Leek gratins and lemon mousse

Tonight I finally got to use my Le Creuset mini cocotte dishes!  The dishes came with a cookbook, with recipes that perfectly fit the four mini cocottes.  I picked leek gratins for the inaugural dish.  For dessert, I picked another item from my "study for Next" list:  fresh lemon mousse.

Leek gratins

These little guys were pretty easy, even though I didn't cut up the leeks exactly as they asked. What you do is slice the leeks lengthwise and wash them, then cut them into two-inch segments.  I thought this was a little big to eat, and also kind of unreliable to wash, so I sliced them in half and chopped them in about 1/2-inch half moons.  You boil those for 3 minutes, then put them into the cocotte dishes.


While those are boiling, you boil 3/4 cup of chicken stock.  When it has reached the boiling point, you take it off the heat and add 3/4 cup of heavy cream, 1 tbsp. grainy mustard, salt, and pepper.  Pour over the leeks in the cocotte dishes.

Heat at 350 for 20 minutes and you have delicious little mini gratins, perfect for individual consumption!

Fresh lemon mousse

This is a recipe from Ina's Back to Basics.  (I have to say, having made a significant number of Ina recipes, that is probably in my top 3 of her cookbooks.)


First you make a lemon curd-type substance with eggs, egg yolks, sugar, lemon peel, lemon juice, and salt.  Heat that until it becomes thick like pudding, then allow to cool for 15 minutes and refrigerate until cold.


When the lemon mixture is chilled, whip up some egg whites and fold into the lemon mixture.  Then whip up some cream and fold that in, too.  Stir in some bottled lemon curd and you're done!

This was delicious!  Very creamy, and surprisingly sweet.  It reminded me of a lemon meringue pie.  Dave scooped his up extremely quickly, almost shockingly quickly.  I hope it firms up some more overnight, because it was a little on the warm side.  I guess we didn't give it time to set.