tiramisù

One of the most loved italian desserts is tiramisu. And at home we love it too. And in the office, colleagues, they love it too.

This time because of practical reasons I decided to skip the typical tiramisu trey and to make indeed some single portions in disposable glasses.  Just a simple change in shape, the content is the same. the taste also :-9 

So if you want you can follow the next recipe and get approximately 10 single portions (this is what I got) or work it normally and get 1 normal tray. The difference will be the amount of savoiardi biscuits. Just few for the glasses (150-200g), about 300-400g for the traditional preparation. 

Remember now, the magic number for tiramisu is 4: so you need 4 eggs, 4 ts of sugar and 400g of mascarpone, additionally cafe and ladyfinger (savoiardi) biscuits.

Nevertheless I always break this rule because most of mascarpone packages are 500g and I do not like to have rests in my fridge, so my tiramisu is 4-4-5 :-)

Tiramisù

Ingredients

4 fresh eggs (for us always organic eggs)

4ts sugar

400-500g mascarpone

Café

200g Ladyfinger (Savoiardi) cookies (400g for the large version)

Salt

Cocoa powder (unsugared)

1-2ts Rum (based on personal taste)

Method

Prepare the cafe and pour it in a soup plate to let it cool down.

Divide egg yolks and whites. Add a small pinch of salt to the whites and beat them until stiff. Put them aside.

Whisk the yolks together with the sugar. 

They will start to grow in volume (because air is getting trapped) and the color will slowly change from yellow to light yellow because the sugar is melting.  After approximately 5min beating the mix will be a light yellow almost white. You can stop :)

Now drop your whisk and get a wooden spoon. Add the mascarpone cheese to the yolks-sugar cream and mix them together until uniform. Do not fell in temptation to use a electric whisk or your cream will get too liquid.

Pour gently the whites on the cream (better if you transfer it with spoons to not remove the air) and mix it. Here it is fundamental to not murder the whites and do not lose the air trapped in. For this the mixing movement has to be extremely gently. The right movement is from the bottom to the top, like every time you need to add the stiff whites to a preparation.

Take out and align all your stuff on the working area, i.e. café, cookies, cacao and strainer, cream and glasses (or plate).

Add the rum to the café.

If you want to make the single glasses portion cut 10 cookies in half. Wet each cookie piece quickly in the café on each side and place it at the bottom of the glass. Depending on the shape of your glasses it may be that you need a bigger or smaller portion of savoiardi. Or maybe 2 halves at the side.

When all glasses have a wet cookie, pour 2 ts of cream above. Gently cover with cacoa powder with the help of a strainer.

Go on with the next layer: wet cookie, cream and finish with cocoa until you have enough cream.

If you want to make the big tray just use entire cookies and wet them one at the time and lay them on the plate. Build layer in the order cookies -> cream -> cocoa powder.

Cocoa should always be the last one.

Now put your tiramisu in the fridge and let it cool for at least 3 hours. The best would be the whole night so that the cream has time to consolidate and the cookies to get properly wet.

Small talk about parmesan

This post will not be a recipe. The intention of this post is a small clarification about parmesan.

I am Italian and all my cooking is based on Italian food. Nowadays a big variety of recipes from any country is available and I often experiment different styles or I contaminate my kitchen with different ingredients and procedures, but in the end the Italian influence is predominant. Due to this I use often parmesan in my cooking and I would like to explain to all my non Italian friends and readers who are not familiar with it some tips about parmesan.

So, let´s start from beginning. What is parmesan?
And already here we have the first trouble. The word parmesan is often used in English to refer to a general (Italian?) hard seasoned cheese. Indeed in Italy we mean with parmesan one specific cheese, the Parmiggiano Reggiano. You have to know that only cheese produced in a specific Italian area according a defined procedure may be labeled "Parmigiano-Reggiano", ie parmesan. And it is classified by law as a “protected designation of origin - PDO” (in Italian: denominazione d´origine protetta - DOP).This is very important, because just watching at the yellow red DOP logo you know you have in your hands authentic parmiggiano reggiano anywhere in the world you are.

But in Italy, it is not only Parmiggiano Reggiano, we have also another very popular cheese that we use for similar purpose. It is the Grana Padano. Also here only the cheese produced in a restricted area and according specific procedure may be labeled Grana Padano. And also here, a DOP-PDO label is available.
What is the difference between the 2? Which is the better one? Well, the choice is mainly driven by personal taste, familiar or regional tradition or simply economic reasons or availability. Just use any of them certified by the PDO-DOP logo. Or you can try both of them and then decide which one you like. I found this summer parmesan for sale with the authenticity PDO-DOP logo even in most of Icelandic supermarkets, so I am sure you should find some even in your nearby. When in this blog I will refer to parmesan, just keep in mind that I mean authentic Parmiggiano Reggiano or Grana Padano.
If you like to go on and use any hard seasoned cheese, please feel free to do it, but just be aware of the difference especially when you buy it and check the price. I honestly do not see any reason why any “general parmesan” without DOP logo should be more expensive than an authentic one. Do not be mislead by Italian flags on the cheese package or other bullshit, because only the label with the production area (at least Italy!) and the authenticity yellow-red DOP logo are the correct guarantees. So if your intention is to buy the authentic one, be suspicious of any parmesan produced in germany or in usa..

Very crunchy chicken with spicy sauce

Like I already wrote I do not like to fry. It is boring, it takes ages and you have to breath all these vapors.. no no no, except very few times per year, all my food goes in the oven. Much more healthy, much less to clean after, much easier to handle and still quite tasty!

One of the foods that I do not fry is then fried chicken :-) My chicken goes in the oven but never the less comes out crunchy!

Here is one more version, a bit special and very easy and fast to prepare that I tried recently.

Crunchy chicken with spicy sauce (for 2)

Ingredients

300g chicken breast (for us organic chicken)

100g chips

1 egg (also here, organic egg for us, I told you I am a bio freak)

Switch on the oven and preheat it at 200°C.

Chop the chicken in cubes. In a dish smash the chips with the hands in small pieces. In a second dish beat quickly the egg. Do not add salt to the egg because the chips already have enough.

Soak the chicken pieces in the egg few at the time and then one per time pass them in the crisp´s chips. Press firmly the chicken in the chips to create a good layer and do not shake them to remove the excess like you would normally do for a standard coating in breadcrumbs.

Align them on the backing tray covered by backing paper and put them in the oven in its higher part. Turn the chicken after 15-20min and cook for approximately half an hour or until they will look crispy.

In the while go on with the sauce.

Ingredients sauce

1 chili or grinded chili (amount based on taste)

1 clove of garlic

Extra virgin olive oil (organic for us)

1 ts sugar

2 tbs tomato triple concentrate

1 ts vinegar

Half glass white wine

Salt, pepper

Press the garlic with the side of a knife to break its structure (like this it will release more taste but you will not chew directly the small parts) and put it in a pan with a spoon of oil. Start to cook it. In the while pass the chili in a grinder, if fresh, and add it in the pan. After couples of minutes add half glass of white wine and let evaporate the most. Add the tomato concentrate and still a half glass of water. Adjust with sugar, salt, pepper and a bit of vinegar and let the sauce cook until it has the right thickness.

Just before serving remove the garlic. Serve the sauce together with the chicken!

Good side dish would be a simple salad or you can also add the chicken directly to a salad ;-9

No picture of the finished chicken with the sauce is unfortunately available, it disappeared too fast lol

Last summer feeling: Parmigiana

Summer is here definitely over, we have rainy and cloudy weather and leaves start to turn to yellow. In the end to buy good and fresh summer vegetables is almost a mission impossible, but last weekend I was in Italy and then I could still buy some fresh, tasty and yummy aubergines.

So, what is better than a juicy “parmigiana” to make the most of them?

Here is my version for 2!

Parmigiana 

Ingridients 

1 big aubergine or 2 small ones

Grated Parmesan

Cheese which melts easily 50g (traditionally is mozzarella, but this releases a lot of liquid and moreover I did not had it available)

1 can of tomato sauce

Clove of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

Salt, pepper, chili, basil 

Method

The best would be to purge at the beginning the aubergine, to get rid of the typical bitter taste. This means cut your vegetable in slices of 5-8mm thickness. Then place them in a colander in layers, cover every layer with a good pinch of salt (better thick grains) place a dish and a weight on the top and wait for 1-2hours. You will see a brown water drained out, that´s the bitter. 

But, as usual, I did the quick and dirty version and because of lack of time I had to skip this first step. But, especially if your vegetables are not very high in quality or not very fresh, this step really worth´s.

Now, again, traditional recipe would expect that you fry your aubergine slices, but I hate the operation of frying and moreover is not very healthy. What I do then, it is just to cook them simply in the oven. 

So, if you did the purge, previous next step remove the salt and squeeze gently your slices to remove the excess of liquid.

Otherwise just switch on the oven at 200°C. Then lay the slices on a baking tray and pour just a bit of oil above them. Bake them until they are cooked (you will notice a change in color and this should take aprox 15-20min). Then turn them and if too dry pour a second time a bit of oil and go on for other 10-15min or until the slices are cooked. 

In the while put a spoon of oil in a pan with a clove of garlic and some chili, add the tomato, adjust with salt and pepper and let sauce become thick. At the end remove the garlic clove and if you´d like add a couple of basil leaves.

Cut the cheese in small cubes. Warm up again your oven at 200°C.

Now, take out your oven pan and start to stack the layers. At first pour a couple of tomato sauce spoons on the bottom and a bit of oil and spread them, then go with aubergine slices, some tomato sauce, cheese and parmesan (be generous because the name parmigiana comes from parmesan ;-) ). Go on with the layers and finish with a good sprinkling of parmesan and a bit of oil.

Then place it in the oven for 30-45min until a brown crust start to form on the top. Then take it out and let it rest for further 15min. (no worry, it will be so close to lava boiling point that even if you wait it is still warm enough).

In the end, this is a parmigiana! :)