Chocolate Mousse

This Diwali was little unusual for me. I have never been such sad on diwali.
missing home, broken hand, incapable of doing routine chores made me all day grump.
diwali had always been one of my fav festivals. loads of mithai(sweets) crackers, lights, lamps and rangoli.

This year due to broken shoulder i cud not do all those fancy fancy things i loved to do.
the morning used to be fresh and vibrant with rangoli colors. post rangoli loads of home made mithai like  ladoos, barfi, kaju katri... missed all that fun.

i was lying on my couch grump and cold. then i just felt of making some dessert atleast for my friends.
i looked into my freeze and thought of a quick recipe.
then i came up with chocolate mousse.
although its not a mithai for the occasion and people prefer it as a potluck dessert.
here goes the recipe.

100 gm Bittersweet (cooking) Chocolate  • 3 tbsp  Sugar • 1 cup Heavy Cream • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract • 2 Egg Yolks  • Heat 2/3 cup of cream in pan over low flame until it just begins to steam. • In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. • Add half portion of the hot cream, whisking constantly, until the mixture is thoroughly combined. • Add the warm egg-cream blend back into the rest hot cream in the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly for a few more minutes. make sure the eggs dont get scrambled • Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and melted chocolate. • Chill the chocolate custard thoroughly. • Beat with the help of electric whisker remaining 1-1/3 cups of cream in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. • Thoroughly stir ½ cup of the whipped cream into the chilled chocolate custard, and then gently fold in the remaining cream.  serve chilled. garnish with grated chocolate

Kopra pak or Coconut barfi

The festive season is around the corner. With just a warm good bye to ganpati, i could not resist the mithai we generally offer to the idol. Before the price of sugar sores, lemme enjoy the extremes of my cravings for desserts... it was a dull day and in no mood to go out for grocery. I thought of enjoying my Sunday eve with the most common sweet made in Indian houses.

“Kopra pak or coconut barfi”

A quick 15 min recipe needs 1 kg sugar, 250 gm of desiccated coconut powder (yes i use plenty of coconut. I am fond of coconut. One can titrate the quantity of coconut as per owns palate) 2tsf of desi ghee, 50gm of milkmaid (condensed milk) and pinch of cardamom powder for flavour.

I prefer desiccated coconut powder instead of fresh one as it doesn’t release oil on heating.

Here we go: in a pan, heat sugar with 100gm of water and make  syrup, thick enough to produce three threads. In another pan heat milkmaid, add coconut powder and mix cardamom powder. Mix properly. Once syrup is ready, add the milkmaid batter to syrup gradually and stirring constantly making sure no lumps left. Grease the tray with ghee. Pour the mixture onto the tray. Freeze it for ten to fifteen minutes. Now cut the cubes once set. Garnish with coconut powder.

Easy to go... lemme know how it tastes.