taste2taste

March 25, 2016

Chocolate Truffles – a Treat for Easter

I love making foodie gifts for the holidays and the last time was in New York with Simon’s kids making chocolate lollipops for Sophie’s birthday & Halloween. We had great fun, making a bit of mess hand tempering chocolate on Simon’s lovely granite kitchen worktop with Belgium chocolate, pumpkin & ice skate moulds from Lil’s Chocolate Shoppe in Pleasantville, NY. I was inspired by my favourite chocolatier in London Paul.A.Young to make some home made truffles for Easter. I am a fan of his innovative flavour and texture combinations -iconic sea salted caramels, bergamot tea infused, gingerbread & even Marmite. Marmite I hear you say, it might be a love or hate thing, but trust me it tastes fantastic as part of a chocolate truffle with the yeasty salty taste enhancing the dark, rich, smooth chocolate.

I decided to get a bit creative after tasting some artisan Chikali coffee from Malawi, roasted by my friend Carolyn’s son Ben, founder of the Profile Coffee Company, and the World’s youngest professional barista at 15 years old! The coffee taste is smooth, rounded, with a slightly fruity, nutty, mocha taste which I thought would work brilliantly in a chocolate truffle. if you don’t like coffee you can leave it out or experiment with your own flavour combos. The truffles are easy to make, and great to get the kids involved, even if a bit messy, the chocolate even makes your hands soft! Thanks to Paul.A.Young for the basic ganache recipe.

Ingredients (makes 24 small truffles)

Basic Truffle Ganache:

60g (2oz)light muscovado sugar
170g (6oz) double (heavy) cream
170g (6oz) good quality chocolate, broken into small pieces

I used 120g of 60% cocoa solids dark chocolate from Dominican Republic & 50g of 39% cocoa solids milk chocolate. If you prefer just dark or milk chocolate, that’s fine.

For my coffee & spice flavour truffles:

3-4 teaspoons of very finely fresh ground medium roast coffee (I used Profile Coffee Company Malawi Chikali)
large pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of ground allspice

Flavours and Decorations:

5-6 tablespoons of cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)
freeze dried raspberry pieces
roasted and chopped hazelnuts (I roasted in oven for 5 mins at 180 C, cooled, then finely chopped)

Method

Chocolate Ganache Chilled & Ready to Roll

Heat the cream and sugar in a saucepan on a medium heat stirring well, until just boiling, add the coffee and spices(if using) and simmer for 2 minutes and continue to stir, ensuring it doesn’t burn
Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate pieces in a medium heat proof bowl
Mix well for a few minutes until the mixture is glossy
Cool at room temperature for about 20 minutes, then cover with cling film and cool in the fridge for about 2 hours until firm
Take a large piece of parchment paper and sprinkle 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder in the centre
Using a teaspoon, take a small amount of ganache, coat your hands in a little cocoa powder and roll into a ball
Place on cocoa powder on parchment paper and roll around to ensure fully coated
If using chopped roasted hazelnuts, place in a small shallow bowl and coat the truffle instead of the cocoa powder
If using freeze dried raspberries dunk the top of the truffles in the pieces for a bright pink topping
Leave the truffles on the parchment paper for 10 minutes to firm up slightly then put in small paper cases and store in the fridge
Rolled & decorated – messy fun!

For a dairy free version you can make a water based ganache substituting the cream.

The truffles will keep for up to 5 days if stored in the fridge, take out 15-20 minutes before serving to warm up to room temperature. In my house, they won’t last that long!

Happy Easter & Happy Chocolate Truffle Making.

March 24, 2016

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Hamantashen? The Sweet Festive Purim Pastry

This sweet dessert delight is a must have today, as NY celebrates the Jewish Festival of Purim. This commemorates the overthrow of a rather unpleasant man by the name Haman, a Grand Vizier in the days of the Persian Empire, whose plot to annihilate the Jewish populous of the time failed on this date

The Ingredients for the Pastry & Filling

To remind children of what a bad guy he was, it’s traditional to dress up in costume and consume this sweet triangular shaped pastry (apparently, it was designed to resemble the villain’s ears!)

But I digress, as this is actually a fabulous pastry to have with one’s morning coffee, or even afternoon tea, whether it’s Purim or on any other day. It’s traditional to fill the tri-corner pastry with fruit or even a poppy seed mix, depending on where one’s folks originated in the diaspora (be it around the Mediterranean, or from Eastern Europe etc)

I decided to bake mine using cooked dried apricots as the filling, following a classic recipe by Marlena Spieler. See what you think

Ingredients

Apricots & Cinnamon Filling being reduced

For the Pastry
- 4 oz unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups of sugar
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- salt
- 2 1/2 cups plain flour
For the Apricot Filling
- 1 generous cup of dried apricots (I used organic Turkish ones, that had a great dark tea like flavor from Trader Joe’s)
- 1 stick of cinnamon
- 3 tbsp of sugar

Method

Creaming the Sugar & Butter

Cream the sugar and butter in a large bowl, whilst mixing the vanilla, milk and egg in another and sifting the flour in a third one
Add the flour 1/3 at a time interspersed with the milk mix into the sugar butter mix adding a pinch of salt until all is combined and roll into a large short crust pastry ball
Place in the fridge for around an hour
Dough Ready to Roll
Meanwhile, place the apricots, cinnamon and sugar in a pan, cover with water and warm at a simmer for 15 minutes, or until the apricots have softened and the water almost evaporated
Apricot Filling
Remove the cinnamon stick, pop the apricots and what hasn’t evaporated of the sugar water mix into a food processor and blend until it resembles a rough jam like substance
Take the pastry, roll on a flour coated surface until it’s around 1/4 inch thick, then, using a circular pastry cutter, cut it into roughly 25 – 35 rounds
Plop a blob of the reduced apricot ‘jam’ into the center of each round, folding the pastry up and pinching the corners so it looks like George Washington’s tricorne hat!
Pop the uncooked Hamantashen on a greased baking sheet and place in the oven at 350 f for around 15 minutes, remove and dust with powder (or icing) sugar
Ready to Bake

Serve warm – sweet and moreish.

Happy Purim Blog readers!

March 17, 2016

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Irish Stew for St Paddy’s Day!

Here in the US, we are about to go GREEN!

This week the supermarkets are full of green iced cup cakes, cookies and anything else the food coloring folks can turn that delightful color and tomorrow, Irish Americans will be wearing their glitzy green Leprechaun hats and wigs, quaffing Guinness, Murphys and other forms of stout by the bucket load, as they polish up their blarney and celebrate all things best about the Emerald Isle

I thought I’d contribute to the occasion by cooking up a beef stew, with a nod to the Irish inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe

This dish is truly simple, earthy and filling yet delicious and meaty. The beef is slowly cooked to a melt in your mouth treat in a sea of Guinness and is excellent accompanied by a side of boiled spuds (potatoes) and maybe even some emerald green garden peas?

The very simple main ingredients

Ingredients

1lb beef stew meat (or thereabouts) diced into 2 inch squares
2 carrots peeled and chopped in rounds
2 yellow onions roughly diced
2 -3 sticks of celery sliced horizontally
3 bay leaves
1 x 14oz can of diced tomatoes
1 pint of Guinness, or similar stout
1 heaped x tbsp plain flour
Olive Oil
Sea Salt and Black Pepper to season

Method

Meat & Veggies on the move

Pour a couple of tablespoons of the oil into a casserole pan and warm over a medium heat, then chuck in all the veggies and bay leaves and fry for around 10 minutes, turning so they don’t burn
Add the beef and the flour and stir in
Pour in the chopped tomatoes and the Guinness, a teaspoon of the sea salt and 4-5 grinds of black pepper and bring the stew to the boil
Cover the dish and place in the oven at 350 f for 2.5 hours, stirring occasionally
Uncover the dish and cook for 30 more minutes

Serve immediately. If there’s anything left on your plate, why not soak up with a hunk, or two of soda bread (see my co-blogger, Lindsey’s great recipe in our first post of today)