Quick Tiramisu Trifle

Tiramisu is definitely a dessert you will fall for the first time. Tiramisu is an Italian dessert. It literally means "pick me up" or "lift me up", name truly justify the taste of this finger licking recipe. It is made of ladyfingers (Italian: Savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolks and mascarpone cheese, and flavored with Marsala wine and cocoa. The recipe has been adapted into many varieties of puddings, cakes and other desserts. Today I am trying to make this tiramisu in form of a trifle. This recipe is real quick and without any raw egg.

Make:                              4 small trifle glasses
Preparation time:              20 minutes (cooling additional)

Ingredient:

Ladyfingers (Savoiardi):               12 fingers
Instant coffee powder:                  2 tablespoon
Hot water:                                    1 cup
Marsala wine:                               2 tablespoon
Mascarpone cheese:                     200 grams
Heavy cream:                               100 grams
Vanilla sugar:                                1 1/2 tablespoon
Sugar:                                          2 tablespoon
Cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

1) Mix hot water, coffee powder, sugar and Marsala wine in a large bowl. Let it cool.
2) Whip cream until soft peak. Add mascarpone and vanilla sugar and continue whipping until smooth. Add the 1 tbsp coffee mixture to the whipped cream and cheese and mix well to give that additional flavour.
3) Take the serving glass and starting layering up the trifle. Break the ladyfinger into half and soak it in the warm coffee mixture for about 5 second.
4) Put the soaked mixture at the base of the serving glass layer it with mascarpone cheese mixture. Again put a layer of soaked lady fingers and top it up with mascarpone.
5) Insert a dry ladyfinger at the side of the glass as garnish.
6) Powder some cocoa on the top generously and store it in fridge for cooling until served.

BON APPETIT..

Leaving you with few beautiful pictures from Belgium and France to enjoy with this Tiramisu trifle.

Ghent, Belgium Skyline

Royal tea set at Musée du Louvre, France

Brugge, Historic centre, Belgium

Old Mediterranean potteries, Musée du Louvre, France

Kids Platter (Insalata, Tortellini & Cheese Pistachio Fingers with Pesto Dip)

A colorful platter full of all the healthy vegetables and dairy is certainly mom's and kid's first choice for a quick meal. In this platter we are mainly talking about four quick bite recipes:
1) Insalata Caprese skewers
2) Tortellini skewers
3) Cheese Pistachio finger with salad flower
4) Pesto Olive dip
All these recipes are real quick and enhance the color pattern of your lunch/ dinner table. This can also be served as a starter in a full course meal.

Serve:      2

Preparation time:    30 minutes

Insalata Caprese Skewers

Ingredients:
Ripe Cherry tomato
Fresh Buffalo mozzarella
Fresh basil
Olive oil/ balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Method:
1) Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with a spoon of olive oil or balsamic vinegar. Toss it with salt and pepper.
2) Put it in a skewer with a sequence of cherry tomato, basil leaf, mozzarella, basil and again a cherry tomato. Serve cold.

Tortellini skewers

Ingredients:
Fresh or frozen cheese tortellini
Pesto sauce (Recipe below)

Method
1) Boil the cheese tortellini with some salt and toss it very lightly (about 1 tbsp for 1 cup pasta) with pesto sauce.
2) Put it in a skewer and serve at room temperature.

Cheese Pistachio fingers with salad flower

Ingredients:
Processed shredded cheese:              4 tablespoon
Roasted Pistachio:                             6-8 (finely chopped)
Basil leaf:                                           4-5 (finely chopped)
Freshly crushed peppercorn
Cucumber
Carrot
Toothpick

Method
1) Using a back of spoon or your palm press the cheese to make a smooth paste.
2) Add chopped pistachio, basil and peppercorn. Mix well and make small rectangular blocks. Keep aside
3) For salad flowers- Slice cucumber and carrot (0.5 cm thick)
4) Cut in half to make a half circle of both cucumber and carrot slices.
5) In cucumber curve out a big "V" in between to take out all the seeds using a sharp edge knife.
6) In carrot curve out two small "V" in between to make it like a flower.
7) Using a toothpick prick the cucumber and then carrot to make a flower.
8) Use the flower to prick on the cheese pistachio finger. Serve at room temperature.

Pesto Olive dip

Ingredients:
Basil leaves:               15-20
Parmesan cheese:       4 tablespoon
Garlic cloves:             2 large
Olive oil:                    1 tablespoon
Green olive:               3-4
Pine nuts:                   1 tablespoon (dry roasted)
Salt to taste
Black pepper

Method
1) Put all the ingredients into the blender and make a fine paste.
2) Can be prepared in advance and kept in freeze for a week.

BON APPETIT...

Apple Pie Bites and Spinach Feta Puffs

In baking, a puff pastry is a light, flaky, leavened pastry containing several layers of fat which is in solid state at 20 °C (68 °F). In raw form, puff pastry is dough which is spread with solid fat and repeatedly folded and rolled out (never mashed, as this will destroy layering) and used to produce the aforementioned pastries. The gaps that form between the layers are a result of the puff pastry rising as the water evaporates into steam during the baking process. 

An interesting fact about puff pastry:

The number of layers in puff pastry is calculated with the equation:

l=(f + 1) ⁿ
where l is the number of finished layers, f the number of folds, and n the number of times the dough has been folded.
Example: twice-folding (i.e. in three) for four times gives (2 + 1)⁴ = 81 layers. Chef Julia Child recommends 73 layers for regular pâte feuilletée and 730 layers for pâte feuilletée fine (in Volume II of her Mastering the Art of French Cooking textbook).

Commercially made puff pastry is easily available in grocery stores. It is generally kept frozen and thawed before use.

I am using a ready made puff pastry sheet for my recipe here but sharing the process for all those who want to do it themselves.

 Serve:              4

Preparation time:               20  minutes

Ingredients:

For Apple Pie Bites:

Puff pastry sheets:                2 sheets (3 inches X 3  inches)

Granny smith apple:              4 thin slices

Butter:                                 cut is very small cubes (frozen and unsalted)

Cinnamon powder

Granulated white sugar

For Spinach Feta Puffs

Puff pastry sheets:                4 sheets (3 inches X 3  inches)

Spinach:                              50 grams (boiled and finely chopped)

Feta Cheese:                       20 grams (crumbled)

Green Onion:                        2 long stems                   

Garlic:                                 1 clove

Black pepper powder

Salt to taste

Method:

For Apple Pie Bites:

1) Cut the square sheet diagonally to make two triangles from each sheet.

2) Place the butter and apple slice on base of the triangle.

3) Sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon powder over it.

4) Flip the longer slide over the apple slice to cover it and make a parcel like shape. (Refer the picture)

5) Sprinkle some sugar and cinnamon on the top also.

6) Repeat the process for rest of the apple bites

7) Grill it at 200 degrees preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve hot.

For Spinach Feta Puffs

1) Heat some oil in a pan.  Add some garlic and green onion to it. Saute for few minutes

2) Add some spinach and dry it well. Turn off the flame. Add crumbled feta cheese. Season it with black pepper and salt.

3) Make slits from both the sides (refer to the picture)

4) Keep the filling in between and fold the slits alternatively from both the side.

5) Repeat the process for rest of puffs.

6) Grill it at 200 degrees preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Serve hot.

Recipe for making easy puff pastry sheets:

Plain Flour:           250 grams

Salt:                     1 tsp

Butter:                  250 grams (at room temperature, not too soft)

Cold water:           150 ml

Method

1) Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl. Roughly break the butter in small chunks and add them to the flour. Rub them in loosely, you need to see bits of butter.

2) Make a well in the bowl and pour in about 2/3 of cold water, mixing until you have a firm rough dough, add extra water if required. Cover it with cling film and rest for 20 mins in the fridge.

3) Turn out onto a lightly floured board, knead gently and form into a smooth rectangle. Roll the dough in one direction only, until 3 times the width, about 20 X 50 cm. keep the edge smooth and even. 

4) Fold the top third down to the center, then the bottom third up and over that. Give the dough a quarter turn (to the left or right) and roll out again to three times the length. Fold as before.

5) Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Repeat step 3 and 4. Chill it again for at-least 20 minutes before rolling it for use.

6) You can also refrigerate it in a zip lock pouch for future use.

 A video link to the recipe... Puff Pastry