I hate to brag but I think I accidentally improved the Milk Street Recipe for their Chocolate Hazelnut Crostata. This came out so FORKING GREAT that it truly is one of the best desserts that you can eat anywhere……I do note that I didn’t plan to change their very good recipe…….If you read my recipes then you know that I am big about using what I have around the house and I try to make it work……..Anyways…. I made it even better and even easier. I used less sugar and it still was sweet enough and I used a higher percent of chocolate. The crust I thought was too much so I made it thinner, brought the crust up the pan instead of it being a thicker disc. I also used graham whole wheat for just a little more nutty flavor. Since I don’t have a food processor I didn’t think I’d be able to grind the hazelnuts enough so I used hazelnut flour that is actually all hazelnuts. This recipe makes 10 very small but very rich satisfying FORKING AMAZING servings. (you can make bigger servings if you want…after-all it’s your dessert. Do what you want)

Ingredients for around 10 servings

1/2 cup AP flour

1/4 cup graham whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter – cut into small cubes

1 egg yolk

1/2 teaspoon vanilia extract

non stick spray (canola)

2 oz 100% cacao baking chocolate – fine chopped

2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate – fine copped

1 cup hazelnut flour

3/4 cup sugar

3 egg whites

2 teaspoons vanila extract

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 cup crushed hazelnuts

Directions

Set oven to 375F and spray a 9 inch springform pan with non stick spray.

Use a stick blender and slightly mix together (not all the way…make it crumbly) the first 6 ingredients ( A.P., graham flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and butter. Now mix in egg yolk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. This mixture gets hand pressed in your pan. Bring it up the sides about an inch and pierce it every half inch with a fork.

This goes on the middle rack of your pre-heated 375F oven for around 15 minutes or until golden.

15 minutes latter it looks like this.

The chocolate goes in a microwavable bowl. Microwave 30 seconds. Mine was only slightly melted so I did another 30 seconds. I wanted to heat mine up a little more so I mixed in half the hazelnut flour and around HALF of the 3/4 cup of sugar and microwaved another 30 seconds and it was just right. Then I added the rest of the hazelnut flour and the rest of the sugar and it had this wet sand look.

Then add the 3 egg whites, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, and with a stick blender blend till smooth.

Spread on the crust.

Add the crushed hazelnuts around the edge.

Bake on middle rack of preheated 375f oven for around 20 minutes.

I think I let mine sit out maybe an hour.

You DO WANT TO SERVE IT STILL WARM……..

OMG It really is FORKING AMAZING! This is truly better than most desserts from most restaurants.

A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!! To Milk Street Magazine so I could come up with what I got here!

What I’ve done here is only an inspiration of Avocado and Cabbage Millefeuille from chef Alan Taudon of the Michelin-starred L’Orangerie at the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris. It’s a very simple recipe with very few ingredients. The L’Orangerie version is flash fried. I boiled my cabbage because the cabbage head I had was so darn tight the leaves were too hard to separate so I couldn’t fry them. Either way you have to cook cabbage leaves and after you have the avocado all ready you stuff the cabbage leaves with hot sauce soaked avocado and wrap with plastic wrap and let sit over night in the refrigerator so it can set up.

You also mix up

2 Tablespoons dijon mustard

1 Tablespoon smoked oil (I didn’t have so I substituted a little bit of liquid smoke (1/2 teaspoon..maybe a little more)

1 teaspoon honey (I used date syrup)

1 teaspoon water

These get mixed together in a small bowl and then you need to broil and char the mustard for a char smoked taste. I whipped the mustard up so it will still be smooth.

You need to slice up the avocado and toss it with some hot sauce.

Lay out some plastic wrap and roll up avocado in the cabbage leaves.

Use the plastic wrap to hold it together.

If you care to cut to expose avocado.

Sprinkle with a little olive oil, some fresh thyme or chives. Serve with smoked mustard.

A Special THANKSSSS! To chef Alan Taudon and FSGeorgeVParis for putting this recipe on the web so I could come up with what I got here.

I came across a Michelin Plate winning chef’s recipe for Lamb with spicy potato cakes and rogan sauce recipe by chef Dayashankar Sharma who is a well seasoned chef and is from multiple Michelin stared restaurants. The food came out delicious. I made the recipe with cod and changed up the recipe slightly because the spices and heat of the original recipe was too strong for me. The thing that I changed the most was that I didn’t fry the potato cakes….I added an egg instead and just cooked them off in the oven….I feared that the seasoned mashed potatoes would fall apart in the pan while frying……….and I don’t need the extra fat anyway…….. Other changes I made might be due to typos…….I LOVE VERY SPICY and VERY FLAVORFUL food but this recipe came out too over seasoned and too spicy even for me so I mellowed it some. I made a simple roasted cod in the oven that I made up a spice blend based on the flavors the chef put into the lamb. I only used a few pinches of the spice seasoning to flavor the fish and it came out delicious.

The original recipe only made 4 potato cakes from 8 oz of potatoes……you can adjust to your preference. My idea of portion size may differ from your idea of portion size. I got 4 meals out of it so far and it’s looking like I’ll get another two from the sauce and potato cakes but I note that I only eat 2-3 small potato cakes a dinner.

Ingredients for up to 6 portions

12 oz potatoes – cooked, peeled, mashed – potatoes

1 pinch cumin seeds – toasted – potatoes

1 Tablespoon – ginger – grated – potatoes

1 Tablespoon cilantro – chopped – potatoes

4 chili peppers – chopped (or to taste) – potatoes

1 egg – lightly beaten – potatoes

sea salt to taste – potatoes

non stick spray – pan for potatoes

2 Tablespoons canola oil – sauce

pinch cumin seeds – sauce

1/2 cinnamon stick – sauce

1 Tablespoon fennel seeds – sauce

2 teaspoons chili powder – sauce

1 teaspoon ground turmeric – sauce

2 teaspoons ground coriander – sauce

1 teaspoon gram marsala – sauce

1 pound onions = sliced extra thin and rough chopped – sauce

1 pound tomatoes – chopped – sauce

1 Tablespoon ginger – grated – sauce

1 Tablespoon garlic – ground to paste – sauce

pinch of saffron – bloomed in a Tablespoon of boiling water – sauce

cilantro – to finish

Directions

Set oven to 400 degrees F

Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray.

Mix the potato, cumin seeds, ginger, cilantro, chili peppers, egg and salt well. I made 16 little balls of the potato mixture and flattened them some into small patty shapes. In the middle rack of the oven they took 20 minutes on one side and 15-20 minutes on the other side.

While they were cooking I made the sauce

On medium heat add the canola oil. When it seems hot add the cumin seeds, cinnamon, and fennel seeds and heat till you hear it crackle. Then add the onions and heat till the onions turn golden brown. (around 20 minutes)

Add ginger, garlic and heat till golden. Then add chili powder, turmeric, coriander, gram marsala and salt. Cook 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and heat till oil separates. Remove from heat. Add the saffron liquid. Blend till smooth.

If you want to make a spice blend for a little pinch of flavor on a protein here is how I made it. 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric, 1/4 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, small pinch saffron. (I also added a small amount of fresh crushed sea salt and fresh ground black pepper and finished with fresh cilantro. (I just used a frozen Cod….Sprinkled it with olive oil and a couple pinches of the spice blend. It only took around 15 minutes in a 350F oven)

A SPECIAL THANKS!!!!!! to chef Dayashankar Sharma for sharing this amazing recipe so I could come up with what I got here.