You're sweet like chocolate boy, sweet like chocolate you bring me so much joy, you're sweet like chocolate (Shanks & Bigfoot)

Tiramisu pie à la Dominica

preparing the base for the cake

Mix some crushed almond cookies (200g) with melted butter (75g)

firm base for your cake

Put the mixture on the bottom of your baking mould ; press firmly with your hands - it should cover a 20 to 22 cm mould. To lift and remove the cake easily, cut a circle matching the size of your mould's bottom out of baking paper.

adding cream

Make a firm cup of coffee and add 20 dl Amaretto to it ; leave it gently to boil and keep it aside.

Soak 6 sheets of gelatin in cold water. After 5 minutes, drain and squeeze them gently and add to the coffee/Amaretto mix.

Leave to cool off.

Take a small plate and pour some Amaretto in it : dip boudoir cookies - cut in half - into the Amaretto with the non-sugary side of the cookies. Put each piece of boudoir straight up on the side of the mould, the sugary side facing the outside. Leave it to rest in your fridge.

Pour 25 dl of cream together with 125g of crystallized sugar and whip on a low level until the cream is smooth and lush. Add 500g of mascarpone ; fold gently (or on a low Kitchen Aid level) into the whipped cream.

adding the coffee into the cream/mascarpone mixture

Pour the coffee/Amaretto mix gently in your cream/mascarpone mix. Take the base of your cake out of the fridge and put half of this mixture in the mould. Add some leftover boudoir crumbles. Add the last half of the mascarpone mix in your mould.

final touches

Finish off with chocolate/cocoa powder ; don't be thrifty ... you may sprinkle a lot on top of your lushious tiramisu cake .. 

la cottura è semplice, come l'amore (a volte) xx

Comme te po' capì chi te vò bene si tu le parle 'mmiezzo americano? (We no speak Americano)

freshly made papardelle

buon appetito !

Papardelle met paddestoelen, mascarpone en pijnboompitten

Zoals beloofd, hét recept van mijn ingeving van de dag :

Ingrediënten :

1. verse papardelle van de Pastaman bijvoorbeeld (een nestje of 4 per persoon)
2. een mengeling van paddestoelen zoals bruine Parijse champignons en een mix van canterellen (max 250g)
3. 40 cl mascarpone (zure room kan ook mocht je geen mascarpone bij de hand hebben)
4. zwarte peper
5. zout voor de pasta
6. pijnboompitten (licht geroosterd)
7. basilicum voor de afwerking
8. parmezaan (schilfers)

Zo maak je het :

Kook de verse pasta in een grote pot met water en zout (verse pasta heeft niet lang nodig dus maak je best de pasta à la minute) Indien je de pasta toch vooraf kookte, giet deze dan (niet blussen met koud water !) af en hou apart in de pot met het deksel erop.

Doe een klontje boter in de pan en voeg de (in stukjes gehakte) paddestoelen erbij - peper ze flink en keer ze om tot ze wat gekrompen lijken. Voeg de mascarpone toe - blijf roeren. Zet je vuur zachter en laat de saus inkoken. Voeg de licht geroosterde pijnboompitten erbij en roer om. Wanneer de saus klaar is roer je deze onder de pasta (je kan eventueel nog een scheutje olijfolie toevoegen voor extra smeuïgheid).

Garneer een blaadje basilicum 'on top' en klaar is kees ! 

La cuisine, c'est simple, comme l'amour ...

He likes bread and butter He likes toast and jam That's what his baby feeds him And he's a lovin' man (Bread & Butter, The Newbeats)

how to serve Eton Mess

After my meringue adventure last weekend I'm challenging myself to take 'meringue' one step further. Don't forget I was/am never a kitchen princess to begin with.
I'm very happy with what I've achieved so far in my kitchen.

We are having some friends over this weekend ; dessert is my task and I'm taking this very seriously.
Now, I was wondering what I would make - what I like best and what dessert I loved and wanted to eat over and over again. I once ate 'espuma' for dessert made by this great chef who owned a little resto called Karper. Unfortunately this place closed down a couple of years ago so I can't go back and try to find out what all those flavours and ingredients were .. it's a secret gone forever ! What a waist. This must have been the best dessert ever on my list.

Now, I have a friend, Kev and he owns De Mosselbeurs in Oostende.
We got to know each other via Twitter and I first met him 'live' in 2009.
He made a dessert, especially for me and he knows whenever I'm at the West Coast, he needs to have all these lush ingredients to make me an Eton Mess.
Diet or not, he always fixes me one - a smaller portion if required so.
In honour of Kev and his version of Eton Mess, I will make this on Saturday and will call it Kev's Mess.
:-)

recipe and pics will go online after the weekend !
stay tuned !