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recipe

recipe: maple panna cotta with peach coulis.

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recipe: maple panna cotta with peach coulis.

i was eating dinner at driftless cafe and finished it off with an excellent panna cotta ( i was reminded by the staff that they use organic valley half and half and organic valley heavy whipping cream which always makes me happy to hear 🙂 ) and it made me wonder why i didn’t make a homemade version. it’s easy to make, uses two of my favorite ingredients and can be the used as the base for a nearly infinite number of variations. perfect!

we have plenty of frozen peaches to use in the freezer so i thought i’d start with a maple panna cotta with peach coulis similar in spirit to this strawberry panna cotta and this peaches and cream panna cotta shots.

i used agar-agar flakes in lieu of animal gelatin because, well, i generally try to avoid animal gelatin. i’m guessing a panna cotta purist might scoff at using agar.

ingredients

panna cotta
1 1/2 cups organic valley half and half
1/2 cup organic valley heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons agar agar flakes

peach coulis
12 peach frozen quarters
1 tablespoon sugar

1. in a small saucepan, heat the the half and half, heavy whipping cream, maple syrup, sugar and agar flakes until simmering for 5-10 minutes or until the agar flakes are completely dissolved ( to be honest it was impossible for me to completely dissolve all the flakes so this batch had a few tapioca-like chunks in it. perhaps someone has a good tactic for getting them to dissolve completely. )
2. transfer mixture to ramekins, cover and put in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
3. heat peach frozen quarters and sugar with a small amount of water until a thickened peachy sauce is formed.
4. puree peach sauce in blender
5. after the panna cotta has cooled and firmed in the fridge, pour the peach sauce on top

i’m no panna cotta expert, but i believe it’s supposed to have a consistency just slightly thicker than pudding and this batch was pretty close. unsurprisingly, the maple and peach flavors were quite complimentary. A++, would make again!

recipe

recipe: peaches and cream ice cream!

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recipe: peaches and cream ice cream! I.

we ended up getting hundreds of peaches off the tree this years, so i figured after the success with purple moon ice cream i’d try my luck with a peaches and cream recipe! it’s basically my regular vanilla recipe ( which somehow i’ve posted?! ) with this peach processing methodology.

ingredients
1 1/2 to 2 pounds fresh peaches, peeled, pitted and chopped into pieces
4 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 1/2 cups organic valley half-and-half
8 organic valley egg yolks
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 cups organic valley heavy whipping cream
4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8th teaspoon salt

optional maple syrup for topping

directions

combine the peaches, 1/2 cup of the sugar and the lemon juice in a medium bowl. stir, cover and refrigerate overnight.

in a medium saucepan over medium heat, heat half-and-half until very hot, but not boiling, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and set aside.

in a mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended and slightly thickened.

very gradually add half-and-half to egg yolks and sugar and mix until blended.

return half-and-half mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat until small bubbles form around edge and mixture is steamy, stirring constantly. do not boil.

transfer half-and-half mixture into large bowl. stir in whipping cream, vanilla and salt.

cover and chill thoroughly, at least 8 hours.

assemble ice cream maker according to directions.

place a fine-mesh sieve over the bowl and pour the peaches into the sieve, straining the juice into the custard mixture.

start up ice cream maker and add mixture slowly.

churn for about 20 minutes until thick, soft-serve consistency is reached. add the peaches after about 15 minutes of churning.

put in a freezer safe container and store in the freezer.

recipe: peaches and cream ice cream! II.

in a fit of inspiration, odin and i decided to drizzle a bit of maple syrup on top of the ice cream and it is almost impossible to describe how outrageously good the result turned out. i mean, with 8 egg yolks and heavy whipping cream, the vanilla recipe is already a nearly over-the-top rich and creamy custard and when you add in the peach juice and peaches and maple syrup, well, it’s eyes-rolling-in-the-back-of-your-head good.

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day 3316: purple moon ice cream!

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day 3316: purple moon ice cream! I.

if you live in the upper midwest you’ve probably heard of blue moon ice cream. it’s a bright blue citrus-y concoction that tastes a little like the ice cream equivalent of fruit loops. odin likes blue moon but we’re not big fans of the fact that it’s loaded with food coloring and mystery ingredients. in fact, when i’ve researched recipes in the past it’s widely held belief that true blue moon contains castoreum which is made from the extrudate from the scent sacs of beavers. yummy! ( side note, castoreum is a “natural flavor” found in many vanilla products with “natural flavors”. if you use castoreum, you can use smaller amounts of pricey vanilla. )

so i was happy to hear a radio program with the folks behind the article “melting the mystery of blue moon ice cream” where they claimed to have found a blue moon recipe that’s really, really close to the real deal without beaver butt extract.

obviously i had to give it a try!

day 3316: purple moon ice cream! II.

the recipe is straight forward. you can use whatever ingredients you like, but if you’re not using organic valley dairy you’re doing it wrong 🙂

i didn’t use the blue food coloring called for in the recipe. the color is from the cup of pureed garden raspberries ( more on that in a moment ).

ingredients

1/2 cup organic valley whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup organic valley half-and-half
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla oil
1 1/2 cups organic valley heavy whipping cream
3 teaspoons vanilla pudding mix
1 teaspoon raspberry flavored oil or 1 cup frozen raspberries, pureed
1 teaspoon lemon flavored oil or 1 teaspoon lemon extract

directions:

1/2 cup of milk scalded in pan.
add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt. stir till dissolved.
add 1/2 cup of half and half.
add 1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream.
add vanilla, raspberry, lemon flavoring.
chill in fridge till very cold.
put in ice cream machine for 20 minutes
add vanilla pudding during last 5 minutes of mixing ( weirdly, the recipe doesn’t mention what to do with the pudding in the directions but i think this is what you want )

and whoila! after freezing, you get a a purple-y ice cream that looks a little like the blue moon from our local ice cream shop.

but how does it taste?

day 3316: purple moon ice cream! III.

odin and i sampled it and it is very, very close! i think it’s even a bit better than the ice cream shop variety. the flavors are a little “brighter” ( presumably because they’re, well, real ). it’s really close to “fruit loopy”. and the vanilla pudding nails the unique mouthfeel you get with the blue moon.

the one thing i would change in the next version is i wouldn’t use a cup of pureed raspberries. the seeds are distracting. i figured they would be when i was making it but i was too lazy to go through the process of pushing the puree through fine mesh to get the juice and not the seeds on the first iteration of product testing.

next time, no seeds! this is totally a keeper and going into regular ice cream making rotation.

odin liked the pinky/purple color and thought we should call it purple moon. so we will!

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recipe: new england fried clams.

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recipe: new england fried clams. I.

it’s something of a birthday tradition for kris to get some clams flown in from main for my birthday and this year was no exception. two pounds of clams arrived at our house the day before my birthday from simplylobsters.com in lewiston, maine which is sort-of close to my ancestral homeland in and around machias, maine which is way, way, waaaaaaay down east.

typically i make steamed clams because, well, there are few things better than a perfectly steamed clam dunked in broth and slathered in butter! but this year i thought it’d be fun to try my hand at fried clams because if there is one thing better than a steamed clam, it’s a fried clam!

i’m a traditionalist at heart so a simple “clam shack” style recipe is what i wanted. light and minimal with no fancy herbs and spices to get in the way of the taste of the clams. i found the perfect clam-shack style fried clams recipe over at leite’s culinaria ( side note: i find it amusing that the yankee cook recipe has a bunch of herbs and spices. tsk. tsk. )

i couldn’t agree more with this quote from leite’s culinaria recipe ( even though it does include cayenne ):

“When I made this recipe, adapted from the great Jasper White, I was tempted to doctor up the coating mix with all kinds of herbs and spices. (Yes, for a moment I thought of myself as the Colonel Sanders of Seafood.) “The secret to fried clams,” says Chickie Aggelakis, owner of The Clam Box in Ipswich, Mass., “is the flavor of the clams.” The coating and its crunch protect the tender belly meat. Mucking it up with spices—which is hard to resist—should be avoided at all costs.”

ingredients
1 cup corn flour (or masa harina)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 to 2 pounds of shucked whole-belly steamer clams
4-6 cups canola oil
1 cup buttermilk ( you could use somethign lesser but i recommend organic valley buttermilk )

first, shuck the clams if they didn’t arrive already shucked. don’t cut yourself! it’s super important to tap the foot of the clam before shucking and discard any clams that remain open or don’t respond when tapped!

rinse and drain clams colander and stir together with *cough* organic valley buttermilk *cough* in a large bowl ( o.k. yes, i work for organic valley and am perhaps a bit biased but seriously, this is no time to go for a lesser quality ingredient 🙂 let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients and heat the oil to 380°F or so.

recipe: new england fried clams. II.

combine the flours, salt, and and black and cayenne peppers in a largish mixing bowl or pie plate. you want something big enough to dredge clams through. using a slotted spoon or whatever you have that will allow the excess buttermilk to drip away without allowing the clams to fall back into the bowl.

then, pick up a few clams, let the excess buttermilk drip off, and dredge them through the batter mixture. move them about to coat evenly.

recipe: new england fried clams. III.

shake off the excess breading and dunk them the fryer. let them cook for a 20 seconds or so before disturbing so the breading had time to adhere to the clam. then stir the clams around to ensure they cook evenly. use your head and don’t splatter hot grease everywhere!

cook until golden brown. maybe about 1-2 minutes per batch depending on how many clams you fry in a batch. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY DO NOT OVERCOOK THEM!

recipe: new england fried clams. IV.

i was pondering making 1 pound into steamers and 1 pound into fried clams but i ended up making all two pounds nito fried clams because i had such a strong hankering for them. and, holy cow, am i glad i did.

seriously, i have never had fried clams this good outside of maine. and i dare say i’ve only had clams this good in a few rare spots on the coast. tender, light and minimal. not too heavy at all and the clam flavor really burts through.

especially when you break open the stomach between your teeth!

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recipe: bacon and blue cheese breakfast tortillas.

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recipe: bacon and blue cheese breakfast tortillas.

so i’m standing, staring at the fridge wondering what i can whip together and a plan slowly comes together. a wonderfully tasty plan. a plan so wonderfully tasty that i can’t believe it had never occurred to me before – BACON AND BLUE CHEESE BREAKFAST TORTILLAS!

i scrambled some fresh eggs from The Girls and started a traditional omelette, then added a bit of cooked and crumbled of organic prairie bacon and organic valley blue cheese and folded it and let it cook for a bit while steaming some sonoma organic, yellow corn tortillas until soft. for a spicy finishing touch, i added a few drops of hot sauce.

i’m not sure the picture does the amazing taste of the bacon and blue cheese breakfast tortilla justice.

it’s definitely going into regular breakfast rotation.

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recipe: peanut butter power balls.

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recipe: peanut butter power balls.

regular readers may recall my recipe for no-bake gluten free energy bites which are a super tasty source of energy but aren’t particularly packed with protein ( maybe about 3-4 grams of protein per 1 inch ball ).

what with all the running i’ve been doing, i’m always on the look-out for easy sources of protein so i was intrigued by a power ball recipe from bryan cranston while flipping through a hemispheres in-flight magazine. i’ve never seen breaking bad so i don’t know if there are power balls on the show or what, but the recipe looked like it would have a lot more protein thanks to the addition of non-fat milk powder. sure enough when you run the numbers each ball has about 8 grams of protein which is almost the 10 grams you need to be able to claim to be an excellent source of protein. in the future i might look for ways to add 2 grams more of protein per ball, but this is a good start.

i modified the recipe and rolled each ball in bit of dry coconut flakes and cocoa powder because, well, why not. and you could use some other milk powder brand than organic valley non-fat dry milk but they probably won’t turn out as good 🙂

ingredients and instructions

1C organic valley non-fat dry milk powder
3/4 C parts peanut butter
1/4 C honey

1/2 C dry coconut flakes
3T sweetened cocoa powder

sprinkle dry milk into peanut butter and mix thoroughly. add honey.
shape into balls and put into freezer for 15 minutes.
roll in mixture of coconut flakes and cocoa powder.

makes about twelve, 1-inch balls. each has around 160 calories and 8 grams of protein.