Day 159: Chocolate zabaglione

As a child growing up in the 80s, I remember one particular summer where my cousins and I went through a phase of watching any video (yes, back in the days of video!) that we could get our hands on. Our late uncle (whom I mentioned before) was a TV engineer and was privy to all the American blockbusters. These included Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Short Circuit, Jumping Jack Flash and The Money Pit. We used to go into one of his workshops and sit on TVs, boxes, shelves (!), wherever we could sit and sit in complete darkness while we watched the films. The great thing about this particular workshop was that it had no windows and just one sliding door which blocked out all light so we were as happy as could be. No fancy surround sound cinema or recliner chairs or Blu-ray like so many children have these days (and mine still don't and won't have). Oh crikey, how times have changed. I almost thought there for a moment I was going to use the phrase “back in my day…”. No, not for another few years am I going to start using that one.

Anyway, what got me thinking about that was because of a question that I am being asked on an extremely regular basis lately which is “How long left?”. Well, every time I give my answer, I remind myself of the builder in The Money Pit when I say “two weeks”. Remember how Tom Hanks (who plays Walter) keeps asking him how long it will be until the refurbishment is finished and he keeps saying, week after week, two weeks?! Well, that’s me. I think I have been telling people for the past few weeks that I’ve two weeks left. That’s what I guessed anyway and it was just a guess. Tonight though, I actually counted how long I’ve left and I really do have two weeks left so I’m saying that I will be finished all 180 recipes on the 3^rd or 4^th of November. The countdown is well and truly on. So, here’s one more that’s getting me nearer to the finish line…Chocolate zabaglione and, yes, I did have to Google the pronunciation!
 

It’s now traditional that I make desserts on a Friday night seeing as Dear Husband is continuing with the CTM theme every Friday night. I was pleasantly surprised when I read the recipe as it said 5 minutes to prepare and 10 minutes to cook. Perfect! I began by pouring some cream into a saucepan and, once it came up to the boil, I took it off the heat and stirred in dark chocolate until it melted. In a separate bowl, I whisked four egg yolks, caster sugar, salt and a small bit of Marsala which I have learned is a dessert white wine. Oh, the lengths I had to go to find that stuff! Once everything was mixed, I then placed the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and used my electric mixer to whisk the egg mixture for about 6 minutes. The recipe said that the mixture would be ready if I could make a figure of eight on the mixture and it would hold the ‘8’ by the time I had finished writing it. I then folded in the melted chocolate mixture and poured into glasses. I finished off my grating some white chocolate on top.

The verdict…

Dear Husband was very impressed with this one and gave it 8 marks out of 10. I passed on this recipe as although I love chocolate, I like bars of the stuff and not chocolate mousse, chocolate pudding or tonight’s chocolate-type offering. The only other comment that Dear Husband made was to say that I actually gave him too much so, if I was making this recipe again (which I will!), I’d make eight smaller portions rather than the four that I made this evening.

Overall, it was an extremely easy recipe to make and, thankfully, although there were egg yolks involved, there were no egg whites so there was little scope for me to go wrong. And that, my friends, is as good a reason as any to put this recipe on The List…