Raspberry mousse anyone – pink, silky, sexy, smooth mousse?

I watched Mary Berry whizz up a fresh raspberry mousse the other day while I lay idly on the sofa, one eye admiring her ability to look a million dollars in her stunning kitchen, the other keen to keep up with the goings on in and around The Samuri’s Garden. 

Grabbing phone from somewhere under my thigh, and opening NOTES I managed to get the majority of the instructions down (while arguing with auto-correct a few times) as Mary effortlessly showed us how it should be done.

Today I thought about the recipe again and delighted in discovering most of the ingredients were to hand.  I’m pretty sure gelatine sheets are not that essential?  (I know I should be creating the lunch scene between Lucy and Vittorio but they are never far from my thoughts I assure you, and today has been mainly spent carrying out my day job, collecting dirty and delivering clean horse rugs).

Its really rather simple; blend the raspberries, then push the results through a sieve to catch the smooth juice while leaving the pips behind.  Whisk caster sugar with egg yokes til pale and fluffy (are you going to tell them you only have granulated sugar and it never reached the ‘pale’ stage?  No).

Add the raspberry juice to the sugar mix and stir.  In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites.  Amazing this process; always did fascinate me how after a minute or two of effort, be treated to an immense amount of air-filled creation from such a small amount of, well, that peculiar stuff.

Fold this in slowly to the waiting pink treat, fold being the operative word.  Cooks will know about this method of attempting to mix egg whites into something else without knocking out those air bubbles which can easily happen with a fast beating action …. air bubbles rather a necessity in mousse!

Oh Bollocks – forgot to keep a few whole raspberries back for decorating the tops! I think Mary even had mint leaves.   Anyway, this one’s for Patty (who writes rather clever and on-point poems) and is one of my top supporters .. enjoy my lovely xx

I’m thinking that Vittorio, while essential to the plot, will not be Lucy’s love interest.  He’s too … how can I say … too predictable a character with his sports cars and high powered job in Milan.   He’d be perfect methinks for a Mills & Boon story line, fabulous in fact with his moody attitude towards the old vineyard in that beautiful foreign country that is Italy.  He wants nothing to do with a winery and as soon as he was old enough to leave it, he did so.

No … the love interest for Lucy will be someone you won’t expect.  Not 100% sure whom yet, but as I was driving round the country lanes thanking the Lord for snow-free land, it dawned on me that Vittorio could have had a brother, younger than himself and maybe with an issue or two, perhaps been inside but due out soon and in need of work … and where better than? You’ve guessed it!

While dessert is sorted, what shall we eat first?  pffft (I learnt that ‘sound’ from the previous book I read!  Clever author LT Marshall used it two or three times throughout Part 1 of The Carrero Effect, and I loved coming across the letters.  I knew exactly what noise the character was making … a sort of air escaping, forcing its way through closed lips resulting in a faint horse-whicker!)   

I’ve got some old large potatoes that need eating up, will they do?  Yeah … let’s make wedges.

Damn.  Let’s just call them thick chips!  This sea salt, by the way, is amazing.  It’s almost pink and large flakes stick to food in a rather tasty manner.

I threw some cherry tomatoes in with them for the final ten minutes.   Apologies for the lack of elegant photos of the final dish.   Fried eggs sunny side up, slices of ham and these not-so-bad boys.    Man of the Woods (my farming husband for any new readers) dived into the oven tray and ate his portion while spooning coleslaw on top of each forkful because I hadn’t done the eggs at that point.   His ‘window’ to consume tea was approximately 4-5 minutes in-between tractor jobs.   We rarely sit down as a family during busy times like spring when all the crops need to be drilled, or sprayed or fertilised, but this is not a negative.  It keeps me on my toes and there’s never a dull moment.

I was happy to share my afternoon with you but now must return my attention to equestrian wardrobe items.

Have a great evening x

word prompt: foreign

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/foreign/”>Foreign</a&gt;