Biramisu: tiramisu with a porter reduction.
Photo courtesy Portobello Restaurant |
Orlando.

It could be a big hit on your Father’s Day menu.

The beer-accented dessert was created by Chef Tony Mantuano (Chef/Partner at Spiaggia Chicago and a Top Chef Masters contestant) as a collaboration with Executive Chef Steven Richard of Portobello Restaurant in Orlando, where it is on the menu.

The recipe uses an organic porter from Orlando Brewing, but you can substitute another porter or a dark ale with coffee and chocolate notes.

Get the recipe.

For another beer dessert, check out our Chocolate Stout Float.

The small, round citrus fruit has become very popular with fine chefs, thanks to the availability of imported yuzu juice used by Japanese restaurants. (You can find it at Asian markets, online, and sometimes at specialty retailers.)

We’re certain that yuzu would become mainstream if only lovers of fine food knew about it—and picked up a bottle of its aromatic and flavorful juice.

Once tasted, yuzu—a refreshing combination of grapefruit and tangerine flavors and aromas—cannot be forgotten. We alternate yuzu vinaigrette with balsamic vinaigrette in our dinner salads, and substitute it anywhere we’d use lemon or lime juice.

Read the full review, which includes more things to do with yuzu juice.

Find more of our favorite fruits and salad dressings, including recipes.

Use fondant to make cupcakes that look
like Dad. Photo courtesy WhiptCream.com.

What is fondant? Sometimes referred to as edible Play-Doh, fondant is a sugar and water mixture cooked to the soft-ball stage, then stirred or beaten until it is a creamy, opaque white mass that can be rolled out like dough.

Sheets of fondant are used to cover ornate cakes. Fondant both keeps out air so the cake stays moist, and provides a solid “canvas” for decorations.

Fondant, which can be tinted with food coloring, can be cut with cookie cutters or other methods to create shapes (leaves, flowers, geometrics). It is also used to decorate cookies, often cut to match the shape of the cookies, and applied as an icing.

Start your fondant decorating on Father’s Day cupcakes. With two colors, you can approximate Dad (or buy only white fondant plus some colored food pastes).

Fondant is dense and heavy, so a two-pound tub isn’t a lot. In addition to cupcakes, cakes and cookies, you can use it as a fun dessert activity for kids and adults: Let them decorate their own cupcakes.

The Food Network’s Ace of Cakes, Duff Goldman, recently came out with his own fondant line in five colors (chocolate, green, orange, purple and white). The Fondarific brand has even more colors.