Dec 1

Dec 1 Local Food – Schokovida – Part I

Dessert, Food, Hamburg, Rezept, Selber machen

The wheel is turning. Slowly. Very slowly. We ask ourselves if that’s how it's supposed to be. And what’s inside? What now? Just milk and sugar? Ah, ok, and some vanilla.
Nothing else, except quite a bit of time. I think it took four hours.

It’s great to watch how even Berit, one of the two operators of Schokovida, must first get a feel for it. It’s a snapshot of how the wonderful products of this chocolate factory in Eppendorf, Hamburg, are made.

I ask her if she had ever worked out on how much she needed to fill into glasses to make it worthwhile. She laughs and says, “Well, if it were only about that, I would have lost the shop by now”.

In our studio it smells like… Werther's! The chewy kind you used to pull your fillings out with. But it’s more delicate, more fluid. The sweet scent of caramel exudes a feeling of comfort, and we compete as to who has the best idea for its use. It is one of the first productions of “Hamburger Milchmännchen".

Dulce de leche with a soft caramel taste and as smooth as syrup.

But, what can you do with it? And what do we want? Berit votes for true indulgence - and so do we.

But there has to be more! Flambéing? Or boiling it down to a lolly pop? Probably goes with something savoury as well?! I try it in my coffee first. Fantastic! Just like a “café leche y leche”!

Next we’ll ask Roland if he can help us out. Roland Geiselmann, once a chef at the best restaurants in Germany, has been working as a food stylist for the last 30 years. We’ve been working together for a long time, and he probably knows what to do.

Have a look at what we came up with.

Pumpkin Tartlets
(4 tartlets with a 15 cm Ø)

Pastry:

400 g flour
¾ tsp salt
1 large egg
225 g cold butter

Filling:

4–6 stalks lemon thyme
1 garlic clove
½ small red kuri squash
1 tbsp organic lemon zest
1 stalk leek
2 tbsp olive oil
sea salt, ground pepper
100 ml dulce de leche (e.g. Milchmännchen)
200 g crème fraîche
4 egg yolks
Espelette pepper
100 g mild Gorgonzola
fennel seeds

Directions:

Mix flour and salt in a bowl. Add egg and the butter in small pieces and quickly knead until smooth. Split into 4 portions and form into flat discs. Wrap in cling film and cool for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile rinse the thyme. Finely chop 2 stalks of the thyme and the garlic clove. Deseed the squash, rinse and dry. Cut in slices of ca. 2 cm. Mix with thyme, garlic, and lemon zest.

Clean and rinse leek, allow to dry and slice into 8 cm long pieces. Then finely slice the leek into strips. Heat oil in a large pan. Sear leek and squash slices. Season with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees (180 degrees with fan). Grease and dust 4 tartlet tins with flour (Ø 15 cm; preferably with a detachable base and a high rim). Roll out the individual pastry portions on a little flour, cover the tins with the pastry, creating a somewhat irregular rim. Pierce the pastry numerous times with a fork and cover with parchment paper and weights, e.g. dried peas or lentils. Blind-bake in hot oven for 10 minutes. Then remove weights and parchment and reduce the temperature to 180 degrees (160 degrees with fan).

Meanwhile whisk together dulce de leche, crème fraiche and egg yolks. Season with salt, pepper, and Espelette pepper. Pour half of the cream into the tartlets, top with the prepared vegetables and cover with the rest of the cream. Sprinkle with crumbled cheese, espelette pepper and fennel seeds.

Bake the tartlets on the oven’s lowermost shelf for a further 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cover with parchment paper for the last minutes if needed, so that the tartlet’s rims do not become too dark. Allow to briefly cool, take out of the tins and serve with the rest of the thyme.

Directions:

Lightly grind cardamom pods. Carefully heat together with cinnamon, orange peel and rum in a small pot. Whip cream with 50 g of the condensed milk until firm. Heat the rest of the condensed milk. Add sugar cubes to taste in two preheated mugs. Prepare one part of the mocha and stir. First pour heated condensed milk and then the remaining mocha into the mugs. Sift rum through a fine sieve and add to mugs. Add cream on top of the hot mocha. Trickle dulce de leche on the cream and serve immediately.

Caramel Cream Pharisee
(For two cups)