Recipes

Cheat’s Mocha Mousse

- Alex Leave a comment

Mocha Mousse Cups

Entertaining on a weekend is always easy.  And by easy, I mean that, as a rule, I am able to get organised and spend time fiddling about with complicated, multipart recipes.  That all makes me extremely happy.

However, there are always occasions where food needs to be put together in a hurry and it’s useful to have a few familiar recipes that I know can be made without too much fuss, too many ingredients, and with very little time.

This is my standard ‘dessert in a hurry’ recipe.  Originally, the recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch*, where it appears as Coffee and Chocolate Mousse Cups.  This version is thanks to Almost Bourdain.

The recipe is both egg free and gluten free.

Note that it’s important to beat the mascarpone and icing sugar well.  Some mascarpone can be a little grainy (I think this might be a quality thing) and the beating helps reduce this.  Also, the (cold) mascarpone and sugar mix is very stiff.  I find my (good quality) plastic whisk is not quite up to the job.  Of course, using a mixer (such as a KitchenAid) makes this easier but adds significantly to the washing up load …

Also, this is not really a mousse in the way that I think of mousse.  It’s more a very dense, but hopefully smooth, chocolate and coffee cream.

Begin by beating 125g of mascarpone with 2 tbsp of icing sugar.  Beat well, until the mixture is smooth.

Mix in 4 tbsp of strong espresso coffee and 100g of melted, good quality dark chocolate.

Melting chocolate in a microwave is quicker than on the the stove top but I think it requires a little more attention.  Break the chocolate into pieces and microwave (I use med-high because I worry) for just a minute.  Stir.  Another minute in the microwave.  Another stir.  That should be just about done …

Finally, whisk 150mL of cream to soft peaks and fold this into the chocolate/coffee/mascarpone mixture.  Try to avoid buying ‘thickened cream’.  Almost all the cream in my local supermarket appears to have thickening agents of some type in it – you need to look out for something labelled ‘pure cream’.  If you’re in the UK, use double cream.

Spoon the mixture into small containers.  I’ve used small martini glasses and shot glasses.  You could also use espresso cups.  It won’t look like a lot but the mixture is dense and rich so no one needs a massive bowl full!

Refrigerate for as long as possible.  Overnight is ideal but you can get away with a couple of hours.

Serve with cream or icecream.

See!  I said it was easy!

*Also available from Amazon US or Amazon UK.

Prawn Pad Thai

- Alex 2 Comments

Prawn Pad Thai

date:  April 2010

Pad thai is such a staple of Thai restaurant menus that it’s something I’ve never thought of making at home.  To be honest, I very rarely even order it.  But we had some prawns in the freezer and I found a simple pad thai recipe on the UK Delicious website.

At short notice we weren’t able to pull together all the ingredients from the local supermarket, so you may want to consult the original recipe.  However, we were really impressed with our finished product so don’t panic if you can’t rustle up all the ingredients.

I started by soaking some rice vermicilli in hot water.  I suspect that I either did this for too long (or the noodles spent a little too long in the wok) because they ended up rather short and clumpy – so I advise you to read the instructions for whatever noodles you use!

Make a dressing by mixing together 1½ tbsp fish sauce, 1½ tbsp palm sugar (we found this in our small local supermarket and I really recommend seeking it out – the taste is amazing and distinctly caramel like), and 1½ tbsp of rice wine vinegar. This is the sweet/sour/salty combination that Thai food is well known for.

Heat some oil (we use peanut) in a wok and add chopped garlic (to taste) and one chopped onion. Cook for a few minutes and then add chilli flakes (also to taste – I opted for hot!) and then the drained noodles. Stir fry for a couple of minutes and then push to one side. Now, tip a lightly beaten egg into the wok and scramble, before mixing in to the noodles.

Mix through the dressing before adding your prawns (or chicken, or vegetables – no reason why you can’t turn this into a vegetarian pad thai!). Toss well to ensure prawns are cooked (if green) or warmed through (if already cooked).

Finish with chopped spring onions and serve dressed with chopped coriander.

How easy is that?

Make more than you think you’ll need – I was expecting leftovers for lunch the next day but we scoffed the whole lot in a single sitting!

Pork Fillet with White Wine and Cream

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Saturday 3 April

Pork is one of my favourite meats, and I’m often frustrated by people who claim it is dry and tough.  Like most things, it’s all in the cooking and if you insist on turning your piece of pork into a crisp then, yes, it is dry and tough.  But many people have a horror

I find pork fillet a little more tolerant than other cuts (with pork chops the most truculent), so even though it’s expensive I don’t find myself fretting when I cook it.

Unfortunately, though, pork fillet needs something doing to it … you can’t just fry it up and whack it on a plate like you can with a nice piece of steak. I turned to The Silver Spoon* for inspiration. This is a brilliant, Italian reference manual – most of the recipes are extremely simple, so you’ll either have all the ingredients for a dish or you’ll be able to muddle through with little difficulty. This is a great example of that simplicity.

First, heat some olive oil and butter in a pan and brown your pork fillet on all sides. Don’t play with it – pop it in the hot fat and leave it until it comes away of its own free will – that’s when it will be nicely brown. Once browned all over, put the pork in a baking dish and finish the cooking in a hot oven. At 180°C our 400g pork fillet took about 30 minutes: we did allow some resting time and we prefer our pork a little less cooked. If all else fails, jabbing a knife in the fattest part of the fillet should give you a good idea of how things are progressing.

While the pork is finishing in the oven, deglaze the pan with a generous splash of dry white wine** (I’d reckon at around the 100mL mark). Scrape up all the good brown bits from the bottom of the pan and reduce the wine by about half. Reduce the heat and add about 100mL of cream and a heaped teaspoon of grainy mustard. Stir or whisk to combine. You don’t need to be too fussed about quantities here – simply make as much sauce as you want and don’t forget to taste as you go along!

pork fillet with cream & mustard sauce

Set the sauce aside and reheat gently when the pork is ready. We served the fillet sliced on puy lentils, with roasted rosemary potato wedges. And, of course, the remainder of the bottle of white!

* The Silver Spoon is also available through Amazon US and Amazon UK.

** I’d recommend using a white with a bit of weight and acidity, to match and cut through the creamy sauce. On this occasion I used a Hunter Valley Semillon with rather too much age on it. A younger Semillon would work really well, as would a very lightly oaked Chardonnay.