Of Food And Friends

A couple of Sundays ago, A and I had a few friends over for a small do at our place. The guest list was an eclectic mix of people from varied walks of life. There was D, who works for a human rights organization and her husband E, who runs one of the oldest and most popular bakeries in Mumbai city. D and E are expecting their first baby real soon, and are quite expectedly counting the days till the wee one makes its grand entry. Then, there was B and her husband R, both in the field of journalism; she as a features writer for a travel publication and he as a graphic designer for a leading newspaper. And, rounding off our guest list were two lovely ladies, RS and S; the former a theatre enthusiast and patron of the arts, and the latter, visiting from Germany and currently occupied with a project studying contemporary writing on Mumbai. This short but diverse guest list certainly made for an interesting evening, replete with stimulating conversation and enjoyable banter.

The menu was a joint effort by A and me with him doing the salad and entrée and moi, the starter, soup and dessert. Here’s what we dished up that night:

Appetizer : Roasted Bell Pepper Dip with Chips
Soup : Cauliflower and Carrot Soup
Salad : Tossed Corn Salad
Entrée : Fusilli in Cheese Sauce, Mushrooms in Coconut Gravy and Pasta with Zucchini tossed in Italian Herbs
Dessert : Chocolate Mousse

The recipe I’m sharing in this post is the one I used for Chocolate Mousse. Inspired by Baking Bites, it makes short work of what seems an elaborate effort :)

Chocolate Mousse
(serves eight)

Ingredients

Water – 1 cup (boiling)
Gelatin – 2 ½ tsp (powdered)
Cocoa powder – 2 ½ tbsp
Eggs – 5 nos (separated and at room temperature)
Sugar – ½ cup
Chocolate flakes for garnish

Method

1. Combine water and gelatin in a small bowl and whisk till the gelatin has completely dissolved
2. Whisk in cocoa powder and set aside to cool
3. Place the egg whites in a bowl and beat briskly till soft peaks appear
4. Add sugar gradually, working with 1-2 tbsp at a time, while you beat the egg whites
5. Once the egg whites and sugar are well mixed, beat in the egg yolks one at a time
6. Slowly pour in the gelatin mixture and mix until uniform in colour and well combined
7. Evenly distribute the mousse into individual serving cups and refrigerate until set
8. Grate chocolate over the top of each mousse before serving

An earlier post had talked about my recipe for the dip. I pretty much followed this recipe to the T for the soup, except that I pureed the mixture in a blender for a smooth consistency. The rest of the meal, I need to prevail upon A to write out the recipes for me. Hopefully, my blog will play host to a guest columnist real soon :)