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Tea-flavored mousse
a delicate treat

Last week I received a no-strings-attached special offer via e-mail. And it wasn't spam.

Ryan Abregano offered to solve a recipe mystery for me, based on his own research and experimentation.

It was like manna from heaven.

Never one to pass up a good deal, I pulled out a fresh request from Glenn Kosuge, who wants to make green tea mousse. Not ice cream -- a light, cool mousse.

I passed the challenge on to Abregano and figured I might never hear from him again. But two days later, there it was, his recipe for mousse.

Abregano attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York, but had to put his cooking career on hold five years ago to come back to Hawaii and help his family. "I put the whole cooking thing on the side."

He's working as a sales consultant at Tony Honda, but says he studies and writes down cooking ideas "while I'm waiting for opportunities to sell cars here" -- then goes home and tries them out.

This mousse formula began with Abregano's research into basic mousse and green tea ice cream recipes.

Feel free to vamp on his basic recipe. He says he aimed for a very strong tea flavor, but if you want something subtler, try using fewer leaves or a shorter steeping time.

Steep tea in hot water until dark, 5 to 10 minutes. Strain.

In a non-reactive metal bowl, combine yolks and sugar. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water, making sure the bowl is not touching water. Whisk continuously until mixture reaches 166 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat. Beat with an electric mixer 5 minutes, until cool and thick. Add 1/4 cup of the green tea and beat until combined.

In a separate bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into yolk mixture. Cover and chill in freezer overnight. Mixture will firm up, but will not harden like ice cream.

The next day, make meringue: Beat egg whites with sugar until stiff peaks form. Remove mousse from freezer and whip in meringue.