Sakura Cress, Chocolate, Yogurt, Red Pepper, Cayenne
A beautiful dessert with interesting combination of flavors designed by the scientific method of food pairing. Foodpairing® has made accessible to chefs and amateur cooks an extensive database of ingredients that was once only available to pioneers like Heston Blumenthal. It is a great resource to create new dishes, be inspired, find surprising flavor combinations and get to know new ingredients. You can learn more about Foodpairing® here. They even have a free version for you to try it!
In this dessert, we are combining Sakura Cress, chocolate, yogurt, roasted red pepper and cayenne pepper. Sakura Cress ® is the dark purple version of Daikon Cress and tastes similar to radish sprouts.
Sakura Cress® has, the last ten years, been developed under the supervision of Koppert Cress. The unique red color is caused by a high content of Anthocyanin. One hundred times more than ordinary radish.
Below you can see the Foodpairing® tree used to create this recipe with yogurt, dark chocolate, cayenne pepper, red pepper and Sakura Cress.
Ingredients
- 165 g yogurt
- 5 g yogurt powder
- 2.5 g gelatin sheets, pre-soaked
- 100 g cream
- 20 g icing sugar
- 50 g roasted red pepper brunoise
- cayenne pepper
- Sakura® Cress or radish sprouts if not available
Ingredients for Chocolate Cylinders
Preparation
Chocolate Cylinders
1- Cut acetate sheets in 4 rectangles of 13 cm x 8 cm (5 in x 3 in).
2- Using an offset spatula spread a 2 mm layer of tempered chocolate (see below) on the acetate rectangles leaving about 1 cm uncovered along one of the long sides.
3- Roll the acetate covered in chocolate to form a cylinder leaving the uncovered portion of the rectangle on the outside of the cylinder. Hold it together with tape.
4- Place the cylinders in the fridge. Wait for a few minutes until they set and are ready to assemble and serve.
Tempering Chocolate
Tempering chocolate is the process of melting and cooling chocolate in a way that causes the right type of cocoa butter crystals form to obtain a shiny hard chocolate that does not become gooey at room temperature. Work in a cool and dry room and use a good thermometer .
1- Chop the dark chocolate finely.
2- In a double boiler heat 170 g of chocolate at very low temperature, stirring constantly until it reaches a temperature of 48 °C (118 °F) but don’t get it over 49 °C (120 °F). Be careful so no moisture gets in contact with the chocolate.
3- Remove the chocolate from the heat and add the rest of the chopped unmelted chocolate. Stir until the temperature drops to 27 °C (80 to 81 °F) but don’t get it below 25 °C (77 °F) or you will have to heat it back up to 48 °C (118 °F) and start over again.
4- Reheat the melted chocolate to 33 °C (91 °F). To test that you obtained a good tempered chocolate, place a small scoop of chocolate in the fridge for a few minutes and if you did a good job it should be hard and shiny.
5- While working with tempered chocolate, stir it every few minutes and keep it warm at 32 °C (90 to 91 °F) using a heat lamp or other source of heat.
Yogurt Red Pepper Filling
1- Dissolve the swollen, squeezed gelatin sheets in a little pan on low heat.
2- Stir a few tablespoons of yogurt into the dissolved gelatin and only then add the rest of the yogurt and yogurt powder. Important! Always add the cold mixture to the gelatin and not vice versa.
3- Mix everything thoroughly.
4- Whip the cream with the sugar.
5- Fold into the yogurt.
6- Stir in the roasted red pepper brunoise.
7- Add cayenne pepper to taste.
8- Allow to set in the fridge.
Assemble and Serve
1- Using a piping bag, fill each chocolate cylinder with the yogurt red pepper cream.
2- Place cylinder on plate and top with Sakura Cress.