You start with ... [read more]]]> Havana Rumba, a local Cuban restaurant. The food was really good, but their mojitos made quite an impression on us…so much so that we started making them ourselves at home. Here’s a picture of a mojito I made this evening.

You start with fresh mint. How much really depends on you. We like our mojitos really minty so we use a whole a lot mint in one glass.

Mojitos also are made with simple syrup and lime juice. And of course…rum.

If you want a virgin drink, by all means, leaves the rum out. They’re really good that way too.

Making Mojitos

Adapted from: wikiHow

I’ve been in the mood for pears lately, and initially, I was planning to make a pear cake. But I wanted something a little lighter so I decided to make some poached pears. There are many of interesting recipes out there, and most of them involved poaching the pears in red wine. I’m sure the ... [read more]]]> I’ve been in the mood for pears lately, and initially, I was planning to make a pear cake. But I wanted something a little lighter so I decided to make some poached pears. There are many of interesting recipes out there, and most of them involved poaching the pears in red wine. I’m sure the pears taste great like that, but for some reason, I wanted something different. When I saw a video that showed how to make poached pears in rum and then topped with a frozen vanilla yogurt, I was sold!

I made mine a little differently. Kemal suggested poaching the pears in tangerine juice instead of pear juice as the recipe called for, and it turned out great! I was concerned the tangerine juice might overpower the pears, but I only detected a hint of orange flavor in the sauce. If you want more of an orange flavor you might need to grate some tangerine peel into the sauce. I also made mine without raisins. I don’t know why because I love raisins, but I just wasn’t in the mood for them.

Anyway, I was delighted with my pears that I topped with frozen vanilla yogurt that I made myself!

They tasted beautifully, and the sauce didn’t overpower the subtle, delicate flavor of the pears. The rum sauce was delicious, but I think next time I make this I’ll add more rum because I like a stronger flavor.

Poached Pears with Tangerine Rum Sauce (Adapted from: Bobby Flay at www.foodnetwork.com)

Krempita (pronounced krem-pee-tah), like Sampita which I made last week, is another popular Yugoslavian dessert, and it’s also one of my husband’s favorites. There are numerous ways to make this cake, and it seems the possibilities are endless. Last night Kemal found over 100 different recipes for krempita, and trying to choose which one we ... [read more]]]> Krempita (pronounced krem-pee-tah), like Sampita which I made last week, is another popular Yugoslavian dessert, and it’s also one of my husband’s favorites. There are numerous ways to make this cake, and it seems the possibilities are endless. Last night Kemal found over 100 different recipes for krempita, and trying to choose which one we would make wasn’t easy…that is until Kemal found a krempita recipe that called for rum and espresso soaked tea biscuits which comprised the “cake” part of this dessert. There’s also a layer of vanilla pudding, as well as a meringue layer on the top. Here’s a picture so you see how it looks:

Anything soaked in rum and espresso certainly gets my attention! Just a wee bit of a warning…this cake is addictive. I’m really, really, REALLY ashamed to admit that last night I had three pieces for dessert. *Blush* Can you believe I ate three-fourths of what’s on this plate?! Yikes!

What’s even worse is that this evening I did it again…had three pieces after dinner. I’m so ashamed guys. I normally don’t indulge like that, but that cake takes the cake!! I also intentionally ate less dinner to save room for dessert, but regardless, I’m still ashamed. Anyway, if you make it and can’t stop yourself from overindulging, don’t say I didn’t warn ya.

While the cake turned out incredibly delicious, I wasn’t happy with how it looked. I wanted the cake to be taller. So next time, I’m going to use a smaller pan so I’ll have taller pieces of cake. I think it’ll look prettier that way.

Alright…just one more thing I need to get out of the way…the recipe calls for using raw eggs whites so I need to remind you that using raw eggs may not be something you want to do. There is another option available if you don’t want to do that.

Disclaimer: There is a risk of Salmonella food poisoning when consuming raw eggs or undercooked eggs, and that risk may be higher in children, the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, pregnant women, or nursing mothers. If you are concerned about using raw egg products because of the risk of Salmonella poisoning, please do not prepare this cake (or any other recipe) with raw eggs. You can use meringue powder or dried egg white powder instead.

Krempita (Recipe Source: Coolinarika.com)

Yield: 24 small pieces

Cake Ingredients (The tea biscuit layer):

• 50 tea biscuits (or you can substitute lady fingers or graham crackers)
• 1 shot rum
• 1 cup hot espresso (If you don’t have espresso, strong black coffee will work fine
• 1 tbsp oil (to cover the bottom of the pan

Cream Filling Ingredients (The pudding layer)

• 2 boxes vanilla pudding…not instant…you need the kind you have to cook on the stove
• 4 cups milk
• 3 tbsp. cornstarch
• 10 1/2 tbsp. cane sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)

Meringue Ingredients (The egg white layer):

• 4 egg whites (To avoid any risk of Salmonella food poisoning, you can substitute meringue powder or dried egg white powder instead of using raw egg whites.)
• 14 tbsp. confectioner’s sugar
• pinch of salt

Garnish Ingredients:

• Shaved dark chocolate with espresso. (I used Green & Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate with Espresso. If you prefer a different type of chocolate, whatever kind you decide on will work  just fine. You don’t have to use the kind I did.
• Dried orange peel.

Note: Other garnish ideas would be to sprinkle some espresso coffee  powder on top or to use some kind of liquor-flavored chocolate.

Step One:  Making the Tea Biscuit Layer which will be the base of your cake:

• The first thing you need to do is decide if you want taller pieces of cake or shorter pieces. Once you make that decision, then you can decide which cake pan you will use.

Note: For this recipe, I used a large 13 1/2 inch by 9 inch rectangular Springform pan. That was fine but next time I think I’ll use my 9 inch square Springform pan instead to get taller pieces. Also, you don’t have to use Springform pans at all. Just a regular baking pan will work fine, but I prefer the Springform pans because I can remove the sides and then present the cake on the base.

• After you decide which cake pan you will use (depending on if you want a taller or shorter cake), then you need to grease the pan with a thin layer of oil.
• Make your espresso or strong black coffee.
• After the coffee is done, pour it in a small to medium sized bowl that can withstand the heat.
• Add the rum to the coffee and stir well.
• Start dipping the tea biscuits in the coffee/rum mixture one-by-one and then place them on the baking pan. Continue doing this until the entire pan is covered in coffee and rum soaked biscuits. You may need to cut some of the biscuits in half in order to cover the entire pan. That’s what we had to do.
• Once the pan is covered int he soaked tea biscuits, set the pan, the biscuits, and the coffee/rum mixture aside so you can make the pudding next. You’re going to need all those ingredients again very soon because you’ll be adding another layer of soaked tea biscuits, but for now, you need to make the pudding.

Step Two:  Making the Creamy Pudding Layer:

• You want to separate your four eggs, putting the egg whites in one bowl and the egg yolks in another. Put the egg whites in a glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. Plastic bowls aren’t good for egg whites. Leave the egg whites sitting out on the counter at room temperature. This will help them whip up better.
• Melt 1 cup of butter (2 sticks) in a small sauce pan, and set it aside to use later.
• Beat your egg yolks until they’re mixed together.
• Put the blended egg yolks in a medium sauce pan, and then add the 4 cups of milk, the 2 boxes of dry vanilla pudding mix, 3 tbsp. cornstarch, and 10 1/2 tbsp. of sugar.
• Cook all the ingredients in the saucepan over medium well heat, mixing well and stirring constantly and quickly.
• After the pudding comes to a boil, it should be at a thick, pudding-like consistency. At this point, turn the heat down to medium and add the 2 sticks of melted butter, a little at at ime, into the hot pudding and stir constantly.
• Take the hot, creamy pudding and pour it over the soaked tea cookies, taking a spatula to smooth it out nicely.

Step Three:  Making Another Tea Biscuit Layer:

• Now the next thing you need to do is take your coffee/rum mixture and warm it up on the stove. You don’t have to heat it until it boils…just until it gets hot again.
• Pour the coffee/rum mixture back into the heat-proof bowl.
• Start dipping the tea biscuits again, one at a time, placing them on top of the hot pudding. Do this step until the pudding layer is covered with the soaked tea biscuits.

Step Four:  Making the Meringue Layer:

• Measure out 14 tbsp. of confectioner’s sugar and put it in a small bowl and set i aside (place it in a location that will be close to where you will be beating your egg whites).
• Put the four egg whites and a pinch of salt into a large stainless steel or glass bowl, and then use an electric mixer to beat the egg whites.
• After you’ve beat the egg whites a few minutes and it’s starting to get foamy, start adding some confectioner’s sugar, a little at a time, to the egg whites. Don’t stop beating while you’re adding the sugar.
• Continue adding the sugar and beating the egg white/sugar mixture until the egg whites get stiff. The egg whites didn’t rise up as high for me this way, although they did get stiff. When I make a meringue without sugar, they seem to rise higher. The egg whites don’t need to rise really high though. You just want them to get really stiff.
• You will know the meringue is done when you can take a spoon of the egg white cream, turn it upside down, and it doesn’t fall or drip off the spoon.

Step Five:  Adding the Meringue Layer and Garnishing the Top of the Cake:

• Take the egg white cream that you just made and spread it on top of the soaked tea biscuits. Use a spatula to spread it out evenly.
• Sprinkle the top of the meringue layer with dried orange peel.
• Next, take a grater, and using the large holes, grate your chocolate so you have chocolate shavings to garnish the top of the cake.
• After garnishing the top of the cake with the orange peel and chocolate shavings, put your cake in the refrigerator to cool for about 3 to 4 hours.
• After the cake has cooled, you can cut it, serve it, and finally get a ch ance to enjoy a slice or two (or in my case three) for yourself.

Here’s a picture of the cake after it had cooled and before we started devouring it:

You can cut the cake into however many pieces you like. We cut ours into 24 small pieces.

Cooking Note: Kemal and I found that the rum and espresso flavors for this cake were not strong enough. If we make this particular recipe again, we’re going to double (perhaps triple) the amount of rum the recipe calls for. We might also make a mocha pudding instead of vanilla pudding. We’ll see.

Next week, we’re going to make krempita for our friends, one of whom doesn’t drink coffee. So we’re going to skip the espresso and just soak the tea biscuits in rum. Then we’re going to make a layer of chocolate-rum glaze that we’ll drizzle over the rum-soaked tea biscuits. The rest of the cake we’ll make the same…except we’ll top it shaved chocolate which doesn’t have coffee in it. I’m hardly waiting!!