Moelleux au Chocolat

Moelleux au Chocolat. Chocolate fondant. Chocolate molten lava cake. Whatever you want to call it, this is definitely the dessert you want when you have a terrible chocolate craving.

And this is a very simple recipe.

I still remember the days where my moelleux was a complete disaster. It never ever had a gooey centre and always just came out as a simple plain chocolate cake. Not good. At all.

So how did I finally succeed in making this beautiful dessert? Keeping the batter in the fridge for at least an hour before baking!

Moelleux au Chocolat
(makes about 4)

60 g sugar
2 eggs
2 eeg yolks
100 g unsalted butter
100 g dark chocolate
50 g plain flour
cocoa powder for dusting

1. Lightly brush ramekins (150ml - 200ml) with melted butter and dust with cocoa powder. Place ramekins in the fridge while making the batter.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Once it's melted, take off the heat to cool.
3. Place sugar, eggs and extra yolks in a bowl and whisk until pale and creamy. Then whisk in the butter and chocolate mixture.
4. Fold in the plain flour.
5. Divide equally among the four ramekins.
6. Place ramekins back in the fridge for at least an hour.
7. Bake: Preheat oven to 190˚C. Once the oven is heated, take the ramekins out of the fridge and place it in the oven immediately. Baking for approximately 15 minutes.
8. Once a cake layer is formed, take the ramekin out of the oven and turn it out onto a plate immediately. Serve with ice-cream.

Now doesn't that look amazing?

Pillar of Salt

SPRING BREAK!

To kick things off, J, M and I went out for breakfast at Pillar of Salt in Richmond.

I have heard and read really great reviews of this place, especially the corn fritters.

I love corn fritters.

The best corn fritters I've tried to date, was at Mister Close. That was, until I discovered Pillar of Salt's corn fritters. Corn-fritter-heaven.

It was slightly crisp on the outside, but incredibly moist on the inside. And when you eat it, it just kind of melts in your mouth. Yeah, my description could use a little tweaking, but you just have to try it to fully understand what I am going on about.

And on the side, there was smoked salmon and salad. You could add the poached egg for an extra $2. Yeah. $2 for an egg. But, it was poached really well. Once you cut into the egg, the yolk started running.

Another famous dish at Pillar of Salt, was the breaky omelette, which was essentially an omelette with wilted spinach and feta on sourdough toast.

The omelette was well-cooked. It was still slightly runny on the inside, or that could be due to the feta. But, this is probably the one dish I wouldn't order the next time I go back. Just because I am not a huge fan of feta. Still, it wasn't a bad dish. And if you do like feta, you probably would enjoy this dish.

Lastly, we also tried the green eggs and ham.

When I first saw this, I was...skeptical.

I have never seen a hollandaise sauce of this colour. So you can probably understand my confusion. The green eggs and ham is similar to any other poached eggs with bacon, brioche and hollandaise. However, they tweaked the sauce a little. It is actually a "herby apple cider hollandaise". And instead of the bacon, they served smoked ham with it.

Eggs were perfectly poached once again. And I like the matchsticks of granny smith apples they served with the dish as it cuts through the richness of the sauce.

Perfect start to the long-awaited break.

Pillar of Salt
541 Church Street
Richmond
3121 VIC
(03) 9421 1550

Blueberry, Ricotta and Almond Muffin

My love for blueberry and almond muffin first started when I came to Melbourne. There's this shop at my uni that sells really yummy muffins. Not too sweet and very moist.

Instead of just having blueberry and almonds in the muffin, I wanted to try this particular combination. Blueberry, ricotta and almond.

I was pleasantly surprise. The ricotta made the muffin more moist and it was less sweet than the usual muffin. Which is good since I don't like my desserts to be too sweet.

When you eat this muffin fresh out of the oven, you can still taste a bit of the ricotta cheese. Less so after a few days though. Still, it was delicious.

Blueberry, Ricotta and Almond Muffins

(makes about 12-16)

adapted from Cakeb00k

Topping

1/3 cup plain flour

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3 tbsps of unsalted butter, chilled and diced

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, and using your fingertips, rub the butter, flour and sugar until it becomes crumbly.

2.Place the bowl in the fridge while making the muffins.

Muffin

250g ricotta

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

4 ounces unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cups brown sugar

2 cups self-raising flour

pinch of salt

1 cup blueberries

Tip: If you are using frozen berries, you can take it out of the freezer and lay it out on paper towel to thaw. Or if you're feeling a little lazy, then frozen berries are fine.

1. Preheat oven to 200˚C.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla essence and melted butter together.

3. Fold the flour and salt into the wet ingredients.

4. Next, fold in the ricotta and blueberries.

5. Divide the batter equally into the muffin tray and sprinkle the topping over the batter.

6. Bake for about 25 minutes.

7. Take it out of the oven and let the muffins cool before eating.

Enjoy!

Shoya

My second most expensive dinner to date in Melbourne. I shall blog about the first another day. :)

I have never been to Shoya but have heard some pretty good reviews about this restaurant. Especially their lunch since the food is delicious at a slightly more reasonable and affordable price.

R and V on the other hand are pretty regular customers. So much so, that one of the waiters that night recognized R!

Seeing that I have never been there while they had, V and I left R to order. And I was glad I did because every dish I had that night was delicious.

Nama Shii Hotate

Quail egg coated with mashed scallops and top with a piece of shiitake mushroom that is deep fried. 

A Shoya special.

Omakase

Definitely a must for sashimi lovers.

Jidori Kara Age

Deep fried chicken.

Wagyu premium.

Served with foie gras and truffles in a truffle sauce.

Sounds heavy, but surprisingly, wasn't.

Tempura Moriawase

Prawns and assorted vegetables

Green tea ice-cream

Just to be clear, I am not a green tea ice-cream fan. Neither was V. But this is the one place we would go back to for green tea ice-cream. Actually...this might be the only place where I will have green tea ice-cream.

Adding on to the yummy food, the service was really good. We had a very attentive waiter always making sure that we had whatever we wanted. 

Definitely a place I will go back to. Probably during lunch that is. Cause my wallet wouldn't be able to handle another dinner. ;)

Shoya

25 Market Lane

Melbourne

VIC 3000

(03) 9650 0848