Chateau Hestia: Worth the wait

Sorry, haven't been posting.  I actually have a confession to make.  I’ve just seriously started attempting (take note, attempting) to lose some pounds.  Yes, I’m trying to cut calories… again.   So, have I been successful? Not when I’m eating out in a resto like Chateau Hestia. Oh my goodness, I threw the diet out for an indulgent meal and frankly, it was worth every calorie!

Chateau Hestia is a cozy, off-the-beaten path house /resto of an Austrian named Johannes in Tagaytay, Cavite.  Save for its website, http://chateauhestia.com, you’ll never see large advertisements of the place.  It's just that type of  place people discover solely by word of mouth.  And just like Sis, who’s probably one of its biggest fan, a lot have fallen in love with its food and service.

Let's not start counting calories, ok? But here's my food confession, everything we had that lunch.  For starters, we were served an assorted slices of their homemade breads paired with smoky eggplant pate.   So simple, yet so flavorful.  For me, this signals nothing but more good things to come. 

Next came the Assorted Sausage plate.  It's made up of  three kinds of Austrian and German sausages served with sauerkraut and mustard This is actually a first for me, kinda heavy as an appetizer but if you’ve traveled far and already hungry, this is perfect.

Thank goodness the pizza was fast.  We couldn’t decide if we wanted a cheese or a meaty pizza so our solicitous waiter suggested we halve it.  I won’t argue with that.  Their Say Cheese pizza (P690, 12 in) is probably the epitome of what a cheese pizza should be. It's made with 6 types of cheese, asiago, mozzarella, pecorino, scamorza, taleggio and the controversial gorgonzola, need I say more?  I was in cheese nirvana!  Couldn’t decide if I enjoyed the cheese or the Reale side (that’s the meat pizza made up of 7 different meats.

Other Sis is a Carbonara fan  so she ordered a plate to share. It was the real thing, pasta tossed with fresh eggs and parmesan. Unfortunately, too rich for me. Unfortunately, didn't get a good pic.

For entrees, we tried their traditional Osso Buco Milanese, the Chicken Geschnetzeltes and Crusted Salmon, all served with mashed potatoes and buttered vegetables.  I’m not a fan of Salmon since I’ve had too many horrible experiences ordering it but theirs was perfectly seasoned and cooked.  The chicken, on the other hand,  reminds me of our chicken with mushrooms, nothing spectacular. But it was the Osso Buco Milanese that made this meal special.  It was a generous cut of shank, fork tender and flavorful, clearly slow-cooked in its own sauce.  And though the meat was superb, the marrow was hands down the best part of the meal.  Heavenly!  Why does anything taste this good so calorie-laden? 

The flavorful Osso Buco Milanese  

Crusted Salmon

Chicken Geschnetzeltes

They gave us complimentary shots of their Limoncello and Orange wine.  If you’re not used to the alcohol, steer clear of that Limoncello, the alcohol is at least 25%, the Orange wine, on the other hand was mellow and sweet.  Perfect as an accompaniment to the dessert.  

After everything, yes, we still managed to find an itsy bitsy space for dessert. Just to cap off the heavy meal, I ordered a slice of their Mario’s Ciocollato Souffle (P135) to share.  It was a different type of  soufflé, warm at the bottom and chilled on top.  I’m rendered speechless, it was THAT good.    They also gave us a complimentary piece of their Pannacotta topped with homemade passion fruit jam.  I sigh.  Can’t get any more perfect than this.

Pannacotta topped with homemade passion fruit jam

Mario’s Ciocollato Souffle

I had to walk off this meal so we headed to their spacious function room upstairs and the deli and wine shelves at the far end of the resto.  Lo and behold, saw this in the freezer.   I don’t think I can take anything more than water at this point so this homemade Limoncello ice cream will have to wait.  Definitely something to look forward to on my next visit.  Hope it won’t be too long.

Chateau Hestia

Tagaytay, Cavite, along the same road as Bawai Vietnamese Cuisine and Toscana Farms

For a map on how to go there, http://chateauhestia.com/

Call to reserve.  Opens from Wednesday to Sunday

Channeling Martha - baking from Martha Stewart’s Cookbook New Classics

 

I’m a Martha Stewart fan, that is before she seemed to lay low after her jail time.  Or could it be because my cable provider doesn’t carry a channel, which airs her shows anymore that I feel she isn’t as popular as before? I have a feeling, that if I asked my nieces if they knew Martha S, they’d say, Martha who?

A cousin sent me this thick cook book about 3 years ago but haven’t tried a single recipe.  Sure, I’ve browsed through it but eventually shelved it got shelved where it gathered dust until last week.  Maybe, I just haven’t found the push to try one since it seemed like it was all recipes, so few pics to inspire.

So here I was, with a kilo of fresh strawberries from the market, screaming to be made into something other than a fruit shake or preserve.  Perhaps a strawberry cake or a shortcake?  I remembered I once saw a promising recipe from Gisslen’s Professional Baking but upon checking, it needed strawberries that were almost of the same size.  No can do with the strawberries I had.  They were in every size imaginable plus, I don’t think I had enough of the large ones to make it.  Ok, scrap that recipe.  Looking through my other cookbooks I saw Martha’s book and browsed for a recipe, which uses strawberries.  Saw her version of Strawberry Cake, no pic but looks easy enough.  At 8 pm, why not?  If I was Martha, I’m sure any time is a perfect time for baking.

After cutting off the stems and overripe parts of the strawberries, I vertically halved it and set-aside. I usually decrease sugar when using an American cookbook since I usually find their recipes too sweet but for this one, I followed it to the letter since it uses less sugar than flour, which is a good indication that it won’t be too sweet.

And here it is!  Dense and moist, the cake was perfectly sweet.  The tartness of the strawberries actually worked well with this cake.  I still can’t decide whether I want this more airy or not or if I want to add in another flavor to the base, anise perhaps?  I wonder, would Martha agree to tweaking her recipe? :)

Strawberry Cake

From Martha Stewart Living Cookbook The New Classics

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing

1 ½ c all purpose flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 c plus 2 tablespoons sugar

1 large egg

½ c milk (I used evaporated milk for this one)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

½ kilo strawberries, hulled and halved

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Butter a 10-inch pie plate.  Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.
2. Put the butter and 1-cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy.  Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in the egg, milk, and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in the flour mixture.  Transfer the batter to the buttered pie plate.  Arrange the strawberries on top of the batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible.  Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over the strawberries.
4. Bake the cake 10 minutes.  Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.  Bake until the cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour.  Let cool in the pie plate on a wire rack.  Cut into wedges.  The cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, for up to 2 days.