Archive for December, 2009
Restaurant Recipe: Café Angelina’s Hot Chocolate
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via creative commons, flickr user laowai kevin
Our friend Ariana (the email Santa!) just emailed us with the most delicious gift. A recipe. Not just any recipe, but a recipe for Café Angelina’s famous hot chocolate. Café Angelina (226 rue de Rivoli) in Paris is notorious for their velvety rich hot chocolate called Chocolat L’Africain (named so for it’s Ivory coast cacao beans). The tea room, close to the Louvre art museum, is a favorite venue of both local Parisians and tourists alike. Fashion designer Vera Wang listed it as one of her favorite destinations, and Grammy Award winning soprano opera Renée Fleming states Angelina’s “is a must for hot chocolate.” We love Ariana’s description the best: ”so sinfully thick, it’s almost difficult to pour”!
Café Angelina’s Chocolat L’Africain (deliciously decadent hot chocolate)
This recipe serves 2 small cups, or one large cup. 2 serious chocolate lovers should double it!
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp of confectioners’ sugar (aka powdered sugar)
4 oz of chopped 72% Omanhene brand bittersweet chocolate (you may use another brand here, but ensure that it is close to 70% cocoa. We chopped up half of a Lindt 70% bar, found in the baking section of our regular grocery store.)
Heat the milk, cream, and sugar over medium high heat until bubbles are created around the pot.
Remove the pot from heat. Add the bittersweet chocolate.
Stir until melted adjusting heat as needed. Serve topped with whipped cream.
{Tasting Notes: Our review after making this - it’s similar to drinking a chocolate bar, and perfect for those evenings when you are craving sweets after dinner. And put your guilt on the back burner, dark chocolate is antioxidant packed.}
Savory Chocolate Bruschetta
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Savory sweets, we are seeing them everywhere lately. From chipotle chocolate chili, to salted caramel candies, to bacon and egg ice cream. Is this a fickle culinary hipster trend or is it here to stay? While that remains to be seen, we guarantee that this recipe will stay permanently in your repertoire!
It’s another delicious video recipe from Chef John of Food Wishes, it literally only takes 5 minutes, and the combination of crispy bread, dark chocolate, and sea salt will transport you into chocolate lovers heaven. The first time we made this, despite having camera batteries charged, it disappeared before we could photograph it! So…we had to make it again, and quickly snap a photo, for the readers of course! The second time it was taken to a holiday party in Aspen, and the crowd loved it. It’s flavor is salty sweet, with both crunchy and soft textures, and the combination’s are magical chocolatey goodness. People were seriously pulling and tugging at a red wool peacoat asking for the recipe.
One question you may have as the party goers did: Is dark chocolate crustini bruschetta a dessert or an appetizer? The answer: it is whatever you want it to be. In fact, it may just be breakfast for us one day, paired with a piping hot Sumatra coffee. Read Chef Johns post, wine pairing recommendation, and full ingredient list here. (Note: For the dark chocolate, we used a Lindt brand bar with 70% cocoa, found in the baking section of our regular grocery store. And, as you may notice in the photo, we were lacking the Maldon sea salt with the nice thick crystals, so we used what we had, but it was still chock full of deliciousness. Is deliciousness a word? )
Warm Up Your Holiday Party With Beer Cheese Fondue
Posted by: | CommentsBrrrr it’s cold here in Aspen! For our holiday parties we are serving as many warm appetizers as possible this year, and fondue is always a big hit. In our video today, Chef Cristian Feher of Tampa Bay Chef Services shows us how to prepare a warm beer cheese fondue, to be savored with bread cubes or fresh fruit for dipping.
Read on for the recipe Read More→
