Oooh La la!
When I visited France in 2013 one of my favorite souvenirs was this recipe.
I met my friend, Cecile, in 1983 when she spent a month with us that summer. Despite the language barrier we had so much fun! Over the years our family talked about her often and I was regretful that I didn’t keep up with letters back and forth.
My children knew the stories of Cecile so in 2009 when someone contacted me on facebook saying they were her daughter, they were very excited too! I later learned that she had told her children about me as well.
Since then Cecile and I have been in close contact. The internet makes it SO much easier! The same daughter that contacted us came to visit two years later, my daughter spent three weeks with them in France last year and I got to visit the country and town that I’d heard so much about for so long in 2013.
{Above: Cecile, Me & Natalie, the mousse maker}
It was so wonderful to put faces with all the names I’ve heard. Cecile’s parents were just as lovely as I had imagined and her mother made the best mayonnaise I’ve ever had. I even got to visit their country house. {They have a country house!}
Cecile took me to a cooking school for lunch where they prepared everything sans gluten. This is what I had!
We visited here …
And here …
And here.
Then, we went to Cecile’s sister’s house for dinner where I had duck for the first time and THIS amazing mousse.
A couple notes: if you’re going to make this recipe with raw eggs, please know the source. And by source, I don’t mean which grocery store. It’s so important when using uncooked protein ingredients to know how the animals were raised, how they are managed and what they eat. Maintaining the health of a flock of chickens is paramount to producing healthy, harmful bacteria-free eggs.
If you aren’t comfortable making this with raw eggs, here’s how to pasteurize them. { http://www.wikihow.com/Pasteurize-Eggs}
- Chocolate Mousse
- 6 eggs, separated
- 225 grams of chocolate, good quality (I used Enjoy Life semi-sweet chips)
- 60 grams butter
- 90 grams sugar, 10x
- Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler.
- Cool to room temperature.
- Add egg yolks to the chocolate mixture once cooled.
- Mix well with whisk.
- Add 10x sugar and mix until smooth.
- In separate bowl, whip egg whites to stiff peaks.
- Add small amount of whites to chocolate mixture and fold in carefully.
- Add remaining egg whites in two batches, folding in each time.
- Pour into bowl and chill for at least 4 hours.
*You will need a kitchen scale for this recipe.