Sweet, and Hot, and Indian Spiced, Red Corn Ice Cream Perfect for Summer Cookouts.

   There is nothing that says the hot weather is here like the taste of homemade, fresh churned ice cream. One of the best investments in cooking equipment I ever made was buying an ice cream machine. I have worked that thing to death and it's still going strong. It gets so much use in the Summer months around here that I actually bought another bigger machine to keep it company. Homemade ice cream is fast and easy and one of the few desserts that almost no one can refuse. Don't eat dairy? It can be made with coconut milk, and when cooking for gluten-free friends, it's an allowed indulgence.
  
   I veered from my vegan diet a few months ago when I was doing chemo. I was anemic from treatment and advised to add more protein to my diet, and so I did, just a bit. Now that I'm done, I'm still taking iron pills everyday and getting back to regular vegan fair, but sometimes I'm just plain vegetarian and that's where the ice cream comes in. One of the best things about doing your own cooking is having control over what goes into ones food and one of the clearest examples of that is ice cream. Fresh organic milk, fresh organic cream, sugar, and pure vanilla. That's it. No gums or fillers, or fake flavors, just the real deal.
 
   So, when I set out to make some plain vanilla ice cream the other day I got distracted by something I'd only seen once before at my local Whole Foods market and that's organic red corn. Not wanting to repeat my loss of fresh garbanzos a few weeks ago, I didn't wait. I  jumped on that corn like a starving locust and then once I got it home I kept wondering how it would be in ice cream. I've made sweet corn ice cream before and I've even used red corn before in Red Corn and Radish Sprout Salad with Peanut Chili Dressing so I wondered how I could use my red corn and make a different sort of ice cream.Could I take an Indian spice rub used for grill roasted corn and add a  few things and come up with an ice cream? You bet I could, and I did just that. You can too.

Indian Spiced Roast Red Corn Ice Cream

Here's What You Need:
2 cups organic whole milk
2 cups organic heavy cream
3/4 cup of sugar
2 ears of fresh red corn, (or regular corn)
2 whole limes
salt to taste
2 pinches of cardamom
1 tsp of Kashmiri chili
2 tsp vanilla
1 generous pinch of cinnamon
1 pinch of sugar

Here's What To Do:
Wash and shuck the whole ears of corn.

Cut the ears in half.

Roast them on a grill until they are soft and slightly charred.

Cut the limes in half. Put the Kashmiri chili in a small bowl. Dip the halved limes into the chili.

Rub the chili-coated limes on the ears of corn while squeezing to get the juice out.

Like so.

The corn should be coated in chili and lime juice.

Sprinkle a bit of salt on the ears of corn.

Cut the kernels off of the corn ears and place them in a bowl.

Add two pinches of cardamom...

...a generous pinch of cinnamon and a couple of pinches of sugar, and a touch more salt.

Stir everything together and check for taste. This is up to you as to how how or sweet or hot you want this. When it's seasoned to your satisfaction set it aside.
Add the milk, cream, and sugar to a large bowl.
Stir everything around until it's well mixed.
Add in 2 tsps of vanilla.

Pour everything into an ice cream machine.

Churn for about 30 minutes.
Scoop out the ice cream and put it into a freezer container and into the freezer for an hour or two to firm up.

Then serve it up.

Sweet, with a touch of heat and the wonderful flavors of cardamom and cinnamon.

   The red corn adds a faintly pink color to the ice cream, and the sweet hot chewy corn kernels are the perfect addition. This recipe of course will work with any color corn, but if you're lucky enough to run across red corn, grab some. You won't regret it. Coming up next, as I get back to a normal appetite again I'm looking at Indian vegetable salads the perfect side or even main dish for Summer entertaining. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Have A Cool Cool Castello Moment With Hirten Cheese Ice Cream and Stout Caramel

Disclosure notice: I was provided with free product by Castello cheese for the purpose of writing this post.  All opinions stated within are my own.

   Last time I checked in, I was armpit deep in some of the best cheeses I'd ever tasted thanks to the nice guys at Castello Cheese who sent me their Alps Collection to experiment with.

It was way too much and too delicious to just squat and gobble on my own so... I threw a CheeseFest.

   We busted out all sorts of goodies for CheeseFest and of course the centerpiece of the buffet was a stellar mac 'n' cheese made with a combo of their Weissbeir and Classic cheeses. But all good things must end and parties are no exception. Every good party needs to go out with a bang and so I cooked up a few desserts. I needed things that would match up well with the cheeses I was serving, and figs and walnuts are a great compliment to the Pecorino-like qualities of the Hirten Cheese I served. So, I baked a Gluten Free Fig and Walnut Tart and served it with ice cream,  a Hirten Cheese Ice Cream to be exact.

  Now, I've had a few go rounds with cheese ice creams. I made a Pecorino Cheese ice cream a few years back... don't ask. It wasn't my proudest moment. When I saw that the Hirten Cheese was very much like a great Pecorino or an aged Gouda, I thought, what the hell, time to try the old cheese ice cream trick again. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it, or so the saying goes. I don't think that applies to ice cream though because this time... it worked.
 
   I did some research before I tossed this stuff in the ice cream machine, and it turns out that cheese ice cream is not something that just fell off the foodie fad truck, cheese ice cream is the oldest of old school. In fact this recipe goes back to 1760 and a book called The Compleat Confectioner. The original recipe uses Parmesan, but Hirten worked like it was made for it. Since one of our guests had a nut allergy and couldn't have any of the tart, I decided to make a caramel sauce for the ice cream, a stout caramel sauce, to be exact since every cheese genius said that nothing works with Hirten cheese like a good stout.

Hirten Cheese Ice Cream With Stout Caramel Sauce

Here's What You Need:

Ice Cream 
1 cup of milk
1 cup of whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
3 large beaten eggs
pinch of salt
3 oz  grated Hirten cheese

Stout Caramel
1  12 oz bottle of stout
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 and 1/2 cups dark brown sugar
1 cup of whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp of salt

Here's What To Do:

Whisk together 3 large eggs in a big bowl and set it aside.
Measure and weigh out 3 oz of Hirten cheese

Chop it finely and set aside.

Mix together the milk, cream and sugar until they're nearly at the boil.
Whisk a bit of the eggs into the hot milk, cream and sugar mixture SLOWLY,  and a bit at a time.

This is so you don't wind up with Hirten cheese scrambled eggs. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it doesn't make for a great dessert if ice cream is what you're after.
Now it's time to stir the Hirten cheese into the egg, milk, cream and sugar mixture.

Whisk it until it's smooth. Do not let it boil.
Now, here's the twist. This is the time when most people take their cheese ice cream and pour it through a strainer to get our any crystals. However, when working with a fine cheese like Hirten or an aged Gouda, I find that the little bits of crystal in the cheese are just fine in the ice cream and in fact add to the flavor.

Chill the mixture for a bit in the fridge until it's nice and cold.
Pour it into your ice cream machine and churn for about 25 to 30 minutes or until it's nice and firm.

Put it into the freezer until you're ready to serve.
Now while that's chilling, time to make The Stout Caramel.
Start with a good bottle of Stout. I used Old Rasputin.

Pour the Stout into a pan and simmer it on the stove for about 10 minutes.

Stir it every once and a while while it's cooking down.
Add in the butter

And the brown sugar.

Cook everything for about 12 minutes. Don't stir it!

When it reaches 225 degrees on the candy thermometer and turns syrupy,  it's done.
Take the pot off the heat.
Add the whipping cream, salt and vanilla . Keep stirring as you do this so nothing curdles.

Put the pan back on the stove.
Turn down the heat to medium and cook for another few minutes until the caramel turns thick and creamy. Look for it to coat the back of a spoon.

Serve it up. Drizzle it over the Hirten cheese ice cream.

   There it is. Your cheese course, your after dinner stout and dessert all in one bowl. This stout caramel is also great over vanilla ice cream and if you really want something special, try it over Chocolate Olive Oil Ice Cream  made with Olive oil chocolate from CocoaPlanet.

   Coming up next , some easy trick for Summer Parties and Indian Style Baby Turnips. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Win a Private Cheese Tasting in your own home - enter by clicking on the banner below. Castello Moments and this post is a collaboration between the blogger and Arla Foods USA.  

Vanilla Chelan Cherry Ice Cream with Valrhona Chocolate Pearls. A Farmers' Market Special

   Our Farmers' Market is going strong here in Sonoma. There's always a Friday Morning Organic Market no matter what the season, but what everyone waits for every year is the kickoff of the Summer Tuesday Night Farmer's Market. That's when most of the town can be found sprawled out on the Plaza lawn with their picnic baskets. Everyone comes to the Tuesday Night Farmer's Market and they don't just come for the socializing They come for the amazing produce.
 
   There are 3 types of fruit that I am giant crow in the trees crazy about. Pomegranates, Figs and Cherries. Unfortunately, these fruits have a very short season so when they're available, I will knock you over to get to them. I'm not kidding. The most delicate of these seems to be the cherries. Too much sun, no cherries, too much rain, no cherries. Last Spring, we had a lot of late rain and boom, overnight the bountiful cherries I was seeing on all the trees were gone. But  sometimes it's just right. That's the case right now. We have hit cherry perfection here in Sonoma. That's why I'm taking advantage of whatever I can get my mitts on since the weather here in Wine Country can turn on a dime this time of year. The cherries we've been getting here in Sonoma are not Bing cherries. Those will be along in a few weeks. What I've been buying are early cherries known as Chelan.

I think there's almost no better way to enjoy cherries than in vanilla ice cream and while we're at it, adding a little bit of dark chocolate never hurt anything either. Far from it. While I was at the market looking for chocolate to chunk up for the ice cream, Alan handed me a container of chocolate pearls made by Valrhona.

Cherries and pearls they seem made for each other.

Vanilla Cherry Ice Cream With Valhrona Chocolate Pearls

Here's What You Need:

3/4 cup of sugar
2 cups of whipping cream
1 and 1/2 cups of milk
1 cup of pitted quartered cherries
1/4 cup of chocolate pearls or 1/2 cup of small chocolate pieces.
2 tsps of vanilla extract

Here's What To Do:

Wash and pit the cherries. I use my OXO Cherry Pitter.

Cut the cherries in half and in half again to have nice bite sized pieces. Set aside.
In a large bowl mix together: 1 and 1/2 cup of milk and 3/4 cup of sugar.
When this is well mixed and the sugar dissolved, add in 2 cups of whipping cream.
Add in the vanilla.
Whisk everything together well and pour it into an ice cream machine.
Churn for about 20 minutes then add in the cherry pieces.

And the chocolate pearls or pieces.

The reason for waiting 20 minutes is you want the ice cream to be soft yet firm enough to support the cherries and chocolate pieces so they don't all fall to the bottom of the machine and are well distributed through the ice cream.
Let the machine churn for another 8 minutes or so, or until the ice cream is ready to be scooped into a container and put into the freezer.
Let the ice cream "age" in the freezer for an hour or so, for the best texture.
Serve it up!
  

   If you like cherries, vanilla and chocolate, then this ice cream is for you.

   But, life isn't all just ponies and rainbows and cherry vanilla ice cream with chocolate pearls. I'm going to be having a bowl of nettle soup for dinner this evening and no wicked stepmother was involved. It turns out that nettles are one of Springs' delicacies. Who knew. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori  

Orange Blossom and Pistachio, An Ice Cream Bouquet

  I don't know about you, but I love, love, love, floral scented foods. Cooking with flowers was not something I grew with since most of the stuff that managed to survive in our foggy San Francisco garden was liberally doused with Bugetta. I can still hear that jingle in my head, "Bugetta Bugetta Bugetta, Bugetta kills snails!"
   Then came California cuisine and the liberal use of all sorts of exotic ingredients, including flowers. The trendy restaurants that I ate in in Los Angeles featured Nasturtiums among other things. I would see them in their pricey little plastic boxes at Whole Foods and Gelsons where I shopped, my Italian cheapo gene would kick in, and I couldn't bring myself to buy them. Then I'd be driving home from a meeting at the studio and see them blooming absolutely free by the roadside on PCH. It was all I could do to keep myself from pulling over to the side of the road and grabbing a fist full! Not wanting to be the centerpiece of a Sigalert, I never did. I'm telling you all this just to get my bona fides straight. I love flowers in my food. Really.
   Another thing I love, especially after an Indian feast when I'm too tired to fix anything else and want something light, is a nice floral ice cream.
   A little over a year ago I posted a recipe for Orange Blossom Ice Cream with pistachios. When I served it at my Kerala dinner last week, I mentioned it here and had some requests for this easy, tasty recipe. All you need is an ice cream machine. Here's what you do:

Orange Blossom Pistachio Ice Cream

 In a bowl whisk together:
3/4 cup of sugar
2 cups of milk
 When the milk and sugar are well blended add in:
 2 cups of whipping cream
 2 Tbs of orange blossom or orange flower water
 Whisk it all well then pour it into the bowl of your ice cream maker and follow instructions.
 While the ice cream is whirling around in the machine, roughly chop about 1/2 cup of raw unsalted pistachios.
 5 minutes before your ice cream is done, dump the pistachios into the mix so they can be blended in.
  Try to make the ice cream at least 2 hours before you're planing on serving it so that it has time to set up in the freezer.

   
So there you have what I call The Orange Blossom Special. Catch it while you can, 'cause it goes really fast.

The Big Squishy, and The FU! (ice cream without the ice and hold the cream)

This time of year I'm always looking for desserts that are easily prepared, can be whipped up in a dash when unexpected guests come by and are low, low, low in calories. During the holiday season it's always easier and lot more fun to say "sure, why not?" with gusto rather than, "well, ok...just a bite" with overwhelming feelings of guilt.
Another thing I look for at this time of year is something that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to trot out to the hungry hordes. It was many many years ago Grasshopper, that I discovered The Persimmon.
Persimmons are the national fruit of Japan cultivated widely in Asia and in the hilly parts of northern India. They are also all over the place this time of year here where I live in Sonoma, Northern California. They also go perfectly with a hot and spicy Indian meal providing a cool sweet finish.
For those of you who many be unfamiliar with them, there are two main types of persimmon the round flat tomato shaped Fuyu persimmon, and the heart shaped Hachiya, otherwise known in the romantic language of science as the astringent and the non astringent, or as they're known around our house, The Big Squishy and the FU. The one I'm dealing with today is The Big Squishy.


In order to enjoy the Big Squishy properly it has to be fully ripened, soft, yielding and bursting with sweet gooey deliciousness.Excuse me while I take a moment. There.
Best eaten with a spoon and a drop cloth, it is not for those who fear The Messy.
Right now the trees in Sonoma county are heavy with both types of persimmon and one can get three persimmons for 99 cents or cheaper at the farmers markets, or from neighbors selling them from their yards. So why not take advantage? Why not make Big Squishy Ice Cream?
But, you may say. I have no Ice Cream Machine? Doesn't one need an Ice Cream Machine to make ice cream??? Not Big Squishy Ice Cream.

First of all, find yourself a nice big squishy persimmon , a Hachiya to be precise. When the persimmon is frozen solid, (usually after a day or so in the freezer) take it out and peel it with a vegetable peeler. Watch your thumbs, cause these babies are cold!

After the persimmons are peeled, chunk them up into pieces.

When the persimmons have been chunked, place them into a food processor or blender with about 1/4 cup of buttermilk. You might also try cream, creme fraiche, yogurt, soy milk, coconut milk etc. Anything for that creamy blend. I have to tell you here that I never add sugar to this. Very ripe persimmons are extremely sweet, but judge for yourself if you feel the persimmon ice cream is too tart or astringent add away, but be light about it.
Turn your processor on and give it a few buzzes till it's nice and creamy but still semi firm..in other words...ice cream!


You can serve it immediately in which case it is full of dreamy creamy persimmony wonderfulness.


Or, you can chill it and eat it later for a firmer consistency.

There you go, fast, cheap and easy! Everyone will think you are some kind of genius since you manged to pull this off so quickly. Figure on 1 persimmon per helping. I've even been known to whizz this one up after a working lunch and eat it right out of the bowl. I do however take the whirling blade out first. Stay classy Kathy!