Chocolate Moelleux with raspberry sauce

What can possibly be better than a well-succeeded and fancy-named melting chocolate dessert, served with the best berries EVER to open up the dessert session in my blog? Well, I guess that only a well-succeeded fancy-named melting chocolate dessert with the best berries ever, made in a very fun day with the company (and collaboration) of great friends could top that. And it did.  Thanks for the assistance, mum and Michelle. :) 

8 portions
Cake
110 g dark chocolate (60% cacao)
50 g unsalted butter
40 g rice flour or potato flour 
40 g almond flour
90 g sugar
2 eggs


Filling
4 tablespoons double cream
100 g dark chocolate (60% cacao)
zest of  ½ orange


Raspberry sauce
1 pint fresh raspberries
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1,5 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup cold  water

Start with the filling. Warm the cream up, add the chocolate and wait for it to melt, always stirring. Add the orange zest and leave it cooling down. Once it is completely cold, roll the mixture into small chocolate balls and put them in the fridge. 

In the meanwhile, start with the sauce. Combine the raspberries, the orange juice and the sugar in a pan. Whisk the cornstarch into cold water, dissolving it well. Add it to the saucepan with the rest of the ingredients and boil the mixture. Simmer for about 5 minutes until you reach the consistency you desire. Remember that, the colder the sauce gets, the thicker it will be. If you want, you can puree the sauce in a blender or strain it through a fine sieve. I decided to leave the seeds and serve a 'rougher' version of it. Can be served warm or cold and kept in the fridge for up to  weeks.

Start the dough by warming the butter up. Remove it from the heat, add the chocolate and the yolks. Mix it well and add the rice and almond flour. Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until they start showing hard peaks. Add them carefully in the end with the help of a spatula, giving the dough a few good turns. 

Grease the forms you intend to use. I tried baking them in paper muffin forms and it went just fine. Add a spoonful with the cake dough first. Then add the already rolled chocolate filling balls and finish with some more dough to cover the filling, leaving it in the middle. Cool the dough down for a few minutes before baking. 

Bake it in a pre-heated oven (180 C) for about 10 minutes. Let it rest a couple of minutes before removing from the forms. Place it in a pretty plate, add the raspberry sauce and/or ice cream and use some confectioners’ sugar on top of the cake. Serve it while warm and enjoy a few moments of paradise. Chocolate paradise. Bom apetite! 

Recipe adapted from here.

Chilli con carne

For my very first post, I will use a recipe (and photos) I have made a while ago. I wish I could post something a bit more exciting and complicated (with better pictures), but because of my operated foot, my cooking performances have been drastically diminished lately. And, must I say, I miss cooking really really badly! Well, well, with almost one month left of my 'forced holidays', I cannot wait to try myself on some more complex 'projects'. Naaaah, but I guess it is just as nice to get started with a less sophisticated  but equally yummy recipe. 

I used Jamie Oliver's recipe for Chilli con Carne from his book Happy Days with the Naked Chef.

Serves 4

2 medium onions
1 clove of garlic
olive oil

2 level teaspoons chilli powder

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (I prefer it chopped a bit more roughly. If you want it a bit spicier, try some slices of finely chopped habanero pepper)
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin (or crushed cumin seeds)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
455gr chuck steak, minced, or best minced beef

200gr sun-dried tomatoes in oil

2 x 400gr tins of tomatoes
1/2 stick of cinnamon
2 x 400gr tins of red kidney beans, drained

You will need a metal pan or casserole with a lid that can also go in the oven. You can cook it on the stove or you can prepare this spicy  delight in the oven. If that is your case, preheat the oven to 150 C.

Fry in a little olive oil finely chopped onions and garlic. Add the chilli powder, fresh chilli, cumin and a little seasoning.  Add the meat and continue to cook, stirring until it has browned.  Make a paste with the sun-dried tomatoes in the food processor with some of the oil from the jar.  Add them to the meat with the tomatoes, cinnamon stick and a glass of water.  Add more salt or ground pepper according to your taste.

For dishes like this, I prefer chopping the onions and chilli a bit more roughly. 

Start boiling and cover the casserole with both greaseproof paper and the lid. Turn the heat down to simmer and cook for 1 1/2 hours. You can also transfer the pan to the oven for the same amount of time (just remember to check that you pan CAN go in the oven). Thirty minutes before the end of the cooking time, add the beans  - they are already cooked and only need warming up.

This dish tastes better if you cook it the day before. In this case, all the amazing flavors have time to develop and get even more astonishing. It is a good tip in case you've got friends coming over and don't want to spend your evening in the kitchen. 

Serve your Chilli con carne with fresh crusty bread, a nice tossed salad, and a big blob of natural yogurt or guacamole. Don't forget to add some tortilla chips. 

Bom apetite!