Cheeky Chocolate Mousse

Home made chocolate mousse

With a Labor Day dinner party fast approaching, I needed an easy cook, yet impressive, dessert recipe.

I followed this two part recipe for chocolate mousse from Brit chef Jamie Oliver's cookbook, "Happy Days with the Naked Chef."  As far as I know, he does wear clothes in the kitchen...I think what he's actually referring to is that his recipes are pared down and quite elementary. (There's even a whole section in the cookbook dedicated to cooking with kids.)

I loved the photo of the Cheeky Chocolate Mousse because it was accompanied by these golden Sesame Seed Toffee Snaps.  It looked scrumptious!

To save on time, I started with the Toffee Snaps: The recipe involved two ingredients (actually three if you include the 8-10tbsps of water).  You can't go wrong with this one, I thought.  Can you..?

I messed up.

When following the instructions, I was surprised by how unspecific they were.  The instructions included "carry on cooking until light golden brown."  For some reason my syrup never turned golden brown.  I kept cooking for around 5 minutes and nothing much happened.  Why couldn't the recipe state an approximate length of time to give me some indication of how long I should be standing over the pan watching my syrup change color?

I got bored so I moved on to the next stage in the recipe and waited for the sesame seeds themselves to turn deep golden brown.  They never did.

I'm still puzzled about what went wrong.

Can only say that they didn't turn out like this:

Instead I created this monstrous mess:

Hmm.

It was with some trepidation that I made the Cheeky Chocolate Mousse.  But I needn't have worried. This was a dream.

Light, fluffy and uber-chocolatey.

I switched out the Amaretto, because I didn't have any, and added a generous glug of whiskey instead, which gave the sweet mousse a nice kick.

Would highly recommend this one, although I'd agree with Jamie that it needs to be served with a cookie or something with a crunchy texture.

My next job today is to make "Grandma's Ginger Snaps." (I found a popular recipe on www.allrecipes.com, one of my favorite recipe sites.)  I think the peppery ginger will provide a great contrast to the mousse.

Will let you know how I get on!

Cheeky Chocolate Mousse
(Recipe says it serves four.  It fed eight comfortably and I thought the portion size was very generous!)

8oz good quality bittersweet chocolate
5 tbsps butter
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon Amaretto
2 tablespoons honey

1. In a bowl over some gently simmering water, melt chocolate and butter
2. In another bowl semi-whip the cream.  You want to create soft peaks.  Don't over whip
3. In yet another bowl (yes, there's a lot of washing up involved here), whisk the eggs and the honey until air bubbles appear.
4. Gently fold the chocolate and the whipped cream into the egg and honey mixture.  Go gently.  You want to keep as much air in the mousse as possible, to ensure that it stays light and fluffy.

Refrigerate for 2-3 hours,  Overnight is even better.

If you'd like to try some of Jamie's other recipes, you can buy "Happy Days with the Naked Chef" from Amazon.com. 

Philly Food Lovers' New Year's Resolutions

New Year's Resolutions are the order of the day.  While we recognize that a huge number of resolutions are broken, we're giving it a try.  In an effort to keep our culinary edges sharp we each made 5 resolutions that we hope to keep.  And we'll be honest--if we crash and burn we'll fess up!

Claire resolves to:

1. Throw the Midas Feast dinner party that we've been talking about for the last 6 months.  The goat's leg is still languishing in the freezer!

2. Put the iPhone down when eating; stop taking photos of everyone else's food...

3. Explore a new cuisine - I tried out cuisines that were definitely foreign to my experience - Southern (Collard Greens for example) and Mexican (I've become a Chipotles in Adobo addict - how did I live without these little firebrands in my life?).  Want to get under the skin of American cooking? Well,  I'm going to work my way through Jamie Oliver's tour of America cookbook.  (The chocolate bread pudding with a chocolate beer sauce was a culinary highlight in 2011)

4. Make Indian food from scratch - having invested in a coffee grinder for grinding up spices I'm going to grab my friend, Farah Kapoor and go to her fave Indian grocery store at 42nd and Walnut.  I hope to learn how to make food like Farah's!

5. Go on a food tour with Fairfood Farmstand.  Missed their snout to tail Pigfest, which toured farms and wound up with a four course pork banquet at one of the farms with which they partner.  I won't make the same mistake again.


Keri resolves to:

1.  Expand my fish repertoire.  I tend to limit myself to clam sauce, sauteed shrimp, or roasted salmon (unless my dear fisherman of a neighbor gives me so-fresh-it's-still-almost-swimming striped bass, thank you GL).  With the amazing selection available in most seafood markets, I need to widen my scope.

A welcome gift--freshest striper from my now favorite neighbor.

 2.  Master meatballs.  Seriously.  I cook a lot of Italian food, but the perfect meatball continues to elude me.  My daughter, a budding food critic herself, is not one to sugar coat her reactions.  Upon biting into one of my carefully crafted orbs, she invariably says, "Mom, you seriously need to go to Fran's and take a lesson from her."  (Fran is Francesca Palladinetti, my dear friend who grew up in South Philly and learned meatball making at her Nonna's knee.)

3.  Explore different grains such as quinoa, barley, and lesser-known types of rice.   Never fear, I'm not going vegetarian on you, just recognizing that the occasional "Meatless Monday" is a healthy, cost-effective, eco-friendly option and variety makes for more interesting meals.

4.  Cook with my kids.  The mad dash to get dinner on the table and eaten before dance class or after sports is for the birds.  It also happens to be reality for a busy, active family.  But when the opportunity exists, I would like to involve my kids more in the planning, procuring, and preparing process.

5.  Continue to encourage my husband to claim the kitchen on Sundays.  An amazing development occurred over the last year in my house.  My husband, who was competent enough in the kitchen to avoid starvation, but not particularly interested in cooking, has taken over Sunday dinners.  He plans, shops for and cooks the entire meal, sometimes asking me to pitch in with a side or veg, but in general, it's all him.  Being a guy, he tends to gravitate toward meaty stews, robust roasts, and hearty, manly fare, but, particularly at this time of year, that's perfect.   And, yes, he even cleans up afterward.

What are YOUR 2012 resolutions?

Chocolate Beer Sauce

Somehow the beer just works with the chocolate and cream...

Pour this heavenly concoction into a jar, tie it with a bow, and prepare for raptures from the giftee.

I discovered this keeper of a recipe for chocolate sauce, when it was playing second fiddle to Jamie Oliver's chocolate bread pudding.  I've been slowly working my way through Jamie's latest cookbook: Easy Twists on Great American Classics. 

While the recipes and anecdotes are cool, the photos leave me cold; they are too dark and dingy -- too arthouse for my liking. 

When I rummage through a cookbook I want to see high gloss photos of happy looking food. 

So turn up the lights next time Jamie, please...

I made this chocolate bread pudding for Sunday family dinner and it was marvelous.  It puffed up souffle-like and earned plaudits around the dinner table. 

It looked like this BEFORE it went in the oven; Imagine a souffle like bottom layer topped with crispy top layer and chunks of chocolate sandwiched in between the bread slices.  Ummmmmm.

Chocolate Beer Sauce Recipe

1/2 cup brown ale
1/2 cup heavy cream
2x tablespoons of sugar
1x 4oz good quality bittersweet chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
Sea salt

Instructions:
* Add beer, cream and sugar to pan, place pan on medium heat on the stove
* Stir continuously and once it starts to boil, remove pan from heat
* Break chocolate bar into pieces and add to the cream and beer mixture with a small pinch of salt.
* Stir mix until all the ingredients combine into a smooth shiny chocolate sauce.

This recipe keeps well in the fridge.  We actually doubled up all the ingredients and kept half the sauce for several days.  After warming the sauce, we used it as a topping for vanilla ice-cream.

Who could have guessed that beer, chocolate and cream ROCK together?

Turkey Pot Pie with Flaky Pastry

Jamie Oliver has never steered us wrong. 

A friend recommended Jamie's turkey and sweet leek pie. 

While we had no leeks in the house, we did have plenty of turkey knocking around :) 

My kids prefer flaky or puff pastry to conventional pastry so we nipped out and grabbed some from the freezer cupboard at our local supermarket.

This was easy as pie -- and no-one felt they were shortchanged eating Thanksgiving leftovers!

Meanwhile, another neighbor sent in this photo of her sister's work of art.  This turkey cake is made entirely out of cake.  Look closely; the details are unbelievable.

"Cake boss" watch your back.

Eat Local: Save a Few Pennies

January is a lean month for all of us. 

Financially, it's the time when we need to cut back a bit in the aftermath of Christmas splurges.   Physically and calorifically,  we need to start eating more healthfully after over-indulging during the Holidays.  It's also the time of year when fresh fruit and vegetables tend to shoot up in price -- because most produce is being air-freighted in from far-flung places. The folks at Fairfood Farmstand suggested buying local, and leaning (pun intended) on the staples in your refrigerator.

Jamie Oliver, one of the best loved cooks in the U.K. is a proponent of healthy local eating.  Lucky for him he owns a farm or two and can walk into his garden and dig up what he needs, when he needs it!  If, like us, you have a quilt-sized back yard and a couple of flowerboxes, you aren't sauntering out to the back forty when you need some fresh kale.   If, like us, you live in striking distance of Reading Terminal Market you can access local produce right now.   Squash, potatoes, hardy root vegetables like sweet potatoes and parsnips, mushrooms, cranberries, kale and apples are still available from local growers.

Mr Oliver is a quirky, opinionated chef, who speaks as he finds.  As you'll see in this video clip showing him making a pea frittata on a camping stove in a market in the U.K. 

We told you he's different...

If you like the sound of this guy, then you might also like to know that he's just published "Jamie's America:  Easy Twists on Great American Classics" - a fabulous collection of recipes he compiled while travelling around the U.S.


We trust that our Jamie wouldn't steer us wrong, either health-wise or taste-wise with his pea fritatta, but  if you still have your doubts about the nutritional quality of eggs, then read on....

According to incredibleegg.org, eggs should be an important staple in our diet.  Their egg-sperts crack the myth that an egg a day is associated with an increase in cholesterol:  "Nutrient-rich, all-natural eggs are a welcome addition to any diet. One egg has 13 essential vitamins and minerals, high-quality protein, healthy unsaturated fats and antioxidants, and contain only 70 calories."   These nutrient-packed orbs are also essential in supporting:

• Weight management
• Muscle strength
• Healthy pregnancy
• Brain function
• Eye health

Eggsactly.