Saturday May 15, 2010
Boulder, Colorado
Sun!
Last night, I decided to make New England Clam Chowder and Tiramisu for dinner tonight. Both taste a lot better when made the night before. I had a business trip to Denver so am staying the weekend at my sister's place. I made enough for 6-8 people as my nephews are growing boys and do have an appetite.
For the clam chowder, I used the recipe from "The Way to Cook" by Julia Childs which in my opinion is the best basic cookbook that everyone should own. Fortunately, I found all the ingredients at Boulder's Whole Foods including freshly minced clams which is a time saver as I did not have to clean, scrub and mince the clams myself. The key to good clam chowder is salt pork. I followed the recipe in preparing the salt pork but removed the pieces carefully after sauteing the onions to keep the fat content low. I also used equal parts of clam juice and water for the stock and equal parts heavy cream and whole milk to thicken. Served with fresh bread from the Farmer's Market this morning, it made a simple, delicious dinner.
Onions sauteed with salt pork
The recipe also calls for breadcrumbs or crushed common crackers to be mixed with the sauteed onions. I used Japanese Panko.
New England Clam Chowder
For dessert, my nephew Jackson requested I make Tiramisu and use the recipe from Cook's Illustrated magazine. Cook's Illustrated is also one of my favorite magazines as the staff thoroughly tests each recipe and the instructions are very detailed with options for substitutions. Tiramisu is a dessert made of raw egg yolks so I was a bit nervous about feeding my beloved nephews raw eggs. So I used the "cooked egg" version. It's a bit more time consuming but better to be safe than sorry. The recipe also warns you that there is no substitute for marscapone. Although expensive, it is worth it as the Tiramisu was divine and Jackson gave me a 2 thumbs up!
The marscapone based filling for the Tiramisu
1st Layer: Ladyfingers soaked in a rum, coffee syrup
Working on the second layer
Finished!
Our dinner tonight:
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