Hay, Hay, it's Donna Day: Passion fruit mousse in tiny chocolate cups

When Helene announced the theme for this HHDD I was petrified – despite playing around in the kitchen for as long as I can remember, I haven’t made many mousse recipes so far. Panic.

I wanted to make 100 mousse recipes and 10 seconds later I wanted to make none. And then I remembered little chocolate cups filled with ganache I had seen in some weddings and also in some websites. I thought: I’m filling the cups with mousse!

In theory everything sounded wonderful, but in the real world things didn’t work out the way I expected them to. The cups weren’t beautiful as the ones in my head and, camera in hand, I couldn’t find a nice way to photograph them.

As I missed Peabody’s HHDD about cheesecakes and I don’t want to miss another one, there you go.

One thing I must say in my defense: the condensed milk balances well the tart flavor of passion fruit – so you won’t look like her when you take a bite.

Passion fruit mousse in tiny chocolate cups

Chocolate cups:
200g chocolate – I used white and dark, 100g each
25 small fluted paper cups (the ones used for petit-fours, truffles, etc.)

Mousse:
90g sweetened condensed milk
65g cream
65ml concentrated passion fruit juice

Decoration:
pulp of half a large passion fruit – I think that mini chocolate curls would work fine too

For the mousse: place all the ingredients in a blender and blend well. You can place them in a bowl and beat well with a whisk – the key here is to incorporate air into the mixture to make it light.
Cover and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Make the chocolate cups: melt chocolate using a double-boiler or the microwave oven. Temper it – click here to learn how.
Using a small spoon, spoon chocolate inside each paper cup, spreading evenly and almost up to the edges – leave a thin line free of chocolate so you can tear the paper cup and remove the chocolate from it easily.
Place the cups on a plate and refrigerate until chocolate is firm (10 minutes or so).
Carefully, start tearing the paper molds unmolding the chocolate cups. Set aside.

Remove the mousse from the refrigerator and with a small spoon pour amounts of it inside each chocolate cup. Top with the passion fruit seeds and serve.

Chocolate cups can be made ahead and stored in a dry and cool place – never in the refrigerator.

Makes about 25 – I got 12 with the white chocolate and 13 with the dark chocolate.

Baked zucchini and bacon risotto

Haalo is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and being a huge fan of her blog I had to participate.



I adapted a recipe, using zucchini instead of pumpkin - it was delicious!

It was my first baked risotto and I must confess that while placing the ingredients together in the bowl I still wasn’t convinced it was going to work. I was so wrong: by the time I finished preparing Joao’s beef and potatoes my risotto was ready and all I had to do was stir it a bit to make it creamy.

I highly recommend this recipe and I think that many other vegetables would replace zucchini wonderfully here.

Baked zucchini and bacon risotto
adapted from Off The Shelf: Cooking From the Pantry

440g (2 cups) Arborio or carnaroli rice
1,250ml (5 cups) chicken or vegetable stock – I used vegetable
60g butter
500g zucchini, diced
12 rashers of bacon
75g (¾ cup) finely grated parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF. Place the rice, stock, butter and zucchini in an ovenproof dish, mix and cover tightly with a lid or foil. Bake for 30 minutes or until the rice is soft – the risotto will be quite liquid.*
While the risotto is cooking, place the bacon under a hot grill (broiler) and cook for 2 minutes on each side or until crisp – I placed the rashers between sheets of paper towel and cooked in the microwave oven for 1 minute. Set aside.
Remove the risotto from the oven, add the salt, pepper, parmesan and parsley and stir constantly for 2 minutes to thicken it.
To serve, place in serving bowls and top with bacon.

* I used foil to cover the bowl and my risotto wasn’t that liquid – I cooked it for the exact time.

Serves 2 – I halved the recipe and got loads of risotto (that will be transformed in arancini). In my opinion, 1 recipe serves 3-4.

Donna Hay’s Hummus

I know this is a very basic recipe, but I thought it would be a simple yet delicious way to take part in April’s Monthly Mingle, hosted by Meeta.



It was my first time making hummus and the result was great - recipe from Donna Hay.

Donna Hay’s Hummus
from Modern Classics Book 1

400g drained canned chickpeas
3 tablespoons tahini
3 tablespoons lemon juice – I used lime juice
60ml (¼ cup) water - I used this + 1 ½ tablespoons
½ teaspoon cumin
1 clove crushed garlic
sea salt and cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

Process the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, water, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor until combined – I used a blender.
With the motor running, gradually pour the olive oil processing until just smooth.

Makes 1 ¾ cups.

Hearts of palm quiche

As some of you know, I love cooking with hearts of palm. So, for my first participation on Weekend Herb Blogging – this time hosted by Anh - I decided to make a hearts of palm quiche.



I got the recipe from a Brazilian cookbook but the crust called for Crisco. I don’t like cooking with it. Call me silly, but I don’t even buy it.
Instead, I made a delicious crust out of a Gordon Ramsey’s recipe that had been posted by Valentina.
You see, Gordon’s recipe + Tina’s magic hands = perfection. :)

I had to adapt the amounts because my pan was a bit smaller than the required on the recipe. Next time I’ll add a bit more filling.

In the end, the quiche was so delicious I even had a piece at night, totally cold, and it still tasted good.

Hearts of palm quiche

Dough:
250g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
125g butter, cold and diced
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 egg yolk

Filling:
200g hearts of palm, chopped
½ small onion, chopped
2 tablespoons butter
½ teaspoon salt
20g parsley, chopped
100ml cream
4 eggs

Make the crust: in a bowl, combine flour, butter and salt, mixing with your fingertips until crumbly. Add the beaten egg and 1 tablespoon ice water and mix a little more. Knead it a little, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF. Brush a 24cm quiche pan with removable bottom* with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough and line the pan with it.
Cover it with a circle of baking paper or foil and fill with uncooked beans – the blind baking process.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the beans and the paper/foil and brush the crust with egg yolk. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove again from the oven and brush the crust again with egg yolk. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.
This process will prevent the filling from leaking.
Remove from the oven. Keep the oven temperature at 190ºC/375ºF.

Make the filling: in a large frying pan, heat the butter over high heat. Add the onion and cook until lightly golden. Add the hearts of palm and salt and cook quickly. Remove from heat and add the parsley, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add the cream. Mix well. Add this mixture to the hearts of palm and mix.
Fill the baked quiche dough with this mixture and bake in a preheated oven (190ºC/375ºF) until firm.
Unmold and serve immediately.

* I used a regular teflon pan and had no trouble ummolding the quiche.

Serves 10

Carne louca

This is a very common recipe around here – carne louca, which means “crazy beef”.

It was easy to stumble upon these sandwiches in birthday parties. All the kids loved it – except for me. I already had problems with meat as a child. Never liked it. My mom had to sit by the table, her Havaianas in hand, staring at me, so I would eat my steak.

It was my first attempt at carne louca – and I must confess I only made it because João asked me to. I didn’t use a specific recipe, I made it the way I remembered it.

All I can say is that it smelled so great I had to taste it. And I did taste it. And then I had a big spoon of it, right before the 2 sandwiches I ate watching a soccer game on TV with João. :D

Carne louca

a 500g piece of eye of round
50g (2 tablespoons) butter
100ml white wine or beer
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
10 green olives, pitted and chopped
2 ½ tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt
freshly ground pepper

In a saucepan or kettle, set 1.5 liters water to boil.
In a pressure cooker* over high heat, melt the butter and add the piece of beef. Cook it, turning it around to get all the sides nicely browned. Add salt (just a little, since you’re going to season the beef in the end), wine/beer and the boiling water. Close the pressure cooker and when it starts whistling, turn down the heat and cook for 50 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it stand until all the pressure is released – be careful.

Place the beef on a cutting board and, using a knife and a fork, shred the entire piece. Put it in a large bowl (glass is better) and add the onion, bell pepper, olives, parsley and approx. 400ml of the broth left in the pressure cooker.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, add the lime juice and the olive oil and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days, bringing to room temperature before serving.

Make sandwiches using baguettes.
* If you’re using a regular pan, proceed the same way and cook the beef for longer – it has to be very tender otherwise it will be hard to be shredded.