Magnum yourself

Manila has its own Magnum Ice Cream shop where you can make your own Magnum. This is soooo cool, an individual Magnum. There are shops as well in Hamburg, Paris and Istanbul, but to have one here in Manila is just absolutely amazing. The location is on the 5th floor in Aura Shopping Mall, one of the hip shopping malls in and around Manila. 

I always had a bit of a fetish for Magnum, I love the rich flavor of the ice cream and the lovely chocolate around, but to make your own flavor is just incredible. We had so much fun making our own flavor of Magnum, our own personalized Magnum.

You can choose from 2 ice cream flavors which is chocolate or vanilla, then from 18 toppings and 3 different dipping chocolates so you can make your own piece of art.

We took 2 extremes, one I call death by chocolate, it was with chocolate ice cream, milk chocolate dipping and then all sorts of chocolate toppings, the other one was the sweet delight, vanilla ice cream with a caramel chocolate dipping. The toppings were white crunchy chocolate pearls, mini marshmallows and freeze-dried raspberries which just looked so lovely and gave a bit of acidity to the extremely sweet concoction

There are some strange toppings available like broken chips and broken pretzels.....strange?? Yes but it actually goes well. The saltiness brings out the chocolate flavor even better so even so it sounds strange, it goes well with chocolate

Magnum Manila offers more than just Magnums, one can actually eat there with savory and sweet plated desserts available. The savory menu includes about everything from sexy crostini to pasta and salads all the way to the roasted Rib eye 

Pontet Canet wines @ Soneva Fushi

It was a great day, we had a special wine dinner with wines from Pontet Canet, one of the most prestigious Bordeaux wines. We even have the owner, Melanie Tesseron, of the chateau here so we were in for a real treat.

I made a menu that matches the wonderful wines from the Chateaux, all red wines so there challenge was on. Especially for the dessert as it is really difficult to match a red Bordeaux with dessert. So I decided to go with Valrhona Fair trade chocolate. The chocolate comes in three ways, one flavored with rosemary, then one with orange and the last with pink pepper corns.

But let me start at the beginning of the dinner, some Champagne and home cured salmon, a dish that goes so well with Champagne. We did a little duo, one cured with citrus and the other with beetroot. Just a little salmon roe on top, and it was finish.

cured sustainable ocean trout

beetroot, orange, salmon roe, endive

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tortellini

peas, mushrooms, butternut, olive oil, truffle

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Grain-fed Bresse chicken

snails, sun-dried tomato, celeriac, herbs

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beef

potatoes, mushrooms, shallot, spinach, truffle jus

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goats cheese

smoked tomato, cream

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Valrhona fair-trade grand cru chocolate

rosemary, orange, pink peppercorn

Then we had tortellini, three kind all filled with a different filling, one with peas, one with mushroom and one with butternut. I love pasta and feel that even with a classical French menu we can sere a little pasta course. It is a very playful dish, quite labor intensive but beautiful to look at

Then we had the duo of Bresse chicken and snails. The chicken comes from the Bresse region, they are absolutely fantastic tasting chickens, slightly yellow in color from the feed which is corn. The breast is filled with sun-dried tomatoes and then rolled, the skin still on, then poached, cooled and pan fried just before serving. It goes beautifully well with the herbed snails and the red wine

Then the main course is a very traditional one, basically one could call it beef parmentier which means beef and potatoes.....just of course shooshed up a little.

The cheese course is a very important course on this menu, I decided to go for a twice cooked goats cheese souffle, even so it doesn't say on the menu, I like to keep some surprises up my sleeve. This is served with a slightly smoked tomato sauce and pesto, just a couple of drops as otherwise it will be too overpowering

The wines of course were out of this world. Pontet Canet is not just a Grand Crus Classe 1855, but it is the first and only bio-dynamic Grand Cru Classe in Bordeaux. I am not telling you how much one bottle costs, that you can find out for yourselves, but just to let you know the 2010 was awarded 100 Points by Parker, which means it is basically a perfect wine.

We had 6 different vintages, I mean to have one vintage is already a treat, but to be able to taste 6 different years, to see how different the wines are each year, knowing that they come from the same soil....is simply amazing. It is all depending on the weather, just amazing

Chocolate Room at Soneva Fushi

When talking to guest about the resort I work in I always compare it to a chefs paradise, partly because I can buy the best products from every where, then I have a great team that makes the best out of these products and I have guests who truly enjoy our offering.

But there is more, we have an organic garden that falls under me and I will tell you more in another blog about it, we have 3 amazing a la carte restaurants serving true Japanese foods, progressive Mediterranean and fusion Asian food, we do special events, sandbank dinners, organic garden lunches, buffets BBQ's and more.

Now our main buffet area has some really amazing features, something one will not find everywhere. One of these features is the Chocolate Room. It is most probably the absolute favored room by everybody on the island. All the chocolates are hand made with the best chocolate. We are buying different brands but some of the best is Valrhona Chocolate. I buy a very special chocolate from them which is their Fair Trade brand. Yes it costs a little more but here at Soneva we like to do our part in sustainability and Fair Trade chocolate is one part of it. Most of the chocolates we do is made from dark chocolate. There is a lot of healthiness to dark chocolate, I am not going too much into it, but yes, a little bit of dark chocolate improves your health....a little bit, hehehe!!!!

We change the chocolates all the time, at any given time we have at least 15 different chocolate on the buffet. The room is perfectly air conditioned, so the chocolates will stay nice and hard. Even the plates are made out of chocolate, like all the show pieces in the back ground. I have to say that I am blessed with a very creative team of chefs.

In the morning we serve only chocolate pastries in this room, chocolate croissants, chocolate bread and more, then it gets changes for our Pralines during the day.....yes the room is open all day and only gets locked at night.

We like to play a little with the flavors, one of the stranger combinations is dark chocolate with goats cheese. Sometimes we use blue cheese which I think goes a little better. Then of course we combine all the fruits into ganache, like raspberries, passion fruit, coconut, and blueberries. Then we like of course the classic flavors, coffee, toffee and salted caramel. We got the hot and exotic ones, the pink pepper, chili and ginger,

Then there are little chocolate lollipops, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate covered nuts. There is chocolate mousse, chocolate brownies and yes, there are huge chocolate slabs that one just want to take a bite.

Yes, the chocolate room is one of the reasons I love working in this absolutely wonderful spot, want to come and visit??????? 

Chocolate Soup

Still on the desserts, this time with a chocolate soup, but with a little difference. I am sure you have seen the special chocolate slabs with sea salt in the delicatessen areas of the shops? It is something similar but we will go one step further, we will combine chocolate, sea salt and olive oil into an amazing dessert.

The soup is very easy to do, it is basically cream with a top quality chocolate, I like to use one of the top Valrhona dark chocolates like the Guanaja which has a great flavor and is about 70% cocoa, so dark and intense.

I made a photo from the top, so you can see the salt flakes and the swirl of olive oil. The streusel are normal streusel one uses for cake toppings, just baked without a cake..... It gives great texture to the dish and actually cuts the richness a bit

Recipe
200 G (7 oz) Chocolate
1 L (1 qrt) Fresh cream
 Sea salt flakes
 Olive oil

Streusel
100 g (3.5 oz) Butter
100 g (3.5 oz) Sugar
150 g (5.5 oz) Flour

Method
Heat the cream until 80C and add the chocolate
Cool down completely

Mix the butter, sugar and flour together, make sure you got fairly big crumbs
Refrigerate for a couple of hours
Bake in the oven at 180C till golden brown, which takes only a couple of minutes
Cool down completely before using

Flour less Chocolate Cubes with Strawberry Compote

Now this is a truly indulgent recipe, the chocolate is reach and creamy, so the strawberries give a little acidity and sweetness to it. To round the whole thing off, I add some cold Sabayon. All in all you get this great dessert that is colorful and absolutely delicious. I make the chocolate cubes flour less as like this the flavor is even more intensive and apart for from that, it is a perfect dessert for a gluten free diet

Chocolate Cubes
300 g Chocolate
3 ea Eggs
1 ea Egg yolk
250 g Butter

Strawberry Compote
500 g Strawberries
100 g Sugar
0.5 ea Vanilla bean, scraped
50 ml Red Wine
15 g Corn Starch

Sabayon
2 ea Egg Yolks
50 ml Marsala
75 ml White Wine
50 g Sugar
150 ml Cream, whipped

Method

For the Chocolate Cubes, melt the butter and then add the chocolate. Over very low heat melt the chocolate, stirring constantly. Then when the chocolate is completely melted, add the beaten eggs. Stir nicely till you have a smooth batter

Pour in a square, buttered baking tin and bake at 120 C for about one hour or till cooked. Make sure the heat is not too high to avoid over cooking

For the Strawberry Compote mix Strawberries, Sugar and Vanilla and bring to the boil. Mix Corn Starch and Red Wine, add to the strawberries, stirring all the time, it will thicken nicely. The take immediately off the heat and cool to room temperature

For the Sabayon mix all ingredients except the cream in a metal bowl, big enough to whisk the eggs rapidly and to make sure it doesn't over flow when all the foam comes up during the cooking and whisking

Banana Rum Mille Feuille in Curacao

I am in the last port of this cruise, in Willemstad, Curacao. It is really beautiful here, similar to Aruba but with more historic buildings. There are plenty of restaurants, bars and street cafes, the perfect place to just relax a little bit. Of course there is plenty of shopping opportunities here too, but as I am traveling all the time, there is really no space for anymore luggage

There is as well a lovely fruit and vegetable market; I could have gone wild here as all the fruit looked just so fresh and delicious. Bits further down there are a couple of fish stands as well with great fresh local fish. This is the nicest market I have seen so far in the Caribbean, at least on this trip. The cold is still there, but I think I just got used to the constant sniffing and occasional coughing, but think it will go over soon. It seems to go around a bit, I see several other crew member struggling a bit, just one of these things I guess.
Willemstad is the capital of the Netherlands Antilles and Curacao. I really enjoyed walking through the streets here, just taking in the atmosphere and enjoying a little time off. We will be at sea for the next two days, back to Miami where I will sign off, stay for a night and then join the next ship this Monday. I will pop quick in the office for some meetings and to pick up my chef jackets, nicely embroided with my name.......

Now being in Curacao I thought I should do a dessert for a change. I haven’t done too many dessert recipes so it is about time to do one again.

Banana, Rum and Chocolate Mille Feuille

1 ea Puff Pastry Sheets

10 ea Bananas

90 g (3 oz) Butter

90 g (3 oz) Sugar

300 g (10 oz) Dark Chocolate
3 ea Egg yolks

60 ml (2 oz) Rum

500 ml (0.5 quart) Cream

200 g (7 oz) Dark Chocolate

90 ml (3 oz) Cream

60 g (2 oz) Butter

Cut Puff Pastry sheet in half and bake in the oven till golden brown. Cool the puff pastry sheets completely down.

Heat the butter and add bananas and sugar. Roast quickly on high heat to caramelize the sugar a bit, then add rum and flambee.
Whisk the egg yolks in a bain marie with the rum till ribbon stage.

Melt the chocolate and fold into the eggs. Cool to room temperature.

Fold in whipped cream carefully.

Lay the bananas on the one puff pastry sheet, then top with chocolate mousse. Press carefully the second puff pastry sheet on top and cool completely in the fridge.

For the Ganache boil up butter and cream. Take off the stove and add chocolate. Cool to room temperature and pour carefully over your mille feuille. Spread the Ganache with a spatula, then cool in the fridge.

Cut your mille feuille just before serving and maybe serve a glass of well aged Caribbean Rum.

Rich Chocolate Tart

Yes I am baking again and this time I am playing with a new recipe for a chocolate tart. It is a chocolate ganache tart with praline inside. Everything contains chocolate, the dough, then the filling and to finish it off I have a different chocolate ganache on top. The whole tarte is very rich and is best served with some fresh berries or tropical fruit, just to cut the richness a bit.

Chocolate Pastry
200 G Flour
60 G Icing sugar
30 G Cocoa
100 G Butter
2 Ea Egg yolks

For the pastry combine all items except eggs in a food
processor till you have fine crumbs, work quickly
Add egg yolks and combine quickly to a dough
Rest for a couple of hours
Roll out 3 mm thick and blindbake in 28 cm round tart tin
Cool down completely

Praline Filling
150 G Hazelnuts, roasted
175 G Raw sugar
300 Ml Cream
400 G Milk chocolate

Make a caramel with the sugar and pour over the roast nuts
Cool down, then blend till fine
Boil up cream and milk, add to chopped chocolate.
Mix well, then add 3 thirds of nut mix to it, reserve the
rest for garnish.
Pour the praline mix in the bottom of the tart

Ganache topping
160 Ml Cream
200 G Dark Chocolate

Boil up milk and cream, then add to chopped chocolate
Mix well and pour on top of the tarte

Refridgerate over night to let the chocolate set nicely. A perfect dessert to make a bit in advance.