Monthly Archives: August 2012

peanut butter curry ice cream

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A few months ago I made a day trip to San Francisco for work (I don’t recommend this if you live east of the Mississippi as I do…) and after the business portion of the trip was complete I was able to meet up with a good friend of mine who lives there for dinner.  Dinner was great and we were chatting along so that time was passing by quickly and all of a sudden I could see a lightbulb go off in his head: he suggested that we try to go to a place in the same neighborhood for ice cream before it closed.  This being a good friend of mine he knows that ice cream is my favorite so we walked as quickly as we could to the ice cream joint with what sounds like a man’s name, Humphry Slocombe.

Unfortunately we were too late, they had already closed for the day, but I peeked in to see what I was missing: flavors with names like Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee, Secret Breakfast, and Malted Dulce de Leche.  I knew someday I would return to sample these delicious-sounding flavors in person.  In the meantime when amazon recommended their cookbook to me based on past purchases I added it to my wishlist and was generously gifted it for my birthday last month.

I knew which flavor I wanted to test first.

If you’ve looked at this blog before you’ve maybe noticed that I like Thai food and curries of any ethnic origin in general.  Peanut sauce is the bomb.  Peanut butter curry ice cream?  What a great idea!

It sounds like it might not work, but it totally does.  It’s sweet, but not overly so and the curry gives it a nice punch.  So until I can make it back to San Francisco I look forward to at least trying more of Humphry Slocombe’s recipes!

Peanut Butter Curry Ice Cream (slightly from “Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book” by Jack Godby, Sean Vahey, and Paolo Lucchesi)

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 egg yolks
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ½ cup smooth peanut butter
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 teaspoon curry powder (vadouvan curry, finely minced, if you can find it)

Fill a large bowl or pan with ice and water.  Place a large, clean bowl in the ice bath and fit the bowl with a fine-mesh strainer.

In a large, heavy-bottomed, nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until hot but not boiling.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla until well blended.  If you’re using curry powder (not vadouvan), whisk that in now, too.

Remove the cream mixture from the heat.  Slowly pour about have of the hot cream mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly.  Transfer the yolk mixture back to the saucepan with the remaining cream mixture and return it to medium heat.  Cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula and being sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan so it doesn’t scorch, until the liquid begins to steam and you can feel the spatula scrape against the bottom of the pan, 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the custard from the heat and immediately pour it through the strainer into the clean bowl you set up in the ice bath.  If you’re using vadouvan, stir it in right now.  Let cool, stirring constantly.

When the custard has totally cooled, cover the bowl tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or preferably overnight.  When you are ready to freeze the custard, transfer it to an ice cream maker and spin according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Eat immediately, or transfer to an airtight container, cover, and freeze for up to 1 week.

o is for okra

Posted in vegan, vegetable, vegetarian by

Normally, I’m a list person.  I don’t go anywhere without a list, especially not to a place that almost requires a list like a grocery store.  That would be like leaving the house without my cellphone.  You know what I mean.  Leaving your house without your cellphone is the new leaving your house without clothes on.  You feel vulnerable and lost without it these days.

So Saturday morning I did something radical: I threw caution to the wind and decided to go to the farmer’s market sans list.  It was wild.  I wound up picking up a few predictable things: raspberries, green beans, kale, but also came home with a few surprises: namely, okra.  I have eaten it in restaurants before but if the farmer’s had not labeled the okra in their stands I would not have recognized it in its whole form.  But what the heck, I could find something great to do with it.

I did a little research on my iPhone and the first recipe I came across was the one I decided to go for: curried okra with chickpeas and tomatoes.  This was perfect because a) I love curry, and b) I had both chickpeas and a can of tomatoes that needed to be used up in my pantry.  One thing that I wish I had known beforehand was that it is better to buy small okra.  My greedy eyes thought that bigger would be better so I bought okra that was 5 to 6 inches in length when apparently 2 to 3 inches is better.  I definitely could have fit more okra into my pot if they weren’t so big.  But nevermind, they still tasted great and I’m totally psyched about cooking with okra again in the future.  Sometimes it’s a very good thing to leave your lists at home!

Curried Okra with Chickpeas and Tomatoes (recipe found at www.epicurious.com)

  •   1 ¼ lb small fresh okra, left untrimmed, or 2 (10-oz) packages frozen whole okra (not thawed)
  •   1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil
  •   1 medium onion, chopped
  •   2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  •   4 teaspoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
  •   2 teaspoons curry powder
  •   1 (14- to 15-oz) can whole tomatoes in juice, tomatoes chopped, reserving juice
  •   1 (19-oz) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed (2 cups)
  •   2/3 cup water
  •   ¾ teaspoon salt
  •   ¼ teaspoon black pepper

If using fresh okra, trim, leaving tops intact, being careful not to cut into pods.

Heat oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sauté onion and garlic with ginger and curry powder, stirring, 2 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juice, chickpeas, and water and boil, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes. Stir in okra, salt, and pepper and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until okra is tender, about 10 minutes.

Serve over rice or quinoa.

lemon pie bars

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One of the awesome things about having a cooking/baking blog is that people start giving you things like fancy dishes and cookbooks as gifts.  My birthday happened to be a few weeks ago and I got both of plenty in spades which I’m super excited about.  One of the cookbooks I was given was by the people behind Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia.

I’ve never been to Savannah, much less this bakery, but I know that southerners know good food and the cookbook received rave reviews so I added it to my amazon wishlist.  And boy, am I glad I did!

Last Sunday I was feeling a little l-a-z-y but wanted to bake a few things to share with you fine people so I looked for a simple recipe and this is it.  There are few ingredients and the steps involved were low maintenance, but the results?  Delicious.  People who aren’t normally into lemon-flavored baked goods even enjoyed these bars.

Lemon Pie Bars (from “Bake in the Day Bakery Cookbook” by Cheryl Day and Griffith Day)

For the crust:

  • 3 cups graham cracker crumbs (approximately 24 crackers)
  • 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

For the filling:

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
  • 1 cup fresh lemon juice
  • Two 14-ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
  • 6 large egg yolks

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease a 9-by-13-by-2-inch baking pan and line with parchment, allowing the ends of the paper to hang over two opposite edges of the pan.

To make the crust: in a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar and blend with a fork until the crumbs are evenly moistened.  Press the graham cracker mixture firmly and evenly into the bottom of the prepared pan.  Use a piece of parchment to press on the crust with the palm of your hands to make sure it is completely level.

Bake the crust for about 8 minutes, until lightly golden.  Let cool completely before adding the filling.  Turn the oven temperature down to 325 degrees F.

To make the filling: in a large bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks.  Pour the filling over the cooled crust.

Place the baking pan inside a larger baking pan and pour enough hot water into the larger pan to come halfway up the sides of the smaller pan.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the filling is puffed at the edges and no longer jiggles in the center when the pan is tapped.  Remove the pan from the water bath and set it on a rack to cool for 1 hour, then refrigerate until cold.

Cut into squares and serve chilled, with whipped cream.  The bars will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

mid week sweet treat

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You might think the below image is of cookie dough about to be baked, but you would be wrong.  Have you ever had Buckeyes before?  Well below is a Buckeye before it gets dunked in melted chocolate.  What we have here are peanut butter balls.

Except in this case we are not dunking the peanut butter balls into melted chocolate but rather placing them on top of a fudgy cookie.  These are Buckeyes in cookie form… genius!  (Thank you Joy the Baker for your brilliant concoction.)

The cookie dough is kind of runny and has to be dribbled on a parchment-lined baking sheet with a spoon.  At first I was a little nervous about this because I was afraid they weren’t going to bake up properly but indeed they did.  They result in a fudgy, soft cookie that makes for a perfect vehicle for the aforementioned peanut butter balls.

You place the pre-made PB balls in the center of the cookies when they are fresh out of the oven so that they meld together into a beautiful final piece that is greater than the sum of its parts.

There is no better combination that exists than peanut butter and chocolate together.  Perfection.  In cookie form.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Ball Cookies (from “Joy the Baker Cookbook” by Joy Wilson)

For the peanut butter balls:

  • 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
  • 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 6 tablespoons peanut butter

For the cookies:

  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 2/3 cups sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

To make the peanut butter balls: in a large bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, and peanut butter.  With clean hands begin to work the mixture together.  The butter and peanut butter should come together to create a stiff but pliable dough.  (I had to add 2 additional tablespoons of peanut butter to make the dough come together but I think that’s because I use natural peanut butter which tends to be a little more dry.)  Roll dough between your palms to create 16 small walnut-sized balls.  Place on a clean cutting board or cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside.

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

To make the cookies: in a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until thick and pale.  Set aside.

Place about 2 inches of water in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.  In a heatproof bowl, combine butter and chocolate chips.  Place the bowl over but not touching the simmering water.  Heat until chocolate and butter have melted together.  Remove bowl from heat.  Add the melted chocolate to the egg mixture and fold together.  Once entirely incorporated, stir in the vanilla.  Fold in the flour mixture with a spatula until thoroughly incorporated.  The mixture will be glossy and loose.

Spoon heaping tablespoonfuls of cookie batter onto the baking sheet, spacing the batter 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10 minutes until crackled on top, but still fudgy in the center.  Remove from oven and immediately press a peanut butter ball into the center of each cookie.  The warmth will help meld the two together.  Allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies will last, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 4 days.

gold medal dessert: rhubarb crunch

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Aren’t the Olympics inspiring? I’ve found myself transfixed over the past week and I rarely watch TV so that is really saying something. I was so happy to see the women’s gymnastics team take the gold last night and especially proud to see Jordyn Wieber shake off not qualifying for the all-around competition yet pull it together to lead her team to victory. Inspirational. She’s from a small-town near my small hometown so that somehow makes it more special, like she probably used to shop at the same mall I used to shop at. I’m just saying. On the other hand my heart broke a little bit watching the men’s US gymnastics team lose. I wanted to reach into the TV to give John Orozco a big hug and tell him to shake off what happened on the pommel horse. Half of this country couldn’t even get themselves up on the pommel horse much less maneuver around on it so he should hold his head high knowing he is one of the top athletes in the world. Yes, I have been watching other sports too but to be honest I’m starting to get tired of swimming, and beach volleyball just makes me feel bad about myself. (They’re so tall! And slim!) Very much looking forward to track and field and hope that NBC gives more coverage to some of the less popular sports. Again, getting tired of swimming. Yes Michael Phelps it’s amazing that you are the most decorated Olympian ever. Totally awesome. But I’m tired of watching your sport.

I can’t exactly draw a close connection between the Olympics and rhubarb crunch, but something tells me 95% of Olympians would totally enjoy this dish. (There are always a few who don’t like rhubarb. I don’t understand those people.) This dish is so easy to make and simple and delicious. My aunt made it last weekend with blueberries (amazing!) so that shows that it is also versatile. Go forth and bake! Gold medal to you for efforts.

Rhubarb Crunch

Crumb Topping:

  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup melted butter

Fruit Mixture:

  • 6 cups rhubarb, cleaned and chopped into 1/2″ pieces
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 tablespoon tapioca flour or cornstarch
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together crumb topping ingredients until crumbly. Press half the mixture into a greased 9″ x 13″ pan. Cover with rhubarb.

In a small saucepan combine the remaining four ingredients (sugar, tapioca flour, water, and vanilla.) Cook over medium heat until thick and clear. Pour over the rhubarb.

Top with remaining crumbs. Bake for an hour. Serve warm.