Truly Scrumptious

The name of the post is after one of the characters from 'Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang!' and also perfectly describes this dessert.

I have this problem whipping cream. I mean, I blame the cream I use, but I don't think many other people have the same problem. I've tried everything, but the Amul carton cream just does not whip. It took years for me to actually give up, but now I really have. I settled for non-dairy frozen cream as an alternative. Worked perfectly, but didn't taste as nice.

Then, one fine day tried out another company of fresh cream and it whipped! Unfortunately, the times I actually needed the cream, I could never find it. So now, whenever I do see, I just buy and then think of what to make with it later

Anyway, back to this truly scrumptious dessert. I was generally blog hopping and stumbled across this blog- The Pioneer Woman. Really wonderful site. She lives on a farm with 4 kids and a basset hound and cooks great food and writes well too. This recipe is just soooo easy. Didn't realise mousse could be this simple to make.

I adapted it a bit. This is my version. Click here for her version.

Take 1 & 1/2 C of dark chocolate chips and 1/2 C of caramel chocolate chips. Put in blender. Squeeze out one orange into the blender and whiz away. I don't want to sound like Nigella Lawson, but the sound of those crumbling chocolate chips along with the citrus was quite exciting.

Then add 3 large eggs, a tiny pinch of salt into the blender & whiz some more. Then add 1 cup of very very hot coffee (I used 2 Tbsp of decaf coffee and 1 tsp of sugar- add more sugar if you're one of those people who likes things sickeningly sweet) Slowly pour in with the rest of the mixture. The hot coffee will partially cook the eggs. Blend for another 30 seconds. This gets all the air into the mousse.

Then pour into cups/jars/glasses. The jars she uses are pretty cool. I only had these fluted glasses. I'm sure it would have tasted better in her jars. Oh well. Pour, so that there is enough space for whipped cream on the top. Refrigerate until set. It took about 2 hours. Whip up the cream with a bit of powdered sugar. I also added some orange essence in mine. Dollop into the glasses. Dust some cocoa powder and sprinkle with orange rind and now say 'Hello' to Truly Scrumptious.

Mmmm. 

I shall make this again at Christmas. Somehow the combination of orange, chocolate and coffee seem like a christmassy thing.

Asparagus Souffle

I've been spending a LOT of time in the kitchen. Brownie Points has had a very busy last few weeks with Soul Sante, a feature in the Deccan Herald- read here and plenty of Diwali orders. Apart from that, my parents were out of town for a few weeks, so I did plenty of cooking. But, it's not much fun when I have to cook as appose to when I just cook for fun.

Anyway, there was a bunch of asparagus in the fridge and felt like trying something different for dinner. 

This was the first recipe I found on the net when I searched for 'Asparagus Souffle' Brilliant pictures and pretty straightforward recipe.

Read HERE.

Few pointers:
1. Make sure the asparagus is nice and tender. Break off hard stems.
2. The becahmel sauce is supposed to be super thick. Looked liked mashed potatoes to me.
3. Carefully fold in the egg whites. If you over mix, it won't rise well in the oven.
4. If your oven is like mine, you'll need more than 20 minutes in the oven. I didn't even have to turn the heat down. But. don't leave it in there too long. It'll dry out.

Note: In the pictures, it's fallen a bit because I didn't take the pictures as soon as it was out of the oven. Once I started eating, I realised that I should blog about it beacuse it tasted SO yum!

A little bit of Zaha!

One of my classmates in college nicknamed me 'Zaha' from my fondness of angles and assymetry and oddities, synonymous with the famed architect, Zaha Hadid. My designs are quite far from her work, and thankfully that name never stuck!

No doubt, she's pretty awesome. The only female holder of the prestigious Pritsker award with projects dotted all over the world and has lectured in some of the biggest architectural institutions.

I was lucky enough to be in London during the two week London Festival of Architecture 2012. As part of the festival, was the opening of the Zaha Hadid Exhibition. It was definitely something I looked forward to, but unfortunately forgot to carry my camera and had to rely on my phone.

The exhibition was the basement and ground floor of a building with her studios on the floors above. If only she wasn't on one of her world travel, I could have met the woman herself. sigh. 

There were about 8 or 10 sculptures on display. Most of them were her furniture or landscape design. You can see them here. I particularly liked her Floating staircase design and the Aqua Table. Such smooth lines and seamless surfaces make up her wacky designs.