Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Hungry Chef: Quick and Easy Chocolate Mousse
The Hungry Chef: Quick and Easy Chocolate Mousse: "Good day, this is a little dessert that i did this past Monday for one of my easy Monday night dinners, and it is rich, ..."
Quick and Easy Chocolate Mousse
Good day, this is a little dessert that i did this past Monday for one of my easy Monday night dinners, and it is rich, smooth and really tasty, the recipe only contains 3 ingredients and can be made with only two ingredients, all you will need is a pot with a little water in it, a bowl that fits onto the top of that pot without touching the water and 2 bowls for whisking.
Ingredients
125g 70% Chocolate ( i use lindt 70% Ecuador dark chocolate)
6 large Free-range eggs separated
50g castor or white sugar
Method
melt the chocolate over the pot of water on a stove, as soon as the chocolate has melted take it off the pot and put it to the side so that it can cool down.
whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl, make sure that there is not as much as a drop of water in it other wise it makes whipping the egg whites a mission, as well as when you separate them, make sure that there is no egg yolk in it, when the egg whites start to stiffen slightly you can slowly add the sugar a teaspoon at a time, you want the egg whites to be stiff enough that when you turn the bowl up side down they stick to the bowl without falling out.
Whisk the melted cooled chocolate into the egg yolks just until it has all incorporated in, then add 1/3 of the egg whites and softly whisk it in, this is to loosen the mixture so that you don't beat the air out of the rest of the egg whites when you fold them in at the end.
put this into the container that you would like to serve it in and put it into the fridge for about two hours to set slightly, it is not going to set to much it is a light and airy mousse.
Now for the interesting but where i give away some of the trade secrets ( i really shouldn't but after all this blog is to make it easier for the home cook)
you can use normal milk chocolate instead of the dark chocolate, just be careful when you melt it, it does not like heat much and if it gets to hot the sugars in the chocolate start to crystallize and the chocolate "seizes" if this does happen you can commit the ultimate cardinal sin and quickly whisk in 1 tablespoon of normal cooking oil or preferable butter, this should bring it back if not then it's really done for and you can throw it away.
Also in the instance where you do use milk chocolate over dark chocolate the sugar can be omitted otherwise it is going to be too sweet, try not to use milk chocolate though as it is much more intense and satisfying with dark chocolate.
I am going to add a little extra add on recipe here quick and that is for a nice quick berry sauce to suit the chocolate mousse.
1kg frozen mixed berries
1 glass good drinking dry white wine mixed with 2 teaspoon corn flour
2 cups of sugar
1 stick of cinnamon (if you have)
1 star anise (if you have)
put all the ingredients into a pot at a very low heat and let it stew for about an hour, you don't want to ever boil.
take it off the heat and let cool before putting into the refrigerator and letting chill.
this is best served chilled, but if you want you can add 2 tots of good strong rum to eat, reheat it and serve it hot with a ball of good vanilla ice-cream. it is dreamy......
anyway good cooking, hope you enjoy trying out the recipes, in a couple of days i will blog an interesting pork and peanut curry that i tried on wednesday for the first time that was really big on one of our curry nights at the links. until then......................................
Ingredients
125g 70% Chocolate ( i use lindt 70% Ecuador dark chocolate)
6 large Free-range eggs separated
50g castor or white sugar
Method
melt the chocolate over the pot of water on a stove, as soon as the chocolate has melted take it off the pot and put it to the side so that it can cool down.
whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl, make sure that there is not as much as a drop of water in it other wise it makes whipping the egg whites a mission, as well as when you separate them, make sure that there is no egg yolk in it, when the egg whites start to stiffen slightly you can slowly add the sugar a teaspoon at a time, you want the egg whites to be stiff enough that when you turn the bowl up side down they stick to the bowl without falling out.
Whisk the melted cooled chocolate into the egg yolks just until it has all incorporated in, then add 1/3 of the egg whites and softly whisk it in, this is to loosen the mixture so that you don't beat the air out of the rest of the egg whites when you fold them in at the end.
put this into the container that you would like to serve it in and put it into the fridge for about two hours to set slightly, it is not going to set to much it is a light and airy mousse.
Now for the interesting but where i give away some of the trade secrets ( i really shouldn't but after all this blog is to make it easier for the home cook)
you can use normal milk chocolate instead of the dark chocolate, just be careful when you melt it, it does not like heat much and if it gets to hot the sugars in the chocolate start to crystallize and the chocolate "seizes" if this does happen you can commit the ultimate cardinal sin and quickly whisk in 1 tablespoon of normal cooking oil or preferable butter, this should bring it back if not then it's really done for and you can throw it away.
Also in the instance where you do use milk chocolate over dark chocolate the sugar can be omitted otherwise it is going to be too sweet, try not to use milk chocolate though as it is much more intense and satisfying with dark chocolate.
I am going to add a little extra add on recipe here quick and that is for a nice quick berry sauce to suit the chocolate mousse.
1kg frozen mixed berries
1 glass good drinking dry white wine mixed with 2 teaspoon corn flour
2 cups of sugar
1 stick of cinnamon (if you have)
1 star anise (if you have)
put all the ingredients into a pot at a very low heat and let it stew for about an hour, you don't want to ever boil.
take it off the heat and let cool before putting into the refrigerator and letting chill.
this is best served chilled, but if you want you can add 2 tots of good strong rum to eat, reheat it and serve it hot with a ball of good vanilla ice-cream. it is dreamy......
anyway good cooking, hope you enjoy trying out the recipes, in a couple of days i will blog an interesting pork and peanut curry that i tried on wednesday for the first time that was really big on one of our curry nights at the links. until then......................................
Monday, March 14, 2011
Classic & Easy Vanilla Creme Brule
To me creme brule's are one of the easiest tastiest desserts to make.
i will give a basic recipe for a plain Creme Brule, the recipe is designed as to be easy for even the home cook with the tools that you have at home to make this tasty dessert.
Basic Creme Brule
1 egg yolk
15g Castor Sugar or White Sugar
100ml Cream
1 drop of vanilla essence
(this recipe yields one creme brule of about 125ml, so just multiply everything accordinly)
Heat the creme with the vanilla essence until just under boiling point, it should be a medium heat, i would say on a home grade stove that goes up to heating setting of 8, you would want it on about 3.
Cream together the egg yolks and sugar (just whisk them together until they start to go a little pale in colour)
Once the cream is heated then add it to the creamed egg yolks, just a little splash at first and mix that in properly, then in a steady stream add the rest of the hot cream, not to much or if the cream is to hot, it may split the eggs.
Then transfer this mix into an oven proof serving dish like a ramekin or so forth.
bake it in a deep baking tray with water up to 3/4 of the way up the ramekin, cover it very lightly with tin foil as to leave the two ends open so that the steam can escape out, place it in the oven with a temp 160 c and bake it for about 40 min, to check if it is cooked take it out and shake it a little it should wobble like a set jelly, but not as much as cream. leave it in the try with the water to cool down to room tempreture.
then place them into the refridgerator for about an hour, in the mean time get the grill of the oven as hot as you can.
take the creme brule out of the refridgerator and sprinkle it with a little sugar (what ever sugar you like)
be careful not to put to much, it should be an even film of sugar over the top, then place it directly under the grill of the oven until the sugar has melted as starting caramalizing on the top of the dessert (it goes a semi-burnt golden brown colour, it is okay to have a little blackish spots on it too) take it out and place it in the refridgerator for another 5 minutes just to chill again, now you're ready to serve.
(please not if you have a gas tourch you can skip the grilling process and tourch the sugar with a gas tourch, this recipe is for cooks at home.)
There we go this is my first post and i will try to update my blog as often as i can, please excuse my spelling, after all i'm a chef, i can cook not spell.
This Picture is a little Trio of Desserts i will blog the other two desserts later in the week.
Please give me feed back on your attempts to make this dessert, i can try to help if things go wrong at any point.
i will give a basic recipe for a plain Creme Brule, the recipe is designed as to be easy for even the home cook with the tools that you have at home to make this tasty dessert.
Basic Creme Brule
1 egg yolk
15g Castor Sugar or White Sugar
100ml Cream
1 drop of vanilla essence
(this recipe yields one creme brule of about 125ml, so just multiply everything accordinly)
Heat the creme with the vanilla essence until just under boiling point, it should be a medium heat, i would say on a home grade stove that goes up to heating setting of 8, you would want it on about 3.
Cream together the egg yolks and sugar (just whisk them together until they start to go a little pale in colour)
Once the cream is heated then add it to the creamed egg yolks, just a little splash at first and mix that in properly, then in a steady stream add the rest of the hot cream, not to much or if the cream is to hot, it may split the eggs.
Then transfer this mix into an oven proof serving dish like a ramekin or so forth.
bake it in a deep baking tray with water up to 3/4 of the way up the ramekin, cover it very lightly with tin foil as to leave the two ends open so that the steam can escape out, place it in the oven with a temp 160 c and bake it for about 40 min, to check if it is cooked take it out and shake it a little it should wobble like a set jelly, but not as much as cream. leave it in the try with the water to cool down to room tempreture.
then place them into the refridgerator for about an hour, in the mean time get the grill of the oven as hot as you can.
take the creme brule out of the refridgerator and sprinkle it with a little sugar (what ever sugar you like)
be careful not to put to much, it should be an even film of sugar over the top, then place it directly under the grill of the oven until the sugar has melted as starting caramalizing on the top of the dessert (it goes a semi-burnt golden brown colour, it is okay to have a little blackish spots on it too) take it out and place it in the refridgerator for another 5 minutes just to chill again, now you're ready to serve.
(please not if you have a gas tourch you can skip the grilling process and tourch the sugar with a gas tourch, this recipe is for cooks at home.)
There we go this is my first post and i will try to update my blog as often as i can, please excuse my spelling, after all i'm a chef, i can cook not spell.
Please give me feed back on your attempts to make this dessert, i can try to help if things go wrong at any point.
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