Truffles and hot tubs and what have you.

Friday morning already?  Where did the week go… I had marvelous intentions of sharing my newly found truffle (chocolate not the smelly ones) recipes with you.  I had great success with Earl Grey and bittersweet chocolate and a stunning failure involving mango and curry.  I’m sure someone more poetic than I could wax on about highs and lows and all that but I know what you’re secretly thinking…”Mango and curry…chocolate…blech!”

A wild desire to be avant garde and uber creative seized me and the mango curry truffles were the result.  Veni and Hollind tried to talk me out of it but I was deaf to their pleas.  My punishment:  a dozen perfectly gorgeous but oddly flavored..okay I’ll be frank…inedible chocolate blobs.

And I would have posted the Earl Grey recipe last night if Hollind and Steph and Elaine hadn’t kept me out so late.  We went to Eleven Winery’s tasting room to support Island artist Isobel Coney in a showing of her exquisitely rendered Lino prints.  (Please go!  You’ll be glad you did!)

It was supposed to be an early night due to Steph’s stated intention to tuck in her kids at 7:30…being the supporting friends that we are, we helped Steph find a way to have her wine and drink it too by weaseling through a tuck-in loophole:  we accompanied her home so she could tuck in the kiddies then we retired to her hot tub for two hours. 

Today is an exciting day because T&C is sampling cheeses again.  I went yesterday and spent a happy interlude sampling such wonderful things as Cibo Natural’s smoked Jalapeno cheese, Bucherondin French goat milk cheese and I have it on good authority that today they’ll have gorgonzola dolce, a cheese so luscious and meltingly gorgeous you can (and will want to) eat it with a spoon.  I swoon as I write this.  This happens from 10-12 so don’t be lazy, get up and get there and say hello—I’ll be the one hovering over the gorgonzola.  BTW—every single fabulous cheese on aisle 1 is 25% off.  woohoo.

Okay, so I think I owe you some eye candy.   As tasty as the Earl Grey truffles were, they didn’t photograph well (unless rocks on a plate excite you) so I give you instead pics from a recent apple cider pressing at my folks house in Joyce, WA.

   

Remind me later to tell you about the crab feed we had on Wednesday night.  Matthew, the same lovely neighbor who gave me salmon to smoke, dropped by with four! freshly caught and cooked Dungeness crab. 

Off to Copalis to slay some clams.  Cheers.

Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles

From: Cuvee 928 in Flagstaff, Arizona

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon sugar

3 Earl Grey tea bags

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter cut in ½ inch cubes

2 tablespoons brandy

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Bring cream and sugar just to a boil in heavy small saucepan, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat. Empty tea from bags into cream. Cover and steep for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir chocolate and butter in small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Transfer to medium bowl.

Strain cream mixture through fine meshed strainer (or through several layers of cheesecloth) into chocolate mixture; stir to blend. Stir in brandy and salt. Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Cover and chill until firm, about four hours.

Lime rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or waked paper. Roll rounded teaspoons of chocolate mixture between palms to form a ball. Place on prepared sheet. Chill until firm, about one hour. Roll truffles between palms again. Place cocoa in small bowl. Roll truffles in cocoa powder; return to same sheet. Cover and chill.