Bulgar wheat salad and Tiramisu Torte

You may wonder, reading the title above, what Tiramisu and Bulgar wheat have to do with each other. The answer is completely tangential to the essence of either dish. While it is true that they are both dishes, and both contain wheat, what really brings them together is that I served both yesterday when Ahreum and I had some friends over for lunch.

Will, Sunyoung, Eunhan, Heejoo, and Ahreum

On the menu was grilled pork chops with fresh rosemary, cracked black pepper, and sea salt with the bulgar wheat salad.

I received several requests for the preparation of the salad, so here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Bulgar wheat 400 grams
Tomatoes (maybe twenty to 25 cherry or plum tomatoes)
1 124 gram (I think) package Tesco finest or Sainsbury's Taste the Difference feta cheese (or any other good Greek feta)
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic finely minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Bunch coriander (cilantro for my fellow Americans) roughly chopped. If you don't like coriander add less or alternatively use basil or flat leaf parsley instead.
Olive oil
Honey
Salt and Pepper

Begin by cooking the bulgar wheat. If you buy a 500 gram package, you won't need the full amount. Maybe cook 4/5 of the package and save the rest for later. Put the bulgar wheat in a pot, cover with plenty of water, bring to the boil and then cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain the water from the bulgar wheat, rinse the wheat with cold water, drain again, and put the bulgar wheat into a large mixing bowl. Set aside to cool.

Now start chopping. Chop each tomato in half, dice the onion, crumble or chop up the feta cheese, mince the garlic, and chop the coriander. By now the bulgar wheat should be getting cool. But if it is still letting out steam, then let it sit longer.

When the bulgar wheat is cool, add all of your chopped ingredients and stir them together. Add the juice of the two lemons some salt and pepper, some olive oil, and a drizzle of honey. Don't add too much salt pepper or oil at once because once its in you can't take it out. Taste and add more seasoning, oil and(or) honey as required. You don't want it to be too salty or too olive oily in flavor. Let the honey balance the lemon, but don't make the dish too sweet. It should stay a bit piquant and sour.

When you like the taste, its done.

For desert we had Tiramisu. I'm not giving away the recipe for this one because I have to keep a few secrets, but two basic sponge cakes cut in half, enhanced with expresso, frangelico liquor, and sugar. Each layer of cake is topped with sweetened mascarpone cheese, and chocolate mousse, until the top layer, which only has the mascarpone cheese mixture. Tap some cocoa powder through a sieve and arrange expresso beans decoratively on its top.

Mascarpone Torte

After a some tea, Heejoo and Eunhan left, but Will and Sunyoung stayed for the evening. The girls went to watch DaeJangGeum, a beautifully produced drama about a cook in the Korean Royal palace. They were quickly addicted. Will and I had a long chat, read about 6 hours. He did an MA in Literature a few years ago in Exeter, but he is preparing to do and MA in philosophy at Essex. We spent much of the evening discussing philosophy, the mechanisms of social cohesion, post modernism, escape from post-modernism, religion, and neo-Platonism. I had a great time. Its been a while since I just had a good extra-academic, free conversation about such a wide range of topics.

The tiramisu was good, but intellectual discourse is better, especially with a little bulgar wheat thrown in on the side.

Once more into the breach,

Ben