Chocolate & Chilli Recipes with benefits!

I remember many years ago being happily surprised when I ate a dark chocolate filled with chilli jelly.  I can’t remember where it was but it must have been somewhere peculiar because it was before such interesting food was the norm.

I then experimented with the flavour combo myself, even occasionally in our restaurants, because we had great foodie customers who were gagging for a change from the old Black Forest Gateau situation.

Dark chilli chocky such as Lindt is good (they even have it in France you know!) when I’m not in the mood to cook for just myself, my real man being so very conservative, to put it politely. When I am in the mood here are some of the things I have made, sold and eaten.  I suggest you do the same with the possible exception of the sold bit!

Dark Chilli Chocolate Ganache

A ganache is a lovely thing and so easy!  Basically coarsely chop chocolate (in this case dark chili chocolate), pour over hot double cream and stir till smooth.  Depending on what you are going to do with the ganache, and there are several options, you need a higher or lower ratio of chocolate to cream ...

~  Ganache makes a lovely chocky sauce or drizzle for ice cream, pancakes etc., for best results use one part chocolate to two parts of double cream.

~  To make a thick pourable chocolate glaze for cakes then use equal amounts of chocolate and cream. If instead of pouring you chill the mixture it can be whipped to thick and used as filling for cakes, éclairs or as a simple Chocolate Chilli Mousse.

~  If you use twice as much chocolate as cream and chill to very cold you can roll it into balls, coat in chopped chocolate, cocoa, chopped nuts and so on et voila – truffles.

Dark Chocolate & Chilli Quesadilla

This was a lovely sudden lunch pudding - chocolate quesadilla recipe here. 

Chocolate and Cayenne Soufflé – serves 4

90g dark chocolate – coarsely chopped
60g sugar
3 tbsp lovely strong coffee
1 tbsp brandy
½ tsp cayenne
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks – lightly beaten together
4 egg whites
2 more tbsp sugar

~   Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/180ºC fan/gas 6.
~   Butter 4 ramekins and then dust with a little icing sugar.
~   In a small pan over low heat stir together the first 4 ingredients till melted and smooth.
~   Stir in the cayenne and salt.
~   Remove from the heat and allow to cool a couple of minutes then stir in the egg yolks.
~   Whisk the egg whites till they start forming peaks then add the sugar and continue whisking till stiff.
~   Fold the whites into the chocolate goo and divide between the ramekins
~   Bake for 10-12 minutes till risen and wobbly and serve immediately.

Pinterest friendly image - go on!

Hot Hot Chocolate

Chili spiked hot chocolate mixes are the norm now but until they were I used to add just a drop or two of non-garlicky hot sauce to the drink. Worked for me! Worked for Montezuma too, apparently, because he was known to fortify his pre-nookie hot chocolate 
with chillies and sometimes vanilla too, speaking of which ...

Chocolate and Chilli are both considered to be aphrodisiacs and I have written about them in my ebook ...

Food for Love

Eat  your Way to a Better Sex Life ~ Win/Win Situation

Barking Mad Choccy!

Oddly enough today is the last day of both National Chocolate Week and of National Curry Week so when better, I ask you, than to write about, ta da ...

I kid you not, I saw this mentioned on Twitter a few days ago and made a comment of some sort – I think I may have said “you buggers!”, and shortly afterwards was offered an opportunity to try a sample. After my happy acceptance I received a message saying ...

"3 flavours of choccy have left the building. Don't worry they are all barking mad but do work, enjoy!"

I was a bit nervous but like the staunch foodie I am gave them my best shot!

With each flavour I put a bit in my mouth (did you guess?), closed my eyes and concentrated on the texture and flavour as per the chocolate tasting instructions given by the Independent Newspaper here.  The only thing I didn't do was try tasting with others as this sort of interesting, exciting food is really not my real man’s sort of thing.  Luckily.

The Results

The chocolate in all three bars is lovely high quality Belgian chocolate and melts smoothly and lusciously in the mouth.

Pina Colada – the most normal of the three

As the chocolate melted I immediately thought "Rum" (mind you I often do!!) which was followed by a pleasant fruity taste, I couldn't quite identify coconut and pineapple (the other pina colada ingredients) but the overall effect was a bit tropical and certainly very pleasant. 

Bubblegum

I’m afraid I don’t like bubblegum and I didn’t really like this but I didn't chicken out. I think that it is pretty true to the taste I remember as a child and if you like bubblegum then maybe this is for you! 

Orange Jalfrezi 

This was gorgeous – honestly!  A very orangey start with a hot spicy curry finish which sounds incongruous and wrong but certainly isn't.  It contains cumin, coriander, paprika, onion, salt, chilli, cinnamon, clove, cardamom, bay leaves, turmeric, garlic, ginger and black pepper no less and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

These surprising chocolate are made by Choc Amor award winning chocolatiers with tea rooms, The Chocolate Rooms, at Tarleton in Lancashire. They also have a shop at Botany Bay and luckily it’s the Botany Bay in Chorley just off the M61 rather than the Australian version.  I don’t have a list of their flavours but have read that they include things as chilli & lime, peanut butter, banoffee pie, salt liquorice & lemon meringue.  All very good ideas but nothing to rival the lovely Orange Jalfrezi Chocolate

By the way ... Two for the Price of None!

"219 Cooking Tips& Techniques you might find useful!" 

(Especially as it’s Free)

plus link to “Easy Ways to Pimp your Food” which is also free!

The 9 Best Chocolate Recipes Ever IMHO!

It being National Chocolate Week I think now is the time to share my 9 favouritest chocky recipes ever – all of these have been big sellers in the posh and not so posh restaurants I have cheffed in and also go down well with my real man (except the peanut butter tart ‘cos he can’t stand peanut butter).

Firstly some guidance on melting chocolate ...

Pin so you don't forget!

~   Break the chocolate up a bit. The easiest way to do this is to throw the cold sealed bar violently onto a hard floor or maybe bash it on the edge of the counter.  Unwrap et voila ...
~   Put the broken chocolate into a bowl and the bowl into a small pan of simmering water to come about a third of the way up.  Here’s a tip – stand it on a metal jam jar lid or similar to stop it sticking to the bottom of the pan.

~   White chocolate is a little more delicate than dark and must be melted carefully over very low heat.

~   Don’t mess with the chocolate as it melts just let it sit till there till it’s ready then stir till smooth.

~   WARNING – if you get water into the melting chocolate it will go all hard, lumpy and useless.  For this reason Do Not Cover as steam will condense on the lid and fall back into the chocky.

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream 

The optional brandy in this recipe benefits the ice cream in two ways; it will make it softer and also taste more alcoholic chocolatey.

200g/⅔ cup condensed milk

175g/1½ cups coarsely chopped dark chocolate

1 tablespoon cocoa

500ml/2 cups double cream

3 tablespoons brandy – optional but highly recommended 

~ Put the condensed milk, the chocolate and the cocoa into a small bowl.
~ Stand the bowl in a small pan of water as described above.
~ Simmer the water till the chocolate has melted and then stir smoothly into the condensed milk. This will be quite a thick mixture.
~ Cool slightly but not too much as it needs to be soft enough to fold into the cream.
~ Whip together the cream and the optional brandy till slightly thick.
~ Add the melted chocolate mixture and continue whisking till thick.
~ Freeze.

This is just one of over 100 ice cream recipes in my book Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine - including at eight more chocolate ice cream recipes and lots of ancillaries such as the cones and the sauce in the picture. 

Dark Chocolate & Kahlua Marquise

This is a classic and my sister and I made vast numbers of marquises in our Cornish restaurants. When I went to the Caribbean the slices seemed to soften quickly as we plated them so I took to serving from frozen, which worked really well – a kind of semi freddo by the time it reached the table!

You need 3 bowls and a loaf tin to make this, I prefer to use a silicon loaf “tin”.

200g dark chocolate
200g soft butter
40g caster sugar
1 tbsp cocoa

3 eggs – separated in yolks and whites
another 40g caster sugar

275ml double cream
2 tbsp Kahlua (or other spirit or liqueur of your choice)

~   Melt the chocolate as above in the first bowl.
~   Whisk together the butter, first batch of sugar and the cocoa in the second bowl.
~   In the third bowl whisk the egg whites till still. It is crucial that you whisk these in a clean dry bowl or they won’t work.
~   Fold the butter mixture into the melted chocolate.
~   In the empty butter bowl whisk together the egg yolks and the second batch of sugar.
~   Fold this into the chocolate mixture.

~   Finally whisk the cream (together with Kahlua) and fold that into the mix till no streaks are left.
~   Decant into the loaf “pan” and either chill or freeze.

Serve thickly sliced, probably with more cream!

Chocolate Sorbet

This recipe is taken straight from my little book Sorbets & Granitas which gives the key recipe for sorbet , 40 more sorbet and granita recipes, ideas, serving suggestions and what to do with leftovers!

A lovely rich chocolate coffee mix. If you don’t like coffee use a plain syrup in the same proportions and add a drip or two of vanilla extract.

250ml strong hot freshly brewed coffee
125g sugar
150g dark chocolate – coarsely chopped

~   Stir the sugar into the coffee till dissolved.
~   Immediately (as it needs to be hot) pour the syrup over the chocolate and stir or whisk to melt and amalgamate.
~   Cool, chill, freeze, mashing scraping the sides of the sorbet to the middle occasionally and mashing to make a smooth sorbet.

Easy Peasy or what? I also make wicked chocolate ice creams which are also based on a genius key recipe but whilst it is another favourite recipe it’s a bit too much to go into here. 

My book, Luscious Ice Cream without a Machine, explains how this quick, easy, no churn method works and gives over 100 ice cream recipes plus ideas, suggestions, recipes for accoutrements such as cones, sauces and inclusions.

Chocolate Mousse

Or in more detail from an old meu long ago and far away ... 

See here for the recipe plus a great photo of a Dalek on holiday. 

Chocolate Topped Peanut Butter Mousse Tart

You need a 24cm (9½”) pre-baked (preferably by you but bought in is fine too) tart case, either pastry or a crumb base as with cheesecake.

120g smooth peanut butter
50g soft light brown sugar

100g cream cheese

½ tsp vanilla extract + see below

180ml double cream + see below

150g dark chocolate

another 80ml double cream

another couple of drips of vanilla extract

~   Whisk together the peanut butter, cream cheese and vanilla extract till combined.
~   In a separate bowl whisk the first batch of cream till thick.

~   Whisk ¼ of the whipped cream into the peanut mixture.
~   Fold in the rest of the whipped cream and put it into the tart case, levelling the top.
~   Chill.

Now for the chocolate bit ...

~   Chop or break the chocolate into pieces and put it into a bowl.
~   Bring the second batch of cream to a boil and pour it over the chocolate together with the second vanilla extract.
~   Allow to sit for a few minutes (during this time it is advantageous to make yourself a coffee to accompany scraping the bowl).

~   Stir till smooth.
~   Pour the chocolate gently over the peanut mousse and smooth the top.
~   Chill till needed.

White Choc Mousse

200g white chocolate
15ml water
75ml sour cream
juice of ½ a lemon
240ml double cream

~   Melt together the white chocolate together with the water as instructed above.
~   Mix together the sour cream and lemon juice.
~   Fold the cream mixture into the melted chocolate.
~   Whisk the cream till thick and fold into the chocolate mixture.

 A Wonderful Thing to do with Chocolate Brownies (and a wooden spoon!)

~   Make a batch of your favourite recipe brownies.
~   Whilst they are baking also make a batch of the chocolate ganache topping in the peanut butter tart recipe above. 
~   Turn the brownie out onto a rack and then take a wooden spoon and lightly butter the handle end! 

~   Carefully insert the spoon handle straight down into the brownie at 1” intervals twisting gently it on the way in and out twisting to form lots of deep little wells.

~   Fill each little hole with chocolate ganache and then allow the brownie to cool completely before cutting into squares.

This is lovely served at room temperature, gorgeous chilled and if you heat before serving the ganache melts and you get a self-saucing brownie which is also utterly wonderful.  

Gorgeous Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 16 fairly large cookies so serves 1!

I make these sporadically and then try other things and then go back to these.  They really are the dog’s thingies!  People keep asking for the recipe – so here it is for everyone.

125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
100g soft light brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla extract
225g self raising flour

a pinch of salt

200g dark chocolate – thrown onto the floor and any larger lumps cut into smaller pieces

OR

a similar quantity of chocolate chips

~   Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350°F/160ºC fan/gas 4.
~   Cream together the butter and sugars.
~   Beat together the egg and vanilla and then add it to the butter mixture together with a spoonful of the flour (this helps stop the mixture curdling).
~   Stir (or munge) in the flour, salt and chocky, it is pretty thick so easiest with your hands.

~   Roll into walnut sized balls and place well-spaced on ungreased baking trays.

~   Bake for about 8-10 minutes till just gold round the edges (if you want them squidgier cook a little less).

~   Cool on a rack.

  

The dough can be rolled into a sausage shape and frozen and then it is possible (if you are careful and use a sharp knife) to slice off just as many cookies as you need and bake them from frozen. Useful in emergencies.

Chocolate Quesadilla

This is not actually a time honoured recipe of mine, just a Really Good Idea I had a couple of years ago and wrote about see here for how to make your own chocolate quesadilla.

And here’s another thing I like to do with chocolate; try it you might like it!

Chocolat Chocolat ~ handmade chocolates, a review.

Bespoke Chocolate Bars - what a good idea!
Click here to Tweet this 

Oh happy day – look what came in the post this morning! Lovely chocolate from Chocolat Chocolat, a company in Cambridge who, among other chocolatey things, are making bespoke chocolate bars. 

What an excellent idea!

First you choose your handmade chocolate (from dark 70%, dark 55%, milk 34%, caramel 34% and white 28%) and then the hard work starts – choose up to three toppings from, brace yourself:

~   Fruits: dried apples, apricots, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, raisins and sultanas plus banana chips.

~   Nuts: grilled flaked almonds or whole caramelised almonds, hazelnuts, praline, coconut flakes, pecans, caramelised pistachios and walnuts.

~   Herbs & Spices: Aniseed, cardamom, cinnamon, chilli espelette (a mild aromatic Basque chilli), fennel, crystallised ginger, lavender, liquorice, crystallised mint, pink peppercorns, poppy seeds crystallised rose petals, fleur de sel, and crystallised violet petals, Plus: Chocolate coffee beans, cocoa nibs, Earl Grey tea, espresso coffee grains

~   Confectionary: Amaretti crumbs, chocolate buttons, cappuccino callets (posh chocolate chips), crunchy balls of various flavours, chocolate coated honeycomb, fudge, fudge brownie, feuilletine wafer crunch, malt balls, marshmallows, meringue, chocolate crisp, popping candy, shortcake, gingerbread.

~   Decadent: Gold or silver flake.

There is also an option to have a message on your bar of chocolate. They suggest Thank You, Happy Birthday or I Love You but I asked for Sudden Lunch!

My Choices

I tried the dark chocolate first, for which the only addition I had asked for was fleur de sel. I love salted dark chocolate so popped a bit in my mouth almost as soon as I’d got it out the packet. I then accidentally went all dreamy and thoughtful which I think is a good sign. 

Milk chocolate with espresso powder and fudge pieces, good choice me! Although I was not immediately gobsmacked as with the dark chocky I notice that I have to keep trying it again and again so think I would describe it as moreish.

I was nervous of eating the gold flake but it was fine; innocuous but very pretty. The orange complimented the white chocolate well, the chocolate was surprisingly crumbly but that is not necessarily a bad thing!

In addition to the bespoke chocolate bars Chocolat Chocolat offer chocolate bouquets, buttons, hot chocolate, gift boxes and all sorts of other goodies.  Even more – they do Chocolate Making and Chocolate Tasting courses and all sorts of other interesting things. I suggest you get over to their site for a browse! Or pop into their shop if you are in the area, it is according to them, in historic centre of the city opposite Emmanuel and just around the corner from Darwin in a 19th century building.

A few provisos, not all of them serious ...

~  The chocolate was very well packaged indeed so don’t try to open a bar when hungry.

~  The products are not cheap, £5.95 for a 100g bar but for a special occasion or a gift probably worth the investment.

~   I think they may need to practice their handwriting a bit!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, oddly enough. Ads on the telly, Christmas themed programmes, Christmas goodies in the shops and in some cases even Christmas trees and I must say this pre-empting of the festive is season is not something I really go along with. You may remember my discombobulation a couple of years ago when this appeared in Padstow Tesco store on 2^nd May 2012!

Well, having had a bit of a rant there I think I might join in to point out that a little something from Chocolat Chocolate would make a rather lovely Christmas prezzie or stocking filler.

In Other News

~   Speaking of chocolate, if you think I’m lucky (and I am) did you see the article in The Western Morning News about The Best Jobs in Devon and Cornwall?  It mentions my blogging friend Choclette, now she’s really given some thought to her lifestyle!

Click here ~ go on!

Have your Cook’s Treat firmly in mind before you start cooking.

Despite having been aware of the fact, for over half a century, that one day I would become 60 I am still surprised that last Saturday it actually happened! So far I feel just the same ... or do I? 

I just had what may be considered a senior moment! Last night I made a lovely Dark Chocolate Caramel Sauce  to go with homemade double vanilla ice cream (it’s easy peasy and in the book) and homemade choc-chip cookies.

Only seconds after putting the dirty sauce pan in the washing up water this morning I remembered what I should have done with it! Because of the caramel element this leftover sauce sticks quite hard to the pan so the correct way to deal with this is thus ...  

~   Add water (enough to fill your favourite mug or cup and no more) to the chocolatey pan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve all the loveliness.
~   Make a cup of coffee with the chocky-water.
~   Sit down, relax, sip and grin.

What a dickhead I am!  This prompts me, however, to remind my readers how very important it is to have your Cook’s Treat firmly in mind before you start cooking.  

If you are unsure exactly what constitutes a Cook’s Treat well, according to Wikipedia, it is 

“ ...a portion of the prepared ingredients not served as part of a dish, but which is nevertheless tasty and enjoyable and may be eaten by the cook.”

Some Cook’s Treat Suggestions

~   Obviously scraping the bowl is a time honoured cook’s treat but have you thought of extending this to the food processor (which, incidentally, I advise you to turn off first)? If I make hummus I wipe out the processor bowl with a piece of good bread and eat it, if I make vinaigrette (see here for lots of ideas) I wipe out the bowl with a piece of lettuce and eat it. And so on.
~   Also obvious is the “checking for quality” of random pieces of fruit as you prepare it.
~   Similar to the above I always (so far, I hope I don’t start forgetting) bake a small tester when making scones, for instance, or cookies. I’m just being greedy assiduous.
~   When starting a new, crusty, delicious loaf it’s quite likely, especially if you concentrate, that the first slice or so will be too small to make a sandwich or toast or it may be that you just have a few crusts over.  Either way dip them into some good olive oil and enjoy yourself.

~   Pastry scraps can be used to make all sorts of treats – see here for lots of ideas and here  for Brown Sugar Doo Dahs which make a pleasant treat for one.

~   Not enough batter left to make a final pancake?  Well fry some "rags" for yourself and drizzle with maple syrup.

~   Chicken Oysters – these are the two little pieces of delicious sweet tender dark meat that you’ll find either side of a whole chicken's backbone. Whilst the chicken is resting and you are waiting for the veggies to be ready scoop these out and eat them unobtrusively over the sink – they might cause you to dribble.  (If you’d like to save the oysters for yourself when cutting up a raw chicken there is some useful info here and remember that other roasted birds have oysters too, of course. 
~   Whilst on the subject of chickens you might as well have the liver for yourself too!  They contribute nothing other than bitterness to any giblet stock you might be making and on the other hand they contribute a great deal to toast, butter and brandy.

Chicken Liver(s) on Toast

~   Remove the liver from the giblet bag and trim it of any stringy and/or greenish bits.
~   Sauté the good bits in a little butter and when turning brown but still a bit squidgy add a spoonful of brandy (away from the flame), a good grind of black pepper and a little salt and turn your liver in it, so to speak.
~   Mash onto a sippet of toast.

~   Chickens again – whilst serving the dinner pop a few scraps of chicken skin back into the oven to crisp up and tease your appetite with them before joining your guests at the table.
~   When slicing cheese it is often a good idea (and is actually de rigueur in the case of Cornish Crackler) to eat any crumbs that fall off accompanied by a sip or two of “chef’s coffee”.

~   Related to the above – you have probably been asked to taste the wine when dining out, don’t you owe it to your guests that you also taste a little before serving it to them?
~   Crispy bacon crumbs should always be eaten by the cook either just as they are or sprinkled onto something accommodating such as ice cream with a drizzle of maple syrup.
~   A spare anchovy is surprisingly good crushed onto hot toast and topped with ... clotted cream!  Ta da!!!
~   Leftover gravy is great finished up by dipping bread into it. 
~   Leftover stew is good on toast even if it’s just the scrapings left on the bottom of the pan.
~   Chocolate – this is taken directly from my book "The Leftovers Handbook"

Although I have given what I believe to be the most commonly held definition of Cook’s Treat Urban Dictionary gives this alternative ...

“Street name for coke used by senior chefs.”

... and I don’t think they are talking the sugar loaded fizzy drink!  I have oft been a senior chef but never took coke in either form and I don’t blame me!

Tweetables

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~   Have your Cook’s Treat firmly in mind before you start cooking.
~   Cook’s Treat Suggestions ~ do you have any more ideas?
~   A spare anchovy is surprisingly good crushed onto hot toast and topped with ... ?