Patrice Demers’ Dark Chocolate Mousse with Clementine Juice, Olive Oil and Fleur de Sel

Preparation

• Dark Chocolate Mousse

  • Place the chocolate pistoles in a bowl and set aside.
  • With an electric mixer, beat the 2 cups cream until the cream forms very soft peaks. It is important not to over whip the cream. Cream whipped to stiff peaks result in a chocolate mousse with a much drier mouth feel. Set the cream aside.
  • In a saucepan, bring the ½ cup of cream, the milk, and half the sugar to a boil.
  • In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar.
  • While stirring with a whisk, slowly pour the boiling liquid over the egg yolks to temper them.
  • Put everything back in the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a spatula, until the cream coats the back of a spoon.
  • Remove from the heat and strain the custard through a fine sieve directly onto the chocolate.
  • Make sure the pistoles are well submerged in the custard and let stand for 30 seconds.
  • With a whisk, combine the custard and chocolate.
  • With a rubber spatula, fold the whipped cream, half at a time, in the chocolate mixture. The mixture should be smooth.
  • Cover the mousse with plastic wrap and let set in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours.

• Clementine Juice

  • In a saucepan, combine the clementine juice and corn syrup.
  • Cook over medium heat to reduce the juice to half.
  • Let cool and refrigerate.

• Assembly

  • With a spoon dipped in hot water, make a quenelle of mousse and place in the centre of the plate. Drizzle a tablespoon of clementine reduction around the mousse. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a few grains of fleur de sel.