Simple Irish Cream Tiramisu

This recipe was published this week on the Israeli news website Ynet.
It's a delicious and elegant dessert that is very easy to make. You can make it in individual serving glasses, as I did below. You can also just make it in one large dish, if you prefer. The exact number of servings will depend on the size of dish you use and the way you choose to divide it.

I hesitated a bit before listing it as "easily gluten free". It is easy if you have access to gluten free ladyfingers, such as these excellent ones from Schar.  However, I think even if you don't have gluten free lady fingers, you can try to make this recipe with gluten free cookies, or even just make the cheese-cream mixture and serve it as a mousse. With regards to the Irish Cream, Bailey's has a somewhat ambiguous "gluten free" statement, but other companies (like Carolan's) are clearer about their claims.  You can also use an alternative such as Kahlua.

Simple Irish Cream Tiramisu 

Ingredients (for 5-10 portions, depending on container size): 

- 1 cup of strong coffee, at room temperature (you can make this in a coffee maker or combine 2 heaped tsp of instant coffee with one cup of water) 

- about 10-20 ladyfingers, depending on the size of the serving dishes

- 2 (225 gram) packs of mascarpone cheese (if you can't get mascarpone you can use another high-fat cream cheese, but mascarpone is best for this) 

- 1 cup (about 250 ml) whipping cream or heavy cream 

- 1/2 cup sugar 

- 1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

- 2 tsp of cocoa powder 

Preparation: 

1. Place the coffee in a medium bowl (so that you can dip the ladyfingers in it) 

2. In a large bowl combine the mascarpone and the sugar. Add the Irish cream and mix well (the mixture will be quite liquid). 

3. Using a mixer, whip the cream into a sturdy whipped cream. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cheese mixture. 

4. Build the dish: dip the ladyfingers in the coffee and place at the bottom of the serving dishes (if you are using small dishes you may want to break them in half). Cover the ladyfingers with the cheese and cream mixture until about half the height of the serving dish. Add another layer of coffee-dipped ladyfingers. Cover with more cream mixture.  If you are using small serving dishes, repeat this for all of them.

5. Sprinkle the dish with cocoa powder (the easiest way to do this is to put a bit of cocoa in a fine sieve). Refrigerate for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight).

Chickpea and spinach salad

A friend gave me a link to this recipe from the blog Joy the Baker. It looked like everything a good vegetarian recipe should be: flavorful, hearty, colorful and fresh. I didn't have some of the ingredients and don't particularly care for others, so here's my somewhat modified version. 
 

Chickpea and Spinach Salad 

Ingredients (for a large salad): 

- 2  (15 oz, 425 gram) cans of chickpeas or an equivalent quantity of prepared chickpeas. (The exact quantity is not that important, but you want to have a large amount of chickpeas)

- 1/4 red onion, finely diced 

- 1/2 to 1 whole jalapeno pepper or other hot pepper, finely diced (if you don't like heat, deseed it) 

- Juice from 1/2 lemon 

- 1/3 cup almonds or cashews, browned on a hot pan or roasted in the oven 

- 1 large ripe tomato, diced 

- 2-3 large handfuls of fresh spinach or baby spinach leaves 

For the dressing: 

 - 2 cloves of garlic, minced 

- 1/2 tsp sea salt 

- 1 tsp honey (or agave or silan for a vegan version) 

- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- 1/4 cup of olive oil 

- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes 

- salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation: 

Make the dressing: 

1. In a medium bowl mash the garlic and salt together with a fork to create a paste. 

2. Add the honey, vinegar and pepper flakes and combine with the fork. Slowly add the olive oil while whisking with the fork, to create an emulsified sauce (it will turn slightly "milky" and less clear). 

Set aside. 

Make the Salad: 

1. In a large bowl combine all of the salad ingredients except the spinach. 

2. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well. Taste and season with salt/pepper as needed. 

3. Just before serving, add the spinach leaves and mix well. 

Note:

The salad can be kept in the fridge for a day or two, but the spinach will begin to be somewhat wilted very soon after "meeting" the sauce. It will still taste good,  but won't look as fresh and crisp. So if you want to serve this to guests, only add the spinach at the last minute.  

Pasta with roasted peppers and hazelnuts

I'm back! And after several weeks of traveling I was looking for an interesting but quick dinner recipe I could make, and came across this recipe in "The great vegetarian cookbook" (which I told you about in an earlier post).

The original recipe calls for roasting the peppers for 30 minutes and then marinating them for an hour or two, but I was in a hurry, so I put the peppers under my broiler to roast them quickly, and only marinated them for the time it took to cook the pasta. The longer roasting and marinating will likely result in better flavor, but it was still delicious this way, so do as you will.

Pasta with Roasted Peppers and Hazelnuts

Ingredients (for 4-6 portions): 

- 2 large peppers (for the best visual effect, mix one red and one yellow, but if you only have one color, that's fine).
- a little olive oil to drizzle
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar (and if you enjoy a stronger vinegary flavor, I would keep a bit more on hand to add at the end).
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or minced
- 1 mild chili or jalapeno, finely chopped
- 1 pack (500 grams/1 lb) pasta. I used tagliatelle, but the original recipe calls for linguine.
- 50 grams hazelnuts, chopped.
- a few handfuls of coriander, chopped (optional)
- some grated parmesan or pecorino (optional)

Preparation: 

1. Cut the peppers into quarters, de-seed and slice into thin strips. Place the strips in a roasting pan, drizzle a bit of olive oil (optional) and either roast at 200C/400F for 30 minutes or place under a broiler until the skins begin to blister.

2. While the peppers are roasting, place the hazelnuts in a small pan on low heat and roast until lightly brown.  In a container mix the vinegar, olive oil, garlic and chili together.

3. When the peppers are ready, put them in the vinegar-oil mixture and marinate at least until the pasta cooks, or for an hour or two.

4. Cook pasta according to instructions until al dente. Drain, and then toss the pasta with the peppers and sauce (I found it easiest to return the pasta to the cooking pot and do it there). Season with salt and toss in the hazelnuts, coriander and grated cheese. If you wish, drizzle a bit more balsamic vinegar to increase the flavors. Serve immediately.