Chocolate Mousse

Three Letters. OMG.

The chocolate, butter and coffee, about to be melted

Our home made whipped cream!

The mousse inside a little hollowed out strawberry cup

The mousse in a glass with some shaved white chocolate

First, in a bowl whip with a whisk
- 1 cup of cold heavy cream

Whip it until it forms soft peaks, then refrigerate it.

Combine
- 4/12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate
- 1 tablespoon of strong coffee
- 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, diced

Melt the chocolate on a double boiler. DON'T BURN IT (of course!). Make sure you are watching the chocolate and are constantly stirring it. It can make or break this dessert. Once the chocolate is melted, set it aside to cool. If it gets too cool, it will harden. To make sure this doesn't happen, touch a bit of the chocolate to your lip. It should be only a tiny bit warmer than your body temp when it's cooled fully.

While the chocolate is cooling seperate 3 eggs. Keep both parts of the egg (this is where I made my mistake, I didn't know I needed the yolks so I threw them away. I ended up having to crack 6 eggs!).

Combine the egg whites. Like the whipped cream, whip them untill they form soft peaks, then add
- 1 tablespoon of sugar

Set the whipped egg whites aside. Once the chocolate has reached a proper temperature, stir in the 3 egg yolks. Gently stir in about 1/3 of the whipped cream. Fold in about 1/2 of the whipped egg whites until incorporated. The fold in the remaining egg whites and the remaining whipped cream until fully incorporated.

Enjoy!


- Fun, flavor and maybe a little mess!

Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

This weekend I went to San Fransisco, CA to visit my brother, Greg. He is a (correct me if I'm wrong in the comments) co-founder of the Hayes Valley, San Fransisco restraunt Straw. Straw is a warm and homey carnival themed restraunt with some seriously tour de force dishes. A review can be founf in my next post. Now on to this recipe! I made this Spicy Sweet Potato Soup for Greg and his girlfriend, Tamar. It's perfectly spicy and also is a bit smokey from the peanut butter added.

The finished soup

In a bowl, combine
- 1/2 of a cup of sour cream
- The zest of one lime

Put the sour cream aside. In a medium pot melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Then add
- 1 sliced medium onion
- 2 cloves of sliced garlic

Cook the onion and garlic for around 5 minutes (or until softened). The add
- 2 large sweet potatos, peeled and cubed
- 4 cups of vegetable stock
- 1/2 of a teaspoon of ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger root, grated
- 1/4 of a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes (I like to use Cayanne powder instead)

Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and let it simmer for 15 minutes.
Pour the contents of the pot into a blender and carefully blend the soup until it's smooth. Pour the soup back into the pot.

Whisk into the soup
- 1/4 of a cup of smooth peanut butter

Bring the soup to a boil once again. Reduce heat, bring it to a simmmer and cover it for 15 minutes.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Serve it with basil, cilantro, and the lime infused sour cream. Enjoy!


- Fun, Flavor and maybe a little mess!

Cold Avocado Soup

This deliciously rich soup is a perfect summer dish and is great for avocado lovers (me being one of them!). Originally this recipe is from foodnetwork.com, but I made some adjustments to it.

To start, peel
- 3 avocados

Slice them and remove their cores. Then, in a food processor, process
- The sliced avocados
- 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock
- 1/4 of a cup of minced scallions
- 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons of cilantro
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1/2 of a teaspoon of cayenne pepper

Transfer the soup to a serving bowl or a soup tureen. Before serving add
- 1 cup of whole milk

You can garnish the soup with some cilantro and cayenne!

Enjoy!

- Flavor, Fun and maybe a little mess!

Tomorrow's Recipes

Tomorrow's Recipes will be:

Cold Avocado Soup and Spanish Meatballs with Almond Sauce