Blackberry Mousse Recipe

I am slowly getting back into the blogging mood. We had two exceptional meals during our French trip, one by Anne-Sophie Pic, the other by Jacques & Régis Marcon. Both meals deserve their own blog post - and let me tell you that I've been daydreaming about their food since we returned :) However, as we're in the middle of jam-making and pickling season here in Estonia, the food at home has been exceptionally low key and simple.

Blackberries do grow wild in Estonia, but they're nowhere as popular - or well known and easily found - as they are in Britain, for instance. I managed to pick up a punnet of blackberries at the Central Market few days ago. As they're quite an infrequent visitor in our kitchen, I decided to divide the berries into three portions and make three different dishes. The first one up - a simple creamy mousse.

If you're wondering about the hat on the picture, then that's the required chapeau I wore at the wedding in France :)

Blackberry Mousse
(Õhuline põldmarjavaht)
Serves 4

150 g ripe blackberries
40 g sugar (about 1/3 cup)
quarter of a lemon (grated zest and juice)
200 ml whipping cream
1 Tbsp brandy (optional)

Place blackberries, sugar, lemon juice and zest in a large bowl and crush with a back of a wooden spoon.
In another bowl, whish the cream until soft peaks form. Pour over the berries and continue whisking until the mousse is thick and airy. Fold in the brandy.
Spoon the mousse into dessert bowls and garnish with whole blackberries.
Serve at once or chill until ready to serve.

French holiday

Just a quick note to explain the hiatus on this blog. We were in France for a while to attend a French-Russian wedding of some friends in Sauzet, have delicious lunch/dinner/breakfast at Maison Pic in Valence (and meet the most adorable Anne-Sophie Pic in person), enjoy the exquisite food at Régis & Jacques Marcon's restaurant in Saint Bonnet le Froid, and eat couple of those juicy and oh-so-pretty peche de sanguine.

Normal blogging will resume soon.

Redcurrant Meringue Pie

What do you usually do with redcurrants? I always make some redcurrant jelly, and redcurrant juice makes excellent cordial. But there aren't too many redcurrant cake recipes in my cake repertoire, I must admit. I had a recipe for a redcurrant meringue pie that I had picked up several years ago from one of the supermarket recipe stands (Selver, in this case). Several readers of my Estonian site had praised it, but I didn't get around to making it until last week. As usual, I changed some quantities and tweaked the procedure, and was very pleased with the resulting meringue pie. The ruby redcurrants add a lovely spark, the sweet meringue and the slightly sour filling are an excellent match as well.

Redcurrant Meringue Pie
(Beseekattega punasesõstrakook)
Serves 6 to 8



Pastry:
130 g plain/all-purpose flour (250 ml/1 cup)
30 g oats (100 ml)
2 Tbsp sugar
125 cold butter, cut into cubes
2 Tbsp cold water

Filling:
250 g sour cream
3 Tbsp caster sugar
grated zest of half a lemon
150 g redcurrants, cleaned (1 cup)
1 Tbsp potato starch or cornflour

Meringue topping:
2 large egg whites
85 g caster sugar (100 ml)

Pastry: mix the dry ingredients, add cubed butter and pulse couple of times, until the mixture is fine and crumbly. Add the water, pulse again briefly. Press the mixture into a dough, then use your fingers and press the dought into a 26 cm pie dish.
Place to rest in a fridge for 30 minutes, then blind bake at 200 C for 15 minutes.
Reduce the heat to 175 Celsius.
Mix sour cream, sugar and grated lemon zest, spread on pre-baked pie base.
Gently mix potato starch/cornflour with the cleaned redcurrants and sprinkle on top of the cream layer.
Whisk egg whites and sugar until thick and white, then spread over the filling (or, for an even prettier effect, use a piping bag).
Bake at 175 C oven for about 15 minutes, until the meringue is light golden brown.