Chocolate
And let's not forget the chocolate-stuffed Aztec human sacrifices. Or the illegal, sometimes literally enslaved, child labour still used on many West African cocoa farms.
Okay, so the broader implications of chocolate consumption could best be described as bitter-sweet but we all love it. So what is it? And how does white chocolate differ from its darker partners in crime?
Many experts argue that white chocolate is not really chocolate at all in that while it contains cocoa butter, it lacks the cocoa liquor that forms much of the texture and flavour of its darker cousins. But ultimately, all three result from processing the fruit of the Theobroma cacao tree so to quibble over definitions is dull when there's chocolate on the table.
The key thing to remember when cooking is that white chocolate is far more sensitive to heat than the darker forms and will much more easily clump if it is melted too rapidly or over-handled during melting. The super-simple chocolate pies that can be made with a combination of cream and melted dark or milk chocolate are liable to end up as a demoralizing, granular, lumpy mess when one tries to make them with white chocolate.
So what to do with white chocolate? We tend to think of it as kiddie food but handled well it lends itself to über grown-up combinations with savoury flavours - especially white wine. Rachel Botes at Carlton Café in Pretoria and winner of a 2008 dine restaurant guide Top 10 award makes a sophisticated white chocolate, lemon grass and green peppercorn shortbread that slips down very easily in combination with a citrus-laden Chardonnay. And she was persuaded to part with the recipe.
The good news is that while the history of chocolate is complicated, chef Botes's recipe is blissfully simple.
Ingredients
2 T crushed lemon grass
50g icing sugar, sifted
150g white chocolate, chopped
250g cake flour
100g corn flour
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
1 T of green peppercorns (brine drained off and discarded)
200g cold butter, diced
½ t salt
Method
1. Place peppercorns, lemon grass and zest into a food processor and pulse until
smooth.
2. In a bowl over simmering water, melt the chocolate slowly. Take care that
the bowl does not get too hot or your chocolate will go lumpy. It's very tempting
to stir the chocolate but if you do it will turn into a clump of granular gunge.
Leave it alone and it will become a smooth white liquid.
3. Sift salt and flours into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon grass and peppercorn
blend. Add the butter and rub the ingredients together until you have a coarse,
breadcrumb-like blend.
4. Stir in the sugar and the melted chocolate to form a dough. Press the mixture
together.
5. Turn your dough out onto a work surface. Shape it into a log about 30cm long.
Wrap in wax paper and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour.
6. Cut the log into workable disks and roll out each piece to about ½cm
thick and cut into shapes as desired.
7. Arrange the biscuits onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper and bake
at 150°C until they are pale golden, approximately 20 minutes.
8. Cool and then serve with cheese, fresh figs and lots of chilled white wine.
WINE RECOMMENDATION: A wooded Chardonnay would be a delicious match so we suggest Delheim's Sur Lie 2006 (R75 a bottle ex-cellar).
Carlton Delicious, 71 13th Street, Menlo Park, Pretoria. Tel: 012 460 7996
