undead inspiration

My friend Kasia and I somehow started talking about Interview with a Vampire last weekend, specifically, how badly Kasia wanted to watch the movie. I told her that I owned it and she declared that the following Saturday would be dinner and a movie at my house, research paper be damned!

I decided this movie night needed a theme, and tonight's dinner would revolve around the dessert. Here is Kasia making the ganache...

After that was finished, we put it in the refrigerator to set, and Elizabeth served us some wine with raspberries.

of course

The second course was a spinach and arugula salad with bleu cheese, pecans, and a blood orange vinaigrette. I whisked together some of the orange juice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and a little honey. I always forget about salads when I'm planning a meal. Making my own dressing is something that I want to do more of, though. This one turned out really good.

The next dish was supposed to be bone marrow, but I couldn't find any. :( So we went with scallops. We sauteed those in some butter and white wine. 

I wish this picture was scratch and sniff

I couldn't help but notice you admiring my new all-clad frying pans... nice, right?

When they finished cooking, I added a little more wine to the pan, scraped up the crusty bits and made a nice little sauce for the scallops.

So, that was dinner. Not exactly Vampire-y, more of a subtle nod. But delicious, nonetheless.

On to dessert...

With the ganache set, we started on the cake. Kasia heated a cup of butter and 8oz semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler. Meanwhile, Elizabeth mixed 4 eggs, 4 egg whites, 1/2c flour, 1/2c sugar and a teaspoon of almond extract.

Once the chocolate mixture is room temperature, Kasia folded it into the egg mixture.

And poured it into 4 buttered and sugared ramekins.

THEN, we scooped out little ganache balls and carefully put them in the middle of the cake mixture. Do you see where this is going?

There was a little batter leftover, so we filled an extra ramekin, and baked them for about 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Next came the raspberry sauce, aka vampirizing the cakes. I smushed a little less then a pint of raspberries through a sieve.

To that, we added ~2T of sugar and 1 1/2T liquor.

Finally, the cakes came out of the oven. I topped them  with a little powdered sugar, a couple of raspberries and some blood vampire sauce raspberry liquor.

a proud moment

These molten chocolate cakes are probably the most delicious things I've ever tasted, let alone baked in my own kitchen. Kasia, Elizabeth and I decided that this should probably become a regular occurrence. 

What movie/food theme should we do next? Do you want to come? What has been your proudest cooking moment thus far?

m