Category Archives: Chocolate

BERBERS & BEGHRIRS (MOROCCAN PANCAKES)

Chocolate, FlavoursOfPlaces, Morocco

MOROCCAN BEGHRIRBeghrir is a traditional style of pancake which originates from the Berbers, an indigenous ethnic group from North Africa. It’s a popular breakfast meal & daytime snack & often served with a honey-butter mixture, although they also taste wonderful with chocolate!

The Berbers have been around North Africa for thousands of years & are mentioned as far back as end of the Roman Empire. Nowadays, there are around 25 million people speaking Berber in the region, mainly in Morocco & Algeria. The Berber people are also associated with more rural environments, such as the nomadic Tuaregs who travel the Northern Sahara desert.

Ancient Berber culture is rich & diverse, notably their music & dance. Berber music is especially interesting & it’s styles range from Celtic – with bagpipes & oboes – to Chinese influences, all of which are combined with African rhythms. Probably the most famous Berber music comes from the Master Musicians of Jajouka, a large all-male collective who originate from the Rif Mountains, near Tangiers. They were named as such by beat writers Paul Bowles & William Burroughs during the 50’s, while Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones produced one of their albums in 1967. Their sound is wonderfully trippy & derives from Sufi trance music, which is over 1000 years old. To learn more, check out this excellent article from the Quietus

Now back to those delicious pancakes…..& to make them four decent-sized Beghrirs, you’ll need:

1/2 teacup of fine grain semolina
1/2 teacup of white flour
1/2 teacup of luke warm water
1/2 teacup of milk
1/2 teaspoon of dried yeast
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 medium egg
A pinch of salt & sugar

1. Simply add all the ingredients in to a bowl, whisk thoroughly & leave for around thirty minutes.
2. Then add a little butter to large, medium-heat frying pan, pour in a quarter of the mixture & almost cook as you would a normal pancake…..the difference being that you don’t flip them. By not flipping, you’ll see a lovely holed texture develop on the top.

Just keep an eye on the base of the Beghrir & once the top appears dry & cooked, then serve. Bon appetite!

CARDAMOM

Chocolate, FlavoursOfPlaces, Herbs & Spices, India

Green CardamomCardamom has an interesting past going back thousands of years, as the spice travelled across many great civilisations & countries. India has traditionally used the spice for medicinal purposes in the form of Aruveyda, as well as now being a key flavouring in Garam Masala spice mix & delicious Masala Chai Tea. The ancient Egyptians used to whiten teeth & the ancient Greeks & Romans used it to aid digestion & as a perfume & breath freshener. Many Arab cultures also add Cardamom to coffee, while the spice is also at the heart of various Scandanavian breads such as Pulla & Julekaka, after the Vikings visited Constantinople.

Cardamom is also a valuable spice which hails from Kerala in India, alongside Black Pepper & Ginger. It comes from a tall, thin plant in the form of tiny pods, which contain the fragrant seeds. There are two main types of Cardamom – green & black. Green Cardamom has a woody & slightly citrus flavour, while Black Cardamom has a cooler, smokier flavour. And since the Cardamom plant requires the same hot & wet climatic conditions as Cocoa, maybe Chocolate & Cardamom were always meant to be together. I find that Cardamom combines especially well with sweet creamy white chocolate, so here’s a simple recipe for a White Chocolate Mousse which will serve around 5-6. I say, 5-6 because I find that a small amount of this rich desert is ample. This desert is also excellent at cleansing the palate after some spicy food!

Cardamom White Chocolate Mousse1. Crush around 20 green cardamom pods & put the seeds to one side.
2. Slowly melt 200g of white chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water & add the cardamom seeds. You can also add milk if you want to stretch the ingredients further.
3. Add four medium egg whites into a bowl & whisk until stiff.
4. Gently fold the egg whites into the white chocolate mix until everything is perfectly blended.
5. Place in small containers or glasses & leave in the fridge overnight. The longer you leave them, the better the texture & the more infused the spice. Enjoy!

CHOCOLATE CHIPS & WWII

Chocolate

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies Apparently chocolate chips were only ‘invented’ in 1937 by Ruth Graves Wakefield of Massachusetts, when she added a broken up bar of Nestle chocolate to her cookie mixture. The cookies became very popular in the Toll House Inn which she ran with her husband & by 1939, ‘Toll House Cookies’ had become a Nestle product.

Chocolate chips & The Toll House cookie then took on extra significance when they became highly desired by Massachusetts’ soldiers stationed overseas during WWII & subsequently their popularity grew & grew. C-mail definitely became cheer mail!

I always love biting into a cookies or cake and being rewarded with little creamy bits of chocolate. I think it makes you appreciate the chocolate more than in a cake of pure cocoa. Here’s a great recipe for chocolate chip buns which I made on saturday afternoon, knowing that they’d make for a brilliant sunday breakfast & the perfect accompaniment to some nice strong tea or coffee.

It’s a recipe by Dan Lepard of the Guardian & they were delicious – not a million miles away from a pain au chocolate, which have always been a favourite of mine. Note the amount of chips in the recipe makes for very chocolatey buns, so I might add a bit less next time. Enjoy!

Home-made #chocolate chip buns. Not bad for a first attempt!

A photo posted by Cocoa Hernando (@cocoahernando) on

WONDERFUL CHILLIES

Chocolate, FlavoursOfPlaces, Herbs & Spices, Mexico

elephants_trunk

Chillies are one of my most favourite things. They come in such beautiful colours and shapes (like the wonderful packet of East Indian chillies I picked up in Kerala, left) & they’re always so exciting to eat and cook with. I think that I’m actually slightly addicted to that heat rush, but despite often burning my mouth & developing irritating hiccups, I always come back for more.

Ear Flowers

The chilli is native to Central and South America and the Carribean, so it’s no real surprise that this spice was one of the first additions to the earliest forms of chocolate, made by the forefathers of the Mayans and Aztecs. Along with Vanilla, Bee Honey and the peppery Ear Flowers (right), Chilli was used to add flavour to the bitter liquid they called xoclatl.

According to Fred Czarra (Spices, A Global History), the Spanish were the first to bring chillies to Europe, courtesy of Christopher Columbus in the 16th century. The Spanish & Hernando Cortes are also often thought to be responsible in bringing chocolate to Europe soon after. However, it was the Portuguese who were probably responsible for taking chillies to South and East Asia, via their mighty trading routes which ran from Brazil to Macao and Goa.

Bhut Jolokia

The heat of a chilli is measured by the Scoville Heat Index, named after the pharmacist William Scoville. The hottest chilli on record is the Trinidad Scorpian ‘Butch T’, discovered in Australia in 2011 which measured 1,463,700 Scovilles. By comparison, a jalapeño comes in at 10,000!

The home of the chilli belongs to Mexico, who use them in salsas (guajillo), pickles (jalapeno), for stuffing (manzano) and even as vegetables (poblano). My favourite is the chipotle, which is a mild, dried & smoked jalapeño and will star in our Mexican chocolate bar. They have a delicious, smoky flavour and just the perfect amount of heat.

Chocolate and chilli also star in Mole, which is a dark, rich sauce popular throughout Mexico. Here’s a recipe for Chicken Mole, which tastes like a Latino Chicken Chasseur & goes perfectly with rice & home-made guacamole. It’s a simplified recipe for four people, which is easy to cook but will take you about an hour…

1. Blend 1 clove of garlic, 1 sliced onion, 500g of chopped tomatoes, 4 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds, 1, tablespoon of paprika, 1 teaspoon of cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves and 1 teaspoon of chilli powder (I’m using a mild Guajillo chilli). This gives you a rich fragrant tomato sauce.

2. Heat some oil in a big pan, then add the tomato sauce and simmer for 20 minutes, then cover & leave.

3. Cover 4 chopped chicken breasts with 1 chopped clove of garlic, 1 sliced onion and a few sprigs of mint in a pan with water & simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken is white & tender. Then remove the chicken & add to the tomato sauce. Finally carefully strain the remaining stock from the pan into a container & put to one side.

4. Pour a little of your stock into the pan with the tomato sauce & chicken, add 25g of dark chocolate & stir / simmer for ten minutes or so until the sauce thickens. Add more stock if the sauce becomes too thick, then serve up!