New & Notable Chocolate

'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly chocolate.'
--Debbie Moose



Each holiday season there are new chocolates and I am first in line to try as many as I can. This year there were so many I packed them all up and took them to Thanksgiving dinner to let my friends and family try them too. Here are the highlights:

I adore Kika's Treats. Kika is one of the most successful graduates of the La Cocina incubator program in San Francisco. Her caramelized graham crackers dipped in chocolate are unique and a wonderful melange of buttery toffee and rich chocolate. But her latest confection is equally compelling.


Luscious caramels dipped in dark chocolate with a pinch of sea salt and a surprising twist. They are lightened up with the addition of puffed brown rice that gives them the perfect crunch. A 9-piece assortment is just $16 (and the box is absolutely adorable)

Another local favorite confectioner, Michael Recchiuti is also known for his terrific caramel truffles which are so dark he calls them 'burnt.' No gooey treat, his version is intense.


Adding to the line up of chocolate confections are bars, made from Valrhona chocolate. While I liked the classic all chocolate bars in bittersweet, semisweet and dark milk for their purity of flavor, I really fell for his bars with crunchy and chewy additions. My favorites were the sesame nougatine bar and the orchard bar. The orchard bar has a bewitching mix of currants, mulberries and toasted almonds. It's like the grown up version of the Nestle chunky bar. The sesame bar also has crispness to it and a lovely nougat flavor. Recchuiti is masterful at toasting and roasting nuts to bring out their best flavor and texture so it's no surprise that all his bars with nuts were good. At only $6 a bar, they are a very affordable indulgence.


Chocolates with liqueur are always a holiday favorite. The most recent addition is a truffle made with the Italian liqueur Frangelico. Frangelico is a beguiling hazelnut liqueur that also includes hints of cocoa, vanilla and berries. It's complex but mellow and pairs wonderfully with chocolate. Marie Belle is making exquisitely beautiful chocolate tiles with a Frangelico truffle ganache. They are not boozy, but rich, creamy and subtle. If you like Frangelico, you will love them. They are available in boxes, starting at $15 for 4.

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

IDLY SAMBHAR–HOTEL STYLE

I learnt this Sāmbhar from my neighbour. Its very simple. Usually for hotel style sambhar we used to roast & grind some spices and add. But for this sambhar just besan flour is enough.I had tasted this kind of sambhar in some hotels especially in Tirunelveli and Madurai.Do try this and let me know how it turned out.

INGREDIENTS

For 4 persons.

• Toor dal – 1/4 cup
• Carrot –1  no
• Potato – 1 no
• Tamarind –Small berry size
• Tomato – 2 nos
• Small onions / shallot – 10 nos
• Curry leaves – few
• Sambhar powder – 1- 2 tsp.
• Turmeric powder – a pinch
• Asafetida – 1/4 tsp.
• Besan flour – 2 tsp.

To temper

• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Methi seeds – 1/4 tsp
• Urad dal – 1/2 tsp
• Red chilly – 1 no

To garnish

• Coriander leaves – few

METHOD

Pressure cook toor dal adding turmeric powder , asafetida and a drop of oil.Cook the vegetables separately . Heat a kadai with oil and sauté the onions & tomatoes. Saute till tomato turns mushy. Now add the tamarind extract and sambhar powder. Add more water if necessary.Add the cooked vegetables , little asafoetida and fresh curry leaves. Allow it to boil for few minutes. Then add the cooked and mashed toor dal. Dilute the besan flour with little water and add it to the sambhar. Boil well for few minutes .The sambhar starts to thicken. Add more water if necessary. Finally switch off the stove and garnish with coriander leaves. Temper with the above items and add it to the sambhar. **For relatives, add a tsp of ghee at the end and close the bowl. Yummy , aromatic sambhar is ready to enjoy with piping hot idlies , vada or pongal

TIPS

If u want the sambhar to be more tangy add lime juice at the end after switching off the flame. For idly sambhar, dal should be dominant and less tamarind is added. So i've added more dal and less tamarind. For more spiciness , add green chillies while sautéing onions and tomatoes. If u feel the sambhar is too thick , add more water , little tamarind extract , salt and sambhar powder. Boil for sometime . Similarly if u think , the sambhar is more spicy or tangy , add little besan flour and water , allow it to boil. Adjust salt.. I find the above step as very useful because makeup is very essential for each recipe to get the correct taste. That too for beginners these points would be very useful , thanks to my neighbour.

Baby Shower Desserts Part 3 - Mini Cupcakes

For this baby girl baby shower, I made mini chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with blackberry cassis buttercream, decorated with royal icing booties.  If you plan to decorate with booties, you'll need to make them at least 3 days ahead, as they need to dry and harden completely before using them.

To make royal icing booties, start with royal icing mix (from Michael's or a cake decorating store), or make your own using pasteurized egg whites.

Royal Icing
3 large pasteurized egg whites
3-3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar + 1/4 cup, divided
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon flavoring of choice (vanilla, etc)

Reserve 1/4 cup sugar and mix together all other ingredients. Beat for 7-10 minutes until the icing holds a strong peak. Add more powdered sugar if necessary. Beat in color of choice ( I use a toothpick to add color so I have control and don't add too much). Keep the frosting covered with a damp cloth to keep it from drying out.

Prepare a pastry bag with a coupler and a #12 round tip (the coupler allows you to change tips without emptying the bag).



 If you want to, you can mark a piece of partchment paper with rounds so that you have a bit of guidance in how big to make the bookies. Always mark on one side, turn the paper over and then pipe on the backside so that you don't contaminate the frosting with the marker. Hold the bag at a 45-degree angle and pipe from the toe towards the heel, releasing the pressure as you get to the heel.



For the heel you can either hold the bag straight up-and-down- or you can angle the bag slightly towards the toe and then pipe upwards. Dip a dowel in powdered sugar and then press into the top of the bootie. Don't worry about excess powdered sugar - when the booties are dry you can brush away the excess with a small paint brush (food-safe).


Switch to a #2 tip and pipe 'lace' at the top of the bootie (you'll have to experiment with this to see what looks good - I sort of made loops while raising the tip up). These booties are quite small, so it is hard to add a bow to the front. Instead, I made laces at the front of the bootie using the #2 tip. I used the same color, but you could do contrasting color if you like.


Don't put the booties on the cupcakes until just before serving, as the royal icing could get soft when exposed to the buttercream. These cupcakes are very small, so you might want to just use one on each (the opening photo has chocolate cupcakes with 2 booties and the vanilla with just one, for comparison).

For the Cupcakes
Before offering the recipes, I wanted to tell you about the new muffin pan that I just bought at Sur La Table. It makes 24 mini-muffins, but the best part is that the cups are shallower and wider than regular mini-muffin tins. The result is that the paper liners go in easier with no pleating and they come out of the pan much easier too. 

Old style pan on left

For chocolatete cupcakes, use the recipe for Filled Chocolate Cupcakes Revised (but don't fill them).

I'd never actually made vanilla cupcakes, always opting for chocolate, but I had a baby shower to do and the mom-to-be didn't like chocolate, so it provided a good opportunity for me to work on my vanilla baking.  I started with my all around sheetcake recipe from my book, cutting it down to the appropriate size, but the results were not really what I wanted - they were too sweet, two vanilla tasting and the texture wasn't quite right for a piece of cake that gets eaten out of hand.  Fortunately, the fix was easy and I didn't have to rebake them more than once.  I simply cut down on the sugar and vanilla and added more milk.

 Vanilla Cupcakes
187 grams all-purpose flour -- measured by fluffing, scooping and leveling
1 -1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

5 ounces unsalted butter
1 cups sugar
1 -1 /2 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs

1 tablespoon oil
3/4 cup whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. with a rack in the lower third of the oven (use a hotter oven if you want cupcakes that crest higher). Place baking cups in each muffin space.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Place the butter and sugar into a large mixer bowl, and beat for a full 5-7 minutes until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl and then beat for a minute to blend everything. Beat in the oil.

By hand, stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture into the batter. Stir in 1/2 of the milk. Repeat until all of the flour and milk has been added. The batter will be very thick, as you'll see in the photo.

Spoon a heaping teaspoonful of batter into each mini-cup or a heaping tablespoon full into each full-size muffin cup.  The cups should be about 3/4 full.

Bake for 8-12 minutes for minis (6-8 if using a hotter oven), 15-18 for full size cupcakes - until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out absolutely clean.  Let the cupcakes cool for a few minutes and then take them out of the pan and set on a cooling rack until completely cool.  Rinse the hot pan in warm water and then cool water.  Repeat the process with the remaining batter. 

You can see that the muffins didn't crest very much, despite the fact that the cups were well-filled.  If you bake them in a hotter oven, they should crest more.  Try 375 degrees - but just watch carefully that they don't overcook.  Makes about 36 mini muffins.  I didn't make larger muffins, but I'm guessing that it would bake 12-15 of the larger muffins.

Blackberry Buttercream
Blackberry Buttercream is more on the more purple side of pink, which worked for me, since the colors of the event were pink and purple.  Blackberries are so much easier to sieve than  raspberries, that I was thrilled that the color would work for this party.  I opted to do my Easy Meringue Buttercream rather than Simple Buttercream (uses Marshallow Fluff instead of egg whites) because I wasn't sure if the simple version would handle all of the blackberry puree, but you might want to give it a try, since it is so much easier to make ( see Filled Chocolate Cupcakes Revised), and since this version had problems with the puree as well (details follow). 

10-12 ounces frozen blackberries, defrosted as per below instructions
2-4 tablespoons cassis liqueur, optional
180 grams (6 large) pasteurized egg whites (I used Organic Valley egg whites - in a carton)
2 tablespoons water
 1-1/2 cups superfine sugar (or you can buzz regular sugar in a coffee grinder)
4 sticks (21 ounces)  unsalted butter
1/2  teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup blackberry puree (see below)
1/2 cup powdered sugar

For the blackberry puree:
Defrost the frozen blackberries, retaining all of the juice.  Boil the juice until it is reduced by half (you can add some cassis liqueur to this, before or after boiling, depending on whether you want to get rid of the alcohol or not). Run the blackberries through a food mill and add this puree to the reduced juice. Sieve the mixture through a medium strainer to get rid of all seeds (blackberry seeds are pretty large, so a medium strainer works).  You should have about 1/2 cup blackberry puree. Do not add it to the buttercream until it is at room temperature.

For the buttercream:
Remove the butter from the refrigerator and cut it into tablespoon-size lumps so it can soften while you prepare the eggs.

Boil 2 inches of water in a pot into which your metal mixer bowl will fit. Place the egg whites into the clean, grease-free mixer bowl. Whisk in the water and sugar.



Place the bowl over the simmering water, and whisk –stir constantly until the mixture reaches 120-130 degrees, about 1-3 minutes (very warm to the touch, if you don't have a instant-read thermometer). The mixture will be very warm, and the sugar granules should have dissolved. Remove the bowl from over the water. If you see any un-dissolved sugar crystals in the bowl, wipe these off with a paper towel.

Beat the egg white mixture , increasing the speed to medium-high to high speed , as quickly as possible without having the egg whites splash out of the bowl. Beat until the mixture looks like thick shaving cream, and the egg whites and bowl are cool - about 20 minutes.


 This is easiest done with a standing mixer using a balloon whisk. To hasten the process, wet a towel and place a few cupfuls of ice chips into it. Wrap it up and place this under the bowl so that it in constant contact with the bowl.

By now the butter should be at cool room temperature. If you press down on it with your thumb, it should yield readily, but should not be soft and melty. If too soft, refrigerate it just for a few minutes to firm it back up. Place the butter into a large mixing bowl, and beat until creamy. On low, beat in 1/3 of the whites. Repeat with the remaining whites, 2 more times. When all of the whites have been added, increase the beater speed to medium-high, and beat until the mixture curdles,



and then smoothes out into thick and creamy frosting, about 10-15 minutes.



Beat in the blackberry puree, about 2 tablespoons at a time, beating after each addition until the buttercream is smooth again.  Beat in the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time.  Adjust the flavor/sweetness by adding more cassis liqueur or more powdered sugar, to taste. Normally, buttercream can be frozen, but with this frosting, freezing created lots of problems.

For starters, I tried to beat it before it had come to room temperature (a definite no-no with all egg-based buttercreams).  Here's what happened:

Now, this has happened before, and when I let the mixture come to room temperature it beat up nicely, but this time that didn't happen.  In fact, as it got warmer, it got worse and worse:

It was the day before the shower and I had just spent 12 hours decorating cookies, so needless to say I was in no mood to remake the buttercream.  I'm guessing this happened because of the large amount of liquid I had added to the buttercream (1/2 cup of blackberry puree plus some cassis liqueur).  There was one last fix that had worked in the past.  I softened 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter to cool room temperature.  I spooned the buttercream back into the mixer bowl and beat in 1/2 cup powdered sugar.  With the mixer on medium speed, I added the butter 1 tablespoon at a time, and lo and behold!  The buttercream re-formed.

So, keep this in mind if you plan to make the buttercream ahead, or if you have trouble with another buttercream you have made.

The only thing left to do, is to pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes.  Refrigerate until 2-3 hours before serving , placing the booties on the cupcakes when you take them out of the refrigerator and the frosting has started to soften.

Chestnut, chorizo and lentil soup

I meant to post this just after Christmas to suggest what you might do with your turkey stock and other leftovers but events overtook me (including rather disastrously spilling a glass of wine on my computer) and here we are on New Year's Eve. Still, this is a great soup, whether you have turkey stock or not, which I've adapted from Sam and Sam Clark's excellent Moro cookbook.

The point I was going to make about turkey stock - and which you might like to bear in mind for next year if you haven't thought about it already - is that it's really rich and strong and therefore doesn't lend itself well to delicate soups or sauces. This one includes chestnuts, though in lesser quantities than the Sams use, chorizo and saffron and I also added some outer Savoy cabbage leaves I'd saved after making a slaw to go with the ham on Christmas Eve which adds a bit of colour as well. When I heated up the leftovers of the soup I dropped some torn pieces of sourdough toast which were also a good addition. (Note: this is less of a soup than a stew. You won't need much else, if anything, to eat!)

Serves 4-6
3-4 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions or one large one, roughly chopped
1 carrot, chopped into small pieces, roughly the same size as the onion
125g semi-soft chorizo, chopped (Tesco has a good one in its 'Finest' range)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli flakes or a crushed whole red chilli
1 tsp finely chopped thyme leaves or 1/2 tsp dried thyme or oregano
1/2 a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes or a couple of whole tinned tomatoes, chopped
200g vac packed or roasted or boiled chestnuts, roughly chopped
75g green or brown lentils
a pinch of saffron threads infused for 10 minutes in 3-4 tbsp hot water (optional*)
about 1 litre turkey stock or water
4-5 outer cabbage leaves or cavolo nero leaves
salt and black pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, carrot and chorizo, season lightly with salt and cook for about 10 minutes over a low to moderate heat until beginning to brown. Add the garlic, cumin and chilli flakes or crushed chilli and thyme and cook for a minute, then add the chopped tomatoes, chestnuts, lentils and saffron, if using. Add the stock or water, bring to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the lentils are cooked. Remove the central rib from the cabbage or cavolo nero leaves, shred finely and drop into the soup about 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

* If you haven't got any saffron you could use half a teaspoon of turmeric which I'd add at the same time as the cumin. If you want to keep the soup veggie use 1-2 tsp sweet pimenton or paprika instead of the chorizo and maybe a touch of hot if you've got it.

Waitrose Low Alcohol Cider

If you're finding it hard to give up booze for the month you might want to snap up a bottle or two of Waitrose's low alcohol cider which is only 1% ABV.

Now I'm not saying it's the best-tasting cider ever - it's a little too thin and too sweet, for my palate at least* - but it does taste recognisably like cider in a way that apple juice doesn't and if you were drinking it with roast pork, a chicken casserole or even a nice hunk of cheddar it would rub along fine. It's actually made in Herefordshire in old oak vats so I'm guessing it probably comes from Weston's.

The price is pretty attractive too. It only costs £1.15 a 500ml bottle - online at any rate. I somehow ended up paying £1.21 for my bottle in store, maybe because it's classified as a 'Little Waitrose'. Not a huge outlay anyway.

* However my neighbour who just popped in tried it and said 'really nice'. So there you go. I should also have pointed it's 180 calories a glass so it's not exactly a low calorie option - though not much more than a large glass of shiraz.

Why do YOU cook, Monica Bhide?

I'm not sure there is a harder working food writer than Monica Bhide. She teaches, writes magazine articles, has a syndicated newspaper column called Seasonings, and has written several cookbooks including her most recent, Modern Spice. What I like about her writing is the personal stories and her enthusiasm for using different ingredients. She's also about as big a twitteraholic as I am. Not only do I learn something new when I read her stories, articles and tweets, but I enjoy the journey.

As a child, I always felt that I had trouble relating with the world. I always felt that I did not fit in the crowd and that I could not really 'connect' with people. Then one day, I discovered what I did relate to: the kitchen. I would spend hours watching my parents and my grandparents and uncles and aunts cooking but never attempted to try it myself. I think I was about 8 or 9 when I began to cook. It was an experience unlike any other. I never felt awkward or out of place in the kitchen. I never thought of cooking as hard (unlike school work!). The kitchen made me feel at peace with myself. It was around the same time that I started writing... but all the writing was private. I never shared it with anyone.

But back to cooking: As a child, there were so many things I could not do. I did not know how to swim or ride a bike or be one with the in crowd. But I knew how to bring out the best in eggplant, i knew how to sizzle cumin just right to release it's flavor and aroma, i knew how to stuff an okra with a pungent spice mix, I knew how to simmer a deep and intensely flavored lamb curry. I would go to the farmers market and pick fruits and vegetables with my dad and learned how to tell good fish from bad. And then the magic happened: when I served the food to people, they liked it. It became the source of connection with friends and family and those who came to my table. I felt like I finally had made a connection. Years later, as I cook to care and nurture my family, my writing grew up. I heard from more and more people that they connected with my words and that made them want to cook my food.

I cook because it is who I am. Cooking, for me, is a away of nurturing those around me and sharing a part of me with them. My world of writing and food makes me feel like I belong in this world and that I have a purpose and that I matter and can make a difference.



Monica Bhide is the twentieth person profiled in this series. Read more profiles.

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION! ©2011 Cooking with Amy. All rights reserved. This material may NOT be published, rewritten or redistributed without permission. If you are reading this post somewhere other than Cooking with Amy, the Oyster Local blog or Gather.com, then the site where you found this post is illegally publishing copyrighted material.

Cooking Book 5

Thai Chicken Wings, The Young Thailand Cookbook

Man I wish I owned this book.

Mango Chicken Salad, Martha Stewart

Delicious! I skipped the mango chutney in the salad and used lettuce instead of spinach. I would make this again. Recipe here.

Ham and Apple Wraps with Dip, you guessed it, Martha Stewart.

These were fine, nothing thrilling.  A little different.  I didn't love the dip though.  Recipe here.

Jicama Citrus Salad, Martha Stewart

I really liked this salad. Crunchy and...citrusy. I left out the cucumber. Recipe here.

I don't know what this is.

Or this.

Or this.

Bubble and Squeak, no recipe.

So easy. Mix leftover mashed potatos with leftover cooked carrots and brussel sprouts. Heat some olive oil and butter over medium high heat, spread the veggies in and cook until brown on both sides.

________________________________________

I do love to change my mind, abandon project etc, and I'm doing it again.  This will be it for now at least on Book 5.  It's too difficult to fit some of the recipes into our world full of kid, work, school etc.  There are still some I want to make, so the book will be back but now let's move on to a new one....Book 3!