Oh yes. I first heard of it from Dennis, raised an eyebrow, but who am I to argue, right? I had a 3/4 full jar of pistachio paste, lots of savoyardi biscuits, some unsalted pistachios and made a small portion yesterday, having first consulted Giallo Zafferano.

For starters 2 egg yolks whipped with some sugar and vanilla sugar, but not too much, as pistachio paste is already very sweet. A bit of whipped cream , ready and waiting. To the whipped and fluffy yolks I have added half a container of mascarpone and then the paste, quite a lot, 4 tsps maybe and then added some more to be sure. 🙂 A little of that cream to loosen it up. And then a layer of all this wonderfulness on the bottom of the dish, a layer of savoyardi quickly soaked in coffee, more wonderfulness, biscuits and finished with one more layer. On the top finely chopped unsalted pistachios, but I only added them before serving, so they stayed lovely and crunchy.

Also, I must add that this is the first ever tiramisu I’ve made without booze, as they do here in Italia. Izzie could have some, she did and she approved. As did we! 🙂

This little number finished off our nice get together last Sunday. The Gray’s come over for Sunday lunch, a meaty one ( we had some steaks, some grilled lamb shoulder, some sausages and some burgers, plus a few sides).

6 panna cottas were made out of a 400 ml can of coconut milk, 250ml of double cream and about 120 g of caster sugar all heated up together, then once off the heat 3 soaked gelatine leaves went in. Cooled mixture went into the moulds and set in the fridge. Before serving I grated some lime zest on top, crushed some ginger biscuits for the texture and some freshly sliced mango. It received great reviews! 🙂

I was sorting out my cookbooks the other day, with the intention of taking some of them to the charity shop. There were some that I have not used in more than 10 years, some that were pretty useless – The Cocktail Cook, I’ve not been into cocktails for years, apart from a good mojito every now and then. “Classic Italian Cooking” went too, as my perception of what’s classic and Italian dramatically changed since I got that book 15 or so years ago.

“Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch” was on the pile too, but as I was having lunch I flipped through it and decided to hold on to it, especially as a tweak to my favourite creme brulee came to my attention. I normally make a simple, vanilla one, but the rhubarb idea appealed to me a lot. I took 2 nice pieces from the garden, cleaned them, peeled, chopped and quickly cooked them down with some sugar and butter. Then went on to make my brulees the usual way, 4 egg yolks whipped with about 3 tbsps of sugar and vanilla sugar, while 250 ml of double cream and 75 ml of milk infused with vanilla paste were heating up. Once hot enough, cream and milk mixture went onto the egg yolks slowly, then the foam got discarded.

On the bottom of the ramekins went the rhubarb, then the custard, then into the oven ready at 140 degrees in a bain marie for about 30 minutes. I always take them out when there’s still a bit of a wobble.

The rhubarb seemed to have infused the custard nicely. Good stuff!

Aussie Masterchef inspired, but the recipe is from BBC Good Food, it had to be one for those with no ice cream makers. Currently I still qualify, but after today’s raging success I am thinking about it again! 🙂

I started by heating up 225 ml of milk with a good sprinkle of cinnamon. The recipe called for the stick, I had none. I won’t be able to say exactly how much cinnamon I used for this recipe, as I kept on adding and tasting. I wanted a decent cinnamon flavour, but not like that chewing gum that Florek used to bring me from America years ago- one that left the palate burnt from too much spice.

3 egg yolks, 100 g of caster and vanilla sugar, again a pinch of cinnamon, whipped nicely till pale and fluffy. Once milk was nice in hot, it got whisked in to the eggs, returned to the pan and then onwards like with any custard, until it thickened up. More cinnamon, more tasting.

350 ml of double cream, gently whipped, not too much, I wasn’t even sure if I should have whipped it, the recipe did not say that, but that was my first attempt, so I whipped it. Mixed the custard through, poured into a plastic container with the lid and into the freezer for 1,5 hour. After this time I gave it a good stir, covered, returned to the freezer. Another 1,5 hour, stir, this time much more set. Third time was recommended, but by then 2 Bankses discovered what I was busy with and The Tasting begun.

Eventually, I served us all a scoop on a nice gently baked apple. I could have easily eaten 3 times as much, but I intend to shed around 3 kg again, so no stuffing my bum with ice cream in a hurry. This is a success though, well done me! 🙂

Nigella is a guest judge in Aussie Masterchef, this dessert was one of 4 she set out for a pressure test. It looked great, internet came to help and within minutes we had a beautiful dessert after our carbonara this evening. I am not a chocolate freak, but I loved it and easily finished the whole espresso cup. For 4 such portions one needs 75 g of good, dark chocolate, melted and slightly cooled. To that 50 ml of equally good extra virgin olive oil goes in, I use the Tuscan one I get from Sainsbury’s now, but used to bring it over from Italy. 2 eggs, yolks whipped with 25 g of caster sugar and a pinch of flaky salt, whites whipped with a much bigger pinch of flaky salt. Once the yolks are pale and fluffy, chocolate and olive oil mixture. Then the whipped whites, in 3 parts, gently, not to lose the air. Into the espresso cups. And they get chilled for at least 20 minutes.

A keeper!!!!! 🙂

The recipe for this thing has been sitting in my recipe book for a couple of years. Back in the days when Jedrek and Aska could be bothered to keep in touch, when we used to socialize and enjoy long weekends. Aska brought an ice cream machine once and made it for everyone, left me the recipe and only now I used it. I’m tempted to do it again, but to make a proper custard base, instead of whipped cream.

I used juice from 2 limes and a zest from one, slowly cooked it down with 140 g of caster sugar, before adding about 140 g of blueberries and a handful of raspberries, that were sitting there looking miserable. Cooked all this down too, till the fruit broke down, then passed it through the sieve and cooled down. Then 290 ml of double cream whipped till soft peaks formed, puree folded in, wrapped in cling film lined dish and frozen till the evening. Really nice, refreshing little number. It makes me think though, how much better still it could be if based on a nice, thick, creamy custard. Hmmm. ….

I should be packing us for a week in Rome, leaving tomorrow, was the plan. But thanks to raging Covid the plans had to be postponed until mid February, the earliest. To wipe the tears, I decided to invite Keava and Simon and throw a small Italian feast next Saturday, which happens to be Halloween. The food will be Italian, wine will be Italian, dessert will be Italian. I didn’t have a reliable tiramisu recipe until now, this one is from goodfood.com and it was absolutely delicious. Will be made again for Saturday. And yes, the photo really could be better, but wine was going in really well last night with pizza, so, apologies for the photo quality. 🙂

I used 2 small egg yolks, which I whipped with 50 g of sugar and vanilla sugar, vanilla paste and some nutmeg in a bowl above a pan of simmering water. Took my time there, slowly adding about 20 ml of Disaronno, until the sugar nicely dissolved and the eggs were pale and fluffy. Left to cool in the fridge. The remaining Disaronno, about 50 ml I added to 100 ml of espresso, cooled.

Half of the 250 g container of mascarpone got whipped with 150 ml of double cream. Cooled. Egg mixture folded in, nice and gently.

Then, the usual stuff, savoyardi biscuits were gently soaked in the coffee/liquer mixture, arranged tightly on the bottom of the dish, half of the cream on top, biscuits, cream, then a thick coat of grated dark chocolate and a dusting of cocoa on top. A minimum of 3 hours in the fridge, the next day even better. Yum.

A link to the original recipe;

Mary Berry’s. I bought a packet or rice pudding in Coop ages ago and had it sat in the pantry until last weekend. Having made the spring rolls again for supper, it was a good idea to have the rice pudding 2 hours later, as supper was a light one; the rolls were made my way this time, no pork, but prawns were star of the dish, well spicy, as they sat in the marinade ( my usual chilli garlic paste, sesame oil and soy sauce) overnight. Apart from prawns there were quickly pan fried crunchy veggies- bean sprouts, carrots, courgettes, shallots, fresh coriander and mint, this time I got the real deal. They were great, will make them for Mariusz in 2 weeks time.

The rice pud- into a generously buttered dish went 75g of pudding rice, 1 tbsp of sugar and some vanilla sugar, vanilla bean paste, then 1,5 pint of very warm milk. All this went into the oven, uncovered, 140 degrees for about 2 hours, I kept checking, having to lift that brown looking “skin”.

Nice thing, rice pudding. Very creamy, very yummy. Served mine with a simple raspberry compote.

In Aussie Masterchef they were making pannacotta with tonka bean, which made me want to do something with 2 pots of double cream in the fridge. There was also a jar of lovely pistachio paste bought in Tuscany last summer, waiting patiently to be turned into something spectacular. I used my usual pannacotta recipe, 300 ml of double cream, 100 ml of whole milk, 1,5 soaked gelatine leaves and sugar, which I was adjusting as I went along- the pistachio paste is super sweet. I started by heating up the cream and milk, added about 1,5 tbsp of vanilla sugar and a touch of vanilla paste, then, when it was getting nice and hot I started adding the paste. I ended up using about 4 tbsps of it, which might seem like a lot, but I wanted a dessert with a character, not something that resembled pistachio. And I managed to do just that. What would be fantastic in terms of looks and texture would be a nice pistachio crumb on top, but annoyingly I had not a single nut in the pantry, so instead melted a little dark chocolate to drizzle on top. Beautiful dessert. Florek loved it, Iz loved it, I did and Dusty was licking the plate until there was nothing left to lick. 5 stars. 🙂