Cucumber Mint Sorbet

Two cucumber posts in a row. Not that they are my favorite fruit (or vegetable?). I just happen to have a lot of them from the CSA. This batch of sorbet used up 3 cucumbers! Yay! And it tastes good. When I mentioned the idea to a couple of people, one said that sounded gross and the other said that sounded like something a Brooklyn restaurant would serve. So I went for it.



And it was good. Really good, in fact. It was just sweet enough, cool and refreshing. Perfect for a hot summer day. Best of all, it's very simple to make.

Ingredients

• 3 medium cucumbers - peeled


• A handful of mint leaves


• 1/4 cup Agave nectar

Directions

1. Blend everything together until smooth in a blender. Pour into an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Enjoy!

Honey Lemon Blueberry Walnut Ice Cream

While the berries are still plenty, there is no better way to eat them than in ice cream especially when the weather is scorchingly hot. But for those who can't digest dairy, soy, and don't like stabilizer in canned coconut milk (like the finicky eating boyfriend), the raw food people have given us the raw walnut ice cream. I thank you for that.

This is the simplest ice cream recipe you will ever encounter. You just blend all the ingredients together then pour it into an ice cream maker until ready. The ice cream comes out not exactly super creamy. There's a little bit of texture to it. But it's definitely smooth enough without any nutty flavor.



Ingredients

• 1 cup raw walnuts


• 1 cup water


• 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries


• Zest from 1 lemon


• 1/4 cup honey

Red Wine Raspberry Ice Cream (Dairy Free and Raw!)

I still couldn't believe it - this raw walnut ice cream - how smooth and creamy it was and how easy it was to make. So I gave it another try. This time I got fancy and added all kinds of things I have in the refrigerator.



And there it was. Delicious, velvety ice cream - if you can call it that since there's no cream in it.

Ingredients

• 1 cup raw walnut pieces


• 3/4 water


• 1/4 cup fruity red wine (I used pinot noire.)


• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries


• 1/4 cup honey (or more if you want it sweeter.)

Directions
Blend everything together in a blender until smooth. Pour into a running ice cream maker and let churn according to the machine's instructions.

Raw Chocolate Walnut Ice Cream

I had a dinner party at my apartment last weekend. It was quite challenging with all the food restrictions of my guests. Here's the list:

• Diner #1 does not eat beef.


• Diner #2 does not eat pork.


• Diner #3 is lactose intolerant and cannot eat spicy food.


• Diner #4 eats nothing a.k.a he's vegan and he doesn't eat sugar.


• Diner #5 - #10 eats all the things diners number #1 - #4 do not eat and more. This is a blessing - not restriction.

Here's the menu:

• 2 loaves of no-knead bread


• Homemade hummus


• Petite Basque and Humboldt Fog cheese (two of my favorites)


• Raw beet and apple salad


• Vegan green curry with butternut squash and green beans


• Very very mild chicken massaman curry


• Brown rice


• Sour cream apple pie


• Raw chocolate walnut ice cream

This way everybody can have some appetizer, main food and dessert.



My diner friend #4 suggested that I tried this raw ice cream recipe. It was quite amazing and extremely simple to make. You basically blend raw walnuts with water, liquid sweetener and cocoa powder and some flavoring. Then let the ice cream maker do the work. The only down size is that I couldn't blend the nuts into completely smooth velvety texture. Well, maybe that's not a bad thing. It's textured ice cream. The raw walnuts didn't leave any taste. All you could feel was a nice sweet chocolate nuttiness.

I adapted the recipe a bit to this:

• 2 cups raw walnuts


• 2 cups water


• 1/2 cup Agave nectar


• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 3/4 cup cocoa

Vanilla Bean Coconut Ice Cream

My new special boy doesn't eat dairy - which is very sad. This means no yogurt, cheese, ice cream, etc. Good thing butter is an exception. I try to be a good person by accommodating his diet instead of making fun of him. This ice cream is dairy free. It uses full fat coconut milk and eggs which produce creamy and soft custard like ice cream. The coconut flavor is not very strong. I bet I can use this as a base for many other frozen creamy deliciousness.



The original recipe is here: http://cavemanfood.blogspot.com/2009/06/coconut-milk-ice-cream.html



I just increased the amount of coconut milk to 2 cans, left out lavender and kept everything else the same. This ice cream is actually awesome. I might not go back to the real cream ice cream ever again (unless I get bored of coconut.)

Red Wine Strawberry Sorbet

It was supposed to be red wine raspberry sorbet but my raspberries went moldy in the refrigerator before I got a chance to make the sorbet. Strawberries would do. This recipe is genius. Look at it: a bottle of wine, some sugar and lots of fruit. Perfect summer treat.



I didn't strain the pulp because I was lazy and I did not care for the smooth consistency. My sorbet came out tasting like soft frozen sangria. Maybe because I didn't boil the wine long enough - which isn't a bad thing. I think I got drunk from eating half a cup of it. It's quite embarrassing, actually.



The best part of this batch of sorbet is that I froze some in ice cream pop molds. Things always taste better on a stick, I don't know why.

Cranberry and Vanilla Bean Sorbet

If you are looking for ideas for those fresh cranberries available all over right now, definitely try this cranberry sorbet. Vanilla bean surprisingly rounded out the tartness of cranberries - making the sorbet perfectly sweet, tart and smooth.

I pureed the cooked cranberries in a food processor and didn't strain the mixture despite the recipe. The sorbet was most delicious and refreshing especially after a heavy meal.

Blackberry Banana Ice Cream

I used corn syrup to make ice cream for the first time last month. Now I'm hooked. I'll save the Agave nectar for yogurt ice cream. For ice cream with real cream, I'll use corn syrup from now on.



This is just a slight variation from the banana ice cream. I just added about a cup of frozen blackberries to the food processor and used 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract instead of vanilla bean.


Perfect Summer dessert

Blueberry Burst

Before I received my ice cream maker, I started searching the internet and cutting out recipes from magazines. One internet recipe that I couldn't wait to make was this one from the Simply Recipes blog for Blueberry Frozen Yogurt.

It starts out with a lot of blueberries - 3 cups - to which you add sugar, lemon juice, and a small amount of cinnamon. Already it was starting to look and smell like like blueberry pie, which to me was an indicator that this was going in the right direction. The fruit and sugar gets cooked down to a beautiful purple compote-like thing, cooled, and then whole milk and whole milk yogurt are added. Whole milk yogurt was a bit challenging to find, but I finally ended up with some from Strauss Family Creamery, bought at nearby Andronico's. I did as the recipe suggested and did not blend the blueberries after cooking in order to leave some chunks and bits of fruit in the mix for texture. I did give it a quick whirr with the immersion blender just to incorporate the yogurt thoroughly, but not enough to break up the blueberries. I also added the least amount of sugar called for, because I love a good, tart yogurt taste.

Once cooled, I couldn't wait to churn it and see how the color and consistency turned out. It was GREAT, and the taste was amazing - really fresh and bursting with fruit. The texture was a bit more icy and less smooth than the vanilla ice cream, and it definitely got very firm upon freezing, but overall I would not change a thing.

Vanilla Ice

Ice cream starts with eggs. Egg yolks, to be exact. Most traditional flavors (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry) are created by making a cooked custard, which consists of eggs, sugar, milk, cream, and flavoring, cooling it down, and freezing it.

Ice cream production is somewhat labor intensive, but mostly it's time intensive. Depending on your ice cream maker, you may have to freeze the chamber for 12-15 hours before churning. Once you make the custard, it has to be refrigerated for 8 hours before churning, and then after churning it has to go into the freezer for another few hours to firm up. For this reason, it's best to start the night before and let everything sit overnight. I wanted to master the basics, so for my first project I chose simple, classic Vanilla Ice Cream.

Making the custard is the most difficult part. You want to heat it without burning it, then you pour it into the egg yolks and back into the pan to avoid cooking the egg yolks and making scrambled eggs. Once you get it into the ice bath, you begin the important cooling down process. Luckily for me, this all worked out right the first time around. I owe all thanks to David Lebovitz, whose instructions were so thorough that I could not help but succeed. In the case of vanilla ice cream, it includes an extra step of infusing a vanilla bean into the cream, so you have to allow extra time for that.

Once everything is prepared and cooled, you get to do what I think is the most fun part - churning. An important step is to get the dasher of the machine started before pouring in the custard, otherwise it will start to freeze immediately and might get stuck.

I watched the entire 30 minute process standing right over the bowl. It was magic! Right before my eyes, the custard started getting thicker and thicker, until, lo and behold, we had ice cream!

I ate so much of it off of the dasher, I am surprised that any of it made it into the container. What I learned is that it expands during the freezing process, so despite what I ate, there was plenty to put into the freezer. This was a proud moment for me:

The taste was very pure, simple vanilla. Not something to knock your socks off, but just a good and wholesome taste. Knowing that it was made without preservatives, chemicals, additives, or thickeners made every spoonful that much better. Or maybe that the joy of sharing it with friends, with my friend Jude's homemade Scharffen Berger chocolate sauce on top.

We Scream

I am beginning to feel like the Brenda Dickson of cooking. "Hello, and welcome to my home. Let's teleport into my closet!" Just as she was obsessed with herself, I feel obsessed with anything that I can learn to make that is beautiful and tastes good. Hence my new all-consuming hobby: ice cream.

Apparently, homemade ice cream is something that a lot of people grew up with. Even my husband has memories of turning the hand crank in his grandmother's back yard to churn some fresh peach ice cream for the evening meal. This would have been as foreign to my family as milking a cow - ice cream was something that you bought from the grocery store in a cardboard-covered rectangle (Neopolitan was a favorite), or if you were very lucky, from the local ice cream parlor. Baskin-Robbins was the cool kid on the block in those days, with its trendy flavors and coveted ice cream cakes.

Today, it's all about foodie flavors. Local, handmade, organic, and creative iced treats have become the sought-after cones of choice, blurring the lines between sweet and savory with flavors like Peppercorn, Olive Oil, and Strawberry Balsamic. In San Francisco, one of my favorite places is Humphry Slowcombe which features flavors as exotic as Foie Gras as as local as Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee. It's not only the coasts that are embracing this trend - places like Jeni's Ice Cream in Columbus, OH are churning out flavors like Cayenne and Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Cherries. With these kinds of flavors, you could skip the meal and go right to dessert!

I was lucky enough to find an unused gift card a couple of weeks ago, and used it to purchase the ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. To go with it, I bought "The Perfect Scoop" from frozen-treat master David Lebovitz, and it has been my Bible so far in learning to make my own ice cream.

I always like to start things from the ground up, so my first experiment was with vanilla ice cream. To start, it calls for some simple ingredients: whole milk, sugar, heavy cream, salt, a vanilla bean, eggs yolks, and vanilla extract. With that, I was off and running...

Wheel of Fortune

What goes up must come down

spinning wheel got to go round

Blood, Sweat and Tears had it right. Spinning wheel got to go round...especially if you are at Poly Ann Ice Cream in the Outer Sunset.

They have so many flavors, they have a flavor wheel to help you decide if you can't settle on which one you want. The wheel also allows you a chance to win a free ice cream cone.

Not quite ready for the wheel, I almost followed the 8-year-old kid in front of me and went for Gummy Bear. Then I sampled Cherry Brandy. I eyed the Durian, and my stomach did a little flip, and I retreated to safe, which was Chocolate Chip. Then I thought about how pedestrian that was, and quickly changed my order to Jasmine Green Tea.

It was a great choice. Creamy, rich, with a strong flavor of jasmine, I savored every bite.

Next time, the wheel.

Banana Ice Cream

Want to eat 5 bananas in one sitting? Make this banana ice cream. I almost did. I will have to buy more bananas and fight with fruit flies to make more of it. It's too delicious.



The picture doesn't do justice. But I couldn't do it. If it's in my face, I have to eat it. So I couldn't take my time trying to get nice pictures.

I made a few modifications to the recipe and ended up with

• 5 bananas


• Juice from 1 lime


• 1/2 cup corn syrup


• 1/2 cup heavy cream


• 1 vanilla bean

I watched this Alton Brown episode and he explained why we need to freeze the bananas and let them thaw before pureeing them with the other ingredients. It had something to do with tearing up cell walls with ice particles. It made sense to me at the time. I just can't explain it. He also explained why we should chill the processed ingredients before transferring into an ice cream maker. He said the colder (not frozen) the mixture is, the smaller ice crystal will be and that makes smoother ice cream.


I froze the ice cream in small individual jars so that I don't eat the whole batch in one sitting and if I have leftover I won't have to re-freeze the ice cream.

Mango Cardamom Yogurt Ice Cream

It's time to break out my ice cream maker. After a week of non-stop gloom and grey, the weather finally is warm and humid (although still grey.)



This ice cream reminded me of Kulfi I had in India. Or maybe cardamom just reminded me of any Indian edibles.

Making ice cream is easy when you have all the tools: food processor and ice cream maker.

Recipe:
Process 1 peeled and pitted mango with 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom and 16oz. non-fat Greek yogurt and 1/4 cup Agave nectar. Pour the thing into a running ice cream maker. Wait and devour. Clean up the mess when you are done eating.

For Every Season, Churn, Churn, Churn

Last week I was invited to a very special tasting event - my friend Claire has been teaching herself to make ice cream, and she decided to give Michael and me a tasting of her latest creations. Oh, and what a tasting it was! She carefully planned the order in which we sampled the different flavors, and gave us the background on each one. It was marvelous - we were impressed and delighted with each sweet treat that passed our lips.

There was nothing at all commercial about these flavors - they were much more dense and flavorful than the best store brand could ever aspire to be. Amazingly, she made all of these by hand with a manual ice cream maker rather than the electric ones that most home cooks use. Her elbow grease paid off - I am still dreaming of our afternoon in Ice Cream Paradise.

Up first, Apricot/Pistachio. This ice cream had a very creamy taste, without the use of an egg custard in the base. Strong apricot flavor and subtle pistachio giving it an earthy nuttiness and texture. I had not known that ice cream could taste like this - the fruit just filled your mouth in a way that almost seemed that you were eating something healthy.


Second was Saffron/Coconut. This is another one that tasted unbelievably creamy, this time from the coconut milk. It was smooth and velvety, with the beautiful deep yellow color of the saffron. The savory/spice element along with the sweetness made it very adult in flavor, definitely for the sophisticated palate.


The next flavor was not for the faint of heart: Aztec Hot Chocolate - a peppered version of classic chocolate with a great kick. The flavor progression was unique - first, chocolate, then the bite of the chili pepper. It was intense and a pleasure to eat.


The next flavor, Roasted Banana, could easily be an "everyday" flavor for me. I love bananas, and roasting them gives them a more complex, caramelized flavor. This one had a texture that was most similar to commercial ice creams, from the way your spoon would drag over it.


And last but not least, Zabaglione. Zabaglione is one of my favorite desserts in the world, an Italian whipped custard made with egg yolks, sugar, and plenty of Marsala wine - in the finest restaurants, they will make it tableside for you. This ice cream captured it perfectly, with a silky custardy smoothness and the wonderful taste and aroma of Marsala. Like the wedding dress at the end of a fashion show, it was a step up in elegance and sophistication.


For great gourmet recipes like this, the definitive bible is David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop". He also has an entertaining blog that he writes from his home in Paris, which is a celebration of food and technique, and living in a foreign country. Any of these recipes is guaranteed to leave you with a smile on your face, and the churning desire for more (sorry, couldn't resist!)

Three Berries Ice Cream

Nevermind that it's freezing out. There's an ice cream maker in the kitchen and we need to use it. I can't take the credit for dreaming up this berry ice cream this time. It's my Slovenian friend - Jaka. It was Creamy Raspberry-Strawberry-Blueberry Ice Cream. The ice cream was a way too sweet. I thought it should be more sour. But Jaka said we shouldn't have put lemon juice in there at all. Basically it's not good enough. So, can't post the recipe yet - just pictures.


Berries soaked in sugar for about 30 minutes.


2 cups of cream, some milk, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and the berries in the ice cream maker.


We couldn't fit all the berries in the ice cream maker. So we used them to top the ice cream.

Espresso Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I didn't realize how easy it was to make a delicious creamy ice cream - until this weekend... I got an ice cream maker... (It was on sale.)



This recipe is straight out of the machine's user manual. 1 pint of cream, 1 cup milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons of instant espresso. Mix everything, pour into the frozen container and run the machine. Then add 1 cup of mini chocolate chips at the end. My brain is working really hard now thinking about all the possibilities...

Labor Day Highjinks: Ice Cream and Tropical Birds

I don't like to post too many pics of myself on my blog (and they are EVERYWHERE else, so believe me, the universe is well aware of what I look like), but I had to make an exception in this case. On Labor Day, my friend Michael and I had one of those rare, funny afternoons that can only come from a random series of events that cascaded together to leave us laughing hysterically.

It started out innocently enough - we made plans to go to Joe's for an ice cream cone, and a walk around the neighborhood to catch up. Joe's is one of those great places that has a wonderful, simple product and has not changed one bit since it opened in 1959. Unfortunately, Joe's is closed on Mondays. Wah, wah.

Leave it to Michael to find a solution. We started walking up the block and ended up at...Rite Aid. No, no, we weren't going there to huff correction fluid (we weren't quite that depressed) - they actually serve ice cream there. The ice cream is not that bad, despite the less than appealing brand name ("Thrifty" - WTF), but we found ourselves in fits of giggles at the counter - it felt so weird to be ordering ice cream amongst the toothbrushes and personal massagers. Not only that, they had run out of medium containers so we had to make do with the rediculously large family sized ones.


So there we were, laughing and walking around the block with our Big Gulps of ice cream, when we heard something that sounded like a cat. Then, maybe a monkey. Then, a person's voice. "Hello? Hello?"

We looked around and right in front of this house on the railing were 2 parrots - a green one and an African Grey. (why is my world suddenly filled with birds, why?) They were just out in the open, talking and making sounds as casually as you please. We stopped and "talked" to them for a while, and realized that the owner was right behind us washing his car. He showed us how when he blew a whistle, the African Grey imitated it exactly.



The Grey kept its distance, but the green kept trying to inch closer and closer. If you look close enough at the picture, you can see the murderous glint in his eye - and the owner warned us not to get too close, or he would bite.

Anyway, it was a great afternoon full of laughs and "only in San Francisco" moments. I can't think of a better way to spend a leisurely afternoon - you can't buy entertainment as good as this!

Mango Yogurt Ice Cream

It's not summer yet. But lines outside Pinkberry are getting longer and longer. And I refuse to pay $5 to a small tub of frozen yogurt. What to do? I wish I have an ice cream maker but my kitchen cannot store any more appliances. Hmmmm.... maybe I'll get one anyway and keep it in my closet.

In the meantime, I make do with my version of yogurt ice cream. My last attempt turned out so successful that I have to try again. This time with frozen mango....



Ingredients

• 1 large mango - peeled, cut and frozen


• A tub of non-fat Greek strained yogurt (16 oz.)

Directions

1. In a food processor, blend the frozen mango and yogurt together until smooth. Serve immediately or chill in the freezer for a few minutes before serving.

The mango gave the yogurt even creamier texture. I love it. I didn't even have to add any sugar or other sweetener.

Blueberry Yogurt Ice Cream

Why didn't I think of this?

Creamy Greek yogurt + Agave nectar + frozen blueberries = sweet and creamy yogurt ice cream!

This is so super easy, delicious and refreshing.

Someone smart posted it on the internet a couple of weeks ago. I didn't bookmarked the recipe because it was so simple. So now I can't find it. I think it's either on SlashFood or Serious Eats.



The recipe goes something like this:

• A tub of non-fat Greek strained yogurt (16 oz.)


• About 2 tablespoons of Agave nectar


• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries

In a food processor or blender, blend everything together until kind of smooth. Serve immediately or chill in the freezer for a few minutes before serving.