Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Like Water for Chocolate

I have just finished the book "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel. It is a wonderfully romantic tale filled with magic and mythical recipes. The following is the recipe given for "excellent quality hot chocolate" - the favourite of middle sister Getrudis who ran off to become a general in the revolutionary army:
"The amount of water used should be a little more than enough to fill three cups. When the water comes to the boil for the first time, remove it from the heat, and dissolve the chocolate completely; beat with a chocolate mill until it is smoothly blended with the water. Return the pan to the stove. When it comes to the boil again and start to boil over, remove it from the heat. Put it back on the heat and bring tot the boil a third time. Remove from the heat and beat the chocolate. Pour half into a little pitcher and beat the rest of it some more. Then serve it all, leaving the top covered with foam."
Or there is the instant stuff - you decide...

But I really enjoyed the book and if you are a foodie, you would have read it by now or you should go out immediately and purchase. I loved how the traditional Mexican recipes are interwoven with love and lust.

Also for foodies - this weekend in the CTICC is the Good Food and Wine show. We will be there! We being Mamamac's. The show is the reason I have been in the bakery frantically helping prepare crunchies to choc-chips to custard biscuits.
There is a scene in "Like Water for Chocolate" where all the guests at a wedding start weeping uncontrollably after eating the wedding cake prepared by the love sick youngest sister Tita. Her tears fell into the batter and cast a somber spell on the wedding.
I wonder if my customers will experience a sense of what I was feeling while baking away in the cold winter of Ceres, missing days on the beach in Dar...happy yet homesick, satisfied yet searching...

Andizi

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