Chocolate Lover's Cake

This weekend I made a birthday cake for my boss. It was a lot of pressure since everyone at the party was going to be eating it knowing full well that her pastry chef made it! This cake is a 14 inch chocolate lover's dream: Chocolate Cake layered with Hazelnut Mousseline Cream, Hazelnut Feuilletine Crunch, Dark Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Buttercream and covered with Chocolate Glaze. I was nervous when we cut into it but it was definitely a hit. People who said they didn't like chocolate or cake came back for seconds!

Panna Cotta

Two years ago I went to New York Mutual Trading Inc's Japanese Food & Restaurant Show in NYC and discovered Benimosu, a Japanese vinegar made from purple sweet potatoes. After tasting it flashbacks of my meal at Il Buco came to mind. Il Buco has this fabulous panna cotta drizzled with aged balsamic vinegar. The Benimosu has a gorgoues strawberry colored hue and is a translucent clear. It comes unsweetened and sweetened with honey, which is what I used on top of the panna cotta.

The panna cotta came out perfect. It was rich and creamy due to the heavy cream but not cloyingly sweet due to the slight tartness of the buttermilk. The Benimosu vinegar balances the richness and sweetness of the whole dessert. At first I thought it was too rich but with the addition of the vinegar I could eat a whole big bowl full.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. I think I will make it for my next dinner party since it's easy as 1-2-3 and impressive. Now I'm dreaming up other uses for my vinegar. Maybe a vinaigrette, a gelee, made into a gastrique, reduced to make a glaze, drizzled over strawberries, who knows!

Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Benimosu

2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teaspoons powedered gelatin
1 cup heavy cream
6 tablespoons sugar
2 cups reduced fat buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Bloom gelatin in water for 10 min.
2. Heat cream with sugar over low- medium heat.
3. Once warmed through and all of the sugar is melted add gelatin and take off heat.
4. Cool at room temperature.
5. When cool stir in the buttermilk and vanilla.
6. Pour into glasses and chill for atleast 4 hours.
7. Top with Benimosu and enjoy!

By the way New York Mutual Trading Inc. is having their annual Japanese Food & Restaurant Show this weekend! Check it out on their website. I bought the sake glasses from Korin. They are the same ones we used at Kyotofu.

Breakfast

I've been working long hours in the kitchen for the past two weeks since I'm the only pastry chef left. Usually when I eat it's quick huge bites between tasks while standing. When I come home and eat dinner I'm usually shoving food in my face so I can hurry up and go to bed and make it to the kitchen by 5am to bake the morning breakfast items. Today is my day off so I wanted to enjoy myself and relax. I made myself a really awesome breakfast! I fried up some maple bacon that I sliced at work, two eggs sunny side up extra runny, whole wheat toast, pineapple chunks, and a banana yogurt smoothie. For lunch I'm already eying the piece of ribeye steak I have left over from the other days dinner and some salad greens and the red wine vinaigrette that I also made. Oh and I have goat cheese in the refrigerator too and some figs. Lunch is already sounding pretty damn good!

Excited

I just received my package from Amazon. I ordered Thomas Keller's The French Laundry and Bouchon cookbooks and Pichet Ong's cookbook:





I usually don't buy books, instead I peruse the internet for good recipes, but I miss thumbing through all the recipes and looking at all the pretty pictures. I think I'm going to start building a cookbook library. I'm already eying the cookbooks of Nobu, Morimoto, Alinea, and Harold McGee!

Update

What does it mean to be a chef?

It means sticking your head into a lowboy to scrub off all the mold that proliferated during the two weeks that the restaurant was closed.

It means working 12 hour days 6 days a weeks and all weekends, the work of two to three people, because the head chef isn't coming back due to a DUI arrest and an eating disorder and the other girl sucks and got fired.