The hot weather had inspired me to make ice cream with my 3 year old twins, and the flavor I was craving was "dreamsicle". Orange and cream!
Surprisingly, there are many variations of the recipe. I picked a simple and straight forward one:
http://www.joyofbaking.com/OrangeIceCream.html
Tons of fat, but nothing too scary. The resulting orange ice cream was tasty enough, but I think I want to find another recipe with more "wow"!
Just found these:
1) This seems promising: http://cookingwithmichele.com/2011/07/beating-the-heat-creamsicle-ice-cream/
2) Hmmmm sweet condensed milk! http://www.ohsweetjoy.com/2012/07/i-scream-you-scream-series-dreamsicle.html
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Haupia
A friend on Facebook has been showing too many tasty pictures from his Hawaii trip. One curious item I saw was called Haupia. Some sort of white jello thing and I had to look it up.
It is a Hawaiian coconut pudding commonly served at Luau. I decided to try the recipe from the Polynesian Cultural Center.
The recipe looks extremely easy, however, simple recipes are often failures in disguise. Since I've never had Haupia, I do not have an idea what it's supposed to taste like. My result tasted ok. It has a nice coconut flavor with a hint of sweetness. The texture reminds me of the Asian azuki bean desserts. The mixture thickened so suddenly that I didn't mix it well enough, I think.
It is a Hawaiian coconut pudding commonly served at Luau. I decided to try the recipe from the Polynesian Cultural Center.
The recipe looks extremely easy, however, simple recipes are often failures in disguise. Since I've never had Haupia, I do not have an idea what it's supposed to taste like. My result tasted ok. It has a nice coconut flavor with a hint of sweetness. The texture reminds me of the Asian azuki bean desserts. The mixture thickened so suddenly that I didn't mix it well enough, I think.
Chili
My sister went to a work party and bought me a new cookbook. How nice, but the only catch was that she wanted me to make her the chili from the book since she enjoyed it that much from the party.
Specifically, the recipe is called "Chili for a crowd". A crowd of 35-40 people and involves 8 lbs of beef and 2 lbs of Italian sausage. I am not sure if I have a pot big enough to host all that meat, and I didn't have that many people coming to dinner so I cut the recipe down to 25% and followed it as close as possible.
I bought a nice chunk of chuck roast from Whole Foods and asked the guy to ground it up for me. I am not sure if it's Whole Foods or the nice meat, but the grounded beef didn't gross me out as they normally did.
The recipe contains a few uncommon chili ingredients such as basil, oregano, dill and Italian Parsley. Overall, the chili was one of the best I've had. The flavor was very vibrant and delicious, but there was too much meat and too little beans for me. I will try this recipe again with half the meat and twice the beans. And maybe more tomatoes too.
Specifically, the recipe is called "Chili for a crowd". A crowd of 35-40 people and involves 8 lbs of beef and 2 lbs of Italian sausage. I am not sure if I have a pot big enough to host all that meat, and I didn't have that many people coming to dinner so I cut the recipe down to 25% and followed it as close as possible.
I bought a nice chunk of chuck roast from Whole Foods and asked the guy to ground it up for me. I am not sure if it's Whole Foods or the nice meat, but the grounded beef didn't gross me out as they normally did.
The recipe contains a few uncommon chili ingredients such as basil, oregano, dill and Italian Parsley. Overall, the chili was one of the best I've had. The flavor was very vibrant and delicious, but there was too much meat and too little beans for me. I will try this recipe again with half the meat and twice the beans. And maybe more tomatoes too.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Peppermint Crunch Bark
Another one of my favorite sources of recipes is the King Arthur Flour website. I also enjoy looking at their catalog and drool over all the fancy ingredients and kitchen gadgets.
The Peppermint Crunch Bark recipe was very easy. Basically, melt dark chocolate, pour, wait, melt white chocolate, pour on top of dark chocolate and sprinkle crushed candy canes. However, the tricky part was the timing, which was not described in detail in the recipe. My timing wasn't quite right and half of the bark separated into white chocolate and dark chocolate.
After a few more tries, this peppermint crunch bark recipe could potentially be a keeper for my annual Christmas treat ensemble. It is tasty and very pretty to look at.
The Peppermint Crunch Bark recipe was very easy. Basically, melt dark chocolate, pour, wait, melt white chocolate, pour on top of dark chocolate and sprinkle crushed candy canes. However, the tricky part was the timing, which was not described in detail in the recipe. My timing wasn't quite right and half of the bark separated into white chocolate and dark chocolate.
After a few more tries, this peppermint crunch bark recipe could potentially be a keeper for my annual Christmas treat ensemble. It is tasty and very pretty to look at.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Soft Pretzel
I got a free vegan cookbook recently and my 2.5 year old girls found a recipe for pretzels and demanded that I make them. Sure, why not, sounds like fun to me! Except that I don't really trust a vegan recipe so I go back to my favorite Cooks Illustrated!
The dough part was very straight forward, similar to making bread. The most challenging part was shaping the dough. It was a very tight one and it shrunk while sitting on the baking sheet. At the end the pretzels looked like little piles of poop. Regardless of the shape, the pretzels were very tasty while they were fresh and it was very easy to make multiple toppings since these were added at the last moment. The four flavors we had were:
Cheddar
Kosher salt
butter
cinnamon sugar
I will definitely make these pretzels again and again. Maybe in different shapes though.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Penne Alla Vodka
It might be the drop in temperature that awakened my carb-cravings. I have been thinking about penne alla vodka for days and finally I got all the ingredients.
There were several versions of this dish in Cooks Illustrated but I went straight to the "Penne Alla Vodka" recipe. Another day I might try other versions. Although it took me several attempts to acquire all the ingredients, it really was a simple recipe that involves mostly kitchen stables such as whole peel tomato, tomato paste, onion, garlic, heavy cream, basil, onion, garlic and chili pepper. Oh wait, and some high quality vodka.
The result was amazing. Given the simplicity of the recipe, I wasn't expecting much, but WOW, it was tasty! My girls even thought it was their beloved baked ziti. Now why would I go through all the trouble and calories to make baked ziti if I can spend 30 minutes for a tasty and hearty penne alla vodka! I highly recommend this recipe!
Now that I have my very first bottle of vodka, what should I do! I am seeing apple pie with a special dough involving vodka!
There were several versions of this dish in Cooks Illustrated but I went straight to the "Penne Alla Vodka" recipe. Another day I might try other versions. Although it took me several attempts to acquire all the ingredients, it really was a simple recipe that involves mostly kitchen stables such as whole peel tomato, tomato paste, onion, garlic, heavy cream, basil, onion, garlic and chili pepper. Oh wait, and some high quality vodka.
The result was amazing. Given the simplicity of the recipe, I wasn't expecting much, but WOW, it was tasty! My girls even thought it was their beloved baked ziti. Now why would I go through all the trouble and calories to make baked ziti if I can spend 30 minutes for a tasty and hearty penne alla vodka! I highly recommend this recipe!
Now that I have my very first bottle of vodka, what should I do! I am seeing apple pie with a special dough involving vodka!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Crepe with Ricotta, Ham and Spinach Filling
Friday is our "Breakfast for Dinner" day. I was inspired by the video on the Cooks Illustrated website and decided to make crepes.
The ingredients required for the savory crepe were very simple: egg, flour, butter, milk, water and salt. The only thing to keep in mind was that the batter needed to be refrigerated for 2 hours prior to cooking. Using the technique shown on the video, the crepes came out beautifully golden and thin. None of the crepes ripped when stacked on a plate.
The ricotta, ham and spinach filling was also very simple to make. I sauteed fresh spinach leaves (instead of using frozen spinach) after cooking the onion and garlic and it worked well.
I wasn't quite sure how to fold the crepes since the instruction only said "fold as desired". The first crepe was folded in fourth but it looked very thick. After trying a few different ways, I preferred to stack the fillings with additional layers of crepe and tuck in the sides. (Sorry no pictures. Maybe next time!)
One little confusing point on the Cooks Illustrated recipe: the recipe in the crepe video was not the one shown in text. Both the sweet and savory crepe recipes required refrigeration for 2 hours whereas the video said the batter didn't need to be refrigerated.
Overall I liked the recipe and I would definitely do this again with all sorts of fillings. In fact, we put homemade strawberry jam in the extra savory crepe and it was delicious! There was a recipe for sweet crepes, but I think the savory flavor nicely complemented the sweetness of the jam.
The ingredients required for the savory crepe were very simple: egg, flour, butter, milk, water and salt. The only thing to keep in mind was that the batter needed to be refrigerated for 2 hours prior to cooking. Using the technique shown on the video, the crepes came out beautifully golden and thin. None of the crepes ripped when stacked on a plate.
The ricotta, ham and spinach filling was also very simple to make. I sauteed fresh spinach leaves (instead of using frozen spinach) after cooking the onion and garlic and it worked well.
I wasn't quite sure how to fold the crepes since the instruction only said "fold as desired". The first crepe was folded in fourth but it looked very thick. After trying a few different ways, I preferred to stack the fillings with additional layers of crepe and tuck in the sides. (Sorry no pictures. Maybe next time!)
One little confusing point on the Cooks Illustrated recipe: the recipe in the crepe video was not the one shown in text. Both the sweet and savory crepe recipes required refrigeration for 2 hours whereas the video said the batter didn't need to be refrigerated.
Overall I liked the recipe and I would definitely do this again with all sorts of fillings. In fact, we put homemade strawberry jam in the extra savory crepe and it was delicious! There was a recipe for sweet crepes, but I think the savory flavor nicely complemented the sweetness of the jam.
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