Day trips are fun! Short stop in Monaco

Tiny tiny Monaco. I had to look this up, but Monaco is the second smallest country in the world (the smallest is Vatican City). But surrounded by beautiful architecture, imposing cliffs and wide open waters, Monaco is absolutely stunning. 

After a quick stroll/drive around, my companions and I headed to our OTHER reason for being in this tiny city/state... there was a chocolate festival in town! 

Unfortunately, the chocolate show ended up being a little bit of a disappointment. I had previously been to the show in New York, and it was both larger and more extensive in its displays. Still... chocolate is chocolate, and we had fun browsing around (for like a half hour) and tasting samples.

Hot from the oven

Sometimes, cooking is like a game show. You look in your kitchen, take stock of your ingredients, then throw something together into an edible masterpiece. So fun!

This morning, I had a humble banana. While delicious, calling it a filling breakfast is a stretch of the imagination. I contemplated slicing it into oatmeal (healthy but boring), or even rolling it in chocolate and nuts (not quite breakfast-y enough). Finally, I decided, banana chocolate chip muffins! Huzzahs for dessert camouflaged as breakfast food!

The muffins start rather unattractively, a combination of egg, butter,
brown sugar, vanilla, and mashed banana.

Dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt) are mixed in.

Muffin mix!

The fun part: not measuring how much chocolate chips went into
the batter.

The small batch recipe was enough to make 6 small muffins. I really like
these silicone liners; no baking pan needed, and non-stick!

Finished muffins didn't rise very much; they stayed dense in a good,
banana-y way.

Barely waited for them to cool down before digging in!

Chocolate chip cookie cake!

Turns out, chocolate chip cookie dough + ramekin = previously unknown bites of BLISS. This dessert is AMAZING. So I've been using the same recipe for a small batch of chocolate chip cookies for a while now. And though it's good, I was craving something a little more... substantial last night. Something a little cakey, perhaps.

I'm sure store-bought dough would work just as well, but it's so simple to make your own. I even have an actual recipe! Of course, this can be made into regular cookies too.

Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp butter, softened
- 3 tbsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp beaten egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup all purpose flour (approx 2.2 oz if going by weight)
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:
- Cream softened butter together with white and brown sugar
- Add in vanilla extract and egg
- Add in dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder), mix well (it will be a thick batter)
- Stir in chocolate chips
- Divide the dough into 2 lightly greased ramekins. You want the dough to fill about 2/3 of the container, as it will rise. If there is extra dough, just make cookies from it, or put into a third ramekin.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes

This is what comes out of the oven. Lightly golden brown, and piping
hot. Now is the time, if you wish, to add a scoop of ice cream on top.

This is a perfect blend of cookie and cake. The center is soft and warm,
while the edges are slightly chewy.

Am I making this dessert again tonight? You betcha!

Ending the year with food

The end of a year often signals several important developments: cold weather, holidays, and the tail end of football season. These seemingly unrelated things often collide to one activity in my household: cooking. So I figured; what better way to end the year, than to show some of the recent dishes/confections that have been brewing in the kitchen?

Fajita night! Sauteed steak with accompaniments (qtips not included!)

Assembled fajita. It was tasty.

Stir-fried Shanghai noodles, with chicken, shitake mushrooms,
and bean sprouts. Hm. Should have added something green, huh?

Instead of buying gifts for Christmas, I ended up making edible gifts for some friends. I had an idea to make a chocolate truffle lollipop; I was an old hand at making truffles, and thought it would be adorable if I put it on a stick. No problem, right? Then I had the bright idea of having a caramel center. Gooey, delicious, what could be better? At least... that was the idea. My caramel centers were certainly gooey... and had the darndest time staying on that stick. I ended up having to put the caramel in the freezer to harden up, and even then ended up with quite a few un-giftable results.

Caramel centers, chilling in the freezer

Pool of ganache

Growing lollipops

End product. Yayyy, they're so pretty!

On the other end of the spectrum, one the coolest gifts I received this year was also technically home-made. One of my friends in New York is involved with urban farming and actually had a couple beehives this year. I was thrilled and impressed when I got this:

New York honey from my friend Michael's
very own bees!

 Sometimes, I'm too lazy to cook. And it's so easy to bring this to a party!

My contribution to Christmas dinner. 24-month old prosciutto,
bresaola, and a nice hunk of parmesean.

Finally, I've been cooking up a storm lately, thanks to my parents gift: a Whole Foods gift card. Yay, groceries!

Two pieces of richly marbled ribeye steak

Sweet potatoes, being glazed in a skillet

Dinner is served!

Dinner #2. Pork tenderloin is seared over the stove before being
put in the oven for about 20 minutes

Tenderloin, sliced and served over a bed of couscous with
sauteed garlic spinach.

A mad scientist approach to brunch: layers of crispy pan fried potato
cubes, spinach, and sausage... topped with fried eggs and cheese. It
all went into the broiler for a few minutes to get melty.

Not the healthiest meal, but so very yummy.

In Bruges

No, I haven't seen the movie. :P

In any case, I capped off my European travels with one last trip north... to the Belgium city of Bruges. Here's a handy map to see its location in comparison to Paris:

Once again, I joined a tour bus for this journey which was about 4 1/2 hours away. I kind of wish I splurged on a train for this one, because it would have only taken about 2 1/2 hours that way (with one connection in Brussels). I am really going to miss these high speed trains when I leave Europe. They are so fast and so convenient!

Bruges is known as an idyllic, picturesque city and it certainly did not disappoint in that regard. The combination of blue skies, red brick, and gentle canals was wonderful to see in person. It's also fun when the scenery makes it easy to take really impressive pictures. :)

One of the included amenities on this tour was a 30 minute boat ride through the canals. Seeing everything at water-level was, if possible, even prettier!

We caught a glimpse of a dog sleeping the morning away by the window. Isn't he lucky?

In respect to food, there were dozens and dozens of chocolate shops, and restaurants serving moules frites (mussels and fries). I briefly contemplated getting mussels for lunch, but ultimately my cheapskate tendencies won out. Instead, I visited a cute fast-food style place and got some grilled shrimp with fries for less than half the price of mussels. It was fresh and delicious; I picked a curry ketchup to have with the fries, which was interesting and tasty too.

I definitely enjoyed myself in this quaint little town. However, I do wonder if I'm getting jaded. So much of the small city catered to the tourists, and everything once again had a slight 'Disney' feel to it. I really couldn't get a local vibe at all. Even most signs were written in three languages to facilitate business (Dutch/French/English?).

I feel like I'm being nitpicky though; Bruges was definitely a very pretty city, and I'm glad I got the chance to visit!

Chocolate tastings

I have been lucky enough to have tasted many different kinds of chocolates in the past few years, from locally made, US-based, to European-based types. And while I don't like to generalize, French chocolates typically get very high marks from me.

(As a side note, one of my least-liked questions is when someone asks me "What's your favorite food?" or "What is your favorite chocolate?". I have a different favorite depending on the situation and price point. Do I want a traditional ganache? Something with a modern flavor profile? Fruit? Nuts? It all depends on context.)

In any case though, if you were to twist my arm and I was allowed to choose one chocolate to have for the rest of my life, it would be the Rigoletto by La Maison du Chocolat. It has a complex caramel-y flavor but the chocolate remains the star: smooth and velvety. The chocolate is light on your tongue, but not so airy that it tastes insubstantial. And so it is the chocolates from La Masion du Chocolate (hereby known as 'MDC' to save myself the typing) that I use as the standard when I judge my chocolate tastings in Paris.

Ironically, many online chocolate fans consider MDC to be inferior. The chocolates are made in bulk, since there are quite a few stores worldwide, and are not deemed to be as fresh and tasty as some smaller Parisian chocolatiers. Well, that is absolutely something I had to investigate, and so I trekked myself to a chocolate shop today.

My online research pointed out well over a dozen different shops for me to try. My wallet and waistline unfortunately would not be able to take that strain, and so I have to content myself with picking out a few fan favorites. Jean-Paul Hévin is mentioned a lot on these lists, even though he also has a few branches out of the country (mostly in Asia). I bought a nice little sachet of 12 chocolates to try, for about $13 USD.

Looks tasty!

For my tasting, I used a knife to cut half of each chocolate to try (the other half will be for tomorrow. How's that for moderation and portion control?). Once again, I won't bore everyone to death by describing each chocolate in detail... here are the ones that I found most interesting. The poor chocolates got a little roughed up during the trip home, so they aren't as pristine as the ones in the store.

The Adamantin featured an almond praline covered with dark chocolate. I usually find hazelnut praline in desserts, so the almond provided a slight but welcome variation. The praline had a fantastic texture; any nut/crispy bits were tiny, and helped showcase the smoothness of the ganache.

Adamantin

The name of the chocolate below is "Woman". I wonder what the Jean-Paul Hévin is trying to insinuate? Anyway, this was an interesting flavor combination. Green tea ganache, with a bergamot marzipan layer. First note I tasted was the tea, then it becomes more floral as the bergamot takes over. I found the marzipan texture distracting. I can't say that I liked this, but this was a very strong flavor profile that I don't think I have tasted before.

Woman

I couldn't find this chocolate on the website, so I will dub it "Parfume d'Orange". A soft orange ganache is coated in milk chocolate. The orange note was very fragrant, it was almost more of an aroma in my nose than a flavor in my mouth. I liked this classic combination a lot.

Parfum d'Orange

And then there's Jean-Paul Hévin's version of Maison du Chocolat's Rigoletto. I need to get one from MDC for direct comparison! The Manon was good, but I actually thought the chocolate flavor got lost in the stronger caramel. I want to say that the MDC version is a little more balanced.

Manon

So what's the verdict? This is very good French chocolate. All of the ganaches were completely smooth and everything melted in my mouth. The flavors were mostly strong and straightforward, although I didn't love a few of the combinations. My one issue is that the chocolate had a very acidic aftertaste; I wonder if that is due to where he sources his chocolate from. The shop also offers other delights like caramels (which are supposed to be outstanding), chocolate-based pastries, and macarons. Parisians are most certainly very lucky to have so many options around.