Semi frozen lemon mousse with blueberry swirl and drinks.

This is a continuation of the Saganaki post - it was all one evenings dining but I felt that the food deserved it's own entry........

So I was busy at work and feeling that it was a waste of money to buy a dessert to take over when I could buy ingredients and make one. I had an hour and half at home to make one before I was meant to be at dinner, so I got thinking. Quick desserts? Summer desserts? Lemon mousse came to mind. On the way home I picked up cream and lemons and blueberries, because blueberries go so well with lemon. Thankfully we now have internet because the first thing I did was Google 'lemon mousse' and browse through some recipes for a good one, and a fast one. Epicurious had the answer. Though my half dozen eggs weren't enough for the recipe (yikes!) so I ran back out to buy more and got cracking on dessert.

It was really easy.

1 cup sugar ( I only had brown sugar and I used just under a cup because I don't like things too sweet)

3/4 cup lemon juice

1 1/2tbsp lemon zest

6 yolks

2 eggs

Mix these in a metal bowl over simmering water. Whisk until it thickens and the internal temperature is 160degrees (this took longer than I thought it would and at one point I thought about taking it off early but it did eventually reach the temp). Cool and whisk occasionally. I cooled it by sitting it in some cold water in the sink initially and then putting it in the fridge. Time was of the essence to me.

You also beat 1 1/2 cups of cream.

Once the lemon curd mixture is cool, add a small amount of the whipped cream to it to lighten it and then add the rest and fold it in. It is so beautiful, this light yellow with streaks of darker yellow where it didn't mix in. The Epicurious recipe has you serve the mousse with whipped cream on top and then fruit. I decided otherwise.

I had blueberries to go with it. In my mind I was going to gently cook them and make a form of coulis which I would drizzle into the mousse and swirl it around and it would look beautiful with the dark purple streaking through the yellows. I put half a pint of berries in a small pan with the juice of half a lemon and a spoon of sugar and let them come to the boil then simmer for a minute or so. Then I mashed them with a potato masher! And put the pan in the freezer for rapid cooling.

I wasn't sure what adding this liquidy stuff (once it was cool!) would do to my mousse but anyway. I made pockets in the mousse and dropped some blueberry stuff in and then dragged it around with a knife in swirls. It pretty much went through the whole dish which was fine. It ended up in the freezer at dinner through lack of space on the fridge and when we ate it it was semi frozen. I had taken it out and mixed it a few times as you would if you were making ice cream. It was amazing, even though I say so myself. There is something to be said about fresh lemons and berries in a creamy, cold form. It was still tart and crisp.

We had dessert with a drink of Xante, which is pear and vanilla flavoured Congnac.

It is so delicious, but really strong, I managed a few sips of it, then traded it off for some more dessert!

Krista has these frozen champagne grapes in the freezer which were great as ice cubes or as decoration.

We rounded out the evening with tea. Mulberry Magic tea from Davids' Tea. If you ever thought that there was a limited variety of tea you were wrong, this place has walls and walls of teas, full of flowers and fruit and all kinds of things. This one is mulberry leaves and macadamia nuts and it was divine. It almost tasted sweet, from the nuts, which is my one complaint with those kinds of teas, that they don't taste the way they smell. But this one did.

Me thinks a trip to Davids' Tea is in the forseeable future. This was fine dining at it's finest. All el fresco with candles and beautiful china! What a treat!