Tiramisu 2.0: the perfect St Valentine’s upgrade

Tiramisu is a worldly known dessert. My Japanese friend Takuto-san used to call it Tiramis (which sounded to me as Sir Hiss in Disney Robin Hood)! Some friends of mine, as David, make it with Madeira cake (or Pan di Spagna), following a peculiar recipe that has a great success in Rome. I allegedly prefer tiramisu with lady-fingers (or sponge fingers, if you please), called in Italian Savoiardi, since their origin is the tiny mountain region of Savoy, where the former Italian monarchy once had their household estates. Then we sold it to France…and now it is possibly in better hands!

Savoy, whereabouts!

Lady (sponge) fingers or Savoiardi

Here you may find the home made recipe of  lady fingers

A curious combination of unfortunate events brings the majority among children in Italy to crave FOR YEARS for Tiramisu: because of the coffee, it’s an openly a denied pleasure! A solution of water and sugar – the 0 version - often takes the coffee place and the feeling of fulfilment is immediately turned in deprivation, mockery, and paternalism. Once we grow up, we put off denialism and pass through the initiation of coffee and finally even the yearned tiramisu falls in the hollow jar of our stomachs: this is the 1.0 version. Since decaffeinated coffee in Italy is not really an option, the society prevents the youth to come across this beverage until your rational system is well-formed, yet why?

When you keep ignoring things since you cannot achieve,
understand, want to face them

The answer is twofold but simple: coffee keeps you awake and a. parents do not wish to tell fairytales until 5 o’clock in the morning; b. the active principle may cause a cardiac arrhythmia. So when finally we are capable to bear the thrilling effect of coffee we discover that eating tiramisu at night may cause insomnia or some disturbances of the sleep.

The heart armour, 

Alessandro Reggioli,

 thanks to Giulia_chiara©

Quite a few friends I am familiar with cannot actually have coffee since they start immediately feeling tachycardia: overall my best friend Martina, who drinks tea only. Some others understandably refuse to have coffee late in the evening! So as soon as we are able to come across the 1.0 version of tiramisu, many have to withdraw from the competition! My father, for instance, would never have coffee after four o’clock in the afternoon and then he will look reluctantly to the idea of tiramisu. This is a big problem and it increases, when the day after people has to work. I happen to realize how work - despite allowing means of sustenance - complicates enormously the way in which you have to deal with your active and resting life. Is it possible to modify the recipe without provoking mayhem and revolution? YES WE CAN, AND ITS NAME IS BEERMISU or Birramisu, in Italian.

NOW WE CAN

Katie™ - an Italo-American friend, fond of literature and culture, a practical being in touch with spirituality, adeventure and sport, and who mixes up solely the qualities of both continents, - once suggested me to replace coffee with an ale beer. At the beginning I was not really sure the experiment would have lead to a nice result, yet I had to change my mind. So I choose Leffe, a Belgian ale I increasingly started to fancy. Despite this strict recommendation, I am not really into beers. The choice of Leffe was possibly more in my mind rather than on Katie’s lips. In conclusion, I think the recipe I am about to suggest could be varied and modified according to taste. Let’s see how the 2.0 version of tiramisu, the BEERMISU, may come to life:

Leffe in one of its nicest formats

A nice size glass (at least for me, that i'm not
an heavy beer drinker)

Michelle loves coffee, loads of coffee, waves of coffee, without coffee her soul does not wake up: all this is renowned among our mutual friends! Yet when she wishes to go to bed early then it becomes less appealing to indulge in something, which stimulates you your nervous system. 

Michelle in the morning

At the same time is a crime to put mascarpone off just because of coffee. Is there a solution? It was the right occasion then to try BEERMISU. We wished to exchange a post-Christmas “hello” with two other stare crossed couples: Isabel&John and Michael&Elektra. So one of the main ingredients - good friends - was there! And quite casually, the event took the appearance of an anticipation of St Valentine’s day, because of the tray!

The most scary and lovely angel

Now the procedure: REMEMBER REMEMBER, the Tiramisu or the Beermisu has to be done at least 8 hours before the meal it's thought for, otherwise the mascarpone cheese won't solidify into the fridge.

Pouring the beer onto the sponge fingers with a wee jug

A fizzy pleasing effect for hears and eyes

Dispose the sponge fingers in the heart tray:
here I was using a Beck's beer.

Dusting the mascarpone cheese with cocoa powder

Decoration: as soon as the cocoa powder will be moist,
you can draw a beer mug on it!

Here are the ingredients:

5 organic eggs 
[whisk the whites apart with half the sugar]
500 gr of Mascarpone cheese
120 gr of fair trade caster sugar
[had the second half to the cheese]
cocoa fair trade powder 
[as much as needed]
Sponge fingers
[according to the tray]

I recently discovered that tiramisu was served in brothels from the ‘700 at least as an aphrodisiac dessert, and the proprieties of caffeine were hopefully transmitted to the imminent performance. This said: I think that if your partner is fond of beer, which gives a sweet delicate taste to the berrmisu, then you may attempt this recipe and see what happens, perhaps the placebo effect shall do the rest! Happy St Valentine day to all!

Depiction of a brothel

Beautiful women's street: where prostitutes used to exercise  in Florence

Back from Italy (7) - Ideas for an evening brunch

In a famous aphorism, Emily Dickinson, stated: “my friends are my estate”. I cannot agree more: friends make you prosperous because their way of being naturally enriches your perspective on the world, yet this prosperity is not tangible, you cannot trade it or stock it. Secondly, in their companionship, one feels able to express as liberally as possible: such a lack of restrictions in the unconscious exchange of our best part makes everything special.

A tasty paste-up with Emily and some crockery

Not In Vain by Emily Dickinson If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain: If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain. One of my favorite poems.

The fact that this reciprocity doesn’t have any goal - save friendship itself - makes a relationship free from contractual bonds: one is friend to another not because of a reason related to the place (such as the class or the office), or because you are performing a service (as for the bartender and the client), or due to an earning that will be gained in the end. A friend is like an elephant bearing a tower, but it is a pretty inexplicable mythological apparition: from there you can see further beyond the horizon.

Via San Vitale, Bologna, Italy.

Their reproaches, even if sharp and hard to be accepted, are meant to help and never to demolish, they are constructive. Those who slip into the limbo ex-friends have normally developed a nasty form of envy, commuting altruism and sympathy into malice and contempt: friendship knows no form of evil competition and never turns into weapons those keys of our soul we entrusted to somebody:

When she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back for it, she found she could not possibly reach it. - From Alice Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol -

True friends, instead, are a refreshing source of good humour, support, laughs, and delightful time, in one word a pleasure without interest. Friendship, as a feeling, is a form of affection that does not reach, of course, the passion of love. Love is a sublimated desire, drive. In Latin, the word amor shares the same family etymology of the Ancient Greek mào, nonetheless I prefer the fake etymology of a-mors, i.e. something that makes death vanish. I cannot cope with my romantic side, my apologies:

This painting by Denise H. Cooperman is an allegory of Friend-Ship:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/denise-cooperman.html

When I think of friendship I am still attached to the first image of the boat: it is that sentiment of “I like you and I care for you”. I must say that as an Italian, the expression “I love you” used for a friend sounds too emphatic. We make a great deal of distinction between “ti voglio bene” and “ti amo”. There is an abyss between them.

Heather Barrow' creation, Friendship

http://www.heatherbarronarts.com/large-view/My%20Gallery/295940-12-10-22573/Painting.html?thumbnails=on

 Love implies, indeed, a physical offering – at least a gathering of mutual lips -, an exchange of vital energies, which is closer to religious faith and relinquishment of the Self: true love stems indeed from the same esteem generated by friendship, but creates a halo of admiration, a perfect balance between external beauty and interior splendour. Friendship simply cannot reach this stage and doesn’t even need to: friendship is more related on sympathy, commitment and affection perhaps, to which love adds chemistry, uniqueness and dream. Love is then a form of Nirvana, a light casted on your hart, a light that generates peace.

The satori state in the buddhist conception of enlightenment

William Shakespeare found (obviously) a very powerful expression in his 116 Sonnet to describe love: “it is an ever-fixed mark / that looks on tempests and is never shaken”. I won’t contest, but I feel the need to add that the idea that we are the caretakesrs of the ever-fixed mark - this lighthose on the perilious sea-rocks of love-life.

The idea of Nirvana made stem another connection in my mind (the last I promise). Rachel Weisz, in Darren Aronofsky’s The fountain (2006), plays Isabel of Spain and in her gorgeousness I figuratively fond that sense of commitment, attractiveness, inexplicable drive, which should internally push each person to tend to the one’s own subjective best, the most delicate authenticity.

Rachel Weisz performing Queen Isabel of Spain in The Fountain
directed by Darren Aronofsky. Recently she also took some pictures
with her second husband Daniel Craig, former 007, at the Skyfall premiere:

All these entwined causes, brought me to think which was the best way to host a coming-back party at home: the ambition was that of witnessing the bonds of friendship and reproducing its nature throughout food. Something then was needed that should have reproduced the array of different personality gathering together. The perfect meal would have been the brunch, so various and flexible, but noon was a busy time of the day for everyone. What to do? Giving it up what not a choice! A tea party was too weak! What about a brunch after tea? I duplicated the idea of the brunch and its lavish comfort food, but I bent it to the exigencies of a dinnertime, and this is the visible result of it. Every dish is shaped on some features of my friends' personality: 

1. Claudine’s tarts: Claudine is the personification of Elegance. My idea is that she was one of those elegant one-trait-silhouettes of the early XX century that came to life, with her dowry of raven hair. Her interpretation and reception of this concept allows her to be always perfect in and for every occasion. Her style is a mirror of her interpretation of the world: formally exquisite, substantially impeccable. You simply cannot add or subtract anything from her without damaging the whole harmony: 

Home kneaded bread with Provola, Taggiasche olive, Sun-dried tomatoes
and sometimes Prosciutto crudo di Norcia. A perfect finger food.

2. Martha’s filled courgettes: Martha is mirrored by this dish. She's apparently coriaceous and crusty in the outside, but the reality is that she is very tender and romantic in the inside. Her appearance is striking and it is all there, without deceptions: she never hides something, because she is incapable of lying. Sometimes you feel in need of a pair of pinches to relate with her, because she is as a burning coal, yet this threat becomes a virtue because it works as a sort of earth-like energy which warms the spirit and the atmosphere, as a good fireplace. Her beauty and wit march at the same pace. 

Grilled courgettes
filled with Robiola cheese (creamy and thick, but still spreadable),
black pepper,
and freshly trimmed chives.

3. Hannah’s aubergines and mozzarella: Hannah is a living monument of aristocracy. In Ancient Greek oi àristoi were the best people. Although she'll deny it, she aims always for the best, she is a perfectionist of good manner, so she will be the perfect example for the Order of the Garter motto "honi soit qui mal y pense" (translation: shame upon who thinks evil of it). This attention to how to perform things rightly and righteously often slows down her approach to life, but she is working on that and with a great deal of success. And above all or after all she is a virtuoso of the use of languages, and she creates delightful puns in many idioms.

Grilled mille feuilles of aubergines, mozzarella, basil leaves and tomato:
as in bon-ton etiquette there are different layers and grades
of adequateness. Grill the aubergine, make a sort of pesto
with basil and oil and spread it onto the aubergine, lay on top
the mozzarella and the tomato, finally sprinkle with black pepper

4. Lora's chocolate plum-cake: Lora is an extremely dynamic woman. She is just a few years older than me, but this discrepancy brings along a wide range of jokes related to adulthood and aging. The one I prefer to mock her with is that she is supposed to have in her photo-album a polaroid of the clay that would have become Adam. Loughs, applause! She is also very stylish in her taste for clothes, and she ALWAYS swings between black and purple, a sort of chromatic chastity. To correspond this coloristic attitude I choose a chocolate plum-cake. Beautiful texture due to a diced apple, dark as the night for the coca powder, scented of cinnamon and crowned of a jewel of pistachios [I was hoping Michelle would have make it and she adores pistachios]:

Chocolate plum-cake recipe:

1. 220 gr of white flour [7];
2. 180 gr of fair trade cane sugar; [4]
3. 150 gr of unsalted organic Tesco butter (melted) [6];
4. 120 gr of 70% Waitrose continental dark chocolate (melted); [5]
5. 80 gr of pistachios (garnishment) [9]
6. 80 gr of dried cranberries (optional) [8b];
7. 50 gr of cocoa powder; [3]
8. 3 medium organic eggs [1]
9. 1 tsp baking powder; [2]
10. 1 tbs of baking soda; [2b]
11. 1 apple [8].

[in brakets you can find the procedure steps]

5. Claire's final dish-composition: Claire is an eclectic character: journalist, PR, student, brilliant conversator. Her hair are short as in the roaring '20ies, her eyes as blue as the skies over the Alps one instant before sunrise, her attitude toward life is that of a lioness. She is picking up from the world all the most brilliant flowers, those that allow her soul to blossom in replay. She is so cultivated that when she steps inside a museum, the museum pays the ticket.

The composition was very personal:
there was the aubergine mille feuilles,
a little bun called Parmigianino
(because the main ingredient is Parmigiano),
a courgette roll, some hand-fried crisps,
a stuffed mushroom and
a slice of Felino salami (check on Waitrose)
http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-83981-Waitrose+Felino+salami

The purple napkin comes from IKEA.