An afternoon of cooking

We tried a couple of new recipes yesterday afternoon, one for a dish we were already familiar with, and one for a dish we weren't all that familiar with. The familiar dish was tiramisu, which we've both had out at restaurants before, but never made at home, and the other dish was prawn bisque. Of course, prawns are not available in Wichita grocery stores, so we had to improvise and substitute shrimp instead. Both dishes came out pretty well. I think we soaked our ladyfingers in the coffee mixture a little longer than we should have, because the tiramisu was rather damp. It was really good, and just melted away in the mouth, but the moisture content was a bit higher than I'd like it to be if we were to serve it to guests someday. The bisque was pretty good, but we think we'd thicken it a bit more than the recipe calls for next time we make it.

Shortly after dinner, when it came time to do our huge pile of dishes and clean the stove that we spilled soup all over and take our showers after mowing the lawn and hitting the gym, we noticed that our water pressure was greatly diminished. We called a neighbor, who said that theirs was down as well (he was in the middle of giving his young son a bath). So, Jeff called the water company to report it. It didn't come back until after midnight, so we had a pile of extra yucky dishes to wash this morning and are both craving a shower right about now. I'm so thankful for indoor plumbing!

Here are some pictures of dinner and the recipes for the bisque and the tiramisu. Both were pretty easy, just dirty dish intensive.

The bisque stock simmering away

The finished shrimp bisque

We also had caprese salad with dinner

The tiramisu with topping applied in an "attractive manner"

The tiramisu after smearing the topping all over and adding CHOCOLATE!!!

Prawn Bisque Recipe
(from "The Cook's Encyclopedia of French Cooking" by Clements and Cohen)
Serves 6-8

1 1/2 lb small or medium cooked prawns in the shell
1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, halved and sliced
1 large carrot, sliced
2 celery sticks, sliced
8 cups water
a few drops of lemon juice
2 tbsp tomato puree
bouquet garni
4 tbsp butter
1/3 cup plain flour
3-4 tbsp brandy
2/3 cup whipping cream
salt and white pepper

1. Remove the heads from the prawns and peel away the shells, reserving the heads and shells for the stock. Chill the peeled prawns. (We used the shrimp shells, and in place of the heads, about 1/4 of our shrimp bodies.)
2. Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the prawn heads and shells and cook over a high heat, stirring frequently, until they start to brown. Reduce the heat to medium, add the onions, carrot and celery and fry gently, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes until the onions start to soften.
3. Add the water, lemon juice, tomato puree and bouquet garni. Bring the stock to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for 25 minutes. Strain the stock through a sieve.
4. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook until just golden, stirring occasionally. Add the brandy and gradually pour in about half of the prawn stock, whisking vigorously until smooth, then whisk in the remaining liquid. Season with salt, if necessary (it was very necessary), and white pepper. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. (At this point, we decided the stock was a little thin, so we pureed about 1/3 of our remaining shrimp into the stock. This greatly enhanced the flavor and the texture.)
5. Strain the soup into a clean saucepan. (We skipped this part, deeming it unnecessary.) Add the cream and a little extra lemon juice to taste, then stir in most of the reserved prawns and cook over a medium heat, stirring frequently, until hot. Serve at once, garnished with the reserved prawns.

Tiramisu Recipe
(from "The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Italian" by Jeff Smith)
Serves 6 (or 10, if you go with our size servings)

The Filling
1 1/2 cups espresso or triple-strength regular coffee at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brandy
2 egg yolks
1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 8-ounce package ladyfingers
4 oz semisweet chocolate, shaved

The Icing
1 cup fresh whipping cream
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp confectioners' sugar

Garnishes
Cocoa powder for dusting
Additional shaved chocolate

1. Stir the espresso, sugar and brandy together in a mixing bowl until the sugar dissolves. Remove 1/3 cup of the mixture to another bowl and set the remainder aside. Whisk the egg yolks into the 1/3 cup of coffee mixture. Add the mascarpone and whisk together until just smooth.
2. Line the inside of a 9 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch loaf pan with a large sheet of wax paper.
3. Dip the ladyfingers one at a time into the reserved coffee mixture and begin to place them crosswise in the lined pan. The ladyfingers should be soaked with coffee and may expand a little. Be careful not to soak them too long lest they fall apart. Continue with more ladyfingers, lining the bottom of the pan lengthwise with them.
4. Spread half the cheese mixture over the ladyfingers. Sprinkle with 2 oz of the shaved chocolate.
5. Layer again in the same manner with 7 more ladyfingers, the remaining cheese mixture, and the remaining shaved chocolate. Top the loaf pan off with the remaining soaked ladyfingers.
6. Fold the wax paper up around the top of the pan and cover the pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 6 hours.
7. Invert the chilled loaf pan onto a serving platter and tap the bottom of the pan to remove the loaf. Remove the wax paper.
8. Place the cream, vanilla and confectioners' sugar in a bowl and whip until stiff. Spread the whipped cream all over the cake in an attractive manner. Place the cocoa in a fine strainer and dust the top of the cake. Sprinkle with additional shaved chocolate. Slice and serve.