Camel Milk and other unusual things that probably won't taste very good

Dubai's Al Nassma announced that they plan on selling their camel milk chocolate all over the Middle East with plans to move into a US market. After watching a rerun of Top Chef Masters last night I am a little more than skeptical about this plan.

I don't know if you've been keeping up this season; it actually has been an extreme disappointment, if you want my personal opinion. But last night they had all of the past Top Chef Master's on before the new one came on, so I caught up on what was going on. In the one episode a Swedish chef made a goats milk ganache as his dessert appetizer. Everyone hated it. The judges said it was awful. The people who they brought in said it was awful. I'm not sure what camel milk tastes like, but I have a feeling that it tastes closer to goat milk than it does cow milk.

Camel's milk has less fat in it, more vitamin C, and less insulin; I guess in some ways this makes it better than cow's milk. I'm sure that will be a selling point for the camel milk chocolate, but I really can't imagine it taking business from the loves of my life at Hershey. Actually the makers of the Camels Milk Chocolate said that they did not want to be in grocery stores; they wanted to think of themselves as "the Godiva of the Middle East."

I know I already told you about my history with milk, but I do have to wonder when drinking some other animal's milk becomes a little creepy. Would you drink your dog's milk, or your cats milk? I guess camel's milk just kind of creeps me out. I mean they spit dangerously; do you really want to be drinking the food that makes little camels spit dangerously? I am normally a proponent of adding chocolate to anything, but I think in this one instance it is just safer to add chocolate to cows milk. We know it tastes good, so why fiddle with a good thing.

Now that we settled the cow milk/ camel milk debate, it is time to make some truffles. Please don't go out and buy goat's milk or camel's milk for that matter; buy some good old fashioned heavy cream. I use a 2 to 1 ration for my ganache to make truffles, so if you buy a cup of heavy cream chop up a half a cup of chocolate (white, dark, or milk). If you are having a creative sort of day, infuse the milk. Pour the milk into a saucepan. You can add some cinnamon to make a Mexican truffle, or a little cayenne pepper for a spicy truffle. If you have fresh mint growing you could bruise some and put it in, or try a refreshing orange truffle by putting orange peel into the milk. Bring the cream to a boil. If you are infusing it make sure you do this slowly so the flavors are given the chance to seep in. Have the chocolate all chopped and ready to go. Once the cream comes to a boil strain it if you infused it, and pour it over the chocolate. Have a whisk ready to go and whisk. I know you have watched shows and movies where chefs whisk vigorously and just splash the contents of the bowl all over. It works for them; it won't work for ganache.

Whisk the center; don't bring the sides in until you have a nice emulsion. How do you know when you have a nice emulsion? Well it will look like smooth chocolate. Once you have this in the center of the bowl you can move your whisk out a little more to bring in some of the contents of the sides of the bowl.

Chocolate is a mysterious and beautiful thing. Many cultures believed it to have powers. I had a chef who told us that if he told the chocolate to not like us it wouldn't matter how much we tried we wouldn't be able to temper the chocolate. "You must love the chocolate and it will love you back." I never had a problem with this, but remember when you are making your truffles chocolate is a thing of love. Take your time and love the chocolate. Once your ganache is beautiful and shiny and all emulsified together, pour it into a pan. The only reason I say to do this is because it will cool evenly this way. If you are in no rush leave it in the bowl. Put it in the refrigerator. Once it is hard, take it out and scoop/spoon out truffle balls. Roll the balls if you are not using a scoop or if it proves to be difficult to scoop out. Roll the truffles in cocoa power, eat them as they are, or dip them in chocolate(if they make it that long).

As a final side note to food that I deem untasty, the Taco Bell dog died yesterday at the age of 15. While I have never been a fan of the meat mush Taco Bell seems to think is worthy of calling food, I do send my condolences to the dog's owner and to a chain that turned Mexican food into the worst form of fast food I have ever consumed.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily