Pistachios.Warm middle eastern days and mystical Indian dances float through my mind when I see this nut, with its almost cartoon like shade of jade. Hence, the name Gâteau de Jade.

It all started yesterday, when I made a trip to the baking supply store, just for the fun of it. $70 dollars later, I was accompanied by a large bag of luscious green pistachio nuts, a kilo of Valrhona Equatoriale, dried apricots, ground almonds, an artery clogging load of butter, as well as some lovely straight to the hips heavy cream.

I decided to make a Jaconde sponge, encased in pistachio mousse, studded with tart macerated apricot bits. I made my pistachio paste last night, with great disappointment. Apparently food processors of the 21st century are incapable of grinding pistachio nuts to a fine powder. I also stewed my apricots in some hot water, diced them after they cooled, and macerated them in lemon juice, a teaspoon of liquer and lemon juice overnight.

Anyway, I proceeded with making my Jaconde sponge this morning, afterwhich I made my pistachio mousse. Unfortunately, a massive lump of evergreen pistachio paste managed to completely bleach itself of its glorious color and turn into a cream colored mousse. Also, the mousse was a little too soft set, making it rather disgusting, appearance wise, after I glazed it with my chocolate nappage.

I managed to make a mini version with extra mousse/jaconde/nappage, which definitely saved the day (photography wise, of course). The larger cake looked a mess. To make things worst, for some reason, my food processor was being a bitch today. The lid jammed up before I could even finely chop up my pistachios as a garnish. I had to literally bang and beat the life out of it to remove its lid. It did not end there, though. The lid then decided that it would not lock into position, which meant that my food processor wouldn't turn on and do what it was meant to do. Finally, I burst out into tears and wanted to just throw the entire food processor into the bin.

I guess the lord Almighty decided to spare me from further punishment, and voila, the food processor's lid suddenly just snapped on in a jiffy. Sigh.

As for the recipe, I'll have to tweak it a little before giving it to you. I'll be making this again, this time with a more stabilized mousse and will also have to blend the pistachios with a little cream to fully liquidize it. Do wait for it!