Nougat Semifreddo: Italian desserts

If you got a lot of Italian Christmas hampers over the holiday season,you’ve probably got an awful lot of panettone, pandoro or torrone to get through  Torrone is the Italian word for nougat and today we’ll look at a recipe for using it as a semifreddo dessert, in conclusion to other the Italian christmas recipes.

While homemade gelato can be difficult to do without an icecream machine, semifreddo is easy as you can make it just with cream and then freeze it later. If you find a good semifreddo recipe, you can make all sorts of flavours, too.

 For this nougat semifreddo you’ll need: 

• 200 g of nougat (possibly dark chocolate flavour but anything will work), 
• two eggs, four tablespoons of sugar, 
• 200 ml of whipped cream,
•  half a glass of brandy, 
• chocolate flakes and fresh red currents.
•  For a finishing sauce use 100 g of dark chocolate and 50 ml of fresh cream.

Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, put the nougat through a food mixer and then mix with the eggs, adding the brandy. Mix until you get a smooth consistency. 
Add the cream, then whip the egg whites and add a little at a time. Pour into a small, rectangular cake or loaf dish and put in the freezer for 5-6 hours. 
Take it out of the freezer about half an hour before serving and serve with the melted chocolate and cream, along with some chocolate flakes and the currents.
I bet your mouth is watery after reading all this. :)

Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon, without making physical contact with the object. In modern usage, the term generally refers to the use of aerial sensor technologies to detect and classify objects on Earth (both on the surface, and in the atmosphere and oceans) by means of propagated signals (e.g. electromagnetic radiation emitted from aircraft or satellites).


   Earth scientists use the technique of remote sensing to monitor or measure phenomena found in the Earth's lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. Remote sensing of the environment by geographers is usually done with the help of mechanical devices known as remote sensors. These gadgets have a greatly improved the ability to receive and record information about an object without any physical contact. Often, these sensors are positioned away from the object of interest by using helicopters, planes, and satellites. Most sensing devices record information about an object by measuring an object's transmission of electromagnetic energy from reflecting and radiating surfaces. These sensors are either passive or active. Passive sensors detect energy when the naturally occurring energy is available such as sun energy. Active sensors provide their own energy source as radar waves and record its reflection on the target.

Remote sensing imagery has many applications in mapping land-use and cover, agriculture, soils mapping, forestry, city planning, archaeological investigations, military observation, and geomorphological surveying, among other uses. For example, foresters use aerial photographs for preparing forest cover maps, locating possible access roads, and measuring quantities of trees harvested. Specialized photography using color infrared film has also been used to detect disease and insect damage in forest trees. 

Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest. The introduction of new DNA does not require the use of classical genetic methods, however traditional breedingmethods are typically used for the propagation of recombinant organisms.


                         The most common form of genetic engineering involves the insertion of new genetic material at an unspecified location in the host genome. This is done by isolating and copying the genetic material of interest using molecular cloning methods to generate a DNA sequence containing the required genetic elements for expression, and then inserting this construct into the host organism. Other forms of genetic engineering include gene targeting and knocking out specific genes via engineered nucleases such aszinc finger nucleases or engineered homing endonucleases.The first field trials of genetically engineered plants occurred in France and the USA in 1986, tobacco plants were engineered to be resistant to herbicides

Procedure :

Isolating gene-

First, the gene to be inserted into the genetically modified organism must be chosen and isolated.Once chosen the genes must be isolated. This typically involves multiplying the gene using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). If the chosen gene or the donor organism's genome has been well studied it may be present in a genetic library.  Once isolated, the gene is inserted into a bacterial plasmid.

Construct:

The gene to be inserted into the genetically modified organism must be combined with other genetic elements in order for it to work properly. The gene can also be modified at this stage for better expression or effectiveness. As well as the gene to be inserted most constructs contain a promoter and terminator region as well as a selectable marker gene. The constructs are made using recombinant DNA techniques, such molecular cloning.

Targeting Gene:

The most common form of genetic engineering involves inserting new genetic material randomly within the host genome. Other techniques allow new genetic material to be inserted at a specific location in the host genome or generate mutations at desired genomic loci capable of knocking out endogenous genes. The technique of gene targeting uses homologous recombination to target desired changes to a specific endogenous gene.

Transformation:

The genes to be inserted are cloned into a binary vector, which contains T-DNA and can be grown in both E. Coli and Agrobacterium. Once the binary vector is constructed the plasmid is transformed into Agrobacterium containing no plasmids and plant cells are infected. The Agrobacterium will then naturally insert the genetic material into the plant cells.About 1% of bacteria are naturally able to take up foreign DNA but it can also be induced in other bacteria. Stressing the bacteria for example, with a heat shock or an electric shock, can make the cell membrane permeable to DNA that may then incorporate into their genome or exist as extrachromosomal DNA. 

Selection:

Not all the organism's cells will be transformed with the new genetic material; in most cases a selectable marker is used to differentiate transformed from untransformed cells. If a cell has been successfully transformed with the DNA it will also contain the marker gene. 

Regeneration:

As often only a single cell is transformed with genetic material the organism must be regrown from that single cell. As bacteria consist of a single cell and reproduce clonally regeneration is not necessary. In plants this is accomplished through the use of tissue culture. Each plant species has different requirements for successful regeneration through tissue culture. If successful an adult plant is produced that contains the transgene in every cell. In animals it is necessary to ensure that the inserted DNA is present in the embryonic stem cells.

Confirmation:

The finding that a recombinant organism contains the inserted genes is not usually sufficient to ensure that the genes will be expressed in an appropriate manner in the intended tissues of the recombinant organism. To examine the presence of the gene, further analysis frequently uses PCR, Southern hybridization, and DNA sequencing, which serve to determine the chromosomal location and copy number of the inserted gene.


APPLICATIONS:

• Medicine
• Agriculture
• Research
• Industrial