A Delicious Desert For Warm Days....



A delicious dessert for warm days is made of thick Greek yogurt, fresh cream, a sauce, and all sorts of berries. My friend Sonia Peronaci, founder and owner of the famous Italian food blog site www.giallozafferano.it presented this recipe during August into translatable Italian and I would like to share it with all my English speaking friends around the world. Here goes...
Ingredients:
For the actual sweet:
  • 300 ml of fresh cream 35%.
  • 500 ml of thick Greek yogurt.
  • 30 gr powdered sugar.
  • ½ tsp of liquid vanilla extract.
  • 10 gr gelatin leaves soaked in ice cold water for no longer than 5 minutes then squeeze the water out as best as you can.
  • 15 gr honey.
For the sauce:
  • 250 gr of strawberries (even frozen but thawed) or even a mixture of frozen berries (we could not find just strawberries so we bought a mixture that is why the sauce is so dark).
  • 20 gr  powdered sugar.
For the garnish:
  • 4 strawberries whole.
  • 30 gr raspberries whole.
  • 20 gr blueberries whole.
  • Some nice big leaves of fresh mint. 
Method: 

  • Save 50 ml of fresh cream to dissolve in it the gelatin after you squeezed the water out of. This fresh cream must be tepid enough for the gelatin to dissolve.
  • Whip the remainder of the fresh cream using the wire attachment of a mixer. 
HINT: The fresh cream should be very cold when ready to whip. Some say that even the mixer bowl should also be cold.
  • When you see that the cream is thickening start adding the powdered sugar slowly and continue to beat till the whipped cream is nearly stiff.
  • In a separate bowl stir the thick yogurt to make it fluffy, add the honey and the vanilla and mix well with silicon or wooden spoon.
  • Fold carefully the cream into the yogurt till you get a homogeneous mixture.
  • Line a 700 ml rectangular cake mold 20 cm x 10 cm with water soaked oven proof paper.
  • Pour into it the mixture and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before overturning onto the serving plate. This can be made the day before if you wish.   

Taking out of the mold:
  • Take mold out of the refrigerator.
  • Dip most of the mold (with the mixture in it) into hot water for about 5 seconds.
  • Slide a knife around the four sides to detach from the wall of the mold.
  • Overturn carefully onto the serving plate.
  • Carefully take off the oven proof  paper. 

Mading the Sauce:
  • Add the powdered sugar to the berries and let stand for about an hour.
  • Process the berries (except 4 strawberries and the mint leaves) in a food processor till completely liquefied.
  • Strain the liquid mixture through a strainer and collect as much sauce as possible out of the whole lot leaving the seeds behind. Discard the seeds.
  • Use the sauce to decorate and color the top of your sweet.
  • You can also serve the sauce at the table.   

The final touch:
  • Add your whole berries as best as you can to fill the top of your sweet.
  • Scatter the  the strawberries.
  • Put a leaf of mint here and there to give a beautiful color effect.
Sorry for the smudge!

Note: It would be recommendable to do this operation before dinner is served. The sweet can be made the day before. It is important for the decorated sweet to be in the fridge at least one hour before dinner is served.

Good Luck on this one because Maria did it. I wanted no part of this. It takes experience.

Enjoy,
Stelio and Maria


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bamia Mafroukeh--Ladies fingers with beef or lamg -Taste of Sudan.

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - 
Read more

Brandade de Morue - Cod / Potato Mash Gratin.

Image
T his recipe is based on Jacques Pepin's with a slight twist from myself to suit Greek taste. This recipe is for 4 persons as a starter. Ingredients : - 1 kg of salted cod fillet. - 1 kg of potatoes skinned. - 1.5 cups full fat milk. - At least 6 large cloves of garlic - 2 tsp. grated lemon zest. - 4 tsp, lemon juice. - Cayenne pepper to taste. - 1 cup of olive oil. - Freshly ground black pepper to taste - Freshly grated Parmigiano cheese. Procedure : - Preheat oven to 200 deg. C. - Skin the cod fillet and immerse into cold water and refrigerate. - Change water as many times as possible over the next 24 hours to desalinate. - Meanwhile boil the potatoes till tender (fork easily pearces potato).Peel and cut into pieces when cool. - When the cod is desalinated, cook in water by lightly simmering water until fork easily pearces the fish. Do not over cook the fish lest it becomes too hard. - Once cooled, make sure to the best of your ability to omit all the bon
Read more

Spaghetti with Portobello mushrooms, garlic, and Gorgonzola Cheese.

Image
B arilla No. 7 Spaghetti is the best type to use for this recipe because they are thick and fill your mouth very pleasantly with the ingredients. The parmesan cheese gives a general fantastic taste.   Ingredients:    Serves 5 - 500 gms Spaghetti no. 7 - 500 gms of Portobello mushrooms cubed big. - 150 gms Gorgonzola cheese room temperature. - 4 big cloves of garlic smashed and passed thru the garlic press. - 500 ml of fresh cream 35% fat. - 50 gms of fresh butter. - Salt and pepper to taste. - Ground nutmeg to taste. - Parmesan cheese. Procedure: - First make the sauce then the spaghetti. - In a small pan dissolve the Gorgonzola in the cream and keep hot. - In a big pan melt butter, add the cubed mushrooms, and saute slightly 1 minute. The mushrooms must not soften. - Add garlic and stir 1/2 minute. - At this point boil the water for the spaghetti (100 ml of water per 100 gms of spaghetti). - Add the cream/Gorgonzola mixture to the mushrooms a
Read more