Easy Hung Curd Lemon Mousse

I love anything with lemon in it, especially desserts. Aren’t lemon-y desserts just perfect for hot summer days, too? The scent of lemon instantly perks me up, makes me smile, even when I’m sweating buckets. Well, the Hung Curd Lemon Mousse that I’m going to tell you about today is exactly one such dessert – perfect for the summer months, fresh and lemony, something that will make you smile instantly. And, hey, it’s easy-peasy to make – no standing around in the kitchen for hours on end!

This is a relatively healthy dessert too, with no cream or condensed milk used. I have used home-made hung curd here, and organic honey to sweeten it. Once you have the hung curd ready, fixing up this mousse is a matter of minutes!

Here’s how I made the Hung Curd Lemon Mousse.

Ingredients (serves 4):

1. 12-14 digestive biscuits
2. About 3/4 cup fresh hung curd
3. 3-4 tablespoons honey, or to taste
4. 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice, or to taste
5. 1 teaspoon lemon zest, or that from 2 lemons
6. 5-6 unsalted cashewnuts
7. 5-6 unsalted almonds
8. A few fresh mint leaves for garnishing (optional)

Method:

1. Toast the almonds and cashewnuts in a pan, on medium heat, till they get crisp. Ensure that they do not burn. Transfer to a plate, and allow them to cool down completely.
2. When the toasted almonds and cashewnuts are cool enough to handle, chop them into slivers. Keep aside.
3. Break up the digestive biscuits roughly and add them to a mixer jar. Pulse a couple of times, till you get a powder. Keep aside.
4. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the hung curd, honey, lemon juice and lemon zest. Mix well, ensuring that everything is thoroughly incorporated together. Keep aside.
5. You will need 4 small glasses to serve the dessert. Add some of the biscuit powder to the bottom of these 4 glasses. Spoon in some of the hung curd mixture on top of this. Add some almond and cashewnut slivers over this. Again, add a layer each of biscuit powder, hung curd mixture, and almond and cashewnut slivers. Repeat this till the glasses are almost 3/4 full.
6. Garnish the glasses with a little more biscuit powder, almond and cashewnut slivers, and mint leaves. Cover, and keep in refrigerator for about 2 hours. Serve chilled.

Notes:

1. Raw cane sugar can be used to make this lemon mousse, instead of honey. You can also use ordinary refined sugar instead.

2. Lemon zest is nothing but the skin of fresh lemons, grated finely. You can use a zester or an ordinary grater to do this. While grating, make sure that you grate only the yellow skin of the lemon, avoiding any of the white layer underneath – the latter might cause your dessert to turn bitter.

3. You can use any brand of digestive biscuits of your choice, to make this Hung Curd Lemon Mousse. I prefer using Marie Biscuits.

4. You can even use walnuts, pecans, pine nuts or any other nuts of your choice, in making this mousse.

5. To make hung curd, simply take fresh curd in a cotton cloth, bunch it up and place it in a colander. Place the colander over a vessel and keep it undisturbed, in a cool and dry place, for about 2 hours. By this time, all the water will drain out of the curd and you will get a thick, smooth, creamy residue – this is what is hung curd, which can be used in making various dishes. For best results, use very fresh curd that isn’t sour.

6. If you aren’t planning on making the dessert right away after the hung curd is ready, store it in the refrigerator till you are. This will help stop sourness from getting into the prepared hung curd.

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This post is for the Foodie Monday Blog Hop. The theme for this week is ‘Recipes using curd’.

I’m also sending this post to Fiesta Friday – 221, co-hosted this week by Jenny @ Dragonfly Home Recipes.

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