Julia Child's Chocolate Mousse

This is recipe number two honoring Julia Child in the JC100 food blogging event! Julia's chocolate mousse or Mousseline Au Choccolat/Mayonnaise Au Chocolat is another recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1. 

This was my first time making chocolate mousse and it was a success! While following each step closely, it was interesting to see the mousse evolve from separate mixtures consisting of egg yolks and egg and combine to form this wonderful mousse in the end. Beating the egg yolks took a little longer than 3-4 minutes while cooking over heat. It did start to look like mayonnaise as Julia says in her recipe. This was very helpful information in knowing when to move on to the next step. The mousse texture obtains a light texture from this step and also from the egg whites. With a little whipped topping and some of my candied orange rind, you will really impress anyone you make this for! I think Julia would have been proud. I could taste a hint of the coffee (I used lavazaa), but neither I nor my dinner guests could taste the orange liqueur in the mousse. Total cooking time was approximately one and half hours. Well worth it! 

Ingredients

4 Eggs (yolks and whites separated)

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 cup orange liqueur (I used Grand Marnier)

6 oz. semi sweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli)

4 tablespoons strong coffee (I used lavazza)

6 oz. or 1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

candied orange rind for garnish (optional)

whipped cream for topping (optional)

Instructions

Beat egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow and ribbon-like. Beat in orange liqueur. Beat over almost-simmering water until foamy and hot to touch. Beat over cold water until consistency of mayonnaise (about 5min.). Melt coffee with chocolate in small saucepan over heated water. Remove from heat and slowly add butter, a couple tablespoons at a time until creamy. Beat egg whites until soft peaks are formed. Stir one fourth of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and fold in the remaining egg whites. chill for 1-2 hours.

Pale yellow ribbony texture of the egg yolk mixture

Slowly mixing in the butter with the chocolate and coffee

Chocolate mixture combined with egg yolk mixture

Egg whites

Folding the egg whites with the chocolate mixture

Beautiful chocolate mousse!

Airy and chocolaty rich!

Bon Appetit!

Excerpted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Copyright © 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted with permission from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.

Julia Child's Omelette Roulee with Rouille

Julia Child, culinary genius and pioneer of American french cooking at home, would have turned 100 this coming August. To pay tribute to Julia, over 100 blogs will be taking part in an online celebration and cooking up over 15 of her recipes, one per week up until August. I jumped at the chance to participate when I received an e-mail from the organizers at JC100! Julia's classic souffle was the first recipe I made after watching her show at the age of 11. I was an odd child with a patient mother! Both my mother and Julia played were instrumental in sparking my love for cooking. 

Omelette Roulee or rolled omelette is a Julia favorite. Simple and fun, Julia always captivated her audience with her skill, grace and passion for food. Here in Julia's Elegance with Eggs episode she reassures her audience about cooking eggs by saying "Eggs can be your best friend if you just give it the right break!" Love it! At about 16:00 into the video she demonstrates how to make the perfect omelette.

I gave it go by making a filled omelette or omelette aux champignons with Julia's Rouille recipe or red garlic sauce. I also made a little tomato & avocado salad with black Hawaiian sea salt. The sauce was very garlicky and perfect with the omelette which was filled with some baby broccoli and shredded muenster cheese. I made the sauce with roasted red pepper. 

Making the omelette was the easy part. Having everything ready and close by is key and the shaking of  the omelette is of utmost importance as Julia demonstrates in the video. The sauce was a bit time consuming, but well worth it! I will use it for a fish dish in the upcoming days.

Rouille

Recipe from the book Julia's Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child

Roast a red pepper and chop. Purée 8 large cloves of peeled garlic to a fine paste with 1/4tsp of salt. I used a microplane to grate the garlic. Next add the garlic and 18 basil leaves, chopped to a food processor with 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs (I used panko bread crumbs), and 3 tablespoons of soup stalk (I used chicken).When paste is smooth after blending, beat in 3 egg yolks with a hand mixer followed by 1/3 cup of the chopped red pepper. Add 3/4 olive oil "by driblets" (as Julia would put it) while mixing. The sauce will be thick and delicious!

Bon Appétit!

Excerpted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Copyright © 1961 by Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted with permission from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.