Janice Tripepi

Wow – do we have a fab foodie line-up here in Durban this week … The Good Food & Wine Show is promises to be a Cornucopia of Chefs, Food & Growing Your Own food tips. Personally, I can’t wait!! The venue is the Durban Exhibition Centre from the 25 – 28 November and the line-up of events looks like this:

            Eric Lanlard (Host and Chef of Glamour Puds on BBC Lifestyle)

 Justin Bonello (Host and Chef of Cooked on BBC Lifestyle)

Reza Mahammad (Indian BBC chef owner of The Star of India in London)

 Erica Platter (who is a launching her new book: East Coast Tables)

 Atul Kochhar (Michelin star chef of London restaurant, Benares in Mayfair)

Jenny Morris (AKA The Giggling Gourmet – is one of SA’s most-loved food personalities she is an author,         magazine writer, radio and TV presenter)

Jane Griffiths (Well-known SA Herbalist – Jane’s Delicious Garden)

 Nataniel (South-African singer/songwriter/entertainer Nataniël with a passion for cooking)

 Durban Bites (Chaine Des Rotisseurs is hosting this table/stall which will be serving gourmet bunny chow)

 Katy Ashworth (host for C Beebies in Africa & has become a firm favourite with both children and parents for his energy, enthusiasm and warmth)

Tanya Visser (of The Gardener’s TV Show on DSTV’s Home Channel)

Tobie Puttock (Head chef from Jamie Oliver’s 15 Restaurant in Melbourne Australia)

I shall be chatting to Erica Platter about her new book East Coast Tables which I am very excited about. I shall try my best to chat to the other amazing chefs and report back. I can’t wait to see Tanya Visser again – she is the gardening guru and I will pick her brain about herb and veggie gardening tips for all of us. Seeing as this is a very special foodie week in good old Durbs – I have chosen to feature my Amaretto semifreddo for you today. I served this at a dinner party at my home about two weeks ago and it went down very well.

A semifreddo is an Italian ice cream like Mamma used to make in the good old days. In those days before women were not women unless they looked like ironing boards and certainly before the anti-cholesterol revolution. It’s a creamy light (as in fluffy – not light on the hips!!!) ice cream that is served “half-frozen” – or semifreddo. For those of you who enjoy almonds – this is a celebration of that royal nut of kings and queens – the almond – it’s dosed up to the eye-balls with Amaretto liqueur AND amaretti biscuits. I like to pair it with orange and seeing as this was a dinner party and one wants to serve a dessert with a good WOW factor – I added in some dark chocolate with orange in. No chance of this mamma looking anything remotely close to an ironing board!!!!!

Amaretto Semifreddo Ice Cream

Ingredients

300ml of fresh cream

4 eggs – separated

85g icing sugar

10 amaretti biscuits

½ cup Amaretto liqueur – this is optional and could be replaced with vanilla bean or coffee

1 slab of dark lindt chocolate – with orange chopped into little bits.

1 tin of mandarins

I must tell you that I always make double this quantity. This way I have a spare one in my freezer for another occasion – summer is a ‘comin and ice cream is always a welcome treat.

Whip the fresh cream until it is at the soft peaks stage – cover with some cling film and put into the fridge.

Line a loaf tin with cling wrap – or if you use a silicon loaf tin – just spray with a bit of spray and cook.

Beat the icing sugar and eggs yolks in another bowl until they are virtually white.

Whisk the egg whites with a tiny weeny pinch of salt in another bowl until they form soft peaks.

Put the amaretti into a Ziploc bag and bash them with your rolling pin or a bottle until they are crumbs of various sizes – I don’t pulverise them to a powder because I like to have some nice big bigs to crunch when I am eating this. Add the biscuits crumbs with the Amaretto liquor and chopped chocolate to your egg and icing sugar and then carefully fold in the cream and egg whites.

Pour into your loaf tins and freeze for about 3 – 4 hours.

When you are ready to serve – take it out of the freezer about 10 minutes early and then unmould the semifreddo, cut slices for each person and top each slice with another amaretto biscuit and some mandarin segments.

Each semifreddo loaf will serve at least 8 people.

I haven’t forgotten that I promised the recipe for those Mediterranean Stuffed Red Peppers …

As always

Buon Appetito

Xxxx

jan