Friday, February 17, 2012

Tiramisu

 Among zillions of tiramisy recipes in the blogsphere, here's my 'go to' tiramisu recipe if I'm pressed for time is to make do with store brought lady fingers (gasp!), comes together in less than hour minus the 24 hr chilling period. A perfect  no fail recipe is always a favourite on in my list.  I would proudly serve this version of a  tiramisu to any Italian...thats how perfect these are!


Tiramisu
Serves 8
Note: For the best results, make this 24 hours in advance of serving

1 cup heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon dark rum, Amaretto, Kahlua, or Godiva liqueur (I used dark rum)

1/3 cup superfine sugar
1 2/3 cups mascarpone, soften at room temperature for 1 hour
1 batch lady finger cookies from here or 3 packages (31/2-ounce kind) lady finger cookies
3 cups very strong, cold coffee
1 tbsp Cocoa powder, for dusting
1 tbsp instant coffee powder, for dusting

In a large, cold bowl, whip the cream to stiff peaks. Refrigerate until ready to assemble the tiramisu.

In the bowl of an electric standing mixer, combine the egg yolks, rum and sugar. Beat the mixture at a high speed for 2 minutes. It should be quite thick and leave a trail when the beater is lifted away. Place the softened mascarpone in a large (seperate) mixing bowl, and gently fold in the beaten egg-and-sugar mixture.Now, fold in the chilled whipped cream. Cream is now ready for layering.

Dip each ladyfinger briefly into the coffee, and arrange in rows on the bottom of a cake pan 'the kind that had easy release lever on the sides used for cheese cakes. Line the sides and bottom with parchment paper. Any bakeware dish works as well (preferably 8" but I used 6-inch round in my case and ended up with leftover so I had to make 3 individual cups as well) or pyrex baking dish. Gently spread an even layer of the mascarpone/cream mixture over the ladyfingers, and top with a second layer of coffee-dipped ladyfingers. Spread with the mascarpone mixture. You can make a  third layer of ladyfingers, and end with a layer of the mascarpone but the taller the tiramisu, more temperamental it gets. So newbies stick to double layers.

 Cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for no less than 24 hours, and up to 36 hours. Dust generously with cocao and coffee powder and  cut into 6 wedges for serving (having kept aside  3 of them made into cups, I got one extra serving for taste testing).

Optional, a dollop of whipped cream, chocolate wafers or sticks and a  strawberry.


Recipe # 2  from 'taste of home' magazine for icecream lovers
Tiramisu icecream dessert

Ingredients:
•¼ cup chilled whipping cream
•1 tsp confectioners’ sugar, sifted
•About 2/3 cup good quality coffee ice cream
•About 2/3 cup good quality vanilla bean ice cream
•4 savoiardi (Italian crisp ladyfingers), each broken into quarters
•½ cup freshly brewed espresso
•A small piece of bittersweet chocolate.
Preparation:
Whip the cream with sugar until it just holds medium-stiff peaks. Set aside for a moment. Divide the coffee ice cream between the glasses, top with the vanilla ice cream, then put the ladyfingers over the ice cream. Pour the hot espresso on top and dollop with the whipped cream. Grate some chocolate over the cream. Serve immediately.

Kolmbo

Kolmbo, a konkan variation of Madras sambar with freshly roasted and ground masala with many other vegetables than the regular tomatoes and onions like that of idli sambar. This kind is mainly used as a lunch/dinner side and has marked as one of the main dish for a konkani lunch. The vegetables that goes in this dish are drumsticks/mashinga sang (a must), tindora/gherkins, brinjal/vaingaNa  along with the usual potatoes, tomatoes and onions and are not limited to the mentioned few. In my moms kitchen, carrots, beans and cauliflower are a staple in kolmbo but V thinks that English vegetable were not an addition in the authentic kolmbo. My childhood memories of kolmbo were all the vegetables I hated; stem of cauliflower & knolkol too. The ground fragrant masala is what matters here. All else is secondary, I say!


Kolmbo (this one has only batato ani mashinga sang), surai sheeth, miriye pappod, mirsange happol, batate happol

Ingredients:
Roast:
Oil 1 tbsp
red chillies- 8-10
chana dal- 2 tbsp
urad dal-2 tbsp
coriander seeds- 2 tbsp
jeera- 1 tsp
methi seeds- about 15
turmeric- 1/2 tsp
hing- 1/2 tsp

Grind the roasted ingredients with the following
1/2 cup coconut
1 sprig curry leaves
tamarind paste- 1tsp
salt to taste


Vegetables:
Drumsticks- rough skin peeled lightly
potato- 1 small, cubed
brinjal-4, quatered
pearl onions- about 15
tomato-2, finely chopped
cauliflower florets-about 2 cups
Tindora - about 10, quaterd
carrot -1 cubed

Seasoning: oil, mustard seeds,2 sprigs of curry leaves, 1/4 tsp hing.
cilantro for garnish

Pressure cook 1 cup of tuvar dal.
In a big stock pot, cook all the vegetables till half done, add the ground masala, tamarind paste and salt. Bring it to rolling boil. Simmer & cook till all the vegetables are cooked through. Add the seasoning and garnish with cilantro.
Serve with rice.