Chocolate 2: Marsh samphire

Day 2

Marsh samphire, Salicornia europaea, with a 62% milk chocolate blend of Original Beans Virunga plain and milk chocolates

There is so much joy to be had in foraging for Marsh samphire, as well as in eating it and sharing good harvests with friends.  Being out on sea marshes is such a tonic - out on that impossible divide between two worlds - the land and the sea; so rich in plant and bird life, so timeless and otherworldly - you can just lose yourself in gathering, nibbling on other marsh plants, like sea aster, sea blight, staring into those marshy pools, ever mindful of muddy treachery beneath your feet.  Marsh samphire is itself an other worldly looking plant - as if it was made as a lego experiment - creating plant-part building blocks rather than bricks - a prototype that never took off as plants are just so complicated to construct!

It is important to tread carefully on these marshes so as not to trample the samphire too much, and always gather using scissors - trying to snap the plant off almost always leads to pulling it from the ground - both harmful and illegal.  Take what you need and no more - it does not last too long once cut - and needs to be eaten fresh for best flavour.

We blanch the samphire and then dry it for the chocolates; it disappears to nothing once dried 2 kg reduced to a few grammes - as it is mainly water.  I crunch the small dried bits up rather than grind them into the chocolate - I like the salty crunchy bits in the chocolate.  One of our most popular chocolates is the Smoekd sea salt and Java mick chocolate, so I have always tended to choose a milk chocolate for this plant.  This year I combined two Original Beans Virunga chocolates - their 55% Femmes de Virunga milk chocolate and the 70% Cru Virunga plain chocolate - to create a 62% dark milk chocolate, which works well with the slightly salt sea-bites!

Or, of course, just steam and serve with butter, scrambled egg and toast...