Chocolate Rum Cream Mousse

My last post I spoke about Personal Trainer: Cooking for Nintendo DS. That was to set up for this post where I'm going to relate my experience making Chocolate Mousse using a recipe from it. I don't have the actual recipe and the DS with me right now so I'm going to write what I remember.

Ingredients

3 egg yolks

5 oz dark chocolate

2 tbsp heavy cream

3 egg whites

4 tbsp sugar

For my version I substituted the dark chocolate for milk chocolate and I used one and a half tbsp heavy cream and a half tbsp rum cream.

I must state that this is the second time I'm attempting this recipe and the first time was a dismal failure. I had planned to make it for my boyfriend's (now ex) birthday and because the prep time says 40 minutes I figured I should be able to do it in the hour or so I had before going to dance class. Everything went as planned until I got to where I'm supposed to whisk the egg whites briskly until they form a peak when the whisk is removed from the whites. The first dilemma with this was that I didn't even own a whisk and I was using a fork. The second was that I only had about 30 minutes left before I had to leave for dancing. So I whisked and whisked with my fork and realized that nothing was happening. Eventually I gave up and continued the recipe as instructed and mixed in my non-fluffy egg whites into the chocolate. My mousse ended up being the consistency of very runny chocolate icing.

This time however I was back with a vengeance and armed with not one, but two whisks in different sizes. I used the smaller of the two and with all the whist action I had whisked until I noticed that there was a change taking place. I kept at it and realized that yes, it is turning white. Not quite fluffy yet but it looked like it was getting there. I whisked furiously until finally I was seeing peaks in my egg whites. I was astonished! I had no idea that eggs could do such miraculous things. Eventually after adding the sugar and when I thought that my egg whites looked like the photo on the DS I added it to the chocolate, egg yolk and cream mixture and kept on stirring it. After that was done I was to put it in the refrigerator to chill.

In retrospect, despite my excitement over my egg whites as they were, I think I should have whisked longer because after combining it with the chocolate mixture it got a little runny. I left it over night in the freezer figuring that the worst that can happen is that it becomes a sort of ice cream. Also I would substitute maybe one-third of the chocolate required for dark chocolate because it is rather sweet. Next time I'll also just make a third of the recipe because it makes far more than I had anticipated and I don't think I'll be able to finish it all.

All in all I feel like it was a good attempt but I have yet to get any very positive feedback on it. My brother said he likes the flavour but not the texture which means that he isn't going to have anymore of it. My ex-boyfriend did have a little taste but he didn't really convey any sentiments about it. If I do get anymore feedback then I'll make it known.

(Slideshow credit: http://tinyurl.com/4a829rk)

Personal Trainer: Cooking for Nintendo DS

I can't quite recall if I have ever written about my Nintendo DS and Personal Trainer: Cooking. Well if not, here goes. It's a cookbook but for the Nintendo DS. There are loads of recipes from all over the world and the software allows you to select a recipe based on a number of factors. You could choose by the type of recipe you're looking for whether you feel for desert or for a salad. You can narrow your search down by looking for recipes from a certain country, or for the health/weight conscious you can even choose based on key ingredient or calorie content.

After you've chosen you're recipe you are shown three options. You can look on the ingredients and materials you need, you can look at the steps involved or you can go straight to the instructions. If you take a look at the ingredients you can check to see whether or not you have them and if not then you can add them to the shopping list that is also a feature of this game card. If you just want a brief idea of what the cooking process with involve then you can look on the steps or if you want to get straight to cooking then select cook.

Once there, your personal trainer will instruct you step by step, talking you through the recipe with helpful videos and tips to ensure that you are on the right track. If you missed something he said, simply ask him to "repeat". The Nintendo DS features voice recognition and so without having to get your device messy, you can verbally instruct the cook to "continue" or to go back to the "last step" with the various voice commands.

This game (and I use the term loosely) is a fun way to introduce cooking to the novitiate. The recipes are simple and easy to follow and the overall software is very user friendly.

(Photo Cred: http://tinyurl.com/49cm7o2)