Culinary De-Lite

White Chocolate Blueberry Mousse Cake

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:17:43 +0000

I am not a sweet eater; sugar gives me a major headache. But my Husband has a big sweet tooth and I can not resist him. I am always trying to come up with fun and quick desserts for late night cravings. Right now the family is in love with my mousse, which is great because I can whip up mousse in minutes.

Next week Nov 20^th is National Adoption Day and our One Year Anniversary from the day we adopted my daughters, so I thought I would bake them a cake. I wanted to do something I have never done before and something that reminded me of them. My baby loves Blueberries, she has nick named herself the “Blueberry Princess.”

I started tossing around ideas of blueberries and mousse and came up with a White Chocolate Blueberry Mousse Cake.

I am using a classic Genoise sponge cake to get that melt in your mouth taste. I will be making a White Chocolate Blueberry Mousse as my filler and topping it with a White Chocolate Ganache.

Classic Genoise

8 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cp sugar
2cps Cake Flour

Preheat your oven 350 and prep your pans. A Genoise needs to bake as soon possible so it doesn’t deflate.

Make a double boiler by setting a large mixing bowl over pot of simmering water. Place whole eggs, egg yolk, and sugar into bowl and whisk for 7-10 minutes. Sugar should be dissolved and egg mixture should have doubled in volume.

Pour egg batter into mixing bowl and beat on medium speed for about 10 minutes until cool and light in color.

Carefully fold in flour, do not over mix. Your egg foam is what gives the cake its bounce.

Pour into prepared pans and cook about 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it if it over cooks it’s dry and crunchy.

White Chocolate Blueberry Mousse

7oz White Chocolate
10 each Blueberries (fresh or Frozen)
1 1/4 cp Heavy Whipping Cream
2 egg yolk

Heat 1/4 cp cream with blueberries over double boiler.

Stir in chopped white chocolate and egg yolks, whisk until melted.

In a mixing bowl whip a cup cream until stiff peaks.

Let chocolate mix cool and then fold in cream. Let set up to thicken. Once this thicken and and cake cools spread in between cake layers.

White Chocolate Ganache Glaze

6oz White Chocolate

¼ cp Heavy Whipping Cream

Bring cream to simmer over double boiler and whip in chocolate pieces until smooth.

Let cool and thicken about 20 minutes.

Slowly pour over cake, wait until that layer sets, if you want a thicker glaze add another layer. I used a glaze, because white chocolate is very sweet and I wanted to taste the delicate mousse.

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Dining Out with My Children

admin — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:33:22 +0000

After adopting my girls my whole world changed even my view of food, which I am sure is natural and necessary. I started paying closer attention to what I was eating, how often I skipped breakfast and even portion sizes. My little girls were absorbing my love for food and it added a new layer to my culinary interest. They willing ate everything I put in front of them from steamed mussels to gremolata. They loved vegetables; I started searching out the ones I didn’t eat often just to see if they would eat them. They devoured Brussel Sprouts and demanded “more kale, please”

I love to dine out, I love to see what other Chefs are cooking, I am always exploring food. Suddenly this adventure too was changed by my girls. I quickly became aware of the kids menu and all too often I left some of my favorite restaurants totally disappointed in what they were expecting me to feed my kids. No matter what style of restaurant I went to the kids menu usually featured the same fare; chicken nuggets, macaroni & cheese, hamburgers, and spaghetti. We quickly stopped ordering off the kids menu, why should I make my kids eat this when they preferred what we were eating. Yes, it cost more than the $3.00 bowl of mac, but I felt better about taking them out to dinner with me and my husband. I want to share my love for food with everyone I meet and the same is true with my girls. I see their food education as just as important as their math and reading skills. As I introduce them to new foods like Pho or sushi I see their passion in food growing as well as mine. It’s always a treat to get to see the world through your child’s eyes and food is no exception.

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Savory Pumpkin Recipes

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:13:54 +0000

When people think of Pumpkins they automatically think of Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Muffins, Pumpkin Bread or one of my family’s favorites Pumpkin Cheesecake. But in truth my favorite Pumpkin recipes are savory. I love a good spicy and creamy Pumpkin Soup. I use a blend of cumin, chili powder, curry, and a touch of dark brown sugar. The color and aroma just scream Fall, top it off with homemade rye croutons.

My newest addition to my savory Pumpkin recipes is a Pumpkin Parmesan Pasta Sauce. As in all of my Pasta sauces I use Spanish onions and lots of garlic. I finish it with fresh Thyme and freshly grated Parmesan. Right before tossing it over ravioli or macaroni noodles I usually stir in a little butter. This sauce has very creamy mouth feel, with no added cream. The color is inviting and is a kid pleaser.

Pumpkin Soup Recipe

Olive oil
1 sm. Spanish onion
1 clove garlic
32 oz chicken broth
15 oz canned pumpkin
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp curry
2 tbsp brown sugar
Salt & Pepper to taste

Sweat onions and garlic in olive oil for about 5 minutes.

Add stock and bring to simmer

Slowly whisk in broth keeping on medium heat. Soup will appear thin here as you are blending in the pumpkin; it will thicken as it heats through.

The spices are used to get it to your tastes so feel free to adjust amounts. This would be were my Husband would come in and tell me to add red chili flakes, he likes everything spicy. This soup can handle the heat. You will notice I did not add cream or milk, I feel the pumpkin already has a creamy texture and if I can cut down the fat and calories in a dish without endangering the flavor I will.

Pumpkin Parmesan Pasta Sauce

Olive oil
½ Spanish onion
4 cloves Garlic
16 oz Broth
15 oz canned Pumpkin
4 oz Parmesan
5 sprigs fresh Thyme
½ Lemon (juice)
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp Butter

Sautee your onions and garlic until tender about 4 minutes.

Add broth and slowly whisk in Pumpkin over medium high heat. If the pumpkin boils too hard it will start bubbling up and popping so be careful not to burn yourself. Keep an eye on it, it thickens quickly and you don’t want to scorch it.

Slowly whisk in parmesan, keep stirring so cheese does not go to the bottom and burn. Lower heat when all of the cheese is added. Keep stirring as it melts.

Add in the fresh thyme and lemon juice.

Salt & pepper to taste.

If I am using Ravioli or tortellini I just throw in into the sauce to cook, they cook quickly. This saves me a pot of boiling water.

If you would like to add a protein I usually marinate a chicken breast in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, fresh thyme, salt and pepper. After it marinates for a least 30 minutes I throw it on the grill, it cooks quick.

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Blu Figs Restaurant Review

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:12:01 +0000

Over the Christmas Holiday I went to one of my favorite websites Tampa Bay Half Off. http://tampabayhalfoff.mediawebconnect.com/

I bought a $50 gift card for like $12 for a new restaurant called the Blu Figs in North Tampa.

I then went to there website http://www.blufigs.com/.

I was not impressed with the website, I am not fond of flashy, but the menu looked great. I took my husband there and I fell in love with the place, don’t worry the restaurant is nothing like the website. The Blu Figs (French, Italian, Greek, Spanish) was very Mediterrean and romantic, our waiter was well trained, and the menu was perfectly simple. (most of you know I like a simple menu) Here is what we ordered:

Bearboat Pinot Noir
Vin Plat
Calabrese, Bresaola, Sopressata, Brillat Savarin, Idiazabal, Point Reyes, Roasted Red Peppers,
Candied Pecans, Sun Dried Figs, Olive Provence
Strawberry & Avocado Salad
buttered lettuces, walnuts & champange vinaigrette
Tree Shade Mushroom Soup
velvety blend of mushrooms with a cheese crouton
Chicken a la Grecque
chicken breast& moussaka potatoes
Honey Lavender Duck Confit
slow braised and hand pulled served with herbed cous cous
Brulee a la Liza
creme brulee & fresh berries
Galaktoboureko
Greek phyllo pastry stuffed with ground nuts and spices

The waiter suggested the Bearboat Pinot Noir which was a very smooth wine with a hint of spice, next was the Vin Plat which is a sampler of creamy sharp cheeses, salty cured meats, olives, and one of my favorites candied pecans. This was a great prelude to what was to come. My husband ordered their Strawberry & Avocado Salad, which was lightly dressed and of course I went for a soup. It was not an easy decision all of the soups sounded yummy, I eventually settled for the Tree Shade Mushroom Soup, it was velvety and earthy at the same time. I also ordered the Duck Confit for dinner, which is why I picked the restaurant, I love Duck Confit and it is one of those dishes I never get around to making. Needless to say I was not disappointed in fact I think I moaned as I savored every bite. We ended the meal with two desserts and I don’t think they measured up to the rest of the meal, of course I am not much of a dessert person.

Now most of you are probably wandering how I managed to eat all of that food and still walk out the place on my on two feet. The Blu Figs serves what they call Petits Plats which in my translation is proper portion sizes so you have plenty of room to try several of their amazing creations.

I can’t wait to go back. Be sure to check out their website they run several specials and they have live music during the week.

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Fighting Winter Weight part 1

admin — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:20:06 +0000

Did you know that the average American gains is 3-5 lbs over the Holidays, which is 20lbs in 10 years. The thought of me gaining 20lbs scares me to death, not just because I will be over weight, but because of health reasons.

What is your healthy weight? There are hundreds of website to help you figure this out plus your BMI. http://www.healthcentral.com is one of my favorite sites. Health Central can answer a lot of your questions.

Being over weight almost guaranties most of us will develop a disease. So all we have to do is maintain a healthy weight. So how do you maintain or lose weight. I am going to cover 5 things that sabotage our perfect weight goals, then I’ll go over some tricks on how to avoid them.

Ignored Calories
Lack of sleep
No Daily exercise
Stressful life
Diets that destroy our Metabolism

So what are the tricks to avoid those extra pounds? We will start with calories, I will not bore you with all the elementary details, I am sure everyone knows what a calorie is.

Lets talk about how to control calories and I am not talking about dieting. I will say right up front that I do not believe in dieting. I don’t believe in telling myself or someone else to stop eating a certain food. The minute someone tells me I can never have chocolate (or fill in the blank) then I am going to crave it and dream about it. So what do I do? I tell myself today I am going to drink 8 glasses of water and eat 3-4 pieces of fruit. I make better choices and I write my weekly menu on Sunday, all with healthy choices. I plan 3 snacks at 100 calories and three meals around 300 calories, I never let myself get hungry or full. This makes it easier to cut down on cravings. By planning a head I don’t have to think about it on my busy Mondays rushing between clients. I don’t do caffeine and I haven’t in years, but the way I eat gives me plenty of energy. A lot of my clients come to us because they want to eat healthy, but they don’t have time to think about it, so Culinary De-Lite does all the calorie counting, menu planning and cooking for them.

Lack of sleep.
Get 7-9 hours of sleep. I love to sleep and everyone who knows me knows I need 8 hours of sleep. My work days are demanding and I have to be quick, organized, and sharp thinking. I have come to realize the minute I didn’t get those hours I don’t think as clear. Also sleep deprivation infers with hormone levels that increase our appetite. Sleep deprived people are generally overweight. So turn off the TV and go to sleep, whatever you have not finished will be there the next day waiting for you.

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Pashas Miami Restaurant Review

admin — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 18:02:08 +0000

Thanksgiving weekend I had the pleasure of being in Miami visiting good friends. Of course, one of the subjects we covered was food. Not just any food, but healthy delicious food, my favorite. I was told about this great Fast Food Restaurant called Pashas. Is there such a thing as healthy Fast Food were the food is all natural, no additives or preservatives? http://www.pashas.com/company.html

I had to go and check it out. There are several locations spread through out the Miami area, but we chose the one on Lincoln street in South Beach, which is a treat in itself. The location was great and the restaurant’s two stories and out siding eating looked anything but fast food. The weather was perfect Miami style which was great for dining out.

As we were being seated I was looking at everyone’s plate and I could hear my stomach growl. This gorgeous blond sitting at the table beside us was eating this mixed salad of vibrant fresh vegetables, I knew immediately that I had to have that.

I must admit though when they handed us this book for the menu, I was intimidated. I am not a fan of large menus. But this one large menu consisted of breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts, and drinks, so I was able to skip through. There were so many things that I wanted to try, luckily I brought my Husband to help me, so I could order many wonderful dishes.

Pashas is Mediterranean Cuisine with yummy traditional foods like:

Adana (no not the city in Turkey) it’s a ground meat with herbs and spices cooked kind of like a kabob.

Baba Ghanoush roasted eggplant dip (one of my favorites)

Hummus of course this was on the menu and it was done perfect

Muhammara the first time I have ever had this dish, and I loved it. It’s a tangy spread made out of walnuts.

Plus there are wraps, kabob platters, salads, and yummy pastries and desserts.

The next best thing about Pashas is the price, dinner entrees on average about $9.00. I think our bill was about $35.00 that included beverages, a couple sampler platters and a split dessert.

Now a cool thing that I found out after I got on line to do some digging, was that they have what they call a Partnership Program http://www.pashas.com/healthymenu.html

They have partnered up with local fitness facilities and other nutritional programs to help promote a healthy lifestyle for their clients. What an amazing concept. Now if only I didn’t have to drive over 4 hours from Tampa to get there.

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Chef Knives Part 4

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:24:42 +0000

I recently had a client ask me about the new ceramic knives, and to be totally honest I had no idea what she was talking about, so of course the first thing I did was research and call all my friends to ask them. The client was saying she heard it was the strongest and sharpest knife ever, but the kicker was she said it never needed to be sharpened. I immediately thought “yea, right.”

This image is from http://www.purewellbeing.com

So, I went on line to Google it, I can say it’s a very pretty knife. They are made out of Zirconia, which is suppose to be the second hardest material to diamonds. It is stated that it is very sharp and holds an edge longer than any other Chef Knife. It has a very dense blade with few pores, which means it cuts down on cross contamination.

It is brittle and thin and tends to chip and any culinary gadget that chips is not a good kitchen choice, several other people agreed on

http://cookingcache.com/Index.aspx www.cookingcache.com.

Also it was mentioned that you need a special sharpener to sharpen it, so I guess it does need to get sharpened after all.

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on your knives.

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Chef Knives Part 3

admin — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 04:48:18 +0000

Japanese Chef Knives have taken over the knife market. They are beautiful knives and are made of several layers of steel beaten down to a fine point. They are a soft blade making them sharper and easier to sharpen than German. Their handles are usually metal as well. Most Japanese brands have no bolster so they are a lot lighter. I find the lack of bolster and a smaller tang throws off the balance, but like I stated earlier I like heavy knives. So handle a German and Japanese side by side and find which fits your hand better. The more popular Japanese Chef Knives are Misono, Masahiro, Masamoto, and Shun

Come back for part 4 and read about who has the strongest knife blade.

This image is from http://hubpages.com/hub/How_to_sharpen_your_kitchen_knives

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Chef Knives Part 2

admin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:23:06 +0000

People often want to know do I prefer German, American, French, or Japanese Knives. Well, I went to a French Cordon Bleu school and my first set of knives provided with my books were German, I still own those Babies. All of my knives since purchased have been German. I have held, looked at, read about, and drooled over other brands, but I am very fond of my German Knives.
The German knife is typically:

forged
full tanged
very comfortable handles
easy to maintain the sharpness
very strong
stainless steel
well balanced

They are heavier then Japanese knives, now for a lot of people that is not a plus, but I love a heavy well balanced German Blade.

Why? I am not a big male chef with meaty wrists, I am small framed female with small wrists, a heavy knife helps me put some cutting force into my cuts.
If you are going to purchase a Chef Knife let it rock back in forth in your grip and get a good feel for the balance and weight. My favorite German Knives are Wusthof and Henckel. Thanks Honey, for my favorite Henckel.

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Chef Knives, Part 1

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:05:32 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows of my love for my knives. All through Culinary School my knives where an extension of my arm. My knife bag replaced my purse and my Christmas wishes soon turned into forged stainless steel or a three sided wet stone.
I am often invited to friends and relatives to cook and I am immediately kicking myself for not bringing my knives. I cringe as I carve a perfectly roasted Duck or roasted chicken, as I hack at it with a serrated Ginsu knife. Rare standing rib roast looks like shredded beef after several attempts of carving it with a knife no sharper than my butter knives, I have often thought I might have been better off grabbing their steak knife.
Needless to say I am the first to recommend the perfect knife for friends, family and any stranger willing to listen to me spout poetic about my love.
So what type of knife do I recommend to these confused souls?
First, I try to educate them about knives in general. I always recommend a Chef’s Knife, if picked properly it will replace several of your kitchen gadgets. A good Chef Knife will run you over a $100, but it should last you forever.
A Chef’s Knife in general is 8-12 inches in length and should be forged with a full tang. What am I talking about? The tang is the metal of the blade running from tip all the way through the handle, this gives the knife proper balance and strength. If it is not full tang, don’t even think about it.
I don’t recommend the traditional wooden handles, they look great, but harbor bacteria, go for a composite plastic, they are also great for gripping.
I also prefer a knife with a nice heel, no I am not talking shoes. The heel is the curved wide part by the handle, this is great for gripping & controlling the knife and it is perfect for rocking the blade.

Come back to see what my favorite knives are in Part 2. Subscribe to my newsletter.

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