Jove Pie: Like Double Chocolate Marshmallow Heaven

The pie "de camino"

Before my first drop of the sweet elixir of life they call coffee, I was already making a double chocolate pie, with homemade marshmallow topping.  Made up the recipe as I went along.  When things turn out as well as that, I always think there is divine inspiration involved.  I think I'm calling my creation: Jove Pie.  Its destiny was into the stomachs of truly loving people who are making my last weeks here, unforgettable.

Crust:

1 ¼ cups of biscotti, pulverized (almond, amaretto, plain, vanilla, chocolate)

2/3 of a stick of butter

¼ cup of icing sugar

½ cup of cacao, not dutch processed.

Press the butter into the dry ingredients bit by bit with your fingertips until it forms a dough.  If it’s too dry, add a little very cold water.  Press into the bottom of a pie tin.  Bake for 10 mins on 350F.

Filling:

1 cup of cacao, not dutch processed

3 egg yolks

¾ cups of sugar

2 cups of whole milk

¾ cup of white, sifted flour

1 tbsp of rum

1 tsp of good vanilla extract

3 tbsps of butter

Heat milk on stove until warm.  In a bowl, whisk together the yolks, sugar, flour, rum, vanilla and cacao, add the cubes of butter, then whisk in the hot milk.  Strain any lumps out and pour into pie.

With oven set at 325F, bake for 35 minutes, or until just set.  Pour marshmallow on top, sprinkle extra cacao (or grate some good chocolate) and bake on 400F for 5-10 mins.

Marshmallow:

3 egg whites

½ cup of icing sugar

1 packet of gelatin

Sprinkle of cornstarch and salt.

Clean your bowl with lemon/lime juice as well as your whisk, thoroughly.  Pour egg whites in, add a pinch of each salt and cornstarch and whisk until fluffly and light, then add sugar, whisk through, then gelatin, whisk through again.

It's delicate, moorish, fully rounded in chocolate flavour and an Ode to the DR: almost everything in it was sourced here.

Santo Domingo: I love you.

The Exodus Ends

After weeks not banned from my own kitchen, but without the chispa, the drive to really make anything of note, I entered it last week, renewed.  My hands chopped, deseeded, whisked, kneaded, strained, diced... I've managed to make m&m and chocolate chunk cookies, a huge fantastic chicken-barley-lentil-vegetable soup (enough to feed a small battalion), greek yogurt, biscotti, soy milk, soy bars, brownies, chocolates... and I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few things.


My fingers fly, my mind races.  Flavours, colours, textures fly through my imagination.  What more could I make?  Could I create?


Well, the soy milk fresh from this morning is bubbling on the stove, the soy bars are in the oven and tiramisu is on the list for later...


You can imagine the smile across my lips, can't you?

Soy milk:

1 cup of soybeans, dry, raw

3 L of water

Dash of salt

Honey, to taste

Soak the cup of beans overnight with 3 cups of water.  In the morning, blend (in a blender!) bit by bit very well: 1/3 of a cup of beans to 2 cups of water and strain into a large pot. Add salt and honey (be conservative, you can always adjust later), bring up gently to a simmer and let simmer for 30 minutes.  Take off the heat and let cool before refrigerating.  If it separates, don't panic, just stir it thoroughly.


With the left over soy, you can put it to good use to make protein bars by adding sugar, cocoa, vanilla extract, salt, flour, baking powder and soda a a dash of vinegar.  It's vegan and quite delicious.  Keeps the bars really moist.


Hurraz!

 

Cultural Relativity

I had an absolutely wonderful Saturday last week: I was invited to the home of my beloved’s family (he’s in Spain, I am here), the country home I should add.  A beautifully welcome break in the irritating honking and screeching of the city: silence, mountains, stars, a caramel moon.  The sweetest part of the whole day was quite frankly, the people.  We made franks (haha), and burgers, we were fed a plethora of sweets by the lovely matriarch.  For those few blessed hours, I felt closer to my “media naranja” (literal translation: half orange.  Like one is missing the other half of their orange.  Yeah, it’s real cute), and even better, I felt welcome and like I fit in.

I could proudly be woven into their tapestry.  For a few moments I was.  I rarely have been in the presence of so many people I admire that are not part of my own immediate family (I have been spoiled with an extremely smart and educated one).

Now, the reason for the title of this post is the following: I sampled some of the best chocolate confections I have ever tasted in my short (keeps getting less short), yet extremely candy-adventurous life.  They were called brigadeiros.  And I completely expected to find them under Dominican recipes when I searched for them.  But no.  They are Brazilian.  Now how would I be served a Brazilian sweet in the Dominican Republic, by a Dominican woman?  She studied in Brazil.  Cultural relativity.

I will be trying my hand at them soon, will post the recipe as soon as.

Salade Niçeoise, Deconstructed (more like Salade Juliaoise)

Kindof like a 4 seasons pizza, but with this awesome salad.  The dressing is particularly good and I was left with absolutely none of it, even though I would have loved to have had some the following day.  The base for the dressing is the white wine that cooks the seafood, so all the delicious oceany juices give it a delicious twist.

For 4 hungry hungry... well not hippos, but you know.

You will need:

2 large handfuls of tender green beans

1 large head of broccoli (fun alternative: brussel sprouts, 4 per person)

Cherry tomatoes on the vine, enough for 4-5 per person (a little vine each)

1 small red onion, sliced finely

1 red pepper, sliced into strips

Celery root, 2 big ones, cleaned and boiled until tender, then salted

Some good black olives, 10 per person

2 cups of clams

8oz of Salmon or any other fish

1 cup of white wine

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp of tarragon dijon mustard

Juice of 2 big limes

Salt, to taste

3 tbsps of olive oil

Blanch the green beans, broccoli until they’re slightly tender yet still brilliantly green.  Put aside.

Take a big pot and put 1 inch of water in the bottom.  Bring to boil, Add the white wine and add your seafood, with the fish at the bottom and clams at the top.  Leave on high until all the clams are open, turn off heat, then remove seafood from liquid, but aside, pour juice of one of the limes on top and salt.  Add the garlic, mustard, juice of other lime and salt to cooking liquid.  Mix thoroughly then start adding olive oil, whisking it in.  Dressing done!

Plate up a bit of every vegetable, each on its own side of the plate, a few clams and 2 oz of salmon on top and drizzle dressing over.

Serve with some good white wine and a hearty dark rye bread with some good butter.

Accidental Bitter Orange and Red Wine Soup

There are always happy accidents and this is a recipe rife with them.

Firstly, my nice bottle of red wine was left out on the table as I was sick and unable to drink it, effectively turning it a little into port.  Secondly, I had wished to purchase oranges at the supermarket and accidentally got “naranja agria” or bitter orange, which just won’t do.  But that along with a whole chicken, some onions, tayota, carrots, garlic and splashes or spice and herb magic rendered a fantastic soup!

To re-create this accident, you will need:

1 BIG cooking pot

1 whole tasty chicken

2 huge tayotas, peeled and cut into chunks

3 large carrots, peeled and sliced

3 large red onions, peeled and sliced

8 cloves of garlic, minced

2 bitter oranges, zested and juiced.

½ tsp of oregano

¼ tsp of cumin

Half a bottle of red wine and 3 cups of water

Salt to taste

Lime juice to taste
4 tomatoes, chopped

Cilantro, chopped to garnish

Mix together the juice of the oranges with the zest, the oregano, cumin, garlic.          Wash chicken with vinegar and pat dry.  Apply bitter orange paste all over and refrigerate overnight.  The next day shove everything in the big pot, chicken on the bottom with breast pointing up (yes, skin and all).  Bring to a boil, then turn down heat to simmer for 2 hours.  At the end of 2 hours, turn off and let cool until you can handle the chicken.  Take all meat off chicken and dispose of bones (meat should be very soft and easily removed).  Skim grease off top of soup, then add chicken and tomatoes.  Bring back to almost boil then turn off, taste and adjust seasoning with salt and lime juice.  Serve with a flourish of cilantro, or even better some fresh zest sprinkled on top for some real zing!