I found this nifty little site some while ago and bookmarked it for a morning just like this one. My cupboard is indeed bare. I need to go the grocery store, but who has time? Where are the errand-elves when you need them? Heh. Not to worry! Cookingbynumbers.com offers recipe ideas for the items you have on hand.
This morning, I checked these items: coffee, eggs, and chocolate. Guess what? That's 100% of the ingredients needed to make chocolate mousse:
Chocolate Mousse
(a la cookingbynumbers)
4 eggs
200 g/7 oz chocolate, grated
5 tbsp hot strong coffee
Separate the eggs, whisk whites until stiff. Grate chocolate and add in hot coffee to melt the chocolate (heat gently if it needs more melting). Whisk in the egg yolks.
Fold egg whites into the chocolate mix.
Decant into a bowl or individual bowls and refrigerate to chill.
Can it really be that easy? I've avoided chocolate mousse all this time because I thought it was too hard... too much of a 3-dot recipe for this one-dot cook to even try. But this... well, howleelooya, I'm gonna give this a try.
cookingbynumbers.com even has a "how-to" skills list, for things like brule, folding, piping and separating an egg. Unfortunately, there's no description there for decanting, so I'll have to figure that one out elsewhere. Hey, maybe someday I'll graduate and become a two-dot cook! Pics to follow.
UPDATE: I can't imagine why anybody in their right mind would actually try to hand whisk egg whites to stiffness. Your arm could fall off. You could grow old! Or both!! Go electric, that's my advice. This recipe wasn't bad, I was pretty pleased with it. A dollop of unsweetened whipped cream was just the thing. Next time, I would probably use a tad bit of flavoring, maybe almond or orange extract.
I need to pause and say thanks to those folx who emailed and wondered about my blog-absence . You know who you are, and you're much appreciated! :)