Seasons Greetings Everyone… and to all a good night!

Eating Into The Economy

If governments could ever get into the habit of being proactive, as they are doing with some artsy industries, Ontario’s promising food sector could be cooking with homegrown biogas.

The Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit provides generous incentives for hiring cultural workers from Ontario. The buy-local talent incentive works like this. A production company gets a tax credit worth up to about 85% of their wage and travel expenses for any Ontario worker they hire.

Chocolate and Strawberries

These incentives are responsible for creating roughly 276,000 highly skilled jobs and $5.3 billion a year in economic activity in 2008, according to the Government of Ontario.

The food and agriculture sector has equal potential to be the creative hubs of a local sustainable multicultural cuisine that relies on artisanal skills and good pay scales.

Ontario’s agri-food industry is one of the most diverse in the world.

Government of Ontario statistics also shows that in 2008,

• exports totaled $8.5 billion
• involving 113,395 firms and farms
• providing 726,200 jobs
• generating $85.2 billion in annual revenue’s and,
• the creative food sector (ie; organic, specialty, ethnic, etc.) is increasing by 15 to 20 % a year.
  

  Food of The Gods

Since the collapse of the auto industry in Ontario, it is safe to say that the agri-food industry is Ontario’s largest employer. Opportunities abound for artisanal employment. Season-extention growing methods so ingredients from other climates could be cultivated here.  Cocoa for example could be grown botanically reproducing the exact same conditions to grow the plant. The roasted shells could be used for biofeul as the video illustrates.

Stoneground breads made with a variety of grains could also be cultivated here. Fusion dishes that express Ontario’s reality as a new multicultural homeland. Toronto could become one of the gastronomical capitals of the world. Food can be grown sustainably, and on and on.

The food and agricultural sector is aging, and most farmers cannot convince their children to take over the farm. This means that we will continue to bring in foreign workers to tend to the farms , and have multi-national grocers running the farms in the name of profitability as opposed to sustainability, which is another rant altogether.

Liquid Chocolate

All it would take to create tens of thousands of jobs would be the political will and the stroke of a pen. A tax credit for food processors, restaurants, cafeterias coffee shops, fast food outlets that buy products from local farmers. Could you imagine Tim Hortons buying their coffee beans from Ontario.

To me it seems like a no-brainer. I guess the Government of Ontario thinks that if they walk east far enough, looking for a sunset…they will eventually find one.

  

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

The Dark Side of Chocolate

Many of the top cocoa-producing nations in West Africa continue to allow slavery, especially in the agricultural sector. In these nations slavery is officially illegal, but it is still practiced, and enforcement of the law is limited.

Real life on  a West African cocoa plantation is a far cry from the rosy picture the  National Confectioners Association  leads you to believe.

In many chocolate producing West African nations, and especially in the Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), slaves who are mostly children, work on cocoa plantations. Every year, thousands of Malian children are sold into slavery and brought into the Ivory Coast to work.

Unfortunately, the plantations involved are small and isolated enough that this practice remains under the radar of law enforcement officials. The tragic stories of the children involved came to light when Knight Ridder newspapers published a series on these slaves. In response to these allegations,  the Ivory Coast government has tentatively agreed to form a task force to mitigate the problem

Chocolate manufacturers insist that they have little control over their supply chain, however, there are other alternatives available. Buying fair trade chocolate ensures that small cocoa farmers are fairly compensated for their crop.

Fair trade is about doing things that is fair to everyone  When you spot the fair trade mark on a product, it means that farmers in developing countries have been paid a fair and stable price for their crop.

” Fair trade is a good thing for farmers like me . We earn more, but it  also means we get advice with farming  practices and learn more skills, becoming better farmers”

             Addae Mensah Joseph - Kuapa Cocoa Farmer

The  next time you bite into a chocolate bar, consider the impact of the chocolate industry on african children.

This video illustrates what can be accomplished with a shift in thinking .

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

How to Taste Chocolate

So I am in class the other day, and we our discussing our upcoming assignment, when one of my classmates categorically states ” Oh ya  red wine and dark chocolate!.”…its great!  I immediately thought to myself…”that’s just like dark chocolate and blueberries!!”

Chocolate Cake

 In order to design dishes with unconventional flavour combinations,such as chocolate and savory foods it is valuable to understand how we perceive and taste food.The understanding of food design is the first step in having a broader understanding , when preparing and serving savory chocolate based foods.

The process of flavour perception is with all the senses and distinctly personal. Each person sees, hears, and tastes differently. Key influencing factors in food appreciation include memory, culture, and context.

Contrary to popular belief, taste or “flavour” is actually more a matter of smell. Research shows that up to 80% of what we perceive as taste, is actually perceived by our sense of smell. So it is best to think of taste in terms of what we perceive when food is in contact with our taste buds.Whereas flavour should be thought of the combination between what we taste and what we smell.

What we taste are really only four different types of true taste perceptions, sour, sweet, salt, and bitter. We register these tastes through thousands of taste buds, which bind to a specific structure of a taste molecule. Sweet receptors recognize different types of sugars, sour receptors respond to acids, salt receptors respond to metal ions, and bitter receptors are triggered by alkaloids.

Chocolate Cake With Strawberries

It was thought for a long time that the tongue is broken into four taste area’s, sweet on the tip, bitter at the back, sour on the sides,and salt along the edges. There is now evidence to suggest that the tongue can actually taste all the stimuli in any one area.

Aroma plays a  big part as far as flavour compatibility is concerned. In many cases certain foods go well together such as caviar and white chocolate, green peppercorns and dark chocolate, or even  caramelized cauliflower and cocoa.

Understanding flavour pairings is of particular value in cocoa cuisine. One can start with established sweet flavour pairings such as chocolate with berries, port, nuts, or ginger.  These  ingredients can then be transformed into a savory dish like, Duck with Spiced Almond Crumb, Stewed Cherries, and Chocolate Port Reduction.

Working with chocolate offers many opportunities to create unforgettable tastes and textures. To get the best results, you should understand the factors that define quality, and that differentiate one type of chocolate from another.

Milk Chocolate Bar

The Look

Look for signs of freshness. Check the expiry date and purchase only what you think you can consume in two weeks. Look for signs of fat bloom. Pale grey streaks and blotches on the surface of the chocolate, which indicates that it has been exposed to overly warm temperatures and that the cocoa butter is rising to the surface.

Sugar bloom on the other hand , is grey sugar crystals forming on the surface of the chocolate, which indicates that it has been exposed to dampness (so don”t store chocolate in the fridge). The chocolate should be shiny and without blemishes, and it should break cleanly without crumbling.

The Smell

A well-rounded aroma is what you want. Chocolate easily picks up odours from products it is stored near (food or otherwise) so keep unused portions of chocolate well wrapped and in an airtight container.

The Sound

Listen for a loud crisp break when you break a piece of chocolate, this is known as “snap”.

The Taste

The chocolate should melt easily in your mouth without clinging to your palate. It should be smooth and creamy on the tongue and release the distinctive flavours notes and flavours associated with the chocolate you are eating.

For a quick tutorial on how to taste chocolate, check out The Chocolate Trailer video below

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

 

The Story Of Chocolate

Introduction

Chocolate is one of the world’s most delectable foods and the one that most satisfies our desire for something sweet.It’s rich flavour can create the most delicious cakes, cookies,ice creams other desserts and even savory recipes.

Where Chocolate Comes From

Chocolate is made from the bean of the Theobroma cacao tree. This tree is native to the tropical areas of Central and South America. Before its arrival in Europe, the Maya and the Aztecs were brewing it as a drink offering it for their gods during tribal rituals and using it for currency.

When Columbus returned from the New World in 1502 bringing cocoa beans for the king of Spain, no one showed much interest in them.Twenty years later, after conquering Mexico, Cortez also brought cocoa to Spain. He had first tasted it at the court of Montezuma in a cold bitter drink called xocolatl. This was made with chillies and other native spices and was topped with a foamy froth created by the cocoa butter and a tool known as a molinillo.

Europe Discovers Chocolate

In this new form, cocoa was successfully introduced into Spain. It was a drink for the elite who took to it for its medicinal effects as well as for the taste. Missionaries who had been to South America brought it back to the monasteries and convents in Italy and southwest France.. It trickled into court life.through the intermarriage of royal families.

Drinking Chocolate Becomes Eating Chocolate

Until 1828, cocoa for drinking was manufactured by grinding the beans into a “chocolate liquor” (not alcohol), and adding spices and sugar as well as a farinaceous substance to soak up the cocoa butter, which tended to float to the top.

A major breakthrough occurred when Dutch chemist Coenraad J. Van Houten invented a press to extract cocoa butter from the bean, leaving a dry cake that could be ground into an almost fat-free cocoa powder similar to that  of today. Van Houten’s press was used in England by the leading chocolate  manufacturers  of the day.

Two of these companies were owned by prominent Quaker families, Cadbury and Fry. It was they who twenty years later and as a direct result of this innovation, produced the first eating chocolate.

In North America, too, the early cocoa manufacturers are still among today’s leaders. In 1766, Dr. James Baker joined forces with a newly arrived Irish cocoa maker and now started the famous Baker’s company.

Domenico Ghirardelli  opened a chocolate factory in San Francisco in 1849. It continues to produce chocolate , and the landmark buildings that once housed its company is known as Ghirardelli Square.

Milton S. Hershey founded a whole town in Pennsylvania as a result of his chocolate success.  Hershey Pennsylvania has streets named Cocoa and Chocolate Avenue, an amusement park and lampposts shaped after his famous kisses.

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

A Strawberry Dipped In Chocolate

The preparation of good food is merely another expression of art.

One of the joys of civilized living.

               -Dione Lucus

Since I have been writing posts about the history of chocolate for a school assignment, I thought I would change it up this week and post a recipe, ( or a formula as it is known in the sweet world).

This recipe is one of the basic sauces that a pastry chef will have in his/her repertoire. It’s the humble chocolate sauce. This is a versatile sauce that can be used not only for dipping fruit, but to warm up and pour over vanilla ice cream the next day. 

I think that the Swiss were on to something when they invented the chocolate fondue.

Basic Chocolate Sauce

Imperial Measurements

1/2 cup heavy cream

3oz bittersweet chocolate (60-70 % cocoa solids), finely chopped.

1/2 teaspoon  pure vanilla extract

Pour the cream into a small, heavy saucepan and beat gently stirring often. When the cream comes to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and let cool for a moment. Stir in the chocolate and vanilla extract and keep stirring until smooth. Pour into a large pitcher and serve immediately. The sauce will thicken as it cools, but can be gently reheated.

That’s it… a saucepan, heat proof spatula and a flame for hardware, heavy cream, 60-70% good quality chocolate, and good quality vanilla extract, for the software. I can’t emphasize enough to only use the best ingredients possible. The final product will thank you for it.

djanes09 http://twitgoo.com/4np1e

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

A Speech Outline: The History Of Chocolate

Specific Purpose: To tell my audience about the transition chocolate has made over the years and where chocolate comes from.

Central Idea: To highlight when the greatest transformation occurred.

Introduction

Attention Getter; Nine out of ten people love chocolate (and the tenth person is lying)

Credibility Statement: Was trained in the Bakery/Pastry/Confectionary Arts and I am fascinated with chocolate as an ingredient.

Revel Topic and Relate to Audience: Chocolate is enjoyed the world over. Where does chocolate come from?. Europe discovers chocolate. Drinking chocolate becomes eating chocolate.

Preview: I want to share with you the history of chocolate  and various dates when the history of chocolate changed.

Body

1. Chocolate’s history started in 1000AD  Cocoa trees began to grow in the topical rainforests of Central and South America.This tree can grow to 30 feet high and is often surrounded by banana trees to guard the tree against the mid day sun. Yet this tree grows best in the tropical climate in order to receive the proper amount of rain, shade, humidity, wind, and nutrients.

A. The first people known to have  made chocolate drinks were the ancient cultures of  Mexico and Central America. These people including the Maya and Aztec’s who mixed ground cocoa beans with various seasonings to make a spicy frothy drink.. This was the first way chocolate was consumed.

B. When the Spanish conquered the Aztec’s, they brought the cocoa beans back to Spain.

1. The chocolate drink was very popular in  Spain. It then spread throughout Europe where new technologies and innovations changed the texture  and taste of chocolate.

2. By the mid 1700’s the blossoming Industrial Revolution saw the emergence of innovations that changed the future of chocolate.

Conclusion

Recap: Where chocolate comes from. When the ingredient made it’s way over to Europe.  When drinking chocolate became eating chocolate.

Source: Coe, Sophie D. and  Coe, Michael D. The True History of Chocolate London Thames & Hudson 1996

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

The History Of Chocolate

1000 BC: Cocoa trees are growing wild in the Amazon and appear on classic Mayan pottery.

600-1500 AD: The Mayas and Aztecs use cocoa beans as currency and the elite make an exotic drink from them.

1517: The Aztec emperor Moctezuma II introduces spanish explorer Hernan Cortéz  to his  favorite drink chocolatl.

1528: Cortéz  returns to Spain with cocoa beans and the equipment needed to make the chocolate drink.

1620-1650: The Spanish slowly introduce their secret ingredient to the rest of Europe , where it continues to be consumed as an expensive and mostly medicinal drink, also a  treat for the elite.

1650: The chocolate drink reaches England.

1652: London’s first coffee house opens. Here people could drink coffee, tea , and chocolate. Coffee was by far the least expensive of the three, so chocolate remained a luxury for the elite.

1693: A form of solid chocolate is developed for making the drink at home, but it is nothing like the smooth chocolate we eat today.

1765: Chocolate arrives in the American colonies and the first chocolate factory opens in Dorchester Massachusetts.

1815: Van Houton discovers a way to separate cocoa butter during the production process (the by-product of which is now know as cocoa powder).

1831: John Cadbury begins manufacturing drinking chocolate and cocoa in the  United Kingdom.

1847: A new program makes it possible to manufacture an edible form of chocolate , and the first chocolate bar is created.

1847: Fry invents the first solid chocolate bar: beans, sugar, and cocoa butter.

1866: Chocolate is used in France for medicinal purposes.

1875: The world’s first milk chocolate is created.

1879: Conching is invented,leading to a much smoother, more aromatic chocolate.

1894: The American company Hershey makes the first massed produced affordable chocolate bar.

1913: The first filled chocolate appears.

1920: The first bar affordable for all is available.

1925: Cocoa beans are traded for the first time as a commodity at the World Trade Centre.

1930-1940: Famous candy bars such as the Mars bar and Kit Kat are invented.

1920-1980: Chocolate remains largely static and although the products do not change, marketing becomes increasingly important .

1983: Bonnet introduces a single estate bar.

1984: Bonnet introduces a 50% milk bar.

1985: Brands like Valrhona start to create chocolate made from selected high-quality beans and regions.

1986: Valrhona’s first bar Guanaja  is released.

1988: Valrhona’s Caraibe bar is released.

1989: Lindt launches a 70% noir bar, the first supermarket brand to promote cocoa percentage.

1992: Lindt’s country-of-origin bar is released.

1994: Weiss & Chaudun’s dark bar with cocoa nibs is releaesd.

Bonnat’s Hacienda el Rosario.(the first plantation bar.)

2000: The World Cocoa Foundation was founded by a group of chocolate manufacturers in order to safeguard the interests of cocoa farmers around the world.

2000: Michel Cluizel’s Hacienda Concepcion is released. (plantation bar.).

2001: Lindt’s Eclatsoie Féves is released.

Bonnat’s milk 65% country- of – origin is released.

Lindt’s 99% bar is released.

2002: Michel Cluizel’s Hacienda Los Ancones is released.(plantation bar.)

Valrhona’s Amanpakia is released. (plantation bar.)

2003: Domori  ’s Puer Tomar is released. The first pure criollo bar.

2004: Chuao in Venezuela becomes the first cocoa growing region to be legally protected as a producer of named origin beans.

2004: About 600,000 cocoa beans are consumed in a year. Only 5% are used in quality beans.

2004: Michel Cluizel’s Harienda Mangaro Lait is released.

* The Dates between 1847-1913 and 1985-2004 represent the greatest change in the history of chocolate.

Source: Coe, Sophie D. and Coe Michael D. The True History of Chocolate, London Thames& Hudson 1996.

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

An Adventure in Chocolate Discovery

As they strolled through the old city they couldn’t help but notice  how peaceful and manageable this city truly is. Traffic noise is replaced by pedestrian friendliness. City owned black and red bikes are everywhere. funiculars, electric buses, and cyclopolitains (pedal taxi)are also abundant.

Back at the hotel, the couple prepared themselves for the evening ahead. Dinner was the first order of business. Eating out in this city is a passion, Here great chefs are more famous than soccer players. The saladé lyonnaisé (croutons, ham, and apoached egg on a bed of lettuce)..superb, the filet de sandré (whitefish)…exquisite.

As dusk turned into twilight, the couple looked out over the glimmering city, and marvelled at the multitude of coloured light, bouncing off the mighty Rhone below. Donnie quietly whispered into Dani’s ear…”If Paris is ”The City of Lights”, then Lyon must be” The City of Flood Lights”…

Until next week…Have a sweet week!

Bittersweet

“When I die”…I said to my friend, I’m not going to be embalmed, I’m going to be “dipped”. “Milk or Bittersweet” was her immediate concern. This is the rhetorical response of one  chocolate addict to another. We both knew the answer…”Bittersweet”.                                                            

                                                                     Adrienne Markus The Chocolate Bible

Dark chocolate is either bittersweet or semi-sweet depending on the amount of sugar added.This type of chocolate is preferred in Europe.It contains anywhere from 35% – 99% combined cocoa solids. Which is a combination of cocoa liquor and cocoa  butter.

The higher the percentage , the more bitter the chocolate. Typically, this type of chocolate is used for fillings, mousse, soft textured cakes, souffle’-like cakes etc. The best flavour pairings include cinnamon, coffee, almonds, pecans, and fruit, such as dark cherries and banana’s.

You should look for a chocolate that has a good balance of strong cocoa notes and just enough sugar; it should be more bitter than sweet. Select a 70% cocoa dark chocolate with a deep and intense bitter cocoa flavour, light acidic notes and a long-lasting intensity in the mouth.

 

Milk Chocolate Easter Eggs

Milk chocolate on the other hand is  popular in  North America, and should contain at least 12% milk solids. Milk chocolate is generally used for fillings, mousse, custards, parfait, etc. The best flavour pairings include caramel, citrus zest, hazelnuts, orange liqueurs, and fruits, such as passion fruit and oranges.

This chocolate should have a good balance, not to sweet, but with noticable cocoa/ dairy notes, and that melts in your mouth easily. Select a milk chocolate with caramel and full cream flavours, along with a creamy smooth “mouth feel”.

 White chocolate has no cocoa liquor, just cocoa butter, and is therefore not technically chocolate. Look for a chocolate that is a cream/ivory  colour, which means that it has a higher percentage of cocoa butter. Typically, this type of chocolate is used for fillings, mousse, custards, soft textured cakes, and as an alternative sweetener.

The best flavour pairings include cinnamon, sesame seed oil, coconut rum, and fruits, such as red berries especially strawberries and raspberries.White chocolate should not be to sweet or thick. Select a white chocolate with distinct fresh milk and butter flavours, and a smooth creamy texture.

Chocolate Moose

Couverture chocolate is a quality chocolate that has a larger amount of cocoa butter than semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate. It is more free-flowing when melted and it is perfect for coating candy centre’s. It can also be used to make chocolate ice sculptures. Couverture chocolate has no relationship to high percentage chocolate, which has a lot more cocoa particles then semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolateverture has a lot more cocoa butter.

Unsweetened, bitter or baking chocolate typically has no sugar added. I prefer to use cocoa powder to increase the chocolate/cocoa flavour in a dessert, cake mix, or a sorbet. 

Cocoa Powder: There are two types:  the more mellow dutch-processed or alkalized and non-alkalized. The two are interchanchageable in cooking. Sweetened cocoa powder is not a substitute.  

Chocolate Chips: Designed to keep their shape without melting during baking. They cannot replace cooking chocolate.  

So what is your favorite type of chocolate?  

Until next week..Have a sweet week!