Something new...with room for improvement!

So, after the whole Salmon Tikka debarcle of earlier in the week, I've become very aware that I need some new recipes in my repetoire...especially if I am going to presume to write about my cooking on this blog! With that in mind, I've set myself the task of trying at least one new recipe every week. I'm also going to try and take a photo of the results because A) I'd like this site to have more pictures, and B) I've let my photography attempts slip up of late too. I've been making excuses about being busy and not having the time or inclination for complicated cookery, but really when I get down to it, I cook in some format every day, so why can't I cook a new recipe at least some of the time? Broaden the ol' horizons and all that. Potentially there will be some horror stories emerging from this little adventure, but that's half the fun, isn't it!? (and as long as we have eggs in the cupboard and bread the freezer, there's always a back-up meal available if things go really pear-shaped).

So, anyway, yesterday was Andrew's birthday and earlier in the week he'd suddenly declared that he felt like strawberry mousse. He's a total chocophile, so the strawberry longings were a bit out of character. But since the oven is still out of commission (damned electrician who was meant to turn up and fix it today was a no-show!) and I couldn't bake him a birthday cake, I thought why not make strawberry mousse. That's my first new recipe for the week. Not precisely revolutionary, given that it has about 4 ingredients, but hey; from small acorns....!

The resulting mousse (recipe and pic below) was actually a little weird. It did this odd seperating thing in the fridge which looked pretty (darker pink on the bottom and fluffy light pink on the top), and the texture was just a bit fluffy for our liking. The taste was ok, but it was sort of just like strawberry clouds (which does actually sound rather lovely). It's ok, though, and I do think you could posh it up with some tuile biscuits or shortbread if you were having a dinner party. Although if you are doing that, you might want to serve smaller portions than the gargantuan ones shown in my photo...the only clear serving-type glasses I had were my wine glasses and they can take a fair bit of mousse! (also, using wine glasses leaves you drinking the rest of your Riesling out of a coffee mug which is not terribly classy. Since i was already covered in sugar, egg whites and cream, I wasn't overly worried about looking classy, but you may be more presentation-conscious!).

The original recipe is from the BBC's Good Food website, although I've adjusted the measurements since they gave them in ml which is frankly a little arsey for my liking (seriously - 141ml of double cream?? I measured it and it's half a cup people - let's just call a spade a spade, shall we?!)

Strawberry (or other berry) Mousse*

3 egg whites
50g caster sugar (that's 1/4c for those without scales)
300g strawberries, whizzed until smooth in food processor or blender (abt 1 cup)
1/2 cup (or 141ml!!!) heavy cream (normal cream for those who live in normal places where they only have one kind)

Whisk egg whites until stiff. Add sugar and whisk to make a glossy meringue-type substance.
Whip cream until softly whipped (be careful you don't over-whip. I think I did and my cream was a little reluctant to be folded gently into the egg and strawberry which resulted in a rather uniform colour/appearance. If you're after the swirls of strawberry through pinky mousse, you'll need to have very softly whipped cream. It'll still taste good if you over whip, just will look more like mine and not so gorgeous as it could be! Hmm, maybe my overly-stiff cream caused the lack of combining which ended up making it separate and be weirdly fluffy? Or maybe that's just how it's meant to be...)
Gently fold the berry schmoosh and cream into the meringue, spoon into serving glasses and chill.




* If you make this with other berries - which I think would be lovely - you might want to consider seiving out the seeds. That sounds like an awful great faff, and in most cases I wouldn't bother, but blackberries and raspberries are quite pippy