Yummy green

I love matcha! I've discovered it a few years ago, when I saw it in a new teashop and decided to buy it. Matcha is a high quality green tea powder using finely ground tea leaves instead of whole or crushed tea leaves. It is not only used in the Japanse tea ceremonies but it's also great to make tasty and original desserts.  I regulary prepare a green tea and almond cake for my shop CHOOSY.

For our NY'eve dessert last December we made a pretty cool dessert. We were looking for something yummy and not too heavy and luckily I just happened to have bought the new the kitchen aid cookbook (that really has some cool recipes) and there we found it : white chocolate & green tea bavarois with an elderflower granité, perfect.

Good to know is that matcha is a great antioxidant, a calorie burner, a detox deluxe and an energy booster, sooo healthy thus. Ohw one last thing : I read somewhere that you can also make a kind of latte with matcha, I must try that one of these days :-)

A new Belgian beer

I am a big fan of the apero moment, the famous after-work drink, catching up with friends or enjoying my lover's company with a nice drink…  Last week we tried a new Belgian beer with a touch of gold : Golden Queen Bee. It tasted really nice, sweet, but not to sweet and it was served in a kind of wine glass, which made it look a bit like champagne.  The beer is brewed with a fermentation method using honey and has 24 karat gold flakes in it… (which unfortunately I couldn't really detect in the beer…) It's 9% alcohol but tastes really smooth... You can buy it online for 35€, which makes it a beer worth to try for a special occasion.

Tasted at L'Archiduc (still one of Brussels best bars) on the 14th of February, so we didn't escape the hearts and red roses, but that's cool, and they even served complimentary snacks that day.

Valentine 2012

Valentine is as any good reason as anything else to make a cake right? So we decided on making something reddish, the soo American red velvet cake.  It's very very yummy, but don't eat too much of it though, cuz it's pretty rich & sugary. It's kind of a cocoa cake with a vanilla cream-cheese icing and we added some pecan nuts and a red sugar heart on top.



The reddish-brown color of the cake was originally from a reaction of the cocoa powder with an acidic ingredient such as buttermilk, however, red food coloring is often added. We only added a little natural coloring.  I found this Interesting link on the history of the red velvet cake and at the end of that page, check the pretty cool recipe link...maybe we'll try it for next year, cuz the cake got 3 layers and red wine in it!



Oh and Happy Valentine to you all!  Let's not make Valentine only a lover's feast, but a feast of love, love for yourself, friends and family too. :-) And maybe even love for food!

PS : this cake is available at CHOOSY on the 14th ;-)

happy things of the week

  Last Thursday I got this magnificent box of chocolates : I love pre-valentine gifts! They are from Pierre Marcolini, probably the best chocolates in the world... well at least to me ... the size of the chocolates, the packaging, the tasting experience... everything is perfect. Definitely one of my favorites.  Check out his store in Brussels on the Sablon, it's always got nice decorations for Christmas, Easter, Valentine...






Cooking is pleasure, so here's a sooo health recipe we ate a few days ago :        Salmon papillote : precook vegetables such as fennel & potatoes, drop them on an aluminium foil, add a piece of fish, fresh herbs, salt & pepper, a splash of white wine and cook in the oven for about 13 minutes. Yummy and healthy. Drink an hoegaarden rosé beer with it.





So of course, we had "to kill the fish" (that's a French expression) by eating a little something sweet ... and since we got the new Hummingbird bakery book, we choose something from there : Pecan Chocolate pie. Sweet, sticky, chocolaty, and tasting even better the day after ...mmm