I enjoy complex food but my favorite food is the ‘chocolate’ my mom makes. ‘Food connoisseurs’ of the world will diss me for calling it chocolate, but that is what it is intended to be.
My mom made them fortnightly when I was in school, about 12 years ago. She had them ready before I came home from school at 2:30 pm. I would try to ration them, save some for later but I always finished the entire plate by 5 pm max.
I have been staying away from home for the last 10 years. And till this day, every time I visit, she has a plateful ready by the time I reach. Every single time.
My experience making, eating and feeding chocolate
- My favorite part about any Via Dil food I make is the story; the mental transportation into another life, time and circumstance. Another favorite is discussing the food or the story with the person after having made my own or after posting it. In those moments, my life literally intersects theirs. After I made the chocolates, I told Anirudh that the ‘chocolate’ is practically a mithai because dadi “liked it even though it’s a chocolate” and babyR liked it because it had sugar. We then discussed the warm randomness of grandparents’ behavior. His grandfather “buys a lot of Swad, Mango Bite, Hajmola etc. and eats a lot, I mean a lot of them” and I told him that my dadi loves Coca Cola.
- The second photo in this post of of babyR lifting a sugar lump to my face for consideration. She has decided that she is allowed a lump every time I cook with sugar. Yes, we believe in lumps as a unit. We went back and forth on a deal and I won the power to decide the size of the lump she eats. She was allowed this one.
- I don’t like milk. I want nothing to do. And I can’t even say malai without shuddering. It is probably because most of my traumatic childhood food memories involved milk. But as an adult, I am on quest to discover different ways to reclaim milk. Dahi, top of the list, is magical. What food can it not fix? I am into Paneer too. Ghee, yes! Milk may still never happen, but I have now claimed ‘beri’. (Find out what beri is in the recipe)
Recipe
- Keep storing and freezing cream from the milk on a daily basis.
- After a substantial amount is collected, heat it up on a medium flame to make ghee.
- Right before the end of the process, filter out the brownish residue (called Beri in my household) from the ghee.
- Add cocoa powder, Bournvita and sugar to it.
- Mix it well while heating it up.
- (I added almond and walnuts to mine)
There you have the ‘chocolate’!
I was not given any proportions for making this and I enjoyed making it instinctively. So that is how this recipe shall come to you.
