FOOD FILE:You can't help but feel a little subversive as you slip a stash of Venezuelan Black into your shopping basket. But despite the name, there's nothing even vaguely illicit about this 100 per cent cacao chocolate, made in Devon , by Willie Harcourt-Cooze, star of the cult Channel 4 series, Willie's Chocolate Factory.
He grows the beans himself in Venezuela for the limited edition, single estate Hacienda El Tesoro, and the other two are single bean varieties.
The dark, dry and bitter chocolate, which is sold in solid, cylindrical 180g slabs (€8), is intended for cooking, rather than nibbling. “Grate in your food and great on your food” says the wrapper. Recipe suggestions include using the Venezuelan Black to enrich and thicken gravy (especially for game), in casseroles and sauces, as well as in dessert recipes where a dark, strong flavour is required.
Niall (above) and Rose Daly, the couple behind The Chocolate Shop in Cork’s English Market, are the Irish stockists of Willie’s chocolate, along with Harvey Nichols in Dundrum, Dublin. Rose has used the chocolate in a sauce to serve with roast pheasant, and says it’s also good with other game, some lamb dishes, and curries.
“We’ve only just got it in stock, but there was keen interest in it, from the TV programme,” she says.
The Dalys stock a huge range of premium chocolate brands, including Cluizel, Pralus and Valrhona, as well as the Irish-made artisan chocolate from Cocoa Bean and Skelligs – whose Easter eggs are the shop’s bestsellers this year. “People are still spending on chocolate because it’s an affordable luxury,” Rose says.
Willie's Chocolate Factory Cookbookis recently published by Hodder Stoughton (£20). Willie's Chocolate Revolution: Raising the Bar, runs on Channel 4 next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm. See www.chocolate.ie, or tel: 021-4254448, for more information on The Chocolate Shop. Orders can be despatched by post.