what I've been eating and photographing lately...

Salads !!

and um.. chocolate and scones.....  ok soooo in reality I'm snacking on salad between desserts..

anyhow, this blog post is not about how a girl can't live on chocolate alone (although, have anyone seriously ever tried??? hmmmm.... ) or about how the bikini season is approaching faster than you can say ibsens ripsbusker og andre buskvekster

THIS blog is about how I've been taking some sweet food photos lately...

i) salad with chicken, mango and apple - look - LOOK at those colors !!!
(made by Vicki, Helene and myself one very funny saturday evening)

ii) salad with chicken and horseradish cream
(from kolonihagen, my favorite saturday/sunday breakfast place)

One dessert to rule them all.... chocolate soufflé (cup)cakes

If there was such a dessert it would be this one !!

Recipe as usual from Deb at smittenkitchen 

Chocolate Souffle Cupcakes

170 grams bittersweet chocolate, chopped 

86 grams unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon instant coffee powder

3 eggs, separated

6 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- I used Valrhona Guanaja 70% for the first batch but Manjari 64% for the second batch, because I read on a food blog that 70% is not the best for souffles due to lower sugar content.. however, that was not the case in this recipe.. The Guanaja batch was clearly the best one as it had a richer chocolate taste. That being said, I really am a sucker for really dark and bitter chocolate (feasting on a plate of Valrhonas 85% Abinao as we speak.. wiiii)

ooops, sorry, major chocolate distraction.. now back to recipe

- stir chocolate, butter and coffee powder in pan until melted

- beat egg yolkes and 3 tablespoons sugar in bowl until pale and thick

- add chocolate mixture and vanilla 

- beat egg whites and 3 tablespoons sugar and salt in other bowl until very white and fluffy

- fold egg whites in chocolate mixture, in 3 additions

adding melted chocolate to egg mixture...

  

and then carefully folding in the egg whites

- divide batter in small cupcakes, large muffin cups, round/heart shaped cake pan or other

- bake in oven at 160 C degrees (350 F) until... umm done... somewhere between 5-15 min depending on the size of your cupcake/pan

The original recipe also calls for white chocolate mint cream  (heat cream and mix with chopped white chocolate, and if you can find it - which I could not despite my desperate search in all of Oslo's gourmet stores - some mint extract for flavoring). Liked it almost better without cream though, but again I am a sucker for chocolate. Next time I think I'll make it with a hazelnut crust and layer it with two different chocolate types - one darker and one lighter.. yum !

My two batches of batter made for:

- cupcakes for the weekly Friday coffee & cake at work + some extras to bring for girls dinner in the evening...

- mother day's cake (half eaten) :)) 

oh and one very cheesy heart-shaped valentines cake... so cheesy it could in fact not be pictured on this blog ;)

scones again...

The scone I've been obsessing about -  from Le Rustique

I want to live here....in Kolonihagen

Its the cutest cafe in Oslo, Kolonihagen in Frogner. Perfect place for sunday (and every other day) morning indulgences !!

Biscotti :)

at Olivia... yummy !!!

photos from Olive oil tasting at Olivers&co.. more to come

Lunch at Coco Vika

When I was 15-16 years, back when pizzas were regarded as fancy food and tacos had just started to appear on Norwegian dinner tables (and we hadn’t even heard about café lattes… isn’t that funny?) the first Asian restaurant opened in Oslo . It was a Chinese restaurant and me and my friends were sooooo fascinated by the mix of chicken/rice/sweet chili sauce. (food that is sweet and spicy at the same time? How strange and unheard off.. )

Since then, I’ve eaten lots of Asian food and have developed a love for it (Thai/Vietnamese food in particular). I think it has to do with their yin-yang approach to food, which in so many dishes results in an amazing mix of color, flavors, and textures (call me superficial but I like food that looks pretty too…)

Yesterday I had lunch at Coco Vika (the sister restaurant of Coco Chalet - the French inspired place close to Stortinget).

Sometime back (although I don’t remember when, and my memory isn’t what it use to be so I could be wrong) Coco Vika became an Asian inspired restaurant with the slogan “we promise you a different taste to a reasonable price”.

And they were in fact reasonably priced, but the food however was err… unfortunately a bit of a disappointment :(

I ordered the Wok Noodles Thai Grilled Chicken (Fried noodles with chicken, vegetables and sweetchili)

Did not love this dish - it was bland, boring and uninspiring. Lots and lots of noodles and almost no vegetables (with the lame exception of a 4 small pieces of a carrot stick), also it was soaked in bottle-sweetchili sauce (chicken pieces were good though).

The other dish I tried was Rice Bowl Scampi (Rice with scampi, fried vegetables and spizy Szechuan garlic sauce). The scampies were very good but as with the other dish there was lots of rice but almost no vegetables… Why I wonder? Is it really that expensive to add a bit of fresh vegetables and maybe even some herbs?

OK, so I only tried to lunch menu.. perhaps the dinner menu is much better. Also, I’ve heard they make one of the best chocolate fondants in Oslo, which I didn’t have this time so I would probably go back just for that, and the service was good so as a lunch place for the business crowd in the neighborhood I guess its OK ..