Raw Chocolate Mousse and Coconut Laksa

Ah, it’s dessert time again. I would say about time too except that I just made a repeat performance of the Beetroot and Chocolate Pudding a few days ago and my Mum was as much in raptures with the end result as I was even after eating it cold the next morning.

I’m normally not a lover of mousse but this rendition of it hit the spot. It had a rich decadent taste that was perfect for a Saturday afternoon. The recipe includes vanilla bean and the mousse had a familiar taste so I googled Kahlua and Tia Maria and found that they both contain vanilla bean. These liqueurs are favourites of mine so no wonder the mousse was so easy on my palate.

And then the pièce de résistance for the day, also a recipe from the Rawlicious booklet, was surprisingly not a dessert. The Coconut Laksa needed a baby coconut. I couldn’t find a baby one, well, to be really honest I didn’t realize how helpful it would be if I could find one so I found a coconut and I could hear the milk inside. By the time I pierced one of the holes there was precious little milk left. So my first lesson with coconuts is that the milk can dry up quickly.

I found lots of advice about how to open a coconut. Using the pointy end of a hammer (my words) hit the coconut in a circle around the top end of the coconut until the top separates. Well, the top never separated. Plan B. Hit the coconut along the raised seam that runs around the flat sides of the coconut (again my words). Suspect I didn’t have enough power in my hammer technique. Plan E or F was to take coconut next door to builder neighbour and his partner who would probably help me. But I was still in that stubborn stage believing that I could fix this. However the doubting Thomas part of me was amazed that I thought I could open up a coconut!

One of the first web sites I found on “opening coconuts” had tongue-in-cheek suggested flinging it against a wall or dropping it on a concrete floor with the added thought that this might end up breaking one or the other and only maybe the coconut. Fortunately for me, I didn’t read this web page too carefully. I found another web site that mentioned dropping the coconut on a marble kitchen floor a few times and thought the concrete floor in my garage would do the trick. I decided to drop it onto a brick sitting on the concrete to avoid creating fracture lines in the concrete and after dropping the coconut I can’t remember how many times – I was really getting into this new game - the coconut started to crack. And et viola, I had fresh coconut …

The “fun” bit was removing the white coconut flesh – sometimes I needed to trim off some coconut skin residue which didn’t worry me. I tasted a little bit and there were no surprises – it tasted exactly as it should – just like the shredded coconut we buy so easily except that it was fresh. I also noticed the oil left on my hands after handling it.

So once I had solved how to open the coconut I then became concerned that I had moved past the most exciting part of the coconut laksa recipe – until I tasted it! The photo I have taken of the coconut laksa over some capsicum, tomato and raw asparagus doesn’t do it justice.

Oh hang on… Have I mentioned that asparagus can be eaten raw? That’s what I’ve just found out on the Thermomix Forum so I tried cutting off the bottom third which is the woody end and all of the rest of the asparagus is really lovely just as it is. It’s not crunchy like cabbage or broccoli with a consistency more like capsicum and zucchini. This reminds me of the revelation I had when I ate corn niblets raw and found them to be nice just as they are. We do what we have always done because it’s been handed down to us or has worked for us for so many years. And then one day we find there is a different way that for some of us becomes a better way.

Eating this became an unreal taste sensation and it was gooooood… And after I finished the laksa over the chopped vegetables, I went back for the last of the laksa just on its own and it was still gooood….