Dhanggit's Kitchen

French Chicken Casserole (Poulet Basquaise)

2011-09-06T04:37:00.011+02:00

Chicken Basque

After my my bleeding post yesterday I feel a lot better now :-) And what I did not mentioned on my latest post was that I have been to France for a few weeks vacation. A sort of a moment to re-channel my energy , breath some fresh air and be ready to start a new.

I must admit that I felt really excited to be back for I have been away for a while. Seeing my families, friends and doing my usual "habitudes": buying french bread, baking cakes and eating a lot :-). Well just to share with you some photos of my recent trip in the picturesque region of Brittany in the northern part of France. Enjoy!

French Chicken Casserole
Ingredients:
Chicken cuts about a kilo
1 clove of garlic
1 small onion sliced
1 big tomato, peeled and seeded
3 bell peppers (1 yellow, 1 green, 1 red) cut in strips
thyme, salt and pepper
some olive oil
half a glass of white wine
1 tablespoon of flour
1 tablespoon of butter

Préparation:
On your casserole warm up the oil with some butter, put the chicken and fry until golden brown. Add the garlic, onion and tomates. Sauté over high temperature. Then add the bell peppers, put salt, pepper and thyme. Add the flour. Continue mixing. Deglace with white wine, cover and simmer over medium fire for about fifteen minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary. Cook for another ten minutes. Serve with steam rice.

Small port of Auray

Beach of Carnak

Forgotten Bike?

Mountain of Saint Michel

Sweet Banana Flambée to heal that broken dream

2011-09-05T05:24:00.008+02:00

Banana Raisins Rhum Flambée

It's been a long while I haven't been here. You must have been wondering what happened to my kitchen. I do apologize for this long inadvertent hiatus in the blogging world. My life in the past few months has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions; The move from my "tranquil" abode in the sunny part of France to the bustling city of Manila in South Asia. The reality of my childhood dream, the opening of my restaurant. And the hurtful decision to close it after few months of operation. We all make mistakes but what matters in life is seeing to it that we always try to bounce back everytime we fall. I know things happen for a reason. And if not for those failures that I made I will never realized how passionately in love I am with cooking.

My pasta restaurateur stint is over. I'm passing on the torn to it's dynamic new owner :-) and I can't wait to start my new cooking project only this time I see to it that neither my family nor my personal life is sacrificed in return.

Enjoy this easy and yummy dessert to make use of your overriped bananas in the kitchen!

Banana Raisin Rhum Flambée

ingredients:

overripe bananas (count two per persons)
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of raisins
1 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
half a cup of Rhum
scoop of vanila ice-cream
preparation:

Heat your pan, add the butter, brown sugar and bananas. Cook them until it caramelizes. Pour the lemon juice. Add the Rhum and burn it on top. Serve with a scoop of ice-cream!

Asian Noodle Soup and Malaysian Postcards

2011-06-22T07:23:00.005+02:00

Malaysia- It is not so long ago when I visited this beautiful part of Asia and wondered at the beauty of the mixture of it's culture: Malay, Chinese and Indian. And I tell you I still have the taste of this delicious noodle soup I had at that small village while waiting for our train. Those moments are priceless! After so long hiatus ( a rollercoaster ride of adventure) I'm glad to announce that my kitchen is back! See you all soon!

Asian Noodle Soup

for 4 persons

Ingredients:
1 pack of rice noodle soup
1 liter of chicken stock
200 g of ground pork
8 pieces of fish balls
2 teaspoons of Fish sauce
2 tablespoons of garlic oil
some Bok choy or young spinach leaves for garnishing

Preparation:
1. Cook the noodles as per direction.
2. In another casserole boil the chicken stock. Add the ground pork and the fish balls. Season with fish sauce to taste.
3. Put the noodles in their individual bowl. Scoop a soup, the ground, and some fish balls. Garnish with bok choy leaves and garlic oil on the top

The colorful kelantan market of Kota Baru

The beautiful muslim city of Kota baru

Cafeteria Malaysian style

Tea plantation Cameron Highlands

What's keeping me busy....

2010-10-14T03:15:00.013+02:00

The interior decor of Pasta Box

Hello to all!

I know it's been a while and I'm so sorry for this long hiatus. If you have been following up my blog you know the reason of my absence is the restaurant that I was putting up. And now I cannot wait to share with you my baby project; the Pasta Box. I credit all these wonderful photos to Ms. Tricia de Ocampo and her wonderful blog who recently organized a birthday party at our pasta bar.

Our take-away boxes for pasta thus the name pasta box......

One of our best-seller Popeye's favorite; spinach, sundried tomato in a creamy basil pesto sauce

Some nachos to keep you busy while waiting for our pasta

Another favorite in our pasta bar, Seafood Pomodoro with mozzarella cheese

The celebrant who looks very happy.....

To know more about my pasta bar add us in your FB account :-)...more stories and cooking to come up!!!

http://www.facebook.com/thepastabox

HUGS,
Dhanggit

Weekend Herb Blogging # 222 Round-up

2010-03-03T05:45:00.021+01:00

Yiiiiiiha!! I'm finally up here to do this sumptuous round-up for Weekend Herb Blogging! #222 Believe me I thought I will never make it! A big hug and thanks to Haalo for her support. And again to the Food Blogging community for all your undying patience and generosity. The thruth is my schedule the past weeks was really kinda tight: imagine the cross country move and very soon I'll be opening my very own restaurant..oops. I'll be spilling the beans on my next post but in the meantime enjoy this delicious concoctions of our talented bloggers:

Our first entry comes from Janet the Saveur of Taste Space she send us freshly baked Wild blueberries and Banana Oatmeal Muffin. These are healthy snacks that's loaded with wonderful flavors of fruits. And don't tell me I didn't warn you here photos are as yummy as her recipes!!

Next on the list comes from the talented Tigerfish of Teczcape he prepared to us this mouth-watering Blackfungus Chayote. If you want to know more about interesting vegetable combo recipes or just want to enjoy delicious blog reading Teczcape is the place to hang out!

Third on the list is one of my favorite appetizer recipe: Tapenade. This is a savory olive spread made from fresh olives, garlic, olive oil and anchovies. But hey Graziana concocted to us a very interesting twist of this recipe. So If you want to know more about this satisfying recipe go check Graziana from Erbe in Cucina.

And to beat the summer heat (well I mean here in the Philippines :-) ) try this refreshing salad recipe made to us by Rachel of Crispy Cook; Jicama Orange Salad. Jicama is one of my favorite vegetable snack. If you are curious to know more about this veggie I'm talking about head on to Crispy cook and learn more about this.

Next on our list, this vitamin packed dish prepared to us by Christine of Kits Chow. I know that there are some people that doesn't like very much onion. But after seeing this yummy salad I'm sure you'll be heading to the market to buy some to make this recipe.

I know you are all still hungry, so give some room for this sweet, light and healthy dessert of Longan Tropical Fruit Salad concocted by none other than Haalo of Cook Almost Anything. You better check out her post to know more about this refreshing fruit.

The talented Muneeba of An Edible Symphony whip us up this savory dish of Fenugreek chicken curry. If you are not familiar with this vegetable just like me, I suggest you check out her post to know more about. In meantime, enjoy this green curry over some rice! Yum!

And for home-made recipe lovers out there, enjoy this handy recipe made to us by charming Brii all the way from beautiful Italy; Crunchy Musli. Truly perfect for breakfast!

And the last, but definitely not the least is Winnie's entry Healthy Green Kitchen. She made us this salad recipe of Roasted Beet Salad with Mint and Feta bursting with lots of flavor. This is a very easy to make and yet gorgeous salad recipe to bookmark. Another yummy reason to love beets :-)

That's it I hope I didn't forget anyone. I hope you enjoy reading them and inspired you to cook something tonight! Thanks again and see you all for the next edition of WHB, this week's host is Susan of Well Seasoned Cook. Have a great day everyone!!

WHB #222 Hosting Announcement

2010-02-27T16:42:00.014+01:00

Hi everyone :-) Mea culpa..I almost forgot that I am this week's WHB host (well unfortunately I had some minor explosion problem with my laptop :-) )

As usual it is always my honor and pride to host Weekend Herb Blogging ,this mouthwatering event that puts vegetables, herbs, plants and fruits into the limelight. WHB as we all know is the brainchild of Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. It is now under the caring wings of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything but it still brings us the same aroma and passion for anything green. The rules are simple, post about any herb, fruit, vegetable, flower or plant. The post can be informative, a spotlight of a particular ingredient and/or a recipe where your chosen produce is one of the primary ingredients in the recipe. The post should include about the event "Weekend Herb Blogging" with appropriate links and a link to this announcement. I will be posting the roundup next week :-)

In the meantime enjoy some shots of the Chinese New Year Celebration I took in Binondo Manila. We wanted so much to stay longer and enjoy the event but Mayumi got scared of the dragon :-)

From South to South

2010-02-14T10:40:00.002+01:00

Hello to all! I know know , there is no excuse for my long hiatus and I apologize for that. Well you know cross country moving is not that easy imagine that it took me almost a month before being back on my foot again. And it feels so great.

I know you are all dying to hear some updates on me, my family and my kitchen so here it is. My daughter is still vibrant and jolly as ever, she's still having a difficult time though coping up with the very hot weather but is glad to have found so many friends to play with and it proved that language for children has never been a barrier. I know that you will ask me in the end, why the "hell" I accepted to change the simplicity and quietness of life in my beautiful Provencal city. I hear no more the singing cicadas but cars honking all the time. The scent of lavander is now replaced by the bustling city. And despite that I am "acrophobia" I am dwelling now on the place touches that sky. The blue Mediterranean sea is now a refreshing olympic size swimming pool. Well you know sometimes change is different. I''ll be bringing you soon my city-life cooking ;-)

I'm really glad to be back!

Perigordine Walnut Chocolate Mousse Cake

2010-01-17T09:00:00.010+01:00

Time flies at "damn" accelerating rate since the day hubby and I decided to leave France for our adventure in the tropics. It's just hard to imagine that in few days will be flying to Philippines to start our totally new thrilling venture. I can still remember few years back when we both agreed to leave Tokyo for my complete immersion of French culture. It was so hard for me to leave Japan back then for my job and friends and I really love that country . Right now, I have no regrets bidding goodbye to France (maybe just for a moment ) , for it was a totally a fullfilling experience. In a way I have mastered their language and understood more their philosophy and their thinking. France has awakened my passion too for food and has contributed a lot in influencing me to venture into blogging. And now to finally have the courage to take a plunge into the world of food industry . I know it's not easy but after all life is all about taking risk. I can't wait to share with you what it will be but for the moment I need to keep my lips close until everything is in place.

My next post will be definitely 100% published from the archipelago of the Philippines.See you then!

This was the cake I bake for our December birthday celebrants. Perigord is the region in France famous for their foie gras, duck and walnuts. This is a very easy cake to do that you can prepare for birthday or other celebration by adding some "entrements" like mousse or ganache.

Perigordine Walnut Chocolate Mousse Cake

for the cake
250 g of coarsely chopped walnuts
120 g of butter
4 eggs separate the white from the yolks
250 g of brown sugar

Preheat the oven at 150° celsius. Melt the butter, then whisk in the sugar, 4 yolks and the chopped walnuts. Whisk the white egg and gently fold into the mixture. Bake roughly for an hour or less. You should check it from time to time by inserting a knife if it comes clean then its ready.

Chocolate Entrement

75 g of sugar
half a glass of water
4 egg yolks
200 g of dark chocolate
20 cl of heavy cream

In a casserole make a light syrup of water and sugar. Whisk the egg yolks with this mixture until they become creamy. Add your melted chocolate slowly and mix well. Pour gently your cold heavy cream and continue mixing.
Chocolate Ganache
200 g of dark chocolate
20 cl of heavy cream
50 g of butter

Melt your chocolate in bain marie. Add in the melted butter and heavy cream. Reserve

Assembly of the cake:
You need to have a big ring the size of your walnut cake. If you don't have one you can make one using a carton wrapped with parchment paper. Pour the chocolate entrement let it stand for about thirty minutes before adding your last layer of chocolate ganache. Put it in the fridge overnight. Decorate it next mornign with some chocolate butter cream, or cookies around.

Cheese Puffs (Gougère au Gruyere)

2010-01-12T08:00:00.024+01:00

"We need to push ourselves to make as many reductions as possible in our own energy use first.. and that takes time. But we must do this quickly.. the climate will not wait for us. - Rupert Murdoch"

When we woke up this morning, my daughter and I were dazzled at a beautiful scenery that greeted us. An imaculate white snow blankets our entire garden and all around our area. I tell you this thing happens rarely in Provence. The old granny who lives next door swear that the last time she saw this kind of snow in region was about fifty years ago. All the kids in the neihborhood were glad to play outside to enjoy this rare moment. It's not that I'm being an "Auntie Scrooge" while everyone else are having fun but I can't help and wonder what more alarming global changes is in store for us. Will it snow in Africa in the future or how about if all the ice in the north pole melts? Are we really prepared for this?

I still remember back then when I was still learning French, the very first essay I wrote was how we human beings could turn like Dinosaurs in the near future if we won't take drastic measures in protecting our environment. Already much has been said about "global warning", massive campaigns all over the world has been donen it about time we take those words into real action.

I am sending some of these cheese puffs over at Maninas at Food Matters, this weeks host of Weekend Herb Blogging. This is one of my favorite weekly blogging event were you can enjoy an array of delectable herb dishes and desserts. This even was created by Kalyn but is now in the caring hands of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.

Gougere are French cheese puffs that are very easy to make and yet delicious. They are perfect entrée that you can serve with some salad. This is the basic recipe that you can modify to add up your favorite cheeses like goat cheese, mozzarella and others.

Basic Gougere Recipe
for about 30 pieces

125 ml of water
40 g of butter
1 teaspoon of salt
70 g of flour
2 large eggs
100 g of gruyere cheese grated
some herbs and chopped chives

Preheat the oven at 220° celsius. In a casserole put your water, salt and butter. Let it melt but not boiling the water. Wait until there's little bubble in the water. Cut the fire. Add the flour gently. Mix well. Put it back on a low fire to dry up the mixture. You just need to see that the mixture doesn't stick to the casserole anymore. Out of fire, add your eggs one by one. Continue mixing. If it's too wet you can put it back in fire to dry it up a little. Once the mixture is ready put your grated cheese, chives and thyme. Scrape the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a wide plain tip and pipe the dough making each about the size of a small cherry tomato. Bake for ten minutes. Then lower the temperature at 190° celsius and bake for another twenty minutes.

white new year

2010-01-07T10:54:00.010+01:00

My New Year celebration was white, but not cold. We've been busy with long chit chat over non-stop dinner flooded with "I swear to God" I'll only eat once a year filled with lots of calories and guilt food and alcohol of course. I hope yours was a fantastic one too.

Come January in France Gallete de Roi (King's Gallette) is a typical dessert we eat in family or with friends. A tradition to honor the Three Kings visit to the holy manger. In the Southern France we boast of our Brioche de Roi (Kings Brioche), a fluffy brioche perfumed with orange flower that is topped with candied fruits.

I maybe a little bit busy for awhile for our big move to the tropics but I'll try to catch up on you guys. Happy Happy New Year to all! May this new year be filled with lots of hope and peace for everyone else!

Photos above are taken at Villard de lans in the region of Isere in France.

Kings Brioche

Ingredients:
330 g of flour
1 tsp of yeast
20 g of sugar
6 g of salt
4 eggs
24 cl of milk
170 g of butter
1 tablespoon of water of orange flower (eau de fleur d'oranger)
1 teaspoon of rhum
zest of one lemon
100 g of chopped orange confit

For the decoration:
30 g of fruit confits (candied fruit) chopped
1 tablespoon of crystallized sugar
1 tablespoon of apricot jam mixed with 2 tablespoons of water

In a bowl put the flour, yeast, sugar, salt and egg yolks and add the milk little by little and continue mixing until they become homogenous. Add the butter and continue kneading the dough until they dont stick to the hands. Let this dough stand for an hour. Flatten the dough to release the air and add the fleur d'oranger, rhum and chopped fruit confit. Continue kneading again and let it raise for another hour. Butter your brioche mold and put the dough inside. Brush it with egg yolk and egg mixture. Pre heat the oven and bake it for 20 minutes at 200° celsius. In microwave oven heat up the apricot jam with water. Using a brush glaze the top of your brioche. Decorate it with sugar and fruit confit.

My Warm Christmas in the Prairie

2009-12-26T17:30:00.043+01:00

What is Christmas like in our family?

This year's christmas family celebration was like old times filled with laughter, tons of gifts and lots of mouthwatering food and excited children running everywhere.

For a change our family decided to rent a big house in the prairie instead of doing it in our ancestral villa. The place was really magical! It rained all night the eve of Christmas but the sun eventually dropped by on the Christmas day. We had a big chimney that warmed us up all day and night. As usual champagne, white and red wines were flowing, foie gras in all it's form were consumed, delectable dishes of veal, beef, turkey, lobsters and crabs were at rendez-vous without counting of course the endless amuse-bouche we had before taking the main dish. And what is Christmas without chocolate in all it's splendor, French patisseries and cake a real great way to end the evening. After having our coffee we all slept at around 3 in the morning.

If you have a big family like ours, three day celebrations like this requires one heck of a organization and lots of imagination! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

Photos: The view outside the prairie, the frozen kaki in the garden, the waggling dog, teh tired mayumi, some of the desserts we had and our christmas decoration. Photo below: Mayumi with this cousin

Cheers to all...

2009-12-21T11:43:00.000+01:00

If you are looking for an easy and yet special menu for this celebration here's my suggestion:

Entrée
Artichokes Bacon Cheese Muffin
Goatcheese Lollipops
Zuccini Crisp in Rosemary
Chicken Liver Bruschetta

Main Course
Beef Daube Provençal
Chicken Tagine in Lemon Preserves and Olives
Rolled Turkey in Walnut Parsley Presto and Mango Orange Sauce

Dessert
Tropical Santa Cookies
Christmas Log Cake
Profiterole with lychee ice-cream and cherry chocolate sauce
Raspberry tiramisu

Vegetable Bouillabesse and a Dinner date with mon Cheri

2009-12-17T09:48:00.059+01:00

Remember I promise you a week ago about this romantic "tete à tete" dinner with hubby. Well we finally succeeded in getting a reservation last night to this two starred Michelin restaurant. And I'm warning you this is the first time for me to eat in such classy gastronomic restaurant who's regulars are celebrities (French that is), local politicians, well-off old couples and some food lovers who saved their hard earned money or probably just a lucky couple who received a gourmet check as a farewell gift from some generous colleagues. We fall on that last category of course.

The restaurant is bewithchingly situated at the foot of the famous Les Baux de Provence. Imagine this, a castle and fortress that is spectacularly set a top a rocky hill of the Alpilles mountain overlooking the beautiful Provence. We arrived at the restaurant around 8 in the evening with a temperature of minus three degrees outside. Fleeing the nippy weather with a high heeled shoes wasn't reallly practical specialy if one wants to adore the charming garden of the restaurant. All I remember was that I made a small reflection when I saw a flock of swan swimming comfortably in a Siberian like pond. "How the hell do they do that?" Even the fountain was half frozen. Anyways, it was such a refuge to enter in the warm lobby of the hotel leading to the restaurant. The decoration was sober, nice and clean sans too much frou frou. The table was solely decorated with a long stemmed white rose, the cutleries were not even placed. They were actually dressing our table and bringing in the silver cutleries for every service. I must admit that I have never seen so much people attending to us. The manager brought us to our table chatted with us for few minutes to make us comfortable and propose to bring us a glass of champagne. Then another guy came and brought us the menu card. I'll save you the delicious "blah blah" he made explaining every course. We chose our dishes then came the "wine specialist" holding the wine menu card and then goes our wine orders.

Now are you ready for the real spectacle?

The first set of our amuse-bouches were brought on the table. It started with green olives fait maison (home-made). I brine my olives but I have never tasted anything like that before it was really good and the color was bright bright green. Interesting! Next was a long rectangular plate of three mini-amuse bouche. There was a ginger spice cracker topped with beet root gelée, a spoon of creamy tapenade and black radish stuffed with tuna rillette. They were all beautiful to look at. These three bite-size goodness of different texture was really amazing. After few minutes another girl came with a small verrine of very cold nutty like cream with bubbling concoction on the top. I didn't get the name, hubby told me they were ancient vegetables very commonly used during the Middle ages but is now rarely seen in the market. It was my favorite it was really astonishing how the low temperature of the soup brought a completely different taste.

-------------------------------------

Then came our first entrée; A velvety like creamy soup of pumpkin with bruscheta of onion confit and slices of fresh black Truffles. What was interesting was how dramatically artistically it was brought on our table; first the semi-concave plate adorned with a bruschetta lightly buttered topped with some onion confit and cream chantilly then after came another serveur to pour delicately the creamy pumpkin soup. Every spoon was really comforting.

The next service was the fish plate. It was red tuna perfectly grilled à la plancha served in the bed of vegetable tagliatelle and bits of Parma ham accompanied with a sauce of balsamic and red wine reduction. I rarely eat fish but this was really good!

The third service was our meat dish, it was a classic lamb dish braised tenderly in red wine, tomatoes and black olives. The meat was accompanied by a creamy polenta in parmesan. The dish was really good but I must admit I regreted for not choosing the other dish proposed by the Chef for it was less traditional.

Of course we needed some pause...... but then few minutes later the serveur arrived with a cart of cheese of all types and of all sizes you could imagine. My special favorite was the creamy fresh goat cheese with fig. Really really good! They have special toasts of raisin bread (pain au raisin) to accompany the cheese that I would really like to know the recipe :-)

Before we had our dessert the serveur came again with a small verrine glass of cream of passion fruit topped with a spuma of coconut cream. This wasnt part of the dessert this was just something to make us busy while waiting for the chef to prepare our dessert.

The grand finale was naturally a chocolate dessert. It was a three layered dessert of three chocolates of different taste and temparature. It was served in an aquarium like glass were in the first layer was an intense chocolate soft biscuit topped with a warm dark bitter chocolate and a very cold mousse of chocolate au lait. There was a praline of hazelnuts on the top of it and scoop of dulche de leche ice-cream beautifully adorned with a long thin piece of black chocolate. If heaven had taste I'm sure it was close to this :-)

We had some coffee and then "again" the serveur brought us a plate of mini mignardises (sweet stuffs) there was Rosemary creme brulée (an interesting taste), Raspberry madeleine and strawberry sablé (biscuit).

It was an amazing delicious night.Verdict; considering the price, this is something we will do again once a year unless some rich kindhearted fellow will offer it for us "again"!

Vegetable Bouillabesse
for 6 persons

Bouillabesse is a traditional Provencal fish stew originating from the city port of Marseille.

1 liter of fish stock (about a kilo of fish carcasses)
1 celery chopped
1 carrot
1 onion
1 fennel
one cup of chopped pumpkin
2 tablespoons of Pastis (anis based liquor)
Some boiled vegetables of your choice: broccoli, potatoes, carrots, etc
some olive oil

In a large casserole put your fish stock, celery, carrot, onion, fennel and chopped pumpkin. Bring them to boil. Pass them all together in a mixer and strain. Put it back in casserole, add your pastis, olive oil, salt and pepper and boiled vegetables. Bring to boil. Serve with some croutons.

Beef Wellington Mushroom & Chestnuts and Sauce au Foigras

2009-12-14T09:16:00.033+01:00

What was the last embarrassing moment that you had?

My list is long but let me share you the latest one. Imagine this: Christmas shopping rush is everywhere. This is my favorite time of the year not only because of the gifts that I will receive but I always feel great to offer gifts to people I care. And besides who doesn't love shopping, aside from our husbands (of course :-) ). I was garbed with my favorite winter outfit, my bag, my list and my wallet. I decided to go early morning so I have plenty of time to choose before really buying them. I entered the first shop, and there the sound goes, "beep". I disregarded it and continued looking around and eventually decided to go. There the sound went again "beep". I just made few steps and there the security of the shop stopped me. Explaining that I "beeped" and stuff. I gave my bag and everything and they found nothing and let me go. I was disgusted and told them their security alarm must be broken or something. Then I went to go to the next shop. And the same thing happened again ,the security alarm "beeped" once again. So I said "I must leave", but there goes the security to check my stuffs "Again". Believe it or not after the fifth shop and I had the same "beeping" incident I finally decided to go back home. My worst nightmare, in reality. What must be beeping on me? My keys, my bag, my sweater? I have really no idea...Well I'll just be shopping gifts online I guess. I bet you have a lot of embarrassing moments to share too.

By the way, I would like to invite you to check out the beautiful feature write-up about Dhanggit's Kitchen on Femina Magazine. Thanks again Rajani for this!

I am sending a slice of this yummy Beef Wellington with Mushrooms and Chestnuts over at talented Haalo of Cook Almost Anything, this week's host of Weekend Herb Blogging #214, that delicious event pioneered by Kalyn now under Haalo's caring hands. If you want to participate please don't forget to check out the link.

Photos from top to bottom, left to right: The beef freshly cut, the two Mayumi's playing in the kitchen, the plate of beef with veggies before serving, the beef with the knife, and Mayumi trying to write her name.

Beef Wellington with Mushrooms and Chestnuts in Sauce au Foiegras
serves 6- 8 persons

This is a very easy and yet delicious festive dish you can prepare for this holiday.

about 1 and half kilo of beef tenderloin trimmed
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
15 g of butter
4 pieces of parma ham
shallots chopped
about 80 g of chestnuts (i used fresh chestnuts that i boiled and mashed)
250 g of mushrooms (champignon de paris) finely chopped
salt, pepper and lots of herbs: rosemary and thyme
1 roll of puff pastry
1 egg yolk

for the sauce:
15 g of butter
1 small shallots finely chopped
2 tablespoons of olive oil
100 g of bloc de foiegras
60 ml of veal stock
1 tablespoon of heavy cream

On a pan with oil and butter brown the beef briefly on all sides. Add salt, pepper and herbs. On the same pan, fry the shallots, mushrooms and chestnuts, add some salt and pepper. You can pass this on a mixer to have a fine consistent texture. Roll out your puff pastry , put your parma ham, spread evenly the chestnut-mushroom mixture and put the beef on the top. Closely evenly the sides of the dough. Be sure you seal tightly the edges. With the brush spread evenly the eggyolk. YOu can make some the designs on the top using your knife. Bake this on a preheated oven at 250°celsius for 20-25 minutes. Set it aside and let it rest for about five to seven minutes before slicing it.

For the sauce, on the pan brown your shallots with olive oil. Add your sliced foeigras. Pour the veal broth and let it simmer for few minutes. Put some salt and pepper. Just before turning off the heat. Add the butter and heavy cream to thicken the sauce.

Orange Charlotte with Chocolate Porto Sabayon

2009-12-07T09:43:00.022+01:00

We spend a lot of time watching and whining that in the end we sometimes forget to see the essentials of life. I woke up this morning and realised that despite all my ups and downs, my life is still tasty and delicious. And I know no matter what I am looking forward on much daunting life ahead of me. And that is how my mid-thirty's head work when it turns one year older :-)

Happy Birthday to me!! And don't ask me how young I am for I stopped counting long long time ago!!

I'll spill you the details of my romantic-gastronomic escapade with husband which will take place tomorrow in the meantime if you are curious to know the story of my birth you can check out my old post on this link. See you all soon!

This is my entry for this month's holiday edition of Sugar High Friday hosted by Cherappeno. Charlotte and Sabayon are perfect holiday sweet treats for they are very easy to prepare and yet never fail to impress guests. Sugar High Friday is sweetest blog event ever created by Jennifer of The Domestic Goddess.

Orange Charlotte with Chocolate Porto Sabayon

Chocolate Porto Sabayon Recipe

Sabayon or Zabaglione is an italian cream perfect for your citrus fruit salads. I just added some chocolate and porto to make this sauce even perfect for my charlotte

8 egg yolks
8 tablespoons of sugar
a pinch of salt
1 cup of heavy cream
100 gram of bittersweet chocolate
2 tablespoons of Porto (optional)

In a saucepan melt your chocolate with your heavy cream. Set aside. In another saucepan put your egg yolks, sugar and salt. Whisk over low fire constantly until it becomes and creamy and double in volum. Add the porto wine. Fold in the chocolate mixture until it becomes evenly distributed. You can put them in verrine glasses and serve with your slice of charlotte.

Amuse Bouches

2009-12-02T09:00:00.018+01:00

I have had a very fussy days the past few weeks but gratefully things are starting to subside again. Just enough time for me to gasp (& to visit your blogs, apoligies for my abscense) before the shaking and rock & rolling schedule start again.

December is finally here :-) my favorite month for a lot of reasons: my birthday, gifts, Christmas, snow, partying, celebrations and a plenty of pigging out here and there. And speaking of festivity here's the latest menu of the cocktail party I prepared for hubby's "farewell party" in the office. Here's some figures: It took me 4 hours to prepare them,there were about 80 people in their branch who feasted on this and it only took them 30 minutes to gobble them all up.

*Amuse Bouche

Also called an amuse-gueule, is a single, bite-sized hors d'ouvre. The term in French literally means "mouth amuser", for bouche means mouth and amuser is "to amuse" or "to please"

Amuse Bouches Menu

Mini-Pizza of Prosciutto
Quiche Lorraine
Tomato & Mozzarella Tart
Onion Tart
Pissaladiere
Lamb Turnovers
Italian Sausages Brioche
Salmon and Guacamole Duo
Melon Soup and Jambon Parma
Goat Cheese and Tapenade in Verrine
Warm Fava Beans and Spicy Chorizo Salad

I am sending some of this Warm Fava Beans Salad over at Srivalli of Cooking for all Seasons, this month's host of My Legume Love Affair, an event created by the charming Susan of Well Seasoned Cook.

Warm Fava Beans and Spicy Chorizo Salad

150 grams fresh fava beans
1-2 chorizo, sliced thickly
2 to 3 tablespoons of spicy olive oil
1 big onion
salt, pepper
2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
3 tablespoons of sherry wine vinegar
some more olive oil

Start by cooking your fava beans until they are tender. Set them aside. In a casserole put some olive oil and grill your chorizo until they are brown, set them aside. On the same oil sauté your onions until they are wilted. In a bowl toss your onion, fava beans and chorizo together. Mix the vinegar, salt, paprika and olive oil together. Pour them on your salad.

Honey, Fig & Bacon Bread

2009-11-23T10:01:00.018+01:00

"comme-ci comme ça"

The house is starting to get empty. Most important stuffs have been boxed already and ready for shipment to our new address, and the rest also now in their carton will be left behind here in France. Choosing which stays and go was really a tough job for me. Asking myself do I need it or can I live without it, put me in such a dilemma. And I must tell you I really have to go a lot of my kitchen gadgets :-( sadly.

But despite this vacuum invading the house we are getting more and more busy with lots of stuffs; my upcoming birthday, the christmas and new year celebrations, last minute appointments left and right. And oh the long list of christmas gifts to buy and pack, whew, tiring but really fun. In other words I'll be probably popping here and there.

And oh, that thing about living my dreams, well nothing really fancy. It's just about buying and having our own beach resort and opening my Italian restaurant. I love sun and the sea, but I don't really eat fish so I needed some pasta and pizza to comfort me by.

Here's an easy bread recipe I'll be sending off to Susan of Wild Yeast for her Weekly Yeastspotting! If you love bread this thing is for you.

Honey Fig and Bacon Bread

Ingredients:

for the leavening
1 teaspoon of dry yeast
50 g of flour
2 tablespoons of honey
100 g of water

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients to make your leavening. Mix them well. Let it rise for two hours.

550 grams of flour
1 teaspoon of salt
200 grams of water
200 grams of bacon chopped
200 grams of dry fig chopped

In another bowl put your flour, salt, the leavening and the water little by little. Once the dough does not stick to your hand you dont need to add the rest of the water. Continue kneading until it becomes, soft, elastic and does not stick to your hand. Form in a ball and let it rise for about four hours. Flatten it and make a rectangular shape. On the top cover it with your bacon and fig. Roll it from one side to the other. Let it rise for another 45 minutes. Bake it in a preheated oven at 240° for 35 minutes. If you want a crusty bread put a ramekin with some water during the baking process.

Ricotta Jambon Parma Ravioli in Tomato Basil Sauce

2009-11-20T09:38:00.024+01:00

What is the life you've ever been dreaming of?

Hubby popped this question to me a few months ago. And no matter how dazzled I was with the question, I knew he was serious and needed a gingerly thought answer. When we were kids and people asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up? My case I would always reply back that I wanted to become an astronaut. Curious that no matter how insurmountable our answers were people commend us. For adults, "Ah this child has a dream she will go far". It never occured to them that probably that was just the first word that came out into our mouth, or we probably just thought that it was cool to say that. Projecting ourselves in a distant future with our naive and fearless child heart has always been easy. No limits at all.

"So..." waiting for my answer he insisted. But even before I could react he said that his was retiring in a beautiful island, with his boat internet connection and everything so he could continue pursuing his cyber activities. It is at this point that I realized that "uh oh hubby is up to something". Well to cut the story short we will be leaving France for a couple years in the tropics pursuing both our dreams. His you knew already but how about mine? The hint is on this post. Can you guess it?

I am sending a plate of this delicious pasta over at Kait of Pots and Plots host for this week's Presto Pasta Nights, a pasta lover weekly event created by Ruth of For Every Kitchen. If you want to know who'll be hosting next you can check out the link here. The round up is already posted so don't forget to check it out.

Ricotta Jambon Parma Ravioli in Tomato Basil Sauce
for the filling
1 lb (450 gr) fresh spinach
1 lb (450 gr) ricotta cheese, thoroughly drained
1 egg
4 oz (115 gr) parmigiano reggiano cheese, freshly grated
salt and pepper
pinch of nutmeg
few slices of Jambon Parma minced

for the dough
3 cups (400 gr) flour
4 eggs
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

for the sauce
4 tablespoons of olive oil
5 cloves of garlic minced
1 kilo of italian tomatoes (peeled and seeded) chopped
one half cup of fresh basil chopped
salt, pepper

Directions

Start by mixing all the ingredients for the stuffing in a bowl. Set this aside.Prepare the pasta dough using the recipe for the pasta. Make the dough soft and moist. Use the minimum flour necessary enough to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands while working. Cut the dough in two parts. Place one of the pieces on the work surface, and flatten it with a rolling pin until it is very thin. Repeat the same steps with the other half of the dough, making a pasta sheet of the same size. Set it aside, covered with a moist towel if necessary to prevent the pasta from drying too much. Place about 1 teaspoon of the filling on the dough, spaced 2 inches apart. Cover with the second dough and press the pasta around the fillings so that the 2 layers touch each other. Press firmly to bond the 2 pasta sheets together. Separate the ravioli by cutting with a pastry wheel. Cook until the pasta is al dente. Drain ravioli and set aside. In a saucepan put your olive oil and garlic. Cook it without browning it. Add the tomatoes cook over medium fire for few minutes. Season with salt and pepper. When the sauce starts to thicken add your basil and cook for another two minutes. Toss your ravioli on the sauce and serve with some parmesan cheese.

Chocolate Upside-down Caramelised Pear and an Award

2009-11-16T08:00:00.002+01:00

Got this from Laura's Paris Cooking Notebook a talented food blogger who is not so a stranger to french cuisine, endless chit-chat on cosy terrace in Parisien Brasseries for she lives in the romantic city of Paris. Big thanks again to Laura for passing this on to me. I'm not really sure but I think I already did a similar meme on random truths.

Anyways here goes the Honest Scrap Award she gave me and the ten truths about me

1. I measure five feet tall and two inches and weighs 99 pounds.

2. I'm unreasonably afraid of new born animals.

3. My name is not really my original name. (Thank God my dad loved me so much he replaced the first one registered by my mom in the hospital. T'was a name of a famous porn star at the time :-))

4. I played a stupid prank on my professor that I caught one time sleeping in the university. I drew and connected her eyebrows with a marker and getaway with it.

5. I was once assaulted by a holduper with a knife from the back but I blew him with a "flying kick" and a punch. The truth was, I mistook him for a friend whom I thought was pulling a gag on me. Definitely not advisable to do :-)

6. I love watching cooking shows in TV.

7. My hubby proposed to me under the moonlight on the beach.

8. I listen music all the time. And sing or dance with it.

9. All the politicians that I voted for have won. And I really regret it for I don't wanna be an accessory to their "crimes".

10. If I will be re-born again I want to be a man.

This is my entry to this week's Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Astrid of Paulchen's Foodblog. Weekend Herb Blogging is a delicious weekly food adventure created by Kalyn and now under the caring wings of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything.

Chocolate Upside-down Pear Cake

4 eggs
150 grams of sugar
120 grams of flour (I run out of flour so I used almond powder)
125 grams of butter
200 grams of Dark Chocolate (70%)
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 pieces of pear, peeled and quartered
4 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon water
10 grams of butter

Start by caramelising the pear, in a saucepan melt the ten grams of butter the 4 tablespoons of sugar and pear. Once they are golden brown on sides deglaze with the water to avoid burning. Set them aside. Melt the chocolate in bain marie. Separate the yolks from white. In a bowl cream the sugar and egg yolks. Add the melted butter the flour and baking powder. Whisk the white eggs until they are fluffy. Fold it gently into the mixture. Preheat your oven at 180° celsius. Put the pear on a buttered baking dish then pour the mixture. Bake for 35 minutes.

Yakiniku and an Asian style brunch

2009-11-13T09:00:00.002+01:00

Raising a bustling two year old kid, developing a business, working part-time, and trying to write all about this in my kitchen cyberworld as I run my household makes my life very hectic nowadays. Without counting of course the fast approaching holiday preparations and our move, I feel so helpless. I miss the day I could read a book while sipping a hot chocolate or to work uninterrupted with my writings and drawings for my projects and businesses. I miss those afternoon after taking a long bath that I could try on all the new clothes and shoes that I bought and that I have rarely put on and play a fashion model in front of the mirror. Sigh!

This morning as I sip my hot chocolate in the terrace and as I savour these little moments of freedom before everybody wakes up I was greeted by this spectacular view of peace and serenity. It is at that instance that I have realised that we need some movements to spicen up and add colors to our life to appreciate this kind of solitude after. I complain a lot but I love being busy for my daughter, for my husband and for myself. I told this to hubby, he looked at me and replied, "well what do you expect you are really French now!"***

*** French have reputation of being big grumbler

The mountain of Saint Victoire under morning fog
View from my terrace

The hills of Aix

I am sending this Asian Style Brunch to brilliant Meeta of What"s For Lunch Honey this month's hostess and the creator of that delicious monthly event Monthly Mingle. I am a certified rice eater, so waking up late on Sunday means a brunch with rice. These are easy to make yakiniku barbeque served with steamed rice, a bowl of miso soup and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with some gooseberries on the top.

Yakiniku Beef Barbeque

3/4 lb beef loin, cut in cubes
1 Tbsp of honey
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp grated garlic
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp white sesame seed
one cup of cut onion leeks

Preparation:

Mix Honey, soy sayce, garlic, sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a bowl. Marinate beef in the sauce for 30 minutes. String the beef on the skewers alternating with onion leeks.Heat a large skillet on high heat and cook them two to three minutes on both sides.

Toulouse Style Sausage and Beans

2009-11-10T09:57:00.025+01:00

Whew, It's been a while I haven't been babbling about my kitchen and my life! The truth is my digital camera is pretty much clogged up already with all the recipes I wanted to upload here, but unfortunately my time is kinda tight. There is definitely a lot of things that's been going on here lately. And well to cut to the chase, were moving.

And this isn't just a ten or twenty kilometers moving but a big cross-country adventure. It's been months that we've been cooking this up and mind my words this isn't really easy. Counting all the stuffs we have to keep and give up plus all the paperworks I'll sum them up in one word, "exasperating"!

Like this one afternoon that we needed to do my daughter's ID photo, I don't know how do professional photographers succeed in making them behave in front of the camera because mine doesnt..well if you don't believe me, see it for yourself :-)

all the pose but the right one....

I'm sending off a big helping of this delicious Sausage and Beans to SRA of When my soup came alive this month's hostess of that fabulous monthly My Legume Love Affair an event created by the talented Susan of Well Seasoned Cook.

Toulouse Style Sausage and Beans

Ingredients:
1lb of dried white beans
1lb of pork sausage from Toulose
4 tablespoons of duck oil
1/2lb unsmoked bacon
1 onion chopped
1 red pepper chopped
2 garlic cloves
5 big tomatoes, peel and chopped
some thyme and laurel leaves
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Procedure:
Soak the dry beans overnight in cold water.Then cook them for about one or two hours in your pressure cooker or until they are tender. In a pan put your duck oil and fry your Toulouse pork sausages, then add your chopped bacon. Set them aside, on the same pan sauté the garlic, onion, pepper and tomatoes. Put the cooked beans, sausages and bacon, cover and let it simmer for an hour. Add the thyme, laurel, salt and pepper. Put them in baking dish and continue cooking in the oven at 200°celsius for about thirty minutes or until it becomes thick and sausages golden brown.

Double layered Dark Chocolate and Chestnut Cake

2009-11-02T10:06:00.024+01:00

Life is short.

“When we come face to face with death, we think of our life. Death is a picture of a life lived. That’s why when we go to wakes; we talk about how the person lived her life with you. We sit quietly and think about our own lives; how we live it. Living a life worth living is living a life with purpose.” I come across these lines as a sermon given by a priest on a wake's mass. It smashed me right into the face.

I used to see halloween and November 1 & 2 celebrations' as a joyful event where I see my cousins, we play costumes, we eat, we play cards, everything was just about fun. But since dad passed away last year this has metamorphosed into a solemn and reflective moment for me to remember him. I know dad wanted me to remember him on a cheerful note but this is so hard for me to do. For I terribly miss my dad and that there is no single moment of the day that I don't think about him.

Hope you all had a "happy halloween" and a memorable "all soul's day celebration"!

I am sending over a slice of this chocolate chestnut cake over at Haalo of Cook Almost Anything the new caretaker and this week's host of Weekend Herb Blogging. WHB is a delicious weekly event created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Ingredients:
(make a 20cm round cake)

4 eggs
100g of sugar
4g of salt
140g cake flour
30g salad oil
30g fresh milk

for the filling
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup of puréed sweetened chestnut

For the chocolate frosting:
2 1/2 cup sugar
1 ounce of dark chocolate
1/4 cup of butter
2 tablespoons of heavy cream

Procedure:

For the sponge cake

Start by sifting the flour, set aside. Grease and line a 20cm round pan, set aside. Pre-heat oven at 180degC. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar & salt on high speed for about seven minutes or until the batter doubles in volume and is ribbon-like texture. Turn to low speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Add sifted flour into the batter. With a spatula, gently fold in the flour until well blended. With a spatula, mix about 1/3 of the batter with the salad oil in a separate bowl. Fold in this mixture into the remaining batter. This will help ensure that oil will be fully blended and at the same time will not deflate the batter. Add in fresh milk and fold in gently. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and cool completely.

For the filling
With an electric mixer, whip the whipping cream still stiff. Fold in the puréed sweetened chestnut and set aside.

For the chocolate frosting:
Start by melting chocolate in a bain marie. In a mixing bowl, cream confectioners' sugar, melted chocolate and butter. Beat in heavy cream. Add small amounts hot water or hot black coffee until desired spreading consistency is reached.

Assembly of the cake:

Slice the cake horizontally into 2 layers. Place one of the cake layers cut-side down on a cake plate. Spread the whipped cream with chestnut purée over the layer. Top with the second cake layer, cut-side up. Spread over your chocolate frosting and decorate with almond shivels.

Dinuguan "Pork Blood Stew"

2009-10-27T11:03:00.003+01:00

There has been an abrupt silence in my blogsphere. It is not because of my perennial indolence nor my blogging mood that picks up from time to time to be blamed for this. It is also not because that we are still enjoying a warm sunny weather here in the South that pushed me into quasi-hiatus. No nope, I was not sunbathing reading my favorite novel all this time.

I hope that was really the case, but no. My daughter was sick for a week. I think this is hardest part of being a parent. When you see them suffer and all you can do is to force them to take their medicine against their will. Every medication time is a non-stop wrestling, a pinch in parents' hearts and liters of tears from the little one.

She's doing great now and so are the parents. It is true indeed that on trying times like this we could seek comfort from our favorite dishes. It's been a decade seen I tasted a bowl of dinuguan (pork blood stew) one of my auntie's speciality. My version was still far from her but every spoonful of it was a bed of roses.

I am sending this to Laura of Spiced Life for her October Family Recipes, blog event. You have until October 31st to send in your best family recipes. I added up some of our latest Sunday promenade in the woods.

Dinuguan "Pork Blood Stew"

This Filipino dish normally uses pork innards and fresh pork blood. My version used only pork and Boudin Noir (pork blood sausage) we could find easily in French butcher shops.

half a kilo of pork tender part cut in small cubes
2 Boudin Noir (pork blood sausage)
2 garlic pounded
1 onion sliced
1 teaspoon of grated ginger
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of apple vinegar (you can use any type of light vinegar)
half a cup of pork broth

In a casserole, sauté garlic, onion and ginger with olive oil. Add you pork. Continue stirring until the pork has changed color. Peel your boudin noir, smash it with fork and add it in your casserole. Continue stirring. Pour your pork broth and let it simmer for fifteen minutes. Before turning off the fire, add your vinegar, pepper and salt to taste.

Chocolate Strawberry Tiramisu and Locked up Gummy Bear

2009-10-20T14:10:00.014+02:00

I know you love tiramisu enough to know that this recipe is not even close to the real thing. However, if you want to make good use of what's left in your kitchen and that will get your children's attention 100% this is the tiramisu for you.

I have been cleaning up the fridge and the kitchen cabinet when I suddenly had this "eureka" feeling of making this recipe, and the rest of the story was to attract my daughter's attention. I am sending up this easy to make tiramisu recipe over at Mansi of Fun and Food Cafe for her Sweet Celebration Recipe Contest. For more details please check the link.

Chocolate Strawberry Tiramisu
6 ounces (1 container of ) mascarpone
2/3 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
half ounce of semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup of orange juice
24 ladyfinger cookies
1 jar of strawberry preserves
for decoration:
Dark chocolate shavings
some chocolate fingersticks( you can use Mikado even better)
some gummy bears

Preparation:

In a mixing bowl, beat the cream until soft peaks form then set it aside. In another bowl beat the mascarpone then add the sugar and the melted chocolate. When smooth, fold in about half of the mixture into the whipped cream. Arrange your ladyfingers in your glasses and drizzle with orange juice. Put some strawberry preserves then spread some of the chocolate mascarpone mixture. Top it up with the rest of the mascarpone mixture.Chill for at least 3 hours or until ready to serve. When ready to serve, decorate with your shaved chocolates, chocolate finger sticks and gummy bears in the middle.

Chocolate Almond Soft Caramel Muffin

2009-10-16T08:56:00.015+02:00

Would you ever believe that my passion for cooking emanated from childhood cleverness of sneaking into the kitchen for food behind my mom's watchful eye . Well you see I was always hungry and we weren't allowed to eat candies and junk foods in between meals so my only solution was to ransack what was chopped on the table. My parents discouraged us to be in the kitchen for simple reason that they find it dangerous for children. And I agree with that sans hesitation.

Now that I am a mom myself seeing my little girl's antic for food in the kitchen is a deja vu situation! After all history repeats itself. I thought that since my daughter love being in the kitchen might as well teach her to participate in cooking simple stuffs. Yesterday, after her long day in school we spent a bonding moment of cooking and playing and we both loved it. I was planning only to bake a simple chocolate almond muffin but her playful move made a soft caramel candy she was chewing to fall innocently on the muffin pan. Well the result was amazing and we'll definitely doing it again.

Here's my entry to this month's Heart of the Matter: Seeds and Things a healthy food event created and hosted by Michelle of Accidental Scientist, and her co-host Ilva of Luccullian Delights.

Chocolate Almond Soft Caramel Muffin
for 6-8 muffins

Ingredients:
125 g of flour
100 g of almond meal
75 g of sugar
half a teaspoon of baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 egg
20 cl of milk
10 cl of peanut oil
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
100 g of choco chips
soft caramel candies (any brand even home-made :-)

Procedure:
Preheat the oven at 210°C. In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients: flour, almond meal , sugar, salt , cocoa powder and baking powder. Then add the egg, milk and oil. Mix them well. Fold into the mixture your chocolate chips. Put soft caramel candies at the bottom of your buttered muffin pan and laddle your muffin mixture. Fill them only 3/4 the way if you want to have pointed tip muffin. Bake for about 20 minutes.