Mango mousse with a Basil center, Spinach sponge, fried Spinach and Basil and a Lemon crumble
A tomato and strawberry cocktail was something that I thought would be interesting to taste. These two ingredients really are a beautiful pair especially in salads. If you haven’t tried it I’m not sure what you are waiting for!
I stumbled upon this drink recipe from an Instagram page More Savory Goods run by Lance Wong. This drink is a non alcoholic one, I wanted to try something new and also offer something to the sober people out there. So here we go!
This cocktail has is a clarified drink, I’m not a mixologist but I felt confident going into it after my first attempt at making the Matcha Dame Blanche in my previous pairing
I had to tweak the recipe a bit for this cocktail as I was using what I had in my pantry.
The alterations that I made to the recipe to suit my pantry was using matcha instead of bagged green tea. Matcha is still green tea, just a more concentrated version of it, so I used 20g of matcha to 100g of water.
I had dried bay leaves so I soaked them in the hot tea to soften and release their flavour into the liquid
Once the tea had cooled down I fished out the bay leaves and blended them with the tomato and strawberry mixture
I found that one coffee filter wasn’t enough to hold it so I had to use two or use a strainer to hold the coffee filter to prevent it from breaking, had having to start the whole filtering process again
The taste of the drink is quite different, I haven’t had anything like it before. It smells quite sweet like candy. The kitchen was just filled with that sweet smell while I was filtering it. The taste of the cocktail is however a bit tomato forward in my opinion with the matcha flavour follows with a touch of the strawberry.
This is a drink that can be seasoned to bring either the strawberry or tomato forward but using salt or sugar. I had tasted it without any seasoning.
Basil was the first thing that came to mind when I was tasting the cocktail. That’s a herb that works well with both the strawberry and tomato. I definitely wanted to mould the dessert since I got recently bought them, so a making a mousse was something I was that was just out of the question.
After some much research of what ingredients work with each other I settled on these three Basil, Mango and Spinach. This really pushed me to think outside of the box and it was some journey, a lot of procrastination when it came to putting it all together. It’s one of those moments where your worried that what makes sense in your head won’t make sense once it all comes together.
The reason why I chose these ingredients, I didn’t want to have a typically sweet dessert especially with this cocktail. I wanted to bring out the smoothness out of the drink so a mango mousse is what I decided to go with. The freshness of the mango and the mousse texture would work well with the cocktail.
Mango mousse
Ingredients
- Mango Puree 200g
- Sugar 75g
- Egg Yolks 5
- Gelatin Powder 12g
- Cream 300g
Directions
- Whip 250g of your cream and them store in the fridge till you’re ready to use it .
- Bloom your gelatin with the 50g of cream you set aside. place it one aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
- Cream your egg yolks and sugar over a double boiler till thick and pale in colour.
- Melt your gelatin in your egg mixture as well as your mango puree
- Sieve the mixture and then fold in your whipped cream.
- Contact wrap your mousse to prevent a skin from forming and store in the fridge to set
- Paddle the with a machine of with a spatula and its ready for use
Once I had my mousse ready I place it in my silicon molds along with a Basil center that I had made before hand.
The basil center at room temp is little more liquid, I wanted it to have a slightly different texture to the the mousse
It’s made of Basil of course and some water and sugar with a touch of gelatin so that it can set slightly. That’s the center of the dessert that adds a nice herby flavour that compliments the of the components of the dessert as well as the cocktail.
To make the basil center you will place 40g of Basil into the pot with 250g of water and 40g of sugar. Cook it for a few minutes and let the basil flavour infuse into the water. Blend it and then place in back into the pot to melt your gelatin
You will then add your bloomed 5g of gelatin and let that melt then you will strain and place it into your molds to set.
Spinach sponge
I wanted to add the spinach to the sponge because I thought it would carry the flavour pretty well. I altered one of our sponge recipes to make this work and it really came out tasting so delicious and giving beautiful green colour as well
Ingredients
- Flour 1 1\2 cups
- Sugar 1\2 cups
- Baking Soda 1 tsp
- Oil 1\3 cups
- A splash of vinegar
- Vanilla Essence
- Cream 1\2 cup
- Spinach 7\8 leaves
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 160 degrees
- Combine your sugar, oil, vinegar, vanilla, in a bowl and set that aside while you prepare your spinach and cream.
- Put your cream and spinach in a pot and cook your spinach down.
- Blend it till smooth and then strain to ensure that there aren’t any strands in the end result
- You will then add the spinach puree to the bowl of ingredients
- Add your flour and baking soda and mix to combine
- Put it in your rectangle tray and let it bake for 20-25 minutes
- Once it’s baked let it cool on a tray
- Once cooled it’s ready to be enjoyed
The spinach taste isn’t intense and is subtle with a slight sweetness. It’s moist and fluffy, this would be great to make some muffins and some cream cheese icing.
Fried Basil and Spinach
I wanted to add some texture to the dish so frying these two ingredients was the best decision. The taste was just delicious, it has a slightly toasted taste. I sprinkled sugar on it so that it would season the drink and bring out the strawberry in the cocktail.
Frying the Basil and Spinach was really an experience, it left quite the mess but definitely worth it in the end. Just be careful and wear long sleeves to prevent any burns from the splattering oil.
To try and maintain the crispiness store in an airtight container, it won’t hold for long about a day or so, it’s more enjoyable when its freshly made. Keep that in mind when you preparing the garnish
The flavours of this dessert in combination with the cocktail really just creates a whole new experience
It changed the taste of the drink bringing the strawberry forward, and creating a nice mouth feel with the smoothness of the mousse and the milk in the cocktail. The fried basil and spinach add a nice crunch and flavour that shines through and the flavour hits after.
I had some leftover lemon infused crumble that I added for extra texture, freshness and slight colour. You could do without but its a nice touch
This definitely a little out of the box but it was very enjoyable
My little forest just tasting oh so delicious.
Let me know in the comments what you guys think of this pairing and it’s something that you would try!
