I added chocolate to stew. Yes I did.
To be fair, chocolate is now a staple addition to chilli, so why not to stew too. Ha, that rhymes.
I didn’t come up with the idea completely on my own. I knew that I wanted to do a savoury chocolate dish for chocolate week, but chilli seemed an obvious choice. So I consulted Rococo: Mastering the Art of Chocolate to gain some inspiration.
In it there was a recipe for a Grenadian stew, loaded with scotch bonnet chillies and just a little bit of chocolate.
I love stews. I love the fact that you can throw everything into a large cast iron pot, leave it to do its own thing for 3 hours or so and then tuck into a plate of comforting warmth that wants to give you a hug from the inside out.
And this time of year is prime stew season.
I scaled down the chillies (because I am a wimp when it comes to the fiery red peppers) and added some beans and mushrooms for more flavour (and vegetable content) and chucked in a stock cube or two.
To be honest, you wouldn’t know the chocolate was there if no-one told you. You are not supposed to be able to taste it, it’s there to add an underlying richness to this meaty stew. I know it’s such a small amount that you may wonder why on earth you should bother adding it, but please do.
I’m sure you’ve got a little bit of chocolate hanging around that needs a good home. What better place than this satisfying and hearty pot of goodness.
Beef Stew with Chocolate
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp flavourless oil, such as rapeseed or sunflower
- 750g beef skirt, or stewing steak or oxtail, cut into chunks
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped, use more if you like things hot
- 1 large clove of garlic, crushed or grated
- 1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- handful of fresh chives, cut into smallish pieces
- couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves removed from the stalks
- 2 beef stock cubes
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 750ml water
- 6 – 8 mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed, 235g drained weight
- 6g dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- salt and pepper, to taste
Method:
- Heat the oil in a large casserole / cast iron pot over a medium heat.
- Brown the beef in batches and set aside.
- Add the onion to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes, until it starts to go translucent. Then add the chilli, garlic, ginger, tomato puree, chives, thyme, stock cubes, lemon & lime juice and salt. Stir to combine.
- Return the meat to the pan and add the water. Bring to the boil, then cover with a well-fitting lid, reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer for approximately 3 hours, until the meat is tender.
- Add the mushrooms, beans and chocolate and simmer for a further 15 minutes. If the sauce is a little thin, thicken it was a little cornflour and water.
- Serve with rice.
© The Pink Rose Bakery 2014
The Pink Rose Bakery 
I’ve never added chocolate to a savoury dish but this has inspired me to try! My little picky eaters might enjoy it too. #CookBlogShare
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I doubt your little picky eaters would notice it was there. Although maybe telling them that there is chocolate in it might be an incentive!! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
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I’ve added cocoa once to my chilli con carne, I wasn’t happy, it was just too much, but I still feel tempted to throw chocolate into a stew. Especially that yours looks so great.
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This is such a small amount that I would give it another go 🙂
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That looks incredible! I am not that surprised by the addition of chocolate – it is a staple in some Mexican recipes and adds a really nice dimension to beef dishes. Love! Thanks for linking to #CookBlogShare
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I had fabulous slow cooked beef cheek in a red wine and chocolate sauce at a restaurant earlier in the year and it was divine, so I imagine this will be lovely too. I love chilli chocolate, and don’t eat mushrooms so might play around with the ingredients as well!
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Feel free – that’s the great thing about stews, no hard and fast rules, go with what you fancy 🙂
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This looks lovely. A nice addition to the stew, too
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Thank you 🙂
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Ooh, that does look good. Hope you saved some for pudding though (the chocolate, not the stew…)
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Ha! Glad you clarified that the stew wasn’t to be kept for pudding.
There’s always chocolate in this house . . .
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I like the idea of chocolate as the mystery ingredient that no-one identifies but which makes a distinctive taste difference. The only problem would be actually letting go of the chocolate as I added to the stew…..
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Well, only a small bit is needed for the stew, so you should have some left over to nibble on . . .
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Er, nibbling doesn’t quite adequately describe my chocolate eating behaviour! It’s more a steady and continuous hand to mouth action….
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I am familiar with that particular practice . . . 🙂
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I don’t know about adding it to stew, might leave that one for the more adventurous.
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Fair enough, but it is only a very small amount so you don’t know it’s there. And as it’s dark chocolate it isn’t overly sweet like some chocolate can be.
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Okay, now I’m thinking I might sneakily make it some afternoon when no one is around and see what they think as they will simply see stew and eat.
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Exactly! Think of it as a magical mystery ingredient 🙂
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