Tiramisu

A few years ago when I worked in this small Italian restaurant back in Singapore named Alba, I was essentially their pastry guy making the desserts, not that any of the stuff I made was my own recipe but I was the one that did it anyway. We made a really awesome flour-less chocolate cake which is dead easy and once when we had a big party in, some pregnant lady ate like 3 slices of the stuff. Rich, gooey but at the same time light (it was meringue based), its a crowd please-er.

Anyway the other thing i made was Tiramisu, clearly a very Italian restaurant staple. Honestly I have yet to have found a better tasting tiramisu as opposed to the one we made. Some people didn't like it though as when presented it was essentially two peices of coffee soaked lady fingers with the tiramisu cream on top. We heard complaints that it was essentially just lady fingers and cream - which is what it essentially is. You can't please everyone so whatever.

When it was MK's birthday the other week she requested tiramisu since it is now my tradition to make people cake for their birthdays, since we should all have cake, birthday or not. The recipe that I used in the restaurant consisted of mascarpone mixed with egg yolks of which then cream sweetened with icing sugar was folded into along with a bit of rum. It was light, it was silky, it was delicious and i ate way to much of it. The lady fingers we were lazy and just bought them in.

For Christmas, aunt E gave me an Italian cookbook from some lady that she met and learned some stuff from. Anyway her recipe was more or less the same except instead of cream she used the egg whites to make a meringue which was folded into the mascarpone cream. It's been a while since i made the other recipe and i really didn't want to bother with cream, plus, having to store egg whites for another use even though there are plenty is an extra step i couldn't be bothered with. The resulting cream was just as delicious as the one made with cream, and less fattening too if you think about it.

Another thing was the lack of lady fingers at the supermarket, but you know what, lady fingers are pretty easy to make too. It's almost like a basic sponge cake except there's no leavening and in fact, once we ran out of lady fingers in the restaurant so we just used sponge cake. I can now proudly say that i truly made tiramisu from scratch. Though i guess if i milked the cows and grew the wheat...Sorry i don't have any photos, totally forgot to take them in the middle of all the eating.

Tiramisu
Enough for 8, or for one if your like MK and is greedy
250g Lady finger biscuits (since i made them fresh, i used about 7 of the fingers i made, whatever fits into your container i guess)
1 shot of espresso (maybe a little more, just make 2 shots and drink the remaining. If you can't get espresso make the strongest coffee possible. The stronger the better)
250g of mascarpone
3 eggs, seperated
3 tablespoons caster sugar
3 tablespoons marsala/sherry OR 2 tablespoons of rum (whatever liquor is your fancy)
Cocoa powder for dusting

Put the mascarpone and egg yolks in a fairly large bowl and mix until totally incorporated. Refrigerate. Whisk your egg whites with the sugar until you get stiff peaks, either by hand or with a mixer. Fold into the mascarpone mixture in thirds, adding your liquor at the end. Refrigerate whilst you make your espresso/coffee. When you make your coffee, cool it down. Get your lady fingers and line them up on a dish (i used a pyrex rectangular shaped dish). Dip lady fingers into coffee and make a layer full of lady fingers down on the dish. Try to get it as soaked as possible for the fullest coffee flavor, though not too much that it totally breaks apart. Put half of the cream mixture and spread it out evenly then lay on the 2nd layer of the fingers and cover with the remaining cream. Dust with cocoa powder just before serving.

enjoy!

leeks, rice, pesto, stock, mushrooms, tomatoe

saute 1/4 onion in olive oil, green portion of leeks in thin slices added in and sauteed for about 4 mins. 5 thbsp of stock added in, 3 shitakes, and 1/2 cup of cooked dried rice. cook for another 3-4 mins, then 4 thsbp of pesto. season to taste. tomatoes in quarters.