Been Practicing a Dessert Dish

I've been getting ready for a culinary competition that is coming up in a couple weeks. The competition is called a market basket, but it is often called a mystery basket by competitors. The competition is four course, ten portions each prepared in four hours. When we go in, we have no idea what the "basket" will contain. Usually there will be some sort of meat, a type of poultry, fish and a number of vegetables and perhaps a starch.

There is also a "common-stock" of items we know will be available to us for preparing these items. This list ranges from common vegetables like onions, celery, carrots and garlic, along with some fruits, flour and sugar and the other general stuff you might expect to find in a well-stocked pantry.

Now most people I see compete in this category go in with almost no plan. They start off so over whelmed this way because they have to take the full 30 minutes to come up with a menu and then figure out what they are going to do with the items. I choose to have a template that I have made up and even have certain course pretty much planned with the menu changing by the addition of the ingredients in the basket.

One course I pretty much plan out completely is the dessert course. I enjoy coming up with desserts, but I am by no means a pastry chef. So I come up with a plan that utilizes ingredients from the common-stock and then plan to add in a fruit to one of the components in the course. I just came up with my new dessert today and I thought I would share it. I am preparing a chocolate polenta tartlet with zabaglione sauce, frozen yogurt (flavored with a fruit from the basket) served on a honey tuile cookie.

Chocolate Cornmeal Tartlets
10-servings
Ingredients:
Crust
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 oz. butter
1 each egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest from 1/2 a lemon

Filling
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate
4 oz. butter
2 each eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons cornmeal
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Crust
Combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt for the crust in a large mixing bowl and blend together well. Add the butter, egg, olive oil, vanilla and the lemon zest and mix until well combined. Dust the counter liberally with flour and roll out the dough until about 1/8 of an inch thick. Prepare ten 4 inch tartlet molds with olive oil spray or use non-stick pans. Cut the dough into ten sections and set in tartlets molds and remove the excess from the edges. Set pans in refrigerator until needed. (Note: you can also use one large tart mold with a removable bottom instead)

Filling
Place chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water until melted. While melting, place eggs, sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl and beat on high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume. Once the chocolate is melted, fold the egg mixture into the chocolate. Then fold in the cornmeal and flour until completely combined.

Fill each tart shell with the filling. Place in the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes if using small tartlet molds. If using a large tart pan bake for 23-25 minutes or until top begins to crack. Remove from oven, chill on rack for at least 30 minutes and then remove from pan.

Frozen Yogurt
Makes 32 oz.
Ingredients:
16 oz. plain yogurt
6 oz. fruit juice or puree
6 oz. granulated sugar
1.5 oz. light corn syrup

Method:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl until throughly mixed. Place mixture into ice cream maker and freeze until firm. Place yogurt into a quart container and place in a freezer for at least an hour or until hard enough to serve.

Zabaglione
Ingredients:
5 oz. egg yolks
5 oz. granulated sugar
5 oz. marsala

Method:
Mix ingredients in a stainless steel bowl and place over a pot of simmering water and continuously stir with a wire whisk until thickened and the temperature reaches 180 degrees. Place the cooked sauce into a bowl and mix with an electric mixture until it reaches room temperature. Serve at either room temperature or chill.

Vosges Haut-Chocolat, The Pursuit of Chocolate Perfection

Last spring I wrote a term paper on the American consumer appeal of artisanal single estate and locally produced chocolates. As part of the research for the paper I took a trip to NYC to go on a couple chocolate tours. There are two tours offered by a young woman with her company Chocolate ZOOM. One tour is called the Luxury chocolate tour, which features all European chocolatiers, such as La Maison du Chocolat and Michel Ricart.

The second tour is called the New Cuisine Chocolate Tour. This tour takes you down to the Greenwich Village area where the American chocolate makers show off their wares. A few of them make their chocolates on the spot, while one of the shops, Vosges Haut-Chocolat, imports their chocolate from their Chicago shop. The chocolatier for this shop is truly unique in her approach to flavors.

Katrina Markoff is truly a unique chef. Before she started her business she worked at El Bulli in Barcelona for Ferran Adria. Seeing as his cuisine approach is very eclectic, emphasizing the molecular gastronomy approach to food, it should come to no surprise that Katrina would come up with some of the interesting flavor combinations for her chocolates.

However, her inspiration not only comes from just knowledge of food, but a use of different art forms to influence her creativity. She will often look to different music forms, such as blues or cultures. Listening to her talk about how she comes up with her chocolates can be sorta odd for those who think of food in a very traditional sense, but when one thinks about composing a piece of music, there is a synergy that must work to make all of the parts come together, she shares the same thought process with her flavor combinations.

Quite honestly, the only way to really understand her approach is to listen to her and watch her in action talking about her inspirations. So this video here is her talking about her inspirations and I think many of you will enjoy it.

I can't tell you how great her collections are. She creates a number of unique truffle lines. You might think, of well it is just chocolate, but think about this. Her Zion Collection is inspired by Rastafarian culture and Jamaica, if you watch the video above she talks about her early influence of Bob Marely. She also has a Groove Collection, which she takes inspiration from African American musical genres for. The Aztec Collection, takes inspiration from as you would guess Aztec culture. She also creates a number of traditional chocolate lines, such as a Dark Truffle and Milk Chocolate.

There are currently five shops to visit if you have the chance. There are two in Chicago, two in New York City and one in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. At her shops, you can buy all the items on her website, but they also feature individual truffles which you can buy so that you don't have to buy the full collection. These following places also sell Markoff's chocolates:


New York City - Bergdorf Goodman
Honolulu - Neiman Marcus
Los Angeles - Neiman Marcus
San Francisco - Neiman Marcus
Ann Arbor, MI - Zingermans

In addition her chocolate bars, which follow the same ideas of her truffles are sold at Whole Foods markets. I often purchase them there, but at a steep $6.99 a piece, they are not a regular purchase. They are well worth it though for pure enjoyment. I had a friend recently tell me "but a Hershey's bar is only $1.00", said friend does not deserve to eat this chocolate. You need to remember when eating this chocolate, that it is so much more than consumption of flavors, it is an experience.