Illustrated me… and a chocolate mousse for Vicki
Here it comes, The Friendly Nettle Icon (see picture above)!
I’m still grinning at it because it is practically me on paper. My friend Vicki drew this for me and honestly, the detail is spot on. The dress, the helmet, even the bike… all exactly the ones I actually own. And yes, I really do cycle everywhere, so this feels very much like a little illustrated snapshot of my life.
Thanks, Vicki! And since you’ve been asking for ages, here is the chocolate mousse recipe I promised. I came up with it after trying the most amazing chocolate mousse tartlet at Hurwundeki café by Cambridge Heath station in East London. I love that place. It’s all arty antiques and little quirks, and only recently I realised they also have a boutique and a hairdresser hidden inside. How did I miss that?
Normally I serve this mousse in a sweet pastry case, but I know pastry isn’t your thing (you always say it’s “pointless extra calories”), so I didn’t dare add it here. If you do like pastry, go ahead and use a sweet one, or just pop the mousse into little ramekins. I recycled my Gü Puds ones because, judging by the number I have, past me was clearly obsessed with those desserts.
So here it comes…
VICKI’S FAVOURITE CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
- 150g dark chocolate (70% cocoa content)
- 100g unsalted butter
- 1 egg
- 30g caster sugar
- 1 handful of raspberries (or other berries)
- Preheat oven to 170C
- Put both chocolate (broken into pieces) and the butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the base of the bowl. Leave it there until everything there are melted.
- Whisk the egg and caster sugar together until pale and thick and increased in volume. Pour the warm melted chocolate and butter into the whisked mixture and and combine it well.
- Spoon the mixture into the ramekins (or into pastry if you prefer) and bake them for 8min EXACTLY! (In fact once I forgot to bake it and me with my friends kept guessing why the butter have set on the top…. only later it got to me that I did not even baked it… it was quite embarrassing to admit that to my friends while we were eating it!)
- Put the pots in the fridge for at least two hours (after cooling it down of course as apparently it would hurt the fridge)
Enjoy!
Rasa 🙂
I love the icon Rasa…and I’m going to try the chocolate pud soon. Keep posting recipies. Maybe some good soups when the weather gets cool. 🙂
Thanks Carol! I will sure try to put more soups into my blog, but I must say that my biggest passion is baking (I could practically could live on deserts although I am fighting against it since it is so unhealthy).