Last Christmas was a two-day affair, conducted in a makeshift fashion at my sister's house. I had just started working at Suntory, and had hardly any holidays, and so my parents very kindly came down and made Christmas happen, right down to a mini-Christmas tree bought for the occasion. Still, it was a minimalist sort of celebration.
This year I think we unconsciously made up for last year's austerity. To begin with, our numbers were increased by Shoo, who came up to Lancaster with me, and Corinna's boyfriend Nick, who lives nearby and can always be counted on for a big appetite and good banter.
So many things about this Christmas have been perfect: the crisp, clear weather, the big tree, the central heating not breaking down, and managing to roast a whole duck that had crispy skin and tasty, moist meat inside, to my mother's particular delight.
My first-time blinis, served up on Christmas eve with sour cream and smoked salmon, were judged a fitting preface to Dad's sea bass. I was worried we didn't have any yeast to make them with, but Dad insisted there was some easy blend stuff in a cupboard. Once fished out it revealed a best before date of 1993! I suspect it came from my UK-resident granny's after she died (when I was in high school). I remonstrated that it would be unusable, but Dad insisted that he saw on an archeology programme that yeast from the fourth century or somesuch unearthed from a site was found to still be active: in it went.
So I stand corrected; in the end our elderly yeast was just fine, and there didn't seem to be any adverse effect on the taste. The blinis were made using a
Delia recipe (
Nigel Slater's skipped the buckwheat flour, and having gone out of my way to find it in the late hours of Christmas eve I was bloody well going to use it). Don't they look pretty on my parents' nice white china?
Then there was my mum's birthday. She was in need of some serious cheering up, for various reasons, but I think we succeeded in doing just that. Shoo and I spent the day in the kitchen making a Japanese feast, which then got eaten up rather too quickly to take photos. But they're all dishes I want to revisit, so some time in the future I'll be posting about braised pork, fried aubergines in miso sauce and perhaps some maki-sushi...
The cake was one I made for Maddy for her birthday back in June - an amazing chocolate hazelnut cake with nutella ganache. This time the ganache went a little awry on me. This one too is on my list of recipes to post, but not until I've had one more go at it to iron out the wrinkles.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday, whatever you got up to, and whoever you were with.
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Last Saturday Shoo invited some people from his college over for an 'international food party'. To try and keep it low key, there were just seven of us, but we had Japan, Germany, Spain and Italy/England represented. There were onigiri, tortilla, Shoo's pork and daikon stew, german sausages and dumplings whose name I forget... and I volunteered to provide the pudding.
I wanted something fairly fast and simple that would feed a lot of people, so I decided on Tiramisu. Tiramisu is always translated as 'pick-me-up' in English, but I always feel like 'pull-me-up' comes closer to the sound of the original - it's more forceful; something you don't have a choice in, and can't resist!
I adapted slightly a recipe from an Italian site, GialloZafferano (meaning yellow saffron) where there seemed to be an ongoing debate about the correctness of adding a liqueur to the coffee for soaking the Savoiardi biscuits. Traditionalists decry the addition of anything at all, though one person suggested that if something had to be added it should be grappa. A contrary sort of girl, I have no compunctions about only being a purist only when it suits me, so I shrugged my shoulders and pulled out some Appleton's rum we had in the cupboard, and thought it did very nicely. I also liked the fact that the GialloZafferano recipe called for two layers of coffee-soaked biccies and cocoa, breaking up the mousse which can be a little sickly otherwise.
I should have expected it, but the recipe, which claimed to be for 8 portions, actually yielded more like 10 or twelve reasonable servings. In fact, we had so much food last Saturday that by pudding time we were already pretty stuffed. We made a valiant assault on it, but still only got through three quarters of one dish. That still left another trayful. Which was no bad thing - I can vouch that it's just as, if not more delicious, for breakfast :)
Tiramisu
For 10-12
No cooking involved, so you must use uber-fresh eggs!
6 eggs
100g sugar
500g mascarpone
Strong freshly-brewed coffee, a mug full
about 400g Savoiardi (sponge fingers)
splash of dark rum or other liqueur e.g. grappa or coffee liqueur
cocoa powder for dusting
chocolate shavings or curls for decoration (optional)
Start by separating the eggs. Place the yolks and whites separately in large bowls.
Whisk the yolks with half the sugar until thick, pale in colour, and fluffy.
In another bowl, soften the mascarpone by beating with a whisk or wooden spoon, then add it spoonful by spoonful to the egg yolk and sugar mixture, whisking all the time, until you have a smooth, thick cream.
Using very clean electric beater, whisk the whites for a minute or so, add the sugar, and whisk again until very stiff (but not quite meringue stiff).
Add the egg white to the egg-yolk-mascarpone mix a little at the time, using a cutting and folding motion to incorporate it. Continue to cut and fold gently until the egg white is evenly distributed and there are no lumps.
Now for the assembly. Place the hot coffee in a shallow bowl with any liqueur you are using.
Get your tiramisu dish ready - a semi-deep glass or ceramic dish is best. I had to use two dishes with a combined depth of about 3 litres.
Dip the savoiardi into the coffee - not so much that they go soggy - and lay them in the bottom of the dish, continuing until you have covered it. Top with a layer of the tiramisu 'mousse' about an inch thick. Dust generously with cocoa.
Repeat the whole process again, so that you have a double-layer tiramisu, and don't forget to dust the top with chocolate again (I know you wouldn't). Refrigerate for at least four hours.
top with chocolate curls or shards to serve, if you wish. And a tip for serving - use a knife dipped in hot water and dried to help you cut cleanly.
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