A Sweet Note, Japanese Opera with Raspberry Coulis

Yesterday it started to get really really cold. I turned on all our heater at a maximum level but to no avail. It has been three days that Mistral has been blowing cold air in our region. Its not that its new to us but yesterday it was exceptionally cold. I was trying to search for another layer of sweater to put on me when my attention was directed towards the window. It was snowing....yes it was indeed snowing! Provence is the hottest region in France. We've been cursed with a beautiful weather and rarely bless a day full of snowflakes like this. I pulled a chair next to the window and sat there with my three month old daughter. She seemed to be mesmerized by this thousand of white stuff flowing everywhere. I could see on her eyes, she was happy. We were glued next to our window for a couple of hours.

It is in savouring happy moments like this over a cup of hot green tea that I come up with sweet composition like this.

Green Tea (Matcha) Opéra with Raspberry Coulis
Ingredients:
for the cake
130 g of sugar, 4 egg yolks, 3 egg whites, 80 g of flour, 30 g of butter, 80 of dark chocolate, 2 tsp of green tea (matcha), 80 g of white chocolate, 30 g of hazelnut
for the Raspberry Coulis
80 g of sugar, 20 cl of water, 1 tea bag of Mint-licorice, 200 g of raspberry
for the Chocolate Ganache
150 g of dark chocolate, 5 cl of fresh cream, 25 g of butter


Beat the egg whites and add 50 g of sugar. Mix the egg yolks with 80 g of sugar then fold in the flour and the melted butter. Combine the two mixture gently until it becomes smooth and homogenous. Divide this mixture into three parts. Fold in the melted dark chocolate into the first part, the green tea powder on the second and the melted white chocolate-hazelnut mixture on the last. Bake each cake on a greased pan at 200°C for about 10 to 15 minutes. For the raspberry coulis, melt the sugar with the water in a pan and infused one bag of mint-licorice. Fold in the mashed raspberries and wait until the syrup becomes thick. For the chocolate ganache, melt the dark chocolate and mix gently the butter. Pour in the fresh cream and continue mixing. For each layer of the cake put alternately a layer of the raspberry coulis and chocolate ganache. Cover the last layer with chocolate ganache. Put in the fridge the three-layered flavored cake for a minimum of one hour. Cut with a sharp knife the edges of the cake to get a smooth perfect edge.

for my french readers, you can find the french version here: http://www.lesfoodies.com/news/recette/Opera-framboise-chocolat-the-vert-et-reglisse