salads thank you! In deciding what kind of cake to bake, I kept these things in mind...just light and refreshing. No rich chocolate this time.
And this is what I came up with...Chiffon cake flavored with white tea with a dash of refreshing green color. And definitely sweet yellow mango mousse, enrobed in Italian meringue and drizzled with mango puree...uuhm yummy! The colors are all light and summery.

Chiffon Cake
Cake flour 125 grams
Refined Sugar 125 grams
Salt 2.5 grams
Baking Powder 6.25 grams
Vegetable Oil 62.5 grams
Egg yolks 3 pieces
Water 100 ml
Vanilla extract 3 ml
White tea leaves 1 teaspoon
Green food coloring 1/4 teaspoon
-------------------------------------
Egg whites 3 pieces
Refined Sugar 62.5 grams
Cream of Tartar 1.25 grams

Grease the bottom and line with parchment paper a 9-inch x 2 inch round cake pan. Do not grease the sides, set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
Combine cake flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Steep the tea leaves in hot water. Make a well in the center and pour vegetable oil, green food coloring, steeped tea, vanilla and egg yolks. Use a wire whisk to mix the ingredients making sure that no lumps remain. Set aside.
In the bowl of your Kitchenaid mixer, using the whip attachment, whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks. Gradually add the sugar and whisk until stiff peaks, do not overmix.
Gently fold in the egg yolk mixture into the beaten egg whites, being careful not to deflate them. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes. Immediately turn the pan upside down on a cooling tray until cool.

Mango Mousse
All purpose cream or light whipping cream 300 ml
Mango puree 200 grams
Unflavored gelatine 1 sachet
Water 110 ml
Refined sugar 70 grams

Pour contents of gelatine sachet in the cold water, set aside to bloom, about 10 minutes. Melt over double boiler, or in the microwave oven for 1 minute. Set aside.
With the whip attachment of your Kitchenaid mixer, whisk all purpose cream until light and fluffy. Carefully add the sugar a little at a time, add the mango mousse. Pour the melted gelatine into the bowl and continue whipping until the mixture is triple in volume. Keep cool.

Italian Meringue
Egg whites 4 pieces
Refined Sugar 1 cup
Water 1/2 cup

Cook sugar and water until sugar is dissolved and mixture is boiling. Whip the egg whites until stiff and carefully add the boiling mixture on the sides of the bowl while continuously mixing. Whip on high speed for 3 minutes. Continue whipping on medium speed until completely cool.

Assembly:
Slice the chiffon cake horizontally into 3. Lay the first layer on your cake board or plate. Place a cake ring over it. Pour one half of the mango mousse making sure it is evenly spread out. Top with the second cake layer Pour the remaining mango mousse. Top with the last cake layer. Refrigerate overnight.
Carefully remove the cake ring. And cover the cake with the Italian meringue. Pipe rosettes on top and drizzle with mango puree.

THE DARING BAKERS MARCH 2010 CHALLENGE: ORANGE TIAN

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

Oh yay!! It's that time of the month again!! The first time I read the challenge for the month of March, I was excited yes and something more--I was a bit apprehensive, this is the first time I heard of an orange tian. But then, what is the point of joining such a daring group of individuals if I won't dare to make it? Summer is really hot this year in the Philippines, I was thinking that maybe my tian wouldn't set even if I put it in the freezer overnight. Or maybe it will melt while I'm taking pictures, worries which were all unnecessary because the tian set beautifully and didn't disintegrate in the warm weather.

What made me so excited about this challenge was making the orange marmalade, I'm not a big fan of it myself but then I wanted to try making it. And surprise of all surprises--It was really yummy! And now I'm thinking of making my own marmalades for my personal use...

The orange marmalade--I didn't remove the peel and it looks so nice in the bottle!

The "family style" orange tian, I garnished it with chopped brazil nuts and drizzled it with my ginger caramel syrup

And here is the individual tian I made in the ramekin, it was delicious!

For the Pate Sablee:
Ingredients U.S. Imperial Metric Instructions for Ingredients

2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperature

granulated sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon; 2.8 oz; 80 grams

vanilla extract ½ teaspoon

Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams ice cold, cubed

Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams

All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons; 7 oz; 200 grams

baking powder 1 teaspoon ; 4 grams
Directions:

Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.
Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.
Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

* I made my pate sablee by hand making sure everything was cold
For the Marmalade:
Ingredients U.S. Imperial Metric Instructions for Ingredients

Freshly pressed orange juice ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams

1 large orange used to make orange slices

cold water to cook the orange slices

pectin 5 grams

granulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked
Finely slice the orange. Place the orange slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the oranges for another 10 minutes.
Blanch the orange slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the orange peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices.
Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool.
Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor).
Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated sugar . If you don’t have a scale, you can place the slices in a cup measurer and use the same amount of sugar.
In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juice and the pectin. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).
Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

* I used unflavored gelatine instead of pectin
For the Orange Segments:
For this step you will need 8 oranges.
Cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.
For the Caramel:
Ingredients U.S. Metric Imperial Instructions for Ingredients

granulated sugar 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams

orange juice 1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons; 14 oz; 400 grams
Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.
Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.
Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (about 10 minutes). You can then spoon it over the orange tians.
* I halved the recipe for caramel

* I grated a knob of ginger over the boiling syrup while I was cooking it and when my caramel was done, I strained the ginger

For the Whipped Cream:
Ingredients U.S. Metric Imperial Instructions for Ingredients

heavy whipping cream 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams

3 tablespoons of hot water

1 tsp Gelatine

1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar

orange marmalade (see recipe above) 1 tablespoon
In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the orange marmalade.[Tip: Use an ice cold bowl to make the whipped cream in. You can do this by putting your mixing bowl, cream and beater in the fridge for 20 minutes prior to whipping the cream.]
Assembling the Dessert:
Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.
Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.
Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel.
Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.
Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making an apple tart.
Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top so there is room for dough circle.
Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough.
Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.
Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.
Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to

unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.

Thank you Jennifer for hosting this month's challenge, it was really fun to make and from now on, no more store-bought marmalade for me!

The Daring Cooks' March 2010 Challenge-Comfort Food from the Heart

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

Hello fellow daring cooks! Doesn't it seem just like a few days ago that we posted our mezzes? Well technically it was a few days ago--tee hee! And now it's time to show what we've done with the March challenge which is yummy risotto. Rice has always been close to the Filipino, some of us eat rice three times a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner! So it's not a surprise to find a lot of rice-based recipes here.

I chose to combine east and west in my risotto recipe by making it into BRINGHE which is traditionally made with white rice and glutinous rice. The texture of the risotto is perfect for this dish. After making the risotto base. I added turmeric and coconut milk to the remaining stock. I used patis (fish sauce) in seasoning my risotto to make it taste more like bringhe. I sauteed diced red bell peppers, chicken fillet pieces, diced pork and small shrimps and topped my bringhe with it. I boiled eggs to decorate my plate after.

I still have some leftover Carnaroli risotto rice in my pantry and I am thinking of other variations I can try with it.

The risotto was colored with turmeric and cooked further in coconut milk

Chicken Stock
Ingredients:

1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg

chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg

2 onions, roughly diced

1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced

2 sticks celery, roughly diced

2 cloves garlic, halved

1 cinnamon stick

1 tsp. white peppercorns ( Any type of whole peppercorn will do)

2 bay leaves (fresh or dried, it doesn't matter.)

peel of 1/2 lemon

1/4 tsp. allspice

Directions:
Wash the chicken and bones and places in a 5 Litre pot, cover completely with water and bring to a boil
Skim away any scum as it comes to the surface
Add the vegetables and bring back to a boil
Add the rest remaining ingredients and simmer very gently, uncovered for 1.5 hours
Carefully lift out the chicken, set aside. The chicken meat can be removed from the chicken, shredded off and used for other things like soup!
Simmer the stock gently for another hour. At , at the end you should have around 2 Liters
Carefully ladle the liquid into a fine sieve, the less the bones and vegetables are disturbed in this process the clearer the stock will be. 
The stock is now ready for use. Freeze what you don't need for later use.

Risotto Base
Ingredients:

olive oil 2 fluid oz 60 ml

1 small onion, quatered

rice 14 oz 400g Any type of risotto rice will do. I use Arborio but the recipe itself says Vialone Nano. Another to look for is Carnaroli.

white wine 2 fl oz 60 ml

chicken or vegetable stock , simmering 2 pints 1 L

Directions:
Heat oil in a pan and add onion. Fry for a few minutes to flavour the oil then discard. (We diced ours and left it in as we like onion).
Add the rice and stir for a few minutes to coat each grain of rice with oil and toast slightly.
Add the wine and let it bubble away until evaporated.
Add enough stock to cover the rice by a finger’s width (about an inch or two). Don't actually stick your finger in, it will be hot. Just eye it off.
Cook on medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time, until most of the stock has been absorbed.
Repeat Step 5 making sure to leave aside approximately 100 ml. of stock for the final step. .
Repeat, save 100ml for the final stage.
Once you are at this point, the base is made. You now get to add your own variation

Thank you Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker for this month's challege!

Chocolate Rum Truffle Cake

I loooove chocolate...everyone who knows me knows that for a fact. I'm not so fond of dessert, but when there's chocolate, I will eat it. Chocolate IS the ultimate comfort food, I believe that. I'm always looking for chocolate cake recipes, trying to find THE one. This recipe isn't THE one, but I'd have to admit, it's one of the best tasting that I have come across. The base is chocolate genoise, which is a French sponge cake made by whisking warm egg yolks and sugar until it has tripled in volume and then folding in the sifted flour and melted butter. I used my Professional Baking by Wayne Gisslen recipe for genoise since it's the most reliable that I have tried. Genoise can be tricky in that, if the flour is not folded in carefully, the whole mixture collapses, I'm always very careful in this crucial step and instead of using a rubber spatula, I use my trusty wire whisk. I think it makes my job easier and faster. The only drawback for the Professional Baking recipe is that it's in grams :) otherwise it's very reliable.

CHOCOLATE GENOISE

Eggs 7 pieces

Refined Sugar 234 grams

Cake Flour 200 grams

Cocoa Powder, unsweetened 30 grams

Vanilla Extract 5 ml

Butter, melted, cooled 75 grams

Whisk eggs and sugar over double boiler until thick and light. When mixture is warm, transfer to the bowl of your kitchenaid mixer and whip until triple in volume, around 10 minutes. Carefully fold in sifted cake flour and cocoa powder. Pour in melted butter on the side of the bowl and fold in. Folding in must be done with extra care so that the mixture will not deflate. Pour mixture onto a greased and bottom-lined 9-inch cake pan. Bake for 50 minutes in a preheated 350 degrees farenheit oven.

SOAKING SYRUP

Sugar 1/2 cup

Water 1/3 cup

Rum 30 ml

Put ingredients in a pan and cook until thickened and sugar has dissolved completely, set aside.

CHOCOLATE CREAM

Chocolate 200 grams (I used bittersweet couverture chocolate)

Cream 300 grams

Cut chocolate into smaller pieces and melt over double boiler, making sure that all the chocolate is smooth.

Whip cream on the kitchenaid mixer until double in volume, carefully fold in cooled melted chocolate, making sure that is it well incorporated and no streaks remain. Set aside in chiller.

ASSEMBLY:

Slice cooled chocolate genoise into two layers, making the bottom layer thicker. Brush soaking syrup until bottom layer is soaked through. Spread about half of the chocolate cream and put second layer on top. Brush with the soaking syrup making sure that the genoise is moistened completely. Cover the cake with the rest of the chocolate cream. Decorate top with chocolate cream rosettes, cocoa powder and chocolate sprinkles.

NOTE: This kind of cake relies on the proper whipping of the egg yolk mixture and careful folding in of the sifted cocoa powder and cake flour. Genoise can be quite dry, so the soaking syrup has to be used liberally.

Beefy Mushroom Pasta

Pasta is one of my comfort food, it might be the carbs or the warmth that a steaming bowl of freshly cooked pasta gives off that gives me a sense of security. I've always preferred red sauce (tomato) over other sauces, except that sometimes an olive oil-based sauce can take the lead. But when I tried to make a creamy version that will not turn me off with too much "creaminess", it ended up being suspiciously like beef stroganoff. So here goes my recipe:

BEEFY MUSHROOM PASTA

Lean beef, ground 100 grams
Garlic, minced 5 grams
Onion, minced 15 grams
Mushrooms, button 1/4 cup
Green Peas 1 Tablespoon
Mustard 1/2 teaspoon
Sour cream 1 Tablespoon
Mayonnaise 1 Tablespoon
Chicken Stock or Water 1/4 cup
Wholewheat Spaghetti, cooked 100 grams

Preheat pan with oil and cook minced onion and garlic. Add the beef and break it up as you stir, add the mustard. When beef looks half-done, add in the mushrooms. Cook until beef is no longer pink. In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise and sour cream with the chicken stock or water. Pour over beef and continue cooking until the liquid is thickened, add the green peas. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cooked spaghetti, stir through until coated with the sauce. Serve hot.