INTERESTING CHOCOLATE DISCOVERY.

We are not a group or community that is noted for crossing new frontiers in cuisine . Indeed we are not known for anything at all until this evening when a seasoned chef from one of the five star establishment in Singapore, declared that we may be on to something "interesting" in artisan chocolatery.A gentleman from Carrefour looked pensive after a taste

In a session of experimental cooking, a few of us cake makers, bakers and a couple of chocolatiers combined Chocolate with Cardamon and came up it a surprising sensational Chocolate-Cardamon Custard Tart. We haven't thought of a slick name yet. We will when we are ready to rock the world.

We decided to try Cardamon. It is grown here in Java and it called "kapulaga". It belongs to the Amomum variety.It is a ginger-like plant and like cocoa grow in tropical rain forests. It grows up to 5 meters and therefore can actually be grown alongside cocoa Like cocoa it grows in shade. It will boost farmers'income because cardamon is one of the most expensive of spices.

Like the cocoa bean, it's the seeds inside the pod that are used.The husk is thrown away.Java cardamon is brownish and has a distinct astringent aroma without being bitter. It has a coolness similar to mint.

It has a flavour that that good breadth but not enough depth to impinge on the flavour of chocolate.

Besides being used in cooking it is also used in Scandinavia in baking cakes and pastries. The Dutch use it in windmill biscuits.The Russians use it in liqueurs. In China and India they have used it for thousands of years to treat all kinds of digestive and bowel ailments.And it is one of the world's oldest spices.We thought it will combine magnificently with chocolate.It did.

We decide to make a tart because we felt that it bring up the combination best and most noticeably. First we combined the ingredients of the dough:We sifted flour,cocoa and sea salt. We creamed the butter,sugar together to a fluffy paste, added egg and mixed it in well. We mixed all the ingredients until the dough formed. We shaped it into a ball, cut it in two halves, and stored it in the refrigerator overnight.That was yesterday.

This evening we took one half, made it into a kind of a shallow tart shell circle with a 2cm ridge, covered it and let it chill.

In the meantime the oven was being preheated. The chocolate, we used 7 ounces bittersweet was placed in a bowl. Into it we added a heated mixture of cream,a table spoon of fine ground cardamon, milk and sugar stirring in a third at a time, until it blended smoothly. A whisked egg was blended into a part of the chocolate mixture and then to all of it.Get rid of bubbles by tapping the bowl.

Now pour the mixture into the tart shell right to the top. Baked for 20 minutes, turned around and baked again for another 20 minutes until the custard is firm around the edges and sort of wobbly in the centre.Lionel, our friendly chef from Singapore guided the whole operation through. We need his deftness. We were so clumsy.The complete recipe together with another cardamon-chocolate exotica is available in next fortnight's Java Cocoa Newsletter.

The other half of the dough got the same treatment. Except this time we mixed the cardamon with the dough not with the custard. For added effect we made a thin sheet of caramel blended with a pinch of cardamon cracked it into bits and sprinkled over the chocolate custard.

Our guests, mainly family, and of course the pensive friend from Carrefour, declared it a significant discovery and generally rated with a nine.

CHOCOLATE IN YOUR BUBUR AYAM.

If you are reading this story from Mexico, Bubur is Indonesian for rice porridge. Everywhere you go in Java and rest of the 17000 islands of Indonesia you will find some variety of Bubur. The Chinese and Indians call it congee(porridge). It could well be Asia's main prepared food. Usually eaten as supper(much after dinner) or breakfast.

The are simple congees to complex ones. A fairly sophiscated version is made with the famous Chinese Five Spices with shreds of chicken.

What is Chinese Five Spices? Well its the great wonder powder that the Chinese invented to combine the five elements of taste: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent, and salty. Very, very close to the five elements of the taste of chocolate: sour, bitter,sweet,astrigent and umami.

Bitterness in chocolate comes from the caffeine, L-valine,L-tyrosine and L-isoleucine.The sour from acetic acid, latic acid and citric and oxalic. The sweet from galatose, glucose, L-serine, fructose and sucrose.Astringency, which I liken to puncency comes from amines, eplatechin, catechin and other horribly difficult to spell elements. Just trust me.

What is umami? Well in chocolate it come comes two main elements, glutamic acid and aspartic acid. You will find these elements in Ajinamoto. I liken it to being salty savoury.

Make your congee by boiling rice and once it is ready allow to simmer for about an hour. It will not boil over. Combine, strips of chicken, a clove of garlic crushed, thin strips of ginger, a teaspoon of oyster sauce,pinch of pepper, two pinches of salt, and simmer it with the cosimmering porridge.Added finely chopped onions if you wish. Then add two tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa. stir in and simmer. Garnish with fried onions. Serve.

With a dash of soy it can bring much joy.

You can makt a bit more interesting if you throw in some roasted cocoa nibs and some ikan bilis(deep fried anchovies) Even Italian anchovies are great as a garnish. Overdoing it perhaps but as Mae West said"Too much of a good thing is wonderful".