Chocolate match what? Caramel, peanuts, condensed milk, pie, cake? Right. But what if in that world chocolate day if we took it out of the sweet kitchen and took it to the salty one, would it work?
Of course yes! Even because, despite our gustatory memory and cultural records stating that it has to be sweet, the paste of roasted and fermented cocoa beans that gives life to the tablets took literally centuries to find sugar and milk.
Long before the discovery of America, the Aztec emperors already consumed chocolate in ceremonies as an energy drink, called “xocoatl”. With a bitter, astringent and spicy taste, it was prepared with water and often thickened with corn flour, and seasoned with chestnuts and pepper.
It was only in the 16th century, when it arrived in Europe, that it started to be consumed – still only as a hot drink – with cinnamon, vanilla and a little sugar, which at that time had the status of a noble spice.
The bar format, to be eaten pure, and the milk, which brought softness and smoothness to the mixture, would only be incorporated almost three centuries later, during the Industrial Revolution. From there, to fall into popular taste, in the form of milk chocolates, it was a leap.
Despite this, chocolate has never stopped being used in savory recipes. Although today seen almost as exotic all over the world. With the exception of Mexico, where the poblano and negro moles – a type of sauce made with peppers, dried fruits, nuts and dark chocolate – are a fundamental part of the gastronomic culture and therefore found in different versions throughout the country.
“It’s a party recipe, made with more than 40 ingredients, which can take days to prepare. The longer the slow-cooking, resting and re-cooking, the richer it gets”, says the Mexican chef. Eduardo Nava Ortiz which in your restaurant Metzi in São Paulo, serves the black mole.
“But it comes out little. It is a very complex flavor that combines salty, sweet, sour, spicy, smoky. Not everyone likes it,” she adds.
In the hands of the most daring cooks, chocolate has gone far beyond sweets and desserts, combined with the most varied ingredients, from meat to pasta.
This is thanks to its flavor nuances that can vary from herbal to floral, from spicy to acidic, from bitter to fruity, depending on the origin, the cocoa variety, the fermentation and roasting times of the seeds, and the formulation itself.
For those who doubt, just watch the episode of the gastronomic reality show “Iron Chef” (available at Netflix ), with the chefs Ming Tsai of Chinese origin, and Claudete Zepeda who had the challenge of building two menus complete with the ingredient and drove the judges – and the viewers – crazy with dishes such as duck with orange and chocolate, aguachile (ceviche’s more acidic and spicy cousin) with raw meat and cocoa, salad caesar with cocoa butter sauce and baked fish with 70% cocoa chocolate miso.
“Chocolate works great with salt. As soy sauce would be the salt of Chinese cuisine, I decided to combine the two”, explained the celebrity chef, who also took advantage of the roasted notes of cocoa to add an extra layer of flavor to the barbecue sauce served with the pork belly.
A combination considered practically a classic since the French chef Frédéric Bau launched the book “Chocolate Fusion” in 2008. The work is one of the biggest references when it comes to chocolate in savory cuisine.
In Brazil, despite not being a constant given the strangeness generated in the public, it turns and moves it is possible to find someone who plays with the ingredient to shake our references and taste buds.
the award-winning Alex Atala from DOM restaurant, among the best in the world in 2022, according to the list The World’s 50 Best Restaurants released this week, has already surprised diners with a chocolate mousse with bacon, which if you tasted it with your eyes closed, you could swear it was an aerated barbecue.
already the chef Ana Soares turns and stirs returns the cocoa mass to the menu Table III rotisserie . “It’s a very sophisticated dough, more beautiful than aromatic. With a very interesting feeling of slight bitterness”, says the chef, who has already made the recipe for stuffing with duck confit and now has it at home as tagliolini.
“It goes really well in butter with raisins and a terrine of foie gras. Or with poppy butter and mascarpone,” she suggests.
Even in the bakery it is possible to take chocolate out of the common place. Let the pastry chef say Rodrigo Ribeiro, which has already made use of the earthy notes of chocolate to create a dessert composed of dark chocolate ganache with sage, dark chocolate crumble, yerba mate cake and fresh mushrooms, whose appearance imitated a terrarium.
“All the ingredients were thought to bring these earthy notes to the dish”, points out Ribeiro, always ready to surprise.
Source: CNN Brasil
