Month: December 2005

Diplomatico

The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

1 1/4 cups strong espresso (find espresso, strong coffee doesn’t really cut it)
5 Tbsp rum (I used brandy- it’s just what I had)
5 tsp sugar
5 Tbsp water
16 ounces pound cake, cut into 1/4″ slices
4 large eggs, separated
1 tsp sugar
6 oz. semisweet chocolate coarsely chopped (or in convenient chocolate chip form)
Whipped cream and fresh fruit (optional)

In a small bowl, combine the espresso, rum, sugar, and water. Moisten a sheet of cheesecloth large enough to line a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan with plenty of overhang. Line the pan with the cheesecloth. Dip the pound cake, slice by slice, in the rum and espresso soak, then use the slices to line the bottom and sides of the pan. (Dip the cake slices very quickly or they will become too soggy to handle, let any excess liquid drain from the slices before lining the pan.) Leave no gaps, patching where necessary with pieces of soaked pound cake.

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until they turn pale yellow, about 4 minutes. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over gently simmering water or in the microwave (2-3 minutes total, stirring every 30 seconds). Gradually pour the melted chocolate over the beaten egg yolks, mixing quickly with a rubber spatula until smoothly combined. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until the form stiff peaks. Stir a rounded tablespoon of the beaten whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen it, then gently fold in the remaining whites. Spoon the chocolate filling into the cake-lined pan. Cover the filling with more slices of soaked pound cake (you may have some cake left over). Fold the moistened cheesecloth over the top of the cake. Refrigerate the diplomatico for at least one day, and up to a week.

When you take the cake out of the fridge, unfold the cheesecloth and pull it away from the top of the cake. Invert the loaf pan onto a platter and shake it firmly to free the cake and peel off the cheesecloth. Slice and serve. You could garnish the slices with whipped cream and fresh fruit, but it also tastes just fine on its own.

My week in food has been pretty unexciting. I bought some hot dogs yesterday and combined them with my extra tube of crescent rolls. I was chowing down on pigs in a blanket for dinner. That was some trashy/wonderful noshing.

This weekend, I’m going to be making lasagna, which I see I have not written about yet. But since what I do is bascially follow the directions on the back of the Ronzoni no-cook noodles box, it’s not terribly exciting. I will be making my own sauce instead of using a jar, though. I actually don’t think I’ve ever done that before for a lasagna.

Oh, and some kind of dessert (we’re having a dinner for my mom’s birthday on Sunday). I was going to make tiramisu again, but for some reason, I cannot find ladyfingers in the grocery stores. It’s quite annoying.

I need to do laundry tonight. I’m going through socks a lot faster now that I wear two pairs during the day and one at night. My feet get cold.

Woohoo, par-teeeee tomorrow night. It’s time once again for Bud and Eddie’s Holiday Hoo-hah, which is one of my favorite events of the year. Great food, strong drinks, and interesting people. Yay!

Well, the results are in, and… we didn’t win the Katamari fanart contest. I’m a bit sad. I still think we’re the most bad-ass Katamari fans out there (closely follwed by the person who made this ridiculously cool cake [even though I think the Prince should have been made out of marzipan, not modeling clay]).

If you’d like to see who did win, go over to the We Love Katamari website (warning: flash) and looks at the Fans section. The six on the first page are the winners.

Wahhh! My sauce broke!

My mom was trying to make her sweet potato-chipotle-maple-cream gratin thing less soupy. She thought the solution might be to make a bechamel sauce instead of just pouring the cream over the sliced sweet potatoes. I tried this out this weekend. I made the sauce (omg so tasty!), assembled the dish, and slid it into a 350 oven for an hour. When I took it out… well, it was very pretty, except for the fact that there was a centimeter of oil sitting on top of the whole thing. I spooned the oilslick off the top and cut into it. More oil beneath. ARGH! It was still quite yummy, I thought. But still, DAMN!

I must have done something wrong with the sauce. People (not me, clearly) use bechamel in lasagna all the time and it doesn’t break in the oven!

I’m so sad.

Alert! The world’s best egg/omelette/crepe/crab cakes/potato pancakes pan is on sale at Amazon today! Even cheaper than it usually is- $17.99! I adore this pan, so does R☆, so do J and Barbara May, so do Barbara May’s parents, so do Barbara May’s mom’s coworkers. Come, join our cult of this pan.

I wouldn’t have thought a rant about stapling could inspire such debate. It’s interesting. I was taking notice of how I staple yesterday- I’m a diagonal stapler.