Dinner For Two: Spicy Chocolate Tart

A few nights ago I made dinner for a special gentleman friend.  I wanted to make something delicious and romantic and kind of sexy.  I wanted it to taste yummy and, more importantly, I wanted my friend to really like it.

By the way, I like to wear a cute apron, like the one I made a while back, when cooking for others.  While it does protect your cute date-night outfit, it's also an important addition to it.

The meal started with a mushroom risotto and an endive/watercress salad with a really simple vinaigrette.  I think risotto is a great date-night meal - it's not too complicated, has a lot of flavor and you can do so much with it.  Done right, it's impressive and thoughtful.  Though you need to constantly stir, you can sip a glass of wine and chat while you're tending to the meal.  And having your hunny in the kitchen with you is always sexy.

What topped off the meal, though, was dessert.  Knowing my friend is a chocolate lover, I wanted to challenge myself to make a creative and amazing dessert that we would both really enjoy.  Okay.  Okay.  I wanted to make something that he would love.

While at the Greenpoint Food Market this weekend, we came across a really interesting jam - a collaboration of two awesome indie food-makers - and it was that find that was the inspiration for my chocolate tart.

Brooklyn's Anarchy in a Jar and Mama O's Kimchee were selling a little something they call Anarchy Mama, a sweet a spicy grapefruit jam infused with kimchee spice.  It might sound a little strange to some, but it is totally amazing.  And, as Kheedim of Mama O's had promised that it would "totally get [me] to second base," it seemed only appropriate to somehow add it to my romantic dinner menu.

Spice and chocolate are a no-brainer and this simple tart is delicious, with layers of flavor that hit the sweet, salty and spicy parts of your tongue.  If your date is a chocolate lover, I guarantee that this dessert will get you at least to third!

 

my inspiration

The recipe is based  on a recipe for a chocolate-citrus tart with jasmine infused whipped cream I found on Epicurious.  I substituted three heaping tablespoons of Anarchy Mama for the citrus zest the recipe calls for and some Mighty Leaf Orange Dulce Tea for the Jasmine tea called for in the recipe.

  

the tea for infusing the cream, as this is a really good tea, I only used two bags, as opposed to the two the recipe called for

 

The recipe from Epicurious.com:

Tart

Ingredients
Crust
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup all purpose flour

Filling
* 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
* 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces
* 1/2 teaspoon (lightly packed) finely grated blood orange peel or orange peel
* 1/2 teaspoon (lightly packed) finely grated pink grapefruit peel

* 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
* 1/4 cup boiling water


Preperation

For crust:
Combine first 4 ingredients in bowl. Add flour and stir just until blended; let stand 5 minutes. Press dough onto bottom and up sides of 9- to 91/2-inch-diameter tart pan with removable bottom. Chill 30 minutes.

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Bake crust until deep golden, pressing down with back of spoon if bubbles form, about 25 minutes. Cool crust in pan on rack.

For filling:
Combine chocolate, butter, and both peels in medium metal bowl. Place bowl in skillet of barely simmering water set over low heat. Stir just until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth. Remove bowl from water. Place fine strainer over bowl with melted chocolate. Keep skillet with water set over low heat.

Whisk egg yolk in small metal bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in 1/4 cup boiling water. Place bowl in skillet of hot water; stir constantly with heatproof rubber spatula, scraping bottom of bowl to prevent egg from cooking, until instant-read thermometer inserted into egg mixture registers 160°F, about 3 minutes. Immediately pour egg mixture into strainer set over bowl of chocolate. Stir just until egg is incorporated into chocolate and mixture is smooth.

Pour chocolate filling into crust; tilt slightly to spread evenly (crust will not be completely filled). Cover and chill overnight or up to 2 days. Before serving, let tart soften slightly at room temperature.

Remove pan sides. Place tart on platter. Using pastry bag fitted with star tip, pipe whipped cream rosettes around edge of tart. Garnish with candied peel.

a close up of the delectable cream

Whipped Cream

Ingredients
* 1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
* 1 tablespoon good-quality loose-leaf jasmine tea or 3 jasmine tea bags

* 1 tablespoon sugar

Preparation
Combine chilled cream and tea in bowl. Cover; chill overnight or up to 2 days.

Strain cream-tea mixture through fine strainer into mixing bowl; discard solids. Add sugar; beat until peaks form.

 

yummy dessert!

We both really enjoyed this. The slight tea flavor (and big tea smell) go wonderfully with the sweetness of the chocolate and the kimchee jam I used in lieu of the citrus peel in the recipe above provided a subtle, spicy finish to the tart. I used all semi-sweet chocolate this time, and, while my gentleman friend really enjoyed it, I think next time I will use a mixture of semi and bittersweet chocolate or a really dark chocolate to cut some of the sweetness from the dish.

All in all, dinner was a great success.

Handmade Holiday

The past few weeks have been a hectic whirlwind of holiday preparations and parties and the holidays themselves. This year, I wanted to approach the holidays with the mantra, local and handmade. Some things I made myself, some things were made by others and still more things were purchased locally. My family - really the only people I purchase Christmas gifts for these days - are pretty easy and most of their gifts came from great North Brooklyn shops like Word, Catbird and Houndstooth.

The rest of my holiday was handmade. A few images:

glitter covered snowflakes for holiday cards

piparkakut in the oven

piparkakut cut out and waiting to be sprinkled with sugar and put in the oven - 

pigs and squirrels (I also made seahorses and skull&crossbones)

 

Swarovski crystal and felt bib necklace

stuffed pork loin roast for Christmas dinner 

(I know it could've been prettier, but I had never frenched a roast before) 

a row of Les Enfants Terribles elephants to fill holiday orders

Kitchen

Once again this year, Tina, Sarah and I cooked a Thanksgiving feast. Last year we cooked for 16 people (!). This year was smaller - just four good friends, with beautiful food and wine - but no less fun. Tina did the turkey and a delicious British sausage stuffing, yummy Brussel sprouts (with bacon) and the pan gravy (and was a gracious hostess). Sarah brought the all-American nostalgia with a classic green bean casserole and an apple-blackberry pie made by a friend of hers. And, gentle readers, I was charged with cranberry sauce, rolls and a pecan-bourbon pie. I had made some cookies earlier in the week and took some of the remaining to share (and for my friends to take home with them for later in the week).

cheddar-herb poppers (recipe via the November issue of Bon Appetite) baking in the oven on Wednesday night

red wine, sugar and pomegranate syrup reducing for the cranberry sauce

a close-up of the pecan-bourbon pie, straight out of the oven

 

the brussel sprouts washed and waiting to be blanched and then a quick saute with bacon

 

bacon food porn

 

stuffing, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes by Mark and cranberry-pomegranate sauce with a red wine reduction (I made that!)

 

slices of delicious turkey and a mug full of gravy

a close up of the top crust of the yummy blackberry-apple pie made by Sarah's friend, beautiful and yummy!

and, of course, lots of Cote de Rhone was our beverage of choice

I hope all of you had as beautiful and enjoyable a Thanksgiving feast and day as I did this year.

Hire Me Martha

Ah, gentle readers, as many of you know, your MatchGirl adores Martha Stewart. I've written about it here before. And last week, thanks to one of our fellow unemployeds (yay, Tony!), your MatchGirl had the opportunity to attend the taping of Martha's Brooklyn show (which you can watch here, if you missed it!).

The studio was totally big and beautiful, with a huge kitchen area, crafting area and humongous "greenhouse" looking section where she films her outdoor and gardening segments. Thanks to, I dunno, sheer luck, we were seated in the front row and had a prime view of Martha and her guests (and, of course, Joey, her warm-up guy). Martha was everything I had hoped she would be - please no jokes about insider trading or that you know she's difficult - she was totally self-deprecating and professional (and, once or twice, funny).

It was an amazing day. Who cares that I had to get up when it was still dark outside! It was so worth it! Beyond worth it.

As many of you know, I want to work for Martha.

So, dear ones, I have decided that I am going to launch a campaign, via this little blog, to get hired by Martha Stewart. Once a week I will write a post about how much I want to work for Martha and the reasons that she should hire me. Maybe someone who works for her will see it. Maybe not. But when I think about my job hunt - and where the past year has taken me, and the kind of job that I'd like to do on a regular basis - every day - I want to be doing things that I enjoy. I want to be able to work in a creative environment and get to be creative and to be surrounded by creative people. I want to work somewhere where creativity and a passion for all things creative (crafts, arts, sewing, baking cooking, gardening) is the status quo. And that's hard to find, even in New York.

Many of you have messaged me or e-mailed me to attempt to get me a connection at her company, and I really appreciate it. Many of you have said that she is a bitch, but the simple fact of the matter is that I've worked for a bunch of real tough people, and taken a lot of crap, and not one of them was as successful (or had really any excuse for being so rude, except that power had gone to their heads) as Martha Stewart. And, a few of you have said that she has a hiring freeze (which is probably very true - so many places do!), but that can't last forever, can it?

I'm a great manager and would happily take an administrative position somewhere in her company. Anything. A foot in the door is all I am asking for - it's the hardest thing, of course - but it's all I need. Once I'm in... Martha will see how much of an asset I can be to Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Seriously. Just leave it to me.

So, hire me Martha!

Dream Job?

Ah, my lovelies, your MatchGirl has been looking for a job for a long time now. Your MatchGirl is frustrated. Your MatchGirl has felt all over the place. Especially as the year of unemployment looms and I feel as though I should just take anything that comes my way.

But here's the thing, gentle readers, I don't want to have to take just anything that comes my way. I want something that I am good at and that I am interested in and that I'll want to do for a while. At the end of the day, I want to work for Martha Stewart.

There. I said it. I want to work for Martha. She does all the things that I enjoy - baking, crafting, sewing. She gardens - I hardly ever kill the plants in my apartment. I think it could be amazing.

I started my classes at FIT because I'd like to go into Textile Design, and, while I am learning a lot, I'm not really sure the next step in this journey. I love what I have learned so far. I think I am pretty good at it and with a little practice I will be a lot better at it (but isn't that how everything works?). I suppose I should figure out how to get something entry level, but I am not sure where to begin.

When I think about working for Martha, I think about how diverse her creativity is - how many types of crafts and sewing and baking and cooking projects that she offers to her readers and her viewers. And I think about how great it would be, how fun, to spend your day not only perfecting projects, but coming up with new ones or tweaking old ones so they are modern. How great would it be to break a project down to it's barest parts and then teach it to someone - someone who thinks they're no good at stitching or baking or papier-mâché - and have them do it almost as good as Martha? (I mean, let's face it, no one is as good as Martha).

So. There it is. I want to work for Martha.
Who's going to hook me up with an interview?