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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 Sponsors

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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

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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

If you like recipes, then you'll LOVE Worldwide Recipes PLUS. Subscribers to the PLUS Edition receive everything in this free edition plus the following additional recipes and features:

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.

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Reader Review

James Mcnair's CheeseReader 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.

Tell us about your favorite cookbook, kitchen tool, or gourmet food by sending a brief review to Review@wwrecipes.com And please don't forget to include the link to Amazon.com or the ISBN or ASIN number.

 

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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