I love weekends, especially when I have enough time to explore new recipes and cook. That is my perfect weekend, and even more perfect when my experiments turn out delicious.

Strangely beets remind me of my childhood. The first time I had beets was in elementary school, I must have been 6 or 7 years old. I used to have lunch “à la cantine”  (the school canteen where kinds have lunch?) since my mom could not come pick me up for lunch. They were cut in small cubes and served with a vinaigrette. Most kids didn’t eat them, but for some reason, I like them and always asked for a second serving. I have been eating beets since then. Some of my friends in their adult life ended up hating everything they ate “à la cantine” and were traumatized by that food.

A discussion with my mom this morning led to this recipe. She was mentioning a delicious zucchini carpaccio she ate at some friend’s house, topped with parmesan and basil, that she loved. It made me realize that I don’t make vegetable carpaccio very often. Usually when talking about carpaccio, it’s mainly referring to beef or salmon, topped with olive oil, lemon, etc…

I had a bunch of beets in the refrigerator, that I kept postponing to cook and I wanted to explore more recipes using my raspberry vinegar too. What more perfect than this!

Another alternative to Greek yogurt sauce is to shave some pecorino on top of the beets. It’s all up to your inspiration.

I loved this combination of beets, raspberry vinegar, goat yogurt and herbs, especially when you add extra dressing and extra goat yogurt, when everything mixes up; then all different nuances of colors, flavors and textures dance in your plate and palate.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 2 golden or red beets, peeled and finely sliced using a mandoline
• pumpkin seeds, roasted

For the raspberry dressing

• 6 raspberries, crushed with a fork
• 2 tbs raspberry vinegar
• 1 tsp chives, chopped
• 3 tbs olive oil
• salt

For the yogurt sauce

• 1 plain goat Greek yogurt
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tbs fresh mint, finely chopped
• zest of 1/2 meyer lemon
• juice of 1/2 meyer lemon

Preparation

In one container, mix raspberry dressing  ingredients together. Mix yogurt sauce ingredients together.

In a plate, lay out beet slices nicely. Drizzle some raspberry dressing on top of the beets. Add one tbs of yogurt sauce. Decorate with pumpkin seeds.

Serve with more yogurt sauce and dressing on the side.

I was not sure how to translate coppa in English other than use the word cup…I am pretty sure there is a more accurate word for it…but nothing better came to my mind. I realized today that my English is getting worse while we were at a Chinese restaurant with my neighbors. They invited us to this new dim sum place that opened recently down the street, and while I was trying to tell a story, I had a difficult time finding words.

The problem is that I rarely speak English now, I mostly speak French or Italian (I don’t really see my clients) and my English is getting worse. How awful!!

Anyway, this lovely dessert has been inspired by tiramisù…but looks like a triffle. So here we go with Triffasù. The mascarpone cream is the same than in tiramisù, the difference comes from the cookies used. Instead of using ladyfingers I use used some Italian cookies called  “cruschelle“, made with wholewheat flour. You can use regular shortbread too, anything that can be easily crumbled, but these “Frollini Integrali” are available in the US, Balocco brand is widely available here, and they are truly delicious, light and not greasy.

The cookies are roughly crushed and are not supposed to be soaked, they remain somehow crunchy.

The strawberries are mixed with some of the raspberry coulis and the mixture of the mascarpone cream and juicy berries is absolutely divine.

Of course, you can use just raspberries or only strawberries but I thought the combination of both had a unique character to this light dessert.

This dessert is extremely fast to prepare, definitely less than 30 minutes and does not need to be refrigerated for one day like traditional tiramisù, so when you have guests and no inspiration and no time for a dessert, this is will make the trick.

Ingredients for 5-6 cups

For strawberries

• 1 lb strawberries, cut in small pieces
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 12 cookies, preferably butter cookies

For the coulis

• 3/4 lb raspberries
• 2 tbs sugar (or to taste)

For the mascarpone cream

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 lb mascarpone (preferably imported from Italy)
• 2 tbs powder sugar

Preparation

Mix strawberries with sugar and set aside. Blend raspberries with sugar and pass through a sieve, to remove the seeds. Add 3 tbs of the coulis to the strawberries.

For the mascarpone cream, separate whites from yolks. Beat whites to a stiff consistency. Mix yolks with sugar until the mixture whitens. Add mascarpone to the yolk/sugar mixture and mix thoroughly until the cream is smooth and homogenous. Add whites to the mascarpone mixture.

Using a deep cup, add two tbs strawberry mixture, add some coulis. Add crumbled cookies, then add mascarpone cream. Add more strawberries on top and coulis. Refrigerate for one hour.

Here is a refreshing pudding for the summer, filled with fruits and exotic flavors. My lovely neighbor Rui gave me this mango pudding a couple of months ago and I fell in love with it. This is an Asian dessert, served in many Chinese or Indonesian restaurants. It’s usually topped with condensed milk. Of course, there are many recipes, some of them use condensed milk, some others coconut milk, some add mango pieces inside the pudding…so there are a lot of variations to this dessert. The last time I had one of those mango puddings was at a Chinese restaurant, and it was topped with condensed milk. What a delight!

This pudding is creamy in the inside, so if you like it more gelatinous and hard, add more agar-agar (or gelatin). Instead of condensed milk I poured coconut milk that I sweetened with a tiny touch of sugar. So for those who like coconut, please try it, it’s such a wonderful combination. I ran into so many people who don’t like coconut lately, how is that possible? I thought coconut was like chocolate, one of those things that is universally loved. I was wrong.

If you want to make this dessert vegan, instead of condensed milk, use coconut milk and agar agar instead of gelatin, it will work perfectly fine.

I am due for my bi-yearly trip to France visiting my parents. I will try to post something before I leave on June 8, if not then I will post new recipes while I am there. I am so excited to get all the new summer fruits, and hopefully get lots of fruity recipes.

Ingredients for 6-7

• 2 large and well ripe mangoes, peeled and cut in pieces
• 1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
• 3 packs of gelatin powder (or the equivalent of agar agar) dissolved in water
• 1/3 cups agave nectar
• 1 cup coconut milk (for topping) + sugar to taste
• 1 cup fresh raspberries

Preparation

Puree mangoes with a condensed blender and place in a large container. Mix condensed milk with agave nectar, and heat it up but do not boil. Dissolve gelatin powder in 4 tbs warm water. Add gelatin to the milk mixture. Mix well. Pour milk into the mango recipient. Mix well. If you want to add fresh mango pieces, add them at this stage.

Divide the mango mixture to small glass containers. Place in the refrigerator overnight.

Un-mold pudding in plates, pour some sweetened coconut milk on top, and decorate with fresh raspberries.

Some days are a little more morose than others, and lately my mood has been affected by many things and partly by the San Francisco weather…I hate to talk about weather changes, because I think it is a little annoying to hear, and it sounds like “old bored people’s” discussions and if I look at last year posts around this time of year, it was the same thing…the fog rolling in. Everyone talks about the weather in this city because it changes so fast and every district or neighborhood has its own micro climate…and honestly when buying a house in the city you want to make sure you are not in a “fogged in” area, if you do, you better love wearing ski jackets in June. So when it rains, or you need a little quick fix to cheer you up, make palets, they’re easy to make and so delicious!

You might not be familiar with France and its beautiful and picturesque rainy North Western region : la Bretagne (Brittany), they have amazing seafood specialties and many others like this palet breton.

Palet breton is a dry cookie made with a pâte sablée and demi-sel butter. Brittay is famous for galettes bretonnes, palets and other buttery cookies (and crêpes of course). You can find so many brands of those delicious cookies in the supermarkets, so being far away from French supermarkets, I figured I better learn how to make them if I ever want to eat some.

Usually palet breton is about 1.5 com thick, so a little thicker than the ones I made. As any “dry cookie” they’re delicious and very enjoyable with a tea or coffee, or as a little snack. This time, I wanted to “dress them up”, turn them into a little bite as a dessert…and add some extra crunch to it, by adding pistachios.  if you don’t have butter demi-sel, use regular butter and add fleur de sel.

Ingredients for about 18 palets

for the palets

• 7 oz (or 200 g) flour
• 3.52 oz (or 100 g) butter demi-sel, cubed
• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) sugar
• 2 yolks
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2.11 oz (or 60 g raw pistachios, roughly chopped

for the mascarpone cream

• 7 tbs mascarpone
• 7 tbs fromage blanc
• sugar to taste

for the raspberry coulis

• 14 oz (or 400 g) raspberries
• 5.29 oz (or 150 g sugar) or more if the raspberries are not very sweet
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Preparation

In a mixing container, mix flour and baking powder. Add butter and mix carefully from the tips of your fingers incorporating it to the flour mixture. Separately mix yolks with sugar and vanilla extract and add to the flour.  Form a uniform ball. Spread with a rolling pin in a 1.5 cm sheet. Cut with a small cookie cutter or glass (the cookies are usually thick and small, about 5 cm diameter). Bake in a parchment paper or silpat for about 15 min at 360F. Let them cool.

For the mascarpone cream, just combine all ingredients together.

For the coulis, combine all ingredients in a blender. Filter coulis through a sieve to remove the seeds.

Place a generous amount of mascarpone cream on top of a palet. Add raspberries and top it with coulis and chopped pistachios.

I bought a nice charlotte mold from France last summer, I wanted one so bad, then I got it, and since then, I barely used it. It’s the second time in one year that I made charlotte. What a shame…I am just not a sweet tooth, but there is no excuse for it.

It’s difficult to find those molds in the US, William Sonoma has them and also I have seen them on a baker tools site on the internet. I think they’re only have one or two mold sizes.

Charlotte is another one of those traditional dessert, everyone knows how to make in France. Like tiramisù there is no cooking involved so it’s quite a simple dessert to make, and always refreshing to eat.

Charlotte molds are about 10″ height, and the sides are surrounded with lady fingers, then the inside is filled with fruits, and mousse or bavaroise cream like this one. This charlotte is closer to what we call the Russian charlotte filled with bavaroise cream, either way with cream or mousse, it’s always a delicious and refreshing dessert.

I love everything about charlotte, its name, its texture and consistency…and as a dessert, it’s not that filling. Not being a sweet tooth, I am picky about desserts, they need to be light and not too sweet. Charlotte will satisfy even the hard core sweet tooth because of its creamy texture and white chocolate taste.

Ingredients for 6

• 1 pack ladyfingers
• juice of 3 oranges
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbs rum
• 10.59 oz (or 300 g) white chocolate chips or chocolate cut in very small pieces, like shaved
• 13.52 fl oz (or 400 ml) milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 gelatin sheets, or agar agar
• 1 tbs sugar
• 0.6 cups (or 150 ml) heavy cream
• 2 packs raspberries

Preparation

First start preparing the ladyfinger for the “crust”. Squeeze the juice of the three oranges and place in a small container. Add rum and vanilla extract and mix well. Dip lady fingers in the orange juice mixture, then place one layer at the bottom surface of the mold, then coat the sides of the mold, all around it.

Place white chocolate in a mixing bowl. Heat up milk and sugar to a very hot temperature but not to the boiling stage and pour on top of chocolate. Let it sit until the chocolate melts, about 5 minutes. In the meantime, place gelatin sheets in water, and let it dissolve. Add gelatin to milk/chocolate mixture. Mix well and let it cool down. Place in the refrigerator for a little while, until it gets cold but not thickened. It needs to be hard enough so that it will allow you to fold whipped cream in it.

Whip cream and add carefully to the chocolate/milk mixture.

Add two layers of raspberries on top of ladyfingers layer. Add chocolate/cream mixture and put back in the refrigerator to let it thicken, about 12 hours.

]]> http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/10/charlotte-sometimes-white-chocolate-and-raspberry-charlotte/feed/ 16 http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/08/a-few-mousses-in-a-layer-or-two-mascarpone-mousse-with-raspberries-and-strawberry-coulis-imitation-tiramisu/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-few-mousses-in-a-layer-or-two-mascarpone-mousse-with-raspberries-and-strawberry-coulis-imitation-tiramisu http://citronetvanille.com/blog/2009/08/a-few-mousses-in-a-layer-or-two-mascarpone-mousse-with-raspberries-and-strawberry-coulis-imitation-tiramisu/#comments Sat, 22 Aug 2009 15:13:46 +0000 silvia http://www.citronetvanille.com/blog/?p=3278 Delizio in un bicchiere – Mousse di Mascarpone con lamponi e coulis di fragole alla Tiramisù

At this time of the year, I am either in Italy or France with my family and right now I tend to get nostalgic…it’s cold, foggy and windy in San Francisco, and I wish I were home. When I get homesick, I start cooking things I make when I am over there. I love to use mascarpone in all kinds of desserts, it’s a wonderful cream, not sure I would call it cheese though, anyway it does not matter, what matters is all the wonderful recipes you can make with it.

It’s certainly not to be snobby but if you get mascarpone, please try to get the imported one, not domestic. The domestic mascarpone is thicker, more yellow and more rubbery, so your mousse will not be as fluffy. I think when it has to do with tiramisù, I tend to be very “purist” in the sense that I hate to see tiramisù with whipped cream, I don’t know why it’s just one ingredient that I don’t want to see in tiramisù, therefore will not call this tiramisù, even if it looks like one. Yes, sometimes as far as food is concerned, I can be strange.

I had some extra mousse so I made an additional little verrine…banana, pear and vanilla. You can use any other fruit, but I just had those two left and the good thing is that they are two fruits that mix really well together. You can add some chocolate coulis after the layer of fruits.

Ingredients for 3-4

• 1.5 lb strawberries
• 1/2 lb raspberries
• 1 pack lady fingers
• 1/2 lb (or 250 g) imported mascarpone
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 tbs powdered sugar
• 2 tbs granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• juice of 1 orange
• 2 tbs sweet wine  (like Marsala, Pinot des Charentes, etc…)

Preparation

Wash and cut strawberries, add granulated sugar and cook at medium heat for about 15 minutes until the strawberries are cooked but not over mushy and that they have produced a deep red juice. Drain and keep the juice aside. Let cool.

Add orange juice, marsala, and vanilla extract to strawberry juice, mix well.

Separate yolks from whites. Beat yolks with powdered sugar until the mixture whitens and double its volume. Add mascarpone and mix thoroughly. Beat egg whites to a thick consistency, and until they start peaking. Fold carefully to the mascarpone mixture. Whip the cream and add to the egg/mascarpone mixture.

Deep lady fingers in the strawberry juice. Deep long enough so that they absorb enough juice. Place at the bottom of a deep dish or a glass. Add a layer of cooked strawberries, then add fresh raspberries. Proceed with another layer of mascarpone cream, and start again with another layer of lady fingers, straberries, raspberries and cream. Decorate with fresh raspberries, and/or powdered chocolate or any other pretty item.

Place in the refrigerator for 2 hours and serve.