Cream of celery and leek

For those of you who have read my previous post, you know that I had a little tantrum on the food bloging scene and so on. Despite the not soo good start, I still like to write about food and I decided it would be a waste and that I would regret if I just stopped. Anyway, I can't just stop because it's a bit hard, right ? I gotta persever, and learn from my mistakes.

Other news which will make possible more blogging, is that I just got myself a new camera. It broke my budget, but I'll just stop telling myself each time I cook something that it's a shame I can't photograph and share it here.

So, today's post is gonna be about perseverance (and soup !).

On Hiatus

Hey there everyone. Again, on a streak with lack of updates. There are a few reasons for that:

• I'm currently working on a website project that is very dear to me. Therefore, little time is currently left to update this blog.
• Weird work schedules. For some reason, we receive messed up schedules at work, which constantly change (this week, I started at 7, then 8, then 9:45, then 10:30 and tomorrow I'm back at 8:30)
• Rethinking of the purpose of this blog. I started the blog because I wanted to be read and share some knowledge. However, since I started, only one comment or what-so-ever. Half the people I heard of complained it was in english, the other half apprently know the blog exists, but I don't hear about it.
• The food / foodie scene got me angry. As most people in the foodie department, you most likely know that if you want traffic on your blog, you have to submit your posts either to FoodGawker or TasteSpotting. FoodGawker has been a total pain in the ass to deal with, which lead to more than 40 submissions, all rejected. I understand the importance of good photography, so I spent time reading and learning about photo, tricks, how to do a good arrangement, ligthing, a small bit of editing... But I'm trying to be a food blogger here and I'm unfortunatly not a professionnal photograph along with a professionnal graphist. Often, I had the feeling that no matter what I submitted, they just would never accept it (I have had the same picture submitted several times, and each time it came back with a different rejection reason... I mean it can't be THAT bad... I've seen pictures on their websites that are really horrible (bad colors, too dark, or just plain uninterresting, no efforts put in decorating or the like)) and each time I see that, I can't help but be depressed about the fact that no matter if the recipes are good or not, all that matters if that you make it look good with fake spot lights, heavy computer editing and a lot of blurring from the camera.
• Camera. Speaking of which, my camera is out of order at this point. I think I hit it or something, but it means I don't get to photograph anything until I get it either repaired, or that I upgrade to another one.

So, when the blog will resume, I don't know. It may be in french or in english. I have to think about it, and what is important for me.

Buttermilk honey bread

I'm not dead yet ! I feel sorry for the lack of updates in the past 2 or 3 months. Life has just been too chaotic around here lately. I had to go throught the announcement that my department was closing down, so some tough choices were made. Don't worry guys, I still have a job and everything is fine, but the changes were not made in the best way possible. Lots of confusion happened, with misinformation and so on. Had to take on a whole new training for the new department to which I was assigned, and I gave myself some time to get used to it.

But now back to business, with some bread !

Molten lava chocolate cake

I originally had made this recipe in hopes to eat this as a classic, but oh-soo-good ending to our Valentine's day meal. We had a great breakfast with cocktail, fruits and everything, and we wanted the supper to stay in the same idea. We had everything planned out, with a fondue, and those cakes just waiting to be baked at the right time.

Then, (after using up half a bottle of white wine !) the fondue was just right, and we brang it to the table. I turned around to take my camera. Guyuk complained I needed to eat NOW, before we'd loose the right consistency again. He went back with the fondue to leave it on the heat. When I ran back down the stairs, I found...

...the table on fire.

Fuel had apparently leaked out of the container, and the tablecloth, along with the wood underneath caught on fire. We threw the metal cap on the burner, which solved part of the problem, but the table was still burning ! We ran to get the oven mitts (cause we just had cleaned up and everything was back in the kitchen) and we took the hot metal frame away, and without anything else to do it, I smacked the fire with a plate until it went out (no, I didn't shatter the plate).

This evening, we ended up eating on our small kitchen table, against the wall, under full light and heated the fondue (which we had to re-work to eating consistency) on an old portable electric stove. Not quite the ending we had planned for that day. Both exhausted from all the adrenaline, we simply went to bed and were planning to eat the cakes at a later time.

So, this time came to be. We had a couple of friends for supper last sunday, and with 4 of those beauties just waiting to be baked, it was the perfect time-saving excuse to eat all the delicousness inside. The trick to get all that gooey chocolatey goodness ozzing all over, is simply to underbake the cake so it remains liquid in it's center. After the prescribed 13 minutes of baking, however, I felt the cakes were still too soft and I was affraid they would splat open in the plate, so I monitored the baking and left them I think around an additionnal 5 minutes.

Maybe I overdid it, cause I would have liked more molten hot chocolate, but these were still insanely decadent and they definitively were the star of the meal. I think next time I will take the ramequins out of the freezer sooner to let them get to room temperature, which I think would shorten the baking time. We tried at the same time a Domaine Lafrance sparkling cider, which was made with a touch of ice cider, and even thought it was a bit higher in acidity than what I perfer, it counterbalanced the sweetness of the cake very well for an exiciting and delicious pairing.

Molten lava chocolate cakes
From Culinary Musings

Ingredients
100 grams good quality chocolate (I used callebault 54.4%)
2 large eggs
5 Tbsp white granulated sugar, plus extra for dusting the ramekins
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 3/4 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp crème fraîche
4 oven-safe ramekins

How to
Lightly coat the inside of your ramekin molds with butter then dust with granulated sugar. Set aside. Next, using the bain marie method, melt the chocolate pieces (refrain from stirring as it melts). Meanwhile, whisk the eggs and 5 Tbsp of sugar until pale yellow.

Once the chocolate is completely melted, remove container from the heat and mix in the butter. Next, slowly add the the egg and sugar mixture. Add flour and finally the creme fraîche. Pour and distribute the batter evenly into four ramekins. Place in the freezer overnight.

When ready to serve, remove ramekins from freezer and place in a 375 degree preheated oven. Bake for 13 minutes. Remove ramekins from oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes. Use a sharp knife to scrape along the edge of the cake. Next, take individual serving plate and rest it on top of the ramekin mold. Holding the mold with an oven mitt and keeping the plate in contact with the mold, invert the cake onto the plate. Tap the ramekins lightly and gently lift away. Use a simple contrasting decoration, like mint leaves, fanned strawberry, powdered sugar or even itsy-bitsy little scoops of vanilla ice cream !

Guacamole

It's now officially spring !

We've been having quite nice temperatures here in Quebec during march, ranging between 5-14C. We had no snow at all for a good part of the winter (and not at all during february). So I guess it's simply logic that right after spring, we start to have cold temperatures and snow forecasts. Right ? Why, yes, I found this logic of mine in a box of cereals, what's the problem ?