Get inspired by chocolate
Mmm, chocolate...there are few who don't find it one of life's finest culinary pleasures. But many of us think of chocolate as a sweet treat, something to be enjoyed after dinner or as an afternoon indulgence, not as part of the main meal.
Vancouver chefs Dominique and Cindy Duby, owners of chocolate boutique D.C. Duby Wild Sweets, want to change that. They've spent years pushing the boundaries of what belongs in a chocolate truffle, experimenting with such ingredients as red cabbage, parsnip and mushrooms, and they recently released a cookbook, Wild Sweets Chocolate: Sweet, Savoury, Bites, Drinks, (Whitecap, 2007), that explores the opposite of that relationship: not what savoury ingredients can be added to chocolates, but rather, how you can use chocolate in a variety of ways to enhance savoury dishes.
So how does one cook with chocolate? The Dubys share their inspiration, their tips and their recommendations for getting started -- plus, they've kindly offered to share a couple of recipes to try.
Vancouver chefs Dominique and Cindy Duby, owners of chocolate boutique D.C. Duby Wild Sweets, want to change that. They've spent years pushing the boundaries of what belongs in a chocolate truffle, experimenting with such ingredients as red cabbage, parsnip and mushrooms, and they recently released a cookbook, Wild Sweets Chocolate: Sweet, Savoury, Bites, Drinks, (Whitecap, 2007), that explores the opposite of that relationship: not what savoury ingredients can be added to chocolates, but rather, how you can use chocolate in a variety of ways to enhance savoury dishes.
So how does one cook with chocolate? The Dubys share their inspiration, their tips and their recommendations for getting started -- plus, they've kindly offered to share a couple of recipes to try.
Chocolate inspirations
Wild Sweets offers a wide range of chocolate truffles, from the traditional to the experimental, and this is where the Dubys got started with mixing chocolate and savoury dishes. "We've been using savoury items in our chocolate collection for many years," says Dominique. "We did things with chanterelle mushrooms, morel mushrooms, black truffles, we use parsnip...what we are trying to do is provide a sense of comfort but also provide excitement."
Interestingly, it's typically adults who are wary of the more creative offerings. "We use children as taste testers," says Cindy, "because they don't have a culinary memory of what things taste like." She adds that when she gives adults something different to try, she often won't tell them what it is they're eating at first. She reveals the ingredients only once adults pleasurably react. Lesson learned: Keep an open mind when cooking with savoury meals and chocolate.
Why chocolate, and how?
Dominique notes that the palette of ingredients traditionally available to a pastry chef or chocolatier is limited, and that their goal was to expand the culinary uses of chocolate, both as chocolatiers and in savoury dishes. "In today's style of cuisine, it goes full circle," he says, "culinary chefs taking inspiration from pastry chefs and vice versa."
The first step was to deconstruct chocolate -- rather than just working from a bar, they broke it down into its components: not just white, dark and milk chocolate, but cocoa butter, cocoa powder and cocoa nibs (roasted cocoa beans).
For example, says Dominique, "we made a mayo with cocoa butter instead of oil. Cocoa powder instead of spices in a rub." He notes that they often use white chocolate in sauces, and cocoa nibs to make an infusion. And cocoa butter, he says, is a wonderful fat to cook with, as it has a high smoke point and acts as an insulator. "It locks the moisture in," he says, adding that he likes to fry fish in cocoa butter.
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Wild Sweets offers a wide range of chocolate truffles, from the traditional to the experimental, and this is where the Dubys got started with mixing chocolate and savoury dishes. "We've been using savoury items in our chocolate collection for many years," says Dominique. "We did things with chanterelle mushrooms, morel mushrooms, black truffles, we use parsnip...what we are trying to do is provide a sense of comfort but also provide excitement."
Interestingly, it's typically adults who are wary of the more creative offerings. "We use children as taste testers," says Cindy, "because they don't have a culinary memory of what things taste like." She adds that when she gives adults something different to try, she often won't tell them what it is they're eating at first. She reveals the ingredients only once adults pleasurably react. Lesson learned: Keep an open mind when cooking with savoury meals and chocolate.
Why chocolate, and how?
Dominique notes that the palette of ingredients traditionally available to a pastry chef or chocolatier is limited, and that their goal was to expand the culinary uses of chocolate, both as chocolatiers and in savoury dishes. "In today's style of cuisine, it goes full circle," he says, "culinary chefs taking inspiration from pastry chefs and vice versa."
The first step was to deconstruct chocolate -- rather than just working from a bar, they broke it down into its components: not just white, dark and milk chocolate, but cocoa butter, cocoa powder and cocoa nibs (roasted cocoa beans).
For example, says Dominique, "we made a mayo with cocoa butter instead of oil. Cocoa powder instead of spices in a rub." He notes that they often use white chocolate in sauces, and cocoa nibs to make an infusion. And cocoa butter, he says, is a wonderful fat to cook with, as it has a high smoke point and acts as an insulator. "It locks the moisture in," he says, adding that he likes to fry fish in cocoa butter.
Click to continue...
Page 1 of 2
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