Archive for February, 2011

Soft-Centered Chocolate Cakes with Blood Orange Granita

Individual almost-flourless chocolate cakes with delectably oozy centers, paired with magenta-pink blood orange granita and créme chantilly. The tastes and textures combine in wonderful ways: intense dark chocolate, fluffy on the outside and molten on the inside; tangy, crystal-crunchy granita, and rich, lightly sweet cream.

Embellished Tarte Flambée (Flammekueche)

Tarte flambée is a specialty from Alsace, thinly-rolled bread dough topped with crème fraîche, thinly sliced raw onions, and lardons, then baked in a very hot oven. It resembles a thin pizza, and like pizza, the toppings can be varied infinitely. Here we take an approach suited to a quick weeknight dinner: start with a frozen base, add some tasty toppings, then quickly blitzed in a hot oven.

Fennel and Radish Salad

This salad is crisp, juicy, and fresh-flavored, a perfect antidote to the Winter blahs. White-green fennel in matchstick dice, punctuated with polka-dots of hot-pink radish and emerald-green scallions. Tarragon mustard echoes the licorice tones of the fennel, adding a snappy note to complement the peppery radishes. If the fennel bulb includes branches with tender, feathery little leaves, use them to garnish the salad for a final touch of flavor and texture.