Chocolate Soup
Chef Jacques Torres
In Julia's Kitchen
with Master Chefs
by Julia Child, with Nancy Verde Barr,
1995, Alfred A.
Knopf
“Chocolate Soup is one of Chef Jacques’s creations
for Le Cirque, in New
York, where he is famous for his innovative desserts.
Here, a chilled light
chocolate sauce hides a cache of sautéed banana slices
drowned in rum
and sugar – a surprising pleasure indeed. He constructs his
dessert either
in a bowl for 6 or more, or in individual ramekins, and
serves it warm,
topped by tender swirls of meringue.”
Ingredients for 8 servings
For the
chocolate soup
8 ounces best-quality ‘couverture’
semisweet chocolate,
at room
temperature
(for easy cutting up)
3 cups milk, brought just under the boil
For the banana
garnish
5 or 6 fully ripe bananas (just beginning to
freckle, but not mushy)
1 teaspoon fragrant ground cinnamon
1/2 cup dark rum, plus a little more if needed
3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
For the
meringue decoration
1/2 cup egg whites (4 “large”)
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
Special
equipment suggested: A hand-held electric blender or a whisk and
wooden
spoon; an ovenproof 8- to 10-cup shallow decorative bowl or soup
tureen, or
8 ramekins holding 8 to 10 ounces each; a freestanding electric
mixer with
very clean bowl and whip; 1 fine-meshed sieve or sifter (for the
confectioners’ sugar and meringue); a piping bag (a heavy-duty gallon-size
plastic bag or a pastry bag) and a 3/8- to 1/2-inch star tip; a baking pan
large enough to hold the tureen or ramekins; a kettle of boiling water
Manufacturing Note: In our
testing for this fabulous soup, we felt
the bananas needed a more serious
beefing up – in a figurative way,
of course. They must be
fully ripe, and
our flavoring proportions for
them here are more ample than those shown on
television. If they’re
not flavorful, the chocolate dominates rather than
accompanies the
bananas in a deliciously supportive way. The original recipe calls
for 12 ounces of chocolate, which we found gave us too much;
we’ve reduced the amount to 8 ounces.
Melting the
Chocolate: Jacques Torres has his own way of melting chocolate, and uses
his hand-held electric blender for a smooth result
[one of our very favorite
kitchen tools; if you don’t already own one,
do yourself a favor and use
this as an excuse to buy one!]; always
holding it so the whirling blade
rests on the bottom of the bowl, he
thus avoids high-flying chocolate
splatters. His block of chocolate is at
room temperature. First he cuts it
into flakes 1/4 inch thick by holding
his large chef’s knife at an angle to
the chocolate; he presses down
hard on the back of the blade so the
chocolate pieces flake away. (Or
you could break the bar into larger pieces
and pulse
it into smaller ones
in your food processor.) Now turn the
chocolate into a
3-quart bowl
and pour the hot milk over it. Blend until
beautifully smooth, either
with your hand-held machine or with a portable
mixer, or use a whisk
and spoon. (If it cools off too much to blend
smoothly, you may very
carefully and briefly stir the chocolate over hot
water to warm it
up again.)
Preparing the Banana Garnish: Peel the bananas,
quarter them length-
wise, and cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces. Transfer to
a bowl, toss with
the cinnamon, then pour on the rum. Set a heavy 10-inch
frying pan over
high heat, pour in the sugar, and cook until it turns a nice
caramel-brown.
Immediately swirl in the butter, and when melted, scrape in
the bananas
and rum – the caramel may harden, but will liquefy in a minute
or so as
you sauté, turning the banana slices gently with a wooden spoon.
Continue
sautéing and turning the bananas for several minutes until the
bananas are
softened and well caramelized – add droplets more rum, if
necessary, to
melt the caramel.
Filling the Tureen: Spread the bananas evenly over the
bottom of the
soup tureen, or divide them evenly among the individual cups,
and spoon
on enough chocolate to cover the bananas by about 1/4 inch,
leaving 1/4
inch free below the rim of the container. Cover with plastic
wrap and chill
in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
Ahead-of-Time Note: The dessert may be completed to this point a day in
advance. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F 20 minutes before you plan
to
serve and place
the rack in the middle level.
Decorating: About half an hour before you plan to
serve, set the soup
tureen or ramekins in the baking pan and pour boiling
water around
them, thus allowing them to warm as you work. Whip the egg
whites
until they begin to foam, then, as you continue whipping, gradually
sift
in half the confectioners’ sugar. When the whites form stiff peaks,
sift
and fold in the remaining sugar. Scrape the whites into the piping bag,
and decoratively swirl 1 1/2 to 2 inches meringue on the top of each
dessert. The chocolate should have warmed; test by poking the tip
of a small
knife down through the meringue into the chocolate and
bananas. Leave for 5
seconds, then hold it against your palm – the
knife should be faintly
warm.
Baking: Remove the tureen or ramekins from the water
bath and set
on a baking sheet in the middle level of the preheated 350
degree F
oven. Bake
for 6 to 8 minutes, until the meringue is lightly
browned,
and serve warm.
Ahead-of-Time Note: The desserts will keep warm for a good
half hour in
the turned-off oven with its door ajar.
[Note:
This recipe contains no warning, no mention whatsoever, concerning
the
lightly cooked egg whites in the meringue. Egg yolks are more likely to
carry harmful bacteria than are whites; however, if this is a concern, you
may want
to consider using the following meringue recipe from Baking
with Julia,
contributing baker Charlotte Akoto]:
Cooked Meringue
4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
Using a whisk and working in a large heatproof bowl (the bowl
of a heavy-duty mixer would be fine), whisk together the egg whites and
sugar. Place
the bowl directly over medium-low heat and whisk constantly
until the sugar
dissolves. A layer of foam forms over the liquid portion of
the eggs, and the
mixture is hot (really hot) to the touch, about 2 minutes.
Transfer the whites to the bowl of a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment,
or fit the mixer bowl, if you’ve used it, into the stand, and whip on high
speed until the meringue forms glossy peaks. Unlike ordinary meringue,
this
meringue will not double in volume; it will, however, firm up. Proceed
as in
the recipe above.
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