The Spanish have an understandably wonderful obsession with chocolate, and rightly so as they were the ones to bring chocolate back to Europe from the new world in the 16th century. This chocolate mousse is laced with Spanish Brandy and served with a Ganache, but also with toasts and the addition of sea salt and a fruity ripe Arbequina Olive Oil.

In bar 44 customers enjoy the sweetness of the mousse and ganache against the savoury toast and olive oil, which is unusual to see on menus in the UK. The beautiful vanilla running through the sea salt completes and balances the dish very well.

We pair it with a good Pedro Ximenez Sherry, or a VORS Oloroso Dulce. Delicioso!

Recipe
Chocolate Mousse, Toast, Olive Oil and Sea Salt

For the Mousse

350g   x chocolate Rancho Cortesano 100% artesano  70% cacao

900ml x double cream

50ml x Brandy Veragua solera reserva de Jerez

Heat the chocolate slowly over a bain-marie until completely melted. Separately, semi whip your cream until it has a light (but not over whipped) consistency. Slowly add the chocolate to the cream, folding in until you have a silky mousse. Stir in the Brandy. Lick the bowl before washing!

For the Ganache

150ml x double or whipping cream

50ml whole milk

180g x 70% chocolate – diced

15g x cocoa powder

Bring all the ingredients up to a simmer, mix and stir with a spatula until the mixture is silky smooth. Set over night.

For the accompaniments

2 x slices of Bloomer toast – sliced as thinly as you possibly can

Arbequina Olive Oil – Ferral

Max Meridia Vanilla Sea Salt

Pop the bread onto a baking tray and place into a moderate oven (180 degrees) until golden and crisp. Once your plate is arranged with the toast, mousse and ganache, sprinkle the mousse with sea salt and drizzle the plate with olive oil.

PRODUCTS

Recipe provided by

bar44

 

We are a family run company, with an obsession for beautifully produced and extensively sourced Spanish produce and drinks, as well as the Spanish culture and zest for life and the way they live it.

Coupled with our childhood memories of family holidays in Spain, it was our aim to create a bar that provided British/Welsh people with seriously high quality Spanish food, and change the way people think about it. For many years British people went to Spain on holiday and only ate British food or poor Spanish food in tourist areas. We wanted to show people what they had been missing out on. (Some of the world’s best produce, on a plate!) Even now we have to educate people on what good tapas and Spanish food is, but times are changing, and the Spanish food offering in the UK is now of an extremely high quality and good Spanish produce is becoming more common in supermarkets and delis.

Tom and Owen Morgan launched their first tapas bar (Bar 44) in September 2002, in the small market town of Cowbridge, near Wales’ capital city of Cardiff. Our second bar opened in December 2012 in Penarth, on the outskirts of Cardiff. In October 2013 we launched a gourmet tapas street kitchen from a shiny vehicle named ‘El Boquerón’, with the aim to take great Spanish food to the streets of Wales!

Our tapas combine’s traditional dishes cooked freshly to order, with more creative dishes combining the finest regional Spanish produce with excellent local meat and fish. This is then complimented by a 100% Spanish wine list, with Sherry featuring heavily, and all Spanish beers. Our creative cocktails also use a lot of Spanish ingredients, and we pride ourselves on making superb Spanish style Gin and tonics.

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