Naked Orange Mousse

I should have left well enough alone. I had a perfectly acceptable photo...



But then I had to try to get fancy...



..and wound up making a mess!



Actually, I made the same mistake twice. After cleaning up the second spill, I decided to give up. I'll just have to accept the fact that a mousse-laden spoon is not meant to rest atop a wine glass, even with a dab of "Handi-Tak" adhesive to hold it in place.

To those of you who write admiring my photos, thank you so much for the compliments. But the truth is, I'm still learning and making mistakes on a daily basis. My secret, if you can call it that, is to just take lots of photos, changing the light, changing the angle, changing the focus, exposure, and depth of field. I rarely wish I'd taken fewer photos and often wish I'd taken more. For instance, I wish I'd gotten a better shot of the spoon resting on the glass--one in better focus, with more mousse in the spoon and fewer specks of mousse on the glass--but this time, gravity was working against me. (You can find more photo tips and links to helpful sites at the end of this post from September.)

There's not much to the recipe for Naked Orange Mousse. In fact, it was more of an experiment than a recipe, an opportunity to test out the new Magic Bullet my mother-in-law gave us for Christmas and an attempt to find a way to get my daughter to eat some of the dozens of navel oranges we picked at my parents' house over the holidays. I wanted to see if it was possible to whip oranges and orange juice into frothy dessert, using only a little agar powder for thickening. It didn't whip up as foamy as I would have liked, and it wound up taking longer than I thought it would, but it was completely successful in getting my daughter to eat her citrus fruit. There's just something even kids like about a dessert in a fancy glass. Just be sure to remove the Handi-Tak before serving!

Naked Orange Mousse

1 cup orange juice
1/2 teaspoon agar powder (for a more gelled mousse, use a touch more)
sweetener to taste (optional)
1 navel orange, peeled and sectioned

Put the orange juice into a sauce pan, sprinkle it with agar, and stir in the sweetener, if you're using it. (I used one tiny scoop of no-calorie KAL stevia.) Bring it to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring, until the agar is completely dissolved.

Put the orange sections into a blender (or into the large container of the Magic Bullet). Pour the orange juice mixture over the oranges, and blend at high speed until as smooth as possible. Place the blender into the refrigerator. In 15 minutes, blend again. Refrigerate for another 15 minutes and then blend again. Pour into glasses or bowls and refrigerate until set. Makes 2-3 servings.

Tags: vegan recipes vegetarian cooking food fat-free Eat to Live photography