Chocolate-Garlic Mojo with Toasted Cuban Bread (Tostadas de Pan Cubano con Mojo de Chocolate)

Preparation To prepare the ganache, put the chocolate in a double-boiler or a heatproof bowl over simmering water. When the chocolate is almost melted, remove from the heat and stir from the center out with a rubber spatula until smooth. Combine the garlic and olive oil in a small skillet and just heat it through over low heat. Pour in a stream over the melted chocolate while stirring gently with the spatula, again from the center out. Season with salt to taste. Add the lime juice and stir gently to blend smoothly. The mixture will thicken like mayonnaise. Keep at room temperature. When you are ready to serve, warm the sauce over simmering water if it has become too stiff. Toast the bread on both sides on a grill or under the broiler. Arrange the toasted slices on a large platter or flat basket lined with a plantain-leaf square. Accompany with the sauce in a bowl or cruet, the coarse salt, and a couple of decorative butter knives. ¡Delicioso! Reprinted with permission from The New Taste of Chocolate by Maricel Presilla, © 2009 Ten Speed Press Maricel Presilla is a culinary historian specializing in the foods of Latin America and Spain. She holds a doctorate in medieval Spanish history from New York University and has received formal training in cultural anthropology. Dr. Presilla has done considerable research on Latin American agriculture—with special emphasis on tropical crops, cacao and vanilla agriculture, and chocolate production. She is the president of Gran Cacao Company a Latin American food research and marketing company that specializes in the sale of premium cacao beans from Latin America. She has completed a comprehensive Latin American cookbook for W.W. Norton and has contributed articles for Saveur, Food & Wine, Food Arts, and Gourmet. She writes a weekly food column for the Miami Herald and is as comfortable sailing down the Orinoco to collect recipes in the field as she is cooking at Zafraand Cucharamama, her pan-Latin restaurants in Hoboken, New Jersey. Last year she opened Ultramarinos, a Latin American store and cooking atelier, also in Hoboken, NJ, where she sells Latin ingredients, prepared foods, premium chocolates and Blue Cacao, her own line of truffles with Latin flavors.

Preparation To prepare the ganache, put the chocolate in a double-boiler or a heatproof bowl over simmering water. When the chocolate is almost melted, remove from the heat and stir from the center out with a rubber spatula until smooth. Combine the garlic and olive oil in a small skillet and just heat it through over low heat. Pour in a stream over the melted chocolate while stirring gently with the spatula, again from the center out. Season with salt to taste. Add the lime juice and stir gently to blend smoothly. The mixture will thicken like mayonnaise. Keep at room temperature. When you are ready to serve, warm the sauce over simmering water if it has become too stiff. Toast the bread on both sides on a grill or under the broiler. Arrange the toasted slices on a large platter or flat basket lined with a plantain-leaf square. Accompany with the sauce in a bowl or cruet, the coarse salt, and a couple of decorative butter knives. ¡Delicioso! Reprinted with permission from The New Taste of Chocolate by Maricel Presilla, © 2009 Ten Speed Press Maricel Presilla is a culinary historian specializing in the foods of Latin America and Spain. She holds a doctorate in medieval Spanish history from New York University and has received formal training in cultural anthropology. Dr. Presilla has done considerable research on Latin American agriculture—with special emphasis on tropical crops, cacao and vanilla agriculture, and chocolate production. She is the president of Gran Cacao Company a Latin American food research and marketing company that specializes in the sale of premium cacao beans from Latin America. She has completed a comprehensive Latin American cookbook for W.W. Norton and has contributed articles for Saveur, Food & Wine, Food Arts, and Gourmet. She writes a weekly food column for the Miami Herald and is as comfortable sailing down the Orinoco to collect recipes in the field as she is cooking at Zafraand Cucharamama, her pan-Latin restaurants in Hoboken, New Jersey. Last year she opened Ultramarinos, a Latin American store and cooking atelier, also in Hoboken, NJ, where she sells Latin ingredients, prepared foods, premium chocolates and Blue Cacao, her own line of truffles with Latin flavors.