This bbq sauce is seriously going into rotation. Even before I added the chocolate it was amazing, so feel free to do it either way. This is the only recipe I followed for this dish, with the small tweak of the cilantro. Because I know not everyone is a fan, I just added a sprig on top for garnish.
Dark Chocolate BBQ Sauce1 tablespoon butter, soft
4 each garlic cloves, minced½ each Spanish onion, small dice
2 each Roma tomatoes, stem removed, small dice
1 ½ oz. dark brown sugar
4 teaspoons ancho chili powder
4 oz. apple cider vinegar (I had orange muscat vinegar on hand, so that's what I used. I think the orange flavor was a nice addition)
8 oz. barbeque sauce
14 oz. vegetable stock
¼ teaspoon cumin, ground
¼ cinnamon, ground
1/8 teaspoon cloves, ground
2 oz. SCHARFFEN BERGER (or any good quality) 82% dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cilantro, fresh, chopped
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper, fresh ground
Melt butter in small sauce pan over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, sauté 5 minutes until golden brown. Add tomatoes, stir, and sauté an additional 5 minutes. Add sugar and chili powder, mix well, and cook for 5 minutes. Add vinegar, reduce for 5 minutes, mixture should have a paste consistency. Add sauce, stock, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, salt and pepper. Mix well. Bring to a boil and reduce to a slow simmer for 30 minutes.
Add SCHARFFEN BERGER chocolate and cilantro; allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove sauce from heat and let stand for 10 minutes. Puree sauce, strain to remove any little bits if you'd like a smoother sauce, transfer to a clean container and cool.
For best results, refrigerate for 12 hours before using. Reheat when ready to use.
Cocoa Rubbed Pork LoinI'd really recommend asking your butcher to french the loin for you,
doing it yourself takes some time and really sharp knives.
I had a four pound bone in pork loin, and frenched it myself. It wasn't as clean as it could've been, but it was my first time.
Once it was frenched, I patted my rub (recipe below) all over it. I placed it in a shallow roasting pan on a bed of quartered onion and a few cloves of garlic with about half a cup of stock, bone side up.
I then roasted it at 350 for an hour - an hour and a half, until my thermometer told me it was at 160. I then removed it from the oven, covered it with foil to keep it warm and allow it to finish cooking to a temp of 170. Once it had been out of the oven for 15-20 minutes or so, I sliced each chop for plating.
Rub
1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli)
1/4 Kosher salt
2 + tsp crushed chili flakes (I used two, but think I might up it a bit next time)
1/2 tsp cloves
2 tbsp sugar
I added all of these ingredients to a small jar with a lid and then shook to combine.
Smashed Sweet Potatoes
3 lbs cooked sweet potatoes (boil, nuke, however you do it)
1 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cumin
I may have added some clove too, I can't remember
unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
Roughly smash up your potatoes while still hot, add other ingredients and mix to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
Seriously, don't skip this part since I'm only guessing at what I did.
For plating, spoon a large scoop of sweet potatoes on to plate, sprinkle potatoes and plate with cocoa powder. Nestle a pork chop on top of the potatoes and pour 1/4 cup or so of bbq sauce on top. Garnish with cilantro.
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