Thursday, July 3, 2008

Spicy Chocolate Truffles


for Eva

I'm going to shock you. Right now in the middle of your day, be prepared for some shock and awe. My relatives in India do not like chocolate. That's right. I thought it was genetically impossible to dislike chocolate until I discovered this fact sometime in my teens. And I was shocked and awed.

My relatives say chocolate must be an acquired taste and, to be fair, it tastes nothing like traditional Indian desserts. So I concocted this recipe to try and bring them over to the dark side. It has lots of chocolate infused with Indian spices and a little cayenne pepper kick.

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Ingredients
8 oz semi-sweet high-quality chocolate (can be bars or chips)
1 14 oz can light sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp
cardamom

For coating:
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Steps
1. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil
2. While water is boiling, break up chocolate bars into small pieces. If using chocolate chips, skip this step
3. Once water boils, turn off heat
4. Put chocolate pieces into a stainless steel bowl on top of pot of boiling water
5. Stir chocolate as it melts
6. Add condensed milk, cinnamon and cardamom, and stir until smooth
7. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let mixture cool down at room temperature for as long as possible (preferably overnight)
8. Combine cocoa powder and cayenne pepper in bowl to create coating
9. Using a teaspoon, dig out about 1-inch balls of mixture (use your fingers to shape which will be really messy but super yummy for cleanup afterward)
10. Roll each ball in coating
11. Let balls sit again at room temperature to harden for at least an hour

Makes about 20 truffles

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Turmeric

According to an article in the New York Times, turmeric, a spice heavily used in Indian cooking, is the superstar of spices with anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Who knew? I guess it's worth it even though my counter is stained and my fingers stay yellow for hours.