Food Blog:
Cook In.
Eat Out.
Miss Tenacity.
New Mexico.
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Thursday, November 3
Despite the cold, chocolate must prevail
Its getting just a bit cooler "up here" at 6850' above sea level, and I am as always enjoying my hot morning coffee and porridge. Likewise, keeping a steady stream of Tom Yum in my diet helps keep the blood flowing, especially when ordered thai hot and the cook actually follows through on that request despite my paleness of skin.
However, warmth is not the only thing that one's body craves in the fall and winter. Out of a desire to feel happy and secure and fed, we also lust for sugar. Sweets, which just happen have had their seasonal head-start a few days ago, will continue to tempt for the next 6 weeks or more, until the final replacement come 12/31: buckets of alcohol, the only remedy for which is menudo the next morning (a decidedly un-sweet dish).
In the past 3 days, I have made two different batches of a recipe I like to call "Sorbet of Death". It is adapted from Chantal, who adapted it from a cookbook she can no longer recall. The "of Death" part was added by me after a foodie friend tasted some and was driven to exclaim, "holy living fuck!". Decadence is the middle name for this otherwise astonishingly LOW FAT dessert.
Yep, you heard that. Low fat. Make it yourself, and you will be converted. Add some of the "mix-ins" I mention at the bottom, and the low fat part could go out the window, but they are also worth the cost of entry, in my opinion.
Sorbet of Death
(makes 3 cups, serving anywhere from 1-8 persons depending on their tolerance for coma-inducing levels of theobromine)
2 C hot, strong, fresh coffee
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 C unsweetened cocoa powder (use the good stuff - Droste is fine)
1/2 C sugar
1 T molasses
1/4 C dark rum
2 tsp grated orange zest (about 1 orange)
1 TB pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp orange extract (optional)
1. Whisk hot coffee and chocolate.
2. In a food processor or blender, add cocoa and sugar. Blend together. Then add coffee/chocolate mixture and blend again until smooth. Stir in rum, zest, vanilla, and orange extract.
3. Pour this into a metal bowl and chill for 4 hours. Then freeze in your favorite ice-cream maker. It's best when refrigerated overnight afterwards (to soften from its rock-solid state).
VARIATIONS:
Flavorings (in place of the orange) - cinnamon, ground red chile, ground ginger
Mix-ins (in place of the rum - these all help lower the freezing point to keep the sorbet softer, so use either the rum or one or more of these) - 1/4 C peanut or almond butter, 1/4 C other alcohol such as Kahlua, cherry or pear brandy, 1/4-1/2 C whipped cream folded in just before freezing.
Regarding the additions, the best one I've tried yet is the peanut butter. I used chunky and it added a nice saltiness as well as keeping the sorbet softer than usual. Fantastic.
Without the heavy mix-ins, here is the nutritional data, for those obsessive like myself. Note that one-third of the calories are eliminated if you use artificial sugar like Splenda; keep in the molasses - it adds nice flavor.
Per 1/6 above recipe (about 1/2 cup serving):
197 calories, 66% carb - 4% protein - 30% fat. Each serving also has 6g of fiber (22% of your daily RDA) and 360mg of pure theobromine. Wowza.
Time posted: 14:48 [permalink]
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CONTACT ME: tenacity -at- gmail.com
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