Chocolate Soup with Carmelized Bananas—Follow-up

Since last weeks review of Jacques Torres' Chocolate Soup I received several e-mails from readers who were intrigued by this unique soupy, and one eager reader (Theresa Valentine) who actually tested out JT's recipe. Ms. Valentine had an interesting experience with the dessert soup, along with some modifications - no meringue (she said she wussed out), as well as using three different types of chocolates (didn't have enough of the bittersweet), where she ended up with a soup that tasted like a "hot chocolate with bananas." Her experience also pretty much summed up my own sentiment that "the bananas tasted mushy and weird." However, like me she wants to try it out again (perhaps with another type of fruit?), and now with the carmelization under our belts it is certainly possible. Check out our recent Q & A session:

Seriously Soupy: How was the carmelization process? Did you find it difficult?

Thersea Valentine: The caramelization was kind of a pain, but apparently that is partly my lack of knowing that you are supposed to use a wooden spoon while doing it as opposed to the metal i used (and subsequently threw out due to stuck caramel) and despite following the directions my bananas still turned out mushy.  So it kind of felt frustrating after all that to have banana mush. I also think that I cut the bananas too small...i had to throw out a spoon that got carmel coated and wouldn't come off :) 

SS: Was it hard to find the ingredients?

TV: The ingredients were easy to find as I already had most of them in my kitchen already.  So that was a big plus that there was nothing exotic in this soup.

SS:  Why did you use three types of chocolates and which ones did you use? 

TV: I had to use three different kinds of chocolate since i didn't have enough bittersweet, but it ended up making the flavor really good. I used Ghiradelli bittersweet (4 oz bar), Hershey's special dark (4.25 oz bar) and 3 cubes (1 oz each) of unsweetened Bakers chocolate. I'm guessing the use of the dark chocolate probably made mine a bit sweeter than yours probably turned out.

SS: What did you think of the overall process?

TV: The soup itself was a piece of cake, just milk and chocolate.  The caramelization was a little hard but I suppose if it hadn't been my first time doing it ever and had known what I was doing it would've worked out better.  I couldn't be bothered with the meringue because I already know I suck at making those and I'm low rent, I don't need the fanciness :)  I'd make it again but might try figuring out a different fruit or something to go in the bananas place

SS: Where there any nuts in the soup?
 
TV: No. I'm thinking someone knocked nuts in your soup and won't fess up :)

Thanks Theresa! To learn more about T, check out her photography on flickr under her monker diabolic scheme (a.k.a turtlevr's).


Seriously Soupy Serena