Tuesday 11 December 2007

This one's for Mary Jane !



I let my fellow blogger down yesterday. I had posted a picture of some chocolate mousse on Flickr and poor Mary Jane came over to the blog for more details. What did she get? A picture of Magnus modelling the latest line of plastic bag couture. I will now make amends!

I recently bought a snazzy grinder/blender called The Tribest Personal Blender in a fit of enthusiasm after reading about raw food. Every morning since, I have been drinking home made hemp milk and trying to up my veg and fruit content. Here is one recipe that sounds odd but is quite honestly a tasty thing. It contains cocoa nibs which if you haven't tried them before, are worth a go, if only as a science experiment. Eaten on their own they taste a bit like dust with a slight cocoa undertone. Add any sweetness, a date for instance or a dried apricot, and you get the taste of chocolate. Proper chocolate too, not the wierd milky stuff that the UK is used to, the real 70% cocoa solid stuff. This mousse is a variation of one I found in Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet.

Chocolate Mousse

Two avocados - very squidgy, blended till smooth.
1/4 cup dates soaked for two hours or so.
1/2 tsp vanilla ( optional )
1/4 cup of the best cocoa powder you can lay your hands on.
1/4 cup of the date soaking liquor
Chopped macadamia nuts
dried sweetened cranberries
cocoa nibs.


Add the dates to a blender with the water and vanilla. Blend till as smooth as possible. Add avocado and cocoa powder and continue blending till smooth. That's it - mousse. Taste and check if you want to add another sweetner, I didn't but you could add agave nectar, maple syrup, concentrated apple juice....

Layer a glass or bowl with some mousse, then follow with some nuts, cranberries and nibs. Continue layering till everything is used up. Go easy on the nibs, you don't need too many as they are strong. maybe a teaspoon in total. You can never have too many cranberries and macadamia nuts.

I'll admit, you can tell that avocado is one of the ingredients, in the beginning, but then your tastebuds latch on the the cocoa/nut/cran combination and all else is forgotten.

5 comments:

mary jane said...

Oh you never let me down! I thought the avocado was a bit weird, but I think I've read about it before some where I'll never remember. It looks wonderful and is making me hungry. And envious of your ability to gather all those exotic ingredients and make it! And eat it of course.
Plus, I never tire of looking at your dear kitty. He is so the best cat!

Ivywindow said...

And yet it looks utterly naughty!

Ginnie said...

Mmm... that looks delicious. I'll have to try it!

Cindy G said...

You know, it looks beautiful, but if I had my druthers I think I'd take the plum gin (though the cranberries and Macadamias are tempting).

a friend to knit with said...

oh yumm. yumm yumm yumm!