AKA chocolate beans. They do it in Mexico! Well they put in on turkeys in Mexico. I contrived this delicious, unusual dish in Australia after impulse buying a bottle of red wine ‘with a hint of natural chocolate’ (Chocolate Cellar from the McLaren Vale). A couple of sips in and it was hard to prevail. We abandoned it for a nice bottle from the Barossa Valley with only an almost imperceptible (and no added hint of) chocolate flavour.

Determined not to waste the unfortunate purchase, I turned it into a delicious mole sauce with beans in place of the traditional dead birds, it went down a storm. You may not be able to get hold of chocolate wine; I dont recommend trying very hard. Add a few squares of dark cooking chocolate to taste. Serve with plenty of plain brown rice, no more strong flavours needed. Very experimental, serendipitous, lazat.

Ramuan untuk 2 (serve with plenty of rice)

a splash of vegetable oil

bawang, diced

a teaspoon of dried cumin seed

2 teaspoons of dried chillies (this makes a medium hot sauce, add more or less to taste)

2 ulas bawang putih, dicacah

250cl (a third of a bottle) wain merah

a few squares of dark cooking chocolate

satu sudu kicap

the juice of a lime

a teaspoon of tamarind paste

satu sudu madu AGAVE

3 sudu besar tomato puri

garam dan lada

400g yang (14 auns) tin of mixed beans

half a head of pak choi coursley chopped

fresh coriander to garnish (pilihan)

Kaedah

Sweat the onion in a splash of oil with a pinch of salt until softened (up to 10 minit)

Add the cumin seed and dried chillies

Add the garlic, stir and leave for a couple of minutes

Add the wine, madu AGAVE, kicap, tomato puree, tamarind paste, a few good grinds of black pepper and lime juice

Add the beans

Stir well, bring to the boil and simmer and reduce for about 20 minit, stirring occasionally until its a delicious thick sauce

Add the pak choi, stir through and simmer on a low heat for anothr 10 minit

Serve over brown rice with some chopped coriander (pilihan)