Book 103: The Perfect Scoop

by David Lebovitz

My first encounter with Mr. Lebovitz (not personally), was with this delicious ice cream that I came upon while browsing Fine Cooking's website. And ever since then, it seems that every ice cream recipe I came across referenced this book.

How could I pass it up? I couldn't.

I have a tendency to lean toward the unusual; so when I saw this recipe for Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream I could not resist - after all I have a whole bag of these peppercorns on-hand from my Wok Wednesdays cooking group.

Szechwan (Sichuan or Szechuan) peppercorns have a unique flavor and aroma that is hard to describe. It is said that it almost has a lemon like flavor - in a way it does. Beware, they do at times (depending on the quality of your peppercorns) give a numbing sensation to the tongue when eaten. Some find this exciting, where others may find it annoying - me, I think it's interestingly cool.

My ice cream did not have the intense orange flavor I was hoping for. Unfortunately orange season has passed its peak and the oranges that were available to me were imported from Australia, and not very flavorful. All I could really taste is the peppercorns (which I like), with a very slight orange undertone. 

I would like to make this again when oranges are at their best, or maybe replace some of the milk with orange juice/concentrate or add a drop of pure orange oil. With more orange flavor this ice cream can be fabulous; I know, for I squeezed some juice over the ice cream, and it tasted great against the flavor of the peppercorns. Do make sure your oranges are prime, should you try this yourself.

There are so many interesting flavors in this book I want to try: Goat Cheese Ice Cream (my favorite cheese - I've even made a Goat Cheese Cake - it's delicious!), Green Tea Ice Cream, Fresh Fig Ice Cream, Pear Granita, Rice Gelato (think rice pudding) - the list goes on.

This book also includes recipes for mix-ins, such as peppermint patties, croquant (French for "crunchy"- made of toasted nuts covered in caramel), candied cherries, sauces, toppings, and even vessels (cookie cups, cones, meringue nests) to put your ice cream in. It's a great ice cream book - probably the only one you will need.

amazon

 Szechuan Peppercorns

 I toasted the peppercorns in my wok before grinding.
(The recipe does not call for them to be toasted.)

Peppercorns are added to a milk, cream and sugar mixture, and brought to a simmer. Orange zest is added and left to steep for one hour (off heat) at room temperature before straining, then mixed with egg yolks and the remaining cream. Chill for several hours or overnight.

Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions.

I ended up making an orange sauce from the juice of the leftover oranges, to which I added a dash of Grand Marnier, to drizzle over the ice cream. This was a good call.

Beautiful Baby Beet Salad

From the book Celebrate! by Sheila Lukins

I recently posted a recipe for a beet salad, and as I mentioned in that post we love beets in our household, hence another beet salad recipe so soon, yet very different from the last.

Normally I like to use a mixture of red and golden beets; however, on a beautiful sunny day at the farmer's market the golden beets stood out and screamed summer to me, where the red ones made me think of winter, so golden beets only this time around. And to be fair, I used only red beets in the last salad. 

To prep your beets for roasting, trim the greens to about an inch long. The directions have you trim the root end as well, which I have never done in the past. I would not bother with trimming the root, it leaves the firm end of the root exposed and it pokes through the foil; and you don't want beet juice dripping all over the bottom of your oven.

After roasting, let the beets cool enough to handle and then simply slip the skins off.

In addition to the beets being tossed in a vinaigrette, this salad is served with an orange-mint dressing to serve on the side for dolloping on top.

Whenever a recipe calls for mayonnaise, I always use half mayo and half non-fat plain Greek yogurt. Fage brand is my favorite.

The dressing is made up of mayo, mint, orange zest and juice, salt and pepper. At first bite I liked the dressing with the beets, but the orange zest had a bitter aftertaste that I did not care for. My husband said he too preferred the beets without the dressing - it was too overpowering - you could not taste the beets themselves.

If not for the bitterness of the zest, this would have made a great appetizer.

Success meter (1-3): 2

Black Rice Salad with Mango and Peanuts

Recipe from Bon Appétit magazine

                   Black Rice Salad with Mango and Peanuts

This month's (June 2012) Bon Appétit magazine has six salads made with grains. I want to make them all! I won't be putting this issue on the shelf anytime soon.

I was happy to find the rice that was called for in this recipe at my higher-end grocery store. I thought I was going to have to order it on-line from amazon - I swear amazon has everything under sun. Yes, they even have the Lotus Foods Forbidden Rice called for in the recipe.

Photo courtesy of lotusfoods.com

I LOVE mango! That is what drew me to this recipe along with the beautiful photo showing the bright colors of the mango, oranges, and cilantro against the black rice.



Photo courtesy of bonappetit.com

For the dressing, the recipe asks for one tablespoon fish sauce (optional) which I did use since I have a huge bottle that I just bought for the cooking group Wok Wednesdays that I recently joined. If you do not have fish sauce I personally would not buy a bottle for one tablespoon. The dressing will be great (I love citrus dressings) without it. If you are like how I used to be and had to make a recipe exactly as written and you do buy a bottle of fish sauce (it is inexpensive) you may want to join the cooking group Wok Wednesdays where we are cooking through Grace Young's book Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge to use up that bottle of fish sauce. I also would omit the peanuts; with each bite that had a peanut, I felt the flavor of this salad dropped down a notch, though the hubby liked the addition of the peanuts. Other than the nuts I loved this salad. When I make this again I will add more mango and orange for I can never get enough fruit.

Success meter (1-3): 3

Oscar Party 2012

Recipe from Around My French Table by Dorrie Greenspan


                             Citrus-Berry Terrine


This recipe is way too easy to look and taste as good as it does. I'm sure it would be even prettier had I not over-chilled the gelatin. I really should not be blogging on two recipes at the same time while getting ready to host an Oscar party.

                                      I loved The Artist!!

                              Best Picture and Best Actor

           

The recipe states to chill the gelatin mixture until it has the consistency of egg whites - about two hours.With a couple of hours to spare I could get the tart dough prepared for the lemon dessert I was making.I must have a really cold refrigerator, for after just one hour my gelatin mixture was pretty close to solid. I threw it back into the pan to melt it down; after adding the fruit the gelatin had a more opaque, rather than a translucent look to it. Still it turned out quite pretty.

Success meter (1-3): 3

One for Summer....a must have!

Recipe: Orange and Fennel Salad

I had some leftover fennel from my last post and did not want to waste it (my mother-in-law would be so proud!) I did a quick search and found this super easy recipe.

This is one you will want to have for your next summer barbeque or tailgate party!  I would say you can prepare this a few hours ahead to give the flavors time to fuse together. The salad was still very good and crunchy the next morning, however the colors were not as vibrant.

This is the first time for me using fennel, for my family is not fond of licorice flavor, (though black licorice is one of my favorites!) so I have always passed on recipes calling for this herb. If you are one to shy away from this as well, I strongly recommend you don't! It is very mild, and when mixed with the oranges and cranberries you really do not notice any licorice like flavor; just a wonderful freshness and crunch.

Success meter (1-3): 3+