harvey nichol's christmas

it was a very festive evening on tuesday and a little bit emotional. i was offering tasting samples from our beautiful christmas range of christmas star anise, christmas tree and winter spice in the stylish little boxes you can see in the picture. i have been working on the flavours and designs since last winter and most of them went up in flames. however, a few shops and hamper companies had already had their first christmas delivery before the fire and these lucky boxes are looking lovely in christmas displays. i love winter spice which is a triumph since i really don't like white chocolate!

Thank you chocolate makers big and small

i might have to do a whole series of blog posts saying thank you to the different groups of well wishers! i will start with our colleagues and friends in the irish chocolate industry.

in our early days, john mckenna gave emily and i some great advice: be friends with your competitors. he was so right! especially within the artisan community, we have been able to help and been helped out on lots of occasions. we have made friends for life and we are so grateful for their help and support since the fire.

it is not just the artisan chocolatiers that have offered their help. the big players have also rung us to say how sorry they are to hear about the factory and offer real practical help.

thank you!

like a phoenix rising...

we will be back! thanks to everyone for all their good wishes. friends, neighbours, customers, suppliers, journalists, chocoholics and strangers have sent us inspiring messages of encouragement. in the meantime, if you see our christmas stock on shop shelves, grab them quickly! they have unwittingly become extremely limited editions...

fire at factory

it is such a sad blog to write that i will just say thanks to everyone who has sent messages of support and thanks to all our employees who prove again and again that they are more like a family. if you are a customer, supplier or friend, i am sorry that we haven't been in touch individually yet but i imagine may people read or heard about the fire that burnt through our factory early on saturday morning. i will update the blog when i know more but for now, thanks to the fire crew and thank goodness noone was hurt.

orange, cardamom & ginger chocolate cheesecake

i took the basic chocolate cheesecake recipe from the big book of chocolate by jennifer donovan and just played with it to give it the cocoa bean twist. i had promised a chocolate dessert for a large and lively 30 people dinner party on friday night.

the main course was curry so i chose to go for one of our spicy flavours with the heat of ginger to warm everyone after braving the newly frosty air to leap about with sparklers. . .

base

250g ginger biscuits ( you can also add crystallised ginger to spice up the flavour - chop small)

75g butter

2 tbsp cocoa powder

cheesecake

50g butter

400g cream cheese

2 eggs lightly beaten

5 tbsp caster sugar

150g dark chocolate melted

orange zest from 2 oranges

juice of half an orange

12 cardamoms toasted gently and crushed

method

grease a 23cm loose bottomed cake tin or flan dish

crush the biscuits and melt the butter for the base. mix together with the cocoa powder and crystallised ginger. press firmly into the base.

beat the cream cheese, eggs, sugar, butter, zest, cardamoms, orange juice and melted chocolate together in a large bowl until thick and smooth. it's good to use a electric hand mixer. spoon the mixture over the base and smooth with a palette knife. refrigerate for at least two hours. you can top it with cocoa powder or shavings of chocolate if you like, though i think it's nice plain.

pumpkins and quince

lettercollum kitchen are having a winter wine and pumpkin tasting this coming friday, 15th october, from 2pm -5pm. it'll be an informal tasting of wines from enrico fantasia from the grape circus and sheridan's wines and some of our pumpkin recipes.
we'll also have tastings of cheese and this years lettercollum chutneys and membrillo.
the membrillo is a spanish accompaniment for manchego cheese made from quince.
we had our first ever harvest of quinces this year!
we hope you have some time to pass by the shop on friday

lettercollum
timoleague
co. cork
www.lettercollum.ie

chocolate week

h harvey nichols is celebrating chocolate week with colm and me! i will be at knightsbridge, london on friday from about 6pm-8pm with samples and tasters of our new winter and christmas chocolates. colm will be at dundrum on saturday. hope to see some of you....