Tiramisu contains coffee, sugar and alcohol. Everything needed for an afternoon “pull me up”, which is the word Tiramisù in Italian. Tiramisu usually consist of ladyfingers (called savoiardi in Italian) cookies soaked in coffee with mascarpone cheese frosting infused with alcohol. Some choose to use panettone, the ubiquitous famous sweet bread loaf from Milan instead of ladyfingers. Traditionally, tiramisu recipe consists of eggs. We found avoiding raw egg resulted in a decent yet easy to make simple tiramisu free from any salmonella.

My sister always wanted to make Tiramisu but couldn’t find the mascarpone cheese in her local grocery. Last time when she visited me, she made this tiramisu from the mascarpone I got her.

Ingredients

1 lb mascarpone cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 and ½ cups espresso or strong coffee
½ cup granulated sugar
2 dozens  ladyfingers
4 tablespoons Grand Marnier liqueur
4 tablespoons cocoa powder (and chocolate shavings)
1 tablespoon vanilla essence

The listed ingredients are apporpriate for two layer Tiramisu in a 8″ x 8″ x 2″ square pan , which is the standard 8 inch square pan.

Take out mascarpone, which is an Italian triple-cream cheese containing 40% fat with rich and creamy taste.

Add ½ cup sugar to mascarpone cheese.

Add 1 tablespoon vanilla essence and 4 tablespoons Grand Marnier liqueur. Beat the mixture lightly. We chose Grand Marnier because we like its orange-flavor. Any other flavored liqueur will also work.  The 4 tablespoons of liqueur was perfect for giving a good flavor to the tiramisu. If you want more alcoholic tiramisu, feel free to add extra shot of liqueur.

Beat 1 cup heavy cream into whipped cream.

Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mix to get tiramisu frosting.

Gently dip ladyfingers in coffee for a few seconds.

Place the soacked ladyfingers side by side on a pan.

Put about  half of the tiramisu frosting on top of the ladyfingers.

Sift about half of the cocoa powder on top of the frosting.

Alongside cocoa powder you can add chocolate shavings as well. We didn’t do it because we didn’t have any shaved chocolate.

Repeat by putting a second layer of of the coffee-soaked ladyfingers on top of the tiramisu frosting.

Add layer of tiramisu frosting followed by cocoa powder

Cover and refrigerate for half hour or more.

Remove.

Carefully cut and eat your homemade tiramisu.

I prefer equal amount of interchanging layer of creamy frosting and cake. If you like more frosting, make some extra frosting and layer it accordingly.

My slice of Grand Marnier Tiramisu!

I don’t know much about “dragon fruit”. I was intrigued by it when I saw it in an Asian grocery store, H-mart, last weekend. I decided to buy it even though I had no idea how to eat a dragon fruit or which part of the fruit to eat. I was curious.

Internet (and youtube) came to the rescue. A quick research also told me that dragon fruit is also known as Hylocereus undatus, red pitaya, or strawberry pear. It’s popular in Southeast Asia (China, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, etc.) and believed to be native of Central America.

You eat the inner white flesh of a dragon fruit. The taste and texture of a dragon fruit is similar to kiwi because both have similar texture and contain small edible seeds. The flesh of a dragon fruit is uniformly distributed with black and crunchy seeds that give it nutty and somewhat oily flavor.

Dragon fruit is, perhaps, one of the least sweet fruits that I ever tasted. No wonder that it has low calories and consumed widely by diabetic people.

To eat dragon fruit, peel of the shell and eat its flesh. This is how I did.

Cut the fruit straight down the middle longitudinally through stalk.

Scoop out white flesh using a spoon.

Cut into cubes. Optional serving suggestion; serve the cut dragon fruit cubes in a boat made from its shell.

For those who have sweeter tooth, drizzle with honey.

Ramadan Mubarak to all our readers!
August 11, 2010 – September 9^th, 2010

I started fasting for Ramadan when I was eleven or twelve years old.  I’d have to do a fact check on the exact age with my mom since she remembers it better than I do.  The first few days were the hardest.  It would get easier along the way, until the week or so after Ramadan when every time I ate during the day I felt like I was making a mistake or doing something wrong.  It’s interesting how a month can make or break a habit.

We fast from sunrise to sunset each day during Ramadan.  It is especially challenging during the summer months when the days are longer and the weather is hot.  The highlight of the day is definitely after the call for maghrib salat (prayer after sunset) when it’s time to break the fast.

Muslims host iftar parties for relatives, friends, and/or the community to share in the breaking of fast together.  Breaking fast with someone is considered a blessing even if you aren’t fasting.  It is also a good deed to feed those who are fasting during the month of Ramadan.  And God knows we can all use those extra brownie points.

This year I hosted my second ever iftar party.  Last year, I had a dozen or so guests and I was just starting out learning to cook.  This year I have some experience under my belt and of course, the rest is left to God to make my food delicious or not.  I hosted 33 guests on the 14^th of August which is also Pakistan Independence Day, so obviously it was themed accordingly!

I set the menu as follows:

Appetizers
Kajoor (dates)
Keema samosas (shaped like dumplings)
Aloo samosas
Chaana chaat
Vegetable Pakoras – Eggplant and Zucchini

Entrée
Palak Paneer
Lamb Korma
Chicken Biryani
Chicken Jalfrezie

Dessert
Pineapple cupcakes with cream cheese icing
Chai
Roofza with milk
Roofza with water

It is traditional in my culture to have an iftari which is more snacks based (see appetizers list) and follow it with a dinner later in the evening.  This was the largest dinner party I have thrown.  It was definitely a lot of work to cook for that many guests.  Of course, I had my mom on video chat and on the phone guiding me, but it also took a lot of planning and coordinated execution.

First I thought of my theme.  I am a proud Pakistani American and saw the opportunity to combine the celebration of Ramadan iftar with the celebration of Pakistani Independence day – 8.14.10.  That set my color scheme: Green.  I sent out a custom evite to all my guests 6 weeks in advance.  Reserving the first weekend in Ramadan is very difficult because there will be many competing parties.  I bought green glasses, white silverware and of course it helps that proud Pakistanis have lots of souvenirs, flags and symbols to scatter around the house.  I got my holiday lights out and put them up, I used a giant Pakistani flag as a table cover, put out village souvenirs near the cupcakes at first and then near the drinks when we needed the freezer.

I rearranged all the furniture in the house to comfortably seat guests.  I went for an open floor plan, removed all tables from the center, and created a large oval.  I threw floor cushions in various spaces so people could sit on the carpet with comfort.  I put small tables near chairs so people could rest their glasses.  I developed an icebreaker so people would be forced to be creative, come out of their comfort zone and engage with the wider crowd.

Then I thought about my menu for about 10 days.  I finally settled on the above mentioned menu. I bought green food coloring for my cupcakes as well as green icing to decorate them.  I asked everyone to either wear green or South Asian clothes.  My guest-list consisted of mixed races and faiths so it was great to have people join in the theme even when they were not Pakistani or Muslim.

My biggest concern was whether the quantity of food would be enough.  At least a dozen of the guests were not fasting.  The rest were so they had neither drank or eaten anything all day.  Having many items is actually a plus because everyone will take a little of everything and then the dish can go a long way.  I knew the main dish was the biryani.

I had to make as much of that as I could.  Knowing my nature and tendencies to do things big, I have pots that will cook large quantities.  I made 8 cups of uncooked basmati rice for the party.  I began by creating the chicken masala for the biryani.  I then boiled my rice with salt, bay leaves and black cardamom.  Once the rice had boiled I strained it and divided it into two halves.  I layered one half of the rice on the bottom of the large pot and put in all of the chicken masala on top, then I layered the rest of the rice on top.  I added the yellow food coloring and put the entire pot in the oven at 180⁰F to keep warm until the guests arrived two hours later.

I served all the appetizers first. I fried the samosas and pakoras right before the breaking of the fast so they would be fresh and hot.  In the meantime, I kept all the entrees warm.  Fifteen minutes after everyone had a chance to eat the appetizers I reviewed the table, removed what was finished and set up the entrees.

After dinner, I facilitated the ice breaker, served dessert and chai.

All in all it was really memorable for me and I am glad I did it.  I definitely think it was crazy to cook for so many people, but now that I have this under my belt it won’t be as overwhelming the next time around.

More photographs on DesiGrub’s facebook page

I have been to Kabob Bazaar near Clarendon metro numerous times. Usually, it’s for a quick kabob lunch. This time, I was meeting a friend after a long time and we took our time to chat over 3 course meal in Kabob Bazaar.

Our meal started with falafel platter. The falafels were slightly burnt outside but tasted crispy and had decent flavor. Falafel looked a bit rustic and seemed homemade (when I inquired, they are not homemade). Along with our appetizer, we got a salty yogurt drink with mint, dogdh. We opted for homemade dogdh, which is less carbonated and spicier than a bottled version. It was indeed refreshing in the hot summer afternoon if you can stomach a cold salty and spicy yogurt drink.

For my main course meal, I chose lamb kabob. I was pleasantly surprised when the waitress asked me for doneness of my kabob. Usually, you are not asked if you want medium rare or medium well, they just give you medium. I was kind of bummed out that I had to pick either rice or flatbread to accompany my lamb kabob. As much as I love rice, I can always make it at home. However, I don’t have a 800 F hot oven (tandoor) to make the flatbread. My choice of bread seemed ideal as it was freshly baked and big. My medium rare lamb kabob came on top of the bread with grilled vegetables such as mushroom and peppers. The kabob also came with generic and mediocre version of mast-o-khiar, Persian mint and cucumber yogurt sauce. The side of sumac was already on the table along with regular salt and black pepper shakers.

The lamb kabob meal was filling and we were stilling chatting over warm cup of freshly brewed Turkish tea. After a while, how could we refuse a good dessert? I chose saffron ice cream with pistachios and rose water while my friend chose pastries. The ice cream was full of the unique saffron flavor as suggested by its deep saffrony yellow color (unless artificial yellow color was added). If you have never tried saffron ice cream, I encourage you to go find a saffron ice cream in your local Indian grocery store.

Our 3 course meal at Kabob Bazaar was memorable. The food was good but taking our time to finish our meal over long conversation was priceless.

Word of mouth works well in the case of feeding the mouth. After hearing praises for a food from a friend, you really want to give it a shot. My friend and colleague Jess has been praising about this new frozen yogurt place that serves by weight near DC’s Chinatown for couple of weeks. One evening after dinner, my cousin M’deep and I were looking for a light and relatively healthy dessert. Jess’s frozen yogurt seemed to fit the bill. At first, we couldn’t find the place because it’s not right in the Chinatown but on F and between 10^th and 11^th street, which is technically Metro Center downtown.

FroZenYo is self-serve À la carte format frozen yogurt place with choice of 16 rotating flavors dispensed through self-serve soft serve machines. FroZenYo charges 39 cents per ounce for any yogurts with any number of toppings. At first, it seems very cheap, but it comes out to be $6.24 per pound and in my experience, the average cost comes down to around $4. The best thing is you have the complete control over what and how much you choose. Unless you work with soft serve machine, only other place you get to operate a soft serve ice cream machine is at Chinese buffets. I always look forward to pulling down the lever serve machine whenever I go to any Chinese buffet. It must be some sort of primal circuit in our animal brain that gets joy out of pulling a lever for coins or food.

My first rendezvous with soft serve ice cream began with McDonald’s version of vanilla soft serve ice cream, which is just 150 calories and about a buck. The soft serve machine makes soft ice cream or frozen yogurt by mixing typically 30% to 40% air into the frozen dessert during the freezing process. Higher volume of air in the frozen dessert results in light texture, softer and creamer ice cream or frozen yogurt. On top of that, the soft serve desserts are served at a much warmer temperature (-4°C) than the regular ice cream (-15°C) which helps to enhance its flavor by minimizing cold burn. The credit of inventing soft serve machine is often given to either or both founders of Dairy Queen and founders of Carvel around late 1930s.

Frozen yogurt is similar to ice cream except it is made with yogurt rather than cream (thus ice cream). Frozen yogurt can be either served as somewhat tart original yogurt-like flavor or as something that taste exactly like ice cream. Many soft serve ice creams and frozen yogurts have generally lower milk-fat (3% to 6%) compared to ice cream (10% to 18%) because they already have creamy texture due to air. Interestingly, United Sates federal labeling standards require ice cream to contain at least 10% milk-fat and 20% milk solid. Frozen yogurts tasting like a regular yogurt are indeed healthier than the ice cream while the ones tasting just like ice cream are as healthy as, you guessed it, as ice cream.

I have not tried all the flavors in FroZenYo. Among those tried, my favorites are macadamia, pistachio, and cheese cake. Others that I have tried are all decent. I was quite disappointed with only one flavor, mango. The mango flavor was very tart like a sour raw mango sorbet that didn’t have any milk. Since it was frozen mango yogurt, I was expecting the flavor profile similar to the mango ice cream, more sweet and less tart. However, some people prefer extreme tartness – to each their own. I suggested using small tasting cups to try beforehand if you are absolutely not sure about the flavor.

After you get your frozen yogurt, make sure to leave some room for toppings. Go to the topping bar. There are arrays of toppings you can choose from, such as regular fruit toppings, nuts, and chocolates bits.

FroZenYo is an excellent choice for desserts for any occasions, with friends, family or date. No kidding, it may be one of the best first date idea. It’s inexpensive yet stylish, and the best part is you can learn about your dates by the flavors and toppings they pick.

I’ll be honest. Pumpkin pie is not exactly my favorite thing in the world. But this Thanksgiving, when my sister pointed to the two-foot tall pumpkin sitting on her porch, I couldn’t resist bringing some home. I ended up with fourteen pounds of pumpkin slices taking up a large portion of my freezer, and absolutely no immediate desire to make it into pumpkin pie. I figured I’d leave it there for a while…

And then came the day when I needed to clean out my freezer. How appropriate that just that week I received a link from a friend on Facebook for a recipe for pumpkin butter. Since both my husband’s and my family are Pennsylvania Dutch enough to have apple butter available at the holidays, the following Saturday I spent the afternoon and evening baking, pureeing, cooking, and eventually, enjoying a very large batch of pumpkin butter. I have to admit – this is SO much better than pumpkin pie!

After defrosting the pumpkin slices, shell and all, in the fridge overnight, I placed the slices in cake pans with a half an inch of water, covered them with foil. and baked them in a 450 degrees oven until the pulp could be scooped out with a spoon. With a fresh pumpkin this should take 45-60 minutes, but my half-thawed pumpkin took almost two hours.

Remove from the oven when soft, and scrape the pulp away from the shell. If you’re working with a jack-o-lantern pumpkin, you’ll want to drain the pulp to remove excess juice. I put the pumpkin in an over-the-sink collander and left it for an hour or two. After draining, puree the pulp in a blender.

Pour the puree into a crockpot, and add:

For every 2 cups of pumpkin puree,
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves

I ended up with 8 cups of puree from the 14 pounds of pumpkin I started with, so it was easy to multiply the recipe by 4, and I added a little bit more of the spices since I used a jack-o-lantern pumpkin. Stir the ingredients and cover with either a lid propped up with a wooden spoon, or with a splatter shield to allow the butter to thicken. Cook on high until as thick as desired, 3-5 hours (approximately).

I ended up with about five cups of amazing pumpkin butter. I froze a couple cups in FoodSaver bags for later, and kept the rest in the fridge. I’d suggest spreading pumpkin butter on bread or toast with a little butter, or used as pumpkin pie filling for various desserts. I’m already looking forward to planting pumpkins for next fall!

Suji Halwa (Semolina Pudding) is one of the classic desi dessert popular throughout the Indian subcontinent.

The video is in Nepali with English subtitles for directions. Also spelled Sooji Halwa.

The time between Dushera and Diwali, is synonymous with the Thanksgiving-Christmas phase, where food takes the center stage.  I remember watching one of those morning shows on TV, that reported an average weight gain of 5 to 10 pounds during this period. Unfortunately,  unlike the peaceful end to the parade family and food, this extra weight piles on.

Here’s a bag of cooking tricks that Navi Mumbai has compiled:

• Whole Grains: Instead of denying yourself the sweetness of mithai, go for options made with whole grains like wheat, bajra, jowar, and ragi (nachni).  Soybean and daals can also be substituted for besan.
• Dry fruits: Almonds, walnuts, and flaxseeds are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids that have numerous health benefits including prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Adding dry fruits to sweets recipes will add texture will add an interesting texture and transfer the health benefits as well.
• Sugar: While a Diwali without Indian sweets is incomplete, substitutes like with dates (khajoor).
• Oil: For preparing desserts/ kheer, use cow’s toned/skimmed milk rather than whole milk (full fat milk).
• Milk: Sweets can also be prepared with paneer (made at home with cow’s toned milk) instead of khoya, which is high in fat content.