My husband works in a quite well known restaurant in Amsterdam. The restaurant is part of a hotel that located at a very strategic and chic street at the city. It is a fusion restaurant of asian-european food.
At employee's birthday the company gives compliment of a dinner for two which is a 3 course dinner and a bottle of wine. So, when it comes to my husband's birthday last April we are too got a free dinner for 2 =).
It was a beautiful day..it was sunny, not too warm, weather that's just makes you wanna smile to people you see at the street. So we went there for a dinner.
We arrives exactly at 7 o'clock, a perfect time. My husband's colleagues welcome us with big smiles, looking at us with curiosity(it's the first time i went there).
We got seated near the window, hubby don't wanna sit near the kitchen(he felt awkward he told me, having his colleagues cooking for him, he's always a lil' bit shy=)).
So we sat..ordered a bottle of cold mineral water, and having the menu handed to us, his colleague one of the waiter saying that we can order what we want from the menu, and that the chef already prepared something nice for us. It started very nice already...
So we ordered. Me, having tempura shrimp with yellow curry sauce, and shoft shell crab sushi for hubby as appetizer. And i ordered steamed white fish in soy sauce with enoki mushroom, and mixed of seafood curry as main course, plus rice and noodle as side dish. A moment later one of the sushi chef brought us a beautiful plate of sashimi salad with super fresh salmon, tuna, scallops arranged on a mount of green salad, topped with a fresh japanese dressing.
I can taste the freshness of the sea in every bite. It was delicious. Couple of minutes later we got our ordered appetizers.
Just as yummy as we expected. But by the time we finished the last piece of sushi i can feel my stomach's getting full.....
About 20 minutes later we got this plate with a whole fish which is the special from the chef...
...and another two bowls of food we ordered...
...and the side dishes...
We looked at each other and thinking...0key....so..we have to eat like...all this five plates of food.
Well, my hubby is a big guy, he's like 2 meters high and weighted about 90 kg. But...after having those appetizers..and then these pile of main courses. It's gonna be a loooong night for us. Well, we did't wanna be unpolite so we HAVE to finish all of those..
It was all so delicious...but believe me..it was A LOT. But we survived though...goin home looking like we both are three months pregnants and walking about five times slower than usual, we managed to got home safely.
So...having served that night with super sweet hospitality from everybody, i feel bad not to give anything back. So i do what i can do..baking. I made this mousse tart at the weekend..having the basic chocolate sponge ready in the freezer i decided to make something with asian touch also for them.
Chocolate-Coconut Mousse Cake
for the choc-sponge:
4 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
100 gr sugar
1 tsp choc-pasta (optional)
65 gr flour
15 gr cacao powder
50 gr melted butter
chocolate Mousse:
90 ml milk
60 gr sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp gelatin powder, dissolved in a little bit of water
300 ml whipped cream, whip until a thickness of yoghurt
100 gr dark chocolate(i used 70 % choc), melted
coconut mousse:
150 ml thick coconut milk
60 gr sugar
1/3 piece vanilla pod
1 1/2 tsp gelatin powder, dissolved in a little bit of water
300 ml whipped cream, whip until a thickness of yoghurt
pouring-ganache:
250 ml whip cream
50 gr glucose or light corn syrup (optional, for the shine)
200 gr dark chocolate, chopped
25 gr butter
Preparation:
1. Line a 22 cm round pan with baking paper, smeared with butter(or margarine) thinly for the choc-sponge. And warm the oven until 175 C.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar on high speed until pale, add the choc-pasta if using. Put the speed lower and add the sifted dry ingredients untincorporated, and add the melted butter at last and stop just until the batter are mixed well.
3. Bake in the oven about 30 minutes or until the top of the sponge spring back when you touch. Put in a wire rack to cool down and peel the paper. Set aside.
4.Prepare the choc-mousse by cooking the milk and sugar until sugar dissolved. Pour the warm milk in to the egg yolk and stir. put it back to a soft fire and stir regularly until it coated the back of a spoon. Take it directly from heat and pour in the dissolved gelatin. Pour in the melted chocolate and set aside to cool down a little bit stirring regularly to avoid skin of this custard mixture.
5. When custard mixture reaches body temperature(put alittle bit of the mixture at your lips with your finger to try, if it feels just nice warm than you're good to go) or about 35-40 C, pour it to the whipped cream mixing carefully but fast enough to avoid having pieces of chocolate in your mousse. It should have a pour consistency but not liquid.
6. Prepare a spring form pan 24 cm round lined with plastic(i use A4 plastics we usually use in offices for OHP projector and cut it to fit the sides of the pan).
7. Cut the cooled sponge horizontally in two or three(i did three, and i got 1 piece left which i usually kept in the freezer for further use). Put one layer at the bottom. At this step you can always spray the sponge with a mix of your favourite chocolate liqueur and simple syrup(1 part sugar: 1 part water) if you like. And then pour the chocolate mousse. Put carefully the second layer of the sponge and refrigerate till firm.
8. Meanwhile prepare the coconut mousse by cooking the coconut milk, sugar, and scrapped vanilla pod until it's just boiled. You can always add a piece of pandan leave instead of vanilla pod to add a more exotic flavour to your mousse. take from the heat and add the dissolved gelatine. Letting this mixture cooled down until body temperature using the same methode with the choc-custard. Mix this mixture with the whipped cream and pour this mousse to the refrigerated choc-mousse. refrigerate until firm.
9. Prepare the ganache for glazing by warming the cream, butter and glucose just until the butter are melted and the glucose are dissolved. Pour this warm mixture to the chopped chocolate and stir regularly until all the chocolate dissolved and the ganache are smooth. Let cool to 35-40 C.
10. When the mousse cake are completely firmed, carefully pull off the spring form pan and peel the plastic gently and you will have this smooth mousse cake. To prepare to glazing, what i did usually is i put the cake for a couple of hours in the freezer until it's really good cold and almost hard at the outside because it's easier for me to glaze.
11. Put this cold/frozen mousse cake on the wire rack and slowly the ganache strating from the center and slowly at the side of the cake. Because the ganache are quite colled, and the cake are really cold, you're gonna have a nice thickness of glaze. Take the mousse carefully with a spatula, put it on a nice plate and refrigerate to let the ganache set.
12. For decoration you can always go from browned coconut to chocolate curls, tablets, or anything fits your fantasy..or the occasion.
