Filled Nubes de Chocolate

Guest Chef Renny Karnich presented a fun-filled cooking class in my kitchen earlier this month. Her menu included fajitas hot off the griddle, Pico de Gallo, and all the accompaniments. The fajita ingredients were sizzled on a red-hot griddle and stacked to make a steaming volcano. You can see her recipe for fajitas in a previous article.

For anyone not knowing, Boquete is situated high on the side of Volcan Baru, the tallest volcano in Panama, so Renny’s fajita technique is apropos. Then, she used her “volcano” technique in a totally different manner, to make Nubes de Chocolate, or “clouds of chocolate”.

At the end of the class, Renny piled filled cream puffs high on a footed cake plate and dribbled them with hot icing.  It was like another volcano had erupted, spurting hot chocolate all down the sides of the mountain.  Everyone cheered in delight as the chocolate kept flowing. “The more hot chocolate, the better!”, exclaimed Renny.

Here’s how Renny made the cream puffy clouds and put it all together:

Eclairs or Cream Puffs

½ cup water
4 tablespoons butter
½ cup flour
2 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine water and butter in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add flour and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough leaves the sides of the pan and forms a ball. Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time beating hard until the dough is smooth.

Place 12 rounded tablespoons of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet, 2 inches apart and bake 30 minutes or until golden. While still warm, carefully slice the tops off the puffs. Pull out the soft insides and discard them. Cool the puffs, then fill with cream filling and dust with sifted powdered sugar.

Creme Patissiere Filling

1 cup milk
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks, beaten
2 teaspoons flavored extract, vanilla, cherry, almond, etc.
OR 2 tablespoons liquor, Abuelo rum, Tia Maria, Curacao, etc.

Heat the milk in a saucepan until hot, not boiling. Whisk the sugar, flour and salt together in a medium bowl, then add the hot milk until well blended. Pour mixture back into the saucepan and continue to stir vigorously over low heat until very thick and smooth. Add the egg yolks and cook for a few more minutes. Cook, stirring from time to time, then add flavoring. You may add color, to make the filling more festive.

Now that you have the cream puffs filled with your favorite flavored filling, stack them on a pedestal cake plate and sprinkle them with slivered almonds. Heat half a container of ready-to-use fudge or double-chocolate icing in the microwave until it is runny, only about 15 seconds. Slowly drizzle the filled puffs (nubes) with hot icing. Wait for the compliments, then serve with a steaming cup of Boquete coffee.

Delightful!
Cora

Fajitas – Hot Off the Griddle!

Lots of fun and ideas are ahead for the next Boquete Gourmet Host Chef Cooking Class, “Fajitas – Hot Off the Griddle!”, presented by retired engineer, owner of Inglestec Language Institute and Coordinator of the Annual Brisas Cooking Contest and honored Guest Chef, Renny Kranich.

The class will be held in the Boquete Gourmet’s kitchen, high above Boquete, Panama on Thursday, February 11 at 5:00pm.

Renny will be sharing her one-of-a-kind method for preparing “Fajitas”, using the finest of beef filet mignon, fresh-grown Boquete vegetables, as well as her very own “Pico de Gallo”.

The base for Renny’s fajitas are her hand-made “Tortillas”, better than can be found anywhere. They made exactly the right size to use with imaginative fillings that are spiced just right to your taste, whether mild, hot or in between.

To begin the class, enjoy a cool glass of “Margaritas on the Rocks”, made in Renny’s very own nontraditional manner, no blender, please.

The photo below doesn’t show the unexpected ingredient Renny adds to her Margaritas, you won’t want to miss it. Notice the large serving glass, it only needs to be rimmed with salt and filled with Renny’s Margaritas. Yum!

The crowning dish of the evening will be “Filled Nubes de Chocolate”, a tall tower of clouds dripping with chocolate ganache. You’ll want to make this for all your guests, a real show stopper!

To reserve your seat for this unique class, please comment below or email boquetegourmet@gmail.com. The registration fee is $30, including the class instruction, recipe book, complete dinner, Margarita on the Rocks and a glass of wine. Class size is limited to 12, first come, first served, so please make reservations now for this once-ever event!
See you there,
Cora