Dulce de leche brownies

This is a  recipe I found on a belgian blog(in Dutch), Baked Louie's, made by a young baking enthusiast named Louie. This fella sure knows how to bake and he's only 16!

 A blog filled with delicious recipes for cakes, cookies and pies off all kind. A blog worth reading!

This recipe is packed with calories but sometimes you just have to ignore them and just indulge ;)

The recipe takes 2 steps; the dulce de leche and the brownies. Start with the dulce de leche.

Dulce de leche:

Ingredients:

• 1 can of condensed milk, 305ml

Put the can, unopened, in a high cooking pot. Submerge in water and bring to a boil. 

Turn the fire lower when the water starts boiling vigorously and let it simmer for about 3 hours. Let the water cool down, take out the can, open it and pour the dulce de leche in a bowl and stirr untill you have a nice creamy texture. 

You can lick your spoon clean but don't be tempted to eat the whole bowl cause this is simply delicious.....

Brownies:

Ingredients:

• Dulche de leche
• 340gr. dark chocolate, chopped in bits
• 230gr. unsalted butter
• 50gr. unsweetened cacao powder
• 280gr. pastry flour
• 400gr granulated sugar
• 100gr. pecan nuts, chopped
• 6 eggs

Put some aluminium foil in a baking tin(+/- 20x30cm) and grease it up with some oil. 

Preheat the oven on 175°.

Melt the butter in a large pan, add the chocolate and let it melt in the butter. Then add the cacao powder and stirr well. Add the eggs, one by one and keep stirring. Add the sugar, let it melt in the mixture and then finish by adding the flour. Stirr well untill you get a thick mixture and add the chopped pecan's.

Pour half of this mixture in the baking tin and add about 4-5 spoons of dulce de leche, divided over the mixture. Swirl in the dulce de leche with a knife, creating a nice pattern and add in the rest of the mixture and repeat the step with the dulce de leche.

Put in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes.

Let it cool down, cut into pieces and serve! Delish!!!!

Enjoy,

Kev







Source recipe: http://bakedlouies.blogspot.be/2013/01/dulce-de-leche-brownies.html

Brewdog - Tokyo

What the .....??!! Eh,excuse my language but with an ABV of 18.2° few other words came to mind when I bought this bottle.

This is the (in)famous 'Tokyo' beer from the (in)famous anarchy brewers of 'Brewdog' in Scotland. Brewed for the first time in 2009 and at that time being world's strongest beer. They had their share of trouble with this beer as it was considered too strong for something as 'normal' as a beer but it gave them a fair share of publicity and got them were they stand now....A brewery defying all limits of brewing as we know it, they're truely not afraid to mix things up.

I ordered some of their core beers and some specials, I'll be reviewing them soon here.

But now, this baby......




Tokyo:

Imperial stout, ABV 18.2°, IBU 90

The beer poured pitch black with a medium thick, brown head. First scent gave away some roasted coffee and dark fruit. At the first sip I still had the roasted coffee note with some chocolate, prunes,cranberries and other red/dark fruit on the palate. Some vinous notes and some oak. Full body and velvetty. Surprisingly very little alcohol in the mouth, with an ABV of 18.2° I was afraid of this but it melts right away between the rest of the tastes.

But sill at 18.2° having a 33cl bottle is guaranteed to give you a good night's rest and so it did!
This Oak aged Imperial stout might be one of the best I ever had, nice mixture of rich tastes and very satisfying but to be enjoyed with ease!!






And no better ending to this review than the words that you can find on the bottle:

'The irony of existentialism, the parody of being and the inherent contradictions of post-modernism, all so delicately conveyed by the blocky, pixelated arcade action have all been painstakingly recreated in this bottles contents.
This Imperial stout is brewed with copious amounts of speciality malts, jasmine and cranberries. After fermentation we then dry-hop this killer stout with a bucketload of our favourite hops before carefully ageing the beer on French toasted oak chips.
It is all about moderation. Everything in moderation, including moderation itself. What logically follows is that you must, from time, have excess. This beer is for those times!'


To be continued.......

Kev

Bistronomie guide Belgium

Bistronomy is the new thing(well, perhaps not that new) and hopefully here to stay cause it stands for a new approach of the food culture. It's the combination of a easy entry bistro with the culinary approach in the kitchen of a high-level restaurant. So all the goodies for a reasonable price, basically making it accesible for everyone with a foodie heart.

The book/site Bistronomie offers a guide trough the world of bistronomy in Belgium. Here you can find a restaurant with the label 'bistronomy' near you and following your budget.

Edition 2013 was launched 04/03/2013 in Antwerpen in the old De Koninck brewery. Read about it here:

• http://www.legourmandbelge.be/
• http://www.be-gusto.be/2013/03/03/bistronomie-lancering-gids-2013/
• http://dolcevitaspinelli.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/bistronomie-2013/

Order the guide here:

• http://www.bistronomie.be/nl/Shop-20/

Kev

Bone marrow in the oven

Simple, basic but oh so yummilicious and nutricious(no need to use words like fat, cholesterol.....) and very satisfying when prepared correctly.


Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 bones per person
• Fresh thyme and rosemary
• some oil
• butter
• Pepper and fleur de sel

Soak the bones in salted water for about 12 hours, draining and refreshing them +/- 2 times to remove excess blood. Clean them and dry them and put them on a oven plate greased with oil. Sprinkle some thyme and rosemary on them, some pepper and put a knob of butter on the bones.

Put them in a preheated oven(230°) for 20 minutes, take them out, dress on a plate, sprinkle some fleur de sel on the bones,take a small spoon and start spooning the rich,gooey inner center of the bones.Or just suck it out....(and burn your lips)

 Satisfaction guaranteed!!!!

And toss the bone at your dog if you have one.

Enjoy,

Kev

Duvel Tripel Hop 2013 - Avant première

Yes, it's that time again.....
My favorite brewery Moortgat/Duvel is launching the new Tripel Hop again, version 2013. Every year they select a new kind of hop to add to the beer giving it another flavour without losing touch with the original Duvel. This years version is upgraded with the distinct Sorachi hop, an old hop originating from Japan with a rather high alpha level. 2012's version had American Citra hop as flavouring agent. I allready tasted the Sorachi hop in the Xtrem Hop series of Delhaize so I knew I was in for a very bitter, fruity/exotic flavour bomb!

The event was held in Brussels in the Chinese pavilion next to the Japanse tower, see the link?? ;) It's a beautiful place with an impressive ornamental decoration, fit for the star of the evening. The first thing we received upon entering the place was of course....a Duvel Tripel Hop 2013. What else?

We missed part of the speech of CEO Michel Moortgat and head brew master Hedwig Neven due to the traffic inferno around Brussels but I remembered the brew master promising us a lot of exotic flavours like coconut, mint, citrus and the CEO telling that they are a company that like to keep the customers close. The origin of the Duvel Tripel Hop is a perfect example of their bond with their fans/customers. When the original Duvel Tripel Hop was brewed back in 2007 it was limited to 20.000 bottles and sold out very fast leaving a lot of people with a taste for more.  A bet between some fans, de 'lambikstoempers', and Duvel was made. If they were able to get 10.000 fans on a facebook page Duvel would start brewing the beer again! And the rest is history......

I had a short chat with the director of quality, Dimitri Staelens who is in charge of the quality of your brew. A nice person with a heart/passion for his job. He previously worked at Inbev,one of the biggest brewers worldwide, and he said that the passion/effort for creating a perfect beer is big at Moortgat and that is something that I taste in every Duvel  I drink. Inbev brews lemonade,they really do, Moortgat creates beers with soul. My opnion!




This Years Tripel Hop has a nice floral,fruity nose and on the palate it delivers a nice explosion of lemon, lemongrass and other exotic fruit ending in a nice dry bitter aftertaste.This beer is surely going to give me a lot of pleasure this year.

As a food pairing they offered some sushi, there is that link with Japan again but unfortunately the good people of Duvel forgot one thing....A Duvel Tripel Hop can make up a big appetite and all the sushi were gone in about 20 minutes leaving us no choice than to still our hunger with another Duvel. The consequences were for me an earlier visit to my bed ;)

Had a real great evening and looking forward to more Duvel Tripel Hop 2013.



Special thanks goes to Jo Lories, marketeer@Duvel for inviting us and my wife for going the extra miles to get us there!!

Kev

Selecto - Brussels

Selecto - Bistronomique & comptoir; That is what it says on their menu and basically describes what you can expect in this restaurant/bistro, a mix of a low benchmark bistro combined with the culinary approach of a gastronomic restaurant. A duo formula where you choose 2 dishes will cost you 33€, the trio formula will set you back 39€ and that is a good price/quality ratio!

The menu offers you a nice choice of original interpretations of classic dishes like saltimbocca of suckling pig with Tiroler speck,fried polenta and eggplant gratin or a veloute of 'Puy' lentils with breaded mussels. All quality products.

I start with a tasty beer from the local Brussels brewery 'Brasserie de la senne', a Taras Boulba.

A fairly light, crisp blond/white beer with a fruity,hoppy taste. A nice way to start my lunch. I prefer having a good beer over champagne/cava as apéritif lately and certainly when it's a quality beer like this one.

As first course I had set my mind on the 'Puy' lentils but unfortunately they were sold out so they offered me a velouté of pumpkin with breaded mussels and a foam of what I suppose was a fish/shellfish reduction.

The foam was needless, didn't really contribute to the dish, both in taste and presentation but the velouté itself was rich, savoury and the plump, breaded mussels were tasty and gave the dice a nice bite to it.

My main was a nice piece of skinseared seabass on a crumble of butternut with Buffala mozzarella, Cévennes onions and cider butter sauce. The fish was prepared perfectly and the 'crumble' was savoury, the melted mozzarella added a nice 'cheesyness'.

Finished with an espresso and left satisfied.
More of this in Brussels please!!

Kev

Xtrem Hop - Delhaize

Delhaize, big mogul on the retail market here in Belgium recently launched a limited series of U.S.A. inspired beers. I say US inspired cause all the hops used in this series came from the US yet the beer was brewed in Belgium by the 'Proefbrouwerij'. Also the trend of brewing beers searching for a more extreme bitterness is something coming from US hopheads. A trend that I personally welcome cause I really like some bitter in my beer.

3 varieties were offered with every time the same brewing process but with the use of a different hop variety;
 Columbus, Citra and Sorachi Ace. All in 75cl bottles at the more than reasonable price of 3,50€ the bottle together with a small booklet with some info.

Xtrem Hop Columbus:

This rather young American hop variety promises to deliver a high EBU-EuropeanBitterUnit- of 75 so I was quite looking forward opening this bottle. It poured a nice golden/orange coloured beer with a nice head and a lot of carbonation going on.

 First scent was soapy,dry and some citrus. You could really smell that it was going to be a bitter beer. First sip immediately awakened my tastebuds giving me a tickle in the back of my mouth and leaving a nice dry, bitter aftertaste. I loved it a lot, could be a real good beer before dinner to make up an appetite. The bitter was prominent but not overwhelming.

Xtrem Hop Citra:

This is a new American hop variety but for the Duvel lovers a known one as it was used to brew the Duvel Tripel Hop2012 so I knew what I was going for!

Colour was clearer than the Columbus and the scent gave more exotic,fruity aroma's.

The taste was with an EBU of 59 again bitter but wasn't as prominent as with the Columbus due to the more floral/fruity character of the Citra hop. Again a very nice beer and the most 'open' beer of the 3. I could easily see this paired with some fish or seafood.

Xtrem Hop Sorachi Ace:


The Sorachi hop is an old forgotten Japanese hop that has recently been given attention again by some American hop cultivators and is really unique, like nothing I tasted before.

It doesn't have the same high EBU(68) as the Columbus(75) but I found the bitter being more prominent in this beer together with an exceptional floral, exotic taste...Coconut, mango, herbs(lavender, pine) in the nose and an absolute floral explosion in the mouth together with that typical soapiness of hoppy beers and even some wood. Truely the most Xtrem one of the three! I absolutely loved it, my wife didn't so this beer will surely divide opinions.




Nice effort of Delhaize to bring this limited series of beers on the market, I think all bottles have allready been sold, and for keeping a close watch on the general trends in the market. These beers could easily take a permanent position on the shelves with their exceptional taste and high quality.

Kev