It was a sofa that inspired this mousse cake! I saw it in the window of a shop in Singapore selling chic modern Chinese furniture and clothing. It was my recent fixation on the bamboo green colour that attracted me to this sofa. As I stood there admiring it, my mind translated the green cushions into matcha mousse and the dark black wood frame into dark chocolate and azuki beans.

Back in my London kitchen, I started to think about the various components of this mousse cake. I thought that to match the rich grassy creaminess of the matcha mousse, I needed a correspondingly dense sponge. Most sponge used in mousse cakes is simply made from flour, eggs, sugar and butter. But, inspired by the financier I tasted in Tokyo – a financier is a bit like a madeleine – I thought, why not use hazelnuts as well? For further texture and flavour, I decided to add a chocolate mousse layer.

As for the azuki beans, I was taught by my mother to make azuki bean paste the Chinese way: boil the beans in water, drain, pass through muslin cloth and then fry with sugar and shallot-infused oil till completely dry. The shallots give a very interesting sweet aroma that carries the sugar caramel well.

However, I was concerned the slight oiliness of the bean paste might not work in the chocolate sponge. So I simply cooked the beans in sugar syrup in the Japanese way and candied them in the syrup until I was ready to use them. I pureed some of the azuki beans and added them to the chocolate sponge, saving some beautifully candied beans for decoration and for putting in together with the chocolate ganache.

Making the matcha mousse is easy. I whipped up a batch of creme chantilly and added the sifted matcha powder and then the gelatine in a sugar syrup made from glucose and water. It is strange that when ever I use gelatine in a mousse cake, I imagine I hear the voice of a friend who said that using animal-based gelatine in patisserie is quite disgusting. Not that I find it disgusting but I just find it amusing that one’s mind can form such a strong association with a mere throwaway comment.

I think I am not straying too far off in terms of flavour profiles. The chocolate and azuki beans complement each other well and both of them provide a depth of bitterness and sweetness against the slight green grassy taste of matcha in the mousse. The whole beans in the chocolate mousse also provide an additional textural contrast to the mousse and the moist chocolate sponge.

I made extra mousse cakes so as to try out different shaped mousse rings I purchased in Tokyo’s ‘kitchen street’ last year. To decorate them I used chocolate Chinese five-spice macaroons, candied azuki beans and a simplified version of the Chinese symbol for ‘longevity’ (that was on the original sofa in that shop window) piped in white chocolate.

Let me know what you think!

Pei
pei@teanamu.com
~~ sip a good brew, steal a slice of tranquility, glimpse a lingering fragrance, gladden the heart and refresh the mind ~~

Before I start my tea culinary experimentation, I think it’s high time I share with you the identity of two very important ladies, without whose support and contribution my dishes, cakes and desserts would not taste anywhere near as nice.

Their names are Aretha and Martina. Aretha’s the fusspot, with a certain queenly arrogance, and a fussy and demanding way with food. Martina’s the gentle one. She’s easy to please, and quite shy with me, whereas Aretha’s not at all afraid to come near whenever I approach.

Aretha and Martina are my Miss Pepperpot hens, and together they supply me with the freshest, most wonderful eggs, practically every day.

Aretha laid her first egg a month after Martina in late November 2008, and has always been a little behind in her growth. Martina’s eggs are consistently large while Aretha’s are variable, though still beautiful. Variability in size, of course, makes using the eggs in recipes a little dangerous sometimes, but it’s well worth the risk for the taste, which is greatly superior to mass-produced supermarket eggs.

Aretha and Martina aren’t fond of the layer pellets and mash which are supposed to be their staple food. So instead, every morning before 7, I give them a big bowl of fresh, finely chopped vegetables – their favourites are beansprouts, brussels, broccoli and spinach – combined with leftover cooked soya beans, rice, pasta or wholemeal toast with marmite. In the late morning, they have mixed corn and barley, which they love (and it makes the yolks of their eggs even more yellow!) In the afternoon they get quartered grapes and dried mealworms as a treat. Every few days they also get a mixture of grit with oyster shells, a few crushed eggshells (for the calcium), mineral supplements for their water and for their food, a dash of garlic powder and some special bran called ‘bokashi’. I’m afraid to say they’re really quite pampered!

At least now I’ve re-learned how to get up at the crack of dawn, which I haven’t done since army days!

I needed egg whites this week to make special macaroons to use for decorating two different cakes which I will be making and blogging about.

I recall Chef Pascal at Cordon Bleu telling me that, to make really good macaroons, he prefers slightly ‘matured’ egg whites. In the good old days, he said, when salmonella was virtually unheard of, pâtisserie chefs would keep a bucket of egg whites out in the open, covered with a lid, quietly maturing. It makes the egg whites easier to whisk and the final product much tastier.

Personally, I don’t keep mine outside but in little containers in my freezer, each one of which holds enough egg white for a batch of macaroons.

I’ve written in an earlier blog about the Slow Movement and the virtues of patience and of taking things at just the right pace. The process of making macaroons is definitely something which can’t be rushed. The egg whites should be a little mature. Then after piping you need to wait for the macaroons’ surface or ‘skin’ to dry before you put them in the oven. Being delicate, you have to wait by the oven for 12-14 minutes for them to be baked just right – with a perfect crust and a chewy centre.

I was visiting my mom last Chinese New Year. She was simmering her special tea-spiced eggs (subject of another blog!) and the smell of Chinese five spice permeated the flat. I was enjoying some chocolate-covered sunflower seeds and milky tea while chit-chatting with her, and the sweet taste of the chocolate mingled with the aroma of the Chinese five spice. That’s when the idea came to me to flavour macaroons with Chinese five spice and chocolate, I noted it down in my little scrapbook, and the memory of this came back to me when I was brainstorming ideas for a cake for Marcus and Nicky’s joint “Big Five-0” birthday party. I wanted to make a yummy chocolate-based cake and needed something extra special to decorate it with.

The macaroons will probably be filled with a white chocolate and matcha ganache or else a dark chocolate and Chinese five-spice ganache. I think I will use the latter filling for decorating the chocolate cake, while the macaroons with white chocolate and matcha ganache can be used on a mousse cake which I also hope to make this week. I will write about both cakes in future postings.

Warmly,

Pei
pei@teanamu.com
~~ sip a good brew, steal a slice of tranquility, glimpse a lingering fragrance, gladden the heart and refresh the mind ~~