Wednesday Night: Chocolate Ganache with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

Chocolate Ganache with Olive Oil and Sea Salt

I organized a progressive dinner with my neighbors last night. First of all, I haven't been that excited for a social event for a long time. Ever since I got the idea and invited my neighbors I have been giddy with excitement. This is because for a long time I felt alone in Mira Mesa (well, alone of friends, not love). Then I met Krissy, my down the street neighbor. After about six months we had become very close, and then her husband returned from deployment. I was excited to get to know him. And in the mean time I met Zach and Janice, my across the street neighbors. They are super cool chemists that we just started getting to know a few weeks ago (they moved in a few months ago). (Just FYI: Sometimes I can make stories really long.)

I jokingly proposed a progressive dinner to Krissy to get to know Mark, since we were back and forth on the location. Then as an even further joke I said we should invite Zach and Janice, too. Well, there's truth in every joke, and after a few text messages the whole dinner had come together. Zach and Janice were such good sports that they even agreed to participate before they knew what a progressive dinner was! (In case you are wondering, it's when you have each course at a different location.)

My house was last, and it was for dessert. I really wanted to use this amazing olive my sister gave me for the holidays. It is like fruit juice or wine, it is so aromatic and light. And I recalled a dessert I'd had one time in Spain: Chocolate cake drizzled with olive oil. I did some online searching, and found a great recipe at "Chow," one of my favorite gourmet webzines for cool people. I actually followed this recipe pretty precisely, but of course I had a few little twists to make.

Chocolate Ganache with Olive Oil and Sea Salt
9 ounces chocolate (I used Valrhona Le Perles, these are literally little "pearls" of chocolate, and I chose them because they would melt easily and quickly.)
1 cup heavy cream

Heat (but don't boil) the cream, then pour into a medium mixing bowl. Add the chocolate (if you have large pieces, cut them up first). I accidentally boiled the cream, so I used poured it through a strainer so no "skin" would get into the ganache. Otherwise it didn't seem to make a difference.

I cooled mine for only about 2 hours (Chow calls for 4). It was still soft, but I just put little dollops in small glass dishes and poured the olive oil on top, then sprinkled it with ginger salt. I served mine with "Almondinas", miniature biscotti with almonds and raisins. I also served it on a small plate with a french-style macaroon. The Almondina and Macaroons both came from Trader Joes. We also served it with thimble-fuls of port from Orfila, a San Diego winery that makes excellent port.

Marshall Says: He had several servings. That spoke for itself. Some of the neighbors seemed hesitant to eat olive oil on chocolate, but they all agreed it was a good match in the end. The ladies of course had several servings each, including me.
Serves: 30 micro servings
Time: 15-20 minutes - fast!
Leftovers: We ate about 2/3 of the ganache. I plan to turn the rest into chocolate bon bons!