It’s been awful quiet around this blog and I won’t bore you with all the reasons why. Instead how about an olive oil infused with cocoa nibs and chill recipe you might like to try. A few months back while in the UK and looking for an envelope (cookbooks were furthest from my mind), stumbled upon cookbooks when passing quickly through the shop aisles. Couldn’t help notice the large sign offering a heavy discount on selected cookbooks and of course, stopped to have a little peek. Most cookbooks on offer didn’t interest me but “ A New Way of Cooking with Chocolate” caught my attention, it wasn’t just another sweet cookbook and included savory recipes, stories and of course… inspiration. And… who’d doesn’t love chocolate.
I’ve made this cocoa chilli infused oil to use with another recipe from the cookbook, a hummus recipe made using peanut butter instead of tahini, which sounds delicious. The author also mentions you could also use this cocoa chilli infused olive oil over roasted vegetables, fish, chicken, pizza or pasta. Or, use this oil for bread-dipping. Either way what ever food you decide to drizzle this infused oil over… make sure to include some cocoa nibs and chilli for that delicate spiced chocolate crunch.
Cocoa Chilli Olive Oil
Recipe adapted from the cookbook “A New Way of Cooking with Chocolate” by Hotel Chocolat.
Ingredients:
10g roasted cocoa nibs
225 ml olive oil
1/2 teaspoon dried red chili flakes
1 whole dried red chili
How to make:
Preheat the oven to 140C/275F/120C Fan/Gas Mark .
Place the cocoa nibs on a small tray and cook for 15 minutes.
Pour the olive oil into a small saucepan and on low heat, warm the olive oil. Remove from heat, add the cocoa nibs, chilli flakes and whole dried chilli.
Once cooled, pour the oil into a glass bottle or container and spoon in the remaining chilli flakes, cocoa nibs, plus whole chilli from the pan. Seal bottle or container with a lid and store in a cool dark place for at least a week before using. Use within a month. Shake to awaken the flavors before using.
Note: I have given half the quantity of the original recipe, double the quantity of the ingredients if you need more. The olive oil takes on a deeper cooler as the ingredients infuse and if you find your oil on the spicer side… top up with extra olive oil.
On tasing after a few days, found the chilli flakes used were not hot enough so chilli heat has not come through. Will add hotter chilli flakes and see how it goes… will update. Good idea to keep this in mind if making.
Update: After adding another 1/4 teaspoon of chilli flakes and leaving a few more days to infuse… the heat from the chilli flakes did not come through… I ended up sprinkling a small pinch of hot chilli powder over the hummus… not too much but enough to know it’s there.
Food and Tools 
Looks interesting, Moya. I don’t know that I have ever seen cocoa nibs for sale in Perth, though.
LikeLike
Hi Glenda most likely you will find cocoa nibs in health food stores or in the health section of larger supermarkets. Once you start looking for them I bet you’ll find them 🙂
LikeLike