The TGRWT #15 challenge was to pair smoked salmon with dark chocolate. I decided to encase a piece of hot-smoked salmon in a cocoa gel and serve it with sugared slices of lime. But as you can see from the pictures quite a lot went wrong… But it tasted quite nice!

Smoked salmon encased in agar cocoa gel
Agar gel:
400 g water
10 g cocoa
35 g sugar
2.5 g beef stock powder
10 g balsamico vinegar
35 g lime juice
1.8 g agar (0.37%)

smoked salmon
lime
sugar

Combine all ingredients for the gel and bring to boil. In a suitable (shallow) tray, pour one layer and leave to gel. Place salmon on top and pour more of the hot agar solution. Leave to gel and repeat until salmon is complete covered. When gelled, invert and slice carefully. Serve with thin slices of lime sprinkled with sugar.

Verdict: Even though I didn’t have time to finish the dish presentation-wise, I did of course taste the different components together. The lime added much needed freshness to the cocoa gel and combined well with the fish. The cocoa was not overpowering. The dish will work fine for a starter or as finger-food once I get the presentation right.

Lessons learnt

• For layered agar gel preparations it’s crucial that the next layer is poured while piping hot so that it can melt a little into the layer below. Because of agar’s significant hysteresis the gelled agar must be brought up to around 80-90 °C to melt.
• The box I used was way too deep (and the best at hand at the moment), but it might have worked if I had lined it with plastic wrapper. The layers came apart as I was trying to get it all out of the box. A higher agar concentration would make for a stronger gel, but it would also trap more flavor. Possibly it would also be more difficult to get the layers stick together at higher agar concentrations. Does anyone have experience with layers agar preparations?
• The hot-smoked salmon tastes very nice, but it’s texture was a litte to tough. I tried making slices, but both the salmon and the cocoa gel fell apart. This could be solved by switching to cold-smoked salmon. But a potential problem here might be that it will become “cooked” (and change color from translucent to opaque) once the hot agar solution is added. In that case one might have to revert to gelatin which melts at lower temperature.

This month’s round of “They go really well together” (TGRWT #15) is hosted by Mexmix and foods to pair this time are dark chocolate and smoked salmon. As usual you can find instructions on how to participate in the announcement post. Don’t forget to check out Rob’s summary of the malt and soy sauce round.

As I mentioned in part 1 of the travel report from Brugge, the highlight (for me at least) of The Flemish Primitives seminar was the surprise box presented to us by Dominique Persoone (owner of The Chocolate Line) and his team which included James Petrie (pastry chef at The Fat Duck), Tony Conigliaro (mixologist, bartender at Roka, blogger) and Bruce Bryan (medical doctor and inventor). As the box was distributed in the auditorium (more than 1000 present, mostly chefs) the instructions were kept very simple: DO NOT OPEN THE BOX! Makes you wonder of course what is inside.

Once all the boxes had been distributed (and expectations had risen to even higher levels) Dominique was ready to give further instructions. Too make a long story short – to acompany each piece of chocolate there was a short video, music/sounds and a smell! For each piece of chocolate the text “EAT NOW!” let us know when to taste the chocolate. I won’t even try to describe how the different elements tasted – and the reason for this is simply that I was so taken by the totality that I stopped noticing details about the separate element. It was really cool and it took me by surprise! But I’ll give you a list of the chocolates and the picture/sound/smell pairings, just to give you a brief idea of the concept.

Dominique Persoone let us know exactly when to eat the chocolate!

1) Breast formed chocolate with pipette containing sweet, white liquid. Picture/video of breast, a baby beeing breast fed and sound of crying baby. Smell of baby filled the room. Verdict: Surprising element when nipple came loose – it was quite chewey!

2) Chocolate on field of grass – the chocolate was in fact flavored with grass extract! Video of a gras lawn being mowed, hot summer day, buzzing insects. The auditorium was filled with the smell of freshly mowed grass – together with the smell of freshly baked bread most people rank this as one of their favorite smells. I asked Bernard Lahousse about the smell and he confirmed that this was a single compound smell which basically means that they used cis-3-hexenal. Verdict: My favorite!

In between chocolate 2 and 3 we had the glowing lollipops – I’ll come back to that in a later post, promise! I have to research the chemistry behind that first

Chocolates are numbered clockwise, starting at top left.

3) Chocolate with crisp crumbles and small chocolate fish oysterganache and crumbled smoked sea-eel. Video of ocean waves. Smell of sea and ocean was spread with large fans on the stage together with a fog producer to get a nice fog effect. Verdict: Ocean smell was quite overpowering

4) A chocolate filled with a watery gel. Video starting with a warm, dusty dessert followed by thunder lightning and ending in a thunder storm with heavy rains. An ocean perfume was distributed by means of balloons that were dropped. Participants who captured a balloon were instructed to puncture the balloon in order to liberate the perfume. Verdict: Watery gel had a very pleasant cooling effect, contrasting the chocolate.

Liver cappuccino served in chocolate cups

Following the chocolate tastings Tony Conigliaro demonstrated a cocktail with “raindrops on leaves” which included a ganache of green tea. There were no tasting samples of this one – and it was too far away for pictures, but Tony had also participated in preparing a coffee based drink that we got to taste in one of the breaks (I’m a bit uncertain about who else participated on this one). A whipped cream prepared with goose liver was combined with coffee and chocolate. When pouring the coffee, the goose liver cream floated up, creating a “liver cappucino”. It tasted nice actually! Only faint hints of the foie gras, but yes – it showed that coffee has more than meets the eye.

Tony mentioned to me that he’s blogging too over at Drink factory. Do check it out!

Long time readers of this blog might remember that I’ve mentioned the aroma jockey Erich Berghammer before. Performing under the artist name Odo7, he blows scents over his audience with huge fans and has stocked up a pantry with exotic spices, roots, leafs, oils, extracts and herbs. The smells are vaporized using hot water. In the post I asked why Odo7 hadn’t been invited to a restaurant yet – I dare say we came quite close during this “chocolate surprise” session. But without doubt, for the next year’s event it would be really cool invite Odo7 for a performance. And if you allow me another wish – since it all took place in a concert hall where acoustics are good and there is a large stage – how about combining Odo7 with taste samples, modern ballet and some really groovy music? With such a combo one would truly approach a Gesamtkunstwerk – a term originally coined by Richard Wagner. At that time in encompassed music, theater and visual arts. I think it’s about time to expand that and include all the senses!

You might now think that this would fit very well in a movie theater, and yes – some thought about that already Smell-o-vision has been a reality for a loooong time. In fact you have to go all the way back to 1916 when rose scent was distributed with the help of an electric fan during a newsreel about the Rose Bowl game. And the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti wrote about multi-modal (=several senses) eating in his “Futurist cookbook” which was published in 1932. Sub sole nihil novi est!

My question for you is: Have you ever tried this? What smell or perfume would you like to serve with your food?

According to Google trends searches for chocolate peak every December (plus that special day in February), and I assume that consumption of chocolate follows the same pattern. For this month’s They go really well together event (TGRWT #13) Erik Fooladi over at Fooducation has chosen to pair chocolate with caraway. So if you plan to cook or bake with chocolate (or cocoa) in December – why not add some caraway and see how it turns out? It’s time to spice up your Christmas desserts! Surprise your guests and let us all know how it worked out.

If you can’t figure out what to make, try the chocolate sauerkraut cake I blogged about last year. It was quite successful and I figured out that one possible reason for the success was the fact that sauerkraut contains caraway which goes well with chocolate (and cognac).

More information about how to participate can be found in Erik’s announcement post of TGRWT #13.

For this round of TGRWT I decided to use the recipe (Chocolate Carbonara with Parmigiano Reggiano Cream and a Chocolate-Dipped Grissini Wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma) by Masaharu Morimoto which I’ve blogged about previously. I was quite intrigued by that recipe and wanted to try it! So here it is, converted to metric units with some small adjustments. The original recipe called for 4 eggs, but this rendered the pasta dough to hard. I added two of the whites which were left over from the sauce. BTW this is why one of should better weigh out eggs instead of count them (too bad I didn’t think about his from the beginning so I could have weighed the eggs I used). The original recipe called for bread sticks with chocolate and prosciutto di Parma which I skipped (but which nonetheless sounds like a good accompaniment – as you’re probably aware of meat and chocolate also go very well together!).

Chocolate tagliatelle
450 g plain flour
4 eggs + 2 whites (adjust according to size of eggs)
55 g cocoa powder
1 T olive oil (leave out? – see comment in text)

Knead. Let rest for 30 minutes or more. Use pasta machine to work through dough until smooth. Roll out to desired thickness and cut into tagliatelle or spaghetti.

To start with the dough was not very elastic, so I immediately regretted that I had added the olive oil (which I optimistically added to the dough, hoping that it would perhaps help bind the crumbles together – only to discover that more eggs were needed anyway). The reason for this is that the olive oil interferes with the formation of gluten because it covers the proteins glutenin and gliadin and prevents them from reacting with each other to form gluten. So next time I would try without the olive oil (or at least wait until after the dough had rested before adding the oil to allow time for the flour to be completely hydrated).

I used a manual pasta machine to knead through the dough and make tagliatelle strips of the dough.

The color is wonderful and handling sheets like this certainly sparks new ideas. How about a chocolate lasagna with a custard cream?

When partly dry, the surface easily cracks.

Parmesan cream
5 dL cream (38% fat)
4 egg yolks
100 g sugar
50 g grated parmesan

Bring cream to boil. Remove from heat. Add sugar and parmesan while stirring. Add egg yolks. Whisk and heat to 80-85 °C. Serve with chocolate tagliatelle.

Verdict: Very nice! Because of the rich cream, it’s a good idea not to serve a large plate of it though. As was the case last time I tried the cocoa/parmesan combo, it was as if something was missing. Probably something acidic like lemon or lime. The cream is quite sweet, so the dish would probably work best for a dessert (but a guest I served it too said he wasn’t quite sure whether it was a starter or a dessert). I think a lemon or lime sorbet/sherbet would be nice with it! Or why not try Morimoto’s breadstick with prosciutto?

Tasting the parmesan cream by it self was quite surprising, because – believe or not – it reminded me of vanilla! In fact I’m quite sure that many would be convinced that it was vanilla cream (with a special little twist added). Certainly the color and the texture look a lot like vanilla, but the flavour also reminded me of vanilla. This was perhaps the most fascinating discovery and I’ll certainly have to explore this further. The weird thing of course is that once I start googling for parmesan and vanilla I find both recipes and menu examples (Sour dough loaf with parmesan, vanilla & truffle butter, Fava Bean Custard with Parmesan/Vanilla Foam & Grilled Belgium Endive). There is nothing new under the sun

This month’s TGRWT is hosted by Le Petite Boulanger, and the foods to pair are chocolate and meat. The recipe for the chocolate beef stock cream is inspired by the Iberian Ham Cream by Ferran Adrià/El Bulli (the recipe can be found on p. 21 in the hydrocolloid recipe collection). I used anis because it brings out the meatiness very well. After mixing in the olive oil I saw that the droplets were not properly dispersed. Addition of some lecithin which solved this problem.

Chocolate beef stock cream
100 g water
2 g beef stock powder
10 g chocolate (70%)
1/4 t anis, powdered
0.5 g xanthan
0.2 g lecithin
20 g olive oil
honey and chili oil to taste

Heat water to dilute beef stock and melt chocolate. Cool. Add xanthan and lecithin. Mix with immersion blender. Add olive oil. Mix until smooth texture. Sprinkle with chives.

Grilled pork tenderloin
pork tenderloin, cut in 3 cm thick pieces
oil
powdered anis
crushed garlic

Marinate meat with oil, garlic and anis mixture. Grill. Serve together with the chocolate meat broth cream.

Verdict: The chocolate beef stock cream has very meaty and almost nutty flavour. Honey is important to round of the otherwise slightly bitter taste of the chocolate. Chili oil gives it a bite, but can be omitted.

You can get an impression of the texture from this video:

Lamiacucina: Candied, chocolate coated Garlic. Garlic cloves were heated in a strong sugar-coffee solution. Cloves were then dried and coated with chocolate. Succession of taste and aroma: strong, unpleasant character of garlic. Bloggers verdict: disappointing!

Blog & White: Chocolate-Coffee Mayonnaise with Garlic. Adapted from Hervé This’ chocolate mayonnaise with added coffee and garlic. Succession of taste and aroma: chocolate aroma is followed by taste of garlic and sweetness of chocolate, coffee aftertaste. Bloggers verdict: Interesting (but wife hates it!).

Should you eat that: Mocha Tofu Mousse with Garlic. Roasted garlic cloves were added to an adapted version of Scharfenberger’s mocha tofu mousse. Succession of taste and aroma: coffee followed by chocolate, then a subtle, sweet, roasted garlic aftertaste. Bloggers verdict: I would definately make it again!

M’s blog: Mocca garlic creme brulee. As the name suggests a creme brulee with espresso, chocolate and a garlic clove. Bloggers verdict: Tasted like mocca creme brulee.

Khymos: Coffee espuma with garlic and chocolate. Coffee and cream espuma with added chocolate and roasted garlic. Succession of taste and aroma: coffee with sweet taste, then a faint chocolate aroma followed by a garlicky aftertaste. My verdict: Aromas blend well together. Would use less garlic for dessert version.

Entries added after first posting:

GrapeThinking: Roasted garlic dipped in melted chocolate with coffee beans. Succession of taste and aroma: Roast garlic doesn’t have much of a smell. Chocolate and coffee always smell good. Bloggers verdict: Good aroma. Taste was good in the beginning; slightly funky aftertaste. Texture of garlic was good.

Kompottsurfer: Espresso-risotto with bitter chocolate, tomatoe and mozzarella (posting in German). Bloggers verdict: Color was a disaster, and difficult to get relative proportions right. But aroma worked out prette nice.

From the different comments it seems that garlic is a difficult beast to tame, especially when used raw. A major challenge is finding the right balance between the aromas. Garlic was either too strong or almost absent. Chocolate and coffee however seem to go very well together (and my preliminary search for odor activity values confirm this – more on this soon!).

I also find it interesting that ratios of chocolate, coffee and garlic used influence the succession of aroma and taste (“>” meaning “followed by”):

Is it a coincidence that coffee is the first aroma noticed in the two “foamy” preparations or is this simply a result of the different ratios used?

I should mention that I also tried to make a chicken mole using the three ingredients. Based on a couple of recipes from the net and some tinkering I ended up with a chicken mole that had a little too much chocolate… It tasted … eh … strange, so I decided to add balsamic vinegar which helped a lot! The coffee blended in very well however, so this is how I would make it the next time using less chocolate:

Chocolate coffee chicken mole
800 g canned, crushed tomatoes
750 g chicken breast,
1 red chili, chopped
2 t chili paste
2 onions, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 dL coffee
150 g pistacchio nuts, chopped
1 t ground cumin
30-50 g dark chocolate
2 T sugar
1-2 T balsamico vinegar

Brown onions. Add the rest and simmer. Season to taste with chocolate, balsamico vinegar and sugar. Serve with rice. Sprinkle with coriander/cilantro or ruccola/rocket salad.

There were also a number of recipe suggestions in the comments to the three posts on the coffee/chocolate/garlic theme.

For the food blogging event They Go Really Well Together (TGRWT #1) I decided to used baked garlic. Baking gives garlic a slightly sweet, mellow taste and I figured this might work well with the soft texture of an espuma. Just make sure you get fresh garlic without green sprouts – they will give a bitter taste.

4 cloves of baked garlic (baked whole, 30 min @ 150 °C)
3.5 dL strong coffee
30 g sugar
40 g chocolate (70% cocoa)
ground cardamom
3.4 g gelatin (= 2 sheets)
1.5 dL heavy cream (38% fat)
1 iSi cream charger

Mix garlic cloves and coffee with blender or hand-held mixer. Add chocolate, a pinch of cardamom and heat while dissolving sugar. Stir in pre-soaked gelatin. Cool, add heavy cream, sift through fine mesh to remove remaining pieces of garlic and fill 0.5 L iSi gourmet whipper. Charge with 1 cream charger and leave in fridge over night. Serve with a drizzle of instant coffee.

How it tastes? In the finished espuma served cold, the first aroma noticed is coffee accompanied by a sweet taste on the tongue. This is followed by a faint chocolate aroma which then gives way for an aftertaste dominated by garlic. It’s quite surprising and the aromas blend well together. I used 30 g of chocolate, but I’ve increased it to 40 g in the recipe since the cocolate aroma was a little weak. As for uses, I think it would go well with a steak for instance. If used as a dessert I would perhaps reduce the amount of garlic to 2 or 3 cloves so as not to overwhelm the guests (unless they frequent the restaurant Garlic & shots in Soho, London where even the beer is served with garlic!).

The name refers to flavour pairing of ingredients based on their content of volatile aroma compounds. The idea behind flavour pairing is that if two (or more) foods have one or more volatile compounds in common, chances are good that they might taste well together. Click for a list of other flavour pairings and to read previous blog posts on the topic. The molecule shown in the logo is of 2-methylfuran-3-thiol, a very potent aroma chemical found in coffee, chicken, meat, fish and popcorn – to mention a few.

Many flavour pairings seem strange at first, especially when the combination is not found in any recipes. To illustrate the flavour pairing one can always just eat the two ingredients together. But it would be so much nicer to actually make a proper dish out of it. Therefore I’m quite excited to see what the creative minds of all the food loving bloggers can come up with!

This is how the first round of the blogging event works (hereafter referred to as TGRWT #1):

1. Prepare a dish that combines garlic, coffee and chocolate. You can either use an existing recipe (if there is any) or come up with your own.
2. Write a entry in your blog by May 1st with TGRWT #1 in the subject and make sure to include a link to the header of this post for trackback links. Readers will probably be particularily interested in how the flavour pairing worked out, so make an attempt at describing it.
3. Deadline for submissions is May 1st. A round-up will be posted by me here some days later with pictures.
4. Please send me an email at webmaster (at) khymos (dot) org with the following details: Your name, URL of blog and URL of the TGRWT #1 post and a picture for your entry in the round-up.
5. If you don’t have a blog, email me your recipe, name and location and I’ll be glad to include it in the final round-up.
6. In due time I will ask one of the participants to host the next round on their blog (and provide an updated logo).

…you can also use foodpairing to pair food that doesn’t match. Like chocolate and garlic. The trick then is to search for a third food product that has something in common with chocolate and with garlic. An example is coffee. Coffee has flavour components in common with garlic: Dimethyl disulfide and with chocolate: Methyl pyrazine.

My challenge to you all is to come up with recipes that include garlic, chocolate and coffee. Any suggestions?