March 2010 | The Ivory Hut

Monthly Archives: March 2010

Homemade ice cream. Finally.

29 March 2010

Alternate title #1: How an innocent blog post turned into a Costco shopping spree.

Alternate title #2: Uh-oh. I’m in sooo much trouble now.

In my previous post about ice cream cravings, I lamented the fact that my favorite ice cream flavors were either too difficult to find, or too expensive to regularly stock. I asked you to share your favorite flavors, and boy, did you make me hungry with your comments. In fact, it finally reached the point where I threw caution to the wind and boxes into my car, and turned a routine supply-replenishing trip to Costco into a full-blown impulse buying session. Except, in this case, the impulse did not hit me from nowhere. I knew exactly what caused it.

And I fully intend to continue passing on the blame to you. It makes the prospect of expanding waistlines a bit more bearable if I get to point the finger at someone else.

Okay, so not all of that was ice cream related. Although I did remember to pick up a couple of quarts of heavy cream, half-and-half, and a gallon of milk. I wasn’t taking any chances; I wanted to be able to make my ice cream already as soon as the bowls were frozen.

This is the ice cream maker I got. A Cuisinart, and it came with two bowls. I had been researching ice cream makers for some time now, and I knew this was the one recommended by America’s Test Kitchen. I do have a KitchenAid mixer, and its ice cream attachment is top-rated among the $100-or-less models. But this one was almost half the price of the attachment, and the double bowl sealed the deal for me. (You can also buy the ice cream maker from Amazon, which could help me buy more ingredients to play with.)

My first attempt was a straight up chocolate ice cream, following the recipe included in the Cuisinart manual. It seemed simple enough: you pulse good quality chocolate along with sugar until everything is powder-like, then pour in hot milk to make a ganache. Mix in some heavy cream, a touch of vanilla, and then chill the mixture. The fire up the machine, and watch it go.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the machine didn’t make as much noise as some reviews said it did. After about 30 minutes, I found myself staring at a wonderfully rich soft serve blanket of chocolate. It’s amazing to see how just some milk, sugar, cream, and a block of Valrhona bittersweet chocolate could turn into such decadent goodness just by the addition of cold and slow churning. After some hours in the freezer, it was exactly as I had hoped it would be.

Ecstatic with my first success, I decided to try one of my favorites: coconut ice cream. In the Philippines, it’s called macapuno ice cream, and sadly, the English translation of macapuno in no way does it justice. “Mutant coconut.” My goodness. It almost sounds radioactive, no?

Macapuno is a type of coconut that has thick but jelly-like meat inside. It’s easily grated into “strings” or long shreds, and it’s a much more pleasant texture to mix into ice cream than regular, flaked coconut. But since the only mutant currently within reach is my flower garden that hasn’t been weeded since last summer, I had to make do without any add-ins. That didn’t faze me at all. What I really cared about was getting the right kind of rich, creamy coconut taste that I remember enjoying while growing up in the Philippines.

Enter David Lebovitz, whose Quick Coconut Ice Cream Recipe with Saffron caught my eye. It’s a recipe he attributes to Nicky Stich of delicious:days, and like him, I was drawn by the promise of “quick.” And that it didn’t call for eggs. I certainly wasn’t in the mood to separate eggs at 11pm, much less figure out what to do with the orphaned egg whites. (I hate wasting ingredients.)

I stuck to the basics, skipped the saffron, and doubled the recipe. I fudged some amounts too, which didn’t seem to hurt one bit. It was every bit as easy as the recipe promised: a can of coconut milk, 2 cups heavy cream, and 1/3 cup sugar. Scalded to let the sugar dissolve completely, cooled, then poured into the ice cream machine.

Let me tell you this: the darn thing was so absolutely delicious that I didn’t miss the pieces of mutant anything in it. And I seriously, seriously considered hiding the entire container in the freezer in the garage.

Like I said earlier: I’m in sooo much trouble now.

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Basic Chocolate Ice Cream
(Recipe from Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker instruction manual)

1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the sugar and the chocolate in a food processor and pulse until granulated. Scald the milk and pour it into the food processor. Mix until blended. Let cool, then stir in the heavy cream and vanilla. Chill then pour into the ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. Makes 1.5 quarts.

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Quick Coconut Ice Cream
(Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz, via Nicky Stich of Delicious Days)

14 oz. can of coconut milk
2 cups heavy cream
1/3 cup sugar

Scald coconut milk, heavy cream, and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Let cool completely, pour into ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. Makes about 2 pints.

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Ice cream

26 March 2010

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Lately, I’ve been craving ice cream. I don’t know if it has something to do with the warmer weather, or hormones. Or my sweet tooth awakening at the same time the flower buds are. Or hormones.

Maybe it’s hormones.

The thing is, my favorite ice cream flavors aren’t exactly the kind you can just pick up from your neighborhood grocery. Unless your neighborhood is in the Philippines. Or any other place in Asia. Or somewhere in the Caribbean.

Or maybe just Chinatown in New York, where you can head to The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory and indulge in “regular” flavors like lychee, pandan, taro, or black sesame. (Ironically, their “exotic” flavors include such out-of-this-world entries as … rocky road. And mint chocolate chip. Vanilla, even!)

Of course, I don’t need a plane ticket to head to Chinatown in New York. But in the middle of rush hour, it could very well take just as long to get there. And the parking would cost just as much. Which is unfortunate, because all week, I’ve really been fighting this nagging need for green tea ice cream. And okay, it’s not a new craving at all.

I love green tea ice cream. I could eat it all day. And I probably would, if it didn’t cost $500 per quart. (Okay fine, I exaggerate a bit. But a serving of this probably costs as much as an entire box of Breyer’s when it’s half-price at Shop-Rite.)

I’ve got a number of other ice cream favorites, too. Like avocado. Yeah, I can’t even find that around here. Cheese ice cream? Forget it. Coconut? Just as expensive as green tea. Mango? I’m sorry, but nothing beats the taste of Philippine mango ice cream, so I’m not even going there.

So this is my dilemma. I really, really, really want to make all my favorite flavors of ice cream. But I really, really, really don’t need to be eating that much ice cream.

Still, I really, really, really want to make the ice cream anyway.

And I’m really, really, really going to nag and repeat myself and whine until I finally get me one of those ice cream makers.

Green tea ice cream, I promise you this: soon, you will be mine.

And I don’t care that I’m lactose intolerant. Nope, I don’t care one bit.

How about you? Do you have a favorite ice cream flavor? One that you might drive across town and into the neighboring state to get? And if that drive might be in the general direction of New York City’s Chinatown, would you give me a ride?

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Powerless

23 March 2010

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had quite the storm here the other week. The winds snapped some of our bamboo in half, a big tree decided to fall over and rest on our house, and our power went out. Which wasn’t unexpected. We thought it would come back up fairly quickly, but nothing doing. And although we had a generator sitting in the shed, we just couldn’t get it to work.

And when I say “we,” I really mean “not me.”

When night falls and you’re sitting in the dark with only a few candles lit and absolutely no electrical power, you realize how much of your everyday life is dependent on electronics. The initial smugness that you feel when you think, “Ha! My laptop is fully charged, you fool!” instantly dissipates when you realize that the modem, and hence any kind of internet connection, is down. There’s no catching up on chores either, since the vaccuum and the laundry machines run on electricity too. I didn’t lament that part too much.

Undaunted, and refusing to accept that we might be a bit too dependent on the power company, we found ways to entertain ourselves. First, Tim picked up his guitar and started strumming aimlessly. So I picked up mine, intending to maybe launch into a John Denver or Bread song. I don’t know what happened, but we instead ended up playing Yellow Bird, with Tom singing his Caribbean heart out. And, as is always the case when I play Yellow Bird, I threw it into a Jamaica Farewell mashup, which is always fun until you realize you just turned a 3-minute song into an 8-minute medley that just won’t end.

We finally got tired of that, so after 7 minutes, we decided to play word games. Using only names of ingredients, we went around, each one giving a word that starts with the last letter of the previous word. We quickly found out that we really don’t know a lot of ingredients that begin with the letter E. And although I couldn’t tell clearly in the dark, I think I got a few dirty looks when I said “endive.” I don’t know exactly when the game ended, but I think it was right around the time we realized Tom was making words up and insisting, “No, that’s a real fruit/vegetable/seasoning/herb in Trinidad!”

It called to mind the time when I was growing up in the Philippines, where power outages (blackouts and brownouts, as we call them) were at one time fairly regular. Unfazed, we still played games outside, or sat at the piano singing every song that came to mind. Once, on the middle of one of the many failed coups during the late Corazon Aquino’s presidency, we spent an entire evening huddled in the dark in the basement of my uncle’s house, listening to the radio reports of snipers firing at vehicles on the road. As stressful as it was, when we think back on it now, what we mostly remember was my cousin breaking out her baby brother’s toy piano-harmonica hybrid (I have no idea what it’s called) and playing music almost all night long. We pretended it was a saxophone and soon forgot the chaos going on outside.

It’s such an indelible memory that about 15 years ago, when my cousin was going through old boxes of things in their house in Manila, she found the toy and sent it to me here. And I instantly understood the gesture, and the nostalgia behind it. I keep it in our family room, proudly displayed despite all the scratches and the chipped mouthpiece. And I play it still, always instantly transported back to that time as soon as the first note fills the air around me.

These days, when I need something to do idly besides reading, I mostly reach for my iPod and play a game of Scrabble, Kendoku, or Unblock Me. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But after our recent prolonged power outage, I realized that, aside from the supreme joy that it gives me, there’s something else that I get from music that I may have taken for granted before: its power to transform a dark, quiet, sparse space into something glorious, without the need for any source of external power but the one that’s already inside you.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m over the word games. I’m still kinda nerdy like that.

How about you? What would you do if you lost power for 24 or even 48 hours? Or, say you’re in the woods somewhere, in a tent maybe, and no, you can’t plug into your camper’s power source. And it’s too dark to read. (And you’re not allowed to sleep or just do nothing, or else a … a … a bunch of gangster bears will come and harass you. Yep, that’s right. You heard me. Gangster bears.) Do you have any favorite non-electronic games or activities that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear them! Because, to be honest, I think the guys around here might smother me with a pillow if I suggest another game of ingredient names.

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Shortcut Naan

21 March 2010

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I was going to call this post “How I make naan when I have … none” but decided I’d spare you the obvious pun. It’s one I’ve overused around the house to the point that the boys just roll their eyes at me when I do it.

Then I threaten to go on strike and deprive them of all forms of baked goods, and they instantly start cackling out loud. I swear, sometimes it feels like the roles are reversed around here. Rolling eyes? Cackling? Aren’t those supposed to be in my job description?

In any case, I realize I might be losing a bit of my advantage by posting this, because now they won’t have to rely on me to produce the naan around here. I’m going to show you (and, by extension, them as well) how I make a quick, shortcut naan that, although not quite authentic, is absolutely delicious in its own right. It might actually be more of a roti than naan, except roti doesn’t have yeast in it. So it’s really a hybrid. Or a mutant. An alien just as confused about its identity as I am.

Which is might be another reason I like it so much.

So here’s where the shortcut comes in: you use any dough that you have available. I almost always have a batch of boule dough hanging around, so that’s what I use. The lovely Zoë François over at Artisan Bread in Five, which is where I saw this idea first, says that you can use any kind of dough. Next time, I’m trying it with dinner roll dough, which probably means you could also do this with frozen store-bought bread dough.

Just grab few small handfuls of dough and shape them into little balls, about the size of a tangerine.

I usually let the dough rest a bit, to make it easier to roll. Then roll it out thin, and heat up a cast iron skillet. Or use a grill pan if someone used your cast iron skillet to make steak the previous night and hasn’t cleaned it up yet.

When your skillet or grill is hot, melt some ghee on it. You can also use clarified butter, but the point is to use something with a high enough burning point so you don’t have to worry about burning the dough. When melted, just put the rolled out dough on the skillet or grill, and cover it (hopefully with a heavier, prettier lid than the hobo lid I have in the photo). This simulates the clay oven baking of traditional naan. After two minutes, check the dough. It should be cooked underneath, and all bubbly on top. Flip, cover again, and finish cooking on the other side.

While the final side is cooking, I take a plate and line it with a kitchen towel. When the naan is done, I take the naan, lay it on the plate on top of the towel (you can sprinkle a bit of salt on it at this point, but I usually don’t), and wrap it up with the towel. Each succeeding naan goes into that towel, which not only keeps everything warm but also helps soften the naan a bit. Since I often use boule dough, it can get a bit stiffer than other enriched doughs, so the towel helps with that.

And there you have it. Shortcut naan, literally made in minutes.

Shortcut naan makes a wonderful afternoon snack, spread with peanut butter and honey. Or butter and cheese. And served with baigan (eggplant) choka, it’s what completes our vegetarian meals. Then the boys tear pieces of the naan, grab food with it and sit there eating with their hands, while I sit there with my fork and knife trying not to get my hands messy.

And finally, the roles are back to where they should be and all is right once more in my mutant alien world.

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Baigan Choka

18 March 2010

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One of the perks of being married to my husband is that he loves to cook. And he’s more than pretty good at it. This is one of the dishes he prepares when we get nice, young eggplant at the fruit and vegetable market. It’s similar to baba ghanoush but with a few differences, the most relevant to us being that Tim will actually eat this.

I’ve always loved eggplant. Growing up, two of my favorite eggplant (or talong in Tagalog) dishes were tortang talong (grilled eggplant stuffed with ground meat and cooked again like an omelet) and talong salad, which is made with tomatoes, grilled eggplant, onions, and a touch of vinegar. This baigan choka (baigan meaning “eggplant” and choka, a corruption of a Hindi word that refers to the technique of finishing a dish with hot flavored oil) is very close to the Philippine talong salad. Which probably explains why I took an instant liking to it.

We try to do a light, almost-vegetarian meal once a week or so, and when we do, this is always one of top choices. What’s more, it can easily be prepared ahead of time, which means that in the 20 minutes that it takes for me to cook the roti or naan to go with it, we can ~~beg~~ ~~threaten~~ ask Tim to set the table, Tom can put the finishing touches on the choka, and we can sit down at the table with everything ready in less than half an hour.

There are many variations of this dish, and this is Tom’s current favorite. It starts with grilling the main ingredients: eggplant, tomatoes, and garlic. Ordinarily, we’d do this outside on the grill, but during winter, we do this indoors. But first, do yourself a favor and put some foil down around the burner to make cleanup a lot easier. Take a grill pan, place it right over the gas burner, and start roasting. Make sure you rub the eggplant with a little vegetable oil before roasting, then keep turning until all the sides are roasted and the eggplant is cooked. Do the same for the tomatoes and garlic.

You can also just roast it directly on the grate, without using a grill pan (notice the foil on the stove there). You really want the flames to hit the vegetables, which gives them that lovely charred flavor. There’s no need to coat the tomatoes or garlic with oil when you roast them.

Let the vegetables cool and peel the roasted skin off. You can do this the same way you would peel a roasted pepper, by placing them in a bowl and covering the bowl with plastic wrap. The steam helps loosen the skin, and makes peeling a lot easier.

After peeling, cut the tops off the eggplants and place then in a large bowl. Do the same with the tomatoes. The vegetables tend to release some water or moisture after roasting. Be sure to discard the liquid. Mash the eggplant and tomatoes in the bowl with a fork until there are no more chunks.

Then peel the roasted garlic, mash it with a fork, and add it to the bowl. Thinly slice an onion and add that to the mix. Season with salt and fresh hot pepper if you like it spicy (large pieces of Scotch bonnet or habanero, or jalapeno, so you can easily pick them out if it gets too spicy).

Now for the “choka” part of the dish. Right before serving, take a deep ladle, put about 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in it and three crushed (but still whole) cloves of garlic in it. (Sometimes, I’ll sprinkle a few cumin seeds in there too.) Fire up the stove and hold the ladle right above the fire until the garlic starts to sizzle. Then take the hot oil with the garlic and pour this over the eggplant mixture. You’ll hear it sizzle, which is exactly what you want. Give it a final mix, tear yourself a piece of roti or naan, and dig in.

This is how my boys eat this. I’m the lightweight in the house when it comes to spice, so we make the dish mild. It’s perfect for me, and they chomp on fresh jalapenos on the side for added spice.

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Baigan Choka

3 large purple eggplant
3 plum tomatoes
8-9 cloves garlic, or to taste
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
vegetable oil, for roasting eggplant
fresh hot pepper (Scotch bonnet, habanero, or jalapeno), optional

Instructions:

Rub the eggplant with a little vegetable oil. Roast the vegetables over open flame (either on a grill or directly on a gas stovetop) until the skins are charred and the vegetables are cooked. Let cool and peel the vegetables. Discard any extra liquid released.

Trim the stems off the eggplant. Chop the eggplant into pieces and put in a bowl. Add the tomatoes and mash with a fork until there are no more chunks. Take the peeled garlic, mash it with a fork, and add it to the mixture along with the slices of onion. Season with salt and some fresh hot pepper, to taste.

Right before serving, heat up 3-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with 2-3 smashed cloves of garlic. When garlic starts sizzling, take off heat and pour over the eggplant mixture. Give it one more stir, and serve with roti or naan.

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It’s stuff like this that makes us look forward to our weekly vegetarian dinners.

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