2 Mousse madness, Nalen Gurr n Dark Chocolate Rum n other stories…

Two Amazing Egg less Mousse recipes, minimum ingredients, maximum flavor: Nalen Gurr Mousse, Dark Chocolate with Red Rum Mousse for the Valentine’s day n Saraswati Pujo

Winter days call for food that makes you warm, even if they are cold in temperature themselves and even if they are desert and sweet they will make you warm n cozy in the course of enjoying them. So when I think of winter I think of rum, especially the dark red rum, complex in flavor, almost like a candy with a lot of depth and its affinity with dark chocolate, yes that’s magical n sexy n yet subtle. So they come together in my mousse, hugging each other and dissolving into the whipped cream as I go beating the cream.

Yes the mousse is literally very simple, it is only made with whipping cream n dark chocolate n red rum and Nalen Gurr- Date-Palm Jaggery available in the eastern part of India, in the land of Bengal, only in the winter season and this is liquid gold in my food dictionary.

You can make a mousse with the combination of stiffly beaten egg-whites and whipping cream also, in that case the mousse becomes even lighter n airy as the beaten egg whites bring even more trapped air bubbles into the mousse, I decided to make them eggless this time because the people for whom I made preferred it without eggs. But let it not make you think that the eggless mousse will not melt you as you eat them-they will. They are not as light as it would be with eggs but still they are deliciously light n smooth, singing with the flavors of Nalen Gurr n Dark chocolate n rum.

A mousse literally describes the texture of a food, a food item that includes air bubbles trapped inside it to produce a light and airy texture is a mousse, they can be both sweet n savory. Now depending on the techniques of including the air bubbles into the mousse the final result can be light n fluffy while some can be thick n creamy n denser. The mousse I made is very creamy n thick, whereas if you add egg-whites to them they will be even more airy.

A savory mousse can be flavored with a vegetable or fish or eggs, cheese, herbs. We can attain the light texture by using egg-whites, beating them to get the light n fluffy or cream; sometimes gelatin can be used in stabilizing the foam.

The taste of the Nalen Gurr mousse is absolutely delish, the molten jaggery just dissolves in the cream n unifies itself; it has such a satisfactory sensation attached to it. Like I said Nalen Gurr is a jaggery which is made from the sap of the date-palm trees in the region of Bengal, when the simmering sap thickens at the end of preparing it, it has a flavor unmatched by anything, there is nothing quite like it, liquid gold I tell you.

For a good dark chocolate mousse you need a real good chocolate, the better the chocolate you have the better the mousse will be, I used the one with 50% cocoa content, you can use 70% for an intense dark chocolate experience.

There are so many whipping creams in the market, some are dairy-based while some are soy based, you can use whatever you love, it is only up to you, some of the creams are previously sweetened and flavored with vanilla, if you are using that cream remember that the gurr is sweet itself, so the resulting mousse can be too sweet, in that case adjust the proportion of the gurr in the recipe.

So now I will take you to a sweet n cozy n warm winter evening, I’ll give you the recipe.

For The Recipe:  You will need

For the Nalen-Gurr Mousse:

Nalen-Gurr- 100 gm, grated or broken into small chunks

Water- ½ cup

Salt- a pinch

Whipping cream- 250-300 ml

Lemon/lime juice- 3-4 drops

For the Dark chocolate Rum Mousse:

Dark Chocolate – 150 gm, grated or broken into small pieces

Red Rum- 3 tbsp

Salt- a pinch

Milk (full fat) or cream- 100 ml

Icing sugar-50 gm (if you whipping cream is pre-sweetened then skip sugar)

1. Begin by melting the gurr, for that place the broken or grated gurr in a wok or frying pan or saucepan and add the water, let the flame be on a medium, with a wooden spatula stir the mixture, the gurr will melt in 3-4 minutes, then the mixture will come to a simmer, let it simmer on a low heat now for 4/6 minutes and it will thicken slightly, you will see the whole mixture is filled with bubbles, put the flame off, add a pinch of salt and drops of lime n mix well,  let it come to room temperature.

2. Melt the dark chocolate in a bain-marie, make sure that the water is not touching the bowl of chocolate, stir the chocolate as it begins to melt, when all the chocolate has melted give it a good mix. Warm the cream or milk slightly, make sure that the milk/cream is not cold when you add it to the hot liquid chocolate , add the slightly warm milk/cream  and mix to a smooth consistency, then add the red rum and pinch of salt into it, mix again. Let it come to a room temperature.

3. For whipping the cream, if you are using a dairy based cream, then freeze the bowl into which the cream will be whipped along with the wire-whisk or pedal attachment of your stand mixer, in case you are gonna whip with your hands, open your hands from the elbow and freeze them too……NOOOO! Really! If you are using soy based whipping cream you might skip this part. One important thing is you are using a whipping cream which was frozen to a solid block in your freezer; you have to take it out n keep in your refrigerator for 12 -16hours at least, until it becomes liquid again. So now simply pour the cream in a big airy glass or metal bowl and whisk with either wire whisk, or electric hand whisk or like I did I whipped it all with my hands which took me 15 minutes of solid whisking, gosh I do believe in hard work!

If your cream is not previously sweetened, then you have to add icing sugar to the cream at the stage when the cream begins to transform from soft peaks to more stable peaks. You can always check by tasting if you want your whipped cream to be more sweet or not and you can adjust.

4. With a spatula draw a line over the whipping cream dividing it into two equal portions for the two mousse, then take one third from one portion and beat is vigorously into the chocolate rum mixture to lighten it up. Then add half of the remaining cream and fold it gently into the lightened chocolate mixture, do it by moving the spatula outwards and upwards beginning from the side of the bowl to the centre and rotate the bowl by one quarter with each fold. So in four fold you will rotate the bowl completely, work lightly and then add the remaining cream into the chocolate mixture and fold until combined.

5. Repeat the same process with the gurr. Now you can simply put them into beautiful small glasses or cups by spoon or you can put them in a piping bag and pipe them into small glasses, do whatever you feel like , then place them in the refrigerator to chill for a good 4 hours, yes they will taste better when cold.

So now take them out, sprinkle them with some grated chocolate for the chocolate mousse and for the Nalen Gurr mousse drizzle them with some liquid gurr, gosh look at them! Beautiful! Aren’t they? Delicious! Aren’t they? Now you must share them with everyone around, they keep well in the fridge, so save some for future good times, I know you will make them soon again, and guess what? Bon appétit.

My Christmas cake

                                The Christmas cake with Date-jaggery and Black Cardamom

It is 4 days past Christmas now, but its memory is still very alive in my mind. I remember specially the evening, an evening spent with friends…walking with them in known streets, biting cakes in between, looking at the big crowd and wondering where they are all heading to, there was music in the air (though I can’t say I liked that music), the air was chilled and crisp and filled with the humming of the human-beings. This is the thing about winter days n nights, they are crisp and clean; they can uplift our spirit in minutes and push us to new adventures.

I quite remember the morning that day, as I woke up I felt fresh n light, but as the morning hours dissolved into the noon, a gloom came over me-like it was there waiting for me ,patiently, I did not know when it entered my soul, the transition was smooth. I was beginning to think being under the shadow that I will spend the evening at home with myself and cancel the evening with friends. Glad that I did not. And all the while I was thinking I have to make the Christmas cake and I knew if I do this I will be fine, my mother was waiting for the cake  I knew, so without any more delay I set myself to the upcoming cake.

I wanted to make something special, satisfying. I was running short of time and I couldn’t bother to making icing or decorate with patience, I was literally running around with measuring cups. What I knew I wanted the flavor of “Date-jeggery(Nalen Gurr)” in my cake, it is such a lovely pleasant flavor and I wanted my cake to reflect that. So being in motion I finally lined my tin, melt the Gurr, make the batter, ground brown cardamom, scatter candied peel and surrendered it to my oven. And did it do justice? Yes it did, I’m very happy to tell you my dear reader. The cake looked wonderful, homely, beautiful color on the top, the candied peel looked beautiful on the surface and the smell in my home was sweet, comforting warm, I was a happy man. Now the cake was light, spongy and not dry, in every bite you will get the mischievous presence of the Nalen gurr, the black cardamom.

What made me even happier was that I was going to share this with my friends just in 1 hour! As I start to get myself ready I slice the cake and ran to my father n mother with them, and they loved it J so after that packed the cake for my friends and there I go off.

                    My friends had a good surprise, I didn't give them a hint and that I’ll be bringing a cake for them! That was my little Christmas surprise with them, and the speed at which the cake disappeared made me feel very satisfied. We kept walking for an hour through the street filled with people in different colors, absorbing all the scenery, all the life and we kept talking all the time. Later on we had a dinner together in small restaurant which was luckily not over-crowded and the food was just yummy. When I reached home I got a call from my friend telling me that he gave a piece of cake to his aunt and she loved it and she could tell the cake had Nalen Gurr in it without being told.

The recipe: you will need

150 g of softened butter                                                        2 ½ medium eggs at room temp.

150 g of plain flour                                                                1 brown cardamom                           

100 g of Nalen Gurr, shaved from the block                           Pinch of salt

50 g of caster sugar                                                               50 g of candied peel

1 ½ tsp of baking powder                                                      40 ml of water  

If you are using salted butter you can skip the salt. 

Nalen-gurr:  It is a form of jaggery made from the concentrated sap of the date tree; it is a form of brown sugar with the molasses in it. It has a lovely elegant unique flavor.      

 

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius/325 Fahrenheit/gas mark 3. You will need an 8 inch round cake tin, line it with baking parchment or baking paper and butter it lightly.

We will make this cake beginning with melting the Nalen gurr which is kind of raw brown sugar made from the sap of the date tree, over a low flame in a pan with the 40 ml of water. Let it melt completely and then give it 3mins while it simmers, as it simmers the flavor develops a bit more and it thickens a bit. Take it off the heat now and pour it in a flat shallow dish and let it cool. In a pan on a low heat keep the brown cardamom and give it around 4-5mins, turn it in between with a fork, after 5mins it is ready to be grounded to a fine powder in a mortar n pestle, so do it until it is a fine powder, keep aside.

Begin creaming the soft butter and the caster sugar with a whisk until it is pale in color and the volume has increased a bit. Now add the 1^st egg and whisk until it is combined, now add the 2^nd egg and on top of the broken egg in the bowl shift some flour, then whisk again until combined, then half of the egg, shift some more flour and whisk again until blended smoothly. The reason we shift the flour in little bits over the broken eggs is it prevents the mixture to curdle easily. Now pour the liquid Nalen gurr in the mixture and whisk until smooth. Put the flour, baking powder, salt, black cardamom powder together and shift it from a height over the mixture, then fold or whisk until well combined, in between when you are combining everything put half of the candied peel  and  combine. Don’t over mix it; leave it just as everything combines together.

Now pour the mixture in the prepared cake tin, scatter the rest of the candied peel over the top and pop it in the oven for about 30-35mins. Don’t open the oven door until 30mins have passed no matter how much you wish to do it. After 30mins insert a skewer into the cake, if it comes out clean it’s done. Take it out and leave it to cool for about 10mins, then take it out of the tin and place it on a wire rack to cool before you cut it and indulge in it.