Chocolate & Strawberry Mousse

Delicious Naturally Sweetened Chocolate & Strawberry Mousse

When strawberries are in season, I could eat them every day to a band playing. The organic strawberries from our local farmers market are sweet and delicious. Like the resot of the berries strawberries are packed with antioxidants and are also great for our skin. At the end of the recipes I have posted some information for you to read about agar-agar and kuzu. Two fantastic ingredients that I use in these recipes but they may be new to you. Both of these ingredients are so versatile and beneficial to your health. You may of course make these recipes individually but they do go especially well togethere. Be creative, top with some chilled oat cream, roasted nuts or some fresh mint leaves.

Chocolate Mousse
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons arrowroot powder or kuzu
1-½ cups of almond milk
Seeds from one vanilla pod
¼ cup brown rice syrup
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch of sea salt
Form a paste by combining arrowroot or kuzu and water in a cup. Whisk all the ingredients including the arrowroot or kuzu mixture in a small saucepan and continue stirring until mixture comes to a slow boil and starts to thicken. Remove from the heat and pour into small glass serving cups. Leave to cool for ten minutes then top with the strawberry mousse and chill in the fridge.

Strawberry Mousse
2 cups strawberries (washed and halved)
2 cups rice milk
2 cups apple juice
6 tbsp agar-agar flakes
Pinch of salt
4 tbsp arrowroot or kuzu
½ cup rice syrup

In a small pot bring to boil apple juice and rice milk, adding the salt and agar-agar, stirring occasionally. Simmer for 5 minutes or until flakes melt. Dissolve the arrowroot or kuzu in a few table spoons of cold water, slowly stir it in the boiling mixture and cook for a few minutes and then add the rice syrup. Place the strawberries in a flat baking dish, pour the hot liquid on top and let it cool. When set,transfer to a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Scoop several sponsfuls on top of the chocolate mousse. Chill in the refrigerator. Serve decorated with mint leaves and fresh strawberries.

Agar-agar is made from seaweed and is used as a gelling agent to replace gelatine in jellies. Agar-agar’s natural gelling ability, mild flavour, and total lack of calories have made it a favourite with health-conscious and vegetarian cooks around the world. Even at room temperature, it sets quickly as it cools, and seals in the natural flavour and sweetness of any fruits and vegetables used. And it has the benefit of naturally high fibre content. Agar-agar is a vegetable gelatine that appeals to vegans because true gelatine is generally made from calf’s feet.

Kuzu
Macrobiotic home remedies based on kuzu drinks are widely used, as they help in a number of common ailments.
These are made from the starch of kuzu, a gigantic root that is bigger than an average man, typically growing to about 100 kg per root. It is widely used in both traditional Japanese and Chinese medicine. Kuzu has to be dug by hand – during winter when the energy of the kuzu plant is concentrated in the root. The starch is extracted by natural methods and the entire process takes 120 days. A good brand is Clearspring, whose kuzu is made according to traditional methods, and is 100 per cent pure. Cheap kuzu is usually mixed with potato starch and it won’t have the same healing properties.

In contrast, arrowroot starch has in the past been quite extensively adulterated with potato starch and other similar substances, so care is needed in selection and buying. Pure arrowroot, like other pure starches, is a light, white powder (the mass feeling firm to the finger and crackling like newly fallen snow when rubbed or pressed), odourless when dry, but emitting a faint, peculiar odour when mixed with boiling water, and swelling on cooking into a perfect jelly, which can be used to make a food for vegetarians very smooth in consistency — unlike adulterated articles, mixed with potato flour and other starches of lower value, which contain larger particles.

My personal preference is to use kuzu for it’s amazing nutritive and abilitites to neutralize acid.

In good health
Marlene x
There are over 200 recipes in my book Macrobiotics for all Seasons available on my website www.marlenewatsontara.com