California Canahua Champurrado

The many hardships of life can be softened by something as simple as a mug of thick chewy hot chocolate.  My current favorite preparation is loosely based on the Mexican champurrado which is traditionally made with masa or corn flour of some fashion.  You may also come across it as chocolate atole in some Mexican restaurants- atole being that lovely comforting genre of corn based hot beverages.

In California, we're all about fusion so I make mine with polenta, canahua, almond milk, and coconut sugar.  The dark seed heads in the photo with the white curled tail is canahua- the supergrain from the Andes.  Canahua gets touted as the "Cadillac of grains" and you may recognize it as being similar to quinoa. Canahua apparently is quinoa's superior cousin since it lacks the maligned saponins in the seed coating.

The canahua adds little bits of pop in texture and if you've never had hot chocolate you can chew- you are missing out. Actually I make fermented porridge regularly composed of oatmeal, polenta, canahua, and millet and I add a spoonful of this porridge to jump start champurrado- otherwise it takes too long to cook the grains just for hot chocolate.  Sometimes I will just add a third of a chocolate bar to half a cup of porridge to make a quick and nutritious chocolate grain pudding. Porridge is a versatile food capable of being sweet and savory.  Smoked scallops, bacon, and cheddar cheese on top of porridge with a fried duck egg is my ultimate comfort breakfast. The fermentation refers to the pre-soaking over a day before cooking and is supposed to render the porridge more nutritious.

For those of you who listen to spotify (just like Pandora- free with ads), I spent many an hour to bring you a teacloset music mix to share:

• soft classic mix- http://open.spotify.com/user/1258439834/playlist/37WequHA5hfxqgGqykRv87
• international mostly West African mix- http://open.spotify.com/user/1258439834/playlist/2d9kKCtwtjYPlIfCSq8OZH 

I've not hidden any death metal in these mixes and both are safe to lull you to sleep.