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Our Summer Sale is now on!
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We're offering 2 items (with short best before dates):
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- 200g boxes of Rose & Violet Creams
- 100g Foraged Fennel and Cardamom White Chocolate.
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Buy any two, get 50% off!
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Rose and Violet Creams 200g
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Made entirely by hand, these chocolates have been lovingly mixed, poured and coated in the same way to the same recipe for decades. Subtly flavoured with natural flower oils, these are a very English treat and part of the Detective's Curated Collection!
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£27.50 inc. VAT
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White Broken Chocolate with Foraged Fennel & Cardamom 100g
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Broken shards of white chocolate flavoured with foraged wild fennel seed, cardamom and a touch of Blackthorn Scottish sea salt. Finished with the lightest brush of gold colouring.
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£16.50 inc. VAT
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Wave after wave of scorching weather with a few cooler moments in between seems to be becoming the new normal, at least for London! Not ideal for chocolate, however we enjoyed some cooler weather on holiday in Cornwall and Devon, revisiting the Cornish birthplace of my Sea Salt Milk Chocolate recipe (1998), and a beautiful renovated farm near Tiverton.
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My Book Club is discussing Like Water For Chocolate so while we were away I read the book, and planned the dinner that I am hosting where I will serve my South American black beans, spiced up and made richer with a little very dark chocolate. Also James learned how to make genuine Mexican tortillas with blue cornmeal ‘masa’ and a cast iron press and we got to swim in a beautiful spring water lake.
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The full recipe is on P.81 of my book: Real Chocolate
Chantal Coady
ISBN 1-84400-017-6 (Quadrille)
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Mexican refried beans with chocolate sauce
This is a variation on the Venezuelan staple caraotas, eaten there as a breakfast dish, with arepas, a kind of white maize griddle cake, white cheese and fried eggs. At home, we often have this as a brunch dish.
Allow a couple of days to make, these taste best after three or four days. If you don't have that much time, you can pressure cook the beans without even pre-soaking them. This way you can cook them one day and eat them the next.
You can serve these with many other things, chicken, soft tortillas*, scrambled, poached or fried eggs with chocolate vinegar (see the pan-seared chicken recipe on page 71 of Real Chocolate), bacon, crumbly white cheese such as Wensleydale, * proper home-made or shop bought 100% corn masa tortillas have a very special flavour and nutritional benefits!
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250g dried black beans from South America (not black-eye beans)
2 red onions, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
15g butter
good 5cm chunk of very fresh ginger, chopped finely or grated
1 fresh red chilli pepper, deseeded and finely chopped, or more to taste
200ml tomato passata
salt and pepper
25g unsweetened cocoa powder or 100% chocolate
fresh coriander leaves or flat-leaf parsley, to garnish.
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Two days ahead, put the beans to soak in cold water overnight.
Next day, drain, cover with fresh water, bring to a simmer and cook gently until really tender.
Gently sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil and butter for 10 minutes or so, until golden. Add the ginger and chilli, and cook for a minute or two, then add the drained cooked beans and the passata. Season with salt and pepper and leave overnight for the flavours to develop.
Next day, simmer gently for an hour. Stir in the cocoa or chocolate and garnish with the coriander just before serving.
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Clever & quick cheat using Ice Kitchen's frozen Mexican Smoky BBQ Fajita Paste*.
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Two tins of black beans
One serving of Smoky BBQ Fajita Paste- the pack contains 2 and you can save the other in the freezer.
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Briefly fry the Fajita Paste in a pan with a little oil. Add the beans - cook until tender and roughly blitz with a wand.
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Serve with as many of the following as you can muster: Tortillas, guacamole, white cheese, tomato salsa, rice, crème fraiche or Greek yogurt, fresh coriander leaves, fresh limes for squeezing, extra chilli sauce - grilled meats optional.
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*Declaration of interest: Ice Kitchen founder Cesar Roden is my nephew. His frozen pastes are brilliant. Thes pastes are my "go to" when I want a quick meal, adding fresh vegetables, tofu etc. Now readily available in Sainsbury’s and Ocado.
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Here's looking forward to cooler weather!
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