What’s the secret to great chocolate mousse? | Kitchen aide
I always order chocolate mousse in restaurants, but it never turns out quite right when I make it at home.Help! Daniel, by email“Chocolate mousse defies physics,” says Nicola Lamb, author of Sift and the Kitchen Projects newsletter.“It’s got all the flavour of your favourite chocolate, but with an aerated, dissolving texture, which is sort of extraordinary.” The first thing you’ve got to ask yourself, then, is what kind of mousse are you after: “Some people’s dream is rich and dense, while for others it’s light and airy,” Lamb says, which is probably why there are so many ways you can make it.That said, in most cases you’re usually dealing with some form of melted chocolate folded into whipped eggs (whites, yolks or both), followed by lightly whipped cream.
And, with so few ingredients, you need to make them count, Lamb says: “What you’re doing by making chocolate mousse is extending the flavour of the chocolate, so first off always go with a bar you really like.” And, for her, that means 70% dark chocolate.One potential stumbling block, however, comes when folding the melted chocolate into the colder ingredients (eggs, say): “The chocolate can seize and you end up overfolding or knocking out all the air.” Her solution? Whisk a little water, alcohol or coffee (“a couple of tablespoons for 100g chocolate”) into the melted chocolate, and “it’ll be easier to work with”.Use older eggs, too, adds Matthew Ryle, author of French Classics: “As an egg gets older, the white gets looser, which is not what you want when it comes to poaching, but for meringues and mousses it’s perfect, because those looser whites have more elasticity, so they stretch and incorporate air without breaking.
” Room-temperature eggs will also help with this,As with any difficult relationship, it pays to take things slow, too,“The longer and slower you whip the meringue, the smaller the bubbles will be,” Ryle says, “resulting in a stronger, fine meringue and mousse,” To ensure a light mousse, Lamb always adds an extra egg white, while Ollie Templeton pours in hot honey,The co-founder of Carousel, where chocolate mousse has been on the menu since the day it opened, says: “Bring some honey to a boil, pour that into the eggs and whisk until they’ve cooled; that creates a light and airy texture.
” He then folds in the obligatory whipped cream, seasons with salt and pops in the fridge for four to five hours to set.If you’ve made a dense, truffle-like mousse (ie, without cream), however, Lamb would take it out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving: “It’s less of a problem with a cream-based mousse,” she says, “although that would still benefit from 10 minutes out of the fridge before digging in.”Templeton would top his mousse with a drizzle of olive oil, some salt and a few crushed hazelnuts: “You want some crunch [a veil of peanuts or breadcrumbs would also do the job].” Lamb, however, is not one for gilding the lily, and just adds a pinch of salt: “Chocolate mousse is one of those things that’s best left alone,” she says.Unless whipped cream has been omitted from the recipe: “In that case, a coupe of chocolate mousse with a spoon of barely whipped cream would be really chic.
Chic and delicious,”Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian,com
Chef Skye Gyngell, who pioneered the slow food movement, dies aged 62
Tributes have been paid to the pioneering chef and restaurant proprietor Skye Gyngell, who has died aged 62.The Australian was an early celebrity proponent of using local and seasonal ingredients and built a garden restaurant from scratch, the Petersham Nurseries Cafe in Richmond, south-west London, which went on to win a Michelin star.A statement released by her family and friends read: “We are deeply saddened to share news of Skye Gyngell’s passing on 22 November in London, surrounded by her family and loved ones.“Skye was a culinary visionary who influenced generations of chefs and growers globally to think about food and its connection to the land.“She leaves behind a remarkable legacy and is an inspiration to us all
How to make the perfect butter paneer – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …
This luxuriantly rich, vegetarian curry – a cousin of butter chicken, which is thought to have been created in the postwar kitchens of Delhi’s Moti Mahal, though by whom is the subject of hot dispute – is, according to chef Vivek Singh, “the most famous and widely interpreted dish in India”. His fellow chef Sanjeev Kapoor describes it as “one of the bestselling dishes in restaurants” there, but here in the UK, though it’s no doubt widely enjoyed, it seems to fly somewhat under the radar on menus, where even the chicken original plays second fiddle to our beloved chicken tikka masala.If you haven’t yet fallen for the crowdpleasing charms of fresh cheese in a mild tomato sauce, consider this a strong suggestion to give it a whirl. Paneer makhni (makhni being the Hindi word for butter, hence also dal makhni), tastes incredibly fancy, but it’s relatively simple and quick to make. Just add bread and a vegetable side to turn it into a full feast
Fluffy and fabulous! 17 ways with marshmallows – from cheesecake to salad to an espresso martini
They come into their own around Thanksgiving in the US, used alongside savoury dishes, as well as in desserts. Now is the time to try them with sweet potatoes, in a strawberry mousse, or even with soupThe connection between marsh mallow the herbaceous perennial, also known as althaea officinalis, and marshmallow the puffy cylindrical sweet, is historic. In the 19th century, the sap of the plant was still a key ingredient of its confectionary namesake, along with sugar and egg whites. But that connection has long been severed: the modern industrial marshmallow is derived from a mixture of sugar, water and gelatine. Its main ingredient is air
The Shaston Arms, London W1: ‘Just because you can do things doesn’t mean you should do them’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants
A pub that wants to be an old-school boozer and a cool restaurant both at the same timeWhile perched inside what felt like a repurposed bookshelf at the draughty back end of the Shaston Arms, sitting next to the dumb waiter and waiting for the ping to herald the arrival of my £16 plate of red mullet with squid ink rice, I had time to consider yet again the so-called “pub revival” in cool modern hospitality. Old boozers are reclaimed, reloved and restored, and the great tradition of going down the pub is celebrated. The Devonshire in nearby Piccadilly is, of course, the daddy, the Darth Vader of this trend, winning plaudits, TikTok adoration and celebrity fans aplenty. So it’s no wonder that myriad other hospitality operators have cast an eye over their local neglected fleapit and thought: “Let’s buy some Mr Sheen, give that old hovel a polish and start serving duck à l’orange and flourless chocolate tart. It’s all the rage! Gen Z loves it!”Whether Gen Z really does love anything about the pub experience as it was in the 20th century is debatable, however, because inside these poshed-up spit-and-sawdust boozers, all the phlegm and fag ash has gone – as have the dartboards, pool tables, punch-ups, topless women on KP peanut pub cards and the ever-present bar-fly alcoholic drinking himself yellow while droning on about his marital problems
Goblets of borscht, turkey-shaped madeleines: why Martha Stewart’s fantastical menus are still an inspiration
The celebrations were imminent and the greenhouse ready to accommodate – among the orchids, in unseasonable November warmth – an intimate Hawaiian luau. The table was set with giant clam shells for serving vessels and miniature hibachis for grilling Dungeness crab. Somebody had found a small, pink pineapple and secured it on the watermelon like a brooch. The hostess considered the merits of a hula dancer, but in the end settled on a more succinct spectacle: a 19lb suckling pig, enwreathed with sub-tropical flowers and caparisoned in bronze.It was, and could only ever have been, a Martha Stewart affair
Winter has finally kicked in – it’s time to crack out the casserole dish and get stewing
At the risk of sounding like a British cliche, can we take a moment to discuss the change in the weather? This week’s sudden drop in temperature has our house excited for potential snow (the children are giddy), with everything suddenly feeling a lot more wintry. New coats are on the hooks, thermals are being dug out and a casserole dish filled with some sort of soup, stew or stock seems to be permanently ticking away on the hob. These range from quick, warming weeknight dinners to leisurely, slow-cooked weekend meals.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
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