mastic ice cream

Lovely Ivy from Greece’s Kopiaste is hosting this month’s Think Spice event, with the theme mastic.

In 2008, I set a food challenge to use mastic but I never managed to do it so it rolled over into my 2009 challenges. With that weighing heavily on my mind, Ivy announced her theme ingredient and I just knew it was time to cook with mastic.

Having eaten a mastic pannacotta in the past, I knew it worked well with cream so I decided to use Tessa Kiros’ mastic ice cream as inspiration.

In Falling Cloudberries, Tessa doesn’t use egg yolks, nor whip the cream, but I find this makes for a softer, fluffier ice cream and so I created my own version entirely.

The results had very mixed reviews.

I adored the vibrant, pine flavours and found the sweet ice cream strange and yet moreish.

And yet both Jonas and our friend, Bicky, took one bite and couldn’t continue.

Bicky had been walking toward the table with her bowl when she snuck a taste. She froze in her tracks and her face look alarmed. Then she kept smiling and politely repeating that it was a “special” flavour, too “special” for her.

Jonas on the other hand took a little lick, wrinkled his nose and pushed the bowl away from him declaring “there’s no way I’m eating that”. Ahh, what are husbands for?

Instead of being offended, I found the whole situation slightly amusing, because for once I knew it wasn’t my cooking skills but the mastic itself that they were reacting to.

The mastic did produce an almost chemical pine flavour, but since I enjoyed it I was secretly pleased that I had the whole litre of ice cream all to myself.

Mastic is certainly an acquired taste but, for those who love it, it is heavenly.

Mastic Ice Cream
Anna’s very own recipe. Makes 1 litre.
Ingredients:½ teaspoon mastic granules
100g sugar
300ml full cream milk
300ml single cream
3 egg yolks, beaten

Method:
1. In a spice grinder, pulverise the sugar and mastic into a fine powder.

2. Combine the milk and sugar mixture in a saucepan and cook over a medium-low heat until sugar has dissolved and milk is almost boiling.

3. Put the beaten egg yolks in a bowl, then add the hot milk in a thin stream, whisking the entire time to avoid scrambling the eggs.

4. When completely combined, return the mixture to the saucepan and cook gently over a low heat until mixture thickens slightly. Set custard aside.

5. In another bowl, beat cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form.

6. Combine custard and whipped cream, beating with electric beaters to smooth mixture.

7. Cool before churning in an ice cream machine, as per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Note: the flavour is very special, so if you’re nervous about it being too strong you might consider using ¼ teaspoon mastic granules instead.

Variations:Mastic & Orchid (add 3 teaspoons of sahlep powder to milk mixture);
Mastic & Rosewater (½ teaspoon rosewater to milk mixture);
Mastic & Orange Flower (½ teaspoon orange flower water to milk mixture).

Mastic is resin from the Pistacia lentiscus, a shrub found all over the Mediterranean and the Middle East. For some mysterious reason, only the trees in the south of the tiny Greek island of Chios can produce this special flavoured resin.

The shrubs can reach over 100 years and 3 metres high. The sap leaks from wounds in the bark of the shrubs and is then sun-dried into tear-like granules.

Mastic is used in drinks, as a gum and for flavouring spirits, liquors, sauces, cheese, cakes and desserts. It is also used as a substitute for vanilla.

Ancient Egyptian writings advised adding mastic to bad-tasting water and incense, the Koran encouraged Muslims to add mastic to their bread and ancient Jewish halachic sources even permitted chewing mastic on Shabbat to combat bad breath.

Mastic was the first chewing gum ever known, as the sun-dried resin granules soften when chewed. In fact the word mastic originates from the Greek verb “to chew”, as does the similar English word “masticate”.

In ancient times, mastic was used medicinally for intestinal disorders, dental and mouth diseases, diabetes and bronchitis. In the Middle Ages, it was used for cholesterol, blood pressure, burns, eczema, frost-bite and cholera. Today it’s believed to be a treatment for ulcers and have antimicrobial effects, which is why it’s used in toothpaste, mouthwash, and dental fillings.

Interesting it’s used to manufacture self-absorbing surgical threads and sticking septic bandages on surgical wounds.

Anyway, this is my entry to Think Spice, Think Mastic. Please visit Kopiaste to read Ivy's round-up.

Other mastic recipes:
Mastic Pudding - Cafe Fernando
Mastic Lor Cookies - Yogurtland
Mastic Frozen Yoghurt - Kopiaste
Mastic Gum Preserve - Rustic
Tsoureki (Greek Easter Bread) - Kalofagas


References:http://www.greektravel.com/greekislands/chios/mastica.htm
http://www.springboard4health.com/store/more_mastica.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastika
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nomos_Chiou.png

roasted pepper soup

Firstly, I have never felt prouder to be an American. Yes, I am American (well, half) and after last night's election results, I am happy to advertise that fact more prominently!!!

Now, onto the food!

~~~

I made this recipe a while ago, but hadn’t posted it until now.

I'm not sure why I delayed, but I guess there was always something else I wanted to post first.

Then I saw the snarky blog, Thursday Night Smackdown, and Michelle's First Thursdays event and I knew there was a reason I'd held off.

This First Thursdays theme is “An ingredient you think you don’t like” and since I detest capsicum (peppers) I knew it was exactly what Michelle was after.


I hate capsicum. Always have for as long as I can remember.

Every month I try it again, just in case, and the results are the same: no me gusta.

I like chillies, because the heat disguises the capsicum flavour, but if they’re too mild and I taste the capsicum, I’m not happy.

When I first saw this recipe in Tessa Kiros’ Falling Cloudberries, a cookbook I adore, I knew that if anyone could make capsicum tasty it would be reliable Tess.

It was a success.

For some reason, I really, really enjoyed this soup. I ate it all and went back for seconds.

I was so excited that I’d overcome my dislike of capsicum, that I tried some sweet, roasted pepper the next day and blah! Yucky, yucky, yucky!

Who knows what’s going on, but all I can say is that this recipe works for me and I enjoy it.

I think this is the spirit Michelle was aiming for when she encouraged us all to try cooking with an ingredient we don’t like.

Roasted Pepper Soup
Recipe from Falling Clouberries by Tessa Kiros. Serves 4.

Ingredients:
4 red peppers (capsicum)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small onion, chopped
4 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
300g plain Greek yoghurt
40g pitted black olives, chopped
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
Leaves from 2 rosemary sprigs, finely chopped

Method:

1. Cut capsicum in half, lengthways, and remove seeds.

2. Preheat grill. Line an oven tray with foil and arrange peppers skin-side up in a single layer.

3. Grill for 30 minutes until the skin has darkened and swelled and the capsicum is soft.

4. Put hot capsicum in a plastic bag and seal. Leave for 5 minutes as the sweating helps to remove the skin.

5. Peel skin from capsicum.

6. Heat olive oil in a large pot and sauté the onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until soft.

7. Add tomato and cook until it bubbles.

8. Tear capsicum halves into large chunks and add them to pot. Season with salt and pepper.

9. Add 750ml water and bring to the boil, then lower heat, cover pan and simmer for 30 minutes.

10. Remove from heat and purée. The soup should remain thick, so if it’s watery simmer uncovered to reduce. Add more water if too thick.

11. Check seasoning then serve with dollops of yoghurt and sprinkles of lemon rind, rosemary and chopped olives.

Variations: add chilli while cooking or shelled, cooked prawns before serving.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes capsicum soup pepper soup soup capsicum peppers pepper recipes capsicum recipes soup recipes mediterranean recipes mediterranean food mediterranean cuisine

avgolemono

First of all I want to say that these aren’t the best photos and they don’t do justice to this delicious Greek soup made exclusively of chicken stock, whisked egg and lemon juice.

The most important aspect of making avgolemono is to use excellent quality chicken stock since this is the main flavour of the soup. It is crucial! Imperative! Dire!

Are you starting to sense how important it is?
Most recipes for avgolemono start with a whole chicken and train you to make your own stock from scratch. If Jonas wasn’t a vegetarian then I would certainly go to the trouble, but I have to admit I am too lazy to spend all that time lovingly making chicken stock for a soup that only I will eat.

I’m going to provide you with a cheater’s version to avgolemono. Using this quick recipe you can whip up a delicious dinner in next to no time. I buy my stock from health stores or gourmet butchers because they tend to sell quality stocks. You don’t want it too salty or tasting of cardboard/cans.

My recipe uses the soup as an entrée (starter) but if you would like a light main course instead, use one chicken thigh fillet per person and separately cook a half/quarter cup of risoni, stelline or other tiny pasta shapes per person to stir through at the end.

This is such an easy soup to master and it yields a delicious meal. Once it's in your repertoire you’ll use it regularly!

Avgolemono (Greek Chicken & Lemon Soup)
Based on recipe from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. Serves 6 as starter.
Ingredients:
2 litres excellent quality chicken broth
3 eggs
Juice of 2 lemons
2 chicken thigh fillets, cooked and shredded

Method:
1. Bring the broth to a gentle simmer. Remove from heat.

2. Whisk the eggs until they are very fluffy.

3. Add lemon juice and whisk again.

4. Add a ladle of hot broth to the egg, whisking to prevent cooking.

5. Whisk in another ladle of broth to bring the egg to the correct temperature.

6. Pour the egg mixture into the broth and whisk quickly to combine and prevent scrambling.

7. Add chicken meat and return broth to a low heat and cook very gently, stirring, until the egg is warmed through and turns the soup a pale yellow colour.

8. Season to taste and serve immediately.

~~~

This avgolemono is my contribution to Kate from A Merrier World's chicken-related event "Let Them Eat Chicken!" The event drew my attention because it discusses how international demands for cheap chicken meat has created cruel farming tactics which leads, down the line, to poor quality meat.

I think Kate’s event sheds the spotlight on an important factor, which I quote here: “Consumers engage in voluntary ignorance, in order to abrogate responsibility for animal welfare … Moreover, although consumers claim that they are willing to pay more for improved animal welfare, at point of purchase such claims are not translated into practice.”

Since Jonas is a vegetarian I don’t often buy meat, so when I do it’s a treat and I splurge on aged beef and organic lamb. I buy chicken even less because, until recently, I really didn’t like it. I thought it was a boring meat and wondered why so many little chickens had to die for us to eat such a mundane meal.

Then I realised that it was the chicken breast I disliked, those chunky, dry slabs of meat that do nothing for the palate, but that cheap chicken thighs, containing small amounts of fat, were full of flavour having lived so close to the chicken’s bone.

I have just started eating chicken and so Kate’s event drew my curiosity and has made me ponder what cuts of meat and which places I will buy my chicken from in future. I have decided to buy organic chicken. If I don’t eat it that often I can afford to buy the good stuff.

For the avgolemono, apart from the bought stock, the chicken thigh fillet I used in this dish was very flavoursome and beats a hunk of breast any day!

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes chicken soup avgolemono chicken soup recipes soup recipes chicken recipes greek recipes greek food greek cuisine

patatosalata

Firstly, let it be stated that I adore potatoes.

I adore them.

It’s starting to get colder in Sydney and so I finally have an excuse to indulge in potatoes again.

I could eat them boiled, mashed, roasted and fried. The only way I can’t eat them is raw.

And yes there are people who eat them raw, as you would an apple. When I was small my neighbours would sit in front of the TV eating raw potatoes as though it was completely normal behaviour. I tried it, but it wasn’t for me.

One way I particularly like potatoes is in a warm salad, when the potato soaks up the tangy citrus dressing and the flavours are fresh, sharp and yet still cosy.

This salad fits the criteria exquisitely.

Patatosalata Kypriaka – Cypriot Potato Salad
Recipe from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. Serves 8 as side dish.
Ingredients:
1 red onion, very thinly sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1.5kg waxy potatoes
3 tablespoons drained baby capers
30g chopped parsley
Juice of 1 ½ lemons
100g good quality black olives
125ml extra virgin olive oil
Method:
1. Put onion slices in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Leave for 30 minutes. This removes the strength of the onions and makes them more palatable and the dish more balanced.
2. Boil cleaned potatoes in salted water for 20-25 minutes until they are cooked but not breaking up.
3. Drain well, allow to cool a little then peel them while they are warm.
4. Cut them into chunks.
5. Rinse onion and drain well, then pat dry with paper towels.
6. Add all the ingredients to potato, season with salt and pepper. Mix through gently and serve warm or at room temperature
Note: if you make this in advance the potatoes will soak up the dressing so reserve a little of the oil until you are about to serve.
You can add chopped boiled eggs or anchovies to the salad.

The word caper is said to derived from Latin capparis, which evolved from the Greek kapparis (κάππαρις). This word either came from West or Central Asia, where the caper is said to originate, or from the Greek word for Cyprus, because the island contains many caper shrubs.

A caper is a biennial spiny shrub, grown mostly in European and North African countries in the Mediterranean, although California also produces significant amounts.

The immature bud and larger fruit are pickled in oil, vinegar or brine, or cured in salt. These pickled buds are important ingredients in many Mediterranean dishes, but feature particularly in Italian and Cypriot recipes.

Since capers are hand harvested, the smaller capers are more expensive and highly prized due to the intensive labour needed to harvest them. Buds are picked in the mornings and the smaller the caper, the more expensive it is, due to high labour involved in collecting.

The caper family, Capparidaceae, are related to the cabbage family and the capers’ mustard oil glycosides (bitter flavonoids) are similar in other species such as mustard, wasabi and horseradish.

This week, WHB is hosted by one of my all time favourite bloggers, Haalo from Cook (almost) Anything At Least Once. Be sure to look over the recap, as well as check out Haalo's endless list of delicious recipes, complete with drool-inducing photos.

References:
http://www.foodreference.com/html/artcapers.html
http://whatscookingamerica.net/capers.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caper
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Capp_spi.html

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes weekend herb blogging whb salad parsley capers potato patatosalata potato salad cypriot recipes cypriot food cypriot cuisine

chocolate truffle tart

Well I’m sure the author of this cake, Tessa Kiros, doesn’t call it Ludo’s Cake, but after one bite I couldn’t think of it as anything else. It tasted just like Ludo’s breakfast.

When I was a nanny in Rome my mamma italiana, Paola, would make a gluten free cake for lovely little Ludo (not so little anymore at 18! Time flies!). A cup of tea and a slice of cake would be breakfast for all of us for the week.

Now I know this sounds like a terribly unhealthy breakfast to most English speaking people, but the Italians are doing something right, just think about all the press surrounding the Mediterranean diet? And I'm not so convinced coco pops and cheerios have any less sugar than this wonderful chocolate cake anyway.

Ludo's cake is made slightly differently from this recipe (it’s a bit simpler and uses gluten-free flour), but the end result tastes identical: scrumptiously delicious. That’s why Ludo would have to fight Jacopo and I to get a fair share of her cake.

Now it's about time I posted this cake recipe. My lovely colleague Holly (an expert in shoes, rants and yule logs), has been asking me for this recipe ever since I brought her a slice for morning tea. I promised to post it long, long ago and I’ve been remiss.

Sorry Holly. I hope that the posting of this recipe makes up for the crappy new desk you’ve been relegated to – unfortunately Holly’s promotion meant a demotion in terms of desks – don’t ask!

Chocolate Truffle Tart (Ludo's Cake)

Recipe from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros.

Ingredients:
100g butter
100g caster sugar
100g semi-sweet dark chocolate, chopped very finely
3 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
20g plain flour (or gluten free for Ludo!)
40 hazelnut meal
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180’C
2. Butter and flour a 20cm springform cake tin.
3. Melt butter over low heat. Add sugar and chocolate and stir until chocolate has completely melted and the sugar dissolves.
4. Scrape into mixing bowl and leave to cool for 30 minutes.
5. Add egg yolks and vanilla and whisk well with an electric beater.
6. Sift in flour and whisk to combine.
7. Fold in hazelnut meal.
8. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites until very fluffy, then fold through chocolate mixture, a spoonful at a time.
9. Pour into cake tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the cake feels a little cracked on the top. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from cake tin.

Serve with espresso or hot chocolate and just try it for breakfast! You won’t be disappointed.

Buon appetito PaJaLu!


Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes dessert cake torta chocolate chocolate cake torta cioccolata dessert recipes italian recipes italian food italian breakfast