Fresh And Delicious:Tomato Mousse With Basil Sauce

As summer is approaching everybody is looking  for fresh, more vegetable based dishes.
This Mousse is a  recipe  generously shared with me by my friend Isabelle, and is one of my favorites for summer parties.
You can prepare it 1 day in advance, so it's ideal for a relaxed party organization.
It's easy but a bit messy  (at least when I prepare it, maybe you my friends, are more organized :) ) but it's worth it because it literally melts in your mouth  and I bet your guests will love it.

This is what you need:

For the tomato mousse:
250 g ripe, red tomatoes
4 leaves of gelatin
1/2 cup of heavy cream
4 spoonful of tomato ketchup
Salt and pepper
For the Basil sauce:
1 1/2 cup of fresh Basil leaves
1 cup of fresh  flat parsley leaves
3/4 cup of green onion (only the green parts)
2 teaspoon of fresh pressed lemon juice
1 cup of light cream
1/2 cup od sour cream
1/2 teaspoon of sugar
Salt and pepper
Put all  ingredients in the blender and puree them until obtaining a creamy sauce.

Method:
-Clean tomatoes and put them for about 1 minute in boiling water, this will help to peel them easily.

After peeling halve them and remove the seeds,

than quarter them and take out the remaining seeds.

Uff, a lot of seeds have been removed! :)

-Put the tomatoes in a blender and puree them.
-Strain the mixture through a colander. Set aside.

-Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water until soft.

-Warm 1/2 cup of the tomato puree, remove gelatin leaves from water and squeeze out well.
Dissolve them in the warm tomato puree and strain the mixture through a colander  ( to avoid gelatin crumbs)then stir the gelatin tomato mixture well into the tomato puree.

Add ketchup, stir well. Set aside.
Beat heavy cream to soft peaks and add delicately to the tomato mixture.

Add salt and pepper.
Grease 2 3/8 "id (for about 2.75 fluid ounces) ramekin molds with olive oil and fill them with the tomato mixture. If you don't have ramekin molds at hand, see presentation proposal at the second picture below.
-Refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
-Remove from molds and garnish with Basil sauce.

Or serve the mousse  in a Martini glass and top with the Basil sauce

Basil sauce:
1 1/2 cups of fresh Basil leaves
1 cup of fresh flat parsley leaves
3/4 cup of green onion (only the green parts)
1 cup of light cream
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 teaspoon of fresh pressed lemon juice
1 teaspoon of sugar
Salt and pepper
Put all  ingredients in the blender and puree them until obtaining a creamy sauce.
Serves 4,  Enjoy!

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Surprising Sunday

This weekend we decided to make a little excursion to  down town of Lima (centro historico).

During the week it’s a chaotic place, the narrow streets jammed with hawkers trying to sell their goods, cars everywhere and the air  filled with a rather unharmonious concert of  horns.

But Sundays this place belongs to the people that are not  coming to work here, but to the ones that live in the center and life takes a different rhythm.

We encountered a procession and to our surprise there were colorful groups of dancers, dedicating their performance to the “ Senor de Torrechayoq de Urubamba” in whose honor the procession was held.

Following the procession

Joyfully greeting the onlookers

Devoted dancers

 A colorful hat decorated with fresh flowers

A moment of rest

Asking me to pose with them and honoring me with one of the beautiful hats from Cusco.

After all the excitement: Having seafood for lunch at a beachside restaurant.

 The colorful yellow vegetables are glazed sweet potatoes
( here I need you to help me out: Do sweet potatoes count as vegetables???)  , surrounded by different kinds of ceviche and  octopus carpaccio in black olive sauce.

Quite strong tasting, but delicious: Leche de tigre  (Tigers milk)

Is this called “Tigers milk “ because it turns everyone into a tiger after drinking this??

It is actually the  juices from ceviche (fresh pressed lime juice, juices of the fish marinated in lime juice, chilies , cilantro and a shot of vodka!)

Boy, after this you go whether  through the roof or you sleep for 3 days J

Thank you for accompanying me at this surprising Sunday.

See you next Tuesday!

 

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(Nearly) Guilt- Free Pleasure : Apple-Grape Streusel

Desserts and guilt- free are words that do not always go  hand in hand.

Most of the luscious, wonderful desserts I like unfortunately are loaded with cream, chocolate and sugar .

So I started to experiment a bit,  trying to prepare a sweet treat that has more fresh  fruits and less dough and white sugar and still tastes great.

The result was quite a hit among our friends and the gals loved it for tea time!

For the Apple Grape Streusel you need:

1kg (2.2lb)  apples, peeled, cores removed

½ kg (17.6 oz.) red grapes , halved and seeds removed.

2 spoonful lemon juice, freshly squeezed

For the Streusel:

190g (6 oz.) flour
190g (6 oz.) ground almonds
200g (6.4 oz.)  caster sugar
225g (7oz.) butter
1/2 spoonful cinnamon

Preparation:

Halve apples and cut them  in thin slices.

Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Wash grapes carefully, halve and remove seeds.

Combine apple slices and grape halves.

Mix flour, almonds, sugar and cinnamon

Melt the  butter and with the help of 2 forks add bit by bit to the flour-almond-sugar mixture.

The mixture should be crumbly.

Grease a rectangular Pyrex  and add the apple grape combination.

Top with the crumble.

Preheat oven at  200C° (380F)

Bake for about 1/2 hour or until slightly golden brown.

Let cool down and sprinkle with a bit of icing sugar before serving.

Serves 12- 14.

Enjoy!  See you next Tuesday!

The result of a nightly excursion to the fridge :)

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Perfect Fusion: Mango Ceviche Style

Looking for the ideal summer dish?
Mango ceviche style has a suprising combination of flavors, well balanced between sweet and spicy, fruity and fresh.
Ceviche is one of the classics of Peruvian cuisine and a new generation of Chefs is creating amazing variations based on the traditional cuisine , enriching it with new ingredients and combinations.
The traditional ceviche consists of fresh raw fish marinated in lime juice, chilies and onions served wit glazed sweet potatoes and corn.
By now there are so many varieties of ceviche that it's a real challenge to try them out bit by bit.
The Mango Ceviche is delicious as a starter , or a side dish accompanying grilled fish or scallops.
If you combine it with sauté prawns it's perfect for a light summer lunch.
To prepare the Ceviche de Mango
You need:

1 ripe mango
4 -5 spoonful of freshly squeezed lime juice
1 spoonful of freshly grated ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 spoonful finely chopped spring onion (only the green part)
1 spoonful roughly chopped cilantro
Optional: 250 g of sauté prawns ( I used only salt and pepper to season the prawns, no garlic because it would overwhelm the other flavors)
Preparation:
Cut the mango in medium sized cubes.

add the lime juice

the freshly grated ginger

the green part of the spring onions

combine well, cover with cling film and let marinate in the fridge for at least 1/2 hour.
Before serving, sprinkle with fresh cilantro.

 and -optional- mix with sauté prawns.

That's all you need for this amazing dish!
Serves 3-4
Enjoy!
See you next Tuesday.
Note: I apologize for any inconvenience caused by a technical problem that made it difficult to enter the comment box .
Luckily, the problem is  already fixed.
Thanks for your always appreciated comments and interest in  this blog :)

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