By Request

BETTY SHIMABUKURO

---

Top off cake or ice cream
with velvety mocha sauce

---

It is difficult to approach Valentine's Day without some consideration of chocolate. And so it is for the greater good that we deal today with Meredith Prock's request for the mocha sauce served at 3660 on the Rise.

"It was to die for," Prock says of her encounter with the sauce at a New Year's Eve dinner.

At 3660, the sauce is served with a chocolate souffle cake, but it would be great over ice cream as well, or perhaps stirred into a cup of hot coffee.

If you've never dealt with eggs in a hot sauce before, you'll have to understand the concept of tempering before you tackle this recipe: After heating up the cream, sugar and other ingredients, pour about half of that hot mixture slowly into your beaten eggs. This warms the eggs slowly so they don't scramble. Then combine the egg mixture with the remaining hot cream mixture and cook very briefly. Too much and your sauce will curdle.

Lisa Siu, pastry chef for 3660 and sister restaurant Kakaako Kitchen, says you could use fewer eggs for a thinner sauce, or add more instant coffee if you prefer a stronger taste.

Mocha Sauce

2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon prepared chocolate syrup
2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 egg yolks, beaten

Combine cream, sugar, chocolate syrup, coffee and vanilla extract in a saucepan over medium heat. Right after the mixture comes to a boil, slowly stir half of it into the beaten eggs. Be sure to add the hot cream mixture gradually, to temper the eggs. Then pour the egg mixture into the remaining hot cream in the saucepan. Stir over medium heat 30 to 45 seconds. Strain and cool.

Nutritional information unavailable.

Can you help?

Does anyone have a recipe for pancake syrup made with macadamia nuts? If so, please get in touch.

Food Stuffs: Morsels

Send queries along with name and phone number to:
"By Request," Honolulu Star-Bulletin,
500 Ala Moana, No. 7-210, Honolulu 96813.
Or send e-mail to bshimabukuro@starbulletin.com

Asterisk (*) after nutritional analyses in the Body & Soul section indicates calculations by Joannie Dobbs of Exploring New Concepts, a nutritional consulting firm.