Issue 06

What’s Cooking: Monica Stoican, Eat Love and Be Happy {Bucharest, Romania}

In Romania’s lively capital, Bucharest, Monica Lazar is a psychotherapist by day and a food photographer and cook by night.  She launched her bilingual blog, Eat, Love and Be Happy, a year ago and captures emotions through food and recipes. For winter, she shares her Chocolate Pear Cake with ground cardamom, perfect flavours for the cold season.

Recipe: Chocolate Pear Cake

Ingredients:

6 oz dark chocolate
6 oz butter
4 eggs
1 ¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 ½ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
3 medium pears

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Method:

Combine the chocolate and butter in a bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together until the mixture is pale and creamy. Stir the melted chocolate into the egg mixture. Add the vanilla extract and the ground cardamom to the chocolate egg mixture. Sieve the flour and the baking powder together then fold into wet ingredients. Grease a 7 inch spring form pan, pour the mixture into the pan and add the pears in the center.

Bake in a preheated oven, at 356ºF, for 30 minutes. You can serve the cake warm and enjoy the lava cake-like texture or you can let the cake cool, put it in the fridge for a few hours enjoy a fudgy brownie-like cake.

INTERVIEW: Monica Lazar, Eat Love and Be Happy, {Bucharest, Romania}

01 When in Bucharest, try:
Anyone that visits my city or country should try “ciorbă”-a sour soup consisting of various vegetables and meat, “ţuică”-a traditional Romanian spirit prepared only from plums, and the famous “mici” -short finger burgers, barbecued.

02 Romanian Hospitality:
Romanians are famous for their hospitality. The idea of welcoming guests at home is very simple – just give them as much food as possible. If you are invited to a Romanian house, you should be prepared for a delicious meal, with many different courses and fancy deserts.

03 What type of food/recipes/information can people find on your blog?
On Eat, love and be happy you will find especially desserts and that is because I can’t live without dessert. In general, I try to put on my blog recipes that use healthy ingredients. You will also find lots of vegetable recipes and less meat recipes. I’m not a vegetarian, I just love vegetables and pasta more that meat.

Photo Source: Monica Lazar/Eat Love and Be Happy

04 What type of food or objects can always be found on your table at home?
You can  always find homemade pasta, dark chocolate and  whole wheat in my kitchen.

05 Where do you look/turn for inspiration when cooking>
Yes, I find inspiration in all these things (blogs, cookbooks, tv programs) but what inspires me the most is my grandmother. She cooks amazingly and this is the reason why I love healthy whole ingredients recipes.

06 How would you describe the food scene in Bucharest today?
I think that the word “diversity” describes best the food scene in my city these days. You will find everything from traditional food to vegan and raw food, but what I noticed is that people are more and more concerned about eating healthy food. They also seem more willing to prepare home cooked meals than eat pre–cooked frozen meals

Chocolate and Pear Belong Together: Recipes To Try

• Always so Hungry: Chocolate Pear Tart with Saffron and Ginger
• Rdv Aux Mignardises: Chocolate Pear Cake
• Little Fig: Crustless Chocolate Pear Tart
• Ribbon and Circus: Chocolate Pear Tartlets
• Mowielicious: Chocolate Pear Tart
• Sunday Morning Banana Pancakes: Chocolate Pear Bundts
• Dishing Up Delights: Chocolate Pear Cake
• Verses From My Kitchen: Chocolate Pear Cakes with Espresso Creme Anglaise