DRAGEES OR PRALINES?

Our enterprising group here have been doing a nice trade making candied cashews and dipping them in both dark and milk chocolate. We put them in brown paper bags, marked them CASHEW DRAGEES and sell them at the Ramadan Bazaar. They have been doing well enough for us to make fresh batches every other day.

Our pensive friend from Carrefour turned up, bought a few bags,bit into several and appreciatively said "Ah Pralines!" The lady in charge who does not like her brand interfered with said, "Dragees". The pensive man from Carrefour said, "Yes Pralines."
"No Dragees" said our lady.

It appears that both were right. The French call them either dragees or pralines. The Carrefour person then told us the story. Pralines were named after Marshal du Plessis-Praslin(1598-1675). A long life in those days and remarkable because the Marshal spent most of his adult life fighting wars. But he was smart enough not to fight them in France. Most of his bickering was done in Italy.

Pralines (pronounced pra-leen in French, pray-leen in English)was actualled invented by his cook, Clement Lassagne. Pralines then were simply candied almonds. Chocolate was yet to be discovered in France. He later founded Maison de las Praline in Montargis, a town almost the the center of France. It still exists today.I mean both the town and the Maison de las Praline.

Montargis is actually rather famous. Joan de Arc passed through the town on her way to Gien. But being rather early, she didn't have the opportunity to pop into the Maison de las Praline.

But Deng Xiaopeng and Zhou Enlai, who lived in this town were probably regular customers. Which explains their amicable demeanor which subsequently made China and the world pretty pally.

Coming back to pralines, in Germany and Belgium they are any filled chocolate. The Italians wanting to be different called them giandja. In Louisiana, Texas they screwed it all up. Pralines there are flat, round cream candies dotted with crunchy pecans.

INTERESTING CHOCOLATE DISCOVERY.

We are not a group or community that is noted for crossing new frontiers in cuisine . Indeed we are not known for anything at all until this evening when a seasoned chef from one of the five star establishment in Singapore, declared that we may be on to something "interesting" in artisan chocolatery.A gentleman from Carrefour looked pensive after a taste

In a session of experimental cooking, a few of us cake makers, bakers and a couple of chocolatiers combined Chocolate with Cardamon and came up it a surprising sensational Chocolate-Cardamon Custard Tart. We haven't thought of a slick name yet. We will when we are ready to rock the world.

We decided to try Cardamon. It is grown here in Java and it called "kapulaga". It belongs to the Amomum variety.It is a ginger-like plant and like cocoa grow in tropical rain forests. It grows up to 5 meters and therefore can actually be grown alongside cocoa Like cocoa it grows in shade. It will boost farmers'income because cardamon is one of the most expensive of spices.

Like the cocoa bean, it's the seeds inside the pod that are used.The husk is thrown away.Java cardamon is brownish and has a distinct astringent aroma without being bitter. It has a coolness similar to mint.

It has a flavour that that good breadth but not enough depth to impinge on the flavour of chocolate.

Besides being used in cooking it is also used in Scandinavia in baking cakes and pastries. The Dutch use it in windmill biscuits.The Russians use it in liqueurs. In China and India they have used it for thousands of years to treat all kinds of digestive and bowel ailments.And it is one of the world's oldest spices.We thought it will combine magnificently with chocolate.It did.

We decide to make a tart because we felt that it bring up the combination best and most noticeably. First we combined the ingredients of the dough:We sifted flour,cocoa and sea salt. We creamed the butter,sugar together to a fluffy paste, added egg and mixed it in well. We mixed all the ingredients until the dough formed. We shaped it into a ball, cut it in two halves, and stored it in the refrigerator overnight.That was yesterday.

This evening we took one half, made it into a kind of a shallow tart shell circle with a 2cm ridge, covered it and let it chill.

In the meantime the oven was being preheated. The chocolate, we used 7 ounces bittersweet was placed in a bowl. Into it we added a heated mixture of cream,a table spoon of fine ground cardamon, milk and sugar stirring in a third at a time, until it blended smoothly. A whisked egg was blended into a part of the chocolate mixture and then to all of it.Get rid of bubbles by tapping the bowl.

Now pour the mixture into the tart shell right to the top. Baked for 20 minutes, turned around and baked again for another 20 minutes until the custard is firm around the edges and sort of wobbly in the centre.Lionel, our friendly chef from Singapore guided the whole operation through. We need his deftness. We were so clumsy.The complete recipe together with another cardamon-chocolate exotica is available in next fortnight's Java Cocoa Newsletter.

The other half of the dough got the same treatment. Except this time we mixed the cardamon with the dough not with the custard. For added effect we made a thin sheet of caramel blended with a pinch of cardamon cracked it into bits and sprinkled over the chocolate custard.

Our guests, mainly family, and of course the pensive friend from Carrefour, declared it a significant discovery and generally rated with a nine.

CHOCOLATE AT THE OLYMPICS

At what is going to be the grandest Olympics ever, Chocolate will be participating. Snickers has been appointed the Official Chocolate of the Beijing Olympics. This rich chocolate bar studded generously with peanuts will provide athletes, officials and spectators will the energy they are going to need. In Indonesia, Snickers distributed by Nirwana Lestari, will in Indonesia shy away from any publicity.

The China English Language Daily reports the some athletes have included chocolate as part of their training diet. Among them are swimmers, Australian Libby Trickett and American Katie Nott. The latter preferring a peanut-brittle bar coated with chocolate.

The Swiss Embassy will be holding a chocolate exhibition of their products during the Games. Hershey's, though not officially connected will be running an interesting and involving promotion supporting the US athletes, called"Taste of Victory".

George Bush, getting int right, send off the US Olympic team with a dinner at the White House.
For dessert the President served the "Chocolate Olympic Torch"- a dark chocolate tart with raspberries and a brown-sugar Olympic flame.

CNN reports that taxi drivers in Beijing have nicknamed the city, "Chocolate City" because of the large presence of Africans.

In the meantime chocolate consumption in China is increasing, according to conservative estimates at 8% per annum, and by 15% by other estimates. With the current percapita consumption at 100-150gm there is obviously great opportunities. In Shanghai it is one kilogram of chocolate per head per year. If the Chinese in the Eastern, affluent seaboard cities alone, eat as much chocolate as the Japanese(2.2kg) chocolatiers will have a potential of 800,000 metrics tons of chocolate per year.

That's why Barry Callebaut has set up a factory there(operational this year). That is why BT Cocoa of Indonesia have smartly networked themselves in the China chocolate market also taking advantage of the removal of import taxes.

The China chocolate market as a whole is the second biggest in the region, after Japan. China Food Industries says that the annual consumption worth CNY3billion is projected to reach CNY20billion(about USSIbillion) by 2012.

If this figure is reached it will make China the Gold Medal winner of the world chocolate race.

CHOCOLATE IN YOUR BUBUR AYAM.

If you are reading this story from Mexico, Bubur is Indonesian for rice porridge. Everywhere you go in Java and rest of the 17000 islands of Indonesia you will find some variety of Bubur. The Chinese and Indians call it congee(porridge). It could well be Asia's main prepared food. Usually eaten as supper(much after dinner) or breakfast.

The are simple congees to complex ones. A fairly sophiscated version is made with the famous Chinese Five Spices with shreds of chicken.

What is Chinese Five Spices? Well its the great wonder powder that the Chinese invented to combine the five elements of taste: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty. Very, very close to the five elements of the taste of chocolate: sour, bitter,sweet,astrigent and umami.

Bitterness in chocolate comes from the caffeine, L-valine,L-tyrosine and L-isoleucine.The sour from acetic acid, latic acid and citric and oxalic. The sweet from galatose, glucose, L-serine, fructose and sucrose.Astringency, which I liken to puncency comes from amines, eplatechin, catechin and other horribly difficult to spell elements. Just trust me.

What is umami? Well in chocolate it come comes two main elements, glutamic acid and aspartic acid. You will find these elements in Ajinamoto. I liken it to being salty savoury.

Make your congee by boiling rice and once it is ready allow to simmer for about an hour. It will not boil over. Combine, strips of chicken, a clove of garlic crushed, thin strips of ginger, a teaspoon of oyster sauce,pinch of pepper, two pinches of salt, and simmer it with the cosimmering porridge.Added finely chopped onions if you wish. Then add two tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa. stir in and simmer. Garnish with fried onions. Serve.

With a dash of soy it can bring much joy.

You can makt a bit more interesting if you throw in some roasted cocoa nibs and some ikan bilis(deep fried anchovies) Even Italian anchovies are great as a garnish. Overdoing it perhaps but as Mae West said"Too much of a good thing is wonderful".