diy ice cream maker and bourbon peach egg-less ice cream with rice crispies

There is nothing like a peach when it is in season. Sweet, soft and  juicy, the way it is meant to be. Right now the farmer's markets here are filled with  glorious stone fruits, and not so many berries as the weeks before. Dizzying varieties of peaches and nectarines, pluots and plums. From a deep ruby red, to white and soft rose tinged. We had a fabulous time, eating our way through the samples, sweet juicy fruits making out fingers sticky and stained pink. The little monkey clutched a strawberry, completely besotted by it. He refused to eat it with the expression that clearly stated that he found it too pretty to eat. He was very upset when it slipped out of his fingers after a while. A slice of sweet, golden peach  quickly helped him forget his loss and he had no problems devouring slice after slice, like the rest of us!

A mom of two walked past carrying a basket filled with fruits that her children were gorging on, both hanging on to the handles and fruit juices around their mouth and dribbling down their chins. "This is even better than a leash!"I heard her exclaim. I agree. If you were carrying a basket of these peaches, I might follow you around too!

I had a carton of cream and inspired by my new copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, I decided to make her bourbon ice cream and add some roasted peaches, to use up some of the peaches that were not as sweet as the others, which we had quickly finished.

Since I am hosting Sugar High Friday with the theme of Rice Sweets, I decided to serve the ice cream on a bed of rice crispies for a bit of crunch in lieu of a cone or wafer. Fabulous, if I may say so myself :)



Since I no longer have the ice cream maker that helped me with glorious salty caramel icecream and pistachio ice cream,  I decided to make one myself!

If you look at the popular ice cream makers you will see that all they really are is a bowl with inbuilt jel like liquid which becomes frozen so that the bowl becomes really cold, and a mixer attachment which churns the ice cream base so that it prevents ice crystals from forming and making the ice cream gritty.

Wait! There's more. Click here for the recipe »

balsamic roasted wild strawberries with greek yogurt

Each trip to the farmer's market that I have the great blessing of living just walking distance to,  is like a treasure hunt. I am always excited about what I will find that day. A few weeks ago when berries ruled, where now there are mountains of peaches and nectarines and plums, I chanced upon a stall with tiny strawberries. The cheerful woman missing one front tooth, who had woken up at 3 am to bring this bounty to us, pointed  out that this was the same variety of the regular larger strawberries, just those growing wild on the mountains.

I bought some of each, the regular ones and these tiny ones to compare. The wild berries had a concentrated strawberry flavour and tartness and crunchy seeds while the plumper ones were juicier, being fleshier and I actually preferred those to eat. 

The mountain berries however, would be wonderful in dessert and jam, being incredibly flavorful. 

small wild mountain strawberries 

larger fleshier regular strawberries sliced 

Both types were nothing like the tasteless ones from the supermarket. From thinking that organic produce was just overpriced hype, I have become a locavore convert! Seriously the difference in taste between something that is grown in small farms organically and brought fresh to the market to that which is grown on a large scale God-knows-where to look pretty and last longer on supermarket shelves but taste like water balloons is something you have to taste yourself to understand! So get yourself to your local markets or farms where ever in the world you are, if you haven't already! 

I had grand ideas of making balsamic roasted wild strawberry ice-cream and cut up whatever strawberries remaining I hadn't greedily eaten ( both kinds) into a roasting dish with a tablespoon or so of sugar,  a squeeze of lemon juice, a scraped vanilla bean and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and after about 8 minutes at 350 F in the oven I just about died when I tasted the sweet  juicy warm goodness.

Forgotten was the ice cream and we happily ate it by itself or topped some greek yogurt with sweet juicy red spoonfuls. It would make a great cake or ice cream topping too, but sadly it was all gone before I could investigate further!

Roasting fruits is a great way to experience them completely differently. Adding just a few spoonfuls of sugar and nothing else even, while roasting or stewing with a little water on the stove top, turns fruits that are slightly tart and sour and thus untouched on your dining table into something that everyone will fight to finish! They break down a little and become soft and slightly jam like, releasing delicious juices.

I had tried this with peaches last summer, (and again this time in roasted peach and bourbon icecream) where the edges get browned and caramelized. Bananas are great to roast too, as are a lot of other fruits. 

Am playing around with my camera settings and very slowly learning about exposure and the other nuts and bolts about photography. The awesomely talented and wonderful Xiaolu, Aparna, Prerna have been awesomely patient and not laughed at my embarrassingly noobie questions. Thank you! 

I submitted the first photo to Food Pixel's fruit as core ingredient themed photography event. I am now liking this darker feel that I achieved shooting against a dark back ground and by reducing the aperture and also reducing the exposure bar by a couple of points, and further increasing the shadows on a simple editor like Picasa tho I need to look into a more powerful editor soon. This is new for me, after  years of obsessively trying to make my pictures brighter! 

For those of you who want to learn more like me, here is what I'm reading and trying to get into my small brain!

• My Take on Food Styling and Photography by Xiaolu of 6Bittersweets


• Food Photography series by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen


• Understanding Light by Prerna of Indian Simmer 


• 31 days of Food photography Tips at Learn Food Photography


• Creating moods with Ilva Beretta




• A highly recommended book is of course Helene Dujardin's book on food photography Plate to Pixel

Will update this list with more as I find them, but first, going to have to force myself to read beyond the first few pages of my tedious and boring camera manual :(

Jeni's Salty Caramel egg-less ice cream with carmelized peaches

I am back! It hasn't been easy shifting house with a little one year old boy/monkey on the loose, climbing into boxes, toppling piles of laundry, and giving me frequent heart attacks and then smiling up at me angelically, with four, four! brand new teeth in the last week. But, we survived! I still have a lot of unpacking to do, and I am enjoying taking a break from cooking while I (very slowly) set up my brand new kitchen which I will post pics of soon! Because I am so excited about it! and the new place which is a short walk away from a Farmers Market (yay!!), and a little park for the kiddo to go run around, chase birds and expend all his limitless toddler energy.





But in the mean time I have been digging up some stuff that I made earlier which I somehow didn't get to post, all lined up for you all to enjoy. Like this truly wonderful sultry! yes, that is the only way to describe this sophisticated ice cream that I am sure will blow your mind, which I made last summer and am posting now, just as we eagerly await a new one, with barbecues! and picnics! and trips to the beach! to think of at least to get my mind of the crazy depressing rains we have been having recently.

Wait! There's more. Click here for the recipe »

Macaron Ice cream sandwiches

Macarons = awesome, Ice cream = awesome

Macarons + icecream =  Infiniteawesomeness!!

The inspiration for these delicious ice cream filled macarons came from my trip to Columbus this Christmas. No, it wasn't the freezing cold or the thick white snow, but a much less abtract source, my favourite ice cream

Wait! There's more. Click here for the recipe »

Jeni's Splendid Pistachio Ice cream Recipe - Homemade Artisan Ice cream!

Growing up in India my favourite brands of ice cream was Vadilal's which had fresh fruit bits, the mother dairy ice cream of Delhi which is very rich and creamy, and the now no longer available Dollop's which had a very interesting Gorilla vanilla that I still remember the taste of. I also LOVE Naturals and their pink gauva ice cream is JUST like biting into a frozen yet smooth luscious guava. I've heard that their Tender coconut ice cream is absolutely divine and I can't wait to taste it.I remember visiting a distant relative's Joy ice cream franchise and seeing a long ribbon of vanilla ice cream fall into a vat and thinking he must be the luckiest person on earth to have all that ice cream right in his back yard.



Coming to the US, I have fallen in love with Haagen-daz, though Ben and Jerry's was a bit of a disappointment.I have heard that the Bi-rite creamery in SFO is really good so that's next on my list.

The best ice cream I ever ate however is all the way on the other side of the country but then, Jeni's Splendid Ice creams are worth travelling all the way to Columbus for. Or you could mail order it. I choose option 3- Make some!



Jeni Britton is an Ice cream Goddess and makes artisan ice cream which has one simple secret- She doesn't use eggs so that nothing interferes with the delicious flavor of the cream and flavors as innovative as goat's cheese with roasted cherries, salty caramel to chocolate cayenne. She uses cornstarch to thicken the base, as well as cream cheese to add some scoopability.

I always hated pista ice cream. Usually it is bright gloopy green mess. Not so at Jeni's. Here is what it looks like!

Before you make it, you might want to read some tips from Jeni here

If you don't have an ice cream maker, use this method to make it without one

Jeni's Splendid Pistachio Ice cream

Recipe Source: Jeni Britton's "How to make Ice cream like an Artisan"

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk


• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch


• 1 1/2 ounces cream cheese, softened (3 tablespoons)


• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream


• 2/3 cup sugar


• 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup


• 1/2 cup toasted pistachios, very finely ground


• 1/4 teaspoon pure almond extract


• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt ( I didn't have any so I skipped this. Don't add regular table salt as this could make it too salty)

Method

• In a cup, mix 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch. In another large bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth.


• In a large saucepan, combine the remaining milk with the heavy cream, sugar and corn syrup. Bring the milk mixture to a boil and cook over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves, about 4 minutes. Turn off the heat, gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 minute.


• Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Whisk in the pistachios, almond extract and salt. Set the bowl in another bowl filled  with ice water and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cold, about 20 minutes. Jeni suggests keeping the base in the fridge overnight to develop the flavours, but you don't have to.


• Strain the ice cream base into an ice cream maker, pressing the pistachios with the back of a spoon to extract all the flavor, and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. 

I used my cuisinart flavor duo ice cream maker and after about 20-30 mins the ice cream was creamy and had a soft serve consistency-good enough to eat right away.

However to make it firmer like proper ice cream:

Pack the ice cream into a plastic container (I used a zip lock freezer safe container)

Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the ice cream and close with an airtight lid. Put the container in a plastic bag and freeze the pistachio ice cream until firm, about 4 hours or overnight.

It might be really hard after, so leave for about 5 mins before serving so that it become a tad bit softer.

Here is a picture of the ice cream straight out of the machine where it has a soft-serve consistency. The pictures at the beginning of the post are after it has been frozen overnight.

Verdict: This is the very first time I'm making ice cream at home and I was shocked frankly, at how good this came out! So forgive me for gushing. It was delicious, the flavour of the cream and pistachio really came out wonderfully. I didn't have corn syrup so I used some Jemima's pancake syrup since it listed corn syrup as one of the main ingredients! Yes I know, substitution queen-that's me. However this made my ice cream a tad bit too sweet, but that's all. Everything else about it is dreamy, creamy, glorious and I am not ashamed to admit- I licked my bowl clean!

Variation: NExt time I make this, I will definitely try adding a little rosewater and drizzle on some honey :)