I'm Profiled in The LA Examiner!

Partial screenshot of the lengthy LA Examiner article that profiles Happy Go Marni

Today, the LA Examiner's Fine Dining reporter profiled Happy Go Marni, and the girl behind it! It is a wonderful article, and I'm extremely flattered and humbled to be written in such a bright light. It has a thorough overview of my food-loving background, including the fact that I wrote my master's thesis on food blogging, and served as sous chef in a Bay Area bistro at age 14. If you are at all curious about the gal behind this blog, please, by all means, read this LA Examiner piece! We're friends, right? Get to know me better! :)

The Spicy Brownie from Brooklyn's Baked Bakery

Not to be confused with OMG-my-mouth-is-on-fire-this-is-so-frickin'-hot-I'm-going-to-need-a-fire-extinguisher spicy. The ancho chili pepper called for in this Spicy Brownie is the kind of spicy that warms the mouth and gives the brownie a full-bodied, sort of smoky flavor without burning a hole in your tastebuds. It reminds me of Oaxacan mole sauce, which, as you may know from trying mole, is often not hot at all. So don't panic because of the recipe name; just rejoice.

It's an amazingly fudgy brownie (as opposed to cakey), which is my textural preference in brownies. And because it's so dense, not to mention rich from the dark chocolate, you don't need more than a small square piece to do the job. That's why an 8"x8" pan is really plenty to serve a large dinner party. I'm so impressed by this recipe, which I found posted on Oprah.com, and which originally comes from a small, creative bakery in Brooklyn called Baked run by two guys, Renato Poliafito and Matt Lewis, that I am dying to buy their cookbook and try everything in it! I think it's next on my Gift to Self List.

The Details
359 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 222-0345


The Spicy Brownie
Recipe from Brooklyn Bakery Baked and posted on Oprah.com
Makes 16 brownies

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 1 tsp. Dutch cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 ounces coarsely chopped dark (60 percent) chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter , plus more for pan
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter sides and bottom of a glass or light-colored metal 8" x 8" pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cocoa powder, chili powder, and cinnamon.

Configure a double boiler (fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches of water and fit a metal bowl on top without letting it touch water; bring water to a boil). Place chocolate and butter in bowl and stir occasionally until both are completely melted and combined, about 6 minutes. Turn off heat, but keep bowl over water and add both sugars. Whisk until completely combined and remove bowl from pan. Let stand until room temperature, about 20 minutes.

Add eggs to chocolate-butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add vanilla and ginger; whisk to combine. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or the brownies will be cakey.

Sprinkle flour-cocoa mixture over chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (do not use a whisk!), fold the dry ingredients into the wet until there is just a trace amount of the flour-cocoa mix visible.

Pour batter into the greased pan and smooth the top with the spatula. Bake brownies for 27 to 30 minutes; brownies are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Cool brownies completely before cutting and serving.


Step-by-Step in Pictures
In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, salt, cocoa powder, chili powder, and cinnamon. Then set aside...

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a saucepan or double boiler...

Add the brown and white sugars, then let stand for about 20 minutes...

Add the eggs, vanilla, and ginger, and stir until combined, then add the dry ingredients...

But don't overmix! Just barely incorporate the dry ingredients...

Bake at 350 degree F for about 27 minutes...

Delicious and amazingly fudgy!!

Pure Genius: Using a Bundt Pan as a Vertical Roaster

Photo Credit: The Kitchn

Oh Kitchn, how I love thee! I read this idea on The Kitchn blog a few weeks ago and have been meaning to comment on it for awhile. It's pure genius! Instead of roasting a chicken on a vertical roaster, why not try using a bundt pan! You're probably more likely to have a bundt pan in your kitchen anyway, plus, the bundt pan lends itself perfectly to cooking a chicken because you can also cook a bunch of vegetables in the bottom and let the bird rest on them. So it's an all-in-one meal.

Photo Credit: The Kitchn

Vertical roasting, as a technique for cooking chicken, is one of my absolute favorite ways because the chicken comes out extremely juicy. The chicken stands upright on a pedestal and the juices fall straight down, naturally basting the chicken the whole time. Plus, it takes less time to cook and browns the chicken more evenly because it's getting heat from all sides. Trying the same technique using an item I typically use for cakes makes cooking a lot more exciting...not to mention resourceful! I can't wait to try this! Now all I need is a lesson on how to carve a whole chicken. Help? :-)

Go ahead, try the recipe The Kitchn posted for roasting a chicken on a bundt pan. Perhaps you'll start using your bundt pan more often now!

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Chunks

Chocolate-peanut butter is probably my favorite flavor combination and the only flavor at Baskin Robbins I ever order. This recipe by David Lebovitz is a little different in that the ice cream base has peanut butter stirred into the chocolate until smooth, plus the already familiar chunks of peanut butter folded in. So there's double the peanut butter presence in this! It's also very fast to put together because it doesn't have eggs in it and therefore doesn't need the more involved custard method. You just throw a bunch of ingredients into a saucepan, heat it all up while stirring, and then chill it in the fridge overnight before churning it.

The one extra step to this recipe is making the mix-ins. I love the way peanut butter tastes cold, especially big chunks in ice cream. David Lebovitz has a recipe for Peanut Butter Patties that you can make the night before you churn your ice cream, let freeze overnight, and then toss into the ice cream maker in the last couple seconds of churning. The patties are ridiculously easy to make, only requiring peanut butter and powdered sugar stirred together, and then dropped into little nuggets on a saran wrap-lined plate to freeze. I suppose if you're feeling really lazy, you can just chop up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups or skip the mix-ins all together. But all I can say to that is BOOOOOO! How many times do I have to tell you to trust David Lebovitz?


Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Recipe by David Lebovitz in The Perfect Scoop
Makes about 1 quart (1 liter)

2 cups half-and-half
1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
Peanut Butter Patties - See below for recipe

Whisk together the half-and-half, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan. Heat the mixture, whisking frequently, until it comes to a full, rolling boil (it will start to foam up). Remove from the heat and whisk in the peanut butter, stirring until thoroughly blended.

Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.


Peanut Butter Patties
6 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Mix together the peanut butter and sugar in a small bowl. Line a dinner plate with plastic wrap. Pinch off small pieces of the peanut butter mixture, about 1/2 teaspoon each, and drop them onto the dinner plate. Once you've used all of the mixture, freeze the patties.

Mixing them in: Fold the Peanut Butter Patties into 1 quart (1 liter) of ice cream as you remove it from the machine.

Storage: Peanut Butter Patties can be stored in the freezer, well wrapped, for up to 1 month.


Step-by-Step in Pictures
Whisk together the half-and-half, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt in a large saucepan, then heat the mixture to a rolling boil while whisking...

Remove from the heat and whisk in the peanut butter, then transfer to a bowl, cover, and chill overnight...

To make the Peanut Butter Patties, stir together the peanut butter and powdered sugar...
Stir until smooth...

Drop little nuggets of this peanut butter mixture onto a plastic wrap-lined dinner plate, then freeze overnight...

Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker and add in the Peanut Butter Patties in the last few seconds of churning...

Scrape the churned ice cream into a freezer container and freeze until set, or eat the ice cream right away as soft serve!

Voila!

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

The first time I had Mexican chocolate ice cream, I was at Marianne's Ice Cream in Santa Cruz, California, as a little kid. I remember there being 71 flavors and I'd spend forever tasting samples and probably driving the employees crazy. Out of 71 flavors, I'd frequently decide on the Mexican chocolate as my scoop du jour, and come on, out of 71 delicious flavors, that's saying something.

The combination of chocolate and cinnamon is fantastic. I find it in a lot of baked desserts. So it was time I tried my hand at chocolate and cinnamon in a homemade ice cream. Plus, I just purchased David Lebovitz's latest cookbook Ready for Dessert and I was in dire need to try something, ANYTHING, out of the book.

The result is an ice cream so rich, so chocolaty, that one friend said she could hardly call it ice cream. She said it was as if she were biting directly into a piece of chocolate. This is the kind of ice cream where you really only need a junior size, or a teeny tiny scoop, or perhaps even just a spoonful. You'll want it with a glass of milk or water. It is that chocolaty and rich. And delicious! A true chocolate lover's ice cream!


Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream
Recipe by David Lebovitz in Ready for Dessert
Makes about 1 quart (1 liter)

3 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons brandy
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 large egg yolks
1 cup almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

In a large heatproof bowl, combine the chocolates, cream, and brandy. Set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and set a mesh strainer across the top.

In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, and cinnamon, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the warm milk-sugar mixture, whisking constantly as you pour. Pour the warmed yolks back into the saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan with a heatproof spatula, until the custard is thick enough to coat the spatula. Pour the custard through the mesh strainer into the chocolate mixture and stir until smooth.

Set the bowl containing the custard over a large bowl of ice water. Stir the custard until cool, then cover and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. Stir the almonds into the just-churned ice cream when you remove it from the ice cream machine.


Step-by-Step in Pictures

Heat the chocolates, cream, and brandy in a double boiler. Then pour into a bowl and place a strainer on top...

In a saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then add some of this milk-sugar mixture to the eggs to temper the eggs. Then add all the egg back into this milk-sugar mixture and cook until it coats the back of a spatula...

Pour the egg-milk mixture into the bowl of cream-chocolate through the strainer. Then cover and chill in the fridge overnight...

Last step! Churn into amazing Mexican chocolate ice cream!

My Mother's Day Pick: Charles Chocolates

Chuck Siegel, owner of Charles Chocolates, and me!

Full disclosure: I love Charles Chocolates. Oh wait, that's the point of this post. Hehehe.

This Sunday is Mother's Day and whether you've already picked out the perfect gift for mom or you haven't, you should consider one more thing: Charles Chocolates. Truth is, you don't really need an excuse to treat yourself or a loved one to high quality chocolate. But if you buy Charles Chocolates for Mother's Day, the packaging is extra special.

Charles Chocolates, owned and run by Chuck Siegel, is a fabulous gourmet chocolate company based in San Francisco, but available online, too. They recently opened a flagship store in the big newish Westfield Shopping Center in downtown that has the beautiful Bloomingdale's and gourmet food court. This location makes me sooo happy because now these treats are convenient for the cityfolk! Turn your fantasy into a reality? Done! All of the chocolates are made in small batches, maintaining the integrity of the chocolates. And you should see how perfect each one looks as you hold it up to your magnifying glass. Because of course you have a magnifying glass you dedicate just to chocolate inspection. Charles Chocolates is perfection.


There are three gift options that are specifically Mother's Day themed. You could order the Mother's Day Edible Chocolate Box, where everything but the paper wrappers is meant to be eaten. And my Uncle Gary would probably even eat the wrapper if it had a fleck of chocolate on it. For $60, you get 18 pieces of chocolate and the gorgeous edible box they're in. The pieces include fleur de sel caramels and Chuck's famous peanut butterflies, plus more.


Another option is the $20 Mother's Day Fleur de Sel Caramel Collection in a beautiful non-edible blue and brown box. If I were a mom, I'd be thrilled to receive this gift! Future kiddo of mine, I hope you're listening!

And the third option is Three Months of Treats for Mom where you'll hook your mom up with Charles Chocolates from now until July 9th. I might have missed my chance on this one since orders needed to be received by May 5 so Mom could get her first of the three treats right away. That option is priced at $68.


There are lots of great chocolate items available year round that would also make fantastic Mother's Day gifts. One of my favorite Charles Chocolates products is the can of triple chocolate covered almonds for $12. Bite one in half, then examine the cross section, and you'll see just how thick the chocolate coating is around this almond. You will go nuts!


Good luck making up your mind what to order. It's never easy. But it's a good problem to have. Happy Mother's Day and give your mom a big kiss for me this weekend!

The Details:
Charles Chocolates Flagship Store
865 Market Street
Westfield San Francisco Centre
2nd Floor, on the Nordstrom Side
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 348-8889
Also at www.charleschocolates.com

Top Chef Season 2 Winner Ilan Hall and the Castle Cake He Made for My Friend's Birthday

Me and Chef Ilan Hall (I'm holding up a latke!)

Ah, Saturday night. I attended a friend's birthday held at The Gorbals, a restaurant-bar in downtown LA run by Bravo's Top Chef Season 2 winner Ilan Hall. You might have heard about Hall's somewhat controversial menu item: bacon-wrapped matzah balls. His father is from Scotland, his mother is from Jerusalem. Go figure! As I don't eat bacon, I didn't order these daring matzah balls and can't testify to their brilliance or ridiculousness. But! I did try the latkes with applesauce and honey and wow they are amazing! I think I might have to drizzle some honey on applesauce every time I eat it from now on!

A menorah is parked at the restaurant's cash register
reminding you of some of the menu items

Plus, the cocktails are unusual and feature bourbon and gin in interesting flavor combinations, and the beers on tap are great. I ordered a pale ale that went down light and easy, and then a beer called the Abbey, which was significantly stronger and served in a rounded lowball tumbler glass probably more appropriate for scotch. So fun and unexpected!

The open kitchen allows you to watch Chef Ilan Hall in action

Besides the menu, the atmosphere makes The Gorbals an awesome venue. The Gorbals is located inside the historic Alexandria Hotel of 1906 so be sure to get intentionally lost on your way in or out so you can see some of the neat architecture and design touches (though with plenty of a feeling of abandonment from this no-longer-functioning hotel). The interior of the restaurant includes an open kitchen so you can watch the chef do his thing, and there's a long communal table in the middle of the place for you to sit at unless you opt for a more private dining experience at a table for just your group. The waitress we had was spectacular, super attentive and kind, always offering us water, and making sure we were happy. Hall looked like he was having a great time balancing cooking with stepping out of the kitchen and mingling with the party folk. He's a very friendly guy.

And speaking of friendly, Hall is friends with my friend, the birthday boy. So naturally, what is a chef to do when his friend hosts his birthday party at his pal's restaurant? Hall made a giant castle-shaped bundt cake, deep fried it, drenched it in some sort of vanilla glaze, sprinkled powdered sugar on top, and then finished it off with sparkler candles. Deep frying the entire cake basically resulted in a giant donut. And it was delicious!

The castle cake Ilan Hall made for my friend's birthday

To top off an already fun evening, I said a little hello to some comedians who came out for my friend's party, sending my celeb interaction quota for the day off the charts. You see, my friend is in the comedy business. In fact, I was told there were plenty more comedians in the room, but unless they're from Zoolander or they're about to host the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, they just look like the next guy to me.

I highly recommend you grab a drink and order some small plates at The Gorbals. And say hello to Ilan Hall. If you two hit things off and become fast friends, maybe he'll make you a giant castle birthday cake donut thingy, too!


The Making of the Giant Castle Birthday Cake Donut Thingy in Pictures:

Deep frying the castle cake

Pouring the glaze over the hot, just fried cake

Sprinkled with powdered sugar, the cake gets some sparkler candles

The candles are lit and the Happy Birthday Song is about to commence!

The Details:
The Gorbals
501 S. Spring Street
Los Angeles, California 90013
(213) 488-3408