Monday, December 20, 2010
Win Le Creuset
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Equipment
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Comfort Food
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Tomato Soup
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 leek (chopped)
1 yellow onion (chopped)
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
2 stalks of celery (chopped)
1 red bell pepper (chopped)
3-4 oz white wine, usually a sauvignon blanc
1 15oz can of pumpkin
1 tablespoon of basil (chopped) (or a palm of dried)
1 tablespoon of parsley (chopped) (or a palm of dried)
1 15oz can of diced tomato
1 small can of tomato paste
1 dash white pepper
4 cups of chicken broth, or veggie broth for a vegetarian option
Large pinch of kosher salt
Warm the olive oil in a dutch oven or soup pot. Add the chopped leaks, onion, celery, garlic and bell pepper.
Sauté until the onion is translucent. Add the white wine and simmer.
Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, pumpkin, broth, and seasonings. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
Purée with the immersion blender in the pot or transfer in batches to the blender. Let me know if what memories it evokes for you.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Gluten Free cookbook give away on Cybele Pascal's blog
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Giving thanks
I received this from a feisty, continuous, handsome, elegant friend who now lives a hemisphere away, and had to share it with y'all. With thanks to her and all the friends and chosen family so dear to me. You are always at the table of my heart.
LET US GIVE THANKS
Let us give thanks for a bounty of people
For children who are our second planting
and though they grow like weeds
and the wind too soon blows them away,
May they forgive us our cultivation
and remember fondly where their roots are.
Let us give thanks:
For generous friends, with hearts as big as hubbards
and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;
For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers,
keep reminding us we've had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb
and as indestructible;
For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants
and as elegant as a row of corn,
and the others, as plain as potatoes and so good for you;
For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts
and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes,
and serious friends, as complex as cauliflowers
and as intricate as onions;
For friends as unpretentious as cabbages,
as subtle as summer squash,
as persistent as parsley,
as delightful as dill,
as endless as zucchini,
and who, like parsnips,
can be counted on to see you throughout the winter;
For old friends,
nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time
and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;
For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils
and hold us, despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;
And finally, for those friends now gone,
like gardens past that have been harvested,
but who fed us in their times
that we might have life thereafter;
For all these we give thanks.
-- Poem /prayer by MAX COOTS
Blessed Be!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Yukons and Yams
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Biscuits and Herbed Margarine
Friday, November 19, 2010
Getting Ready...the menu
Monday, November 8, 2010
Banana Bread
This weekend treat yourself to an indulgent treat, French Toast made with banana bread or a sandwich made with banana bread, peanut butter, honey and sliced bananas. As a bonus the house will smell divine for hours beyond the bake time.
Banana Bread
Adapted from Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham
Two 8x4 loaves
2 ½ c flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 c shortening
2 c sugar (brown will make this bread very dark, moist & even sweeter)
6 ripe bananas (over ripe even better)
4 eggs
1 c walnuts (optional – omit for Jenna!)
Preheat oven to 350
Put bananas, shortening, eggs, and sugar in food processor. Blend until smooth.
Add flour, salt, baking soda and walnuts. Blend until smooth.
Divide between two pans lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 70 minutes or more until toothpick comes out clean. Loaves will be a dark brown. Impatient?Use small loaf pans and make more loaves - shorter baking times, closer to instant gratification.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes then place parchment lined loaves on cooling rack.
Excellent to make banana bread French toast with or banana bread pudding. In Texas I saw sandwiches made with peanut butter & honey. Bacon slices optional.
French Toast
Dip slices in egg batter, cook on teflon grill, enjoy with or without maple syrup.
Banana bread pudding will happen closer to Yule.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Tricky Treats
A Tricky Treat…
My Halloween surprise came as the culmination of an odd combination. Usually I spend Samhain (Sa-wane) evening quietly honoring the people and companion critters in my life who have died. Given the visions of Dutch process cocoa clamoring in my waking and sleeping mind, for days leading up to all Hollow’s, apparently this year my offering would be brownies; dense, dark to the brink of black, moist brownies.
Receiving an email with the latest issue “Living Without” magazine recipe for gluten free brownies and a pending visit from a dieting girlfriend instigated these cocoa visions. We usually talk until 2am over a baked good and tea or wine. The recipe yields a mild, cake-textured brownie that is more similar to a German chocolate cake than my definition of brownie. Nice, and good enough to share but not a brownie.
Said girlfriend took that batch home. Another took a second batch, the product of melding my decades-old standard brownie recipe and the ‘Living Without” concept. So mine are inspired by “Living Without” they are a completely different recipe with double the cocoa, vanilla, brown sugar, and no flour at all.
Making the third batch my Treat.
Being Halloween there must be a Trick to go with the Treat.
Black beans replace most of the fat, all of the flour and reduce the sugar by half. Yielding brownies that are low-fat, anti-oxidant rich, high in fiber, dare I say even, healthy? And still a true, rich, moist, decadent brownie.
The key to these brownies is the black beans need to be hot when pureeing them with the cocoa, so does the small amount of olive oil. The heat releases the cocoa flavonoids allowing it to blend better with the other ingredients prior to baking. The steam wafting up from the food processor will make it all clear…
Also because of the beans this recipe is most easily measured in volume. Two cups of cooked beans actually weighs 10.125 oz, which is a 15oz can of beans drained, plus a third of another can.
Black Bean Brownies
2 cups hot, cooked black (turtle) beans, drained
5 tbsp olive oil, warm as well
1 cup Penzey’s Dutch cocoa, or other high-grade Dutch cocoa
4 tsp vanilla
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp kosher sea salt
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
¼ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line a 6x8 baking pan with parchment. Don’t have a 6x8 pan? Double the recipe and bake in a 9x13.
Place the beans, cocoa, oil, and vanilla in food processor. Blend to a paste.
Add in sugar, salt, baking powder, and xanthan gum. Pulse until blended. Scrape down the bowl, especially the bottom edge – cocoa will try to cling there and not incorporate.
Pulse in eggs until barely blended, the dough with be very glossy and stiff. Spatula into pan. Sprinkle with semi-sweet chips.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Cool for ten minutes, devour at will.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Cream Scones
One morning last January the soft winter sunshine gave me an immense craving for scones. The creamy, faintly sweet, kind the Savoy hotel made famous and I hadn't enjoyed in years and years. Finding a good substitute for organic heavy cream was a lost cause until the So Delicious coconut milk creamers arrived on the market. Figuring that if the batch didn't turn out I wouldn't be wasting a terrible amount of ingredients, I started tossing stuff into a bowl and preheating the oven. My stomach was not going to be happy until it had a scone.
Thirty minutes later steaming hot scones were disappearing fast with Trader Joe's Irish tea and a dollop of that lovely sunshine. My stomach and my soul were well fed and happy.
Fast forward to a rainy day last week, still shaky and aching, I was reading the wonderful book "The Bucolic Plague" with a pot of white tea; it just wasn't complete without a scone, or three. Once again my stomach insisted, and won. After a two month hiatus from being able to cook or bake, scones made the transition back to baking simple.
For this batch I wanted wee golden raisins in my scones. Plain makes them quicker and highlights the the soft, creamy interior texture of the scone. So make them either way, but do treat yourself to scones and tea, often.
Cream Scones
1 3/8 oz or ¼ c golden raisins (Hunza are nice small, almost currant-like)
1 oz brandy (I have Azteca D’Oro Reserva on hand)
½ oz water
5 oz or 1 heavy cup GF all purpose (AP) flour (I use Pamela’s)
¾ oz or 1/8 cup beet sugar (white sugar keep the inner scone creamy white)
2 3/8 tsp baking powder (Hain is corn free)
1/16 tsp kosher sea salt
2 ½ tbsp palm shortening
2 oz or ¼ c coconut milk creamer (I use So Delicious)
1 oz or 1/8 c vegan sour cream (I use Follow Your Heart)
1 egg
1 tbsp coconut milk creamer
Place raisins, brandy and water in small bowl, let soak for 30 minutes. If the craving isn’t that patient put the bowl in the microwave and warm them for 30 seconds. The goal is to soften the raisins and enhance their flavor.
In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients. Whisk them a bit more to ensure an even mix.
Mix coconut milk creamer and sour cream. Set aside.
Add palm shortening to dry ingredients, pinch together until crumbly with pea-size or small pieces. The warmth of mixing with your hands enhances the texture.
Drain raisins, reserve the liquid for your tea. Add raisins to bowl.
Add the creamer & sour cream mixture. Gently, very briefly, mix.
Divide into 4-6 lumps on parchment lined pan.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk egg and creamer, brush scones. Then let rest for 10 minutes.
If you like your scones a bit doughy inside, bake for 10 minutes. Otherwise bake for 13 minutes for lightly golden brown scones.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Almost
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Progress
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Still down with medical issues
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Delay of Cooking
Friday, August 27, 2010
Snowballs aka "Raspberry Zingers"
¾ c coconut oil
1 ½ c organic sugar
1 c light Coconut milk (I use canned coconut milk to avoid the vegetable gum stabilizers)
1 tbsp Baking Powder (gluten & corn free, I like Hain)
½ tsp Sea Salt
1 tbsp Vanilla
4 Egg Whites
1 Egg
1 ½ c Gluten Free Flour Mix (I like Pamela’s)
½ c Coconut Flour
½ c Potato Starch
Makes about 18 muffins/cakes.
Sift together coconut flour, gluten free flour mix and potato starch. Set aside.
While cakes are baking make the raspberry glaze.
Raspberry Glaze
¾ cup organic raspberry preserves (Trader Joe's reduced sugar organic is my favorite)
2 tbsp water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp Chambord liqueur
Deseed the preserves by pushing thru a mesh strainer with the back of a spoon into a glass measuring cup. Place cup in sauce pan of hot water to warm. Stir in water and lemon juice to get glaze consistency. Just before dipping cakes stir in Chambord.
Check the cakes with a toothpick for doneness. Should come out just barely clean.
Place 1 ½ cups of unsweetened fine shred coconut in another bowl.
Banana Bread French Toast
This weekend treat yourself to an indulgent treat, French Toast made with banana bread or a sandwich made with banana bread, peanut butter, honey and sliced bananas. As a bonus the house will smell divine for hours beyond the bake time.
Banana Bread
Adapted from Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham
Two 8x4 loaves
2 ½ c flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 c shortening
2 c sugar (brown will make this bread very dark, moist & even sweeter)
6 ripe bananas (over ripe even better)
4 eggs
1 c walnuts (optional – omit for Jenna!)
Preheat oven to 350
Put bananas, shortening, eggs, and sugar in food processor. Blend until smooth.
Add flour, salt, baking soda and walnuts. Blend until smooth.
Divide between two pans lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 70 minutes or more until toothpick comes out clean. Loaves will be a dark brown. Impatient?Use small loaf pans and make more loaves - shorter baking times, closer to instant gratification.
Cool in pan for 5 minutes then place parchment lined loaves on cooling rack.
Excellent to make banana bread French toast with or banana bread pudding. In Texas I saw sandwiches made with peanut butter & honey. Bacon slices optional.
French Toast
Dip slices in egg batter, cook on teflon grill, enjoy with or without maple syrup.
Banana bread pudding will happen closer to Yule.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Blondies
In the 80s and 90s a favorite gathering spot was the Gemini. An alternative restaurant known for a spiced house tea and daring food options like a curried chicken salad with strawberries. That is, daring for a suburb west of Denver. The house iced tea was easy to drink by the glassful, tucked into a big booth, chatting with girlfriends or doing tarot readings for each other. Wired on caffeine from gallons of house tea, we'd split a Blondie brownie. Each serving decadent, warm, and surely full of butter, chocolate chips, nuts, plus the sweet surprise of chopped dates.
The restaurant is long gone, but the craving for a Blondie happens fairly often. Blondies are a brownie's paler sibling; a bar cookie grown up to be a chocolate chip cookie's bigger, sturdier brother. This winter it was time to recreate this favored treat. Redolent with warm brown sugar, vanilla, and gooey bittersweet chocolate chips these bar cookies are an aroma therapy category all their own. Mixing up in the time it takes the oven to preheat, it is pure bliss to sit in the kitchen with a cup of tea, basking in the scent of them baking. If I'm really lucky the scent lingers in the house, rich and smooth.
One pan makes nine servings that are half-size from what the huge slabs Gemini used to serve. Lately, I've taken to quartering each serving so the pan yields 36 Blondies. What I don't eat or give away the day I bake them get frozen. Popped from freezer to the microwave for 30 seconds they instantly resurrect to gooey decadence.
No stand mixer? No problem! As long as the sugar and palm shortening are thoroughly mixed the rest of the recipe calls for minimal mixing.
3 oz or ½ cup shortening
4 oz or ½ c + 2 tbsp light brown sugar
4 oz or ½ c + 2 tsp cane sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
4 oz or 1 cup gluten free flour mix (I use Pamela's)
1 ½ tsp baking powder (corn & gluten free I use Hain)
½ tsp sea salt
2 oz or ½ cup crushed walnuts
2 oz or ½ cup chopped dates
2 ½ oz or ½ cup bitter sweet chocolate chips
Preheat convection oven to 325 (350 if not convection)
Line 9x9 baking pan with parchment paper.
Mix shortening, sugars, and vanilla in stand mixer on medium, occasionally scraping down the bowl, until well creamed, verging on fluffy.
Scrape down the bowl.
Add in eggs, beating on medium-high for 2 minutes. Scraping down the bowl.
In separate bowl whisk together flour mix, baking powder, and sea salt until well incorporated.
Add gluten free flour mix to the bowl, mix on low until just blended.
Detach paddle to hand stir in nuts, dates and chocolate chips until just blended.
Spatula into parchment lined pan, pushing stiff dough into corners.
Garnish with additional nuts, chocolate chips and dates.
Bake for 30 minutes, rotating half way through baking time. May take longer to bake at higher altitudes.
Cool for about 5-10 minutes then devour at will.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Zucchini Risotto
My neighbors are wonderful people. Besides being cool, fun, and nice, this week they've shared their harvest bounty with me: fresh herbs and zucchini! I know, I'm the only person who is thrilled to get zucchini. It is just so versatile. Cakes, bread, soup, stir-fry, and now risotto. Fresh herbs too. My growing space only has an sheltered Eastern exposure where herbs languish, so gifts of herbs and veggies are most welcome.
While standing over a warm stove top for an hour stirring isn't necessarily convenient on a week night after work, risotto makes it well worth the time. With air conditioning and a tall kitchen stool it is much cooler that grilling! Plus if you live at lower altitude the cooking time can go down by a third or more.
Keys to a creamy, lustrous risotto are:
completely coat and warm the risotto in the oil and onions
then deglaze with the white wine
only add a cup of broth at a time and it must be hot, almost boiling when you add it, keeping the temperature in the pot steady.
Stir, stir, stir
If you are fortunate to have kitchen minions aka kids, they can help stir in shifts, between getting home work done. It isn't unusual when I have girl friends over to enjoy a glass of Crios Torrontes, take turns stirring while catching up. For me it is soothing to be in the moment (or hour) sipping a glass and contemplating what else to make with my neighbor's bounty.
Zucchini Risotto with Lemon Thyme
2-3 tbsp olive oil
½ onion, finely chopped
2 small cloves of garlic, minced
1 c arborio rice (I prefer Lundberg organic)
1 c chilled white wine
6 c hot fluid – either veggie broth, chicken broth or water, your choice
8 oz chopped zucchini
small bunch lemon thyme I used the leaves of six to eight 6” stems
white pepper to taste (Penzey's is my preferred)
sea salt to taste
Warm a 7 quart dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add the chopped onion and saute until the onions are translucent.
Add the garlic, saute for a couple minutes to release the flavor.
Add the arborio rice to the the pot, stirring well to completely coat with the olive oil. While the rice starts to toast, put two cups of the broth in the microwave and heat to the boiling point.
After the rice has toasted for a couple minutes – so the pan is fairly dry and the rice isn't sticking or getting scorch spots – add the cup of white wine to deglaze the pan. This will also help the thick starch coat on the rice break down faster.
Once the wine has absorbed, add in the first two cups of heated broth/liquid. Stir the pot slowly and continuously until the rice absorbs the most of the fluid, about 15-20 minutes.
While stirring, heat the rest of the broth one cup at a time.
Each time the liquid is mostly absorbed, add another cup of the just boiling broth, until all six cups of fluid are incorporated into the pot.
With the sixth cup of broth, add the chopped zucchini to the pot. Continue stirring.
Drain and rinse the beans. Add them to the pot, stir another five minutes to warm the beans.
Ladle into bowls, sprinkling each serving with lemon thyme leaves.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Here is the final recipe from our Lammas dinner, keeping the chocolate theme and honoring the harvest challenge of what to do with all the zucchini?! Baked into muffins or small loaves these pack into on-the-go breakfasts or sack lunches for professionals and students alike.
The mildness of the Dutch cocoa carries the orange zest and lets the cinnamon shine. The trio honors the South western blending of the Spanish (oranges), Native (zucchini), Aztec (chocolate), and European (cinnamon) cultures.
We eat it plain, but I've served it for tea by spritzing it with orange blossom water and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar. If more zucchini appears on my door step this season I may play with some different glazes for it.
Chocolate Zucchini Bread
16 oz zucchini, chopped
4 oz coconut oil
14 oz or 2 c organic cane sugar
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla
4 oz or 1 c walnut pieces
12 oz or 2 ¼ c Pamela's gluten-free flour mix
3 oz or ½ c potato starch
2 1/8 oz or ½ c cocoa powder, dutched
2 ¼ tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/3 tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp Penzey's orange peel or zest from one fragrant orange
4 oz coconut milk
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the racks in the lower third of the oven.
If using dried orange peel place in coconut milk to rehydrate.
Lightly grease preferred pans with coconut oil. Parchment line the bottom of any round pans you may be using.
Puree zucchini in food processor. Scrape down the bowl.
Add the walnuts, puree until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.
Add coconut oil, sugar, eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. Puree for two minutes, then scrape down the bowl.
In a large bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together. Then, yes, whisk them a bit more.
Add the flour mixture and the coconut milk to the processor, lightly pulse until just incorporated.
Spoon into pans and bake.
Bake muffins or bundt-shaped muffins for 20 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.
Bake 4” bundts for 30 minutes.
Bake 6” spring form rounds or two 8x4 loaves for 50 minutes.
This batch of batter is enough to bake two 8x4 loaves or 30 muffins or twelve 4” bundts.
Mixing this bread with a food processor for the texture of a mild chocolate cake has the side benefit of hiding the zucchini, if you don't tell no one will ever know.
Stand mixer directions:
Grate the zucchini on the large side of the box grater, it takes less time than you'd expect. Set aside.
Mix the coconut oil, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.
Add the sugar, beating until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.
Add in the eggs and egg yolks, beat on medium-high for two minutes.
Add the zucchini, mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the bowl.
Add the walnuts.
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Whisk until fully incorporated and then whisk a bit more.
Alternately add the flour mixture to the bowl, beating on low speed, with zested coconut milk.
Beat until just blended.
This method yields a more traditional appearing quick bread with the zucchini shreds and walnuts clearly visible.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Pina Colada Granita
Now I think of Jenna and make granita - a cold, crumbly treat that tastes like a tropical vacation. Yesterday's almost 100 degree heat made granita a top priority. Here's the recipe so you have a secret weapon against the next heat wave.
Ingredients
14 oz can of chunk pineapple
14 oz can of light coconut milk
4 oz light agave
2 oz lime juice
2 oz silver rum (Thanks to Michael & Beth I'm a huge fan of Mount Gay rums)
Toss all the ingredients in the food processor or blender and puree until frothy and smooth. The rum is optional - for friends who abstain I leave it out.
Chill the puree over night, covered with cling-wrap. For sorbet freeze through one cycle of the ice cream maker.
If you can control the craving, grab all the ingredients and place them in the fridge overnight. That way the puree can go directly from the food processor into the ice cream maker.
For a true granita: Place the puree in a 9x9 glass or plain metal pan (Do NOT use a nonstick pan! Teflon shaving make a lousy garnish.) Put the pan in the freezer, then every 30 minutes scrape the mixture with a stiff metal spatula. The texture will be closer to shaved ice, not a smooth sorbet. Will still melt beautifully on your tongue during a hot summer night.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Chocolate Chili Chicken
By southwestern standards this is a ridiculously mild dish, which makes it perfect for serving to younger children. It also highlights the bright, summery flavors of the orange zest and cilantro. Madman zinfandel made a wonderful accompaniment to this dish.
Our Lammas main dish is an adaptation from “Adventures with Chocolate”. While shopping for ingredients I met some challenges, the oranges at the store were scentless, thick skinned and hard, shallots were not to be found. So my many jars from Penzey’s came to the rescue.
This meal was such a joy to share. I don’t have any words to describe making this dish, enjoying it with the boys. Simply make the dish and taste the joy.
May the first bite be as delicious for you and yours!
Chocolate Chili Chicken
Adapted from Paul A. Young’s “Adventures with Chocolate”
8 chicken thighs
olive oil
4 shallots, minced or 2 tbsp Penzey's freeze dried shallots
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 tbsp orange zest or 2 tbsp Penzey's dried orange peel
2 c orange juice
4 red mini bell peppers, diced
6 arbol dried chiles
2 cascabel dried peppers
1 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp coriander
2 heritage tomatoes of a meaty variety, chopped
5.3 oz 72% dark chocolate, chopped, Sweet Earth Organic
Fresh cilantro
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
In a large dutch oven brown the chicken in a slight amount of olive oil. Place aside.
Add shallots, garlic, zest to pan with a slight amount of orange juice. If using dried shallots, zest, and chiles, rehydrate in orange juice while browning chicken.
Add the diced bell pepper and the rest of the juice and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add coriander, dark brown sugar, the chicken thighs, simmer another 10 minutes.
Add the chopped tomatoes, and put in the oven to bake for 30 minutes.
Remove chicken to serving platter. Reduce the sauce until thickened a bit. Remove the dried peppers and toss. Add the chopped chocolate to the pan ladle over chicken as chocolate begins to soften. Garnish with cilantro leaves.
Next time I make this for my circle, towards Samhain, I'll use hotter chilies and perhaps a Chipotle to add a smoky flavor to reflect the descending darker season. With any dish that features chilies use what suits your mood, your guest's palates, and what you have on hand.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette
Was there a time as a child that you imagined chocolate at every meal? In every dish? Life being a veritable candy land? For the next three posts I’ll share the dishes from our Lammas feast, each showcasing a different dark chocolate ingredient – cocoa, 72%, and 85%.
For celebration meals I ask the guest of honor to pick an ingredient they’d like to be in each course of the meal. The purpose is tri-fold: the celebrant receives a unique meal, I get a challenge, and we don’t get stuck in a rut.
For Lammas the boys (really, they are young men, but at half my age I’m prone to call them boys) chose chocolate. This spring one gave me an autographed copy of British chocolatier Paul Young’s book “Adventures with Chocolate.” If you can find this book on the internet and have it shipped here to the US it will be more than worth your effort.
A complete 180 degrees from Caesar salad, this dressing is sweet, tangy, dark and purely surprising. Be sure to use a real balsamic vinegar, not a cheap caramelized imitation, not only will it taste poor, it will probably be contaminated with gluten.
Perhaps this dressing will intrigue vegetable-indifferent kids to enjoy salads?
Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette
Converted from Paul Young’s “Adventures with Chocolate”
2 ¼ oz balsamic vinegar
1 oz light brown sugar
.6 oz 85% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
Place the vinegar and sugar in a glass measuring cup, heat in microwave to a scant simmer, just starting to bubble. Don’t boil it! Whisk until the sugar dissolves, add the chocolate, again whisking until emulsified.
Cool slightly, add extra-virgin olive oil at two parts vinegar mix to one part olive oil, or one to one if you want a lighter dressing. Shake or whisk until emulsified. This will a dark, glossy dressing. It doesn’t need to be stored in the fridge, but if you do the chocolate will solidify and need rewarming in the microwave or in a sunny spot.
If you can find some late season strawberries at the farmer’s market, try them dipped in a bit of this dressing.
Serve!
I used Bolivian extra dark eco bar for this batch. If you don’t have 85% on hand use ½ oz of 100% baking chocolate and increase the sugar by ½ a tsp. Using a lighter chocolate will make this dressing unbearably sweet and lose the rich under note that good dark chocolate provides.