Strawberry Maple Floats

OMG strawberries!

I love eating seasonally because I love how nature is like nope, nope, nope, YEP!  And then floods you with something delicious.  And you gorge and gorge and gorge on it because once it's gone you won't see it again for a whole year.

Like everything does, it starts on the farm.

Little baby berries peeking through green leaves.

Fields and flowers and a cloudless sky.

That barn was full of bunnies.  Baby likes bunnies.

My kid are enthusiastic strawberry pickers, but inevitably derailed by the 'eat all you want in the fields' rule.  They contributed about 2 cups of berries.

So I bought a flat to supplement.

Now...what to make with 24 cups of strawberries?

Like I even had to wonder!  Jam, shortcake and hand pies for starters.

But first, something to take the heat off after a day in the fields.

Strawberry maple floats!

It's easy.  It's foamy.  And it tastes like the sweetest part of the most fragrant strawberry you've ever had.

It's even healthy!  Sweetened with maple, the ice cream is homemade with coconut cream in place of whipped (of course you could 100% use normal).

To strawberry season!

Strawberry Maple Floats
Makes 2 cups

2 cups water
2 cups fresh strawberries (frozen will also do in a pinch)
Juice of half a lemon
Handful fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup maple syrup
Soda water
Vanilla ice cream

First, make the syrup.  Bring the water, strawberries, mint, maple and lemon to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Strain out mint leaves, lemon (I squeezed it out then just threw the whole thing in there), and strawberry pulp.  Mush the strawberry pulp through the strainer to get as much berry goodness as possible.

Return syrup to a boil, reduce to a simmer and leave for 20 minutes or until reduced by half.  You should have about 2 cups of syrup.

To assemble floats:
Put desired amount of ice cream in glass.  Pour about a thumb's depth of syrup on top.  Add soda water until foamy and luscious.  Glug glug glug.

Black Sesame Ice Cream

Ahhh, remember summer?

Doesn't it seem like just a month ago we stood outside together, stretching our long, slim, tanned limbs, getting ready for a five in the morning run, laughing, tossing our lemon-scented hair?

I mean, that is how I remember it.  I definitely had some tanned limbs, at least.

Now it's dark by five!   Curse you, living slightly further north than I used to live!

In Oregon people like, stand on the corner with coats full of black market vials of Vitamin D.  It's some shady business.*

Anyway.  One last throwback recipe to summer, shall we?

One more frozen dish?  For the cold, wet road?

Have you tasted black sesame?

When I taught English in South Korea, one of the (many many) things I loved about the food was the
pastries.

And one of the (many many) things I loved about the pastries was the color.  The new, strange, different colors.  Things I'd never seen in America.

The smoky green of matcha.  The Barney purple of taro.  The brick red of sweet adzuki beans.

And the steely gray of black sesame.

Some of you may know this flavor already.  If you don't, don't be afraid.  It is nutty and smoky, and will taste slightly familiar and slightly strange all at once.

It is worth doing, my friends.  Try something new.  I bet you'll like it.

Black Sesame Ice Cream (borrowed from Nami  Who posted it here!)

2 Tbsp. roasted black sesame seeds (can be found at Asian stores)
1/3 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 2/3 cup whole milk
2 Tbsp. honey
3 Tbsp. black sesame seed paste (neri goma)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup minus 2 Tablespoons heavy cream
Pinch of salt


If the black sesame seeds are not roasted yet, put the sesame in a (non-stick) fry pan over medium heat and stir until they start popping. They will start releasing a nutty aroma. Remove from the heat and cool. (If you do not have black sesame seed paste, substitute with 4 Tbsp. of black sesame seeds.)  Grind black sesame seeds very finely.

Whisk sugar and egg yolk together until pale yellow. (If you do not have black sesame seed paste, add 1/2 cup sugar instead.)

Add in honey, black sesame seeds, and black sesame paste and whisk until well combined.

Bring the milk to a simmer. And add the milk into the sesame mixture in a slow stream.

Pour the mixture into a small pot over medium-low heat. Stir until the custard thickens and reach around 176 F. Don’t exceed 181 F.  Remove from heat and cool down the pot in a large bowl filled with iced water. Add vanilla.

Whisk together the heavy cream and a pinch of salt until peaks form.  Add the whipped cream into the cooled sesame mixture.  Fold in but do not over mix it.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours (or overnight) until completely cold.

Process the mixture in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions (usually about 25 minutes).

*Okay, NOW you can applaud.

 

Red Currant Ice Cream

Have you made any ice cream yet this year?  GET ON IT.

This is my first year dabbling in the frozen arts.  Popsicles last week, now this.

There have...been a few batches since this, too.

I may have a problem, actually.  I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it.

Aren't currants beautiful?  I think they are the most beautiful fruit.  They look like little pearls, little blood-red pearls. 

Although they come in shades of black and champagne, as well.

Their bitey tartness makes them a little rough for eating raw, but if you combine them with sugar and cream they are exquisite.

Incidentally, red currant was one of the first novel flavors I tried when I visited France, oh so long ago.  Over there they call it cassis.  Cassis and pistache (can you guess what that is?) are very popular flavors.

I want to name my children Cassis and Pistache.

Are you on board with that?  Honey?

Honey?

Red Currant Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups fresh red currants (or black, or champagne), de-stemmed
3/4 cup whole milk
2/3 cup white sugar
pinch salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Put the red currants in the bowl of a food processor/blender/mortar and pestle and grind, grind, grind.  I like mine roughly chopped, but you can keep on it if you like it finer.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together milk, sugar and salt until sugar is dissolved.  Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.  Stir in the red currants and all their residual juices.  Cover and refrigerate 1 - 2 hours, or overnight.

When mixture is completely chilled, churn and freeze according to ice cream maker instructions (sorry, folks without ice cream makers.  It's a club, I just joined it, you gotta get in on this). 

Fresh Summer Berry Popsicles

I've got a strong case of the August panics.

And by that I mean both the panics that occur in the month of August, and the very impressive panics.

Summer is almost over!  I must do everything!

I must visit the coast one last time!

I must go camping!  Hurry!

I must make dill pickles and crab apple jelly!

I must preserve that fruit!  And that one!  And zucchini!  And kim chi, oh my land I almost forgot the kim chi!

Swim!  Wear sandals!  Go barefoot!  Pick berries!

And don't forget to relax in the sun!  Ahhhhhhh!  I almost forgot to relax in the sun!

Breathe.  Breathe.  Just breathe.

These popsicles are frozen, crystalline summer incarnate.  Maybe as I savor their delicate, ephemeral taste I can remind myself that 'tis better to love and lose...

It's August.  It's halfway through August.  Fall is coming.  Will someone please hold my hand?

Fresh Summer Berry Popsicles (adapted from La Tartine Gourmande)

4 ounces red raspberries
4 ounces white raspberries
4 ounces blueberries
4 ounces blackberries
3/4 cup light syrup*
8 mint leaves


For the light syrup:

1 cup water
1/2 cup blond cane sugar

In a pot, combine the water with the sugar. Bring to a simmer so that the sugar dissolves. Stop the heat and let cool. Refrigerate.

Purée the fruit with the cold syrup and mint. Pass through a chinois, or fine sieve, and divide the fruit mixture between the popsicle molds.

Freeze for 30 minutes. Insert the wooden sticks and place back in the freezer again until completely set.

Tapioca Ice Cream

So I would like to be a real, live, grown-up food blogger someday, but before I can be that, there are a few things I need to get, be, and do.

First and foremost, I need a light for my photos. I know it. I could fake it a little last year when I lived in a warm, bright place by taking my food outside. But here in grey, rainy Oregon? Not a chance. In fact, here in grey, rainy Oregon I need two lights. One for my photos, and one for myself.

I would also like, although I do not NEED need, some cooking gadgets. You know, things like pasta makers and ice cream freezers (although lucky for me, you don't need one to make ice cream!). Stuff that makes making cool stuff easier. You know, like that kind of stuff.

But what I really need in order to be a real, grown-up food blogger, to be a real, grown-up cook, really, is to make up my own recipes.

Easier said than done. There are so many incredibly delicious things out there that people have already made! I could spend my whole life copying other people and eat well every single day. Did you know, for example, that this exists?

But hey, I can be creative too. And while I'm being creative, you know what sounds good? Tapioca ice cream.

So I made it. It was an experiment, and I totally made it. And it was fantastic! The little frog eyes got cooked with the cream and all stirred in with the ice cream. They gave the finished ice cream a really interesting texture. It did come out a little more vanilla-y than I'd have liked, I think more tapioca flavor would have been a good thing. Maybe next time I'll replace some of the cream with homemade tapioca pudding, rather than just adding the pearls.

So yes, cooking. It's a process. And so is blogging. And so is taking photos. And it's all worth doing.

We'll see what comes up next time on...Anna's experiments!

Tapioca Ice Cream

I used this basic vanilla ice cream recipe from the Food Network, and added 2 tablespoons of tapioca pearls to the mixture. Be sure they get plenty of time cooking in the pot!

Then I prepared it, ice-cream maker free, according to ice cream guru David Lebovitz's method.

And then my husband ate every bit of it (this step is optional).

Fresh Ice Cream at Cook's Dairy

It's Christmas time again! And this time I'm away from my Oregon apartment and off to farm country, Michigan.



Due to ongoing morning sickness concerns (January, some mercy, please?), I have done very little Christmas baking this year.



But that doesn't mean I have not been enjoying some fantastic food. I love nothing better than traveling and trying regional specialties. And up in this part of the country, one of those specialties is dairy.



Pretty cold though, in this part of the world.



Pretty chilly indeed.





But I tell you this. When they give you a scoop of ice cream (black cherry pictured here), they give you a SCOOP! That's right friends, this is a single scoop, of midwestern proportions.



And there is not a blessed thing wrong with that.



They carried lots of fresh farm products, from raw honey to homemade eggnog (mm what's not to love?).



But of course the main focus is always on the cows. Sweet little cows.





It was a little smelly, but it's good to be reminded of the conditions our food comes from, right? And despite the cold, these looked like some pretty happy cows.



Happy holidays all!

Glazed Ice Cream Petit Fours with Brown Butter Cake

Hello all! I am back in the States and loving it. Mexico was great and lovely, but it is nice to speaka the old English again! Miss my students and my families, but it is great to see so many old friends.

This is my August Daring Bakers challenge! The Daring Bakers is an online sort of baking club, and every month they issue a challenge. It has been rather difficult for me so far, because the challenges are, well, challenging! Even this month, there were some pretty frustrated moments in the kitchen. I seem to recall swearing and throwing a butter dish (plastic, don't worry). And they still don't look quite right. And I'm late to post because I seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to freeze (and refreeze after adjusting) homemade ice cream.

Nevertheless, the taste is delicious. The brown butter cake tastes like a perfect caramel pound cake, and in the ice cream I used rum flavoring rather than vanilla so that added a particular richness. The chocolate coating is semi-sweet and vury vury good.

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

I look forward to next month's challenge! Which will hopefully not involve anything FROZEN.