TGRWT #22 - Kelley's Cucumber Ice Cream Dream

Blog Owner's Note: This post features research and writing by fabulous guest blogger, Kelley Caspari! This is her entry into Round #22 of They Go Really Well Together. Click the link to learn more about this blog event and the science behind TGRWT. It's pretty cool stuff! And as always on this blog, the recipe is totally vegetarian (obviously not vegan) and gluten-free. And it sounds delicious!

***

A couple of years ago I had a dream. The only thing I could remember of it on waking was a delicious flavor of ice cream I'd had - cucumber-raisin. I actually mentioned this to an ice cream maker and he looked at me like I was unhinged. Ah well! I promised myself that one day I'd make it. And this month Khymos suggested a new TGRWT (They Go Really Well Together) starring the raisin! If that isn't the Fates calling me to  the task, I don't know what is...

I did a quick search on the web for cucumber ice cream, and there were several recipes. The one that sounded best included a bit of lemon and lime. He calls it "Cucumber Ice Cream: The Corrupter". He's right. This ice cream is delicious!

Next, I had to find a way to make the ice cream. I don't have an ice cream maker and I don't really want to own one. Fortunately, there is a method for making a single serving of ice cream in about 5 minutes with Ziploc bags. Here is a link describing that method.

That's the background. Now my "research":

I found that the Cucumber Ice Cream Corrupter was a bit to sweet for my purposes and taste, so I modified the recipe, both for sweetness and in reducing the amount of base for the technique I planned to use.

When I added raisins, I found that the ice cream melted in my mouth too quickly, leaving me chewing and chewing and chewing the raisins long after the cucumber flavor had disappeared. Even mincing them didn't help this problem. I settled on throwing the raisins into a food processor with honey and lemon juice and pureeing the heck out of it.

This makes 2 servings:

The Cucumber Ice Cream Base:

1/4 C half and half
1/4 C heavy cream
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, chunked
Peels from about 1/2 the cucumber
2 TBSP sugar
1/2 TBSP lime juice
1 TBSP lemon juice
Salt to taste

1. Purée the cucumber in a blender with the lemon and lime juice.

This can take a bit of patience, alternating blending with tamping the chunks of cucumber down until it starts to behave like a liquid in a blender.

2. Heat the half and half, cream, sugar, and cucumber peels over low heat until the sugar is just dissolved, stirring constantly.

The peel is supposed to add a green color, but it doesn't seem to do much in that department, so you could probably leave them out altogether, though I think it may add to the texture.

3. Strain the cucumber mixture into the cream and mix.

I questioned whether straining was necessary, and after trying it with and without, the final texture is remarkably improved by pushing the cucumber through a fin sieve.

4. Add salt to taste. I added just a pinch.

5. Chill at least 3 hours or overnight.

The Raisin-Honey-Lemon "Ribbon"

1/2 cup raisins
1 TBSP lemon juice
1TBSP honey

1. Put raisins in a small pot and just cover with water. Simmer until almost all of the water is gone. The remaining water will be a bit syrupy.

2. Put raisins with their syrup in a food processor with the lemon juice and honey. Purée until you are satisfied.


To freeze:

5 minute timer
1 gallon sized Ziploc bag
1 pint sized Ziploc bag
Ice to fill 1/2 of the gallon Ziploc bag
6 TBSP salt
previously made Cucumber Ice Cream recipe


1. Put serving bowls in the freezer. The ice cream can be a bit soft and melt quickly. A frozen bowl stalls the process.

2. Put Cucumber Ice Cream Base in the pint sized Ziploc bag, filling it about halfway. Fold the top over so most of the air is removed, and seal it.

3. Put salt and ice in the gallon sized Ziploc bag.

4. Put pint sized bag into the gallon sized bag, remove as much air as possible again, and seal the gallon sized bag.

5. Set a timer for 5 minutes

6. Shake, roll, knead, and whatever other movement you can think of to keep the bag moving. I favor rolling the bag in a kitchen towel to keep my fingers from freezing, and continuously rolling the bag over and over while roughly kneading it. Be rough! If you are too delicate out of fear the bags will lose their seal you will get soupy ice cream!

7. When your timer tells you 5 minutes have passed, pull the bowl from the freezer, take the pint sized bag from the gallon sized bag, and give it a quick rinse under cold water. This is essential unless you want salty water in your ice cream! I tend to give the pint sized bag a quick rub with the kitchen towel, too, just for insurance.

8. Empty the ice cream into your bowl.

9. Fold in about 2 TBSPs of the Raisin mixture very minimally. Too much and you will over power the cucumber flavor, so less is better if in doubt. You can even just spoon in a bit on the side if you prefer.

10. EAT! YUM!

Tips:
You can fit more than one pint sized bag into one gallon sized bag.

You can store this in the freezer, but it gets quite hard overnight.

***

Many thanks again to Kelley for all her work, and for sharing! Best of luck with this entry!

Bourbon-Infused Popcorn

Okay, attempt number one at bourbon-infused popcorn.

I heard a bit on NPR a few weeks ago about a gourmet food show which included "artisanal" popcorn offerings. (And seriously? Can we just ban the word "artisanal" already?) But back to the topic at hand, in the course of the story, I heard a magical three words: Bourbon. Infused. Popcorn.

Not one to spend $12 on a few ounces of popcorn, I decided to try to make my own at home. The results were not as bourbon-ish as I was hoping, but definitely tasty.

I started with about 1/2 c. unpopped kernels and put them in a tiny jar with the last of a nip of Knob Creek, which was left over from an egg nog ice cream attempt back around Christmas. I probably had about 2 Tbs of bourbon, total, which wasn't enough to submerge all of the kernels. So, I turned the jar over periodically to distribute the bourbon as well as I could, while there was still excess liquid.

This probably sat around my kitchen for a couple of weeks. Another time, I would use a shallower dish, more bourbon, and also probably spread out the kernels to dry a bit after soaking for a shorter time, like overnight or so.

Anyway, I popped the popcorn as usual, with a generous drizzle of canola oil and about 1 tsp salt, in my Whirlypop, until the popping noises stopped. Meanwhile, I melted 1 Tbs unsalted butter in a small dish, about 30 seconds in the microwave.

Then, I transferred the popped popcorn to a muslin bag, drizzled in the butter, and sprinkled it with an additional pinch of salt (which I think was too much, I'll leave that out next time) and about 1 Tbs cinnamon-sugar, which is 2 parts sugar to 1 part ground cinnamon, and keeps indefinitely in a jar in the cupboard.

Like I said: not as bourbon-ish as I'd envisioned, but perfectly tasty popcorn. And I did get an occasional kernel that had a strong bourbon flavor.

Hmm, a work in progress ...

¡Quemadillas!

My good friend Greg, who is now proprietor of Cafe Tal in Guanajuato, and bee-tee-dubs makes the very best coffee on the whole planet, used to make an oh-so-clever pun when his quesadillas got a little burned: see, quemar means "to burn" in Spanish, so quemadillas are quesadillas, preferably in flour tortillas, which got a little burned on the outside. This makes them extra tasty, imo.

I recently decided to try Food for Life gluten-free brown rice flour tortillas, because I found them for a pretty reasonable price at my local Dave's. [Note: I am so not important enough to be getting any "promotional considerations" from any vendors. If I mention liking a product, it's because I actually like it.] I'm also a big fan of the gluten-free, vegan, soy chorizo from Trader Joe's, which tastes exactly like the stuff I used to buy in Mexico. I feel like I maybe mentioned this in an earlier post. Oh yep, there it is.

So, I was in the mood for quesadillas this afternoon, and this is what I knocked together:

For the guacamole, I mashed up 1/2 ripe avocado, added a few ounces of Stonewall Kitchen Salsa Verde Hot Sauce, a pinch of salt, juice of 1/8 lime, and some chopped fresh cilantro leaves, then mixed well.

Fillings:

1 small poblano pepper, roasted within an inch of its life over the flame of a gas stove. Just turn on the flame, place the washed pepper on the eye, and turn periodically until it's really well blackened all over. Then, wrap the hot pepper in a clean dish towel and let it cool. When it's cool enough to handle (or almost down to room temperature), it should be relatively doable to peel off the skin. Then, slit open the pepper, remove the seeds, and cut it into strips. I used about half of the strips in one quesadilla.

About 1 oz. soy chorizo, browned over medium heat in a cast-iron skillet until hot.

About 1 oz. cheese ("quesadilla" if you can find it, but mozzarella, oddly enough, works pretty well), grated coarsely.

Then, just heat up a tortilla until it's flexible, add all toppings carefully, making sure the cheese is well mixed in so that everything sticks closed. Fold the tortilla over and press down well, turning the whole thing over at least a couple of times until thoroughly hot.

Move to a cutting board, then cut into wedges. Serve with guacamole. ¡Qué rico!

Time to make the donuts ...

No, seriously, I made donuts!

Lent is over, Alleluia!, and I've been trying to find a sane balance between eating the kinds of healthy things that made me feel good during Lent and eating the kinds of sugary things I often enjoy. My solution has been to save at least four days a week as days when I don't eat any sugar at all, but allow myself a few days when I have some sweets. I'm finding that I don't crave sweets as much, and if I start to, I may have to cut sugar back to fewer days. It's probably just my personality, but I need some sort of absolute prohibition (even if it's only a day or two at a time) to keep myself from taking a flying leap off the wagon.

Meanwhile, I found some interesting recipes during Lent, and have been looking for opportunities to try them. One of those was Gluten-Free Maple Glazed Banana Donuts from Udi's Gluten Free Foods. I even bought myself a donut pan and everything! I used rice milk instead of almond milk, because it's what I had, but otherwise I tried to stay true to the recipe for this first attempt.

It went pretty well. I think the recipe is actually supposed to make 9-12 donuts (I couldn't find that info anywhere in the recipe, please tell me if you see it!), and I slightly over-filled the donut trenches before figuring that out. (I had some leftover batter, even so, and baked that in the bottoms of four cupcake cups.) The size of the finished product is totally reasonable, but I ended up baking them 14 minutes and I think they really needed longer.

Right after coming out of the oven

Also, I tried to get cute and dip the less-pretty side in the glaze, in hopes that the glaze would cover that and make the whole thing look pretty, but the glaze only soaked in. Possible that I should have waited longer before glazing, or that I should have just dipped the less-porous top side. [I should include a shout-out here to the Carlisle (MA) Tap-and-Sap Society. I bought a pint from their 2009 run at last year's Old Home Day, and have been rationing it carefully until I can get some more. But, I thought my first donut attempt was a worthy enough cause to use a few Tbs.]

Still, they do look like donuts!

The texture is basically like a soft sponge cake, light but too delicate to dunk into coffee or anything like that. They would probably be a little more solid with a few more minutes in the oven. They're also all kinds of sweet, which was barely mitigated by the cup of strong, black coffee I had alongside, but the banana and maple flavors were very tasty.

All in all, I would try this recipe again. I think I would either look for a way to make the glaze with less sugar or try to work the maple flavor into the donuts and skip the glaze altogether. One obvious idea would be to replace some or all of the sugar with maple syrup, and add some flour to balance; the liquid:ratio balance could also be maintained, potentially, by omitting the milk. (It was a coincidence that I had rice milk on-hand, incidentally. In the future I'm sure dairy milk would work fine for those, like myself, with no dairy issues.)

Final verdict: These were easy to make and the price of ingredients, which are things an average gluten free baker would have around, anyway, was way lower than a box of Kinnikinnick or Glutino donuts in my local supermarkets. Definitely worthwhile!

And now, I definitely have to get back out and run today ...

Jam-Filled Thumbprint Cookies

As I continue in my Lenten discipline of eating no sugar and keeping mostly vegan, I've been getting more and more interested in playing around with old favorite recipes that normally contain lots of butter, sugar, eggs, or whatever, and making them tasty without all of those things.

My secret to success, in general, has been fruit, which can add sweetness and moisture. I also recently read that nut and coconut flours can make for very moist, rich-tasting baked goods. Since I teach at a nut-free school (but coconut is apparently ok), and had had a bag of coconut flour in the back of my fridge forever, I decided to try using some. I've also read that sorghum flour can do a good job of binding itself without added gums (xanthan, guar, etc.) and had a bag of that lying around, so I decided to go with that. And finally, I always think of jam cookies as being especially tasty with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top at the end, but I didn't want to go that route, so I decided to use some unsweetened, shredded coconut, instead.

The dough of these ended up a little pasty and not very sweet, but I think the preserves balance it nicely. If you like a little more sweetness, try adding a Tbs or so of agave nectar.

These were very touchy to form, so I might try a little xanthan gum next time, after all.

JAM-FILLED THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Makes 3 dozen cookies

1 c coconut flour

1 1/2 c sorghum flour

1 tsp gluten-free baking powder

1 tsp egg replacer

1/2 tsp salt

2 c unsweetened applesauce

1/2 c olive oil

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c unsweetened shredded coconut

1/3 c all-fruit preserves

Combine flours, baking powder, egg replacer, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

In a larger bowl, combine applesauce, oil and vanilla. Stir briskly to blend, then start adding dry ingredients bit by bit, stirring vigorously to combine. The resulting dough will be very crumbly, but should hold together when a small handful is gathered up and pressed into a soft ball. (Squeezing more firmly will cause it to fall apart again, but this is ok.)

If you're a slowpoke like me, you'll want to wait until after this next step to preheat the oven. If you work a little faster, you could preheat at this point or about halfway through the shaping process. Baking temperature will be 350°F.

Spread shredded coconut onto a medium-sized plate. Take up a small amount of dough and very gently press and roll it into a ball, about 1 inch in diameter (slightly smaller than a ping pong ball). Once it's holding together, place it in the coconut and roll it around a little, then, right there in the plate, shape it into a "thumbprint" shape. This means pressing your thumb down somewhat firmly in the middle while supporting the outside edges with your fingers, pressing things together again as they start to crack. There should be enough of an indentation to hold about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of fruit preserves.

Transfer to an ungreased baking sheet and repeat until dough is all used up, moving to a second baking sheet when necessary.

Preheat the oven now, if you didn't do it earlier.

Measure out the jelly into a cup, and mash it with the back of the spoon to soften it if necessary. (Some brands of all-fruit preserves are a little excessive in the pectin department, or contain extra starch to stabilize. It's easier to measure little spoons of the preserves if you break this down a little.) Use a spoon to place a little in the dimple of each cookie, taking care to make as little contact with the cookies as possible, as they're very fragile.

Bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool thoroughly on the sheets, set on wire racks, then remove very carefully to a plate or tin. Enjoy one or two with a cup of tea for an afternoon or mid-morning treat!

Spicy Kale Chips

I put off making kale chips for a long time, because I somehow got the idea that it would be complicated and labor-intensive. I was so wrong! These were wicked easy and took very little hands-on prep.

This recipe came about after browsing a few other, similar recipes online, then throwing in some things I like. I only used 1 tsp of chili powder, and can't even taste the spiciness, so I'm guessing a Tbs is a better place to start if you really want a little kick. Mine also came out a little chewy after 20 minutes of baking, so I recommend trying 25 minutes and seeing how it goes. (I'll also come back and adjust this recipe, next time I make these.)

If you have a salad-spinner whose bowl doesn't have a drain, like mine (which is made by Oxo), you can do almost all the prep right in the bowl.

SPICY, GARLICKY KALE CHIPS

1 bunch of kale, stiff spines cut away and leaves roughly chopped or torn into pieces

2 large cloves of garlic, peeled and minced or pressed

1 Tbs chili powder

1/4 tsp salt (or more, to taste)

1 Tbs olive oil

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Place the kale into the bowl of the salad spinner and fill with cold water, then dump into the strainer and spin until thoroughly dry. Lift out strainer and set aside.

Rinse and thoroughly dry the bowl of the spinner. Mix the garlic, chili powder, salt and oil in the bowl until well-blended, then toss in a few leaves of the kale to start getting the oil mixture distributed. Dump in the rest of the kale and toss well until all leaves are coated.

Spread on a baking sheet with edges (or a jelly-roll pan) and bake for 25 minutes in the lower third of the oven, stirring well with a wooden or bamboo spatula a couple of times during baking.

Cool thoroughly, and enjoy!

Pistachio-Stuffed Figs

When you give up sugar for Lent (or for a cleanse, for health in general, whatever), dried fruits start to taste reeeealllyyyy good.

PISTACHIO-STUFFED FIGS

(or Almond-Stuffed Dates, etc.)

3 large, dried figs (such as Smyrna)

15 g shelled pistachios

Use a small, sharp knife to remove the stem of each fig. Carefully stuff 1/3 of the pistachios into the stem-hole of each fig, then pinch closed.

A variation is almond-stuffed dates:

2 dried dated (such as medjool)

4-6 whole raw almonds

Use a small, sharp knife to make a slit in each date and remove the pit. Slip 2-3 almonds into each date and carefully pinch closed.

Serve with hot tea, if desired.