Feels good to give...

a small token to a caring and thoughtful friend...at the end of what seems like a very unproductive and frustrating day!

Toblerone Chocolate Mousse

Whenever there is a special family occasion requiring dessert, I'm normally the designated baker.  With a hectic few weeks behind and ahead of me I wanted to do something I thought would be simple and a bit different to cake....I checked my recipe books and my 'Recipes I want to try' spreadsheet and stumbled across a Toblerone Mousse a friend AL from church gave me quite a while ago.

I felt a little funny opening the nicely packaged 'Happy Father's Day' toblerone without Dad having seen it.

Having tried Bill Granger's recipe in the past for chocolate mousse, I was wondering why my friend's recipe only has cream and toblerone!  Bill's uses 5 eggs....upon confirmation from AL this morning it is VERY rich!  So I was on track thinking I should combine the recipes as follows:

400g bar of toblerone

300ml cream, whipped

25ml brandy

50ml water

4 egg whites (Bill uses 5 egg whites but why waste an egg yolk!)

4 egg yolks

1. Place the chocolate, brandy and water (oops - I just realised I left the water out and was wondering why the chocolate was looking dry! This corrected itself with the adding of egg yolks) in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of hot water.  Place over low heat and warm until chocolate has melted.  Leave to cool for 5 minutes

2. In a small clean dry bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

3. Add egg yolks to chocolate mixture one at a time (having separated the eggs all my yolks were mixed so I added in 2 batches), beating well after each addition.  

4. Fold cream into chocolate mixture and then fold in egg whites in 2 batches, using a large metal spoon.

5. Pour chocolate mousse into serving bowls or glasses and refrigerate until set.

This made 6 large glass serves.

Served with strawberries, blueberries and more cream!

If you have a real sweet tooth - just do the chocolate and cream - that's got to be the simplest recipe ever!

 

Ottoman Cuisine Degustation

  

Stumbled across a few of the pics I took of the degustation some friends and I had last November.  Some friends had recommended this restaurant to me - apparently they sat there thinking of me as they ate!  So I thought I best try it.

It was a lovely dinner spent with some special friends.  Although I remember feeling underwhelmed by the lamb mince thinking it was bolognaise sitting on top of eggplant - my friend C reprimanded me and pointed out that the mince was an exceptional grade of mince, she did have a point!  I forgot to take a pic of the veal but I remember that was really tasty (I could use the word flavoursome - but I have a think about this word!).  I think I was also taken by the mushroom and dessert of course!

Ottoman offer an extensive al-a-carte menu which could be good if there is a next time.

first entree

cicek - zucchini flowers stuffed with goats feta & pine-nuts, served crisp with yoghurt & dill sauce

mantar - char-grilled spicy mushrooms tossed in cumin, oregano & mild Aleppo chilli

second entree

karides - Qld king prawns with shitake mushrooms & baby spinach, served with lemon & yoghurt sauce

dolma - salmon, cray & prawn wrapped in vine-leaves,lightly battered, served with savoury piquant sauce

mains

karniyarik - eggplant stuffed with lamb, pine-nuts & currants, served with yoghurt & tahini sauce

kulbasti - thinly sliced veal with mild Aleppo chilli, char-grilled, served on baby spinach with lemon mustard sauce

desserts

assiette - baklava, pomegranate ice-cream & kazandibi

 

Ottoman Cuisine

Pier 2/13 Hickson Road,  Dawes Point  Sydney 

(02) 9252 0054

http://www.ottomancuisine.com.au/Sydney

Note: The degustation was $50 less than a year ago, I am a little surprised it is now $80.  Trying to reconcile the jump in price....I will have to check in with a friend who is going soon to see if she thinks it is worth it!