Chocolate cake

/ dolcevitaspinelli / 2 Comments

Hi guys!! This cake is an all-time favorite ….

You can also use this recipe as base for another. Leave away the chocolate and replace it by apples and cinnamon… or maybe add some nuts, etc… let your imagination go wild!

 Ingredients:

  • 180g  sugar
  • 10g vanilla sugar
  • 100g real farm butter
  • 80g margarine (regular or soya)
  • 180g self-raising flower
  • 200g dark chocolate (fondant)
  • 3 eggs
  • Pinch of salt

Material:

  • Springform (bakeware) 20cm or 7,9 inch
  • Bakery paper

Get started: Time to get dough made: 10 -15 minutes

  •  Melt the butter and margarine (don’t put the heat to high).
  •  Brake the dark chocolate in small pieces and let it melt, in the micro wave, I always do it put it 2 times 1 ½ minutes in a microwave (750W). Why 2 times, because after the first time you stir the chocolate a little bit (after the second time, leave it in microwave until you need it).
  •  You then split the eggs and put the yolk and the egg white and put them in a separate bowl.
  • First you put a pinch of salt in the egg white and whip the egg white until it is nice and rigid (you when it is ready, because if you write something in it with a spoon, it will stay).
  •  After that is done you take the bowl with egg yolk and add the sugar. Whip is until you get a creamy consistency.
  • Add the melted butter. Stir this until you see that everything is nicely mixed .
  • Pre-heat the oven (I usually put it on the convention option./ hot air) at 180°C or 356° Fahrenheit.
  • Add the flower and again stir until it is a nice thick dough. You then add the whipped egg white and gently stir it… until it becomes a nice smooth/thick consistence.
  • The last thing that you should now  add is the melted chocolate (make sure all pieces of chocolate are melted), stir it until your whole dough is brown.

 Take you springform and put the bakery paper on the bottom piece and close the form. Grease the form with some butter and put some flower (that you need to spread) around the whole form and it should look the picture bellow.

  

 Put the mixture in the form and  then put the form in the pre-heated oven.  You will have to leave the cake around 40-45 minutes in the oven. When you take it out, let it cool down for a while and be careful then taking it out of the form.

 

! Some tips to pimp it !: you can cut the cake in half (horizontally) and can put some chocolate mousse in-between. And/or you can put some ganache (120 gr chocolate (dark, white or milk) , 100 ml full cream  & 15 gr unsalted butter. Put it on the heating and let chocolate and butter melt. Stir and put on your cake; let it cool down) on top of the cake.

 Enjoy 😉

Catalonia à la française and so the story continues…

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The first night we decided to go to a restaurant of the Le Neptune . We went to the La voile du Neptune, with nice overlook over the little port/harbor of Collioure. Where we first had the Serrano Ham with Manchego Pan Tomato and the range of forgotten Tomatoes of “Pezilla-de-la-rivière”, Parmesan chips and Mozzarella. Followed by Gambas à la planxa deglaced with Xéres (sherry) and Entrecôte 1er choix snackée, beurre à la moutarde à l’ancienne (I know, no meat at the seaside, but I just wanted it so bad) and to finish with a Fondant au chocolat and a café gourmand. Overall a very nice dinner. Although I never understand why at some restaurants the seranno ham (or Parma) sometimes gets cut quit thick? I really prefer when it is thinly sliced… but maybe that a personal taste.

But never the less, it was some goooood food and of course all of this was accompanied by a nice local rosé wine. I would indeed recommend this restaurant, although it slightly more expensive.

We stayed 3 nights in Collioure, sadly we didn’t really felt like visiting too many cities or villages, although this region has lots of nice places to visit like Perpignan, Port-Vendres, Andorra (although still quit a drive).  And there are also from “routes des vins”  to visit some nice vinyards. During our stay we mostly drank wines from Cave Veuve Banyuls and honestly these wines were very good, we tried the Collioure Rouge and Rosé.  As I said, we decided to relax our few days and enjoy the sunshine.

 The 2nd and 3rd day we went to the same 2 restaurants for lunch we want to Argelès-sur-Mer at “La Vieille Cave’ in Avenue de la Liberation (51 bis) and in the evening. Very nice little restaurant with a terrace with a very good price- quality-quantity value. They serve a big variety of tapas, salads and bigger courses. The first time we tried some fish and the second time tapas and both times we were really satisfied and had enjoyed our lunch for 100%. And we assure you that 1 dish is more than enough as the portions are really generous.

In the evening we went to restaurant ‘Le Clocher’. This restaurant was by far the niced place I have been in my 2 weeks in the South of France.  Typical Catalonian refined cuisine for a very normal price, served by very enthusiast and friendly staff. At restaurant ‘Le Clocher’ for tapas o/ first cours, main course, dessert, wine and apero you should count between 50 and 70 EUR for 2 persons. What to my opinion a very good price, knowing that you are still in the south of France. I actually discovered a very good champagne in this restaurant,  champagne from ‘Besserat de bellefon’ . We both days started with the tapas, where I can recommend the Serrano con pan e tomate (thin sliced ham J ) where you get the garlic, tomato and bread separate so you can decide how much of each you want on your toast. For main courses everything is recommended as everything looked and tasted amazing!!

So for everybody who wants to discover the best of Pyrénées-Orientales should definitely visit Collioure. Bon Voyage!!

Catalonia à la française

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For an Italian it is not always easy to admit that other cities, countries or villages are breath taking if they are outside of Italy. Collioure in the French département Pyrénées-Orientales along the Côte Vermeille is one of those places. Only a 20 minute drive from the Spanish border, to my opinion this is what makes this region so wonderful. The best from both French and Spanish (Catalonian) culture.

About two weeks ago, when I was driving towards Collioure, from Montpellier onwards I was astonished from the beauty nature has created there…..At your right the hills with the vines enjoying the sunshine wresting on its leafs at that same moment you also notice the amazing view over the Mediterranean sea… And as cherry on top of the cake The blue sky overlooking all this beauty. The more I drove the better it became.

 The hotel we chose was 2 minutes (by car) outside of Collioure, in a little town called Argelès-sur-Mer in hotel Les Mouettes. A nice hotel with pretty spacious rooms, but what makes this hotel even better is the stupendous views:

As you can see on the picture above, just wonderful! Afterwards we also noticed that the group to which this hotel belongs, also had a hotel right in the center of Collioure and according to the comments it gets on booking.com  It is/was also a very nice hotel. The only thing that could be negative is that both hotels don’t have elevators… but personally, it didn’t bother me… as the rooms were nice, the hotel had everything one could want; swimmingpool, Jacuzzi, etc… (all free for use) and all with view over the sea. Plus the hotel staff was also very kind and helpful.

 In the evening after having enjoyed some southern sunshine, we headed towards Collioure city. What actually happens to be the world capital of anchovy (ansjovis), so I was already a bit scared that everything on the menu was anchovy related. Driving towards the city center we enjoyed a nice short drive surrounded by vineyards and overlooking the sea we entered in this picturesque little mediaeval town with 2 sights that immediately catch your eyes are the Collioure Notre-Dame-des-Anges church and the Château Royal (in the summertime there are open air concerts in this castle). Something that also fascinated me about collioure is that in the early 1900’s, it was a center of artistic live as lots of artists made it their meetingplace, artists like Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, etc…. as they were all inspired by this wonderful town.

 When I visit a town or city, the thing I refuse doing, is eat at a so called ‘tourist trap’ restaurant. We could have of course asked at the hotel where to go (as they have the menu carts from most of the good restaurants), but I always see it as a quest to find a nice spot myself, which sometimes can annoy my girlfriend. When looking at some menu’s my fear was already over, although they indeed had some dishes with anchovy, but most dishes were southern French- Catalonian tinted. And so we started our first search for good food.

 To be continued…

Pazzi Per Pazzo

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Yesterday evening I was in wine heaven again, I went for a drink at restaurant/ wine bar ‘Pazzo’. And you might even take this literally, as when you enter the big wooden door you have to walk up to the first floor where youthen bump against a big glass wine cooling cell as if the world stops there.  The Italian word ‘Pazzo’ means  crazy in English. It definitely  is the least you can say about my love or better passion for wine. For more than 10 years restaurant/ winebar Pazzo is one of my favorite places in Antwerp to get lost in the world of wine and fusion kitchen.  Pazzo is one of the most well-known places when it comes to wines. Owner William Wouters, a longtime friend of my father,  is a well-reputed world class sommelier and won several awards worldwide. So who better to give advice and open a restaurant/ winebar than him?

Last night we started with a gentle white ‘Bossa’ wine. The ‘Bossa’ is actually one of the wines of William wife’s  vineyards in Portugal, an aromatic, crispy and dry white wine. This wine accompanied by some thinly sliced San Daniele ham, grissini and parmesan cheese…. Can the evening start better than this? Then I decided to continue with some red wine, even though the friend who joined me to ‘Pazzo’ is not really a red wine lover. So basically a bigger challenge for Douglas (William’s brother) to find a wine that could convince and make my friend change his mind about red wines. To some this might seem easy, but to find the best matching wine in a constantly changing collection of more than 250 wines, could be a tricky job.  When we got the wine my friend’s exact words were: ‘that taste is right on what I love’. And so we continued to enjoy this perfect evening.

This time I didn’t have lunch or dinner at ‘Pazzo’, but I can highly recommend to everybody to try it. You can see it as a perfect harmonization of French, Italian, Asian and Eastern cuisine. I know it might sound frightening , but Chef Ingrid Neven ‘s motto is ‘ Keep it simple’. Basically have respect for the products that you’re working and don’t over mix tasts. Besides the ‘ à la carte ‘ menu  they also have a black board with lots of suggestions. Both of them change every few weeks. With some fixed values as fresh Goose liver Carpaccio van verse ganzenlever with  aceto balsamico and sel de guérande, Truffels Pazzo’s Style, “Tempura” of gambas with  stir-fried vegetables and light curry. But they have a wide variety of dishes for everybody’s taste, all prepared with care and love. And it is also this that made her Lady Chef of the year 2010

Summerized, No better way to spend an relaxing evening!

Retaurant pazzo:

Website: www.pazzo.be

Address :

Oude Leeuwenrui 12
2000 Antwerp, Belgium

Phone n°: +32 (0) 3 232 86 82

Other links:

Bossa Vinhos Doidos (bossa wine): http://www.filipapato.net/