A Week of Eating Local--Eat Local Challenge: Day 3--Featuring (Local) Pots Au Chocolat for Food 'n Flix: "Chocolat"

One of my concerns about taking part in the Eat Local Challenge this week was fitting in a few blog events that I wanted to take part in, and finding recipes that I could adapt with local ingredients. A big one for me was the new monthly Food 'N Flix event, founded by my friend girlichef. This month's movie is a personal favorite of mine (and in my foodie movie collection), "Chocolat" based on the book by Joanne Harris. I won't go into a movie review here, but if you are a foodie and haven't seen this charming movie, you must do so immediately. Chocolate and Johnny Depp... enough said!

I had a favorite recipe in mind to make when I heard we were doing this movie, the aptly named Pots Au Chocolat--basically a fudgy, pudding like, but fluffier, decadent little dessert from a cookbook I bought when I was first getting into cooking, "Classic Home Cooking" by Mary Berry & Marlena Spieler. Imagine my delight when I realized I could make this dessert (sans the whipped creme topping) with all local or locally produced ingredients. Yep, we grow us some chocolate here on the islands--in this case it is Waialua Chocolate on the North Shore of Oahu. I used their Extra Dark 70% Cacao for this dessert, along with Kona Coffee, a vanilla bean from the Big Island, Naked Cow Dairy Butter and fresh local eggs.

Pots Au Chocolat

"Classic Home Cooking"

(Serves 6) or 4 ;-)

6 oz (175 g) semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces

3 Tbsp strong black coffee

1 Tbsp butter

a few drops of vanilla extract

3 eggs, separated

2/3 cup (150 ml) heavy cream, whipped until stiff to decorate

Put the chocolate pieces into a saucepan with the strong black coffee. Heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate melts. Leave the chocolate mixture to cool slightly, then add the butter, vanilla extract, and egg yolks and stir until well blended.

Beat the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold gently but thoroughly into the chocolate mixture. Pour the mixture into 6 small custard cups, ramekins, or other serving dishes (or 4 slightly larger tea cups), and leave to chill for about 8 hours.

Decorate each cup of chocolate with a piped rosette of whipped cream before serving.

Notes/Results: A deep, dark, delicious chocolate delight. Fudgy, but not too heavy and full of great flavor. The coffee adds more of a richness than a strong coffee flavor. This is an easy dessert to whip up--then it just needs some time in the fridge to set. It does use raw eggs, but I feel comfortable with the local eggs I bought from a small farm CSA share and pick up at the farmers market each week. Instead of vanilla extract, I scraped a vanilla bean into the chocolate/coffee mix. Since I don't have access to local cream, I skipped that as a topping and instead topped a couple with chocolate mint leaves from my garden and a couple with some black lava Hawaiian sea salt. I wondered if the salt might be too much but just a tiny sprinkle was perfect with the dark chocolate. Yum! I have made this in the past, substituting green tea for the coffee--also delicious. I will certainly make it again.

Check out the Food 'N Flix site where girlichef and Terianne from Milk, Sugar, Musings and Love will be rounding up the entries soon.

So how did Day 3 of the Eat Local Challenge go?

Breakfast: On the go with a hard boiled local egg and a smoothie with local papaya and frozen apple bananas and a little local milk.

Lunch: Leftover grilled ahi, layered with sliced avocado on greens with leftover vinaigrette.

Dinner: Thai-style Local Lettuce Wraps with Maui ground beef and all local veggies (cucumber and daikon), local lemongrass, kaffir lime, lime and Thai chilies, and herbs from my container garden (cilantro, Thai Basil and mint). Delish--I made a variation of this recipe for a demo at Whole Foods tonight that went over really well.

Dessert: Mango-Habanero Ono Pop (my pots Au Chocolat were still setting).

Tune in tomorrow for my Eating Local Day 4 recap. ;-)

Aloha,