Tippy decided to be a dessert-mistress for a farewell retirement party at work. In other words, I’ll be acting as the assistant chef in the kitchen.

For one of the desserts, we decided to make a white chocolate mousse topped with mango sorbet. We’ve never really contemplated a mousse before, and had only a vague sense of the procedures from being food network junkies. But alas, we trudged forward using a rather simple recipe.

Chocolate mousse is a mixture of cream, gelatin, eggs, and chocolate. The result should be a light and airy chocolate concoction that is well suited for many dessert applications.

From our first mousse making experience, we found that there are two tricky points. The first is the whipping of the cream to form soft peaks. The stages of whipping heavy cream are: soft peaks, whipped cream, and butter. It’s really easy to miss the soft peak stage and head directly into whipped cream. This is not what we want for our mousse. The soft peak stage is really where all the air and lightness comes from. The picture on the right is what the peaks should look like. When lifting the hand mixer, soft peaks should form on the mixing blade. The peaks should be stiff enough to stand on their own.

If you end up going too far, you might as well make honey butter. Drizzle some honey on the cream, and keep mixing until the desired butter consistency is reached. This is perfect on warm biscuits or muffins for breakfast.

The second tricky point is to make sure not to overchill the chocolate before being introduced to the cream. This can result in making the mousse too heavy. The correct consistency should be thick, but not so thick that it won’t drip off your spoon.

The following recipe is adapted from the Surreal Gourmet

Ingredients
3/4 tsp unflavored gelatin
8 oz baker’s chocolate, chopped into teeny weenie bits
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream, divided
1 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure
In a small bowl, add 3 tablespoons water. Sprinkle gelatin over the top and let stand for 5 minutes.

In a medium heatproof bowl, add chocolate.

In a small pot, bring 1/2 cup of the cream to a boil. Add gelatin and vanilla and stir for 30 seconds. Pour cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until chocolate thickens, but still falls off a spoon.

In a stand mixer or large bowl, whip remaining 1-cup cream until it can form stiff peaks. Using a rubber spatula, gently but thoroughly fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Return to refrigerator for 2 hours, or until it has set.

I used to be very addicted to Indo Mie, especially their instant mee goreng. It’s basically a traditional Indonesian fried noodle dish with fried onions and glutamated soy sauce. My mom was born and raised in Indonesia, and introduced me to the spicy world of Indonesian food. Along with this came the instant foods as well.

As with all instant foods, Indo Mie’s packets of love are stuffed full of palm oil and lard. These things aren’t exactly the hallmark of healthful eating. I used to eat these almost everyday, but that’s when I was under 23 and invincible. Okay, so maybe I’m still a little invincible, but not for long.

Time for some real homemade Mee Goreng. It doesn’t really matter which recipe you follow. There are two main elements in this dish that will catapult it to ultimate savoriness: the ketjap manis, and the fried onions.

So what exactly is ketjap manis? It’s the thick sweet soy sauce that comes in those little packets. This is very simple to make. Grab about a tablespoon or two of soy sauce and about the same amount of brown sugar and heat on a low simmer in a saucepan. Throw in some stalks of green onion and ginger as well. The key is to heat it to the right thickness. You don’t want it to thin, or the sauce won’t properly coat the noodles. Also, don’t get it too thick or you’ll burn it. The right consistency is a little thicker than maple syrup.

The second thing not to miss out on is the fried onions. You can grab these at your local Asian supermarket. If you can’t find it, just make some at home. Just finely chop up some onions and caramelize in a pan. Keep caramelizing until it’s crispy. That’s it.

After making the sauce and onions, you’re 90% to freshly made Mee Goreng. Now, decide what else you want to go in the noodles. Some good ideas are chicken, tofu, or bell peppers. The sky’s the limit. Simply stir fry this with your cooked Asian noodles (any will do) and the fried onions with plenty of peanut oil to prevent sticking. Next, pour the ketjap manis over the noodles and mix thoroughly. Serve as quickly as possible, since the noodles will tend to become very sticky after sitting out. A fried egg sunnyside up is traditionally placed on top for the final finish.

Eating my own Mee Goreng brought back many memories. I just wish I knew how easy it was to make it fresh. Trust me, it’s ten times better than the package.