Vegetarian Store in Nairn!

Sky Delights, 9 Leopold Street, Nairn, IV12 4BE. Tel: 01667 452874 

Went for a drive yesterday and decided to stop off in Nairn having heard of some vegan cheese paninis at a shop there. 

The owner Sam is a vegan and had originally intended to have a vegan cake making business but the lease on this shop came up, and the rest is history.

Lovely shop, bright and cheerful with some window seating. It did indeed have vegan cheese paninis amongst others, vegan carrot cake (yum), vegan marbled chocolate cookies, vegan tofu loaf and other yum things. It has a really impressive selection of organic products, including tofu from The Engine Shed.
We bought lots.

Highly recommended!!

Chocolate mousse with amaretto

I had a daydream about chocolate mousse. I made one before with silken tofu and melted chocolate which was yum, but really heavy, and wanted to see if I could make it lighter and hey presto.

It wasn't a plan to put it up on the blog, but it was soo yum that I had to, so the photo isn't "styled" at all and doesn't really do justice to the accidental gorgeousness of this chocolate mousse. (I will put the photo up tomorrow! right now I just want to post the recipe as promised yesterday!)

Chocolate mousse
Serves 4

175g extra firm silken tofu (- essentially half a packet)
1 300g packet of CremoVita Organic Soya based whipping cream (I bought it in the Free From aisle in Tesco)
100g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons amaretto liqueur

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over simmering water, then take off the heat.
Blend up the silken tofu until smoothish - then add the whipping cream.

(I did all this in the food processor as I haven't got an electric whisk, but I imagine pureeing the tofu then folding it into pre-whisked cream might give a fluffier consistency but this was still light.)

Add the sugar and blend until well mixed and air is incorporated, mixture should increase in volume.
Add the melted chocolate gradually, blending to incorporate fully. (I did this with the processor on, gradually pouring chocolate through the little funnel in the lid of the food processor).

Add the amaretto and give a final few pulses to incorporate.

Spoon mixture into serving containers and refrigerate for a few hours. Mixture will firm up.

Variations:

non alcoholic - add 1/2 tsp almond extract instead of amaretto, increase sugar by 1 tbsp, top with flaked almonds
alcoholic - instead of adding amaretto:
Black forest mousse - kirsch soaked cherries folded in before refrigerating
or - try rum soaked raisins folded in

Thought for next time: the cream at the top of a can of coconut milk has the same consistency as the vegan whipping cream, perhaps a choco-coconut mousse with coconut cream instead of the whipping cream, and some grated (vegan) coconut ice on top/desiccated coconut on top.

Hope it goes well for you too, I'd appreciate any feedback if you try this!

~ K