The Cooking Diva Blog: Original Tropical Creations by Chef Melissa De Leon

Luscious Thai Truffles

This is an unusual combination of sweet flavors with spicy, hot sensations. Traditionally, cuisines from temperate regions of the world, as such as Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Mediterranean have always combined these ingredients. This time we are celebrating this widely known aprhodisiac in the form of a truffle. Enjoy!

Yield 50 truffles

Ingredients:

For the Spicy Semi-Solid Ganache:

1 lb(16 oz) Semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon “Thai Curry Paste for desserts” or to taste, recipe follows.
1-1/2 cups heavy cream

Preparation

Place chopped chocolate in food processor and pulse until pea size. Bring heavy cream to boiling point and mix in the curry paste for desserts. Stir to combine. Remove from heat, cover and infuse no more than 3 hours. Strain through a very fine sieve and re-heat to a boiling point.
Pour the chocolate mix into the tube of a running food processor. Process until mixture becomes smooth. Transfer into a clean bowl and let set overnight, covered, in the refrigerator.
Pipe onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze overnight.
Pre-coat truffles with thin layer of tempered chocolate and dust with cocoa powder, OR toss in toasted coconut flakes.

Important Note:

chocolate is tempered when its temperature is between 84° and 88° F (29° and 31° C). One of the easiest ways to achieve this point is to place the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted, be specially careful not to over do it. You may see lumps, but they will be dissolved with the residual heat of the chocolate. To speed this process up, you can use an immersion blender or a whisk. When the chocolate begins to set, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix in. It is very important to have your food thermometer on hand to verify when the mixture reaches ideal temperature.

For the Thai Curry Paste for Desserts:

1 stalk lemon grass, finely sliced. Use only the bottom 6”of the stalk.
1 teaspoon lime zest, preferably kaffir lime, but any lime will do!
1-2 dried Thai bird chilies, seeds removed.
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cardamon pods, husked
1- 1/4 teaspoons turmeric
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1-1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 tablespoon fresh galangal or ginger root, minced (see Chef's note)
1 tablespoon coconut milk (optional)

Preparation

Dry toast cumin, coriander, cardamom and cinnamon in a skillet under medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Do not leave unattended, and shake the pan often to prevent burning. Remove from heat, cool.
If making in a mortar and pestle, pound all the ingredients into a smooth paste. If making in a blender or food processor, blend everything into a smooth paste. Transfer to a small container and keep refrigerated or frozen. Read Chef’s note.

[Chef’s Note: this paste will keep for up to two weeks refrigerated and can be frozen in one-teaspoon quantities in n ice cube tray. To grind the ingredients use either a mortar and pestle, a blender, coffee grinder or spice mill. Remember that the number of chiles is up to you. If you find a paste too hot, simply reduce the number of chiles used. Galanga, sometimes called “galangal”, is known as “kah” in Thailand and is used even more widely than fresh ginger. Use whole pieces of dried galangal and reconstitute them by soaking them in water. Powdered “kah” has very little flavor. Fresh ginger can be used as a substitute for kah.]

Yield ½ cup

Enjoy,

Chef Melissa

Tags: chocolate, food blogs, cookingdiva, cooking, panama, panama chefs, food & drink, food, recipes

by Chef Melissa - CookingDiva · May 27, 2006 · 04:07 PM
Permalink · Comments (18) · TrackBack (0) · Categories: Ethnic Cuisine: Asian · Food & Drink · General · RECIPES: chicken · Sensual Food

Uao... Definitivamente lo voy a probar pronto..
Seguro que va a ser un hit :D

Comment by: Zulmy • May 27, 2006 4:23:23 PM

Waw! Enjoy seems a very small wish for such a recipe. Thanks.

Comment by: Kat • May 27, 2006 5:17:53 PM

Hola Melissa, estuve dando unas vuelticas por tu web site luego de leer tu interesante y extenso curriculum. Me encantó, aunque te quería comentar que no pude leerla en español. Un beso.

Comment by: Maru • May 27, 2006 8:31:04 PM

Hola Maru! Imagino que te refieres a mi web panamagourmet.com en Español----lo que pasa es que precisamente lo estoy actualizando con el nuevo diseño del website. Sorry for that! Espero para mañana ya tener el link activo :)

Abrazos,
M

Comment by: melissa_cookingdiva • May 27, 2006 8:43:49 PM

Melissa, love your new photo. You look gorgeous.

Comment by: kalyn • May 27, 2006 9:00:34 PM

I love spicy chocolate... I wll definitely try this out.
Gracias.

Comment by: Orchidea • May 28, 2006 5:16:31 AM

Aprhodisiac! You promise? Maybe I have been investing my time cooking the wrong things!

BTW, I also like the new photo.

Comment by: Don Ray • May 28, 2006 10:20:29 AM

Gosh... the internet is fried... yet again... by lightning for a week and look what I miss! It sounds divine, Melissa. You mention freezing the ginger but I was wondering if you can freeze lemon grass too. Have you ever tried? I think it might work. What do you think?

Comment by: Nerissa • May 28, 2006 10:50:32 AM

Don: Yes, indeed it is an aphodisiac---try it and you will see :)

Nerissa: 1 week without internet!!! I go nuts if I do not have internet for a day :) Regarding the lemongrass, yes, you can freeze it---just the 3 inches from bottom "heart" part of it---

Orchidea: Thank you for your visit, you are going to LOVE the truffles :)

Have a wonderful Sunday!
M

Comment by: melissa_cookingdiva • May 28, 2006 11:14:54 AM

Thanks! I'll try that next when I have lemon grass available to me.

Comment by: Nerissa • May 28, 2006 11:45:04 AM

We want the picante recipe!! :D At least I do... hehehe.

Comment by: Antonio Touriño • May 29, 2006 10:04:28 AM

hahaha----ya la voy a publicar :-)

Comment by: melissa_cookingdiva • May 29, 2006 10:06:09 AM

En otra nota. Voy a intentar alguna receta tuya para llevar al cumples de Jorge. Todavía no me decido en cual. :D

Comment by: Antonio Touriño • May 29, 2006 10:06:35 AM

yo le voy a preparar el CAKE!!!!!!!! :-) empanadas???

Comment by: melissa_cookingdiva • May 29, 2006 10:09:30 AM

Thank you for the wonderful recipe, Cooking Diva. I had been pondering over a thai chocolate/truffle recipe for some time when I came across your suggestions, so I quickly went out and purchased all of the necessary ingredients. Unfortunately, as I read and reread your instructions I became somewhat confused how you incorporate the cream with the dessert paste with the chocolate.

For your truffle recipe, does one:

1) boil cream, add dessert paste, remove from heat, let infuse, then strain, reheat, and finally add to chopped to chocolate to make a ganache

2) boil cream, add to chocolate to make ganache, add dessert paste, let infuse, then strain, reheat, smooth concoction, let set in refrigerator

3) something else?

I tried number 1 (substituting coconut milk for the cream), and though the resulting ganache IS delectable, there are only very faint traces of the Thai flavors. I suppose I could include more than a tsp of the dessert paste for greater flavor.

Thanks for your assistance.

Comment by: Rob Vann • Oct 19, 2006 10:16:32 AM

I'd love to see an answer to Rob's question from last October. I'd love to make the recipe as well, but the first part doesn't make sense. At no point are we supposed to combine the cream/paste mixture and the chocolate? And I thought tempered chocolate meant it was heated twice?

Comment by: Bil Browning • May 19, 2007 5:28:30 PM

wonderful combo of flavors! i'm so curious!

Comment by: steamy kitchen • Feb 1, 2008 9:30:41 PM

Steamy Kitchen, I just came back from visiting your blog, and I LOVE IT! Thank you for your visit! Have a tasty day!
Melissa

Comment by: melissa • Feb 12, 2008 9:09:33 AM