Mushrooms and other visitors

After a few days of rain, today was beautifully sunny, so I opened the door to the deck to let some light and air in. Being outside prompted me to water the raspberry plant given to me by a colleague. I'm pretty bad at remembering to water the plant, but I'll pretend that the reason I haven't recently is because of the rain rather than neglect.

Happily, I noticed that the raspberry had some new growth amongst the dead leaves. I pulled out a few weeds that had shot up, but then noticed something strange.


Fungus-y visitor to the raspberry planter.



There were some weird mushroomy things around the plant.


Mushrooms! Wonder if they are edible...



Quite a few of them.


So many mushrooms...



Most of them were clustered near the base of the raspberry, so I suspect they came with the plants when I transplanted them. There's nothing in any of the other pot plants on the deck, so I don't think spores were just floating in the air... I asked my colleague about them, but she hadn't seen them before at her place (the source of the raspberry). She thought that perhaps they had laid dormant in Bulls where she lives, and only grew with all the rain we have in Wellington.

I have no idea what they are, if they are edible or not, or whether I should pull them out ASAP before they spread and poison any raspberries that try to grow despite my maltreatment. Happy to hear any ideas if there are any fungus experts reading my blog ;)

Speaking of unusual visitors to my deck (yes, the mushrooms are 'visiting'), we had another yesterday, napping for a couple of hours under our table. I would have gone out for a snuggle if I weren't allergic, and/or if I hadn't already tried to make friends but found him/her on the timid side...:


Furry visitor under our deck furniture.

Vegan Dark Chocolate Mousse

Vegan Chocolate Mousse - with what I call "midnight snack" lighting... ^_^



One of my favourite time wasters fillers is to browse through TasteSpotting, 'starring' recipes that I want to adapt or try to make. Recently, there was a yummy-looking post for chocolate mousse made with silken tofu. Despite an interest in vegan cooking, I'd never really used silken tofu in desserts before. I usually use firm tofu in stir fries, and once used silken tofu in place of paneer in a curry, but never as a dairy alternative in desserts...

The recipe looked easy, was described as decadent and 'you would never know there's tofu in it', and would meet my recent craving for dessert, but with fewer unnecessary calories... However, it must be warned that this is not for the mild sweet tooth - this is probably the richest chocolate mousse I have ever had in the sense of chocolatey sweetness. You could tone it down a notch by leaving out some of the additional cocoa and sugar, and I don't think it would suffer for it. I served mine with banana, which actually cut through the sweetness!

The recipe I was following is here. I made a few minor adaptations to the recipe to suit what I had on hand, and translated to metric. Here's my version:



Spoon full of chocolate...



Vegan Dark Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients

300g silken tofu
100g dark chocolate (I used 80% - check chocolate is dairy free)
1/4 c cocoa powder
1/4 c water
1 Tbsp rice milk (or other non dairy milk)
2 Tbsp butterscotch schnapps*
1/2 c sugar


* actually I assume this is vegan! The prenzel website doesn't say (link). I used this instead of port or brandy, so use whatever you are comfortable with.


Instructions

Blend silken tofu in a food processor or blender until completely smooth.

In a bowl on top of a pot of barely simmering water, mix chocolate, cocoa, water, milk, and schnapps, and stir until the chocolate has completely melted.

Remove from heat and add the sugar. Mix until smooth and sugar has dissolved.

Pour or spoon into serving bowls, and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

Serve with your choice of chopped fruit, vegan cream, as is, or whatever tickles your fancy.

Try not to fall into a sugar coma :)