choc mousse...incorporating honey

Got a craving for the chocolate mousse you had during the Great Orange Cookout 2006?
Here's an alternative choc mousse recipe that I picked up while watching Jamie Oliver's "The Naked Chef" on TV

Chocolate Mousse
200g Lindt 70% Cocoa (2 bars of 100g lindt chocolate)
1/2 block of butter (approx 150g)
2 eggs
2 tbsp honey
350ml pouring cream

1. melt choc with butter in a boiling water bath.
2. lightly beat egg and honey together in a bowl
3. whisk cream till it expands/raises a bit in another bowl
4. mix all the above mixtures together, then leave to chill in the refridgerator.

you can make some sesame snapps to go with the mousse
200ml sugar
4 tsp water
100g sesame seeds

1. add the sugar and water into a pot and caramelise the sugar
2. once almost done, add the sesame seed into the caramel solution
3. heat for 1-2 minutes more, then cool over metal surface. REMEMBER to grease/oil the surface so that you can remove the snapps easily when it is cooled.
4. Break snapps into large pieces to garnish the mousse.

Broccoli with beurre blanc sauce

took this off Jamie oliver's book. thought it'll be a cool idea to try with other vegetables. He suggested a really simple way to prepare the beurre blanc sauce, a French sauce that usually goes with vegetables.

Beurre blanc sauce:
200ml good white wine, prefably Chablis.
170g cold unsalted butter, diced

1. Pour some boiling water into a thermos flask to preheat and clean it.
2. Pour the water away and sieve the flavoured wine into the thermos, adding all of the butter.
3. Put the lid on tightly, place a tea towel over the lid and shake the thermos for a few minutes.
4. Open it very carefully (in case of any hot steam escaping) and you should have a nice beurre blanc sauce. You can keep it in the flask to keep warm till you serve it with your broccoli.

As for this recipe, try to blanch the broccoli till they are slightly soft (Adjust accordingly) and then add some olive oil to a pan, heat it up and then grill/fry the broccoli for a one or two minutes just to 'extra'-flavour it. Will be good to experiment with other greens like asparagus...yumm..

Watermelon delights

Watermelon lemonade

6 cups watermelon, cubed and seeded
1 cup raspberries
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice

1. Place watermelon, raspberries and water in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Push through a fine mesh strainer into a large jug.
3. Stir in the sugar and lemon juice and mix until the sugar dissolves.
4. Refrigerate until chilled. Serves four.

Watermelon sorbet

1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbs honey
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
drop of red food colouring (optional)
8 cups seedless watermelon, diced

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the water, sugar and honey to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
2. Remove from the heat and let cool. Stir in the lemon juice and food colouring.
3. Place half of the watermelon chunks and half of the cooled syrup in a blender and puree until smooth.
4. Pour into a 23cm x 33cm baking dish and repeat the process with the remaining watermelon and syrup, adding all the pureed mixture to the baking dish.
5. Cover and freeze for about four hours, or until 2.5cm of the edge have frozen over.
6. Stir well to mix up the ice crystals.
7. Cover and freeze for six more hours, or until completely frozen.
8. Using an ice cream scoop, scrape the ice into mounds and serve. Mint springs may be used to decorate.