{"id":906,"date":"2010-01-14T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-14T08:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2010\/01\/14\/a-nasty-habit"},"modified":"2016-02-15T21:49:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-16T02:49:57","slug":"a-nasty-habit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2010\/01\/a-nasty-habit\/","title":{"rendered":"A nasty habit"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have many important things to tell you.<\/p>\n

1. I\u2019m doing a podcast! I intended to tell you about this a week ago, but there\u2019s been an illness in my family, and I\u2019ve been away, and it hasn\u2019t been a lot of fun, so, you know, let\u2019s talk about that podcast. It\u2019s called Spilled Milk<\/a>, and I co-host it with my friend Matthew Amster-Burton<\/a>. Every time we record an episode, Matthew makes me laugh until I snort, cry, hyperventilate, and\/or hoot like an owl, and I hope our show does the same for you. The first episode is on the topic of fried eggs, and you can listen or download it \u2013 free<\/span>! \u2013 through the Spilled Milk website<\/a>, or through iTunes<\/a>. The second episode, on winter squash, will be released a week from today, on January 21.<\/p>\n

2. Yes! That\u2019s a new banner up there! It had been the same for three years, and those orangettes were stale<\/span>. So, in honor of winter, I give you a head of cabbage instead. When spring comes, we can switch to artichokes, I\u2019m thinking, or asparagus. Maybe rhubarb. It\u2019s going to be exciting.<\/p>\n

3. I love this chocolate mousse. Loved it, rather.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI seem to have a nasty habit of writing about rich foods<\/a> in January, right on the heels of the holidays. I\u2019m sorry about that. Even I<\/span> don\u2019t want to hear about chocolate mousse right now. But I love this recipe, so I\u2019m going to write about it anyway, and even if you are totally chocolated-out, or desserted-out, or avoiding sweets as a New Year\u2019s resolution, or whatever, I strongly recommend that you bookmark it for future use. It\u2019s my go-to chocolate mousse. I think everyone should have a go-to chocolate mousse. It\u2019s not hip, nor has it been for about a million years, but it never goes out of style, either. It\u2019s the Audrey Hepburn of desserts. Only fatter. Or fattier? You know what I mean.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember how or where I was introduced to chocolate mousse, but I remember eating an alarming amount of it when my parents took me to Paris as a kid. There was a restaurant called Claude Sainlouis, I think, around the corner from our hotel, and though we were only in town for ten days, we went there twice, mainly because I was obsessed with their chocolate mousse. The first night, the host sat us in the back dining room, hidden behind a partition. The main dining room bustled, but ours was empty, quiet as a church. I remember my parents saying that we\u2019d been put there because we were foreigners: we\u2019d been sniffed out, ghettoized, hurried away from the French-speaking diners. It was a terrible feeling. I\u2019m not sure why we went back, but I must have begged convincingly for the mousse, because we did. And the second night, miracle of miracles, the host smiled at us, a tiny smile of recognition. He showed us to a table in the main dining room. My father beamed. It was a great night. I ate steak frites<\/span> and mousse au chocolat<\/span>. I don\u2019t know that the mousse was anything special, but I loved it. I was 10 years old, and my feelings about chocolate mousse were much like my feelings about ice cream: good or bad, it was AWESOME. The restaurant is still there, I think, although I haven\u2019t been back. I looked it up on Google Street View, and the awning looks much classier than I remember. Who knows.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAnyway, I do love chocolate mousse. And this year, when we were planning a Christmas Eve dinner with a few friends, I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about it. I\u2019ve tried a few chocolate mousse recipes over the years, some better and some worse, and this time, I decided to use one that had been skulking around my clippings folder untried, a recipe from Cook\u2019s Illustrated<\/span>. (I also made Dorie Greenspan\u2019s extraordinary lemon<\/a> tart<\/a>, because I am apparently into total excess, and because it really is extraordinary.)<\/p>\n

The thing about this mousse recipe, to put it simply, is that it\u2019s perfect<\/span>. Some mousses are dense and sticky, like a ganache truffle. Others are foamy, almost frothy, with the mouthfeel of a marshmallow. This one sits squarely, happily, in the middle. It\u2019s soft and creamy, light but substantial. It\u2019s also not too sweet. It\u2019s deep and dark and complex, spiked with enough coffee and booze to complement the chocolate, but not compete with it. As I recently heard Brandon\u2019s aunt say of her son\u2019s new girlfriend, I think it\u2019s The One.<\/span> It\u2019s a keeper.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nJust a single caution: see this teacup? It\u2019s a standard size, as teacups go, but people, that was a LOT of mousse. Do not fill your teacups like I filled my teacups. Do not. The amount of whipped cream on top, however, was spot-on.<\/p>\n\n

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Recipe<\/div>\n

Chocolate Mousse<\/h2>\n

Adapted from Cook\u2019s Illustrated, 2006<\/h3> \n \n <\/header>\n\n
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