Mango Mousse

A personal favorite of mine. Nothing beats this rich and creamy, yet refreshing desert. I've used fresh mangoes as a garnish. You can vaguely see the letters ARF inscribed in the mousse; this is because we were having a food competition at work and I wanted extra brownie points for having the company name included in our food. Just an FYI, ARF stands for the Advertising Research Foundation. If you are interested in advertising, and advertising research, check out their website. Your company may be a member of the ARF and you might not even know it!

A guide for garnishes: don't ever garnish something that is not edible, does not enhance the dish and/or not reflect something from the dish you've just made. For example, a big stick of rosemary used as a garnish for a steak dinner is not good. You can't really eat a sprig of raw rosemary. Another example would be putting a couple of mint leaves on an apple tart. The mint may look nice, but it does not give the eater a chance to guess what flavors they might be about to experience. A good garnish could be strawberries on top of a cake that has some sort of strawberry jam in the middle. Or you could sprinkle pasta with fresh chopped parsley or basil leaves so long as they were included in your sauce.

But back to the mousse. As you will soon see, this recipe is very simple. One of the keys to making this recipe a success is the presentation. Due to the lack of dishes I have at my apartment, I had to use a large corningware dish, which, lets be honest, is not ideal. This desert would look lovely in some sort of wine or champagne glass. The best part is, you prepare the mango mousse ahead of time so it's already to serve to your guests.

Mango Mousse
Makes 10 servings

Ingredients
1 pint of whipping cream
1 or 2 sachets of Knox non-flavored gelatin
1 large can of Mango Pulp (available easily at an Indian grocer)

Dissolve the gelatin according to the package. You can play around with the amount of gelatin you use; the more you use, the firmer your mousse will set. I used one sachet for my mousse, but I think next time I make it I will use more because I'd like it to be firmer.

Put the gelatin into a large mixing bowl with the whipping cream. Whip to a stiff peak. Stiff peak means that when you take out your utensil that you have been whipping with, it will leave a little mountain that does not fall down. Do not overwhip your cream and turn it into butter!

Then fold in the mango pulp. Once blended, you can transfer it into the dishes that you will be serving it in. Put the mango mousse into the fridge to let it set. I'd leave it in the fridge at least two hours. You can definitely prepare this the day before.

I garnished it with fresh mangoes on this occasion; but raspberries or raspberry coulis would be great garnishes too. Although they are not in the dish, they add a nice flavor and contrast to the sweetness of the mango.