It's a Chef's Life

   I do use flour and butter to grease the pan of my cake but you could use parchment if you wanted this cake to truly be gluten free. This is a recipe from Canada that was served as a base for a milk chocolate mousse that was then enrobed in chocolate glaze. Melt 200g dark chocolate with 230g butter. Whip 5 egg whites and 75g sugar to soft peaks. Whip the 5 yolks and another 75g sugar to ribbons. Lighten the melted chocolate and butter with the yolks first, then the whites, sift and fold in 23g good quality cocoa, sifted. Bake until a skewer comes out clean (depending on your chosen pan) at 300F. I served this cake with lightly sweetened whipped cream, strawberries (it's strawberry season!), and crushed Swedish ginger biscuits.

 I worked with a chef who was Moroccan and he made this amazing chicken salad with preserved lemons and green olives and lots of mayo. It was served as a canape in a miniature cone laced with cumin seeds! This salad is giant couscous cooked al dente, finely chopped preserved lemon rind, green olives, pink lady apples, and green peppers for color and crunch. Combine with plenty of seasoning and mayo.

 I am having a moment with angel hair pasta. I have it for lunch with lemon zest, cream, Parmesan, and lots of salt and pepper. This mint pesto is just pine nuts, mint, avocado oil, Parmesan, and salt and pepper, super delicious on some delicate pasta!

 Buying uni que pasta shapes online is lots of fun. That's how I ended up with some angel hair and these paccheri.  I used tomato passata, cherry tomatoes, red chili flakes, sauteed onion, and a little cream to make a sauce for my chili sausages which I took out of their casings. Topped with Parmesan cheese it makes the perfect after work dinner!

 The apple salted caramel brioche was a bestseller at Picholine. It was a cross between a baba au rhum and a caramel filled Twinkie. We served it with diced apples, half of which were caramelized and deglazed with cognac and the other were left uncooked. In this recipe I substituted balsamic vinegar for the cognac and served it with roasted pork tenderloin and some tenderstem broccoli roasted with oil and adobo.

 The Aquavit cookbook is super inspiring; I spent a night in their kitchen when I was just starting out. I love the recipe for their truffled mushroom orzo so when I had some farmed Scottish salmon in my weekly meat delivery I went back to their cookbook. The potato rosti is just grated potato squeezed dry mixed with some egg white and adobo. For the salmon glaze I mixed 1/4 cup fresh lime juice with 2 tablespoons ketjap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) and wasabi powder and reduced it down. A little goes a long way with the sabayon which is 2 egg yolks, 1/4 cup white wine, 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, wasabi powder, salt to taste, and I added some honey.