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

More Mousse, Less Trouble. Watermelon Mousse

    It seems that during this summer I've been looking for things that are cool and easy to make. I haven't been doing a whole hell of a lot of cooking and when I do, it seems that comfort foods and things that get on the table fast take the top spot. A couple of months ago I got fascinated with granitas and moved from there to simple syrups and virgin cocktails, looking for an Indian twist. Kaffir lime is one of my favorite flavors and I'd made Kaffir Lime Mousse, and last week one with Coconut and Pistachio. Then I saw the watermelon.

   I don't eat a lot of watermelon. I don't have those childhood memories of sitting on the stoop somewhere spitting seeds. For one thing, summers in foggy San Francisco were usually spent in a parka and warm sweater. Not exactly watermelon weather. I just never got into the habit. The way I usually enjoy watermelon is juiced, mixed with iced green tea with a dash of basil seeds added at the end. But I was in this mousse-making frenzy, the spirit was upon me and I just had to try turning out one of those desserts with a watermelon at the heart.

   So I bought a watermelon. I intended to whip up a mousse and serve it to friends one hot Sonoma evening. But what with my mom and everything else, I just never got around to it. Every morning I'd wake up and say  "today is watermelon day!" and then I'd get a phone call, and I'd get in the car and head off to Santa Rosa, and by the time I got back, I was the one that was blended to a fine puree. No mousse for me.
 
   Finally I had a break, my mom was stabilized and I thought "this is it," my opportunity to get my watermelon on. I'd planned lunch to end with a delicious watermelon mousse. I never thought about the possibility of watermelons going bad. I mean they just get sweeter right? I'd kept it chilled in the fridge. Sure, it looked a little faded but who doesn't after a while. I cut into the melon, and luckily my greedy side decided to take a bite before putting it into the food processor. It tasted like an old sock. I cannot describe the combination of musty, locker room, dank, and damp that I experienced when I bit into it. I had to chuck it. The watermelon was no more.

   I set off in search of a new melon and the thought struck me, should it have gone bad that fast? Isn't there some type of statute of limitations on watermelon? Surely I hadn't had it in the fridge that long??? What the hell did I know about the proper buying of watermelons? I obviously couldn't tell a ripe watermelon from a load of old socks. Smash cut to Whole Foods, where I stood staring at a pile of melons. Some light green, some dark, some patterned with stripes. I didn't know where to begin. I started groping the watermelons trying to look like I knew what I was doing.  Major fail. I was quickly approached by a friendly Produce Person.

   "Can I help you?"

   "I bought a watermelon, not here, and it was bad it tasted like old socks. I need to make a mousse, help me, help me!"

   "No problem" she said. "I've been working in Produce for 9 years. I know my melons." She started pinging and rapping the melons, examining the skin. It seems the uglier the watermelon, the better it tastes (something about how it lays in the field). She said "what type to you want?"

   "Do the stripes make a difference in flavor?"

   "Same as a racing spoiler on the back of a Toyota"

   She had a face I could trust.  "Just find me one, not too big but flavorful."

   She handed me a melon. I took it home.

I was in the mousse business.

Watermelon Mousse

Here's What You Need:

1 watermelon cut up and seeded
1/2 Tbs of lemon juice
1/2 envelope of gelatine or equal amount of agar agar (if you want a vegetarian recipe) about 1 and 1/4 tsps of gelatine
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of whipping cream

Here's What To Do:

Cut the watermelon into chunks.

Puree it in a blender or food processor.

Put two cups of puree in a pot.
Set 1/4 cup of puree aside in a small bowl.
Put the watermelon puree in the pot on a medium heat and bring it to a boil.
Add the gelatine to the 1/4 cup of watermelon puree in the bowl and mix it in well.

When the watermelon puree reaches a boil, take it off the heat and stir in the gelatine watermelon mixture.
Blend it together well, so you don't have any gelatine lumps.
Add in 1/2 Tbs of lemon juice
And 1/2 cup of sugar.

Mix everything together well and set it aside to cool.
When it has cooled, whip the cream.
Fold the whipped cream into the cooled watermelon mixture.

Ladle the watermelon mousse into small serving ramekins.

Put the ramekins into the refrigerator to chill until they set, usually  two hours or so.
Decorate each one with a dab of whipped unsweetened cream and serve them up.

   This makes an amazingly light, flavorful mousse with the delicate taste of watermelon. Perfect for a simple dessert for a hot Summer night or after a heavy meal. There's always room for this mousse. I also was impressed with how pretty it was, so pink and delicate. I don't normally do pink and delicate. In fact I have an anti pink and delicate personality, but these Mousses (?) Meeses(?) Mice(?) made me want to throw a goddamned pink tea!! Hey, is somebody getting married? Having a Baby shower? I got yer mousse right here. Come and get it.

   Coming up next, my dehydrator arrived and it just sits glowering at me, somethings got to dry out and soon. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

The Uncomplicated Mousse, Coconut and Pistachio

   I started out to write something about figs. I got a whole fig recipe going on, but this last Saturday was really, really, hot here in Sonoma. I'm still in my transition from doctors appointments with my mom every day to getting back to cooking again. Dessert always seems like an easy path back and I've come to believe that the fastest way back to Normal runs right through Dessert.
 
   Mousse has never struck me as something that could be made and eaten the same day. Usually, when I've mixed up a mousse I've made it the night before serving to give it a chance to set. It's never struck me as the sort of "whoa, let's have some mousse! I've got a couple of hours" sort of thing to do. That was before I did some serious mousse research. I found a whole honking lot of recipes out there, all sorts of techniques and prep times. After studying up on mousse  design I decided to try making a simple coconut mousse with pistachio and dark chocolate shavings. The beauty part about this?  It's ready to eat a couple of hours after whipping it up. Also, everything needed for  this recipe? Chances are it's already in your kitchen.

Coconut Pistachio Mousse

Here's What You Need:

4 egg yolks
10 and 1/2 tsp of sugar
8 1/2 fluid oz of coconut milk
A bit more than 3/4 teaspoon of unflavored gelatine
8 and 1/2 fluid oz of whipping cream
Dark chocolate for shaving
Zest of 1 orange
1/3 cup of chopped pistachios

Here's What To Do:

Beat the egg yolks together with the sugar until it's smooth.

Bring the coconut milk to a boil.
When it starts to boil, pour it over the egg yolk sugar mixture and in the words of Devo, "Whip It! Whip it good!"
Pour the mixture back into the pan and put it back on the stove.
Stir it until it starts to thicken.
Add in the gelatine.
Stir that in well, you don't want gelatine lumps.
Pour it into a bowl and let it cool.

While it's cooling, mix together the orange zest and the chopped pistachios.

After it's cooled enough, add in the orange zest and pistachios.

Fold in the whipped cream gently.

Scoop the mousse into individual serving bowls and chill until it's set.
Before serving, take a piece of dark chocolate and shave it over the mousse.

After the chocolate has been scattered over the top, serve it up. This recipe makes 6 servings.

   I realized looking at this recipe that it was practically a tribute to OXO products.  I've been buying them my whole cooking life. My vegetable peeler I've had forever, and my hand beater I received as a gift from OXO last year.

   So there you have it, fast and easy mousse. If you don't want to use gelatine I imagine this recipe can also be made with agar agar. I have that in my pantry but I haven't tried the recipe that way yet. If anyone does, please let me know how it works out.  Coming up next, I finally get down to the figs, almost in time for gleaning season to hit Sonoma. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori