Having just checked back in at Khymos’ site – I realize that I missed the boat for TGRWT #1 by somehow having thought that the deadline was tomorrow when it was actually May 1st. Anyhow – I’m going to have to go for it as a late entry!

The idea of tuna steaks was a little crazy, and it tasted crazier. I thought of creating a mocha sauce for a tuna steak based on a meal I’d had at a very eccentric restaurant some time ago in Cape Town. However – although it was palatable, it had far more of a novelty effect than anything else.

However, last night, with some advice from my mother, I think I managed to crack the formula. My mother reminded me that garlic, like onion, became sweet when it was roasted. My mistake with the Garlic, Chocolate and Coffee sauce was that I didn’t roast the garlic first.

So based on a recipe for chocolate covered strawberries on my resource for any recipe, www.AllRecipes.com, I set to work on the TGWRT #1 challenge.

The amazing thing about this recipe is how quick it is. Roasting the garlic takes around 15 minutes, and while its roasting the sauce can be made just as easily.

I grated 80% cocoa Green and Blacks into a double boiler along with 2 spoons of shortening. Once the chocolate had melted I added a teaspoon of roast Kenyan coffee beans into the mixture; and then proceeded to take each clove of garlic, skewered on a cocktail stick, and dip them into the mixture and setting it down on plate. All in all I had ten dipped cloves, which I put in the fridge.

In an effort to do a double duty we had the mocha-cloves as an after dinner sweet, together with the General Billy’s Syrah Grenache. The entire General Billy’s concept is great, but as this blog tries to stay faithful to small, country specific producers, it can’t win by ultimate pick for WBW.

However, the Gaullist undergrowth aromas and red berry flavours were a perfect accomplice to the mocha-dipped cloves. Altogether, although late, the TGRWT #1 challenge has been great fun, and really challenged my limited culinary faculties. The opportunity to combine it with Wine Blogger Wednesday has also been great. I wonder if Khymos could help us finding chemically related food pairings.

Who would’ve thought that a Languedoc Syrah/Grenache and a skewered clove of roasted garlic dipped in coffee and chocolate sauce would be such fine companions – bring on the White Chocolate and Caviar challenge, I think it’d go really well with Sancerre Rose.