lavender-honey ice cream

When I was a child, the steps from my house patio to the garden below were overrun with a huge bush of lavender, wands of purple blooms pushing through the wooden fence and across the concrete path. In the summer the bees would mill around the flowers in a frenzy and I would either leap madly down the stairs to avoid getting stung, or quietly sneak onto the top step to watch them busily about their honey-making business.

My mother loved her lavender bush, and I imagine should would have loved the soft elegant flavours of this ice cream.

Made as per Mr Lebovitz’s instructions, it tastes of honey and cream with a light touch of lavender. Made impatiently and over infused, it tastes like a mouthful of Grandma’s soap. Do what you’re told by Mr Lebovitz, and you won’t get your mouth washed out.

This ice cream is from one of my favourite dessert cookbooks and ticks off two 2010 Food Challenges, cooking with lavender and exploring ice cream.

Lavender-Honey Ice Cream

Recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. Makes around 1 litre.

Ingredients:
125ml (½ cup) good quality honey
8g (¼ cup) dried or fresh lavender flowers
375ml (1½ cups) whole milk
50g (¼ cup) sugar
Pinch of salt
375ml (1½ cups) heavy cream
5 large egg yolks

Method:

1. Heat the honey and 2 tablespoons of the lavender in a small saucepan.  Once warm, remove from the heat and set aside to steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

2. Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan.

3. Pour the cream in a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

4. Pour the lavender-infused honey into the cream through the strainer, pressing on the lavender flowers to extract as much flavour as possible, then discard the lavender and set the strainer back over the cream.

5. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.

6. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly to avoid scrambling, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

7. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.

8. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream.

9. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons lavender flowers and stir until cool over an ice bath. Chill the mixture overnight in the refrigerator.

10. The next day, before churning, strain the mixture, again pressing on the lavender flower to extract their flavour.

11. Discard the flowers, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

lebovitz's watermelon sorbet

 
It was a warm summer weekend in Sydney and given the beautiful, sunny weather it’s the right time to post my 2009 Food Challenge recipe for Sorbetto all’Anguria or watermelon sorbet.

It’s down in the food memory category because I have rich memories of eating scoops and scoops of watermelon sorbet during the spring I lived in Rome. As the city heated up, the watermelon sorbet was the perfect cooler and I devoured it in miraculous portions.

Even though I made the sorbet to eat at the end of a Vietnamese feast, it still brought back warm memories of Rome and the family I have now have there. I can’t wait to see them all again when I take Jonas (for his first time in Italy) in the first week of January.

It will be the middle of winter, so no sorbetto all’anguria, but there will be other delights to share.

Making this sorbet also knocked off another 2009 Food Challenge, to purchase David Lebovitz’s book of frozen delights The Perfect Scoop.

I am a big fan of David Lebovitz (like many bloggers out there). Not only do his posts contain cheeky insights into Parisian life, but his recipes are interesting, appetising and achieveable. When I had just started blogging more than three years ago, David was kind enough to leave an encouraging comment on one of my posts. I was thrilled.

Now I’m even more thrilled to have this cookbook. I couldn’t find it anywhere in Australia and was ridiculously jealous of bloggers in the US and Europe talking about it, so when Jonas and I were in the US in July I made sure I swung by Books A Million, or some such megastore, and grabbed myself a copy.

I have not been disappointed with the recipes nor their outcomes. The usual suspects are in there of course, but it’s flavours like Guinness-Milk Chocolate; Anise; Black Currant Tea; Saffron; Chartreuse; Goat Cheese; Rice; Sweet Potato & Maple and Eggnog that have me itching to try them.

So far I’ve made Watermelon Sorbet and Dark Chocolate and Roasted Banana ice creams.

In the pipeline are Roquefort & Honey, Peach, Salted Caramel and Passionfruit.

And that’s just the ice creams! I haven’t even touched on the sorbets, sherbets, granitas, sauces and toppings that this mighty book contains.

Basically, if you like ice cream, buy this book.

Sorbetto all’Anguria (Watermelon Sorbet)

Recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. Makes 1 litre (1 quart).

Ingredients:
3 cups (750ml) watermelon juice
½ cup (100g) sugar
Big pinch of salt
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 – 2 tablespoons vodka (optional)

Method:

1. In a small, non-reactive pan heat ½ cup (125ml) of watermelon juice with the sugar and salt, stirring until sugar is dissolved.

2. Remove from heat and combine with the remaining watermelon juice, lime juice and vodka.

3. Chill thoroughly then churn in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturers instructions.

Tip: David says “I find that I get about 3 cups of watermelon juice from a 1.5kg (3lb) chunk of watermelon. Cut away the skin and rind then cube the flesh, remove seeds and puree in a blender or processor."

Note: David adds 1 to 2 tablespoons of tiny mini-sweet chocolate chips to the last minute of churning to give the appearance of watermelon seeds.

persimmon fruit salad

This recipe, using Fuyu persimmons, is a delicious breakfast or a wonderful autumn afternoon dessert.

Persimmon Fruit SaladBased on an idea by David Lebovitz. Serves 2.Ingredients:1 pear, sliced
1 persimmon, sliced
3 dates, quartered
8 prunes, pitted
½ cup vanilla yoghurt
Method:
1. Arrange in a bowl.
2. Top with yoghurt.
3. Eat!

How simple is that?! And the best thing is that it tastes sooooo good.

peanut butter pie & roasted banana ice cream

Today is the Fourth of July.

In the wee hours of the morning, after 26hrs of travelling, Jonas and I will have arrived in Daytona Beach (Florida), ready to celebrate the day in the humidity and heat with my aunt, cousin and 90 year old grandfather.

Jonas is over the moon because it’s the first time he will visit mainland USA and we’re spending the day at the Daytona NASCAR . . . on Independence Day.

In preparation for this momentous day, I preblogged this WHB post with an American flavour.

What’s more American than peanut butter? And combining it with chocolate?
Genius! A salty-bittersweet symphony.

And add to this combination some banana? Even better!

Thus you have Maggie Beer’s peanut butter pie with David Lebovitz’s roasted banana ice cream. Delicious!

The ice cream has the most delectable flavour of sweet, caramelised banana but it's best eaten on the day of making as it can get a little icy if left too long in the freezer.

The pie is divine, but it's very rich and fudgy. The filling would be overwhelming but paired with the ganache topping it takes on a wonderful cheesecake salty-sweet-sourness.

Don't be tempted to use smooth peanut butter, the crunchy texture is necessary.

Peanut Butter Pie

Recipe by Maggie Beer in Delicious Magazine March 2009. Serves 16.
Ingredients:
Base
180g digestive biscuits
90g unsalted butter, melted
3 teaspoons caster sugar
Filling
1 cup (250ml) pouring cream
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
320g cream cheese, room temperature
375g crunchy, salt-free peanut butter
Topping
150ml thickened cream
150g 70% cocoa chocolate, chopped
20g unsalted butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180’C (160’C for fan forced)

2. Process biscuits in a food processor until crumbled.

3. Add melted butter and sugar then pulse to combine. Press crumbs into the base of a 22cm spring form baking tin.

4. Bake base for 10 minutes then set aside to cool.

5. For the filling, place the cream and sugar in a saucepan and simmer on low for 3-4 minutes, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

6. Chop the cream cheese then blend with peanut butter, in a food processor, until combined.

7. Add the warm cream mixture, pulse to combine and then spoon filling onto the cooled cookie base. Set aside to cool.

8. To make the topping, combine the chopped chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl.

9. Bring the cream almost to the boil over high heat then pour over chocolate and butter.

10. Leave for 3 minutes without touching then gentle swirl the bowl to combine the cream, butter and chocolate.

11. Pour the combined topping over the filling then chill in the fridge, uncovered, for 4 hours until set.

12. Serve small slices with ice cream because it’s very, very rich!

Roasted Banana Ice Cream

Recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. Makes 750ml.
Ingredients:3 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled
1/3 cup (70g), packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
1½ cups (375ml) whole milk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
¼ teaspoon coarse salt

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200’C.

2. Slice the bananas into 2cm pieces and toss them with the brown sugar and butter in a 2 litre baking dish.

3. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring just once during baking, until the bananas are browned and cooked through.

4. Scrape the bananas and the thick syrup into a blender or food processor.

5. Add the milk, granulated sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and salt, and purée until smooth.

6. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Note: If the chilled mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisking will thin it out.

Banana would be an all-too-simple choice of ingredients for WHB, so I’m going to focus on peanuts.

Did you know they aren’t actually nuts but legumes?

After pollination, the fruit changes into a legume

Yet another wonderful food gift from the abundant Americas, it’s amazing to think what our meals would like without this vast continent. The Americas gave the world pecan, avocado, cashew, passionfruit, turkey, pineapple, chocolate, pumpkin, quinoa, guava, papaya, strawberries, vanilla, allspice, potato, tomato, chilli and maple syrup.


Despite having come from South America, the peanut’s journey into the USA came from Africa through Portugal and Brazil.

Apparently our domesticated peanuts have two sets of chromosomes from two different species, leading scientists to believe domestication occurred in Argentina or Bolivia.

The oldest peanuts found by archaeologists are some 7,600 years old, making them a pretty old fashioned snack!

China leads world production of peanuts, followed by India and then Nigeria. The next largest producers of the top ten are the United States, Indonesia, Myanmar, Argentina, Vietnam, Sudan and Chad.

Peanuts are a rich source of protein, niacin (good for the brain) antioxidants, resveratrol (anti-aging), vitamin B3, vitamin E, magnesium, folate, dietary fibre and monounsaturated fats.

Interestingly, peanut allergies are exacerbated by roasting peanuts. The roasting process increases peanut allergens Ara h1 and Ara h2 and inhibits the necessary digestive enzymes. In other countries like India and China, where peanuts are not roasted before processing, allergies are very rare.

Studies are also showing that exposing children to peanuts much later in life decreases the chances of developing peanut allergies

Whatever the cause, peanut allergies are extremely dangerous and can cause immediate anaphylactic shock just by eating food processed by machines that touched peanuts or by breathing peanut dust.

So that's it from me. Head on over to our WHB host, the lovely Laurie from Mediterranean Cooking in Alaska and Happy 4th of July!

Other peanut recipes:
African Peanut Soup Kalyn's Kitchen
Candied Peanuts David Lebovitz
Carrot & Peanut Muffins Chocolate & Zucchini
Chipotle-Maple Peanut Brittle Culinary in the Country
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Smitten Kitchen
Chinese Fried Noodles w Spicy Peanut Sauce Morsels & Musings
Groundnut Chutney Mahanandi
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups Baking Bites
Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter Joy The Baker
Lime & Peanut Coleslaw 101 Cookbooks
Peanut Butter & Banana Milkshake Morsels & Musings
Peanut Butter Marshmallow Crispy Brownies The Cooking Photographer
Toasted Peanut Bread 101 Cookbooks
Virginia Peanut Soup CookThink

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter

recipe carousel #4 - chocolate

This week’s Recipe Carousel is all about chocolate.

Let’s face it, there aren’t many people who don’t like chocolate in some form or another. And if you do stumble across someone who doesn’t like chocolate, you can be sure they are aliens masquerading as humans.

Yes, this is the only way you can tell human and alien apart. Humans are genetically disposed to desiring chocolate, aliens can take it or leave it.

There are some interesting chocolate recipes out there, so here are seven of the unique and interesting (or just down right yummy) blogger recipes that I have found recently.

In no particular order:

Cocoa Nib Ice Cream was made by Keiko in the UK (Nordljus). She has one of the most beautiful blogs out there and her dessert creations are simply amazing. Please check out the photos when you visit. In this Michael Recchiuti recipe, she uses crunchy cocoa nibs, which are the edible part of the cocoa bean from which cocoa powder is obtained. Photo courtesy of Keiko.


Caramelized Matzoh Crunch w Chocolate is a recipe that David in France adapted from another recipe (David Lebovitz). Mr Lebovitz is well known in chocolate circles, having published a wide array of chocolate and cooking books as well as guiding walking tours to Paris’ finest chocolatiers. This recipe uses matzoh (the unleavened Passover bread), caramel and bittersweet chocolate and is finished with almonds and coarse sea salt. A sweet treat with an excellent crunch. Photo courtesy of David.


Chocolate Roasted Cauliflower is a savoury dish blogged by Shauna in the USA (Gluten Free Girl). It sounds weird but this recipe has been road tested by other bloggers who claim the results are delicious. To see the recipe, scroll down into the comments section of Shauna’s post and she’s left the instructions there. Photo courtesy of Shauna.


Rosemary Scented Truffles are the wonderful creation of Ilva in Italy (Lucullian Delights). Chocolate ganache is infused with pungent rosemary to make these wicked adult treats. Photo courtesy of Ilva.


Tarragon & Chocolate Biscotti were made from Christa’s home grown tarragon in the USA (Calendula & Concrete). As she said “tarragon and chocolate, who knew?” but it turned out to be a brilliant recipe. Photo courtesy of Christa.


Cacao Nibs & Zucchini Absorption Pasta was a unique invention from Clotilde in France (Chocolate & Zucchini). She manages to pair her namesake ingredients in perfect form using crunchy cocoa nibs and mandolin sliced zucchini in a pasta cooking technique from the 13th century. Photo courtesy of Clotilde.


Chocolate Cupcakes w Orange & Ginger Frosting comes from Deborah in Australia (The Food Palate). These gorgeous chocolate-black cupcakes look so rich and moist and the pale orange frosting makes my mouth water. Photo courtesy of Deborah.

Add your own recipe!
If you want to link in your own chocolate recipe and share the love around, just leave the link in the comments section. You didn’t have to invent the recipe yourself, just cook it and post it on your site. The whole idea of Recipe Carousel is that good recipes are shared with people who love to cook.
Note: any spam or non-chocolate recipe links will be deleted.