A Few Experiments

1. Tahini Tang Dressing. *Some* members of the family are bored with our usual salad dressing of evoo and balsamic vinegar and salt/pepper/dill/garlic. Living in a family and being the cook means you do what you can to please others’ palates, within reason of course. So I tried a new dressing on Monday. It is from the book The Guilt-Free Gourmet by Vicki B. Griffin and Gina M. Griffin. Blend all in blender: 1/2 cup sesame tahini (roasted), 1/2 cup water, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1 teaspoon sea salt, 2 tablespoons raw honey, 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or 1 clove fresh) and 1/2 teaspoon onion powder. We like it. I wouldn’t say it was so fantastic we have no need to try anything else. But it is really very good. I would enjoy having it again.

2. Homemade Chocolate Chips. These are based on the Carob Chips from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon. Instead of using carob powder, I used cocoa powder. Melt together over low heat: 3/4 cup cocoa powder, 1/4 cup Rapadura (evaporated cane juice), 1 cup virgin, unrefined coconut oil, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract. I omitted the chcolate extract. Didn’t have any, didn’t need it. Pour mixture on parchment paper lining a cookie sheet. Harden in refrigerator. Break into chips. Refrigerate. These are very like Coconut Bark, only the proportions are different, so they turned out more crunchy and chip-like. I used them in dark chocolate brownies for Noami’s birthday, in fact. The only problem was that I couldn’t really get the Rapadura to dissolve, so there were still sugar crystals in the chips. This alarmed me at first and I thought the whole thing was a failure, but once hardened, the sugar crystals made the chips a little crunchier with bursts of sweetness. Still, I’d prefer full dissolution for smooth chips.

Edit: A friend told me yesterday that she grinds the Rapadura to a powder in a countertop appliance (such as VitaMix dry container, food processor, or coffee grinder). Then it will go into a recipe smoothly. Yay! A solution!

3. Rapadura – Evaporated Cane Juice. I am allowing this into my kitchen. Limited use. Here’s why. According to Sally Fallon in Nourishing Traditions:

“Rapadura is the commercial name for dehydrated cane sugar juice, which the people of India have used for thousands of years. It is rich in minerals, particularly silica. Rapadura has a wonderful flavor and closely mimics sugar in chemical properties.  It gives the best results for cookies and cakes but be careful not to overdo–in large amounts Rapadura can upset the body chemistry just as much as sugar.”

I have had no need for Rapadura up to this point. But now I want to make my own super-dark chocolate. I have had little success with liquid sweeteners. Someone I know who makes chocolate told me that water and cocoa don’t make good chocolate. So given that Rapadura is healthful in limited quantities, I am willing to make use of it without regrets. Indeed, with confidence.

Anyone making chocolate and can give me any pointers? How do you get your Rapadura/evaporated cane juice to dissolve? How about ideas for salad dressings to liven up our salad life?