Bright and Breezy, it's Cheesy à la Zizi

Fanny clearly feels that her own creations may not be entirely eccentric enough, so introduces us to the creator of 'à la Zizi' for our next lesson in 'making it jell'. Fanny says we can learn a great deal from the whimsicality of Alexis Soyer, who was a one time chef at London's great Reform Club. Some say he was the very first celebrity chef. For Fanny to recognise outlandishness in someone else must've meant he was REALLY out there, which no doubt sealed his celebrity. He was seemingly obsessed with everything being 'at the slant' - Fanny notes that his ties, waistcoats and hats were all 'à la Zizi', either slanting in pattern or cut or being worn at an angle. Food presentation was not immune. Fanny says his lesson to us is to create 'charming and unusual vari-coloured sweet or savoury moulds' to match his diagonal obsession, so let's get our slant on!

Fanny recommends this treatment for any and all jellies or aspics, be they sweet or savoury, but notes that the effect is especially charming in creamy creations. She suggests savoury creamed mousses filled with chicken, salmon, cod or shrimp. Not for me. Her own pic-strip and example is a savoury cheese tower in pastel shades of pink, orange and green surrounded by Scottish Oatcakes. It feels only right for me to recreate it just as is, no tweaks, no tiddling, just as Fanny intended. No slant on the original ;-)

The base of the savoury mousse is a custard of egg yolks and milk. I use Almond Milk for mine, I'm really not a fan of large amounts of cows milk in anything, and I imagine it will give an even more savoury, nutty flavour to the finished dish. Fanny whisks the eggs, milk and seasoning together over a double boiler before adding the grated cheese. Fanny waits until the mix is thick to add her gelatine, but as I'm using Agar Agar it goes in while the mixture is cold and heats up and dissolves with everything else. The final additions are single cream (Fanny says you can use coffee cream if you can't get single, but that's not something I've ever seen) and whipped up egg whites. The cheesy mix is really thick and quite stringy to mix, but tastes great - ok I'd admit it I dipped my fingers in. Fanny does recommend tasting for seasoning though at this stage, so I'm only doing as I'm told. 

Fannys trick to present the moulded mousse 'at the slant' is to rest the mould, in my case (following Fanny) a simple wetted - I'm learning - Pyrex bowl, on a wooden spoon while pouring in the first slanted layer. Fannys first layer is pink, therefore so is mine. Once set, the bowl is slanted in the other direction and a green layer added, followed by a purple one and finally an orange one. The cheesy mousse takes the colour well - I use Wilton Gels and only a very small dot is required. Fanny doesn't give any tips for doing this successfully to allow each layer to set without the rest of the mix also setting meantime. The benefit of using Agar is that the mixture can be reheated and liquified when required, poured on and left to set again, but this wouldn't be possible with gelatine. When the mousse is unmoulded it's very firm - probably due to the Agar Agar which seems to turn everything the same solid structure - but tastes good. It's hard to see past the slants of colour and rubbery feel that trick your brain into thinking it's sweet. (Slanted) hats off to Chef Soyer though, it most definitely an eccentric presentation for cheese. It's very savoury, certainly 'à la Zizi', but if I'm honest leaves me feeling a little queasy.