Results - Chocolate chantilly with raspberry-poached rhubarb

Do you like chocolate? How much do you like chocolate? I like chocolate, but this dessert was too much cocoa even for me!! The recipe calls for close to 300 grams of 70% cocoa chocolate. After eating one serve of this dessert I filled my chocolate cravings for a week! Dont get me wrong, its tasted divine, but I really thought that the chocolate could have used a little sweetness, and dare I say, a little bit of milk solids. This dessert is one for the adults, rich, intense and very wicked, I enjoyed it with a glass of Nobel one. If I was to make this recipe again, which I'm sure I will, I will be adding a little milk chocolate to try to cut the richness of the cocoa.

I was a little nervous when making this dessert. I have a basic understanding of physics and don't remember the lesson where they taught us if you whisk chocolate and water together it forms a chocolate mousse, I must have been on a sickie that day or something. I tentatively added the water to the solid chocolate and waited for it to melt. I don't know what I thought would happen, I was imagining an unshaken Milo with solid bits of chocolate floating on the top. But I ended up with a silky, rich looking chocolate mixture.

The next step involved putting the silky chocolate into an iced water bath and whisking until your arm falls off. About 2 minutes into the whisking I wished my old hand held mixer didn't die. I never thought I would ever reach that realization, but here I was wishing that my trusty old friend was still around. I was a disbeliever, I thought surely this wont work and I'll have to guzzle half a liter of chocolate water....new Chinese torture or the new Adkins diet?! But it worked!! It was a little like whipping cream, you whisk and whisk, and nothing seems to be happening, and then all of a sudden...BAM! frothy cream! I let out a little whimper of joy....remember I was hand whisking....and then moved onto the next step.

Every other aspect of the dish was so incredibly simple. I used frozen raspberries to make the raspberry and rhubarb juice, and used fresh raspberry's for the presentation. I think the raspberry poached rhubarb was the best component of the whole thing. The rhubarb was so soft and it managed to soak all the raspberry flavor into its flesh. It was delicious! I'm going to make a huge batch of the rhubarb and eat it spooned over some cold custard...YUM!

Raspberry, sugar and rhubarb skin ready to cook

Hey presto! Liquid gold!

I must say one thing abut this dish that I don't often say about other recipes, it was a very pretty dessert. The gorgeous plump raspberries sitting on top of the frothy dark and handsome chocolate, finished off with the rose coloured nectar, you can't help but swoon once it is presented in front of you, ready to be devoured.

Chocolate chantilly with raspberry-poached rhubarb

Restaurant: Marque (NSW)
Recipe from Chef Mark Best (Appeared on Gourmet Traveller Website and September 2009 issue)
2010 Rating: 2nd, 3 Stars

What do you do when you have a craving for chocolate but you know you shouldn't eat any? I look at chocolate recipes. I know its a form of torture, but if I close my eyes and concentrate really hard I can almost taste it. And there's no calories involved! Yesterday, on a particularly bad chocolate craving day I went looking for chocolate creation ideas and happened to come across this recipe for chocolate chantilly by Mark Best from Marque. The recipe quickly drew my attention, whisked chocolate with water?? I've never done that before, I have to give it a go myself. The recipe isnt strictly a restaurant creation, but its intriguing enough to give it a go!

So here is the recipe, results will be following soon!

Chocolate chantilly with raspberry-poached rhubarb

Serves 6

Cooking Time Prep time 20 mins, cook 1 hr (plus chilling)

INGREDIENTS

270 gm dark couverture chocolate (70% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped
100 gm (about 1 punnet) raspberries, to serve (see note)

Raspberry-poached rhubarb

1 bunch rhubarb with thick stalks (about 450gm)
200 gm (about 2 punnets) raspberries (see note)
250 gm caster sugar

METHOD

1. Combine chocolate and 230ml water in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted and well combined (3-4 minutes). Place bowl over a bowl of iced water and whisk steadily until chocolate thickens and increases in volume (4-5 minutes). Refrigerate, covered, until required.

2. Meanwhile, for raspberry-poached rhubarb, trim leaves and white ends from rhubarb (discard). Wash well, dry, then peel each stalk with a vegetable peeler. Place peelings in a large heatproof bowl with raspberries and sugar (reserve stalks). Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place over a saucepan of simmering water until a red juice forms (40-45 minutes).

3. Strain juice through a fine sieve into a 2 litre-capacity wide saucepan. Do not press solids through (discard solids). Cut reserved rhubarb into 9cm lengths, add to pan and simmer over low heat until just tender (6-8 minutes). Do not boil. Transfer rhubarb and juice to a container and refrigerate until chilled (30-40 minutes). Before serving, gently toss with raspberries to combine.

4. Form six quenelles of chocolate with a large, hot spoon and place each in a serving bowl. Divide a little rhubarb and raspberry mixture among bowls, drizzle with rhubarb juice to taste and serve with extra rhubarb and raspberries to the side.

Note If fresh raspberries are unavailable, use frozen ones. Use Valrhona chocolate if available.