Chocolate Festival Round Up

I went choco-mad at the inaugural NZ Chocolate Festival last weekend.  Here are some of my personal highlights.

Super chocolate

A couple of the chocolate companies are now making what they say is chocolate that's even better for your then we all think chocolate is already. Schoc's offering is called Active and they tell me it's cold pressed and made in a vacuum to make sure that it retains as many of the flavonoids (a type of anti-oxidant) as possible. They say that you only need two squares a day to get your daily suggested anti-oxidant dosage. No explanation of what happens if you don't stop at 2 pieces. Schoc also suggest you eat it before exercise to increase the benefits of exercise. Gets the blood pumping apparently. They make it in both dark and milk and, surprisingly for me, I think the milk was better. To me the dark had an aftertaste I didn't like.

Bull Rush do a couple too called Fix72 and Fix Cacao Nib. They reckon theirs lower stress and have aphrodisiac properties. Even more reasons to eat chocolate! 

Bohemein

Bohemein has shops in Hataitai and Featherston St and their little, formed, filled chocolates are a delight to explore. Best one was the Balsamic Vinegar and Honey Ganache filled dark morsel of deliciousness. Then there's the wasabi cream. Go on, you know you want to! It was certainly worth gently elbowing the other chocolate lovers aside to try. Slightly makes you want sushi afterwards, which is a bit startling. I have other flavours at home I'm still working my way through.

Damsom Bomb

The Damson Collection had their damson chocolate in attendance. The woman at the stand advised to pop the whole thing in my mouth and break it up. It was a magnificent little bomb of damson, gin and chocolate. Get you hands on one at any cost!

Hot Antidote

With any festival, by a few hours in all I want is an antidote of some sort. For Toast Martinborough, it's beer. At the chocolate festival, turns out it's cheese. The lovely man from www.firedragonchillies.com was there with his chilli chocolate, cheese and sauces. I looooovvvveeeeee chilli chocolate and these were the spiciest I've ever had! Bhuty Dark Chocolate. Available online and at various specialist stores around the country, including the beloved Moore Wilson's. 

 Another antidote to chocolate overload is beer. Andy from Renaissance Brewing was giving tastes of his artisan beers. He's a charming fellow: “I wouldn't hurt you with Porter,” and maintains that taxes and water quality have been the greatest influence on beers styles. Avoiding the first, and coping with the second.

He hosted a chocolate and beer matching session late in the day and it was eye- and tastebud-opening. Andy says that his Craftsman chocolate porter matches gorgonzola; a claim I am prepared to test. As Andy says “try this at home”, just make sure your beer is cool, but not cold. As a general rule, darker chocolate with darker beer. Try the Stonecutter Scotch Ale, made with 9 different malts, with or without chocolate! Wooop.

This festival was described as inaugural, I hope that means there will be more!

Some Like it Hot

It's been a week of chillis.

People know about my chilli obsession.  So much so, that I am often presented with them when there are too many in someone's garden. Suits me fine.  These from my friend's mum!

Chilli 1 - sausage
During a visit to the Harbourside Market beside Te Papa on Sunday, we purchased a piece of chilli sausage from the caravan of Milan Malivuk – branded Little Wolf (a translation of his surname). It's lovely dried spicy pork sausage which can be eaten as is or cooked in meals. So Pav stirred it into a stock, onion, chickpea and canned tomato soup. No need for other flavours as the sausage releases its spices (mainly paprika and garlic I think, but it's a secret of course) to flavour the entire soup. Marvelous, fuss-free eating. These are handmade, preservative-free and worth finding at the market, Moore Wilson's or the Mediterranean Food Warehouse.

Chilli 2 - sorbet
Then, after Pav went on tour, I went back to the Boys of Breaker Bay and made dessert again. This time poached pears and chocolate chilli sorbet (dairy free). The recipe as written doesn't contain chilli, but that's never stopped me.

Poaching pears is simple – peel fairly ripe pears, trim the bottom so the pears will sit up unaided, poach in flavoursome, preferably sweet, liquid (almost anything will do) until tender. You can scoop out the core of the pear from the bottom, but I never do. I'm not that posh.

I poached these beurre bosc pears in sugar and water and a pinch each of cinnamon, ginger (of course!) and chilli powder.

I love dark chocolate and chilli and so should you! Chilli and chocolate are double fun – the double aphrodisiac of the chocolate and the chilli justifies this combination alone. However, I believe that chilli is also an anti-inflammatory, a pain killer and an anti-depressant. Added to what we know about the revitalizing powers of chocolate, what more excuses do you need!?

This is the easiest 'ice' I've ever made. Sugar (1/3 cups brown, 1 and 2/3 cups white), water (4 cups), cocoa (2 cup) and vanilla (1 tablespoon). Melt the sugar in the water over heat, then add the cocoa and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. It thickens slightly. Add the vanilla and then chill for at least 2 hours. Then churn in your available method – machine or by hand (freeze in flat metal dish for 2 hours, break up firmly with whisk or fork, freeze for 2 hours, break up, repeat a few times). Churning in a machine produces a smoother mixture, but it's not so much better that you shouldn't do the other if you're an ice cream maker-free household. I added the chocolate/chilli nibs as the mix churned. A good half teaspoon ground up, I'd say.  See picture of chocolate/chilli nibs.

I served the pears with the sorbet and some of the left over syrup reduced by fast boiling. The more the sorbet melted, the more the essential oils of the chillis were released. Essentially it got more exciting as the temperature increased. As it should. Tee hee.

Chilli 3 - Larb Plaa
Then, a few days later, my chilli-enthusiast friend and I snuck into Ban Mai Thai at 111 Vivian St for a quick dinner. We only stayed for a main-course-sharing session, so I can't give you a full review, but suffice to say I've been about 4 times over the last few years and these guys never fail to deliver great tasting food for good prices.

This was no exception. We ordered two hot and spicy dishes and the outstanding one was the Larb Plaa, which was fish fillet with chilli, lemongrass, onion, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, lime juice and herbs. It was hot-spicy-hot, but layered with levels of flavour so that there was still something to roll around the tongue. The fish had been shredded and mixed with the other flavours to make the dish like a warm salad. The beef and pepper dish was also tasty, but the fish was the winner on the night.

Hot flavours for a cold mid-winter week. I wonder how I can get chillis into my breakfast next week?