White Chocolate Mousse

Base:

1. Bring milk, sugar and salt to a simmer. Heat and stir until the sugar has fully dissolved,
2. Pull off heat, stir in vanilla and pour over chocolate. Let stand for 2-3 min.
3. Stir mixture until all of the chocolate has melted.
4. Either using a handheld immersion blender or stand blender, blend on high until completely smooth and velvety.
5. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a container and chill overnight (or up to 3 days).

 To Use:

1. Stir mousse base until velvety and smooth - pour into cream whipper.
2. Charge whipper twice, shaking well after each charge.
3. Siphon mousse into a container to check viscosity and eliminate any air pockets.
4. Siphon into serving vessel (can store in siphon, charged up to two days - shake well prior to use and test before going into serving dish).

1. Clean glass jar and lid well.
2. Using a chef’s knife or peeler, trim off squash skin (reserve 2-3 whole slices).
3. Cut (or mandolin) squash into ⅛” thick, by 3-3½” long slices.
4. Tightly pack the sliced squash into jar - in addition to the squash skin pieces (the tighter the better and will keep the slices submerged in the brine, vs floating).
5. Add sea salt and peppercorns, then fill to top, above tops of the squash with filtered water.
6. Place lid on jar and allow to sit at room temperature (72°-78°F) for a 1-3 weeks*.
7. Daily: Invert jar and swirl brine from bottom to the top - open lid to release any built up gasses.
8. To use: remove from brine and cut to preferred portion size.

*The longer you allow the squash to ferment will determine the flavor profile. For this recipe I allowed mine to ferment for 1 week at ~74°F. Once desired flavor profile has been reached, keep refrigerated.

Have extra?! Try instead of pickles on a sandwich, or dice and add to tuna salad or just snack on!

1. Place cleaned currants in pot with water and sugar. Heat on medium until sugar has fully dissolved.
2. Bring temperature down to a very light simmer and reduce until syrupy (some currants will still have their shape while others have become liquid).
3. Cool, add pinch of salt to balance out the flavor.
4. Store in fridge for up to 2 weeks.

1. Heat up a deeper rimmed saute pan (or wide mouth sauce pot) on medium high heat (2-3 min).
2. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of amaranth into pan and swirl to spread over entire surface area.
3. You may need a lid, but swirl the amaranth until all of it has “popped” and has become puff white vs hard and round.
4. Pour popped amaranth into a container and continue until all has been popped.
5. Store once cool in a dry air tight container for up to 3 months.

1. Prepare and cool simple syrup.
2. Preheat oven to 180°F.
3. Wash and dry pear, slice in half and core center.
4. Slice (or mandolin) pear to 1/16” thick, keeping skin on.
5. Dip pear into simple syrup and slightly wipe off (you don’t want slices to be dripping or pooling simple syrup).
6. Place onto non-slip baking mat (or lightly oiled and wiped parchment paper) giving room between slices and making sure the slices aren’t sitting in syrup.
7. Bake until pears look matte and dry. Carefully peel each slice up and flip over. Bake until crisp and dehydrated.
8. Once cooled, can be stored in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months.