Flourless Chocolate Cake

I do not know where this recipe came from; it is in my binder of recipes. My mom makes something similar (but richer and rumy).

Cake

12 ounces (350 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
¾ cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
6 large eggs, separated
12 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Glaze

½ cup whipping cream (125 ml)
½ cup dark corn syrup (125 ml), if you cannot find corn syrup it will work without, just double cream
9 ounces (250 grams) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

The cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Butter 9-inch-diameter (22.5 cm?) springform pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper, butter paper. Wrap outside of with foil.

Stir chocolate and butter in saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm stirring often.

Beat egg yolks and 6 tablespoons of sugar in large bowl until very thick and pale (about 3 minute with electric mixer). Fold in the chocolate mixture, then vanilla extract.

Using clean dry beaters, beat egg whites in another bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 6 tablespoons of sugar, beating until medium form peaks are formed. Fold the whites into the chocolate mixture in three additions. Pour batter into the pan.

Bake the cake until the top is puffed, cracked and the toothpick inserted into the center comes out with some moist crumbs, about 50 minutes. Cool cake on rack- the cake will fall.

Gently press down the crust top to make the cake evenly thick. Cut around the pan sides to loosen the cake, remove pan sides. Invert cake onto plate, and peel off the parchment paper.

The glaze:

Bring cream and corn syrup to simmer in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth.

Pour glaze over cake and chill until form. Serve at room temperature.

Baked French Fries

The "tortilla" soup I made today was a little too spicy. So I figured some french fries might sooth some of the spice. They are so easy and quick and tasty without deep frying them in oil. I also like to leave the skin on the potatoes (more vitamin something).

For two people:

scrub three nice sized potatoes.

slice up the potoatoes put them in a bowl

add about 1/3 cup of olive oil to coat them well

add a generous amount of garlic salt (and/or Lowreys seasoning salt would be good too if we had it)

pepper too if your other part of the meal isn't too spicy
bake in the oven at 180 C or 350 F, stirring every 20 minutes until crispy - about 45 to 50 minutes total.

Eggs Benedict

Kelani has been asking to have this for breakfast since eating it at The Epicurean in Steamboat Springs. Ours is the Turkish version as we did not make crab cakes nor did we have English muffins. We did enjoy though.

We took rye bread, spread it with dijon mustard, put on a couple of slices of a beef salami (no bacon here), then some slices of sweet onion, on top we put a mixture of hard cheese (like parmesan) and a sheep or goat feta. We then heated it up in the oven.

I poached the eggs (I need to work on that), placed on on top of the bread combo and added the Hollandaise sauce.

 Sauce Hollandaise- from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck

  

So that the egg yolks will thicken into a smooth cream, they must be heated slowly and gradually. Overcooking scrambles them. You may beat them over hot water or over low heat; it makes no difference as long as the process is slow and gentle.

For 1 to 1 ½ cups hollandaise- serving 4 – 6 people

• 6 to 8 ounces of butter ( to 1 cup or 1 ½ to 2 sticks)
• A small saucepan 

Cut the butter into pieces and melt it in the saucepan over moderate heat. Then set it aside.

• A 4 to 6 cup, medium weight, enameled or stainless steel saucepan
• A wire whisk
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• Big pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon cold butter
• 1 tablespoon cold butter (one for the beginning one for the end)
• Salt and white pepper

Beat the egg yolks for about 1 minute in the saucepan, or until they become thick and sticky.
Add the water, lemon juice, and salt, and beat for half a minute or more.
Add the tablespoon of cold butter, but do not beat it in. Then place the saucepan over very low heat or barely simmering water and stir the egg yolks with a wire whisk until they slowly thicken into a smooth cream. This will take 1 to 2 minutes. If they seem to be thickening too quickly, or even suggest a lumpy quality, immediately plunge the bottom of the pan in cold water, beating the yolks to cool them. Then continue beating over heat. The egg yolks have thickened enough when you can begin to see the bottom of the pan between strokes, and the mixture forms a light cream on the wires of the whisk.

 Immediately remove from heat and beat in the cold butter, which will cool the egg yolks and stop their cooking.

 Then beating the egg yolks with a wire whisk, pour on the melted butter by droplets or quarter-teaspoonfuls until the sauce begins to thicken into a very heavy cream. Then pour the butter a little more rapidly. Omit the milky residue at the bottom of the butter pan.

 Season the sauce to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.