Kerri Jackson quizzes Green & Black's taste guru Micah Carr-Hill on the art of cooking with chocolate.
KEY POINTS:
What kind of chocolate is best to cook with?
Whether you're cooking sweet or savoury, it's important that the chocolate has lots of flavour. It should be high in cocoa solids, 70 per cent is good. Any more than that and it can start to get bitter. But ultimately, trust in a brand that you like. It generally comes down to how well it's made.
Is it common to use it in savoury dishes?
There are two common ways of using chocolate in savoury dishes. The first is the Mexican mole way with chillies - it's a thick savoury sauce that's good with chicken or you can use it as we do in the cook book (Green & Black's Chocolate Recipes, New Holland, $39.99) with pork sausages.
If you're new to using chocolate in savoury recipes what's a good place to start?
Mole's can be quite time-consuming and a little more complicated so I'd start with something like a casserole or a daube (classic French stew). Cook it as usual then add a small amount of chocolate to the sauce at the end. Rather than giving it a big chocolate hit, it emulsifies and really enriches the dish. It adds something different. You could do the same thing with a chilli. Just add a few chunks of chocolate at the end and see if you like it. Alternatively, after you've cooked a steak try deglazing the pan with some stock. Add some chilli and two or three chunks (about 10g) of chocolate to make a sauce.
What's a good wine match?
It obviously depends on what dish you're cooking. If it's a sweet dish, it's traditional to match it with a sweeter red wine - maybe an Italian valpolicella, or an Antipodean sparkling shiraz. Port or muscats are good too. If it's a savoury dish I'd go for big red wines - shiraz or merlots. It's the same if you're just enjoying a piece of chocolate with a glass of wine. The sweetness of the chocolate can make some wines taste a bit thin. You need something with plenty of body. Go for big and fruity.
Micah Carr-Hill is head of taste for the English-based Green & Black's organic chocolate, recently launched in New Zealand
- Detours, HoS
