Chocolate Truffles

One of the few things I miss about no longer living in Europe is the difficulty in finding good and affordable chocolate.  Whilst you can get good chocolate here in Sydney it is very expensive and you don't get the range of truffles that I was used to in Europe.  Well if you can't buy them, I decided that I would have to make them myself.  I have made truffles a few times in the past and I have always found it very theraputic.  Getting the prep complete and then setting up your station to do the various stages efficiently takes a little time but the end result is very much worth it.  I love having a box of fresh truffles on the kitchen counter.  As they are so rich they don't usually disappear straight away, even my kids can only manage one or two at a time.  This recipe makes about 70 individual truffles so they should last a few days at least.

For the truffles you will need:

• 2 egg yolks
• 120 ml of double (thickened) cream
• 100 g of sieved icing sugar
• 50 g of unsalted butter
• half a kilo of good unsweetened chocolate, grated
• a couple of teaspoons of Cognac, Calvados, Armagnac or Cointreau

For the coating you will need:

• 200 g of good unsweetened chocolate
• 1 double espresso
• cocoa power

This recipe is actually easier than it looks; give it a try, the results are significantly more than the sum of its parts!

In a ceramic bowl, beat the egg yolks and half the sugar until pale.  Over a low heat and in a separate pan, beat the cream, butter and the rest of the sugar until it just boils.  Remove from the heat.

Place the bowl with the yolks and sugar over a pan of gently simmering water and gently stir in the cream, sugar and butter from the previous step.  Then gradually add the chocolate.  Add the alcohol then whisk whilst the mixture cools to lukewarm.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper or baking paper and then poor in the chocolate mixture.  When the mixture is cool enough, put it in the fridge for several hours until it has set but not set hard.

Once set, remove from the oven and turn out of the baking tray.  Cut the block into about 70 portions.  At the same time, melt the 200 g of chocolate in a bowl over simmering water and add the espresso.

Dust your fingers with the cocoa power and take each of the chocolate portionsshape them into ball or teardrop shapes.  Drop them into the melted chocolate and retrieve quickly with a spoon.  Drop into a bowl of cocoa power and give the bowl a shake to evenly coat each chocolate with cocoa power.  You can do this several truffles at a time. and

These truffles are best refrigerated for a couple of days before eating but if you can last that long, you are a better person than I.

This recipe is based on one by Mireille Johnston in her second book in the French Cookery Course.

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Simple Oysters with Shallot Vinegar

One of the things I love about living in Sydney is the ready supply of really good oysters. They are not cheap but they are sold already shucked so for me they make a perfect, quick lunch which makes you feel a little decadent.  I spent most of my summers in France so I certainly know how to shuck oysters (I still have the scars to prove this) but I would much prefer to spend a little more and leave this art to the experts.  Fresh Oysters, with fresh bread, salted butter and shallot vinegar dressing is very hard to beat once the thermometer goes over the 25 Deg C point.  Simple but timeless.

Here is how I do them:

• 1/2 Dozen oysters per person
• Good crusty bread, sliced
• Shallot vinegar, two tablespoons of finely diced shallots into good quality red wine vinegar
• Salted butter, if you can't find any mix good quality sea salt into good quality unsalted butter

Some people question my choice of salted butter on the premise that salt is bad for you. Well too much salt is bad for you but if you are consuming a balanced diet and you don't eat too much salt, then mixing a few pinches of sea salt into your butter is really not going to make any real impact.  Indeed, living in a hot climate, you need to make sure you have enough salt to replenish what you loose via perspiration.  But anyway, the real star here are the oysters...

Serve with a glass of chilled white wine, something like a Sauvignon Blanc or a Pinot Grigio is perfect.  I would be hard pressed to come up with a better way to spend a warm, sunny afternoon.

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Food, Always a Passion of Mine, but now a Focus

Over the past few months I have been reassessing what is important to me in life.  Although food has always been important (and I thank my French upbringing for that) recently, I have not been devoting as much time to food, its preparation and its consumption as I would like. Call it a mid life crisis if you like but I have decided to spend more time on the enjoyment of food.  That doesn't mean just consumption, it also means researching original recipes, seeking out good ingredients and reporting the failures as well as the successes. 

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