Nikas Culinaria » chocolate

Chocolate: thou art heavenly (and lucky?)

Nika — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Visit my new page with a Ghirardelli chocolate wonderland and chance to win a $100 Visa gift card here -> LINK

I will also be sharing a recipe for chocolate chip cheesecake and for these delicious caramel chocolate covered apples you see below.

Make the jump!

Agave cubed: Partida Agave Nectar used three ways

Nika — Sun, 20 May 2007 16:48:57 +0000

(This post will appear on The Spirit World blog, a member of the Well Fed Network)

I received a sample of the 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar some time ago and it has been quite a journey as I developed recipes for this interesting product.

The Partida Tequila company makes their tequila, as you might expect, from blue agave plants, a succulent that dwells in the arid lands around Jalisco, Mexico. One can also make nectar from these interesting plants and let me assure you, this nectar is quite a wonder. For one, it is sweeter than table sugar. It looks like a thin honey as it is less viscous. It tastes a bit like honey although it’s flavor is not a dominant thing. The most important thing, ok – to me, is that it is fantastically low on the glycemic scale.

Get this, pure agave nectar has a GI of 11 while white sugar is 100. A 10th of the glycemic impact of sugar!

Today I have two drink recipes and one food recipe to show you just a very few possibilities for working with agave nectar.

The first is one I tested just today. Its a nod to the south of the border origin of the nectar as it uses chocolate and it’s consistency is something Montezuma would love – thick and potent.

Blue Agave Nectar Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate

Ingredients:

1/4 C chocolate powder
1/2 C hot water
4 tablespoons 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar
Pinch of cinnamon
3 squares Ghirardelli 100% Cacao Unsweetened Baking Chocolate
3/4 C Fat Free 1/2 and 1/2

Directions:

Combine agave nectar, cinnamon, chocolate powder and hot water in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Mix until incorporated. Add Ghirardelli chocolate squares and then the fat free 1/2 and 1/2, heat until its smooth. Froth with an immersion blender. Do not not add marshmallows if you want to keep the GI low.
I had my rather fussy toddler give it a try and she loved it, even though it was made with grown-up unsweetened chocolate. She liked it with and without the marshmallows.

The second recipe is one that you will see all over the web and I will repeat it here but, since I do not drink tequila, I have not taste tested it. Its not hard to imagine that it is delicious!

Partida Agave Margarita

1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
3/4 oz 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar
3/4 oz spring water
1.5 oz Partida Tequila Blanco, Reposado, or Anejo

Mix it all up in a bucket (or your favorite container), and serve over ice or chilled in a margarita glass.

The third and final recipe is one I developed a couple of weeks ago and, as you likely remember, covered in more detail at this post here.

Irish Steel Cut Oatmeal sweetened with agave nectar and passion fruit gastrique

Ingredients:

2 passion fruit s
3 unsulfered dried organic apricots, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar
1 teaspoon Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar
3 tablespoons water

Directions:

In a small pan over medium heat, combine the scooped out pulpy seeds of the 2 passion fruits, the sliced apricots, 1 tablespoon of the Agave Nectar, 1 teaspoon of the fig vinegar, and 3 tablespoons of water. Simmer this down until it thickens to your desire consistency. You may need to add some water to thin or simmer longer to get it thicker, up to you! I put the syrup through a strainer to get rid of most of the midnight black seeds (which have these very interesting little divots across their surface) as they didn’t seem very edible to me.

When I served this all up, I put some agave nectar in the oatmeal and stirred it up. I put the oatmeal into the bacon round (secured with a bit of wooden skewer) and then drizzled it with the gastrique and added a bit of apricot. The remainder of apricots were put into a passion fruit rind. Do NOT eat raw passion fruit rind (has cyanide compounds in it).

I hope that these three recipes opened your eyes to the possibilities of agave nectar.

I plan on doing more work with chocolate because when I was making the hot chocolate, I saw how perfectly agave nectar married/melded with the chocolate (I feared it might seize but it didn’t).

Low GI chocolate sauce, oh how thou callest my name.

Products of Interest:

Sites of Interest:

Partida Tequila

Technorati Tags: The Spirit World, Well Fed Network, 100% Organic Partida Agave Nectar, recipe, product, Partida Tequila company, tequila, blue agave plants, Jalisco, Mexico, nectar, lycemic, agave, glycemic impact, agave nectar, chocolate, Montezuma, Blue Agave Nectar, Ghirardelli, cinnamon, Ghirardelli chocolate, marshmallow, Partida Agave Margarita, lime juice, Irish, Steel Cut, passion fruit, apricot, Alessi White Balsamic Fig Infused Vinegar, oatmeal, gastrique

Just how stupid do they think you are? Chocolate needs your help, today!

Nika — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:42:53 +0000

Hmmmm, chocolate.

It’s likely something we all take for granted.

You might think that the definition of chocolate is an inherent thing and you might think that when you go to the store and when you buy something that is called chocolate that it would, indeed, BE chocolate. For the most part, that is what it is now.

Seems there are some who find that unacceptable and there is some nefarious behind the-scenes-activity with the FDA (THAT would never happen in this administration, right?).

In short, the FDA is considering changing the definition of chocolate to include those products that do not contain cocoa butter or even cocoa solids and that transfats and artificial sweeteners are mighty fine amendments to a Hershey bar.

Seems the big business organization behind this would be the Chocolate Manufacturers Association (instills a lot of confidence in their products doesn’t it). Who are some of the companies that are spear-heading this push for dumbing down chocolate and making it even LESS wholesome for our children?

“The Chocolate Manufacturers Association, whose members include Hershey, Nestle SA and Archer Daniels Midland Co., has a petition before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to redefine what constitutes chocolate. They want to make it without the required ingredients of cocoa butter and cocoa solids, using instead artificial sweeteners, milk substitutes and vegetable fats such as hydrogenated and trans fats.” (Adam Satariano for Bloomberg Press)

Thats right, you read it, none other than Nestle and Hershey.

I have to tell you. Before I learned about their push to degrade chocolate, I had a lot of good will toward these companies. I would have been positively inclined toward the Chocolate Manufacturers Association. But now, they have done some permanent damage in this household as I now do not nor can I trust these companies to provide a wholesome product that I can give to my children.

I can promise you that I will be looking for other REAL chocolate products from companies that speak up against this silliness.

You can have your say today and tomorrow by visiting the FDA’s comment site. You can give them your 2 cents worth on whether you think its right to allow these large multinational corporations to label a non-chocolate product as chocolate.

To do that visit the FDA’s site at: FDA E-comments Website

Don’t be confused by the oddness of the page, hit the “submit button” and you will be able to make your contribution.

For more specific information on how to do the FDA filing visit the “DontMessWithOurChocolate” page.

Learn more at “Eating Liberally“, get angry, submit your comments to the FDA.

Other Bloggers HEART Chocolate, why you should too

Cybele May, of the Candy Blog, has been quite vocal about this rear-guard attack on the American Way Of Life – I mean – chocolate.

Read her LA Times opinion piece “Hands off my chocolate, FDA!” on it, where she says, in part:

“The FDA is entertaining a “citizen’s petition” to allow manufacturers to substitute vegetable fats and oils for cocoa butter. The “citizens” who created this petition represent groups that would benefit most from this degradation of the current standards. They are the Chocolate Manufacturers Assn., the Grocery Manufacturers Assn., the Snack Food Assn. and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn. (OK, I’m not sure what’s in it for them), along with seven other food producing associations.”

Other bloggers in the blogosphere who are trying to raise the ruckus on this issue include:

Technorati Tags: chocolate, definition, FDA, Chocolate Manufacturers Association, Hershey, Nestle, Food and Drug Administration

Chocolate Coconut Hedgie Cookies

Nika — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 15:47:50 +0000

(Chocolate Coconut Hedgie Cookies)

I am a super bad mom, I really am. Once the caffeine hit the system this morning I jumped up and baked these cookies (the dough was in the fridge overnight). The bad part is that we essentially had these for breakfast. We are going to have a second course of eggs and toast but the brutal honest truth is that we had chocolate cookies for breakfast.

Man, they are good though, especially right out of the oven.

I adapted a recipe by N. Hoff from the AllRecipes.com “Tried and True Cookies” cookbook (page 80) .

It is very different from the original recipe, which didn’t have chocolate or powdered sugar or chocolate sauce. The reason I refer to mine as hedgie cookies is because the coconut makes them a bit prickly like hedgehogs and because I think hedgies are just the cutest little things.

Here is my adaptation.

(Before baking)

Nika’s Chocolate Coconut Hedgie Cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/4 C AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C butter
1/2 C packed light brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
4 Tablespoons chocolate powder
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 C flaked sweetened coconut
powdered sugar, as desired

Sauce:

4 Tablespoons chocolate powder
1 drop vanilla
1/2 cap of kahlua liqueur
2 Tablespoons white sugar
boiling water, enough to make a sauce as thick or thin as you want

Directions:

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt, set aside.

Cream together butter, brown and white sugars. Make certain that it is very well mixed and that you get a light fluffy texture (you have incorporated air into the mix).

Add egg, vanilla, and chocolate powder and mix well. It will be getting thick now. Add the flour by 1/3rds. The mix will be very thick, like a dough towards the end. Don’t be shy, use your hands to knead it all together. Add the coconut flakes. You will likely need to use your hands to incorporate the coconut. Chill in the fridge (I did it over night).

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Make golf ball sized dough balls and put onto parchment.

(Another shot before baking)

You can dredge in powdered sugar or more coconut before baking.

Bake for about 25 minutes (your oven may be different, watch the first batch).

Dust with powdered sugar and chocolate sauce!

Kahlua Chocolate Sauce

Mix chocolate powder, sugar, vanilla, and Kahlua. Add boiling water a few teaspoons at a time, slowly. Add enough boiling water to make it the consistency you like.

Enjoy!

Here is a shot of Baby Oh who is 1) upset about not getting any cookies, 2) upset that mommy has pulled out the food photography stuff, and 3) upset that he is in that infernal bouncer.

(Poor Baby O)

Technorati Tags: caffeine, cookie, egg, chocolate, breakfast, Chocolate Coconut Hedgie Cookies, liqueur, powdered sugar, coconut, chocolate sauce, chocolate powder, sugar, vanilla, Kahlua

Auntie Cathie’s Chocolate Swirl cupcakes

Nika — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 21:56:33 +0000

Stay tuned for the whole story and more delicious pics.

Related Posts:

Blood Orange Petit Fours

nika — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 13:13:34 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a new cookbook called “Tried and True Cookies”, recipes from AllRecipes.com contributors. There are quite a few of the old home favorites and several iterations of various types of cookie to choose from.

As I was thumbing through the book, I saw a group for lemon bars, a kind of cookie I love but have never made. I immediately thought about the blood oranges we had squeezed, the juice was not sweet but rather sour. Thus, I decided to try a lemon bar recipe with blood orange juice instead of lemon juice.

I dont know if this recipe tries true with the original formulation but for my adaptation, something is less than right. I am guessing its about acidity and how it interacts with the eggs. What happened to mine is that the filling on the top never solidified. I had to chill this a whole lot to be able to somewhat cut them up. When you do that, the butter cookie crust underneath becomes hard.

In short, I will give you the adapted recipe and show you pictures but I will also give you a warning: try this with lemon juice first to see if it works for you. If it does, move on to other juices. I have some citric acid on hand (from making some lollipops), maybe I could dope it with that to boost the acidity and better coagulate the eggs.

Blood Orange Bars (Adapted from “Bake Sale Lemon Bars” by Elaine in “AllRecipes.com Tried and True Cookies“)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 C AP flour
2/3 C powdered sugar
3/4 C softened butter
3 eggs
1 1/2 C white sugar
3 Tblspns AP flour
1/4 C blood orange juice (lemon juice)
1/3 C powdered sugar for dusting (if you like)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C) and grease a 9×13 inch baking dish (or whatever floats your boat). [EDITED: I used a 9 inch pie plate.]
Combine the flour, 2/3 C powdered sugar, and butter (this is your shortbread dough), pat into bottom of the baking dish.
Bake the shortbread dough for 20 minutes, until a light brown, remove.
Whisk together the eggs, white sugar, flour, and blood orange juice until frothy. Pour over the hot baked crust.
Put it back in the oven for 20-25 minutes until light brown. (I found that I had to put it back in and cook until a wooden skewer came out somewhat clean, it never came out completely clean and it was getting too dark so I removed it.)
Allow to cool and cut. You can dust with the powdered sugar to pretty up the crunchy crackly surface.

In addition to these ingredients, I added about 1/8 tsp lemon juice and a bit of red food coloring.

Because I was not happy with the outcome, I chilled it (almost frozen) and then cut into small petit four sizes. I made a simple glaze with powdered sugar and hot water (some with red food coloring) as well as some chocolate sauce and drizzled these little cakelets. My taste testers (One is 38, one is 10 and one is 3) were 2 thumbs up and one grimace (the 3 year old). The older ones seem to think the sugar glaze (which sets up somewhat firm) added to the experience.

YMMV (your milage may vary). Let me know if you try it out.

[EDITED: After reading some of the reviews over at AllRecipes I have seen how other people are having the worst time with this recipe. I say, try a recipe from The Joy of Cooking.. I am going to look into that tomorrow because I am still craving blood orange bars that are actually edible!]

Technorati Tags: cookbook, AllRecipes.com, old home, cookie, lemon bar, formulation, acidity, eggs, solidified, adapted, recipe, petit four

Food & Wine Magazine Photo Contest: I am one of the first place winners!

nika — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:31:00 +0000

(My winning image: Spice cake with homemade dark chocolate sauce
Ã‚Â© 2006 Nika)I am very proud and honored to say that I am one of the four first place winners in the first annual Food & Wine Magazine food photography contest!

They write about the contest on the Food & Wine Magazine web site.

The grand prize was a very spiffy Canon camera. Firts place winners got most excellent swag, as seen below!

The grand prize winner Jessica Thomson of Seattle, WA won with an image of “Papaya-Jalapeno Sorbet in Black and White Espresso Cups”. Very lovely.

The other three runners up are:
- Linda Nihot of Astoria, Ny with “Eggs in Bombay”
- Karen Bolla of Alameda, CA with “Pears”
- Christian Remy of Brooklyn, NY with “Cooling Pomegranate Syrup”

I got three books and a lovely letter from their director of photography. These are great books filled with lots of excellent food photography. Cant wait to dive into them!

(F&W SWAG! – personal info erased Ã‚Â© 2006 Nika)When I hit the submit button I NEVER thought it would win, I just dont WIN contests, ever. All I can say is that you can never know how these things will turn out unless you give it a chance!

Again, my thanks go out to Food & Wine for selecting my photo this year!

Sunrise Citrus

nika — Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:40:00 +0000

Now with order restored I am looking forward to being productive again. I have taken a break from the chocolate and have found the most delicious California navel oranges.

More than just being pretty, I have in mind a way to use these as an accent in some spreadable white chocolate that I am developing. I will share that with you when I am done.

Mango Banana Chocolate dessert

nika — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 16:30:00 +0000

I continue to look for ways to use my chocolate sauce (this is what happens when you use a pound of chocolate!).

I had a ripe mango on hand and felt like assembling it into a dessert with various textures. I made a smoothie from the remainder of the mango (that is always good

Recipe

Mango Banana Chocolate dessert

Ingredients:

1 ripe mango
1 banana
2 pieces of bread/pound cake
Chocolate sauce
Mango Puree

Directions:

Remove skin from mango, make a large slice, cut into round shape, saute lightly in a medium sauce pan to lend it a light color and warmth. Puree some mango to add to serving plate.

Cut out a round and several accent shapes from bread/cake, toast a bit in your saute pan.

Dip accent shapes into chocolate.

Slice banana.

Arrange all as desired.

Enrobing the world

nika — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:26:01 +0000

Having more fun with my chocolate sauce.