Celery Root Mousse with Mortadella

Celery root is a popular vegetable in Poland, so I have known it since my childhood. In Poland, it is mostly used to prepare soups and a vegetable salad with mayonnaise. Celery root is also quite popular in French cuisine. For instance, I ate a celery root gratin and a marinated celery root as a salad. Recently, I also found some recipes with celery root in the Italian cooking magazines.

During my recent trip to Italy, in one of the restaurants I visited, I saw a celery mousse being served. It looked very interesting and elegant so I tried to recreate it at home. Celery root has much more flavor than celery stalks and it takes a somewhat sophisticated taste to appreciate it. In this particular dish it tastes very pure and almost bland, but it complements the dish very well as it contrasts the taste of a flavorful mortadella. A small bowl of mousse served with bread of can make a great dinner started or Sunday lunch.



Celery Root Mousse with Mortadella
(Makes 4-6 servings)

Ingredients:
1 medium celery root peeled and cut into smaller cubes,
2 small shallots,
2 tbsp olive oil,
1 cup light cream,
salt and pepper,
4 slices very thin cut imported Italian mortadella,
2 tbsp slivered Pistachios.

Preparation:
1. Heat the oil in a frying pot, add chopped shallots, and fry until transparent.
2. Add pieces of celery, cover with water, and cook for about 20 minutes, until celery becomes soft.
3. When the celery is already soft and water almost evaporates, add cream, salt and pepper, and let it all simmer for about 2 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat, cool down slightly and purée with a hand blender.
5. Divide mousse among small glass serving bowls and cool to room temperature.
6. Cut mortadella slices in half, then into strips and top the mousse.




Sprinkle with pistachios and serve with bread.

Lemon-Wine Mousse with Berries

This light mousse is a perfect dessert for hot days. Very light and not too sour but, at the same time, almost spicy from the wine, this mousse can be served alone just with a delicate cookie. It can be also served with any berries. It goes great with strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries, or all of them mixed together. I made it this mousse last week and finished it with sweet raspberries and blueberries. Wherever they come from, they are now at their best in our region and their taste and sweetness go nicely with the tartness of the mousse.



Lemon-Wine Mousse with Berries
(Six servings)

Ingredients:
2 large eggs, preferably organic,
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice,
1/2 cup sugar,
1/2 cup dry white wine,
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream,
2 cups mixed berries (or berries of your choice).

Preparation:
1. In a large bowl beat eggs with an electric mixer until a mousse forms. Add slowly sugar and beat for about 3 more minutes, until eggs are almost stiff.
2. Pour wine and lemon juice into the egg mixture. Beat again until the ingredients combine.
3. Transfer mixture to a large pot and cook over a medium heat stirring all the time until the mixture thickens and sticks to the wooden spoon. Do not let it boil.



4. Let it all cool completely.
5. Beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff. Fold it into the lemon-wine mixture. Divide among six glass bowls and chill for at least 30 minutes. Decorate with fresh berries and serve.

Passion Fruit and Yogurt Mousse Cake--Delicate and Aromatic

Passion fruits are my favorite fruits, distinguishable for their intriguing look and flavor, a rare seedy texture, and a very strong sour taste. They come from South America but their flavor and taste remind me of other remote parts of our planet. Among others, they grace the famous Australian Pavlova dessert and give flavor to some white wines from Australia and New Zealand.

When I lived in Geneva I experimented with passion fruits a lot. They were inexpensive and always available. In our Washington area passion fruits are very seasonal and hard to get. So I have learned to replace the fresh passion fruits with their frozen pulp or bottled juice.

Last week, however, while shopping in my local Safeway in the exotic fruit section, I noticed a small pile of passion fruits. A cashier was surprised that such these inconspicuous fruits cost three dollars a piece and even more so that I took five of them. But having access to them only occasionally I buy a few, scoop up the pulp, place in a small container, and freeze for couple of months until a special occasion comes.

But today, without a special occasion, I share a recipe for a light passion fruit-yogurt mousse. It is a bit complicated dessert, as I bake the biscuit base myself, but I believe that, at the end, it is very delicate and rewarding.

Passion Fruit and Yogurt Mousse Cake

Base
(For a 10-inch form with removable walls):

Ingredients:
3 eggs at room temperature,
3 tbsp all purpose flour,
3 tbsp. sugar plus 3 tbsp sugar extra for the syrup.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease the cake form with butter and dust it with flour.
2. Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until almost stiff. Add gradually, one by one, three tbsps of sugar. Fold in gently three yolks and, at the end, the sifted flour. Gently mix the batter and pour it in the baking form.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until it becomes gold. Let it cool completely.

4. Remove the cake from the form. Spread a large piece of aluminum or plastic foil on the bottom of the form, make sure that the foil is large enough to overhangs the rim of the form. Put the cake back in the form.
5. Mix sugar with 1/2 cup hot water. Cool to room temperature and using spoon sprinkle evenly all over the base.

Mousse

Ingredients:
14 oz (about 1 and 1/2 cup) defrosted passion fruit pulp or juice,
2 tbsp unflavored gelatin,
2/3 cup sugar,
1/2 cup 2 percent Greek yogurt,
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 passion fruits,
1 lemon jello pack or one sachet of Dr. Oetker clear glaze.

Preparation:
1. In a small bowl, mix gelatin with 3 tbsps of cold water and let it soak in it for 5 minutes. Put the pulp or juice in a medium pot, add sugar, heat the pot until sugar melts and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Add gelatin to the juice, mix well, and let it stand aside until it cools down to room temperature.
2. Beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff. Mix gently with yogurt. Fold in a half of the cream-yogurt mixture to the passion fruit mixture. Follow with the second part, mix gently again, and transfer the whole mousse on the pre-soaked base. Smooth the top and refrigerate for 4 hours until it is set.
3. Cut passion fruits in halves and using a teaspoon scoop out the flesh. Spread it on top of the mousse.
4. Prepare jello according to instruction and before it sets spread on top of the cake. If you use Dr. Oetker's clear glaze, just add 2 tbsps of sugar and 1 tbsp of lemon juice, and cover the fruits. Cool down again until everything is set.

Before serving remove the walls of the cake form. Peel off the foil. Cut and serve and enjoy.

Grand Marnier Mousse--Something Special

In the Polish New Year's Day tradition, having a table abundantly filled with rich delicacies on that day was a promise of a prosperous and plentiful year ahead. Also in my parents' home, on the first day of January, the table was always full of the most exquisite dishes, made with the ingredients that were expensive and often very hard to get.

These days, especially here in the US, where almost any kind of food is available all year round, if you are lucky enough to afford it, it is somewhat difficult to grasp the true meaning of this tradition and make this day feel special. To face this challenge, I decided to make yesterday Grand Marnier Mousse, an exquisite dessert made with my favorite orange liqueur.

Just by reading the ingredients list I imagined that it must taste exceptional. The only concern I had were the raw eggs, which I try not to use these days. But the recipe advised to add hot sugar syrup (instead of sugar) during the process of beating eggs, which perhaps lowers the risk of any salmonella contamination. Also, I always use organic eggs, and first wash them with hot water and dishwasher liquid.

Surprisingly, this elegant and delicate dessert is very easy to make. I served it in small, Belgian chocolate shells, decorated with orange segments on the side and grated orange peel. If you do not have chocolate shells, you can serve it in glass goblets and then decorate it with chocolate. Either way, Grand Marnier Mousse certainly is a wonderful dessert, and it did fulfill my desire of preparing "something special" for this special day.

Grand Marnier Mousse
(Makes 6 portions)

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks (preferably organic),
1/3 cup sugar,
2 tbsp water,
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream,
2 tbsp Grand Marnier Liqueur,
2 oranges
candied orange peel and mint leaves to decorate.

Preparation:
1. Wash oranges well, dry and grate the peel. Cut out the white parts and cut out the segments without white membranes.

2. In a small pot mix water and sugar. Bring to boil and cook vigorously for about 2 minutes, until the syrup thickens a little bit.
3. Using and electric mixer beat egg yolks with orange peel. With mixer working on the high speed pour in slowly hot sugar syrup. Continue beating for about 3-5 minutes, until eggs change color from yellow to almost whitish and double in volume.
4. In a medium bowl beat heavy whipping cream until almost stiff. Fold gently in yolks mixture. Add 2 tbsp of Grand Marnier and again gently mix.
5. Transfer mousse to chocolate shells or goblets. Chill for at least two hours.
6. Before serving decorate with candied orange peel, mint leaves, and serve with orange segments.

Passion Fruit Mousse--One-Step Dessert for a New Year

There is no passion for cooking without the passion fruit. This interesting fruit, also known as maracuja or passiflora, can make a plain vanilla cream taste intriguing and tangy. I love to use it as a main ingredient or at least for decoration, as you can see on the Pots and Frills title picture, and you should expect to find many more recipes for passion fruit desserts on my blog in the future.

Unfortunately, fresh passion fruits are not available all year round in our area. They are imported seasonally, usually from New Zealand. Whenever available, I buy several of them at once, scoop out their aromatic flesh and freeze it in tiny containers for future use. But the good news is that there are products that can easily be used as substitutes, and for making some desserts they are even more suitable than fresh maracuja. In the Latino food section, or a specialty food store, you can buy a Brazilian passion fruit concentrate, or in the frozen food section, you can buy a frozen passion fruit pulp. Both of them can be used to make this dessert.

Once you try it, I can guarantee you will fall in love with the passion fruit. It is a very simple recipe, but despite its simplicity it could be a wonderful and light coronation of an elegant dinner, which you may wish to try in this New Year.

I serve this mousse often at my dinner parties. It should be made hours ahead and served chilled, but having it prepared in advance also saves time when we are busy readying the warm dishes.

Passion Fruit Mousse
Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients:
1 can sweetened condensed milk,
2 cups heavy whipping cream,
1 and 1/2 cup passion fruit concentrate.

1 tbsp Grand Marnier or Cointreau liquor,
fresh berries or kiwi to decorate,
fresh lady fingers to serve with the mousse.

Preparation:
1. Place all the ingredients in an electric stand mixer and, using the whisk attachment, run it for about 5 minutes, until the mixture becomes thick.
2. Transfer the mousse to 6-8 glass goblets and chill for a minimum of 4 hours.
3. Serve decorated with fruits and biscuits.

Coffee Mousse

I am not a big fan of chocolate or any heavy desserts during summer. Of course, like most of us, I do crave the richness of chocolate but mostly when the weather is cold. On hot summer days, I find the fruit-based desserts most satisfying and refreshing, and the hot weather brings out their taste like nothing else. However, I recently re-discovered this recipe for a coffee mousse.

This coffee mousse is similar in taste to a chilled or frozen coffee drink and it is very refreshing. While not as rich as most chocolate desserts, it is also very sweet and fulfilling. One hot day in July I served it to my friends. Being amateurs of good quality coffee, my guests loved it. It was a great finish to our dinner--a small amount of coffee mousse made everyone very happy and full.

If you follow my recipes you may notice that, although sometimes they look complicated, in fact they are not. I am not a professional cook and most of all I love recipes that are not only tasty and elegant but that are also simple and can work for everyone. Luckily, I have many such recipes, especially for desserts, and this coffee mousse, although it takes many steps to make it, is one of them. And I will post more really easy ones after the vacation.

You may notice as well that I never use raw eggs and for that reason all my desserts are safe. Sometimes, to achieve the desired lightness I have to use whipped cream to compensate for the lack of egg whites but I guarantee that, if you follow my recipes, you will not get infected with salmonella.

Here is a coffee mousse that will wake you up after any lazy summer dinner.

Coffee Mousse

Ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream,
1 tsp instant coffee extract,
1/3 cup powdered sugar,
3 egg yolks,
1 cup of white chocolate or white chocolate chips.

Preparation:
1. Put 1 cup of heavy cream in the pot together with the coffee extract, egg yolks, and sugar.
2. Mix all the ingredients until they combine well.
3. Heat the coffee mixture and, using a whisker or an electric mixer, whip constantly until it turns into a mousse.
4. Take off from the burner and continue to whip until the mousse cools almost entirely down.
5. Melt white chocolate over a pot with boiling water until it becomes smooth and cool it a bit.
6. Add chocolate to the coffee mixture.
7. Whip the remaining heavy cream until stiff.
8. Fold it slowly into the coffee mousse in two steps.
9. Put the mousse into small glass goblets.
10. Decorate with whipped cream and cocoa powder.
11. Chill for at least 4 hours and serve cold.