Better Together

Some foods were meant to be soulmates.

Taste & See: I thought of about five different titles for this post about delectable food pairings, but I seem to keep entitling my posts after songs so I figured might as well continue the trend. (See also: Exhibit A, Exhibit B.) But really, that's the crux of the matter: some food pairings are as enduring as one night stands; others are meant to be food soulmates, each flavor bringing out the full beauty and potential of its other half.

Caramel & fleur de sel is one such delectable pairing. Sweet, gooey caramel punctuated by coarse, grainy bits of salt is an unbeatable combination. (Gourmet mag, home of food photos glorious enough to frame, has a wonderful recipe. Oh Ruth Reichl, what must I do to make you want me?)

Fleur de sel is a sea salt obtained by harvesting the crystals from the top of the pond, literally. It smells oceany and has a higher mineral content than table salts- and tends to come in coarser grains. (Read about it compared to other salts for different foodie needs here. Salted caramels are conspicuously absent, to my dismay.) It is expensive, about $20/lb. But you can use kosher(ing) salt or any other big grainy salt for a close second in a pinch. No pun intended.

The prospects of the joyous combination tempted me to undertake the foolhardy feat of making caramels without a candy thermometer. The result was disastrous. Trying to "eyeball" when melted sugar and butter would, once cooled, become neither liquid nor hardened but a gooey, chewy cube of perfect caramel resulted in caramels with the consistency of peanut butter.

This is what they should look like, as made by my Auntie Rachel for a recent party celebrating my brother's wedding:


Auntie Rachel clearly has a candy thermometer.

You can't really see the grains on the caramels above; they were smaller and faded into the melty caramel. On this truffle, however, they stand out beautifully:


This is from Juliette et Chocolat, a gorgeous little chocolaterie in Montreal, (could be straight from the movie) with thick chocolate drinks and heavenly desserts.

Another lovely format for the sweet-salty combination, also from Juliette et Chocolat:


This is a single-serving molten chocolate cake with caramel sauce, sprinkled with fleur de sel. Joy! I copied this by adding a caramel in the center, which melted as the individual cakes (made in cupcake pans) baked. Super easy. (I won't reprint it here, but the recipe I used is available on allrecipes.com.)

I've been loving balsamic vinegar reduction & strawberries, which I've written about before, as well, often with a bit of chevre, a creamy goat cheese.

This is a strawberry daiquiri (limeaid + frozen strawberries + rum + blender) with a modified version of "Beggars Purses," something I had at a great tapas restaurant in Brooklyn called Cafe Tapeo. (Great date restaurant. Lovely ambiance, not too pricey, and inventive culinary creations, all of which hit the mark. I wanted to steal their entire menu, and have been trying to recreate parts of my meal ever since my visit.)


They stuffed wonton wrappers with goat cheese and crisped them up, topping them with a rosemary syrup. My local grocery store had only phyllo dough, and I mixed goat cheese with plain yogurt because I didn't have enough cheese. I also added honey, rosemary and chopped almonds for a sweet crunch.

First couple tries with the phyllo were a mess. My stuffing was far too liquidy to hold up to the paper thin phyllo. I had to put my 'wonton' in a ramekin to keep it from imploding.


My 'egg roll' attempt just bled stuffing all over the baking pan.


Finally, I tried laying whole stacked sheets of phyllo dough on the baking sheet, topping with spoonfuls of filling in a grid, and pressing a few more layers on top with butter as glue- like ravioli. I gently slid a knife along to cut the big squares into single-serving pieces, baked about 10 minutes, and drizzled with rosemary balsamic reduction.

Served with a bright strawberry daiquiri, tangy and sweet like the vinegar reduction itself- another winning pair.
When making balsamic reduction try adding a sprig or two of rosemary, letting the woodsy flavor seep in. The sweet reduced syrup with a hint of a forest atop a pile of fresh strawberries incredible. It also works as a summer salad, with sliced strawberries atop mache or spinach, and pecorino or chevre. Or, again, with chevre with a spoonful of honey mixed in, as a play on strawberry shortcake. I ate mine atop polenta; you could also try a toasted whole wheat muffin if you're not the kind of chef who makes fresh biscuits on a daily basis.


PS: I've always loved chocolate & chile as well. It is always great in mole, in winter as a hot drinking chocolate, or in the summer as gelato. Sadly I have no good photos in my repertoire and haven't cooked anything in this vein in a while.