Chocolate Week Continued: The Chocolate Shop

Chocolate. When you talk about Belgium, most people think of chocolate. They don’t think that Brussels is the capital of Europe, they don’t think that the new President of the EU is Belgian. They think chocolate. They don’t think that Belgium has the oldest spa and the oldest casino in Europe. They don’t think about the Formula 1 circuit. Nope, it’s chocolate. They don’t think about fries, which were invented here. They don’t think about the bazillion different beers brewed here. Nope, nope, nope--they think chocolate. Me too!

Chocolate is an important part of life in Belgium. Belgians have said for years that chocolate was good for you. Now we know that it's true: chocolate lowers cholesterol and keeps us happy. Chocolate is serious business here. Every year, the grand chocolate houses create new chocolates. When the crown Prince and Princess have another child, chocolates are created to celebrate. Needless to say, buying a box of chocolates is a very different experience here than in the US.

First, you have to know that there are different ‘grades’ of Belgian chocolate. The international industrial chocolate brands are what has brought Belgian Chocolates their reputation, and they’re an important part of the chocolate story here. But Belgians rarely buy them. Then there are the smaller industrial brands, generally available all over Belgium and perhaps in neighboring countries, but not overseas. Those are, in my opinion, a step above the international industrials. But they’re still industrial grade chocolates. That is to say, they’re made by machines.

The chocolates prized by Belgians are those that are made by hand, the artisanale chocolates. With some notable exceptions, these are only available in the region where they’re made, often only available in one shop. In one town. Everybody has his or her favorite chocolatier, and I’m no exception.

This is our favorite chocolate shop, La Maison Saive.

It was opened 11 years ago by Christophe Saive, who’s the maitre chocolatier. Christophe is always smiling, always in a good mood. (I probably would be too if I worked around chocolate all the time). When you go into his shop--or any artisanale chocolate shop in Belgium--you’re confronted by a wide range of chocolates, or pralines. (in Belgium, a praline is a filled chocolate--it has nothing to do with the pecan confections that you can buy in New Orleans.)

In Christophe's shop you’ll see more than 80 different kinds of pralines, made with dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, sugar-free chocolate, single-source chocolate. You’ll also see chocolate bars, chocolate spread, cocoa, liqueur filled chocolates, chocolate covered cherries and orange peel, pâtes de fruit, marzipan, marrons glacées. The choice is staggering. What you won’t see is boxes filled with chocolates. Nope. Each and every one is created at the time you buy it.

You choose the box size and form, and then choose what you want to go in it. The vendeuse then puts on a white cotton glove and carefully places each chocolate in the box. When the box is full, it’s closed up and finished with a bow. Each box. Every box. Made personally to your specifications.

Christophe makes around 8 TONS of chocolate each year. Ninety percent of that is pralines, which weigh between 10 and 15 grams each. That’s more than (lemesee....carry the two....divided by....) 575,000 individual chocolates. Each one made by hand. In the workshop (atelier) Christophe works with Sophie, his apprentice. In the front of the shop there’s Florence, his wife. In the busy seasons (like now) his parents help out--his dad in the atelier and his mom in the shop while Florence packs the Christmas orders for corporate customers. It’s a real family business.

Like the big chocolate houses, Christophe creates a new praline each year. In the past, he’s introduced us to pralines with lavender, rose, licorice, allspice, as well as some surprising ones: beer, cumin, tomato (it IS a fruit!), balsamic vinegar, and (oh, yes!) cardamom. Cardamom was my favorite until this year. This year, Christophe brought us truffled truffles. Oh, my.

Continuing chocolate week, in my next post I’ll show you how these chocolates are made. Meanwhile, don’t forget the double truffle giveaway --there’s still time to enter!

Double Truffle: Kicking off Chocolate Week and a giveaway

I love truffles. Both kinds: the dark, rich, chocolate kind and the earthy, aromatic, mushroom kind.

The first time I had mushroom truffles was in Italy. They were freshly grated over pasta dressed only with peppery green olive oil. Oh, my. That was a revelation. Even though they cost a lot, I buy them. It only takes a tiny bit to flavor a whole dish with their indescribable flavor.

Then there’s the chocolate kind--for me, always dark chocolate, rarely adulterated with other flavors. But it has to be a good chocolate-fruity, dark, complex. I admit it. I'm a chocolate snob. Hey, I live in Belgium!

Truffles in either form, then, are treasured at our house. When I heard that our favorite chocolatier was planning to make truffle-flavored truffles, I was cautiously thrilled. Thrilled, because two of my favorite flavors were going to be united in one place; cautious because sometimes my favorite things don’t like each other much (remember the orange-cardamom tarte tatin?)

Yesterday I got to try my first truffled truffle. Oh. Yess. First you taste the rich dark fruity chocolate, followed by the deeper, mysterious earth flavor of the truffle. Just enough of it--any more and it wouldn’t work. It’s a marriage made in heaven, I think.

No, that’s not right. They’re really awful. You wouldn’t like them. I’ll have to eat yours. Just because I like you.

If you don’t believe me, though, and would like to try them for yourself, leave a comment on this post between now and December 20. Overcome with seasonal spirit, I’m going to give away a box of truffled truffles. If there are more than 50 comments, I’ll give away two boxes. (NOTE: I will ship these wherever you live. Please don't let my living in Belgium stop you from entering the contest.)

During the next week or so, I’ll be visiting our chocolatier at his workshop and taking photos of how he makes his chocolates. So stay tuned for Chocolate lessons!

New Toy

Before I started this blog, I took a lot of photos. Most of them I took for the normal reasons, but there were a lot that I took so that I could paint them. When taking reference photos for painting, it’s the form and the colors and the light that are important; focus, depth of field, composition, etc are less important, because you can change all that when you paint the scene. Photography skills aren't very important. My camera stayed on "auto".

When I started this blog, I began to see the need for better photos. So I dusted off my old photography books and bought some new (i.e., digital) ones. I took the camera off “auto” and began to re-learn about f-stops and white balance and depth of field. I knew that one day I’d trade in my trusty 5-year-old Fuji bridge camera for a DSLR. First, though, I decided to learn all I could with the Fuji and to keep it till I had learned enough to need more than the Fuji could do.

Last week I decided that the time had come. I had done a lot of research, decided what I wanted, and VOILA!

It's a Nikon D90. I have to note that I’ve had a really hard time taking a good photo of it with the Fuji. I’m trying hard to ignore the nagging thought that the Fuji is jealous of the Nikon. My early training as a Psychologist is not serving me well here, I’m thinking.

Needless to say, I’ve spent all my free time snapping away, trying to learn how to transfer what I learned from the Fuji to the Nikon. LOL, it reminds me of when I was younger and got the chance to drive a Lambourghini from one side of town to another. I got in it, put it in gear, and popped the clutch. YOWZA! I was not prepared for that kind of power....

The Nikon is a little bit like that. It can do amazing things, if only I knew how. So I’ve been taking photos of everything in sight. I thought I’d share some of them with you. Kind of like vacation photos, but I never left home.

This is our friend Etienne. He’s a photographer who lives in Paris. He spent a day here with Dan taking photos. (Did I tell you that Dan is a sometime model? Maybe I didn’t.)

I spent some time with them, learning what I could from Etienne, who was very generous with his time and expertise. While he was taking photos of Dan, I was taking photos of him, playing with the settings on the new camera and trying to learn how to change them quickly to capture what I wanted. Needless to say, I’m having to upgrade my photoshop skills at the same time. My head is spinning. But in a good way.

Here are a few of the several hundred that I took. No, let me re-phrase that--here are the few that are presentable out of the several hundred that I took:

Here's Etienne looking at his camera--I love the expression in this one.

Here they're working on the terrace of an old chateau:

This is my favorite one of Etienne, directing a shot:

Finally, here’s my sweetie, looking pensive:

And here he is looking at me.

OVERDUE

Way back in October, Sam at My Carolina Kitchen nominated me for an award. Between trips and family stuff I haven’t yet been able to accept it. Today’s the day!

I’ve seen this badge on several blogs and always secretly envied those who had received it--now I have one! (Don’t hate me ‘cause I’m beautiful, ok?) Thanks, Sam, I’m touched and honored to receive this award, even if this post is long overdue.

Besides the cool badge there are, of course, some rules:

1. Post the award on your blog. Present this award to seven others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
2. Tell those seven people they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP, inform them of these guidelines, and ask that they link back to you.
3. Share “Ten Honest Things” about yourself.

When I received this award, I was in Japan. I started a list of things you probably wouldn’t already know about me, and ended up with a nice loo-ong one. Can I find it now? Of course not. So I made a new one:

1. I prefer baths to showers. If there’s a tub, I immerse myself. I think I came by this honestly, as my Dad did the same thing for as long as I can remember.
2. My favorite meals consist of small dishes of intensely flavored food. The food in Japan was exactly what I love most.
3. The most exotic places I’ve been are Japan and Ukraine. (So far...)
4. I bite my fingernails. I know, I know, but I’ve always done it and I don’t seem to be able to stop. (This is an HONEST award, after all!)
5. I sleep on my side. Dan says I snore sometimes, but HE doesn’t have an HONEST award, does he? That’s all I’m saying about that.
6. I’ve just discovered the music of Jacques Brel. They don’t make them like that anymore. Just a man and a microphone, that’s all. No fireworks, no special effects, no backup singers. Just him and me. And his hands.
7. I LOVE spicy food. This is probably due to early culinary experiences with my Dad’s barbecue sauce. If you’re good, one day I’ll share the recipe with you.
8. I love to eat with chopsticks. I’m pretty good at it too! I have about a bazillion pairs.
9. Lemesee, lemesee... Two years ago I traded my PC for an iMac. My life has been easier all round since then. I can’t imagine ever going back.
10. My favorite season is autumn. I love the cool air and seeing the trees deck themselves out in colors and the wonderful smell of it. A couple of years ago I walked outside one day and there was a gorgeous smell in the air. I couldn’t figure it out--was there a new bakery somewhere? Was there a tree blooming? What WAS it? AHA! I finally realized that it was fall. My favorite season. I was born in the fall.

That’s it, at least until I find that list. I’ve thought a lot about who to pass this on to, and I’ve chosen seven blogs that I love to read, which inspire me for one reason or another, and to whom I haven’t given an award already. Give them a visit; I think you'll enjoy them:

The Hungry Dog

The Gypsy Chef

Serendipity (another one!)

Once in a Blue Moon

Night Owl Chef

Moveable Feasts

Jillicious Discoveries

Thanks for reading this far, if you have. If you haven’t, then please don't tell me. Ignorance is bliss, after all.

GOULASH

When we first visited Vienna, we were wandering around one day around lunchtime, our heads full of Franz-Joseph and the Hollernzollern, and we ducked into a sort of pub for lunch. Inside was warm wood paneling and a limited but interesting menu. The thing that attracted me most was Goulash. I ordered it, and when it came I was transported. Imagine the best beef stew you’ve ever tasted: beef cooked till it’s falling apart, sauce rich and with just enough heat to warm you through without killing off tastebuds. No vegetables to interfere with the marriage of beef and sauce. Oh, man, was it delicious. After that I had to try all the sorts of goulash available in Vienna. There are a lot--there’s even a goulash museum! In the end, my favorite was the one I tried first, Fiacre Goulash. In Austria it’s served with a Viennese sausage and a fried egg on top. I skip that part and serve it over steamed new potatoes.

Fiacre Goulash

Recipe adapted from Austrian Specialties*

Roughly 1 Kilo / 2 pounds beef for roasting

4 medium onions

2 T olive or canola oil

2 T hot paprika

1 T vinegar

750 ml / 3 cups (approximately) beef stock

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp cumin

1 more cloves garlic, crushed

2 T tomato paste

salt, pepper

• Cut beef into large chunks. Peel the onions and chop them -- not too large.
• Heat oil in a large pot and saute onions slowly till they’re golden. Sprinkle with paprika, add vinegar and several tablespoons of beef stock.
• Add cubed meat and seasonings. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours, adding stock as necessary to keep it moist and covered with stock.
• When the meat is tender, add the remaining stock, tomato paste and the last garlic clove. Simmer 10 more minutes and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serves 4 if they like it and 10 if they don't.

Notes:

• If you’re going to be busy, you can add all the stock at once, but you still have to stir it and the problem is that when the beef is perfectly done you may have too much liquid in there so you have to continue to cook it...
• This is one of those dishes that improves with time. Be sure to make enough to have leftovers!

* This is a small recipe book published for tourists. It has no date of publication on it, but I bought it in 2002.

ORANGE CARDAMOM UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

What? Orange cardamom upside down cake? What gives?

OK, I know that today is the day for turkeys and cranberries and mincemeat pie, but at our house Thanksgiving is this coming Saturday. That’s because here in Belgium nothing is closed today, and everybody has to work. So we’re celebrating on Saturday, when I’ll cook the only whole turkey in Belgium this week, if you don’t count those that are still walking around. More about that later...

I saw this cake at The Pastry Studio, and knew I had to try it. Anything that uses cardamom and oranges is OK with me. And if you can add some pink peppercorns, that’s even better. No peppercorns in this one, though, but it’s still pretty amazing.

I had a little kitchen detour on the way to making this cake. As I was trying to describe upside down cake to my friend Françoise, she said, “oh, a Tarte Tatin”. Hmmmmmm, I wondered, could I make an orange and cardamom Tarte Tatin? Was that even possible? Gentle reader, I tried it: I caramelized the sugar with orange juice and some cardamom, I artfully arranged the orange slices, I lovingly placed the crust on top and I baked it until it was golden brown on the top/bottom. I inverted it on a plate, and I am here to tell you that orange Tarte Tatin is just a bad idea. It tasted wonderful, but there is one very big problem: oranges are all about juice. Tarte Tatin is not a really juicy dish. That’s all I’m going to say about it.

It was so ugly that Dan and I laughed as we ate it, but I LOVED flavors. So I decided to go back to my original idea (actually, The Pastry Studio’s original idea) and try the cake. Of course, I had to change it a little bit. But not too much, actually. It was pretty intriguing as it was.

To make this you’ll need a heavy pan about 25 cm / 10 inches in diameter. It needs to be one that you can use on the stovetop and then put in the oven. A cast iron skillet will work very well. I used an enameled cast iron pan made for (what else?) Tarte Tatin.

One more thing--don’t bake this if you don’t want your neighbors to stop by. Our apartrment smelled heavenly for a couple of days after I made this. Don’t say I didn’t warn you...

Orange Cardamom Upside Down Cake

adapted from The Pastry Studio

For the topping:
50 g / 3 Tablespoons butter
150 g / 3/4 C brown sugar
4 medium-sized navel oranges
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

For the cake batter:
200 g / 1 1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
85 g / 6 Tablespoons butter at room temperature
125 g / 2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange

• Preheat oven to 175 C / 350 F
• Peel the oranges by slicing the peel and the white pith off with a sharp knife. Slice them into thin slices.
• Melt the butter in a heavy oven-proof pan and stir in the brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom. Remove from the heat and press the mixture evenly into the pan. Allow to cool.
• Arrange the orange slices over the topping in the cake pan. You’ll probably have enough to make two layers. Good.
• Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, and the rest of the cardamom in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the milk, vanilla and orange zest.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time.
• Stir in half of the dry ingredients until nearly combined, then add the milk and mix. Add the remaining dry ingredients and stir just until combined -- don’t overmix. Try not to breathe as you do this, or you’ll just sit down on the floor and eat the batter. It smells THAT good. Really.
• Spread the batter carefully over the oranges and bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cake at least 15-20 minutes, then place a serving platter over the cake pan, hold your breath, and turn them both over. With any luck, you’ll hear a very satisfying ‘plop’. Remove the cake pan and VOILA!

Notes:

• I don’t have vanilla extract, so I used vanilla sugar and I mixed it with the other sugar.
• I had to bake mine 43 minutes. It could have used a minute or two more.
• I served this with some vanilla gelato. It was heaven.
• Pastry Studio suggested that this might be good with blood oranges. I think that’s a wonderful idea.

Classics: Roasted Chicken

What’s better for a comforting dinner than roasted chicken? I love them, and with just the two of us we can usually get 4 meals out of one bird. For a classic like this, I always turn to Nigel Slater for guidance. His treatment of food is just right--good ingredients, not too much fussing.


I always start with a free-range chicken, for a lot of reasons, but one added benefit is that the drumsticks are really big. My husband is a drumstick guy, and he loves the longer legs on free-range birds. The bones are a lot stronger as well, and I think the stock they make has more flavor.

This guy weighed 1.25 kilos, or about 2.5 pounds. I plunked him in an oval dish and rubbed him all over with olive oil. I cut up a lemon and squeezed the juice over him, and put the squeezed lemon half inside him, along with several cloves of garlic. I put 4 or 5 garlic cloves and a couple of shallots around him in the pan. I cut up some potatoes and put them around him as well. Then I sprinkled the whole lot with a little salt, some pepper and some dried rosemary. If I’d had some nice thyme I’d have used that too. I poured about a half a cup of water around him (you could use white wine) and put him in a hot oven (200 C / 400 F) for an hour and 20 minutes. Nigel’s rule of thumb is 20 minutes for each 500 g / pound plus an extra 30 minutes. This always works out just right for me.


During that time, I checked to make sure that the pan wasn’t dry, and basted him a little bit. That’s all. Et VOILA! The potatoes were roasted and crunchy, the chicken was perfectly done and juicy, and there was a gorgeous sauce in the bottom of the dish. Just let him rest for a few minutes before you carve him. I know, it’s hard, but trust me--it makes a difference!

This is exactly the same way I roast my turkey for thanksgiving, or game hens for a fancier dinner. 20 minutes per pound/500 g plus an extra 30 minutes.

This goes veryvery well with Fancy Pants Potatoes and a little salad.

Notes:

• I sometimes use butter instead of olive oil at the beginning, and shove a little bit under the skin of the breast. This makes him brown a little more, and makes for a richer sauce.
• Carrots, parsnips and onions are good roasted in the pan along with the potatoes. Or instead of them.
• If you don’t do potatoes in the pan, this is splendid with truffle mashed potatoes: just boil some potatoes, mash them with some butter and a little milk or cream. Add some grated pecorino cheese with truffles. YUM!