French Country Kitchen

I spent most of yesterday (yes, it was a Sunday – I am not kidding when I say this is all I want to do!) in the ICE kitchens with Chef Peter Berley who taught our French Country Kitchen class. Chef Berley was an encouraging and enthusiastic presence in the kitchen, making time to show us some new techniques for ‘smearing’ pastry dough, separating eggs, and making mayonnaise, while we hustled in the kitchen to compose the following menu:

• Vegetable Soup with Pistou – amazing! I will be making this a lot. 
• French Seafood Salad with Homemade Country Mayonnaise – the mustard mayonnaise made all the difference. 
• Gratin Parmentier  – making a return from my previous FFWD experience.
• Quiche Lorraine – bacon!
• Blanquette de Veau – with a sauce veloute. 
• Mini sausage and Onion Pies – with the flakiest pastry and fennel and sausage meat.
• 
• and Chocolate Mousse sabayon-style.

It was a full but a fun day! I had a fantastic team to work with and it was a pleasure to meet Chef Berley and chat to him about his plans for a new farm-to-table culinary school out on Long Island.

I am sharing the recipe for chocolate mousse (sabayon style):

You’ll need:

• 12 oz semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup milk or water
• pinch of salt
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tsp instant espresso dissolved in 1/4 cup water
• optional: 2-3 tbsps Grane Marnier (can substitute in run, chambord would be really nice too)

1. Prepare a bain marie: In a medium saucepan, bring 2 inches of water to a boil and remove from heat. Place the chocolate, milk or water and a pinch of salt in a heatproof bowl and set it on top of the water. Stir occasionally to melt the chocolate evenly. Remove the bowl from the pan.

2. While the chocolate is melting, whip the cream until it holds a soft peak. Cover and reserve, refridgerated.

3. Return the water to the boil. In a heatproof bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk the yolks and sugar by hand. Whisk in the espresso and liqueur, if using. Reduce the heat under the water so it simmers slowly. Place the bowl over the water and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and lightens in color, 5-7 minutes. Whisk by machine until cool and risen in volume, about 5 minutes.

4. To assemble the mousse, whisk the chocolate into the sabayon and fold in the whipped cream. Spoon the mousse into 8 serving bowls and refrigerate about 1 hr before serving.