Mister Ganache also sells whole truffles in jars, Marky’s Caviar, a variety of European and South American chocolates, imported teas, beautiful gift baskets, and a lot of other colorful & crinkly packages that you know you don’t need, but want to swipe for either way!  I wasn’t there for packaged chocolate that night – I went straight for the glass case of beautifully designed Eric Girerd haute couture chocolates!!  Gilles offers different size boxes of chocolates and I chose a box of 4.  The hard part was choosing only 4!  Finally decided on Sensual, a dark chocolate and rasberry chocolate(because I can’t say no to my favorite fruit), a coconut truffle, a wasabi infused chocolate, and a lovely [Veuve Cliquot]champagne truffle (side note – if you haven’t already – all professional women should read Women, Work and the Art of Savoir Faire: Business Sense and Sensibility -by Mireille Guiliano, former CEO of Veuve Cliquot – she is an absolute inspiration)!

The raspberry chocolate was a lovely balance of bold dark chocolate and rich raspberry sexiness, but to be fair, there aren’t many things involving chocolate and raspberry that I don’t fall in love with instantly.  The wasabi infused chocolate didn’t have the massive wasabi kick in the cheek that I think I was expecting, but still an interesting blend of spice and sweet.  The coconut truffle was delicious and the champagne truffle was so light that it danced on my tongue while the ganache slowly melted!  Alright – I’m obviously lying about the slowly part… they were so good that I had to remind myself to slow down and enjoy!

 All around awesome visit to Mister Ganache – they have locations in Paris and NYC as well – definitely plan a visit soon!

I have a mouth watering blog post all ready for you guys – but first I wanted to take a moment to share with you something I’m really excited about!  A good friend of mine from college, Dan Schawbel runs, among other things, Personal Branding Blog.  He approached me with the opportunity to interview celebrity chef, Guy Fieri – and as a hardcore foodie … I couldn’t say no!

I asked him a load of questions about everything from being a crazy TV personality to his new knife product launch and his personal brand!  To read the whole interview go to Personal Branding Mag and sign up for a subscription to his magazine, or to try before you buy – go here for a free trial issue and read my interview there!

Here’s a quick sample of what we chatted about… for more – go to the links above!

How could an entrepreneurial foodie or blogger follow in your footsteps to become a household name?

Have an idea of what you are and who you are in food. You have to start somewhere, find out where that is. Experience definitely helps. You have to remember you’re dealing with smart people who know how to cook and what they like. Even if they don’t know how to cook they know what they like. You have to have awareness of what you’re doing in food, and you have to surround yourself with it. Put yourself in every single market you can. Talk to everyone you can about it. Take every business card you can get. The opportunities in food today are greater than ever before. So, experience, contacts, surrounding yourself in food, applying it, sticking to it and knowing your CPOV. Your Culinary Point of View—what is it?

Carol Phillips is the President of her consulting firm,

In the end of her blog post, Carol listed 10 women bloggers under 30 who inspire and influence her – and she listed me at #7! I’m honored to be on her list – so thank you Carol!

For more on Generation Y studies – check out Carol’s blog @ http://millennialmarketing.com and follow her on Twitter @Carol_Phillips!

I know that the real baking purists out there will be disappointed that I didn’t make my own dough for the crust – but remember this blog is called the Gourmet Analyst – I do have a full and a half time job! Haha! But hey – if you have the time to do it all AND make your own crust – more power to you. (more pictures below)

• One tube of New Pillsbury Crescent Recipe Creations Dough
• 2 large and ripe Bartlett pears
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 5 oz Mascarpone cheese
• 1 egg
• handful of crushed walnuts
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Stretch out Pillsbury dough onto cookie sheet, being careful to mend holes and rips if they form.
3. With a soft spatula, spread layer of Mascarpone cheese over dough sheet, getting within 3 cm of the edge.
4. With a sharp knife, slice pears into 3mm slices and gently layer them on top of each other to form two opposite facing lines lengthwise down the dough sheet. As with the Mascarpone, stay within a 3cm border.
5. Sprinkle brown sugar and crushed walnuts over the pear slices.
6. Fold the edges of the dough up and over about 1cm over onto the pears. This isn’t like a pie – so don’t worry about making it look symmetrical. Asymmetrical is sexy – as long as you’re talking about pastries, and not Los Angeles.
7. Squeeze your honey into a microwave safe bowl and add the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Microwave the honey for 5 seconds or so to liquefy the honey. Drizzle the vanilla honey mixture over the pastry with a spoon, stopping to microwave again if the honey begins to return too quickly to it’s usual firmness.
8. Lastly, beat egg in a separate bowl and give the crust a quick egg wash.
9. Set into oven and let bake for around 20 minutes. Start checking the crust at around 15 minutes. It’s all done when the crust is a deep golden color like it is in the pictures.

Then I decided to stop whining, man-up and figure out something great using only what I had. (Hey – I meant I’d man up to cook, not brave the storm to go shopping!)

• 20 large deveined, deshelled shrimp
• Handful of crushed walnuts
• 1 tablespoon basil flakes or fresh basil
• 8 large dried Turkish Apricots
• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk (not coconut water!!)
• 1/2 clove of minced garlic
• Splash of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Shrimp & Coconut Balsamic Sauce:

1. If your shrimp aren’t already deshelled – get rid of the shells and rinse with cold water.
2. Pat dry with a paper towel and set aside in a bowl.
3. Add two tablespoons of cornstarch and coat shrimp thoroughly.
4. In a saucepan set to low, empty out your can of coconut milk.
5. Sprinkle basil flakes into milk and stir.
6. With a sharp knife, carefully dice apricots into around 8 pieces each.
7. Toss dried apricot bits into the milk. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar and generous tablespoon of sugar and stir.
8. Leave pot on low to low-medium, stirring occasionally.
9. Heat some EVOO in a pan, and add your 1/2 clove of garlic. Toss in shrimp and cook (turning over once) until pink and curled. With the cornstarch coating they should brown a bit too.
10. Right before you take them off of the heat, splash balsamic vinegar on all of the shrimp to infuse flavor and add a tangy kick.
11. Let vinegar cook off and take off of burner, leaving shrimp in pan.
12. By this time, your coconut milk should have reduced by half and thickened. If not – no worries – just give it a bit more time and keep stirring until it has the consistency of a creamy dressing.
13. Pour coconut sauce over shrimp in pan and set to low heat.

Toasted Walnuts:

1. In a small dry pan, add a handful of crushed walnuts.
2. Add a drop or two of EVOO, 1/4 of a clove of minced garlic (not a lot at all), and a sprinkle of basil leaves. Mix with a soft spatula to make sure that garlic and oil are evenly distributed.
3. Set heat to low and keep a very close eyes on the walnuts, stirring frequently to ensure that they don’t burn, and that they’re getting toasted on all sides.
4. Once you can smell the garlic and the walnuts are warm to the touch, taste test one. It should be warm throughout and taste creamy.
5. Take them off of the heat and set aside.

To serve, spoon some shrimp onto plate and drizzle extra sauce on top, making sure to catch a few apricot bits for a sweet extra flavor in each bite. Top with some of the garlic toasted walnuts and enjoy! Reminder: Everything tastes better with chopsticks. .

• 1 Package wonton wrappers
• 1 Large egg
• EVOO
• Cornstarch
• 1/2 small jar of marinated and quartered artichokes
• Pepper
• 4oz goat cheese
• 10 large deveined/deshelled raw shrimp
• Balsamic vinegar
• Low sodium soy sauce

The Filling

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Rinse off and pat shrimp dry with paper towel.
3. Using a sharp knife, chop each shrimp into 5 or 6 tiny pieces and toss into a bowl.
4. Add 1tbs of cornstarch to shrimp bits and toss with your hand until coated.
5. Heat up some EVOO in a pan and when oil is hot, add shrimp. Because the pieces are so tiny they are going to cook very quickly. As soon as the shrimp begin turning pink, quickly add a splash of balsamic vinegar and an equal splash of low sodium soy sauce to the pan. The cornstarch is going to catch some of the flavors and also crisp up the shrimp a bit.
6. Remove shrimp and place in a bowl to the side.
7. Chop up artichoke hearts into tiny pieces and toss into the same pan you were just cooking the shrimp in for around 30 seconds, and slide into bowl with shrimp and mix.

Woning the Ton

1. Crack egg in bowl and beat lightly with fork. Set aside, but within reach.
2. Take one of the won ton wrapper squares in the palm of your hand and with your finger place a dab of goat cheese the size of a nickel in the center and smoosh it around a bit to flatten it out.
3. Place a bit of your shrimp mixture in the center and spread out in a bit of a rectangle so that you will be able to fold without ripping through the wrapper. You could also rip through if you use too much of the filling… so be careful with how much you use.
4. Dip your finger in egg mixture and coat the four sides of the wrapper.
5. Fold the wrapper once onto itself in the shape of a rectangle. Use your fingers to readjust the filling so that it is along the back of the wonton (away from the seam).
6. Coat the edges of your rectangle with egg once more and fold onto itself again to form a more narrow rectangle.
7. Hold the wonton so that the loose corners are facing upwards and fold entire wrapper into itself the long way, bringing together the two closest corners and smooshing together with the help of some more egg mixture (see the picture for the general shape it should take on). **If at any point during the folding process your wrapper rips or dries out, use a dab of egg mixture to mend or moisten. **
8. Set aside onto a baking sheet covered in tin foil and continue the above process until you have used up all of your wrappers.
9. Add a bit of EVOO to the egg mixture that you have left over and whisk with fork once more.
10. With a cooking brush, lightly coat both sides with the egg/EVOO mixture and set back onto tin foiled sheet.
11. Set into hot oven and check every two minutes. When they begin to brown a bit, take out of oven and carefully turn over each wonton.
12. Set back into oven and watch carefully for when they become golden.

Can these be fried instead to be crispy and bubbly and even more delicious? Of course – but I’m trying to keep it healthy here!

These fusion wontons are great for cocktail parties, etc. Just arrange them all on a pretty Asian inspired dish, or get creative like fellow fantastic food blogger Dana from Dana Treat does and put them on skewers and turn them into finger food! The last step is to figure out a creative dipping sauce to use! I tried two sauces that I thought tasted great with the flavors of the filling, but the sauce you choose to dip in really depends on your taste. I made one sauce with half low sodium soy sauce, half balsamic vinegar, and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes. I also made a creamy sauce with some cream cheese, sour cream, a bit of left over goat cheese, basil paste, garlic and lime juice. I thought they were both super tasty – but if you come up with another sauce that works really well – leave a comment and let me know! .

xo.

They recently sent me their recipe for Salmon and Goat Cheese Napoleon – a dish that they actually prepared on The Today show earlier this year with Kathy Lee and Hoda Kotb!  I checked it out and was excited to give it a try because as you know, I’m a fan of anything with soft cheese and roasted red peppers!   Their recipe was straightforward and their ingredients were simple and easy to find but the result was still absolutely delicious!!

Check out the picture – their cookbook version is on the left and my shot at it is on the right.  :).

• 10 oz. salmon filet
  
• Salt & Pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dill
• 2 tablespoons EVOO
• 1 zucchini
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives
• 1 roasted red pepper
• 1/4 pound goat cheese

1. Season salmon by sprinkling it with the salt, pepper, thyme, and dill.
2. Heat EVOO in a nonstick frying pan and cook salmon on medium for 5 minutes on each side until cooked all the way through.
3. Cut zucchini in half width-wise, then in thin slices lengthwise.  Sauté or grill until tender with the garlic and chives.
4. Cut roasted red pepper, goat cheese and salmon to match zucchini slices.
5. Layer salmon, goat cheese, zucchini and roasted red pepper strips to form a tower.  Secure with toothpick  if necessary.
6. Serve with wild rice pilaf.  (In my case I gave the dish a little Miami spice and used rice and beans.  :) )

Check out more about Eli & Max at their website www.freshmaninthekitchen.com.

xo.