Saturday, January 11, 2014

Tiramisu


We have this weird tradition in our family that I inherited with the apartment - the calendars (one or two) hanging on the inside of the door to the toilet. When I think about it I don't know even know why my parents started doing this. Let's face, we ALL read there... But I mean, there isn't really a lot to read on a calendar. Of course, when it comes to Slovak calendars there are all the names attached to every day - Slovakia being a catholic region and observing name-days. (I loooove name-days, well, but sincerely, who wouldn't love them - you get presents three times a year - on Christmas, birthday AND name-day. And my name-day is such a cool date - twelve days before Christmas - when I was a kid I used to get money from my grandmas which I later used to buy Christmas gifts for my family and friends. Cool-cool-cool. But I still don't get why 24th of December is name-day for Adam and Eve.... Obviously, I am too stupid to get the Christian logic. But maybe it would be cruel for baby Jesus to have same birthday AND name-day.Hm... But I know people who were "punished" by parents this way. But anyway, I digress!) Today with facebook being such a helpful tool for remembering birthdays, I still need something to remember name-days!  So I observe this tradition of calendars. My dad is totally hooked on hunting or fishing calendars (you know picture of a fish or an animal, a little bit of text, moon phases and stuff like that). As was seen this Christmas when I got a huge hug and a kiss and an i-love-you after I got him his fishing calendar. But thanks to this I can also claim a knowledge of latin names of animals - bubo bubo! or canis lupus! (Now I am just showing off). 
Ha! but I am finally getting to my point! Last year I got a free calendar from Billa (local supermarket imported from Austria) and whole year we looked on some product placements of processed foods and one Italian recipe a month. My man HATED the calendar but since I got it for free..... yep, I am that kind of person! I never actually got around to cooking any of the recipes BUT the last one. And that was THE tiramisu. 
I cooked it on 26th of December for the first time. I went all the way - bought real Italian almond liqueur, real Italian ladyfingers, real mascarpone - and later TOLD ALL MY FRIENDS ABOUT IT (it was karaoke night and there might have been some alcohol included - but only might!) and promised them a taste. The next day I had to keep my promise of sharing it and with all the ado about nothing I forgot to take the pictures! My man was actually pretty pissed about it (not me taking no pictures but me sharing his tiramisu), because he had only four pieces! The horror! But I promised him I'll make it again some another time. And since we had guests today I quickly whipped one up yesterday.
Recipe: 
6 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
450g mascarpone
1 1/2 cup espresso
2 tbsp almond liqueur
24 ladyfingers
cacao powder 
Beat the yolks with sugar for five minutes. Add mascarpone and continue mixing. Add 1 tbsp espresso. Create one layer of ladyfingers, mix espresso with almond liqueur and pour one half of it on the ladyfingers. Spread half of the mascarpone mix on the ladyfingers, create another layer of ladyfingers, pour the second half of espresso on them and then spread the second half of the mascarpone mix. Cover the last layer with unsweetened cocoa powder.
Cover with foil and let it cool in the fridge for 2-8 hours. 
 






One of my friends told me (after making sure his girlfriend wasn't listening) that it was the best tiramisu he'd ever eaten and another one told me he liked it even though he never liked any tiramisu he'd ever tasted. 

And I think now I am finally forgiven for the calendar AND sharing his tiramisu!


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