Tiramisu Recipe

I have decided to add my favorite recipes here in my blog. Not only can I share them, but I can also easily access them. Here is an excellent Tiramisu recipe by Graziella Alessi that I found in the SBS Food Safari website.

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
60g castor sugar (1/4 cup)
500g mascarpone
1/4 cup Kahlua

1 packet savoiardi biscuits
100g dark chocolate, chopped
1L hot coffee
Ground coffee

Italian Meringue:
100mL water
250g castor sugar (1 cup)
125mL egg whites (whites from 5 eggs)

Preparation:
Place the egg yolks and caster sugar in a mixing bowl, and whisk on high speed until pale and fluffy. Add the mascarpone and on a medium speed, whisk until it starts to thicken. Be sure not to over mix as you may split the mascarpone.

Add the liqueurs and mix until just combined. Place to one side and make the Italian meringue.

Add the water to a clean, grease free saucepan. Slowly add the sugar making sure that all the grains get wet. Place over a medium heat and bring to soft ball stage.

Making sure that your mixing bowl is completely grease free, put in your egg whites and whisk on high speed until they are white and fluffy. As your egg whites reach medium peak, start to slowly add your hot sugar. Once all the sugar has been added, continue to whisk until the Italian meringue has completely cooled.

Take your Italian meringue, and carefully fold into the mascarpone mix.

Take your sponge finger biscuits, and soak in the coffee, a few at a time. Give the biscuits a light squeeze to remove any excess coffee. (Try not to soak your biscuits all the way through. There should still be a little portion in the middle that has not been soaked in the coffee).

Line your bowl with the biscuits. Once the bowl has been completely covered with the biscuits, sprinkle with a little of the chopped chocolate.

Add a little of the mascarpone mix, coming up the bowl, one third of the way. Cover with some more of the coffee soaked sponge finger biscuits, and sprinkle again with the chopped chocolate. Place some more mix onto the sponge finger biscuit, coming up another third of the way up the bowl. Repeat this process once more, leveling out the mix with the top edge of the bowl.

Place in the fridge, and allow the tiramisu to become firm enough to cut, minimum 2 hours.

Just before serving, sprinkle the top with freshly ground coffee.

Work Trip to Derby, UK

In November, I flew to England with my boss, Paul, to give a presentation to Egg Bank on a project which we were working on for them. We spent 2 weeks in Derby, where the client was situated. It was 2 hours by train from London. I experienced zero degree temperature for the first time. This was a good dress rehearsal for our winter European holiday in December.

I had the opportunity to visit my friends, Colin and Patrick, in their new home in Cambridge. They showed me around, and I found Cambridge to be a really charming university town.

Through the power of my boss' American Express Platinum card, I was able to get a ticket to the sold out show 'Passion' at the Donmar Warehouse.

This is a musical written by Stephen Sondheim. Unlike the mega musicals showing at the West End, this one was showing at an intimate theatre of around 400 seats. The show was magnificent. I absolutely loved it. The music was beautiful and moving, the sets were simple but effective, and the actors were excellent, especially the male lead, David Thaxton. He is going to be a big star on the West End in the very near future. At one hour and 40 minutes with no intermission, the show just swept you away with its story of love, obsession, pain and tragedy. After seeing so many theatrical productions through the years, it is reassuring to know that there are still productions out there that can move me like this. I was so grateful to Paul for getting me the ticket. He actually came along with me, and he said that he enjoyed it too, which was a relief for me.

During this trip, I got to experience flying first class during the flight from Heathrow back to Sydney. Oh my, how the other half lives. The champagne was French and vintage 2000. It was a 3 course meal with white table cloth. The gave us pyjamas to change to. And when you are ready to sleep, you call on the stewardess to prepare your bed. She adjusts your seat to the horizontal position, put a white quilted bed cover over it, and add a white pillow and a white blanket. It will be very hard to fly economy ever again.