ENJOY LIFE! MAKE YOUR OWN CHOCOLATE.

With all the prices going up I lived with some apprehension that one fine day I would wake up and find that I could no longer afford chocolate.Like it happened with cheese,oxtail stew,seven grain bread,crumpets,movies,restaurnats that use white table cloths, doctors,school and so on. They made petrol expensive and then stopped making cheap bicycles.

If it happens with chocolate it will have catastrophic results on my life. I have always depended on chocolate to keep my heart healthy, my brain liking up to expectations, my disposition amicable and felt little need for Prozac. Sex was going fine too.

But recently prices of chocolate in the supermarkets have been surreptitiously creeping up. That was when I decided to make and live on my own chocolate. Frankly it was to be a major milestone in my life.What a lot of luscious vistas opened up!I lie awake at nights wondering what I will do next.

Making your chocolate is not difficult, once you decide to do it. Your neighbours may laugh,"Why go through all the trouble. You can buy a chocolate wafer for 90 cents down at Starmart." Frankly, like all neighbours anywhere, they don't know what they are talking about.

The are three ways to go about making your own chocolate.

BIT OF A QUIRKY WAY
I went out and bought a carton of bitter-sweet curvature. I knocked down a one kg block to get about 300gm. I was ready to go.I filled a pot with water and brought it to boil. Added agar agar and melted in out. Then added the chocolate. Once the chocolate is melted and blended with the agar-agar solution, I let it cool.Chill over night.Next day break it and enjoy. I wont tell you how wonderful and exciting the experience can be. Find out for yourself.

THE SAFE WAY

Melt your 300gm of chocolate in your microwave. When its warm temper it by swishing it up and down with a wooden spatula a top a cool surface.Pour it into a flat plastic lined tray. Then do your creative things. Put in nuts and bits of fruit. Chill it overnight. Next morning crack up an enjoy the pieces.

THE ADVENTUROUS WAY

If you have a bit of Bond in you then, you can cut down the cooling chocolate into pieces and drop it into liquid nitrogen. When the pieces are solid, which is almost immediately, you pull it out and let it thaw in a bowl.When you taste it, you realise that you have a chocolate that melts easily in the mouth. It will have a full, intense, rich taste.Enjoy it leisurely over three or four days.

There are full recipes you may want to experiment with. Subscribe to the Java Chocolate Newsletter.

CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

Now you have the basics the creative opportunities are enormous. You can try blending types of chocolate, blending ingredients, trying savoury chocolate, spicy chocolate, coat fried banana chips, tempe or tofu slices, experiment with salt,milk powder,vanilla, flavours you enjoy, balsamic vinegar,sprinkle in your bits of your traditional Indonesian snacks. Learn what works and what doesn't.Or just enjoy and luxuriate over the intense, rich taste of chocolate.Recipes are found in our newsletter.

I haven't mentioned sugar. Bittersweet chocolate I feel contains all the sugar you need in chocolate.

SHAPE IT ANY WAY YOU FANCY.

I dislike cubes, squares and rounds. I think they are unnatural shapes to put into your mouth. Make your chocolate in any shape and avoid the traditional. Go where no man has ever gone before.Make it an art form. Please, no bunnies, gnomes and Santa Claus.

SELL

You might try to make it into a home industry. Sell your odd pieces of great chocolate in simple, plain,recyclable, paper bags.Hundred grams can go for $2.

YOUR OVERHEADS.
Three hundred grams of bittersweet curvature cost me about $2.After I made it my way,just the way I liked.I enjoyed it over three days.