Thursday, 08th January 2009

And afterwards you have to suffer....

I am fasting. To be more exact I am fasting according the method of Buchinger. That means - I am drinking tea, juices and bouillon only. That´s the result if you try to fulfil consequent a New Year´s resolution. Fact is that I have eaten too much during the Christmas holidays, or be more honest - even during the whole December - and I have consumed too much hot wine punch, champagne, red wine and similar delicious liquids with the result that my weight exploded a bit. And that was for me the point of a break.

I did fast last year for one week, too. And I can tell you, my mood dropped down at this time near the freezing point. But afterwards I felt really good and I lost three kilos – till December. And now the same procedure starts again – with similar feelings.

On Monday Sabine, my neighbour, invited me.
She offered wonderful smelling hot wine punch, Empanadas, a speciality from Chile, filled with mince meet, eggs and raisins and for dessert a red fruit jelly with sauce.

But not for me. I kept my promise and drank my wonderful mineral water. But feeling my mental stress about my actual situation she wrapped some of the Empanadas and I took them home to keep it for better days.

During the time of fasting I am special fond of reading cookbooks and cook-magazines. People are watching this strange behaviour  of mine very intensive and asking themselves how is it possible to fast and read simultaneously about foodstuff and dishes. But it works! I accumulate the rising hunger and desire for good food for the time after.
I mark all the good things with small yellow tags, produce lists for dishes after the hard days and invite already friends for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
And then the time comes when I am allowed to eat my first piece of fruit and it tastes like the finest dish which I ever had before.

But besides all my abstinence these days I am going to present you a recipe for a wonderful chocolate tart. I got it from Gert, a cook which I got to know during the “Eat´n Style-fair” last year.
Some times ago, when I made this cake to present it to my editorial colleagues in the office it was a full success. My idea to have some pieces left for taking home to make  a picture for the Table Talks readers, I was completely mistaken. Just before the cake vanished I grabbed a camera and  took a picture from the last piece.
And you can imagine that the run for the recipe was programmed.
To give you the opportunity to participate on that experience I am noting down the recipe. But before that I have to point out:  forget all what I said about calories and weight and so on. Just concentrate on the taste and the flavour of this wonderful bakery product. 

Ingredients:

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients for the short crust dough and knead it.
2. Butter the cake pan and take the dough and very carefully fit it onto the cake pan. Make sure it is fitted along the whole bottom of the pan. To ensure this, lift up the sides and gently press the dough against the pan. Now press the dough onto the sides of the mould and tear away any excess. Use a fork and make pricks into the tart crust.
3. Bake it until golden (200°C).
4. Heat the cream, turn down heat and add couverture. Stir until chocolate is melted.
5. Let cream-chocolate-mixture cool down, then add three eggs –  use an eggbeater and stir constantly one egg after the.
6. Apply tart bottom with the egg and wait for some minutes (so the mixture cannot soak the bottom).
7. Pour chocolate mixture on the bottom and put he tart into the oven (95°C! Not more or less!). Bake it for 1:30 bis 1:40 hrs.
8. After cooling down the tart place it in the refrigerator to chill for one night.