Tag: chocolate

Braised Pork in Lazy Cherry Ancho Mole
I’m going to be completely honest here; I’m not the biggest fan of cherries.

It’s not that I have anything against them, they’re just not really my steeze. But this blog is supposed to be a challenge, and that means transforming whatever is in season, whether I like it or not, into something unique and delicious.

Doing research for cherry flavor profiles ended up giving us the key for what we would do with them. While cherries aren’t toward the top of my list, there are a multitude of flavors that I do love that have an affinity for them: chocolate, nuts, coffee, dried fruit or chiles, vanilla, and other spices like cinnamon to name a few. I had trouble picking a direction until I realized that I didn’t have to, after browsing through a Mark Miller cookbook. There’s already something out there that uses most of these things and that I was certain would welcome the presence of cherries: mole.

Sometimes containing upwards of 60 ingredients and often demanding an entire day to make, mole is definitely an undertaking. While all the work is certainly worth it, sometimes I’m just not up to it. Sometimes I just feel like being lazy while something braises in the oven for hours while I troll my way through an RPG or a good book. I’ve made so many damn lazy moles in my day, and while they aren’t as complex as they could be, I still find that they hit the spot; plus they’re really fun to make and easy to experiment with. Never under-estimate the amount of joy I can derive from dumping a bunch of shit in a food processor, blending it together, and seeing what happens. I certainly had a lot of fun fooling around with this recipe.

Lazy Cherry Ancho Mole:
- 1½ ounces ancho chiles, stems and seeds removed
- 1 pound of fresh dark cherries (we like Bings), pitted and halved
- ½ small onion, roughly chopped
- 1 cup of brewed strong coffee, hot
- 2 chipotles in adobo sauce
- ¼ cup whole almonds, toasted
- 1 ounce chocolate (over 60%, please, none of that milk chocolate nonsense), finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 teaspoons of salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon of allspice
- A pinch of clove
- A few grates of fresh nutmeg
Rehydrate the chiles by submerging them in water and microwaving for 2–3 minutes. They should be soft and have changed in color, becoming more red. Remove from the water and set aside. Discard the water.

In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients for the mole except for the coffee and the vinegar. Pulse repeatedly, scraping the sides until the mixture is as smooth as you can get it. Combine the coffee and vinegar together and pour through the top of the food processor while the blade is running. The mole should loosen up and blend until completely smooth. The quick mole is ready to use, but can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week before using.

Braised Pork in Lazy Cherry Ancho Mole:
- 4 pounds lean pork shoulder, cut into 2-3 inch cubes
- 1 batch of Lazy Cherry Ancho Mole
Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a casserole dish (or dutch oven), pour in the mole and place the pieces of pork on top. If using a dutch oven, simply place all the pork inside and give it a quick stir. Cover in aluminum foil or lid and braise for about 3 hours or until the meat becomes tender and falls apart. After braising, remove the meat from the mole, allowing it to rest and be shredded later. Remove the excess fat and, if you like, use an immersion blender to make sure the mole has a really smooth texture.

Shred the meat with forks and serve after cooling with sauce on the side. Accompaniments can include corn tortillas, rice and beans, or just eat it out of the pan over the stove.
June 26, 2016
Cookies & Cream Grows Up
This monstrosity was borne out of wondering what to make for National Ice Cream Day. There were two schools of thought at first. I was thoroughly excited about making our very first chocolate ice cream, while Nate had his eye on experimenting with a cookies ’n’ cream. The time came to when we were wandering the aisles of a grocery store near our house and we knew we had to make up our minds soon. At the last moment, Nate had the utterly genius idea of…simply not choosing.

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“ ‘¿Por qué no los dos?’ he said to me.”

“¿Por qué no los dos?” he said to me.

He’s a madman, I thought.

We bought good chocolate, Oreos, and heavy cream and went home.

What transpired was a combination of a rich chocolate ice cream that resembled chocolate mousse—spiked with a little bourbon because we found it raiding the pantry and also why wouldn’t you do that? Then, in it’s last moments of churning, we crammed it full of crumbled Oreos.

There’s no possible way we can prepare you for how delicious this is. I almost got angry the first time I tasted it because it was so delicious. Angry. Lesson learned from making this ice cream: when you’re deliberating between two things, sometimes the best possible outcome for the choice is, in fact, choosing both. And I have to say, this is the best tasting compromise I’ve ever come across in my life.

¿Por qué no los dos?

Boozy Dark Chocolate Cookies & Cream Ice Cream
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ tsp. good sea salt
- 8 oz. good dark chocolate, 60% cacao or higher (we recommend Valrhona or Woodblock)
- Scant ⅛ tsp. xanthan gum
- 1½ tbsp. bourbon or rye whiskey
- 10 Oreo cookies, crumbled (plus more to snack on, because porqué no?)
In a heavy bottomed 2-quart pan, heat cream, milk, sugar, and salt until simmers and the sugar and salt completely dissolve. Place chocolate into the bowl of a large food processor. Pulse until broken into small chunks, the smaller the better. Add 1 cup of the hot cream-milk mixture while the food processor is running. Blend until chocolate is melted, making a rich ganache.

In a medium bowl, pour the rest of the cream-milk mixture. Add the ganache to the cream and whisk until fully incorporated. Add the whiskey. Add the xanthan gum, and stir until dissolved. Chill mixture for at least 2 hours before churning.

In your ice cream machine, churn the mixture for 25–30 minutes or until it thickens enough to stick to the churn or a spoon. Right before you stop churning, slowly add the cookies and churn for about a minute. Quickly transfer to a freezer-safe container. Cover with plastic wrap and the lid, and freeze until desired hardness is achieved. We recommend overnight, but this depends on how cold your freezer is.

Yields about 1.5 quarts.
July 25, 2015
Salty Peanut Butter Sundae
WARNING: Do not make this recipe. If you make ice cream and realize how ridiculously easy it is to make, you won’t stop. We certainly haven’t.
That said, we love us some peanut butter. There was this time where we were eating only low-fat protein and veggies, and on a whim we ate a spoonful of natural peanut butter (salted, of course). The experience, when we hadn’t had a lot of fat for a while, was religious. The complexity of this everyday staple has led us to experiment with different formulations of the legume paste in ice cream.

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Eventually, we settled on a less-sweet version of the ice cream, preferring the sweetness to come from the add-ins. The added twist of extra salt gives it that extra savory oomph to sate our salty-tooth tastes. This version has Heath toffee chunks swirled in (we found these next to the chocolate chips), though we have experimented with chocolate bits and peanut butter cup pieces, both of which are delicious. And to make it all the more us, we covered it in a crispy dark chocolate shell that adds a distinct bitterness to this rich and creamy dessert.
- 2 cups whipping cream (not heavy)
- 1¼ cups milk
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 heaping cup peanut butter
- 2 tsp. good quality vanilla extract
- 1 heaping teaspoon good sea salt
- ½ cup Heath bits o’ brickle toffee pieces
Dark chocolate shell
- 2.5 oz. dark chocolate chips
- ¼ cup coconut oil
In a medium bowl, whisk together peanut butter and sugar until sugar is completely dissolved, about 1–2 minutes. Add cream and vanilla extract and stir until mixed. Add milk and salt, and continue stirring until it is completely incorporated.

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Prepare your ice cream maker, turn it on, and pour the ice cream into the machine. Churn according to your machine’s directions (usually 20–25 minutes). About 15 minutes in, pour the toffee pieces in and continue churning until you achieve a thick, soft serve consistency. Scrape into a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Ice cream is better fresh, so consume within two weeks of making it, or it will become dense.

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Yields 1.5 quarts

When you are ready to serve, heat the chocolate chips and coconut oil in the microwave until thin and liquid. Let cool slightly. Pour slowly over the scooped ice cream, garnish with some big flake sea salt, and serve immediately. If the shell does not harden immediately, place the sundae in the freezer for about 30 seconds. Store any unused chocolate shell in the fridge.

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June 1, 2015
Salted Dark Chocolate Mousse
We don’t spring for sweet things often. Like, ever. But when we do, it usually involves chocolate or peanut butter. We are excited to introduce our first dessert, which involves a healthy amount of delicious chocolate and super sexy sea salt.
Mousse is a basic dessert that’s easy to make at home (with or without an electric mixer), and we think it’s fair to say that it’s only as good as the ingredients you put in it. The thing we really like about our recipe is that we don’t add any sugar to it. There’s nothing for you to focus on while eating it other than the luscious texture and the wonderful chocolate you put in it. We would recommend using dark and complex chocolate for this, especially if it has some fruity notes in it. In this case we used some of the best chocolate we have ever come across roasted right here in Portland, Oregon, from chocolate maker, Woodblock Chocolate. We highly recommend that if you use Woodblock for this recipe, use the single origin Peruvian chocolate. It’s exquisite. The sea salt we use is also local (we hoard the stuff) from a wonderful company called Jacobsen.

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- 1¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 3 egg whites
- 8 oz. good dark chocolate, reduced to small chunks
- ½ cup milk
- 1 heaping tsp. good sea salt
In a small bowl, place the chocolate, milk, and salt and microwave in short bursts until the chocolate is melted (usually two sets of 30 seconds). Mix together until well incorporated. Set aside.

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Place the whipping cream into a chilled bowl and whip until there is enough air to create floppy peaks with the cream. Set aside in a large bowl big enough to hold all ingredients. In another bowl (or the same bowl you used to whip the cream in after being cleaned and dried), whip the egg whites until they become very white and and have stiff peaks. Set aside.

Slowly and gently fold in the melted chocolate mixture into the whipped cream, turning the cream and chocolate onto itself instead of mixing. The goal is to maintain the air you whipped into it. Once the chocolate is evenly mixed in, add the egg whites to the cream and chocolate and continue to fold gently until all three ingredients are completely incorporated.

Divide the mousse evenly among four small dishes. Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Serves 4

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May 20, 2015