14-12-2014

Dark chocolate torroncini

Simone Salvini presents a totally sugar free dessert with oriental influences

This recipe by vegan chef Simone Salvini could be a good way of offering a different and original dessert during the holidays. In order to give balance to this dish, he was inspired by the lessons of Ayurvedic tradition

This recipe, which doesn’t include the use of sugar, was inspired by my fascination for the East and in particular for Ayurvedic tradition, which I find particularly dear to me. In this tradition there’s the presence of six types of flavours: the word used is “rasa”, which is a very important term in Ayurveda, with many meanings, including emotions, food, vital lymph. The six “rasa” are: acid, here represented by persimmon, bitter, which in the recipe is chocolate, astringent, thanks to the green tea, sweet, brought not by the sugar but by the almond milk, spicy, given by the oil, and salty, thanks to the salt crystals. Through “rasa” it’s not only emotions and flavours that are channelled, but also balanced nutrients, as in the case of this dish.

Dark chocolate torroncini, puffed rice and green tea

INGREDIENTS
for the torroncini:
110 g whole, natural almond milk *
200 g 70% dark chocolate
40 g dried prunes
20 g puffed rice
finely chopped orange zest
Japanese powdered green tea
spicy oil
salt crystals

for the persimmon sauce:
1 ripe persimmon
20 g bitter orange marmalade
finely chopped lemon zest
lemon juice

METHOD
1) Put the almond milk in a saucepan with the finely chopped prunes and the orange zest. Once it gets to the boil, pour the milk on the chopped chocolate. Mix with a metal whisk so as to obtain a smooth and lump-less cream, and after add some drops of spicy oil and some salt crystals. Add the puffed rice and move the mixture on the basis of a metal baking tin. Leave to cool in the fridge for a few hours.
2) With wet hands, form some balls, each weighing 10 g; pass them in the powdered green tea and place them immediately on the base of the plates.
3) Remove the skin from the persimmon; blend the pulp together with the orange marmalade, the lemon zest and a few drops of lemon juice. Strain and keep to a side.
4) Serve the torroncini at room temperature with a tablespoon of persimmon and orange sauce next to them.

*for the whole almond milk: put 100 g of almonds, with their skin, in the cutter’s container; blend at the highest speed for a few seconds. Gradually add one litre of water and continue to blend at the highest speed for 30 seconds. Place in the fridge in a hermetic jar. Raw almond milk must be used within 3 days.