Coconut Lime Mousse

As mentioned above, the ingredients here are quite easy to find and use. I'll provide a little clarity over coconut milk (plus a couple of DIY options), but we'll focus more on the technique than anything here.

As mentioned above, the ingredients here are quite easy to find and use. I'll provide a little clarity over coconut milk (plus a couple of DIY options), but we'll focus more on the technique than anything here.

If you're really into scratch cooking and/or kitchen DIY, or you just love having control over your ingredients, you might want to try your hand at making your own coconut milk. There are a few variations out there and I don't want to cover too much in too small of a space, but I'll tell you what I did here in case you want to replicate it. If you're intimidate by this kind of scratch-cooking, don't be. It's surprisingly easy. And if you want to try your hand at buying a whole coconut, trying your hand at both coconut milk and toasted coconut is a great way to become more confident. Best of all, the fresh scratch-made stuff is always the tastiest.

Both of the methods below involve using a high-speed blender (e.g. a Vitamix), but you can find other methods online for simply soaking shredded coconut. I haven't tried this yet, so I won't write it up here.

Method 1 - Shredded desiccated coconut - This is the easiest method because you don't have to deal with cracking open a coconut. All you need is unsweetened (this is important) desiccated coconut, warm water and a high-speed blender. This might work fine with a weaker blender too, though I can't guarantee anything. The basic recipe from the Vitamix website is as follows:

- 1 cup ( 75 g) of shredded coconut plus 2 cups (500 ml) of water
- Place everything in the blender and process on high for 3-4 minutes.
- Strain the solids out, let the cream settle on the top (Vitamix says straining is optional, but I'm going to heartily disagree)

Method 2 - Whole fresh coconut - I like this method, but then again I have a vice, chisels, and hammers, so coconuts better beware.  Seriously though, opening a whole coconut takes a bit of work and getting the flesh out takes even more work, but if you're interested in going this route you get rewarded with amazing coconut milk, plus you can toast nice little slivers of coconut like the ones you see in the pictures.  The process is basically the same as above, except it helps if you pre-shred the coconut a little bit so the blender doesn't have to break it all down too much.  Use a box grater to make quick work of the coconut meat, and use about about 1/4 cup less water to make up for the fact that coconut hasn't been dried out.

So what about those cool little toasted coconut slices I used as garnish? Well they're totally optional of course, but you can toast your own coconut quite easily.  Preheat an oven to 300°F (150°C), then cover a baking pan with parchment paper or a reusable cookie sheet.  Use a veggie peeler to thinly slice strips of fresh coconut, then spread them out on the pan.  Toast until the slices are golden brown (about 20 minutes for me, but watch them carefully as ovens can vary quite a bit).  You can also toast pre-shredded coconut for a similar flavour and different look.

This recipe uses separated eggs for, unsurprisingly, separate reasons. The yolks are gently cooked to make a loose custard, making for a richer and creamier tasting base. The whites are whipped to add volume and some stability to the mousse. It's a pretty standard practice when it comes to making a mousse, but it’s worth noting that the process typically involves using raw egg whites. Raw eggs are used in a variety of recipes (mayonnaise, Caesar salad dressing, and some cocktails, for example), but public concern over bacterial contamination and food poisoning has grown in recent years. Raw eggs can transmit Salmonella bacteria, however careful processing with modern techniques reduces this risk substantially. Store your eggs properly (North American eggs are washed before being sold and should be refrigerated at home) and use fresh eggs to reduce the risk of food poisoning. When everything is handled properly, the risk of Salmonella poisoning is about 1/20,000.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with being cautious, so if you're concerned for yourself, or you're cooking for someone immunocompromised, there is a solution - pasteurized eggs! Pasteurized whole eggs can still be separated into yolks and whites, though the whites tend to be a little more difficult to whip to a firm set than unpasteurized eggs. Allow for more time, and possibly an extra egg white to make up for this.  Thanks to the gelatin used here, you shouldn't have any trouble setting the mousse, and the final texture should be more-or-less the same.

When it comes to achieving the airy and smooth consistency that you want in a good mousse, there are a surprising number of options. The basic premise of a mousse is that it incorporates a lot of air and then keeps it from escaping. The diversity in recipes is because there are a number of different ways to achieve effect via different techniques and ingredients. If you compare this recipe to my other mousse recipe (link) you'll notice that I use egg whites in both, but only use gelatin here. Whipped egg whites help to introduce and hold a lot of air in both cases, but in the other recipe the whipping cream does a lot of the heavy lifting (or is it light lifting?). The coconut cream used in this recipe will whip-up to an extent but it's a lot harder to get it to the same soft and airy consistency that you get with dairy cream. It's still easy to incorporate air in this recipe, but a lot harder to get it to set and hold onto that air. Hence, gelatin.

Gelatin is very easy to use, making for a mousse that is firmly set but still soft (you don't want mousse that feels like Jell-O). It is not, however, a vegetarian product, and as such, anyone looking to make this recipe vegetarian will have to explore an alternative like agar. Agar, also known as agar-agar, or by it's Japanese name kanten, is a seaweed-based product that behaves very much like gelatin. It's fairly easy to use, but unlike gelatin, it must be stirred into boiling water in order to get it to set properly. To substitute it into this recipe, soak an equivalent amount (7 g) of powdered or sheet agar in 1/4 cup of water for 15 minutes, then bring this to a gentle boil. Stir until the agar agar is completely dissolved, then fold into the mousse and chill. Chill the mousse that is; you feel free to chill too. Agar does tend to set a little more firmly than gelatin, but this is weakened somewhat by acidity. The lime juice should soften the set on your mousse somewhat, but the end results should still be wonderful.