Daring Bakers in February: Tiramisu

Middle names weren't big in Switzerland when I was born back in the eighties, or before that either. My dad doesn't have one. Neither does my sister, and neither do I. The official record hasn't prevented me from being assigned ones, though.  One day in college, I opened an envelope from the registrar to find that a mysterious "S." had appeared in the middle initial field of my records.  That S. continued to plague various official documents throughout the rest of my college career.  It was as if a records gnome deep in the registrar's office couldn't stand that un-American blankness in between my names and kept tossing in a letter to fill it up.



What do middle names have to do with Tiramisu, you ask?  Well, I do have an unofficial middle name that begins with S, and it comes from this dessert.  As my mom tells it, "My sister was visiting from New Zealand when you were very little, and it was time for tea (dinner). I asked, 'Would you like some tea, Romy?' and Michelle finished it off by exclaiming, 'Su! Tea-Romy-Su!'"  The name stuck, and ever since then my mom's nickname for me has been Romy-Sue, not only because of my aunt's little pun, but also because tiramisu was an oft-served dessert in our home and one of my mom's specialities. In the intervening years it's become for me one of those foods inextricably tied up with family and memories and even my own name.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home, and Baking Obsession.

I must admit that my first reaction was, "pshaw!" Tiramisu is undeniably delicious, but also one of my go-to "quick" desserts to be thrown together when I don't have time to properly bake.  "Layering some ladyfingers and cream is not a challenge!" I scoffed. Then I skimmed the recipe and saw make your own mascarpone. And make your own ladyfingers.  And make zabaglione. And pastry cream. And sweetened whipped cream. And harvest your own coffee beans.

Asian Grocery Stores in Zurich, Part 1: Introduction

Not long after I posted about Chinese dumplings last year, I came across Andrea Nguyen's newly published book entirely devoted to making Asian Dumplings.  Naturally I added it to my shopping cart straight away, and placed my order of books a few months later. (There's no Super Saver shipping to Europe so I wait a while until I have enough books to warrant paying the postal cost!)

What a fabulous and comprehensive book!  Covering pretty much every type of Asian dumpling you can think of, from gyoza to samosas to steamed bao to sweet gulab jamun, there is something for absolutely everyone.  The book is divided by type of wrapper, with instructions on how to make from scratch, stuff them, and fold them into beautiful shapes.  As a valuable resource in addition to the book, Nguyen's Asian Dumpling Tips webpage has all kinds of demonstration videos and further ingredient information to turn to in case you're stumped (or just plain intimidated).

To make Asian Dumplings, I was going to need some Asian ingredients - what Nguyen calls "a basic dumpling pantry." These include various flours and starches (rice flour, tapioca flour, wheat starch) for the wrappers as well as seasonings (Chinkiang vinegar, Shaoxing rice wine, oyster sauce) and ingredients (pandan leaf, chinese chives, bamboo shoots) that are mostly only available here if you search.  And search I did.

First I looked online, of course. Maki over at Just Hungry posted a quick overview three years ago when she lived here, but it doen't cover some of the biggest stores.  There's also a rather outdated discussion thread on the English Forum, but it takes forever to scroll through all the posts and many of them are along the lines of, "There used to be a little shop near so-and-so but I can't remember what it's called or how to get there."  Lacking a coherent and updated list, I gathered as many addresses as I could and spent the next month or so perusing what felt like every ethnic grocery store in Zurich to see who had what. 

What I found was pretty great. There are a LOT of resources for my dumpling ingredients, and even better, many of these stores stock other kitchen staples much cheaper than Coop or Migros (eg. rice, all sorts of beans and lentils, spices).   While I am by no means an expert on Asian cooking or Asian ingredients, the lack of descriptive information online inspired me to do a series of posts on the stores I found in the hopes of helping other intrepid cooks save some time and trouble. I'll be writing them up two at a time in the coming weeks, likely with some dumpling pics thrown in, so dust off your woks and bamboo steamers and keep your eyes peeled!

Giveaway Winner

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Shoot me an email to halfthesugarbowl {at} gmail.com with your address and I'll pop your lovely Somea things in the mail this week!  Congrats!

Somea and a Valentine's Giveaway

I'm misleading you by starting with this picture of cookie cutters. This post actually isn't going to be about food at all.  It just made me happy to get out my three sizes of heart cutters for Valentine's Day!

On the topic of Valentine's Day, let me tell you about one of my favorite local places full of pretty, flowery, nice-smelling things that would be heavenly presents for any lady you love.   Somea is a little store in the Niederdorf section of Zurich that specializes in organic soaps, bath items, candles, and other beautiful household furniture and accessories.  In other words, Matt won't set foot in the place and ogles the windows of the games-store down the road while I happily smell every item on display.   Even though I know it's just "stuff," I find that there is something so soothing about being in a place filled with beautiful and carefully-made things, and I like to take my time choosing a special gift for the person I have in mind.

Pancakezeit!

"Pancakezeit!" I rolled over in bed and tried to shut out the call by covering my head with a pillow.  "Pancakezeit!" This time it was closer, nearly at the door. "Pan-cake-zeiiiiiit!!" Matt sang as he waltzed cheerfully into our bedroom, throwing open the curtains to the morning light, and ignoring my feeble protests of "Saturday morning" and "more sleep."  

Most weekend mornings in our house start like that.  Matt is a consummate morning person, getting up only a few minutes later than he would during the week, humming happy songs and starting optimistic conversations as soon as I stumble blearily into the living room. You've probably already figured out that I'm the exact opposite.  If I had my way, nobody except the cat would talk to me for at least an hour after I wake up. 



He has a good reason for getting me out of bed, though.  Pancaketime!  I've flipped my way through quite a few recipes in the last two years, some of them good, some of them not so good.  I still get teased about the cornmeal version I tried one Saturday ("pancakes should not be crunchy!") and a recipe with cinnamon and nutmeg that I thought was delicious met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the opposite side of the table.

The New Bakery on the Block

I flipped through the stack of mail that accumulated while we were on holiday: bill, bill, ad, bill, Christmas card, bill... pastries??  There, on a postcard-sized flyer in front of me, appeared a vision of a juicy raspberry sitting atop a square of ganache-covered chocolate mousse.  I turned over the card, expecting perhaps an ad for a catering company, but no: a new bakery less than a 5-minute walk from my house, the latest tenants in a row of stores that has seen quite a lot of turnover in the last few years. And not just a new bakery - a new Japanese bakery!  I tried hard to think of any particularly Japanese treats I knew of other than mochi.  Unable to come up with much,  I hot-tailed it over there to have a look (and a taste!).



Hiro Takahashi was the longtime chef de pâtisserie at the posh Savoy Hotel in Zurich and has now fulfilled his dream of opening his own shop, just 100 meters from the Sood-Oberleimbach train station.  It's klein aber fein, as you would say in German - small but good, with the gleam of brand-new equipment everywhere and the colors of the beautiful confections in the glass display case serving as the centerpiece of the store.

Holiday Highlights, Part 3: Buffalo, New Year's, and a Big Surprise!

Seeing as today is already February first and we are well into the New Year, it's definitely time to wrap up my, well, holiday wrap up!

I left off Part 2 just after Tori and Pierre's wedding in New Hampshire.  The last part of our holiday was all about family, family, family.  After a brief overnight with my brother- and sister-in-law Michael and Katie, we arrived at Matt's parents' house in Buffalo to find.... my mom!  Who lives in New Zealand! At Dave and Kathy's house in upstate NY!  Needless to say it was quite the collision of worlds and I was completely shocked and flabbergasted.  Apparently it was all Dave's idea and they had been plotting this together for months - do I have wonderful parents-in-law or what? Matt and I originally planned to go to New Zealand for Christmas 2009, but then both weddings came up so we changed our plans.  So, since we didn't go and see her... she came to us!  How funny it was to watch her and Kathy chatting together in the kitchen, and how lovely it was to celebrate a late Christmas together.