Blueberry Trifle with Lemony Mascarpone Topping

If you are a fan of desserts, especially desserts that contain berries, you'll love this one. I have a really easy recipe for the blueberry sauce, which I use a lot in my crepes and pancakes.   However, the main recipe is borrowed and adapted.  Besides using my own blueberry sauce recipe and adding a larger quantity of lemon zest and essence in the topping, I mostly stayed true to the original.

Recipe for Blueberry Sauce

You will need:

Blueberries, frozen or fresh - 2 cups

Water - 1 cup + 2 tbsps

Sugar - To taste (I use about 3 heaping tbsps)

Lemon juice - 2 tbsps

Salt - a pinch

Cornstarch - 2 tbsps

Directions:

1. Wash the blueberries, if using fresh, and put them to boil in a saucepan with a cup of water.  
2. Bring to a boil and simmer for about 8 - 10 mins till they are cooked.
3. Add sugar, salt and lemon juice and simmer for an additional minute while stirring the sauce to make sure that the sugar is distributed evenly.
4. Dissolve the cornstarch in 2 tbsps of water and add to the simmering sauce.
5. Stir continuously as it starts to thicken, and slowly bring to a boil one last time.
6. Remove from heat and let stand covered. 
7. You can store this in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Recipe for the Mascarpone Topping

You will need:

Mascarpone cheese - 225 gms

Heavy cream - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Lemon zest  from 2 medium lemons

Lemon essence - 4 - 5 drops

Piping bag with tip (optional)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and the lemon zest.  Use your fingertips to really mix these ingredients well.
2. In a medium bowl, add the mascarpone, cream, sugar and lemon zest mixture and lemon essence.  Beat with an electric beater until the mixture is light and fluffy and it forms moderately firm peaks. 
3. Spoon into a piping bag with tip attached (if using), or set aside.

Assembling The Trifle

What you will need:

Pound cake - 4 thick slices, cubed

Blueberry sauce - 1 portion (recipe above)

Mascarpone topping - 1 portion (recipe above)

Trifle dishes/dessert cups - 4

Directions:

1. In the cups, pipe or spoon a layer of mascarpone topping.
2. Add a layer of cubed pound cake.
3. Add a layer of blueberry sauce.
4. Repeat the above steps.
5. Finally, top off with a swirl of mascarpone, or a spoonful of blueberry sauce.

The end result is super delicious!  Check out the original recipe at My Baking Addiction - an absolutely amazing blog! The mascarpone cheese makes this really rich, so even a small serving goes a long way to throw any diet off its course!  And, watch out - this could be addictive! :)

Day 345 - Easy Sausage Skillet

I was forced to cook dinner because I didn't want to order another take-out.  I remember being as sick as a dog - running a temperature and my sore throat was even more sore from the probing of the doctor and the nurse to see what was troubling it.  But when you have another mouth to feed, you have to do just that - feed that other mouth.

Sausage stir-fried in olive oil with onions, mushrooms, red pepper, celery, salt and ground pepper.  I served this over a bed of steamed rice.  Although I didn't have much of an appetite, since I had practically eaten nothing all day, I found it really delicious!

Day 242 - Relearning the Alphabet: The Letter "Q"

"Q" for Quick Meal

A delicious and healthy meal/snack on the fly that will keep your rumbling tummies from caving in while you do other stuff.

Another one of my culinary experiments - I sliced up some tomatoes, put the slices on whole wheat bread, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and pepper and then gave them a quick grill at 450 deg F for 10 mins. I fried up eggs on the side and tossed them on to the grilled toast, sprinkled some more salt and pepper and wolfed them down.

My teen hates tomatoes as well as eggs - but this went down pretty well with him too, albeit with a few drops of hot chilli sauce on top of the eggs.  I'm sometimes amazed at how he enjoys hot and spicy food! It's all in the genes! ;-)

The ingredients ...

The prepping ...

The frying ...

And finally the finished product! 

I like my egg yolk a little runny, but I think it would taste equally good if you cooked them through as well.  I also think some finely chopped parsley could have added more flavour, but again, no parsley at home! :(  

The shots were taken under fluorescent lighting (I know, I'm too lazy to set up my cranky speedlight, but I will soon have a brand new lighting kit to play with),  with my 18-55 mm lens, on Aperture Priority, except the image with the oil stream.  I took that on Shutter Priority since I needed a faster shutter speed to capture the stream as I was pouring the oil which meant my hand wasn't steadily dropping the oil on one spot.  

High ISO of 1600 for the shot with the oil, and exposure was compensated +2 stops.  The rest were on ISO 400 and mostly aperture at f/5.