Strawberry Mousse - Valentine's Day Special

One of my favourite Carry On films is Carry on up the Khyber featuring Joan Sims as Lady Ruff Diamond. In a fabulous scene, she and Sir Sidney are entertaining the vicar and other worthies to lunch.  As full-scale warfare escalates outside, the officers try to make their excuses to leave and take part. Throwing bits of ceiling out of her cleavage "I seem to be a little plastered", she tells them they can't go just yet, they haven't had their strawberry mousse....  Not a suitable sentiment for Valentine's Day, but strawberry mousse is definitely worth risking bombardment for.

Especially for Valentine's Day, a delicious pudding is a perfect way to show that music may be the food of love, but a good pudding goes straight to the heart!

Valentine's Day Strawberry Mousse

Strawberry Mousse

(this recipe makes enough for 6 people, so put the rest aside and eat it another time!)  I have used frozen strawberries as they give a deeper colour, and used fresh to decorate. 

1 ½ lbs/700g strawberries

2tbsp icing sugar

juice of 1 orange

3 large eggs, separated

4oz/110g caster sugar

(1tbsp)1 sachet of gelatine (or four leaves)

1 pint/450ml double cream softly whipped (or 2/3 double, 1/3 single)

If using frozen strawberries, allow to defrost.  Purée the strawberries in a food processor or blender, adding the icing sugar and orange juice.  At this point, you could sieve the juice to get rid of the pips, but it isn’t vital.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl, adding the caster sugar, and keep going until they are thick, pale and have increased in volume.  Soften the gelatine with 3tbsp water  in a saucepan and heat until the gelatine has dissolved (if you use leaf gelatine, soften the gelatine in water, squeeze out and add to the warm water).  Leave it until it has started to set (ie, coast the back of a metal spoon) and then stir it into the mousse before folding in the whipped cream.  Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold them into the mousse using a metal spoon.   I always put a tablespoonful in first to loosen the texture of the mousse before adding the rest.  Pour into two heart-shaped bowls, and the rest into a serving bowl and chill until set.   

This can be made a day or two in advance, but is best eaten at room temperature.    Decorate with strawberries and cream.  I kept aside some of the purée to decorate these.