Dad's love chocolate. This Father's Day, be a little more innovative with some help from NoMU.

Tracy Foulkes is the heart and soul behind NoMU. Her passion for flavour inspired her to start the company in December 2000 in a very small, front room of her home in central Cape Town. Her love of spices and the stylish, uncomplicated way she loves to cook is very much evident in the NoMU range of products.

Here are some great alternative chocolate recipes for Father's Day from Tracy...

Double chocolate cookies

Makes 16 cookies

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Place the chocolate in a bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water and allow to melt. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugar together with an electric beater until creamy. Add the egg and NoMU Vanilla Extract and beat thoroughly. Stir through the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt, followed by the melted chocolate. Mix through thoroughly. Finally add the extra dark and white chocolate and stir through. Line a baking tray with baking paper and place little rounds of dough on the paper and flatten slightly, leaving space around each cookie to spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate french toast!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the sauce:

Instructions:

To make the sauce, place the maple syrup and orange juice in a small heavy based saucepan and caramelise together until thick and syrupy. Whisk the eggs, milk, cream and NoMU Sweet Rub in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Coat a slice of the bread with the melted chocolate and dip into the egg mixture. Soak another slice of bread in the egg mixture, place on top of the chocolate and press down gently. Heat half the butter in a large non-stick heavy-based frying pan and place the prepared bread in the pan. Cook for three minutes on each side until golden in colour. Remove from the pan, slice into fingers and serve immediately with and extra sprinkling of Sweet Rub and a generous drizzle of burnt orange sauce.

Crispy pork belly with hoisin choc sauce

Serves 4-6 people

Ingredients:

Ingredients for choc hoisin sauce:

Instructions:

To make the hoisin sauce, heat all of the ingredients except the chocolate together in a saucepan, stirring continuously. Add the chocolate and stir until melted. Serve with the crispy pork belly below.

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 250°C, or to its highest setting. Place the Pork Rub, herbs, garlic and olive oil in a blender and roughly puree. Using a very sharp knife or a Stanley knife, score all the way through the skin, taking care not to cut into the flesh.

Place the pork on its skin and thoroughly rub the herb and garlic mixture into the meat. Place in a baking dish, skin-side up. Wipe the skin clean with paper towel and grind NoMU Just Salt evenly over the skin. Put the tray in the oven for one hour, rotating the tray every 15 minutes so that it cooks evenly.

Turn the oven down to 180°C, carefully pour the white wine around the pork (avoiding the skin!) and roast for another hour. Finally turn the temperature down to 120°C and roast for a final hour until the skin has crackled and dried. Remove the pork from the oven and cut into pieces between the rib bones.

Serve the pork with the hoisin sauce and oriental salt on the side.

Note: If at any point during the cooking process the skin starts getting charred, loosely cover the pork with foil. Oriental Salt In a pesple mortor grind equal quantities of NoMU Oriental Rub and NoMU Just Salt.

For more recipes go to www.nomu.co.za