ANNOUNCING: The Chocolate Quarter

If I was set with the task of writing the happiest story on the entire planet, it would probably start with a new shop filled with chocolate opening near my home. So hopefully that puts into perspective how happy I am to announce that The Chocolate Quarter is open for business in Birmingham’s own Jewellery Quarter. YES.

In the name of public interest I had to investigate and do some sampling, you know. For research.

This lovely home grown family business will boom in the JQ which is slowly but surely becoming a new hot spot. Just in time for Valentine’s day, the luxury chocolatiers have loads of offers, heart shaped velvet chocolate boxes, liqueurs, bespoke romantic hampers and insanely good deals for your loved ones. OR, if you’re single (hey), then you’re in for an even bigger treat because you don’t have to pretend to want to share.

The space has a comfy seating area for you to sit and drink your mega rich hot chocolate that they make from their house bars in front of you. There’s a corner dedicated just to nostalgic sweets, and they have a wide array of biscuits, fudges and “inclusion bars” (they even let you vote for new flavours).

I bought – and demolished – a mini box of chocolate covered coffee beans and a little box of handmade chocolates. Choosing was freaking hard, but my favourite flavours were “The Londoner caramel & stout” which was Guinness in a truffle, “Genoa basil Chocolate ganache” and the “Boston peanut butter & raspberry jelly”. But there are simpler more classic flavours too: praline, champagne, and caramel.

Head over to the Jewellery Quarter this Valentine’s day for a bespoke gift, and I seriously advice you follow them on Twitter and Facebook for regular competitions and updates.

Peace out, I’m slowly slipping into my cocoma. 

Autumn Recipe: Sweet Potato & Coconut Curry

Hello, there. Ever since moving out of my mamas house and living alone, I’ve begun to realise just how time consuming my favourite hobby can be and sometimes I can badly not be bothered with standing over a stove for six hours just to destroy my plate in a minute and a half.

So although I don’t claim to be the best cook on the planet, I’ve mastered the skill of throwing whatever is in my fridge together, making  something remotely tasty, all the while managing to remember NONE of what I did to tell you the next day.

But that’s what’s good with this recipe, if you can even call it that. It is a guideline, at best. Chucking your own herbs and spices in will ruin nothing.

I should also state that I use the word ‘curry’ lightly, and anyone of Asian descent should not send me complaints for doing an injustice to years of spicy food.

Ingredients

3 Sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped in chunky pieces

1 Aubergine, sliced/chopped

1 can of beans, (butter beans are my favourite, but haricot, kidney and chickpeas work too)

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 spring onions, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic finely chopped OR spoon of lazy garlic

1 yellow pepper (but seriously, what’s the difference, use whatever colour you want, I hear some people have a weird aversion to yellow peppers)

1 tin Pride coconut milk (This is important, I think this is much better to use than Dunn’s River which is 100% liquid. Pride is half solid half liquid, and helps with a creamy consistency)

2 generous teaspoons of coconut oil (100% pure and coarse, in a jar)

1 healthy squeeze of tomato puree OR half a carton of passata

Method:

Put your chopped sweet potatoes, aubergine, tomato, spring onions, pepper and garlic into your glass Pyrex dish and coat them in coconut oil. Give them a good mix and put them in the oven, preheated to 200°C for fifteen minutes just to get started. Once you take the dish back out, add the beans, the coconut milk and the puree and again, mix it well. Now is the fun bit. Open up your spices drawer and have a party. I use cumin, chilli flakes, medium curry powder and cinnamon in mine, because it’s a sweet and spicy mix to go with the sweet potatoes. I have an illogical, irrational dislike of salt, but this would be the part where normal humans season their food, so feel free! Put your improv curry in the oven for about 50 minutes, opening the door regularly to stir the dish around and make sure the juices are soaking through.

Once it’s done, I add it to coconut rice, sprinkle paprika on top and fall into it head first. If you’re as lazy and single as I am, you’ll notice the spare food left over. What I do is mix the rice with the curry and I refrigerate it. In the morning, I fill tortilla wraps with the curry and take my sexy burritos to work.

Let me know how it goes, and if you made any changes which you think make it way tastier. Show me your photos!

Emily

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