Chocolat... Ah...

I wanted to watch Chocolat again for quite some time and I would always forget or when I remembered I'd be busy. I was not going to watch it today, but there was a recipe that caught my attention a few days ago and I had this urge to try it. I had no idea how it's going to taste and I was intrigued. You see, I got this book a while ago, book about Cooking with Chocolate. Yes, it had a lot of dessert recipes and chocolate drinks, but it also had a section about cooking, just plain cooking... with chocolate. And a recipe for Chocolate Ravioli with Ricotta just called my name. I had to make it!!!

I also had some left over sponge cake and what can you do with it? It's simple. Rum Balls! I love those little desserts, they taste like it's an elaborate cake that took you hours to prepare, but they only take a couple of minutes to mix together.

At that point I knew that it is time to watch that movie again. I ate Rum Balls and I watched the movie and drooled over chocolates (and melted over Johnny Depp). I still was not satisfied. Something was missing. That scene when they have a chocolate dinner was stuck in my mind. The chocolate sauce over meat... Mmm... I've never tried anything like it. But I had a recipe just for that. It was exactly what I needed. Shrimp in Chocolate Sauce.

And then I was in Chocolate Heaven.

Chocolate Ravioli with Ricotta

Shrimp in Chocolate Sauce

Rum Balls

Ricotta and dairy products

I was raised on various milk products. Yes, we did not have yogurts, but we had so many different dairy things. Kefir is my favourite, you can find something remotely similar to it in a lot of supermarkets, and although it is called Kefir, it is not the same. Then we had a few more milk drinks which can only be found at Russian supermarkets. And we had Tvorog... Something like it is called here "Cottage Cheese" or "Baker's Cheese". I think that it is most closely resembles Ricotta, but much denser and richer. For me, these dairy products were a big part of everyday meals. We had them for breakfasts, for mid afternoon snacks, for late dinners. They are healthy and they do not contain any added sugar or salt.

There tons of Russian stores around where I live, but sometimes it's just so much easier to go to my regular grocery store and buy ricotta. I love using it for ricotta pancakes: ricotta, flour, sugar, eggs, mix it all together, shape and pan fry, I don't measure them, just put a little bit of everything to get to quite dense consistency. This time, at my favourite cooking discussion board in Russian, I found a recipe for Ricotta Bagels. I happened to have a tub of ricotta at my fridge and I gave them a try. I ended up with six lovely sugary bagels, perfect with a glass of Kefir or a cup of tea.

Ricotta Bagels