Hello, my name is Johan Moe, and welcome to the first entry to MOEdernKitchen.com. Here I will share creations from my kitchen and for you to try at home. You will find traditional and modern dishes with a touch of influence to take it to the next level.

The idea behind the cocktail hour was to create a romantic trio of cocktails, building on the foundation of love, affection, and companionship. Each drink to symbolize a different emotion. This was a collaboration with my good friend Joe. Joe enjoy creating craft cocktails of high caliber. The trio we created were as follows: Raspberry coulis and Calvados with a Rose air cocktail with candied berries, Blood Orange Juice and homemade Cocoa Nib liqueur Cocktail with a Cocoa Nib Macaron filled with candied Orange and a Orange butter cream, and lastly a Creme Brulee cocktail with toasted Brioche topped with a Miso caramel sauce.

The idea to this started Joe wanted to create a trio of cocktails for valentines day. It started off with something sweet, something red, and something good. Joe shared this idea with me on our trip to Vegas (You can read about the bar crawl here). The drinks were already pretty much locked down, but I was able to contribute with some theater and tasty bites. For full review of the cocktails head over to Measure and Stir.

For my main contribution to the trio, the French Macaron. These delicious delicate little cookies are so hard to perfect, but well worth the effort to learn. For a basic Macaron I highly recommend checking out this class on Chefsteps. They have made it really easy to follow and get a great result every time.

 

Cocoa Nib Macaron shells

150g Almond flour (extra fine)
150g Powdered sugar
110g Egg whites
1g Egg white powder
55g Water
165g Sugar
20g Cocoa powder

To create the shells for the Macarons, you will need to separate out egg whites and let them come up to room temperature. While you wait measure out the remaining ingredients. The Almond flour, Cocoa powder and powdered sugar will need to be sifted, as you do not want lumps in the batter. Mix in half of the egg whites to make an almond paste. Mix together the remaining egg whites with the egg white powder. Egg white powder helps add more stability to the cookies. Whip until soft peaks and keep in running on lowest setting. In a small sauce pan combine the sugar and water and bring it up to 118C / 244F. Once the Sugar have come to temp, put the mixer to high and slowly pour in the sugar in a gentle stream into the egg whites. Mix for another 5 minutes until you have firm peaks. Combine with the Almond paste gently, as we want the most amount of air in the cookies. Pipe out to a cookie tray with a silpat, and let the cookies try until they are no longer sticky. Sprinkle some Cocoa nibs on top of the cookies as they dry. Bake for 12-13 minutes in the oven at 165C / 330F. Baking the cookies require you to know your oven, so a few test batches are needed, but it is never a bad excuse to try again.

Orange German Butter Cream

10 Egg yolks
100g Sugar
120g Whole Milk
60g Marmalade
15g Clement Creole Shrub
3 dashes Orange bitters

German butter cream is traditionally a softer cream. I wanted something that would hold up a little bit more. So opted to cook the eggs Sous Vide (What is Sous Vide). The eggs were cooked for 30 minutes at 82C / 180F. This will create a solid egg mixture, and an added benefit of create an intense eggy flavor. This helped cut down the richness of all the sweet elements added and the cookies themselves. So to get the creamy constancy, combine the milk and eggs together in a high powered blender. In a mixer cream the butter and add sugar. Once combined add the milk/egg mixture, as well as Marmalade, Orange liqueur and the Orange bitters. Place in the fridge to set up a little before piping. Candy some Orange, and add it to the cream filling for an extra pop of flavors. Recommended to keep the cookies in the fridge and take them out 30-60 minutes before enjoying them, if you can manage to wait.

The other bites were candied berries and a toasted brioche with Miso caramel sauce. The berries were candies using egg whites. Coat the berries in the egg white and then sanding sugar. Leave to dry overnight to create a hard crunching shell texture. To make the Miso caramel sauce bring sugar up to a soft ball (118C / 235F)  and carefully mix in some heavy cream and Miso paste. Leave to cool. Serve on toast or ice cream.

I hope you have enjoy it. Check back soon for more updates and tasty treats. Hungry Eyes Full Heart, Can’t Lose