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Give your honey your heart—in chocolate

By Elan Head

Did you know that there’s an International Cut Flower Growers Association? It’s true; I checked. I mention this because this is the sort of organization that probably gets blamed for Valentine’s Day, along with DeBeers, Hallmark and the American Psychological Association.

All of which are likely culprits. But I for one am putting my money on the chocolate companies.

On this most emotionally loaded of holidays, chocolate is not only the perfect gift, it’s the perfect consolation.

That’s fine with me. I’m passionate about chocolate, and happy to give my money to those good souls who supply it. To paraphrase Omar Khayyam: I wonder often what the chocolatiers buy, one half so precious as the stuff they sell.

Not that I eat chocolate every day--no, just five or six times a week. In lieu of a proper dessert, after dinner, my husband and I often sit down to a baker’s bar of premium chocolate, a chopping board and a knife.

(After we had been doing this for several years, I read somewhere that a tres chic restaurant in France offers its guests the same option. What can I say? Great minds think alike.)

Now, in recent years, chocolate makers have encouraged their patrons to approach chocolate with the same snobbish discrimination as wine buffs. Labels speak of “peppery” and “floral” notes, truffles are infused with jasmine tea and wasabi, and we are encouraged to eat our chocolate at precisely the right temperature.

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I have bought into this pretension completely. My husband and I conduct elaborate vertical and horizontal tastings of the product, eschewing, with a pained little pout, anything that does not meet our exacting standards.

That said, chocolate really does range widely in quality, and you needn’t be a snob to appreciate the good stuff.

Lately, I’ve been gravitating toward the very dark chocolates: those with a cocoa content of 70 percent or greater. (By way of comparison, a Hershey’s bar has a cocoa content of around 10 percent.) But I’ve found several brands that put out quality chocolate at every octane level--and which, more importantly, can be had locally.

Top on my list is Valrhona, a French chocolate with consistently excellent flavor and outstanding creamy texture. Scharffen Berger, a San Francisco chocolate, is a close second. I buy both of these at Whole Foods in Tempe for around $11 a pound.

I also like El Rey, a Venezuelan chocolate that packs a big chocolate punch, albeit at the expense of some subtlety. At $6 to $7 a pound, though, it’s a relative bargain.

All of these are great for baking or eating out of hand. Perhaps my favorite way to enjoy them is off that chopping board after dinner, with the last of the night’s red wine.

My husband and I always eat in on Valentine’s Day, not only because we’re crowd-averse, but so as to manage a really stellar meal without blowing a hole in our bank account. Generally, I make a Valrhona chocolate mousse for dessert, because in terms of plain dessert perfection, chocolate mousse is hard to match.

Mousse, however, demands raw eggs, and not everyone is comfortable eating raw eggs (particularly in a new relationship. Nothing creates awkward tension like salmonella poisoning).

So here’s another Valentine’s recipe for you: chocolate sauce. Not only is it deceptively rich-tasting, it’s also really easy.

For somewhat over a cup of sauce, you’ll need 1/2 cup cocoa powder. A standard brand like Hershey’s or Nestle delivers surprisingly good results in this recipe, but if you can find a premium brand like Valrhona, by all means use it.

Combine the cocoa with 1/2 cup sugar and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan. Add about 1/3 cup water, whisk to make a paste, then add another 1/3 cup water and whisk until smooth.

Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium heat, turn the heat to low, and let it cook for two or three minutes, stirring occasionally. You can add a tablespoon of butter now to smooth the sauce; if you do, let it cook a minute longer.

This is wonderful with ice cream, either store-bought or homemade; with crepes; and even with roasted pineapple. Add a little cinnamon, cayenne, vanilla extract, Grand Marnier, or other flavoring, depending on what’s on the menu.

And if you happen to be feeling a little down on Valentine’s Day, take my word for it, it’s also delicious eaten out of the pan with a spoon.

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