Husband and I have never been much into Valentine's day or for that matter any other Hallmark holidays. We however like chocolate cakes and for that reason alone I decided to make a big deal of Valentine's day this year and celebrate it with this heavenly Chocolate Red Wine Mousse Cake...
The recipe is an adaptation of Michel Rostang's Double-Chocolate Mousse Cake from Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours. I mostly followed her recipe, just made a tiny adjustment... replaced the brewed coffee with an equal measure of red wine... and created "one of the most elegant desserts ever"... so said the husband. We relished and enjoyed the dessert over the next 3 days, each time feeling decadent and wonderful....
This is a flourless cake and is baked in two sessions. You first make the batter, bake part of it for the crust, chill the crust, then pour the remaining batter over the baked crust and bake the whole cake again. And then you chill it all over before serving. Yes. The process involved it is somewhat lengthy and tedious. However once you have baked, chilled and tasted the goey chocolately deliciousness, and seen the delight on your partners face, you will forget about all the tiny details and will want to make the cake again for your special someone...
Never in my life had i imagined that i would make gnocchi at home. but the introductory note in the book said that "homemade gnocchi is very simple" and is 'one of the first cooking projects that the author involved are kids in.' so i thought... o.k. lets give it a try. and yes. few hours later i realized this is that making gnocchi is indeed that easy... once you have got the hang of it.
Taste wise, my sweet potato dumplings did not come out 'as light as clouds,' as the book described them to be. clearly there was plenty of scope for improvement of the texture of my gnocchi. but since it was my first attempt we tried overlooking that and concentrated more on the the creamy red pepper sauce that i tossed it in. the sauce was finger-licking delicious. and there was an immediate request for its inclusion in the next weeks menu.
since there was no green in the gnocchi and sauce, to add color to the plate i served it with baked kale chips. and the two paired pretty well. also, just for curiosity i tossed few dumplings in store-brought ragu... that too tasted good and according to Nishi the potato taste of the dumplings was somewhat more identifiable in the ragu tossed ones. however i liked the gnocchi tossed in red pepper sauce more. i could faintly taste the paneer in it and i really enjoyed that. now over to the recipe....
To make the Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Creamy Red Pepper Sauce,
i used the following ingredients
homemade sweet potato gnocchi (as prepared below)
the red pepper sauce (as prepared below)
for the garnish
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon pine nuts
and proceeded as follows....
I boiled water in a large saucepan with a generous amount of salt, dropped about 10-12 gnocchi into the water at a time and cooked them until they returned to float on the surface of the boiling water. 2 to 3 minutes. i then removed them with a slotted spoon and tossed them immediately with the prepared sauce. then garnished it with ground cinnamon, nutmeg and pine nuts.
though i mentioned Lucinda's Rustic Kitchen in the beginning, i adapted my recipe of gnocchi from Oh My Veggies. and for the sauce i used this recipe as a guideline.
For the sweet potato gnocchi
the ingredients and what i did
2 1-pound red-skinned sweet potatoes, rinsed, patted dry, pierced all over with fork
1/4 cup homemade paneer
1/4 cup pureed tofu
1/2 c. shredded parmesan cheese
1 tsp. salt
a pinch of brown sugar
about 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour + more for rolling and shaping gnocchi
i preheated the oven to 425 degree F, speared the potatoes lightly with a fork in a few places and directly placed them on the oven rack and cooked until completely tender, about one hour. when cool to handle, i cut the potatoes open, scooped out the flesh and mashed it with my masher, then spread them out on a baking sheet and allowed them to cool completely.
next in a bowl i blended the mashed potato with all the listed ingredients other than flour. then slowly blended in the flour into the mixture adding 2-3 tablespoons of flour at a time, until the dough pulled away from my hands and felt like pizza dough.
next i sprinkled some flour on a work surface, separated the dough into several pieces and rolled each out into around 1 1/2 feet long ropes andusing a knife cut each rope into 18 one inch pieces.
up to this point i followed the instructions in the recipes.. but then they became confusing. the book said " To form the gnocchi, dip a fork in flour, then place the tines on top of a piece of dough. Applying medium pressure, gently roll the gnocchi toward you with the fork, releasing pressure gradually as you roll, until it is completely rolled off the tines. Repeat with each piece of dough, placing the gnocchi on a floured baking sheet as completed. The pieces should resemble tiny footballs with a cup in the center," and the recipe i was following said something similar. and though theseinstructions make complete sense now... that night they didn't. so i googled and this video came to my rescue.
and viola !! using the tips from the video i got my first batch of gnocchi. yay !!
immediately afterwards, i spread the dumplings on a sheet of parchment paper, covered them loosely with a plastic sheet and froze them to use later.
For the red pepper sauce
the ingredients and what i did.
1 medium sized red pepper
1 medium sized onion
2 cloves of garlic, minces
1 medium sized potato, peeled and boiled
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoon Greek yogurt
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoons + 6 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon capers
2 tablespoons dried parsley
3 tablespoons dried basil
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
sugar to taste
i preheated the oven to 425 degree F, then cut the red pepper and half of the onion in thin stripes and along the minced garlic and 1 tablespoon of olive oil, wrapped them in an aluminium foil and baked them for 15 minutes.
next i sliced the remaining onion into thin stripes and fried it in butter over medium heat until it was soft and light brown. then i added milk to this and when the milk started simmering i stirred in the mashed potato, baked red pepper-onion mixture and capers into it and heated it for about 5 minutes stirring occasionally. i then transferred the mixture into the blender and pureed it along with Greek yogurt, salt, pepper, sugar, basil and parsley. then whipped the mixture while gradually adding the remaining olive oil into it until it achieved the creamy consistency that i wanted in my sauce.
so that is what i indulged in over the weekend... i certainly look forward to making more of this in the recent future... what about you? have you tried your hands at gnocchi... do you have any tips to share. do drop in a line... i'll love to hear....
In spite of many a lofty plans, this 14th of Feb, all I ended cooking up for dinner was our regular pizza and Espresso Granita from Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen. In fact I did not even make the pizza. i just got the dough ready and Nishi topped it, as he always does and got the dinner ready while i was hanging out with Pradyot. and it was only after our little boy fell asleep that i felt a compulsive desire to make something sweet to mark our love and friendship of ten years. i flipped through the recipe books that were on the kitchen counter and decided on Espresso Granita as the dessert for the evening. why Granita on a cold chilly night you ask. well, because we are crazy like that. also, once upon a time... several moons ago, it was coffee that had tied a strong silent bond between the two of us.... so celebrating with coffee always seems befitting no matter which form it is in.
I followed the recipe from Lucinda's Rustic Italian Kitchen word to word, just sizing it down to serve two. and this is how it went.
ingredients.
2/3 cup freshly made espresso
1/3 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
shaved bittersweet chocolate
what i did.
while the coffee was still warm, i stirred in the sugar until it dissolved and next added the water. i then poured the mixture into my 9.25 x 5.25 x 2.75 inch bread loaf pan and placed the pan in the freezer. after 45 minutes, when a thin layer of ice had gathered on the surface, i racked it with a fork to dislodge and distribute the ice crystals... and kept repeating the raking-dislodging-redistributing business every 30 minutes for the next 2 hours to form a granular texture.
in the meantime, Nishi whipped the cream and remaining sugar in the mixture until it formed soft peaks.
finally we scooped out the granita into two ramekins, topped it with a dollop of whipped cream and shaved chocolate and dug into it right away.... hmm... that felt good... slurp ... slurp...........
yesterday.. with all that snow and breeze... all i yearned for all day was... something sweet... something spicy.. something gingery yet gorgeously chocolaty ... so at lunch time... i googled and rampaged the internet in search of that perfect recipe for me... while gingersnap cookies and dark chocolate tart with gingersnap crust were close contenders... by themselves, they weren't enough. i wanted more. wanted them both all at once.. in a bite... so after returning home i set out to tweak the two and mix-and-match their recipes to create my own chocolaty-gingery-deliciousness... Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes, that is Chocolate in Ginger Tartlets.the name was an afterthought. after the first bite i was convinced that i had tasted something awesome.. something that demanded a better name than chocolate in ginger tartlets.. so i googled a little more and decided on naming my dessert after a close cousin of it... Tartelettes au Chocolat et Gingembre Confit...
okay.. so with all that exuberance you must have realized by now how happy this dessert made me.... Nishi LOVED it and so did my little one... since we could not resist the sight of chocolate, we had it for breakfast this morning and were absolutely delighted. ... the heat of the ginger balanced out the bitter sweetness of the coffee and chocolates so..oo well. whats more... the chocolate filling in the tarts is devoid of any cream or butter. pureed tofu does the work instead while assuring your taste buds all along that they are having nothing but the best... also, with that added touch Nuttela, I am certain that these tartlets will be a party-winner everytime.... irrespective of whether it is a party for kids or grownups...
ingredients:
for the tart shells: (using the proportions below i made 15 gingersnap cookies and 6 tart shells)
3/8 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
1/4 cup cup pureed tofu(i used 7oz lite firm tofu pureed with 1/4 cup applesauce)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 2/3 cups + 6 tablespoon all-purpose-flour
1/3 cup oats flour (i ground old fashioned oats)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 inch ginger freshly grated
7 cloves ground
for the chocolate filling : (the proportions given here filled the 6 tart shells to the brim)
1/4 cup semi-sweet choco chips
1/2 cup pureed tofu(i used 7oz lite firm tofu pureed with 1/4 cup applesauce)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 cup espresso
3 tablespoon Nutella (Chocolate Hazelnut Spread)
for garnish:
4 almonds grated
3 almonds chopped lengthwise in half
6 raisins chopped in halves.
what i did:
For the ginger shells, I sifted all the dry ingredients together and kept the mixture aside. Next, I whisked both the sugars and molasses along with butter until the mixture looked smooth and uniform. to this, i then added the pureed tofu, vinegar and grated ginger and beat the mixture some more. finally i folded in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, 1/4 cup at a time. after a while when the mixture became dough-like and tough to whisk, i kneaded in the remaining dry ingredients into it. then i let the prepared dough rest for about 30 minutes on the kitchen counter.
In the meantime, I preheated the oven to 350 degrees F; lined a two baking sheets with parchment paper and 6 of a 12 cup muffin tray with paper baking cups and prepared the chocolate filling.
For the chocolate filling, I put the pureed tofu, espresso and vanilla extract in a saucepan and simmered the mixture over low heat for about 3-4 minutes. next i added the semi-sweet chocochips in the mixture and let it stand for a few minutes until chocolate chips got soft, then i whisked the mixture until it became smooth. finally i added in the Nutella one tablespoon at a time and stirred some more till the mixture acquired the colour and consistency of chocolate ganache.
Next, I rolled 15 walnut sized balls and 6 lemon sized balls of the dough. and while i set the walnut sized balls on the baking sheet and put them to bake for 22-25 minutes, i pressed the lemon sized balls against the walls of the prepared baking cups all the time trying to make sure that the dough walls have an equal thickness on all sides. at this point i also sprinkled some grated almonds into each of the dough shells.
After the first set of ginger cookies were done, I put in the prepared muffin tray into the oven. 25 minutes later when I pulled out the muffin tray from the oven, the "shells" looked somewhat like this...
their centers had puffed up ... but since the gingery bakes were still soft ... so i pressed the center down with a small spoon like this....
and shaped the bakes into gingery tart shells... and this is how the shells looked after being pressed...
I then let the prepared shells rest for a while, about one hour, before pouring the chocolate filling into them. Finally i garnished them with almonds and raisins. and because Valentine's dry is around the corner and I heart my husband and he hearts chocolates, i did one last thing...before putting these chocolate filled ginger shells to refrigerate overnight... I doodled a little chocolate heart on the almond in his tartlet...
kiddish yet cute... isn't it :)
notes and after thoughts
as i mentioned, i adapted the cookie dough recipe from Joy of Baking. There, she tells you to bake the cookies until they are dry and firm on top. That made me bake them for 25 minutes. Though with the added moisture from the chocolate filling, 25 minutes of baking seemed just right for the tart shells, the cookies felt hard. maybe 20-22 minutes of baking time and few hours of cooling would be perfect for the desired snappiness of the cookies.
since i had not baked eggless gingersnaps before, i set out with a little more ingredients than would be required just for the ginger tart shells. with the extra dough i baked 2 trays of cookies before starting on the Chocolat à Gingembre Tartelettes. baking the cookies first, helped me decide on how i needed to treat the cookie dough in order to create the ginger shells.
in the recipe for the chocolate filling i added only 3 tablespoons of Nuttla, because while mixing, that felt very sweet. however it did not seem too sweet after cooling. though the sweetness was perfect for us, if you like your desserts really sweet you can probably add few more spoons of Nuttela in the filling and enjoy the deliciousness....
Happy baking !! and fill me with your notes and comments on this if you stop by... I'll love to hear...
. I mostly followed her recipe, just made a tiny adjustment... replaced the brewed coffee with an equal measure of red wine... and created "one of the most elegant desserts ever"... so said the husband. We relished and enjoyed the dessert over the next 3 days, each time feeling decadent and wonderful.... 
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