I'm Rich Harris, and welcome back to my Simply Gourmet series, where I'll be showing you
how to take the fear out of entertaining, and take your dinner parties to the next level.
In this episode I'm showing you how to make a luxurious goat's cheese mousse, with a warm
pickled beetroot salad.
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So the first thing I need to do is whisk up some egg whites.
So I've got two egg whites and a pinch of salt.
I need to whisk those to stiff peaks.
That's what we're looking for, nice, stiff peaks that hold up really, really well.
So just scrape those into a bowl.
So into our mixing bowl I've got 200 grams of soft goat's cheese.
Make sure you use the rindless goat's cheese, it's nice and soft and smooth, and to that
I'm adding a hundred mills of double cream.
For a full list of ingredients, check the description box.
I'm just going to whisk that nice and slowly, just so the cream and goat's cheese are combined
and nice and smooth.
As they start to combine you can whisk a little bit harder.
So now that those are combined, we need to add some milk.
I've got some milk just gently warming on the stove, and to this I'm going to add a
sheet of gelatin, and that's going to help to set the mousse, and also to set and trap
all the air that we're going to keep in there.
Just one leaf of gelatin that's been soaking in cold water for about ten minutes.
Squeeze out the excess moisture, add it to the milk, and just give it a gentle swirl
around, just to melt that gelatin into the milk.
I'm just going to pour that in with the goat's cheese and cream,
and just whisk again, nice and slowly.
So that's what we're looking for, nice and smooth.
I'm just going to add the goat's cheese, about a third at a time.
First though we're going to really beat it.
Fold the egg whites in a third at a time, keeping in as much air as possible, to give
it a really nice light goat cheese mousse.
So the egg whites are folded in.
It's really luxurious and smooth.
All that's left to do is pour it into a bowl and transfer it to the fridge for about an
hour to an hour and a half, just to chill until set.
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Now to go with the Goat's Cheese Mousse, I'm going to a do a really simple warm Pickled
Beetroot Salad.
So I've got some shop bought cooked beetroot, and that just needs to be cut into diced cubes.
Because this is such a simple dish, we want to keep everything looking really pretty,
so just chop the rest of the beetroot into nice, even cubes.
So now that our beetroot is ready we need to heat up some sugar and sherry vinegar in
a pan.
Sherry vinegar and beetroot are a match made in heaven, really nice and sweet but sharp
as well.
I just need plenty of sherry vinegar, and a spoonful of sugar.
You can always adjust the flavors to taste.
A pinch of salt,
and then add the beetroot.
As the beetroot is already cooked, it just needs warming through, so just cook gently
for a couple of minutes and then strain the beetroot off,
and then pour the liquid back into the pan,
and just reduce it for another couple of minutes until it's really nice and sticky.
When you're cooking out vinegar like this, it can be quite potent, but don't worry, it
will taste great against the goat's cheese.
So that's what we're looking for.
So just reduce the heat and set aside.
So the goats cheese mousse has set nice and firm, and is going to be really light and
smooth and creamy.
I've also made some little croutons: all I've done is slice half of a baguette, brushed
it with a bit of oil, and baked it in the oven until it's nice and crisp.
So to our warm beetroot, we just need to add some tarragon.
This is something you want to do right at the last minute because the warmth of the
beetroot will actually wilt the leaves of the tarragon.
Because this is such a simple dish and there are some really vibrant colors, we want everything
to sing on the plate.
So when plating up, we need to make it look as good as we can.
So just take a small bit of goat cheese mousse,
take one of the croutons, and that will stick it in place.
Then take a hot spoon and just drag it through the goat's cheese mousse, and sit it on top.
Add another crouton,
and then just a nice little spoonful of our beetroot.
And now just a little bit of watercress for an extra bit of color,
and finally, some of that nice reduction we made on there.
So there you have it: my Goat's Cheese Mousse with Warm PIckled Beetroot and Watercress.
If you've enjoyed this recipe, I hope to see you back in the kitchen again soon for another
episode of my Simply Gourmet Series.
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