MARCH, MARCH, MARCH…. I LOVE MARCH

Wow, what a month. I love March.

First of all thanks to those who have already congratulated me on the big win of the year. And for those who do not know, ARABIAN DREAMS, our teams little book made here in the tiny nation island of Bahrain, had been awarded BEST ARABIC TITLE COOKBOOK IN THE WORLD….. yes IN THE WORLD...by the Gourmand Cookbook Awards at the Cookbook Fair in Paris on March 3rd.

BEST ARABIC TITLE COOKBOOK...........IN THE WORLD

My team are thrilled with the win, for it truly justifies in ourselves anyway the time and effort we spent on testing the recipes, baking for the pictures and most important …EATING.. all the dishes that went into this amazing achievement of a book.

As I have written before, this was book 15 for me, but truly this baby was my proudest. Amazing that when you dream up a concept, believe in it 1000% and then carry it through financially and all, what an amazing labor of love can really create.

Now lets try and find someone who will print ARABIAN DREAMS in ARABIC so the real people we produced this for, can truly enjoy it.

On March 6^th A very dear friend of mine had a birthday and even I must say, I was shocked at the beauty of the birthday gift received.

On March 11^th I’ll be flying to Dubai to appear at the Emirates Literary Festival and signing copies of ARABIAN DREAMS…..did I mention it was also crowned ONE OF THE TOP 57 COOKBOOKS IN THE WORLD.

Following my  showing up and signing copies for avid readers, ( I do pray someone turns up) I’m then off to Paris. My favorite city on the planet, unashamedly from a pastry perspective. I’ll be working during my time there. Firstly being a student myself at the Bellouet Conseil and then visiting my favorite equipment, literary and ingredient haunts and bringing all that goodness back with me.

I’ll be returning at the end of the month , but let me state that On March 27^th I’ll be turning 42 years of age.

Proud 42 year old chef with his teams cookbook ARABIAN DREAMS (wait till you see our next book- if you think this was amazing......)

So you can see why I love March so badly. Its going to be a party month for me.

I’ll be posting photos from Dubai, Paris and of the birthday so please stay tuned and I hope I can tempt you into the kitchen with some of the amazing photos.

Remember people, in the words of Hard Rock café, “LOVE ALL-SERVE ALL”  

Chocolate and Pistachio tart...mmmh mmmh mmmmmmm

CUBE DUBAI...chocolate chocolate and more chocolate...YUM

A Horse is a Horse, Of Course! of Course!

I have come to two conclusions today. The first, that anyone who Blogs on a daily basis, either does it as there primary job, has no job or is independently wealthy. I just don't get the time to BLOG everyday!!
I have stuff to write, dreams to fulfill, a paying job to do! So after just three Blogs, I'm going weekly. lucky I started a Blog and not a newspaper Eh!!
Oh, the second conclusion was that , as expected, I am not a natural artist. My horses head looking still more like a pony than a horse.
Judge for yourself.....

Arabian Horse cake

Anyway, it still looked pretty good and hopefully the recipient thinks so too.

So the other things we made today were some glass desserts using glasses I purchased in September in Thailand and carefully carried home with me in hand luggage. They are gorgeous, like the dessert is floating in mid air, but they are far too fragile to use for hotels or restaurants so we have scrapped the idea of using them commercially.

We used a passionfruit gellee base, a Lemon creme centre and chocolate mousse top. The sweetness of the top layer allows the other two to be more and more tart as you get down to the base. A delicious enlivening taste sensation.

I have also been wanting to use Basil as a major flavor in a dessert for sometime and so the LEMON BASIL DELICE with Passionfruit Glaze was born. The flavor is so pungent that every mouthful combines basil, Tart lemon mousse and passionfruit glaze in every single bite. I knew it would be nice, but actually it was sensational.

When the taste is so spectacular, there is no need for much garnish and so the basil leaf and the dried slice of lemon states exactly what the dish contains and needs nothing else.

Basil Citrus Delice with Passionfruit Glaze

I have lots of writing commitments for the now, so lucky there are not many people watching this blog yet, coz, for the next week its going to go silent. I need to work , cook and write and then I'll tantalise your taste buds yet again.

Next birthday cake scheduled for Feb 24th for a charming little three year old girl. Hello Kitty is the theme so lets hope it looks better than my horse. Of Course! Of Course!