Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream

Many of you know of my journey to make ice cream without an ice cream maker.  This ice cream was not as smooth and creamy as when we made the swiss rolls, but it did have praline mixed in which affected that.  This is a David Lebovitz creation, but don't worry, someday I will make up my own recipes for ice cream.  It's really not that hard.  Also this took forever to freeze, while stirring it every hour (except when I slept of course, it didn't even freeze over night!).  I blame the salt.

The one change I made here was instead of making the salt praline, I used some almond praline that I had lying around and added a little salt to it (the almond praline was maybe 1/3 cup ground almonds and a cup of sugar melted, following the same technique he described minus what I used to coat some cookies that did not come out well.  It made this ice cream taste even more like toffee, which it very much does.  It's like eating toffee in ice cream form.  Here's the recipe link.  Genius.

Cinnamon Flavored Black Eyed Peas

I'm always looking for new ways to eat legumes, which in some cases, means trying new legumes.  I've never made black eyed peas, but I figured it was worth a shot, especially after seeing a Serious Eats column about them.  Plus, as we all know, I can't resist cinnamon and any opportunity to put it in any meal is a good enough for me.  So I decided to try this recipe.  It seemed safe, where by safe I mean did not involve any purchases and used flavors I knew I liked (I'd call it "Indian inspired") and not too much work.  I did however use yellow onion rather than red and tomato sauce rather than tomato paste, and then added more but added about half the water it called for.  I'll just link you the recipe, rather than retyping, since I basically followed it, except for those few changes.  Here you go!

As for my opinion: it is a kind of boring dinner, but the cinnamon and spice make it more interesting and worthwhile.  If you don't want to make it as spicy, it might not be good, I can't make any promises there.  But it does have my favorite things: garlic, cayenne and cinnamon, so I'm a happy camper.

Multigrain Bread

I attempted multigrain bread for the first time today.  It was ugly and kind of bland.  Also I thought it needed quinoa.  But I looked for a recipe that used a soaker and called for all ingredients I had.  And this one was from Peter Reinhart so I trusted it.  It was probably my fault.  I might not have added enough salt.  I usually undermeasure salt a little and it usually works out okay.  But the texture was good, just not rolled quite right, so it is hard to cut.

But I got to try.  And I got to play with my mortar and pestle for the first time (to crush steel cut oats to make cracked oats).  And with apple butter, it was still pretty good.

Daring Cooks September 2010: Food Preservation

Apple butter on cornbread.  Yum.

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation. 

This month for the daring cooks, we were supposed to preserve food.  Since my friend who I often do these challenges with had the closest thing a grad student can have to a canning system, we decided to make and can apple butter.  The directions are pretty simple.  Make apple sauce, add spices, then cook it for another two hours, then can.  We cooked about 6 pounds of apples (well, about 6 pounds before we cored and peeled them), cooked them for half an hour or so with a little honey, then added a "tablespoon and a half" of cinnamon, which was probably over 2 Tbsp of cinnamon, which made me nervous at first because it was quite strong, but eventually cooked down.  We also added some cloves, not much though.  Over the two hours we tested and adjusted, mostly adding more sugar.  We also added a little vanilla to balance the flavors a bit.  We dipped challah in it and had a grand old time.  And then I went out for dinner... bad planning there, i was full from the apple butter and challah.

But the fun of it (and the point of it) was the canning.  I'll include the actual directions, since I'll probably leave something out if I try to explain it from memory.

For our challenge, apples are high acid foods. Golden delicious apples have an approximate pH of 3.6. Boiling Water Canning is an appropriate method of preserving apple butter. 

Apple Butter processing information: 

Headspace when canning apple butter is 1/4 “ (0.64 cm) 

Processing Time: 

15 minutes for altitude of 0 ft (0 m) to 1,000 ft (305 m) 

20 minutes for altitude of 1,001 ft (305.1 m) to 6,000 ft (1828.8 m) 

25 minutes altitudes above 6,000 ft (1828.8 m) 

For boiling water canning, you need a pot that is high enough to cover the jars with at least 1” (2.5 cm) of water. Also, a rack, to prevent thermal shock, is used to keep the jars off the bottom of the pot. Any type of rack will work – a tea towel, a trivet, tying together unused bands… etc. I improvised a rack by tying metal bands to a bamboo sushi mat. Also, for my pot, I used a large tamale steamer. 

Jars are filled using a wide mouth funnel. A plastic bubble remover is run along the sides of the jar, in an up and down motion, to remove air pockets. Headspace is measured to •••" (6.5mm). 

The top and side of the jar are wiped down with a damp paper towel. 

Lids are placed in a pan of hot water (180ºF or 82ºC) to soften the sealing compound. 

The lid is seated, centered on the jar and the band is screwed on. 

The purpose of the band is to hold the lid down, but not too tightly. Air from the jar needs to escape into the boiling water. 

I generally screw down the bands (using two fingers) until resistance stops the band. After which, I give a slight additional 1/4" (6.5mm) twist. 

The jars are lowered into the hot water canner. Water temperature is about 180ºF (82.2ºC). 

The water level is checked to ensure there is at least 1” (2.54 cm) of water above the jars. 

Next, pot is covered and heat turned to high. 

When the water comes to a boil, the timer is started (15 minutes). The heat can be lowered as long as the water remains at a boil. 

After the 15 minutes are up, the whole canner is removed off the burner (I have an electric stove) and uncovered. Jars are left in the canner for 5 more minutes. 

After 5 minutes, the jars are lifted out level. 

The temptation is to tilt the jars to drain the water off the top of the lids. Do NOT do that! You don’t want to contents of the jar to running under the seal. 

Jars are placed on a dish towel to minimize thermal shock and allowed to cool for 12 to 24 hours. 

While the jars are cooling, you may hear a ping or a pop from the lid as it seals. That ping is a good sound. For these three jars, they all pinged within a minute. 

After 24 hours, test the seal. The lid should be bowed down (concave), when you press down the lid should not move or pop up. Also, try lifting the jar by the lid only. The lid should stay on if properly sealed. The final thing is to look at the lid to see if there are any cracks or debris caught between the jar and the lid. 

Rosemary Trail Mix

I've been admittedly not making anything interesting lately (lots of eggs, oatmeal, free food, and restaurants plus leftovers).  But one thing I did make was rosemary "Hungry Girl" trail mix.  A package of it came in our CSA welcome package when we did that (we've stopped but I'm thinking about doing it next year).  It was delicious and I tried to recreate it.  It wasn't perfect, but still tasty.  And trail mix is definitely one of those things you should make to taste anyway.  So much so, it seems like I shouldn't be giving you a recipe for something as simple/personal as trail mix.  But this has rosemary!  Something I love to put in EVERYTHING (as I explained to my mom recently, I'm actually more comfortable pairing it with fruit than... well, whatever other people put it with), but would never thought to use in trail mix.  I guess I did recently make some tasty rosemary citrus pancakes with rosemary pineapple sauce.  But that's another post.  Anyways, notes about the recipe: I put the cranberries in with the nuts and I have since learned that they should be added later, otherwise they get crunchy.  They are still tasty, but the chewy texture of dried cranberries improves the trail mix.  Also make sure you use a nice sea salt (Kosher would probably also work), not table salt.  I've never liked salt, so it's not something I'm super familiar with (my family hates how I boil pasta in unsalted water), but I do know this: if you are trying to actually feature a salty flavor (like with nuts or salted caramel ice cream) you should use good salt.  You can use less and it's just... better somehow.

Rosemary Trail Mix Ingredients
1 Tbsp butter +
1/2 tsp dried rosemary +
1 Tbsp unpacked brown sugar
1/2 c mixed nuts (as the original trail mix did, I used almonds, pecans and walnuts)
Sea salt to taste
2 Tbsp dried cranberries

Melt the butter with the rosemary.  Cook until fragrent (like rosemary), if the butter sticks and starts to brown, add more.  Add the sugar, once melted, add the nuts and salt and cook until they reach your desired toastedness/infused flavor.  I would recommend adding almonds first, if you are using almonds since they absorb the flavor more slowly and also hold up to longer cooking times better than softer nuts like walnuts and pecans.  Stir occasionally to prevent burning and make sure everything is evenly coated.  I think I cooked the nuts about 15-20 minutes.   Add cranberries and check the taste by trying a nut (again, i would recommend trying an almond because they absorb flavor most slowly so if they are done, your other nuts probably are too).  You may want to add more salt (this is part of the reason for tasting).  Cook a little longer, stirring to ensure your cranberries are coated and flavored.

Enjoy.  But don't eat it all at once!