My first visit to The Chocolate Room, Muscat

For most of us, chocolate rates very high on our list on our list of things that we love to eat, inhale and experience.   And so for the growing chocolate lovers community in Muscat, there is a new place where you can head to and savour a wide variety of all things 'chocolicious.' 

Located in Al Marafah Street, Mirbat Tower in Ghubra the Chocolate Room is  open, airy, well lit and has a well designed and planned menu for people of all age groups. When I walked in at 11 am yesterday  I saw a group of young Omani women tucking into their sweet as well as savoury delights . 

When I asked them if they were regulars, the answer was in the affirmative with two of them telling me that this was their third visit. 

Would they come here again? 

Yes, they definitely would. 

And finally, what was it that drew them there? 

"We love the food as well as the fact that we can sit here and study peacefully during the mornings."

 As good a reason as any, I thought to myself and placed my order for a Cafe Latte and a Chocolate tart.

When my order was served by the smiling Vic, this is what it looked like.

 A Chocolate tart and a Cafe Latte

The presentation looked great and must add, the tart tasted good too. However, call me fussy, but the coffee was another story. It wasn't anything like the Latte I'd been expecting. Of course, this wasn't my regular brand but to me the coffee tasted overly  sweet( in my book, sugar is never mixed in the cup before bringing to the customer). 

It also tasted nothing like coffee!

So when Vic came around to ask me if everything was OK, I promptly pointed that out. That was when I learnt that it was actually a Belgian chocolate concoction and that all their coffees have an element of that flavour. Must admit, I wish I'd known that earlier... 

What I absolutely loved were the interiors. Brown, white, maroon and gleaming, there is a definite element of style about the place  and I can see it becoming a popular destination for chocolate lovers in Muscat. 

The  interiors look good

Vic and the group of students 

Later Vic showed me the Menu in some detail  and this time I saw that there were plenty of other choices  in the sweet as well as the savoury sections.. 

So as I started by saying, this was my first visit to the Chocolate Room but definitely not my last.....

An exciting Chocolate Fondue Demonstration and High Tea at the Al Bustan Ritz Carlton, Muscat

Just yesterday I came across this great little post on a site called 'Thought Catalogue'.  It was aptly titled '15 things we should stop making a big deal about'.  Something about it struck a deep chord and made me re-read it to understand the real essence of what was  being said. I'm quoting two of the most meaningful lines here "Ordering dessert when you really want dessert. Or that you want to finish all of your dessert, or that you cleared your plate because you were hungry..Life should be a balance between things that are good for you, and things that you genuinely enjoy, and you shouldn’t feel the need to excuse yourself or make a light joke about being “bad.”

Then this morning I went into the Al Bustan Ritz Carlton Hotel in Muscat for a Chocolate Fondue demonstration followed by High tea and these lines seemed perfect!  Life really has to be a balance and I know I will always keep it that way.There will have to be a time to write, a time to click photographs, go out, spend quality time with family and do that little bit for people who need it.

The Al Bustan Ritz Carlton, Muscat

For all the ladies present, the highlight of the morning was the Chocolate Fondue demonstration set up by Executive Chef Jergen Sodemann and his two young assistants Kevin and Julia who took us through the short and sweet steps involved in making three kinds of chocolate fondue.

Executive Chef Jergen Sodemann shows us the superb Ritz Carlton Chocolate cake which we then got to eat- It was in a word, superb!

Kevin then started the demonstration by showing us these  bags of fabulous chocolate ( of course, we all got to eat the chocolate). The three types of chocolate fondue that we were privileged to watch were the Manjari, Tanariva and the Dulcey chocolate fondues.

Bags of the best quality chocolate used to make the chocolate fondue

Adding the  cream and glucose 

For those of you who are interested in trying it out, here is the highly acclaimed original Ritz Carlton recipe for the Manjari ( Dark) Chocolate Fondue

Boil cream and glucose together.

Pour over the dark chocolate . 

Start using a spatula to create an emulsion.

Keep aside

Vacuum into a bag and preserve in chiller for a week

Ready to serve with these mouthwatering options

The taste of the pudding is really in the eating!

The fabulous High tea that followed

Did that make us feel really happy? I'd say Yes. So would the fifty other ladies who joined us for the event.And before closing, I will share my favourite quote on chocolate by Dave Barry."My therapist told me the way to achieve inner happiness was to finish what I start. So today I have finished two bags of M and Ms and chocolate cake. I feel better already!"  

For an anytime treat, try these easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easy to make Chocolate chip cookies

Some of our best memories can be traced back to what we ate when we were out for a picnic, the weekly outing with our parents or even  the milk and cookies Grandma gave us when we went to stay with her. And when we think of cookies, the thought of chocolate chip cookies can never really be far away. As far as I'm concerned, they can easily be classified as an 'anytime treat' since they work equally well  with tea, coffee or milk.

So when I had an opportunity to try out this easy recipe for chocolate chip cookies,taken from a recipe book and tweaked a little to give it my personal twist, I was rather pleased when they turned out quite well. 

So here it is, the easy recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I got twelve large cookies in this batch and if you make them slightly smaller, you could easily get between 16-20.   

Ingredients

250 grams soft butter

• 150 grams caster sugar
• 40 grams cocoa powder
• 300 grams plain flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150 °C/300 F and line a baking sheet with parchment  paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl and, when you have a light, soft, whipped mixture, beat in the 40g / one-third cup cocoa powder   when that’s mixed in, beat in the flour with the bicarb and baking powder. 
3. This mixture is  soft and sticky  so you should first roll them into balls, then slightly flatten into thick . Place them well spaced, on your baking sheet.
4. Bake for 15 minutes and take out of the oven . Leave them to cool and remember that they will continue to cook as they cool.
5. Remove the baking sheet to a cold surface and let it sit for 15 minutes before transferring the biscuits to a wire rack.

Pour yourself a larger mug of tea or coffee, sit back and enjoy..

1. PS-The best part about these cookies is that they can be kept up to a week. All you need to ensure is that they are stored in an airtight container so that they stay soft and chewy in the centre while being slightly crisp on top.

Chocolate, banana, raisin and nut muffins- a minor variation of the previous post

In my last post I talked about banana, raisin and nut muffins. 

Here is the chocolate version for those of you who like it better this way. 

Try it and I guarantee that you will have great fun in the process. Hopefully, the end result will be satisfying as well !

Chocolate, banana, raisin and nut muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon baking powder 

Half teaspoon salt

Cashew nuts chopped into bits 

20 raisins 

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 

2 eggs 

a dash of vanilla extract 

3 ripe bananas

4 Tablespoons good cocoa powder

All set to proceed

Method

Pre heat oven to  100 C and prepare the muffin cases by lightly greasing them from inside.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nuts. 

Combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla in a large bowl.

Add the flour, baking powder, cocoa, sugar and blend into the banana mixture.

Spoon this batter into the muffin cases, leaving enough space for them to rise.

I managed 12 large muffins

Bake until muffins are  a nice chocolate brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Once they are ready you can serve them topped with chocolate icing. Alternately, top with vanilla ice cream and honey or just sit back and enjoy one with a large mug of coffee..

Pastry Chef Mohammed Kessrrwani shows me how make a great French Mille-feuille

The friendly staff at Paul, MGM Muscat

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote my first two blog posts on Paul, Muscat. With Eid rapidly approaching, I  decided to write my third and final post on Paul where Pastry Chef Mohammed Kessrwani shows me how to make the best  Mille-feuille and hope you enjoy reading this one as well.Even better, if you decide to try this out as your very own 'Eid Special.'

Paul is a French chain of bakeries and café restaurants established in 1889 in the city of Croix, in Northern France by Charlemagne Mayot. Today, there are over 500 franchised Paul bakery/café restaurants in many countries worldwide, viz.France, Spain, Belgium and the United Kingdom,  among others.This year Paul came to Muscat and has rapidly proved to be a very welcome addition to the range of restaurants present here.

Having a sweet tooth and being fond of baking myself, I'd specially asked to meet the Pastry Chef and that was how I found myself in the kitchens of Paul Muscat at 0730 hours and when I entered, was surprised to see Chef Mohammed Kessrwani already hard at work! 

                                

                           Chef Mohammed Kessrwani is all smiles

Welcoming me and making sure I was wearing a cap to cover my hair, he positioned me where I could watch him clearly and had no objections to being photographed at his work station. My first impression was,'Gosh he looks so young!" ! And that was proved to be right when I learnt that he was 29 and had been working in Pastry for the last 14 years.

I shadowed Chef Mohammed for two days and am delighted with all that I got to see and learn. On the second morning, I was invited by the Chef to watch an exclusive session on how to make a  great Mille-feuille and was then treated to a Demo of the vanilla strawberry version.

The mille-feuille ( "thousand leaves") vanilla custard slice, also known as the 'Napoleon' is a pastry of French origin. Traditionally, a mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff  pastry(pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière), but sometimes whipped cream or jam are substituted. The top pastry layer is dusted with  confectioner's sugar  and sometimes cocoa, or pulverized seeds (e.g. roasted almonds). Alternately, the top is glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white  (icing) and  brown  (chocolate)  stripes  and combed to get the effect of lines or striations.

The pastry sheets ready to be worked on

Piping the vanilla cream

Since Paul has strict standards, the basic pastry sheets for the Mille-feuille reach the Muscat restaurant as frozen sheets and every morning when he comes in, Chef Mohammed takes out the required quantity and thaws them till they are at the right temperature. After making the vanilla or as the case may be, the chocolate cream, he starts piping it, neatly but very firmly, around the outer edges and works his way inwards, till the entire sheet is neatly covered.

Beautifully set and Chef starts to top with fresh strawberries

Working patiently, Chef Mohammed  covers the entire surface with the beautifully sliced fresh strawberries and then adds a light glaze to the finished product that goes a long way in adding to the appeal. Reminding me that we all eat with our eyes first, he pops the tray into the refrigerator for about 20 mins to give it a chance to set.

Exactly twenty minutes later, the alarm goes off and he gently takes the tray out and neatly slices the set pastry- a Vanilla Strawberry Mille-feuille into 24 portions and voila, a great new batch is ready!


Sometime later, the Mille-feuille make their way to the front of the shop where customers feast their eyes, before placing their orders for their goodies or best of all, sit down for coffee,  chat and a strawberry Mille-feuille with a friend!
 

Rocky Road,a universal favourite and the simplest way to make it...

'All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt', said Charles M Schultz and I couldn't agree with him more! Topping a bar of chocolate would be a chocolate dessert or a slice of gooey chocolate cake.But you can easily have something in between and that something is the famous 'Rocky Road' a cross between chocolate, dessert , chocolate cake and everything else. 

My version, best served with an Espresso/Cappuccino

Historically, Rocky Road was invented in Australia in 1853 as a way of on-selling confectionery spoiled by the long journey from Europe. Gold miners in towns outside of Melbourne, such as Ballarat, were wealthy but uncultured. Cunning businessmen took advantage of these men, mixing the spoiled confectionery with low quality chocolate and other 'filler' ingredients, such as locally foraged nuts. The name Rocky Road is derived from the 'Rocky Road' travelers had to take to get to the gold fields.

That version of Rocky Road has come a very long way since and it has now developed into a fine art form, and is sometimes served in upmarket restaurants worldwide as a specialty dessert for people who will pay hundreds of dollars for it.

The main ingredients  in traditional Australian Rocky Road are marshmallows, dark or white milk chocolate,jelly,desiccated coconut,glace cherries,nuts, particularly peanuts,Turkish delight and strawberry sauce.

A minor variation is the American Rocky road and its main ingredients are marshmallows,milk chocolate,walnuts or almonds.The most popular version of Rocky Road in the U.S. is in ice cream form, which consists of chocolate ice cream, marshmallows (or sometimes a "marshmallow swirl"), and nuts. 

Here is my very simple and quick version of Rocky Road which will not take you more than  hour, which includes the preparation as well as the baking time.

All the ingredients neatly lined up 

Ingredients

4 bars of dark dessert/cooking chocolate

Half a bag of large white marshmallows

Vanilla essence to taste

Half a packet of small, dried figs

Half a pack of strawberries

Grated coconut to taste- I used about 500 gms for this entire batch

Peanuts to taste.

 Break chocolate into bits

 Melt over a pan of hot water, stir

 Mix all the ingredients into melted chocolate and stir gently

Pour the  mix on a greased baking tray and cover with grated coconut.

Bake at 150 c for about 25-30 mins or until done.

Cut into squares or shape into balls. Refrigerate till ready to serve and then bring out to the table. 

These are eaten best accompanied by an Espresso/Cappuccino  and if you want an added dash of fun, top with add a dollop of whipped cream/ice cream.