parsnip & chocolate

Sometimes I have great ideas. Sometimes I have bad ideas. Other times I have awful ideas which I'm convinced are brilliant (or ideas that are brilliant, but no one else understands--depending on how you look at it). This latest idea of mine, my current obsession, I can't decide where it fits.

Don't you think parsnip and chocolate would taste great together? Just think of that sharp, nutty, spicy smell that arises when you cut into a raw parsnip. That. With chocolate.

I'm not exactly sure what started this obsession with combining parsnips and chocolate into transcendent deliciousness, and boy do I wish I could give up on my ideas sometimes, but this one's a sticky bastard. I suspect that I was trying to think of something to do with the parsnips in the fridge. Who wants to eat parsnips in April anyway? Unless they're dessert. Yeah. Carrot cake, parsnip cake. But I don't really want spice cake. Hmm, chocolate?

There are plenty of lovely recipes for spiced parsnip cake a la carrot cake. I will try them some day and I will surely love them and wonder what I was thinking with this whole chocolate idea. Just so you don't think I'm totally wacky, I did find some evidence for my parsnip/chocolate pairing. A parsnip white chocolate milk (served as a dessert pairing with chickpea cake and coffee mousseline) from a Vancouver restaurant. And a parsnip chocolate cake from a New Zealand restaurant, similar to a chocolate zucchini cake. I probably should have just gone with this recipe and been done with it, but I wasn't really looking for a variation on the other veg. cakes I've had. I wanted a cake that hollered parsnip and chocolate, not a mush of flavors.

My first attempt was a dense chocolaty cake with the parsnips baked in, a variation I suppose on the NZ cake. Cute, no? But don't be fooled. It was a disgusting. I'm sure that even the squirrels that dig around in my garbage for sweets would be happy about this one. W. tried to convince me that I should give up my quest. Oh, if only it were so easy.

The latest attempt is what you see at the top of the post. Inspired by the parsnip white chocolate milk recipe, I opted for white chocolate mousse made with parsnip-infused cream, layered with chocolate genoise, and topped with a candied parsnip curl. Not bad looking, and far better tasting than attempt number one, but still not what I'm hoping for. The parsnip flavor was there, but not with the sharpness that I want--again that earthy, spice aroma.

Then, I was watching a Food Jammers episode about Food Essences. (by the way, if you haven't seen Food Jammers, you must go watch now! It's three guys coming up with odd, yet amazing, food contraptions--like a taco machine). This is what I need! Parsnip Essence. sigh, like that's going to happen. I may have the tenacity to pursue a potentially foolhardy food pairing, but I'm not so good with drills and test tubes and copper coils. I have a couple of ideas for getting more of the parsnip flavor I want--infusing simple syrup, drying parsnips to make powder, building something from the parsnip white chocolate milk recipe--but I have not idea what I'll make from these and I suspect I'll still get that mushy cooked taste instead of the raw sharp flavor I want.

Maybe I'll just email those Food Jammer guys and see if they can whip me up a batch of parsnip essence.