Everybody love parfait!

 

Most people have some sort of sweet offering that they enjoy above all others.  My daughter's happens to be tiramisu....but I don't make it as often as she would like.  Mostly because mascarpone is a bit difficult to find and when I do find it, it costs an arm and a leg or it's in a container the size of a water cracker.  I have made it a few times with substitutions for the mascarpone, however the dishes have always lacked the richness that only mascarpone provides.  Lucky for Karina (and myself and Bren) Kroger had mascarpone on sale the other week and I was able to pick up 2 pounds for ten bucks.  I was thrilled.  

Now, I admit, my tiramisu is NOT pretty.  I don't make it in one layer in a rectangle dish. I use the English trifle method, many layers in a tall round dish.  Ugly when dished up, but the cream to cookie ratio is perfect.  

Tiramisu (THIS RECIPE CONTAINS RAW EGGS)

base recipe:

2 pounds mascarpone

4 eggs, separated

3/4 cup sugar, plus 4 extra tablespoons

1 cup strong espresso

1/4 cup kaluha, madeira, Irish cream or other tasty liquor/fortified wine

1 packet Italian ladyfingers (savoiardi)

unsweetened cocoa

pinch of salt

optional (added to the tiramisu in the picture):

1/2 pound cream cheese, softened

1 pound whole milk ricotta

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 to 1 cup Amaretto

1 cup strong espresso

1/2 cup kaluha, madeira, Irish cream or other tasty liquor/fortified wine

3 tablespoons rosso sweet vermouth

1 packet Italian ladyfingers (savoiardi)

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form; add the 4 tablespoons of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form and set aside.  Beat the egg yolks, 1 1/4 cups sugar and pinch of salt until thick and pale yellow.  Beat in the mascarpone until well combined.  Repeat with the cream cheese and ricotta.  Add 3/4 cup Amaretto and mix thoroughly.  Taste.  If needed, add another 1/4 cup Amaretto.  Fold egg whites into mascarpone mixture and set aside.  Mix together espresso, Irish cream and vermouth, pour some into a shallow dish large enough to accommodate one of the savoiardi without it breaking.  

Assembly:  soak savoiardi one at a time in the espresso mixture and use them to line the bottom of a large, high-sided bowl.  Add a layer of the mascarpone cream and smooth evenly.  Dust the top of the cream with unsweetened cocoa powder.  Repeat this until bowl is full and/or the last layer of cream has been added.  Dust top with unsweetened cocoa powder and set dish in refrigerator for several hours.  This allows the flavours to meld and the savoiardi to soften.  Serve at room temperature for best taste.

I've given directions for the embellished version that I made and is pictured, adjusting for a base recipe should be easy from there.  And just a couple of notes:  1) don't use fresh ladyfingers, use the ones called savoiardi, they don't disintegrate when soaking in the espresso mixture and maintain their shape when softened; 2) what liquor(s) you use is entirely up to you, I don't care what any other recipes say, if you don't like the liquor on its own you won't like it in the dessert; 3) using raw eggs is also up to you, should you not want to you can beat the egg whites in a double boiler until stiff peaks form and the temperature reaches 160 degrees, ditto with the egg yolks.

I Am A Cheesewhore

Every Sunday my best friend and I meet up at the university library to work on our on-going book project. The library has these really great rooms on the 5th floor that bring in a lot of light, have large tables, comfortable chairs and even one with a pc. If we're having a particularly good session we can end up staying for 3+ hours. Working our creative brains for that long means we get hungry....really hungry. Since we're allowed to bring food and drinks into the library, we usually bring special "snacks", alternating Sundays.

Last Sunday I brought in green onion cream cheese with everything bagels, among other things. Since I have yet to attempt bagels from scratch, I made the cream cheese. And it was insanely easy. The best part, though, was that after I mixed it all together and it mellowed for a few hours, it tasted really close to a mixture of pepper and garlic-herb Boursin. Oh happy days for the cheesewhore.

Green Onion Cream Cheese
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon freshly minced garlic
1/2 - 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, but over night is best. Take out about an hour before you want to serve so that it comes back to room temperature.

Pork Love

What you see above is the remains of the pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli meal I made the other night. I *may* have forgotten about pictures until we were all sitting around being fat. It was so tasty, we really didn't think about anything else outside of "where's my fork?".

Now, pulled pork is probably a misnomer for what I made, but I've always called it that and I'm not going to stop now. It's kind of like my sister and I calling Nitzer Ebb Nitzer with a short i instead of a long i as we found out it was actually pronounced years later. It's still Nitzer with a short i to us...and what I make is still pulled pork to me no matter that it's technically slow cooked pork.

Pulled pork is extremely easy to make and can be taste customized to the extreme. All you need is a nice piece of pork shoulder, an assortment of herbs and spices, and an oven. For the pork I made I used a 10 pound bone-in pork shoulder, which is actually pretty large. You can certainly use a smaller one, but make sure that it is bone-in for the best flavour. Let your pork sit out until it's room temperature. Then pre-heat the oven to 275 degrees. Mix together the herbs and spices of your choice, along with salt, and rub and press this mixture all over the pork shoulder. Place the pork in a large baking dish, cover tightly with foil and place in the oven. Let the pork cook, depending on weight, anywhere from 4 to 6 hours. You will know it is done when it is so tender, it pulls apart easily with a fork. Allow pork to cool for a few hours, then pull apart with either forks or your hands. There will be a fair amount of juice in the bottom of the baking dish that can either be poured over the pulled pork or used as a base for homemade barbecue sauce. I poured it over the pork because not everyone likes barbecue sauce in my house. Use the pork for sandwiches or serve as is with the side dishes of your choice.

The mixture I used on my pork contained the following:
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
rubbed sage
sweet Hungarian paprika
garlic powder
ground coriander
ground ginger
crushed red pepper flakes
light brown sugar

The macaroni and cheese was homemade as well. It was amazing and quite simple.
1 pound uncooked elbow macaroni
3-4 cups bechamel sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed
8 ounces extra sharp Vermont white cheddar, shredded
8 ounces Havarti, shredded

Heat bechamel sauce over medium heat until simmering. Stir in the garlic. Slowly whisk in the shredded cheeses by the handful until each is melted and blended in. Turn off heat half way through. Boil macaroni until al dente, drain and add back to the pot. Pour cheese sauce over macaroni and fold in. Serve immediately. My kids are spoiled for mac and cheese now.