Chocolate and Mint. Mousse for the Masses

   This last weekend was Oscar weekend or as it's known around our house, The Hollywood Super Bowl. For years, even when I was a little kid, the whole family would park itself in front of the Teevee to watch the dresses, the glamour and all the envelope ripping. Oscar Day was like a national Holiday for Fran. Where my dad would yell at us during any sort of football game if we stepped on the loose board in the living room that sent the television picture spinning, everyone knew to stay out of mom's way on Oscar night. It always started early with the Red Carpet arrivals and didn't end until Barbara Walters had made someone cry.

   When I had my own home, I followed those rules handed down by my foremothers. One does not move from the TV during the Time of Oscar. For many years I had food prepared and waiting for my guests to help themselves so that I could watch everything, beginning to end. And then there was this year. The Year of the Momo.

   It had started the week before when our house guests from LA were up at working at Pixar and decided to come spend the weekend with us in Sonoma. I had a request to make some momo, and that request turned me into a momo making fool. The momo were so easy and quick to make that I thought to myself, self, why not just make momo for your yearly Oscar event? It would be easy. And fast. And who doesn't like momo? You can serve them with various Indian side dishes and homemade chutneys. Easy peasy. And then I started inviting people. More than a dozen to be exact. I remember lying in bed and thinking to myself, how many momo can one person eat? They're small, they're tasty, they're eaten in one bite. Holy shit!! I'm going to be making like over a 100 momo!!! What the hell have I done?!

   Then I started checking out our guests for food allergies, something I always do. I had 2 gluten frees, 1 vegetarian who was also a piscatarian, 1 nut allergy who could only eat coconut and 1 lactose intolerant. **** Bad word of choice goes here. So now I was faced with a math problem. How many gluten free, how many nut free how many....Arrrrrgh! I would need a slide rule to figure it out.

   Needless to say I spent the first 30 minutes of the Oscars in the kitchen with the sound turned up surrounded by tall stacks of various bamboo steamers. Multi steamers marked for no allergic cross contamination. My kitchen looked like a hole in the wall dim sum parlor run by a bamboo steamer hoarder.

   At least the dessert was easy. A few days before, my friend and fellow Sonoman Anne McKibben who founded CocoaPlanet asked me if I'd like some chocolate to use in whatever I was concocting for dessert.  When someone offers me chocolate they usually don't have to ask twice, especially this CocoaPlanet stuff.

   What can I say about a company who's motto is "More Taste Less Sugar." Each piece is less than 100 calories, and contains only 8 grams of sugar. Plus it's Gluten Free and Kosher. I actually buy the stuff myself, to use at home, but of course if Anne wants to give me some, that's okay by me. It comes in several flavors. After she heard I had a bag of Mint Crystals that Marx Foods had given me, she contributed Cocoa Mint chocolates to the pot and a chocolate mint mousse was born.

Chocolate Mint Mousse

Here's What You Need:

7 oz of semi sweet chocolate. I used 7 squares of CocoaPlanet Cocoa Mint
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs sugar
2 cups of whipping cream
Extra whipping cream for topping
Mint Crystals

Here's What You Do:

Chop the chocolate into pieces and set it aside.

Whip the egg yolks, sugar, and a pinch of salt together in a metal bowl and set it aside.

Heat 3/4 of a cup of cream in a pot.
When the cream is hot, slowly drizzle it into the metal bowl full of egg yolk mixture.

Keep stirring while you do this, otherwise you will have scrambled eggs and not a custard base for the mousse.

Note: Some mousses, (meese, mice, moussi??) are made with a gelatin base instead of eggs. Here is one recipe. I didn't use gelatin in this mousse as one of the vegetarian guests does not eat gelatin and I didn't want to take a chance experimenting with agar agar on this particular recipe. I had my hands full with momo and rice paper wraps.

Once the cream and egg mixture is well whisked in the metal bowl, pour it back into the pot.

Now it's time to cook the custard.
Keep the heat on medium low and stir it constantly. It's ready when your thermometer reads 160 degrees.
Usually I just eyeball custard and consider it done when it coats the spoon thickly, but if you want to be technical, it's 160 degrees you're looking for.
When the mixture has reached 160, pour it through a fine strainer into a bowl.

Add in the vanilla.
Melt your chocolate pieces, either in a glass bowl in the microwave at half power for about 3 to 5 minutes. (Take it out every minute or so to stir it) or as I did, in a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water.
When the chocolate has melted (it doesn't take long) blend it into the custard.

You want to whisk this stuff until it's smooth and glossy then set it aside to cool.
When it's cooled (also happens fast) start whipping the cream.
Whip 1 and 1/4 cups of cream into barely stiff peaks.

Okay, now here's a confession. I was whipping and then decided to check on my hand blender. So, I turned it off and lifted it out of the bowl to examine it. I then decided to start whipping again, holding it near my face I turned it on. Alan said he saw that was what I was going to do but couldn't believe I would actually do it. I wound up covered in whipped cream.

That's after cleaning up. So, nobody's perfect.

Take the whipped cream and whisk about 1/4 of it into the mousse well. This will lighten the color and make it easier to work with.

 Gently fold the rest of the whipped cream into the mixture...

...until it's all folded in.

Spoon the mousse into individual serving glasses, cover them in plastic wrap and chill for at least 7 hours. I made mine the day before the Oscars, which was one less thing I had to do. Much appreciated as this is a great make ahead dessert.

The one thing I didn't do was the individual glasses. This recipe serves 8.  I  doubled it and then put it all into one large bowl, which I then spooned into individual servings as I don't have 16 all of one kind of glass.

Before serving whip some unsweetened cream.
Place a dollop on top of each mousse and then sprinkle the whipped cream with crushed mint crystals.

The result is a light and fluffy cocoa mint mousse.

Postscript: While cleaning the big bowl this was served from, I was preparing to rinse it in the sink. Alan yelled "No!" and wrestled it away from me to scrape what thin shreds of mousse remained. Classy? No. Delicious? Yes.
 
   What have I learned from this Oscar experience? I will never again serve momo to an army of people when there's something I want to see on TV. But this Cocoa MInt Mousse is a big time keeper and I'm very eager to try it with some other of CocoaPlanet's chocolate flavors. I'm truly hooked on the stuff. Thanks to Marx Foods for the Mint Crystals and CocoaPlanet for the delicious chocolate!!

  Coming up next Spring is nearly here, and it's fresh, green and healthy time again. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Finger Foods For Awards Night

   This is it. Our big weekend. Others pig out over the Superbowl, but around our house it's always been the Academy Awards, and yes the Golden Globes too, but Golden Globes night does not involve the wearing of a plastic tiara.

   Usually I'm looking for easy, quick foods to fling at my guests so as not to miss any of the Red Carpet action. This year I've decided to serve a variety of things buffet style. Since I'll be having 2 gluten-free guests, one vegetarian/pescatarian, and 10 omnivores I'll be serving Indian salads and side dishes along with hot Momo and steamed Spring Rolls with a variety of fillings.

   I've been practicing my rolling, steaming and filing techniques, and one of the stuffings I'll be serving this weekend is lamb. I gave the lamb a test run this weekend when our guests from LA were visiting and it was a hit. They're simple to mix and make. One pound of ground lamb, some nuts and spices and you're in business. Once you get going you can't stop steaming and eating them. At least that's what happened here.

Lamb Momo

Here's What You Need:

1lb of ground lamb
1/4 cup of chopped pistachios
8 finely chopped dried apricots
1 small onion finely chopped
1 shallot finely chopped
3 Tbs of chopped fresh cilantro
3Tbs of finely chopped fresh mint
1/4 tsp or  to taste Kashmiri chili powder or a mixture of cayenne and paprkia.
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
1 tsp of salt or to taste
1 package of wonton wrappers

Here's What to Do: 

Mix all of the above listed ingredients together.
Refrigerate the mixture for about 1 hour.
Put 1 Tbs of the mixture in the center of each wonton wrapper.
Put the Momo into a steamer.
Place the steamer over boiling water
Cover it and let steam for about 12 minutes.

Serve with chutney or raita or sauce of your choice.
I served these with Mango Curd, a mint raita, and Quick Tomato Chutney. This Tamarind dipping sauce works great too. Serve 'em up and stand back.

Other great finger foods for Awards night are Indian Potato Fritters

Here's a recipe for Steamed Bao with an Indian Filling

As to desserts, I'll be working on a very special gluten free treat involving chocolate, but there are always Baked Spiced Mini-Donuts
 

...or a lovely Gluten Free Chocolate Mandarin Orange Cake

   The great thing about all these dishes is that they can all be made ahead of time, and for the things that need to be served hot, the makings can be prepped early to await steaming. It couldn't be simpler than that.

   Coming up next, that gluten free chocolate dessert, follow along on Twitter @kathygori

When Company Shows Up, Fast Snacks Do The Job

   If it hasn't been crazy enough around here, one of our best friends from LA showed up. He was doing some workat Pixar and so decided to come up to Sonoma for the long weekend. Any visit usually brings a wave of cooking, but since we've had our plate relatively full, the cooking morphed into eating out all over town and then inviting our local friends over to eat and drink late into the night at our house.

   The sudden influx of company seemed like the perfect opportunity to give a test run to some of the products that the good people at Saffron Road Food wanted me to try. I'm not a huge  night-time snacker, but when company comes for movie night or just plain whatever, I like to be able to throw some tasty stuff at them. Usually the way it works is I tell people to bring whatever they'd like to drink, I'll supply the food.

   Since the snacks are usually Indian even though this is Wine Country, the preferred beverage  for most of our guests is beer. In this case a very special beer only available for a brief period of time around here... the legendary Pliny the Elder from Russian River Brewing Company, Racer 5 from bear Republic Brewing and Red Tail Ale from Mendocino Brewing Company. There may have been other things too, but I was too busy preparing food and guzzling fizzy water to notice. I am after all the designated cook.

   I usually make everything from scratch so this evening of using prepared Indian snacks was a first for me. I must say Saffron Road made it pretty easy. I served three different bags of their Crunchy Chickpeas, Falafel, Wasabi and Bombay Spice. They're rated at different heats, roasted not fried, (big plus there) and Gluten Free. Yes, a gluten free snack food. You'll never miss your chips again.

   I sampled all three flavors and preferred the Bombay Spice, but that's just me. Needless to say, all three bowls of crunchies were quickly emptied. For the main event I opened a couple of boxes of their Tandoori Seasoned Chicken Nuggets. I preheated the oven, opened the box, popped the frozen nuggets on a cookie sheet and 15 minutes later we were eating chicken.

The chicken nuggets were made of lean breast meat. While everyone was chowing down on beer and chickpeas, I whipped up a couple of dips to compliment the flavor.  One was a Quick Tomato Chutney and the other a cooling Mango Curd
 

Both were fast and easy, links to the recipes are above.

Because I am a total glutton, I also couldn't resist making Momo to add to the table. In the name of ease however, I used wonton wrappers instead of making my own momo dough. It worked just great.

   So how did I Iike my first foray into using prepared frozen treats for entertaining guests? It was easy, tasty and simple. I liked the idea that while the main feature was not made by me, the dipping sauces were, which added an easy homemade touch. Will I be trying this again? I think that these products will make a nice addition to my larder/freezer. It's always great to have stuff around for company and I've learned that I don't always have to do everything myself. It's about time. Thanks Saffron Road for giving me a chance to entertain easily.

   Coming up next, my Super Bowl, Academy Awards watching food. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Marx Foods Says: "It's Easy Being Green." Cardamom Bamboo Rice Mousse

   There are a lot of green foods. Greens for one. Spinach, kale, chard. Then there are all the fruits and vegetables, from peas to pears, apples to mangoes, and of course Kermit the Frog.

   Green however is not something I'd normally associate with rice. I've had red rice from Bhutan, and black Forbidden rice, and brown rice and wild rice which technically isn't even really rice, but never, ever, green rice. I am always looking for new forms of rice to taste test and sample, so it was no surprise when offered a chance to experiment with some of Marx Foods Bamboo Rice, I'd jump at the chance. It's all part of their Easy Being Green blog challenge.

   We, the food writers, get a package of green foods and it's up to us to get creative with them. Marx Foods sent all of us Bamboo Rice, dill pollen, green eston lentils, mint crystals and green cardamom. Lots of good things can be whipped up with that combo. The rules were that we must use at least 2 of the products in whatever dish we made.

Of all the ingredients, the one that really called out to me was the bamboo rice. Bamboo rice in case you've not heard of it (I  hadn't) is a short grain sticky type rice which has been infused with the juice of bamboo. It has a lovely grassy green, almost minty aroma and a mild taste. Of all the things in the package I was sent, that was the one I most wanted to try.

   Second up was the mint crystals which I'd also never heard of before, but hey, that's why I go to Marx Foods. They've always got the latest, most interesting stuff. Mint crystals are fresh mint and pure cane sugar turned into crunchy nuggets. Since the blog challenge was to use any two products in the package and create a recipe, I knew which ones I was going to be using. I was determined to make something featuring the bamboo rice, mint crystals and green cardamom pods. After thinking long and hard, yesterday I had my answer. I'd make a rice mousse infused with green cardamom and flavored with mint crystals and cocoa nibs.

Cardamom Bamboo Rice Mousse with Mint Crystals and Cocoa Nibs

Here's What You Need:

1 and 1/2 cup of cooked Marx Foods Bamboo Rice
1 Tbs green cardamom pods
2 cups of milk
2 Tbs of plain powdered gelatin
1/4 tsp of vanilla extract
1 cup of whipping cream
2 Tbs of cocoa nibs
2 Tbs of mint crystals
1/2 cup of sugar

Here's What to Do: 

Add 1 cup of bamboo rice to 2 and 1/2 cups of water.
Bring the water and rice to a boil.
Put a lid on the pot and turn down the heat to simmer for 20 minutes.
When the rice is cooked, fluff io with a fork and set it aside to cool off.

To Make the Mousse:

Put the whole cardamom pods into a mortar and pestle, and crack them.

Take the seeds from the pods and grind the seeds down to a grainy powder.

Combine the milk, sugar, cooked rice, and cardamom in a pot and bring everything to a boil.

Meanwhile, dissolve the 2 Tbs of unflavored gelatine in 1/2 a cup of cold water to soften it.

When the milk sugar, rice and cardamom are boiling, add in the gelatin mixture.

Whisk it in well so as to not have any lumps.

Set it aside on a counter to cool

Meanwhile whip 1 cup of whipping cream with the vanilla extract.

When the mixture starts to firm up a bit, gently fold in the whipped cream vanilla mixture.

Set it in the fridge for a couple of hours to cool and set.
Roughly chop the cocoa nibs and mint crystals.
Scoop the mousse into individual serving dishes and sprinkle the tops with a mixture of mint crystals and cocoa nibs.
Serve it up.

   Creamy delicious. It may look like it but it's not a rice pudding, it's fluffy like a mousse. Alan has not stopped talking about how much he loved it, so there's that. I loved working with the bamboo rice and mint crystals. Trying those new products has given me a lot of ideas for future use in savory dishes. Thanks Marx Foods. I always love the surprises you folks have up your ample food stuffed sleeves.

   The voting on this Easy Being Green Blog Challenge is on so hopefully you'll give this recipe a shout out by voting for it HERE. Coming up next fun food for Oscar parties. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori.

Curried Peanut Soup

   I haven't been doing a lot of cooking in the last month. Dealing with family matters and my moms' death have kept Alan and me running. Of course to say that I've been eating well would be a joke. Meals have been grabbed on the run  when they do occur with any regularity, and mostly involve pizza. Lots of pizza. Sometimes good pizza, sometimes not so good. Frans last outing before she died was to her favorite pizza place, and even though Fran was many things, a gourmet she was not. Since that place was also my parent's favorite place, it's where we've been spending a whole lot of time with my dad. Mezzo-mezzo pizza and Manhattans (no Manhattans for me though) have been on the daily menu and I am more than ready to get back to Indian food and a regular healthy diet that actually includes fresh vegetables.

   For me, the perfect passport to healthy eating has always been soup. No matter how bad and food-degenerate I've been, soup can put me back on the straight and narrow. It's my edible Rescue Mission in a bowl. Soup seemed like the perfect first step back to a normal diet after all the "I'm the Foursquare Mayor of this gin joint and I get a free dessert! "days. It's also been cold cold cold up here in Sonoma. I know that people who really live in a frigid clime must laugh at what we call cold, temps in the upper 20's and low 30's every morning. But when darkness falls and the mercury or whatever they're putting in digital thermometers nowadays drops, I want something filling and warm. I want Soup.

  One of our favorite soups around here is Curried African Peanut Soup. There's a story to this soup. Once upon a time in a Beverly Hills of Long Ago there was a restaurant called The Rangoon Racquet Club. The Rangoon Racquet Club was one of those places that was always booked up months and months in advance. It was an extremely popular and fancy "adult" restaurant. It was not the sort of place a recent NYU film school grad who lived on Mickey D's, wore jeans and tennis shoes, and drove an ancient VW bug would go for a meal, but that's where Alan took me one evening for dinner.

   He told me to dress up and showed up at my door in a pale grey raw silk suit that he'd bought for the occasion. I can't remember what I wore but I'm sure it was equally ludicrous. We most likely looked like a couple of prom kids out for a night on mom and dads' credit card. I don't know how he did it but he'd gotten a reservation at The RRC and off we went from the bowels of SilverLake to Beverly Hills. Good thing there was a valet because I could never have let myself out of that car as there was no inside door handle on the passenger side.

   I can't remember too much about what we ate. The place was fancy and filled with potted palms. We had stepped into some sort of Private Club from the days of The Raj. The food was Colonial Style "Indian food." That is, Indian food filtered through the taste buds of some ancient Memsaab. No wonder I don't remember it. It was hardly Indian food as I know it now. The one thing about that meal that I will not forget however was  the Curried Peanut Soup we were served.

   The original recipe called for whipping cream, creamy peanut butter and the English version of curry powder. That yellow gold stuff that's sold as "curry" and really is more the sort of ingredient that's found in some classic Japanese curries rather than Indian. My version of this soup is a bit different. I use a lighter chicken broth and my universal method for avoiding heavy whipping cream in soups, which is the substitution of 1/3 cup of arborio rice for the dairy. I also use a plain ground chunky organic peanut butter free of salt and sugar, rather than the salted, sugared, jarred version. This time around courtesy of the nice people at Saffron Road I was able to try out Saffron Roads' chicken broth.

   I don't often make broth from scratch anymore, there's usually not enough time and so I'm always looking for good quality pre-made. The Saffron Road broth is organic, low fat, low sodium, and halal. The flavors are fresh and delicious and it's always good to know that if something is coming out of a box or package, the people who are putting that whatever it is in the box or package care about what they're doing. In a word. I really liked this broth and it's now on my pantry staples list.

   When it comes to soup making, there's not always time for long prep, and what I like about the Curried peanut soup is that it cooks up very quickly. Less than an hour from pot to bowl. It's always been a big favorite at our house. This is a soup that kids also seem to like too as the flavors are mild. So, without further ado.

Curried Peanut Soup

Here's What You Need:

4 cups of chicken broth. (I used Saffron Road Traditional Chicken Broth)
1 onion finely chopped
1/3 cup of uncooked Arborio rice
Fresh cilantro
1 bunch of green onions finely chopped
1 Tbs peanut or coconut oil
3 shallots, chopped
3 carrots peeled and sliced
3 Tbs of curry powder
1 and 1/2 tsps of sugar
1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter
A bit of yogurt

Here's What To Do:

Heat the peanut oil in a heavy pot.
When the oil is hot toss in the onion, shallots, and curry powder.
Stir everything around until the onion is golden and translucent.
Add in the chicken broth and bring everything to a boil.
When the broth is boiling, toss in the Arborio rice and the carrots.

Turn down the heat and simmer everything together for about 20 minutes. Stir it every once in a while to make sure nothing is sticking.
Take the pot off the fire  and add in the peanut butter.
Using a food processor or immersion blender puree everything to nice smooth blend.
If you prefer your soup a bit thinner, you can add more broth now. It's purely a matter of taste.
Reheat the soup again gently.
Add in the sugar.
Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle the chopped green onions and cilantro over the top and add a dab of thick yogurt.
Serve it up!

   This is a delicious warming soup and it's even better the next day as the flavors mellow. Its also the only recipe I make that actually uses traditional English curry powder, which of course is absent in Indian cuisine. I want to thank the good folks at Saffron Road Foods for allowing me to give their broth a test run in my kitchen. If you've got some peanut butter, carrots, and curry powder around the house, round up the broth and you can have this soup in a bowl pretty dang quickly. It's perfect for a cold Winter night.

   Coming up next, I experiment with some food for our version of the Super Bowl, Oscar Night! Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Thanks To Everyone

  
   Alan and I are extremely grateful for all the messages of support we've gotten over the last weeks and months of Fran's illness. While we will all miss her, it's hard to be sad for someone who is willing, eager, and content to be moving onto the next passage.
 
   Fran was a wife, a mom, big time golfer and had a whole bunch of I Love Lucy style plans for getting into showbiz. During World War ll  she was part of The American Theatre Wings' USO Troupe aka The Stage Door Canteen. I found the card in her safety deposit box. Fran approached the end of life with practicality, bravery and above all, a sense of humor. While she might not have gotten The Stripper as her recessional, I did manage a eulogy that left them laughing,  just as she'd have wanted.

   My favorite moment was at the luncheon afterward when a tiny bird-like lady wearing a Forty-Niners stocking cap (yeah, at the funeral) came up to me to share her memories.

   "Your mom always said that if I didn't behave myself she'd tell everyone I used to be a stripper!" How can you follow that?

   So we raise a glass of Frans' Go-To drink, her daily Manhattan.

We send her off with what the church organist refused to play, even though the priest (Fran's old pal) gave the okay.



Godspeed!