Thursday, May 25, 2006
An Easy Way to a Great Trifle
This evening, I went out for dinner. Or rather, I went out with dinner. A few months ago, two of my colleagues and I decided that we should get together every once in a while, cook dinner, eat, chat, just be a bit girly. That is one of the things I really miss here in Ireland. I have yet to meet someone who prefers dinner and a chat to going to the pub. Anyway, the big plans we made didn't really materialise because we couldn't find a day that we all agreed on. We managed to meet twice, once in each of my colleagues' place and then the whole think just stopped. But last week we decided to start again, and this time it was my turn to cook. Unfortunately, my place is quite far from, well, just about everything and our table is packed full with computer equipment, so dinner is a rather unromantic affair. The solution was incredibly simple in a kind of complicated way: I brought the food and one of the others provided the kitchen.I was going to make lemon and basil risotto with grilled fish fillets and, depending on what I found at the greengrocer's today, vegetables or a salad of some sort. But then my magical freezer spat out not only the basil pesto, but also those strawberries I told you about yesterday. And as I still had some chocolate Swiss roll left, I spontaneously decided to do desert too - chocolate strawberry trifle.
And what sounds difficult to make now was actually incredibly simple. In fact, I strongly believe that the more you mess with your trifle, the worse it gets. All it needs is sponge cake, (possibly) booze, fruit, custard and cream. On the other hand, I am far from a trifle purist. Trifles do not have to be made vanilla sponge, sherry, berries and vanilla custard. On the contrary, as tonight's desert proved, a bit of creativity goes a long way. Try whatever you like and, more importantly, whatever is in season. Just before Christmas I made a citrus trifle, for which I substituted lemon Swiss roll for the chocolate Swiss roll, sherry for the Marsala, a mix of grapefruit, oranges and tangerines for the strawberries and lemon marmalade for the raspberry jam. Other possibilities are apple and calvados, mixed berries and Marsala, pears and almond with amaretto, banana and toffee with a toffee flavoured custard, mango and tequila with lime... the list is endless. But tonight it was strawberry and chocolate. The recipe below is for two to four people, but it is easily adjustable for any size group. The citrus trifle was made for a party of 25 and contained 3 Swiss rolls, 2 litres of cream, 1½ litres of custard, and over a kilo of fruit. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of either. Sorry about that.
150g chocolate Swiss roll (alternatively chocolate sponge cake)The main course was equally simple: I made a portion of my basic risotto, and, before pouring in the wine, I added the juice of half a lemon. Then, before dishing up, I seasoned the dish with 2 heaped teaspoons of basil pesto. It was served topped with two fillets of sole each, pan-fried over medium high heat for 2 minutes on each side, and a salad of ruccola and baby tomatoes. It did turn out a tad gooey again, but was no less tasty for it. Along with a bottle of lovely Italian white wine and a great conversation it made for a perfect evening.
2 to 4 tbsp Marsala wine (alternatively Madeira or port)
150g strawberries, sliced
2 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam
sugar to taste (optional)
125ml whipping cream
125ml custard
strawberries, cream and grated chocolate to garnish
Slice the Swiss roll into 1½ cm thick slices. (If you are using chocolate cake, break it up into bite-size chunks). Slowly heat the jam in a saucepan big enough to hold the strawberry until liquid. Remove from the heat and add the fruit. Stir well and, if necessary, add some sugar. Whip the cream until it forms stiff peaks, then gently fold in the custard. Do not over-mix, you do not want the cream to collapse.
To assemble, put the Swiss roll/sponge cake chunks in the bottom of a bowl and drizzle with the Marsala wine. Pour in the strawberries and spread them evenly over the cake. Finally cover the whole lot in the custard and cream mixture. Cover and chill for several hours, preferably overnight.
When you are ready to serve, top the trifle with a dollop of whipped cream, a handful of strawberries and some grated chocolate. If you want to be completely decadent or are cooking for chocoholics, serve a chocolate sauce alongside it.
Christine at 9:04 pm
