Mexican Hot Chocolate–the featured recipe for this month’s Book Bites selection.
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
“In this remarkable debut, Bauermeister creates a captivating world where the pleasures and particulars of sophisticated food come to mean much more than simple epicurean indulgence….Delivering memorable story lines and characters while seducing the senses, Bauermeister’s tale of food and hope is certain to satisfy.”
This is “essentially” one of the best food fiction books I have read. You know, I have usually read murder mysteries that were based around food. And don’t get me wrong–these are good stories and keep me guessing (and cooking, but mostly desserts).
The main character in this book is Lillian and we meet her as a young girl trying to make sense of her life with her mother. After a divorce, her mother retreats into the world of books and Lillian determines that she could bring her back–through food. This little girl has a relationship with food like no one I have ever seen, and at such a young age–out of necessity she has made it her mission to learn from whoever she can about preparing the food that will bring hope to others.
I am afraid to say too much more, because I don’t want to use the Spoiler Alert. So find this book and devour it for yourself.
Mexican Hot Chocolate
I chose this recipe because it is tied in to the beginning of Lillian’s story in such a cool way. There is an odd ingredient that I was anxious to try out. Wow. Best Mexican Hot Chocolate I have ever tasted. It was so good that I didn’t even care that it was 90+ degrees outside today. For the Mexican Chocolate, I used Abuelita Mexican Hot Chocolate tablets because that was the only Mexican chocolate I could find in 2 stores. I don’t venture out to tons of stores just to find 1 ingredient. I can make do with what I find. But this might have been the right thing!
In the story, the hot chocolate is added to coffee and you will understand why when you read it. We don’t drink coffee so I didn’t do that. And remember Abuelita, because that name is important in the story.
I think we should try this hot chocolate with some of these Orange Rolls.
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Book Bites: Mexican Hot Chocolate
Description
A delicious hot beverage that will warm you, body and soul.
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 5 curls orange rind
- 1/2 stick of cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons Mexican chocolate, grated
- anise
- whipping cream
Instructions
- Put milk, orange rind, cinnamon and chocolate in a saucepan and warm through.
- Add just a few anise seeds, or more if you like.
- Remove the orange and cinnamon–or not.
- Pour into a mug, top with whipping cream, and dust with some more grated chocolate.
Note: I didn’t have whole milk, so I used 2% milk and added a little heavy whipping cream for more richness.
