I have this dream. Of creating a dish that is jet black but tastes amazing. Squid ink could do that trick, but that is cheating. The idea is really a jet black sauce to go with already jet black squid ink pasta. I have been playing around a little with the idea, seeing what sort of ingredients could get me a black sauce. I first make flour out of black rice and black quinoa but that didn’t get me the color I wanted. I am thinking that black beans or black olives could do that trick in the future. But as for now I made an attempt with raisins and unsweetened chocolate, turned out brown not black but I did get a chocolate bunny.
I had never made a savory chocolate dish before. But I have had mole and did hear about a recipe for rabbit in a savory chocolate sauce. Rather than look up a recipe I just tried to figure it out on my own.
I first browned the rabbit in butter with onions, figuring the butter would work better than any other fat with chocolate. Then I added some water, cloves, the chocolate, and raisins along with salt and black pepper. On first taste I got worried. Not at all what I was expecting. Tasted like bitter chocolate and onions. It needed something else. So flip flopping between sweet and savory I added honey, tomato paste, chili powder, and dried ancho chilies until it tasted right.
It actually tasted pretty good. Some bites were more bitter than others but some had a really good, hard to describe flavor that went well with the lean rabbit meat. At the end I did puree some of the left over sauce to blend in the raisins, adding sweetness, and it actually tasted a lot better.
It looked like shit on the plate, literally, not the most appetizing effect but that is kind of the point. Rabbit and chocolate doesn’t sound very appetizing either.
