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Thgursday,
March 11, 2010
This
Week's Theme:
Favorite Ingredients - Chocolate
Today's
Recipe: Chocolate Fondue
(Please see the Archive links in the column on the right
for previous recipes)
Today's
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Food
Funny
Here's another true food
funny from Lois Thomson:
Some of my friends and I are
big hockey fans, and we used to go to Montreal
occasionally to see a hockey game. One particular
time we selected a nice French restaurant where we
could have dinner before the game. I had studied a
little French, so I was feeling just a bit smug as
we looked at the menu. My friends couldn't
understand a word of it, and they were asking the
waiter about the ingredients of the different "veau"
(veal) dishes. But I merely made my selection
without any questions.
This happened probably 25
years ago so I don't exactly remember the name of my
dish, but I was quickly humbled when my dinner came
and I realized it was liver - "fois" - which I
despise (and which almost anyone even without any
knowledge of French would know). My friends were
oohing and aahing over their wonderful dinners and
sharing bites with each other. They probably
wondered why I didn't offer to have them sample
mine, but I was too embarrassed to let them know how
dumb I was.
Quizine
Question
Cynthia MacGregor, Editor
What goes into pico de gallo,
and how did it get its name?
Subscribers to the PLUS
Edition will receive the answer to today's Quizine
Question by email. For complete details see the
PLUS Edition page.
A
Word
from the Chef
More from our favorite
correspondents in today's peek into the Worldwide
Recipes mailbag.
Dearest Chef,
Thank you for sharing your
views on processed artificial foods. I never knew
you felt so strongly about the subject. Forgive me
for asking, but what are your views on the other
taboo subjects: politics, religion, and sex? Just
curious.
Your biggest fan,
Sally
Hi Sally,
As I have said before, those
are subjects that have no business in this little
recipezine, but since you asked and this is not for
public consumption, here is what I think about those
"forbidden" subjects:
Politics - I believe that
politics is the art or science of political
government. In other words, I think politics is the
policies, goals, or affairs of a government, or the
political parties within it. That is only my
opinion, and you are more than welcome to disagree
with it.
Religion - My view of
religion can be summarized thusly: religion is the
expression of man's belief in and reverence for a
superhuman power recognized as the creator and
governor of the universe. I would also add that it
is any particular integrated system of this
expression, although you may feel free to disagree
with me on this also.
Sex - I have it on good
authority from several books, magazine articles, and
television documentaries (as well as darned near
everybody I know) that sex is a pleasurable activity
when practiced by mature, responsible, and
consenting adults. Beyond that, I really don't have
much of an opinion, although I am told that
sometimes food plays a role and I am quite curious
about that.
I hope this answers your
questions regarding these subjects, which I would
never write about in the recipezine due to their
personal and controversial nature. Thank you for
subscribing.
The Chef at Worldwide
Recipes
Dear Chef,
Since you brought it up,
just what are your thoughts on politics, religion,
and sex? I am sure that I'm not the only person
interested in knowing. Thanks, and keep up the great
work.
Don
Hi Don,
Those topics have no
business in the recipezine, and I refuse to make my
thoughts on such private matters a subject of "A
Word from the Chef." Thank you for subscribing.
The Chef at Worldwide
Recipes
In
Today's PLUS Edition
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Today's
Second Recipe: Chocolate Cream Cheese Fudge
Today's bonus recipes from the WWR Archives:
Moroccan-Style Chicken Stew; Beef Braised in Coffee; and
Mexican Camarones con Tequila (Tequila Shrimp)
Readers'
Recipes: Beef and Feta Cheese Soup; Mushroom
Velvet Cream Soup; Sweet Potato Muffins; and
Red Beans and Rice
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Today's
Recipe
Unlike its cheesy
namesake, chocolate fondue is not a
traditional Swiss dish, and I have seen more
than one traveler met with a blank stare
when trying to order it in restaurants in
Switzerland. The only similarity to cheese
fondue is that the chocolate is served warm
in a fondue pot or chafing dish, and pieces
of food are speared with long forks and
dipped into the warm mixture.
Chocolate Fondue
12 oz (335 g) milk chocolate or semisweet
chocolate pieces
3/4 cup (180 ml) half-and-half or mixture of
heavy cream and milk
2 Tbs (30 ml) Cointreau, Grand Marnier, or
brandy (optional)
Assorted fruits cut into bite-size pieces,
such as apples, pears, or peaches. Favorites
of mine are strawberries, pineapple chunks,
and bananas. Consider also using maraschino
cherries, seedless grapes, tangerine or
Mandarin orange segments, marshmallows, and
pieces of angel food or pound cake.
Combine the chocolate and half-and-half in a
heavy pot and melt over low heat, stirring
constantly until the mixture is smooth.
Remove from the heat and stir in the
optional liqueur. Serve warm in a fondue pot
or chafing dish with an assortment of fruits
and cakes. Serves 6 to 8.
Reader
Review
 Reader
Laurel Hennessy writes:
I don't want to see this
site shut down so here is my current favorite
cookbook. "Cheese" by James McNair. It's by
Chronicle Books in San Francisco. Not only are the
recipes yummy but the photography by Patricia
Brabant is divine. Whether cheese is served on a
snack tray or melted into mac and cheese or even a
big bowl of scalloped potatoes, it's always good. My
favorite snack is apple slices topped with a slices
of Cheddar cheese.
Click here for more information.
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Kitchen
Tip
Thanks to reader Anna
Welander for today's helpful hint:
If you buy your parchment on
a roll, use refrigerator magnets to hold it in place
on sheet pans. Then remove before putting in the
oven.
If you have a handy solution to a common kitchen
problem, please send it to
Tips@wwrecipes.com
Culinary Chronicles
Karlis Streips, Editor
Today we turn to the granddaddy
of all bottled sauces - soy sauce. Thousands and
thousands of years old, this is a sauce which quite
possibly first emerged in Ancient China, where jiang was
a word used to describe preserved foods and their
seasonings. Jiang was made of all kinds of things, but
grain was most easily available, as were soybeans. The
process of making "grain jiang" gradually spread to
Japan and other neighboring countries, and over the
course of the next centuries, it developed into the
product that we know today...
Subscribers to the PLUS
Edition receive the complete Culinary Chronicle
delivered conveniently by email every day. See the
PLUS Edition page for details.
Ask the
Chef
Timothy asks: What is
Hungarian paprika? Here in Missouri all I find is
plain old paprika! Thanks for helping all of us not
in the know.
The Chef answers: Paprika is
made by grinding dried, sweet red peppers to a fine,
powdery texture. Most of the paprika available
commercially in the United States is from Spain,
South America, California, and Hungary, and the
Hungarian variety is often considered the most
prized. The paprikas found in the average
supermarket are most likely very mild, but more
pungent varieties of paprika may be found in ethnic
markets in your neighborhood.
Send your questions on
any topic, no matter how serious or silly, to
AsktheChef@wwrecipes.com - I can't answer them all,
but I'll publish one every day whether I know the answer
or not.
The
Last Morsel
Barbara Forsythe, Editor
When John Tenniel drew the
Mock Turtle for Lewis Carroll's "Alice in
Wonderland," he gave him a turtle's shell but a
calf's head, hind legs, and tail--and appropriately
so. West Indian green turtles were the luxury food
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, valued
for their meat and for the soup made from it. But
only aristocrats could afford them when they were
first imported in the 1750s, and so the search began
for a substitute suitable for shallower middle-class
pockets. The answer was veal, and more particularly
the calf's head. Hannah Glasse in her "Art of
Cookery" (1751) has a recipe in which a calf's head
is stewed in stock laced with Madeira, and then
served with its broth in a turtle's shell. Margaret
Dods's "Cook and Housewife's Manual" (1826) mentions
'Mock Turtle, or Calf's Head', but thereafter, not
perhaps surprisingly, the head itself largely
disappeared from the table, leaving the soup as the
counterfeit reptile's main contribution to English
cuisine. Interestingly, as conservation worries have
led to the virtual demise of real turtle soup, the
urge to mimic it inexpensively seems to have gone
too.
John Ayto, from "The
Glutton's Glossary: A Dictionary of Food and Drink
Terms"
Please address your comments regarding "The Last Morsel"
to editor Barbara Forsythe at
Barbara@wwrecipes.com
For an archive of all Morsels published in Worldwide
Recipes, plus Weekend Morsels for insatiable foodies,
please visit TheLastMorsel.com
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