Mango & Tomato

7/7/11

Jeni's Ice Creams' Goat Cheese Ice Cream

Earlier last week I tweeted a question about what kind of ice cream to make to go with the sour cherry compote I've made earlier.

I've received several suggestions, but the one I decided to follow was to ask @jenisicreams for a recipe of her goat cheese ice cream. Jeni was kind enough to sent me a link to Epicurious, which featured her Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Roasted Red Cherries.

I followed the recipe pretty much to a t, but skipped adding roasted red cherries, since I was planning to top my ice cream with the sour cherry compote.

Unlike many of the ice cream recipes I've seen, this one doesn't use any egg yolks. Instead, it uses goat cheese, cream cheese, whole milk, heavy cream, sugar, corn syrup and cornstarch.

Don't worry, the ice cream doesn't scream GOAT CHEESE, but it does have a lovely slight savory taste to it. I am so glad I made this recipe: of course now the ice cream is sitting in my freezer and is taunting me to eat it daily. So far, I've resisted a few times ;)

Here's what you do: gather all of your ingredients. Make sure the cream cheese and goat cheese are at room temperature, but everything else is pretty cold.

Make a slurry with the cornstarch and some of the milk. Set aside.

Whisk together cream cheese and goat cheese with a bit of salt. Set aside.

Heat the milk, cream and sugar. Bring to a boil. THEN add the cornstarch mixture. Guess who messed up on that step and added the cornstarch directly to the cold milk? ME! I was pretty nervous that the ice cream will be a failure, but luckily, things turned out fine at the end. Once the milk mixture thickens, slowly whisk it into the goat cheese mixture till smooth. Transfer to a large Ziploc bag and immerse into an ice bath for about 30 minutes. Then add to your pre-frozen ice cream bucket and churn.

Transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for about 4 more hours.

Here's what you get! I think it looks gorgeous: so white and creamy and pure. But then of course I had to add some bright red sour cherry compote on top.

I'm submitting this post to the Goaterie, a group of people with shared interests in all things goat ;) For more details, click here.

And if you are a fan of goat cheese but are a bit worried about it in desserts, try my Raw Beet Salad with Goat Cheese Medallions.

What are some of the unusual ice cream flavors you've made or tried recently?

7/5/11

What to do with sour cherries? Sour Cherry Compote Recipe

Remember my trip to pick sour cherries a few weekends ago? I ended up picking 10 pounds, giving 2 to my friend, freezing a bunch and at the end had about 7 cups of pitted cherries to deal with.
Of course many suggested I make a cherry pie or cobbler; my mom said I should make Russian sour cherries turnovers, but I wanted something a lot simpler.

Last year I made a 5 minute jam using black currants and thought why not make the same with sour cherries?

I opted to cut down on sugar and used 2 cups of sugar and 7 cups of sour cherries.

I brought the mixture to a boil, and let it bubble for 5 minutes. Jam it wasn't. What it was was a compote. But I did not care. It smelled and tasted delicious.

I ended up transferring the cooled compote to 3 jars and refrigerating it. It's great mixed in with sparkling water, added to cocktails or eaten on top of ice cream (stay tuned for a goat cheese ice cream post!).

Scroll all the way down to see a quick breakfast/dessert/snack idea I made with the sour cherry compote.

I had some Greek yogurt and slivered almonds left over from a few recipes I was testing and decided to combine them with the sour cherry compote for a quick healthy-ish dessert. It was superb: the yogurt was creamy and slightly tart, the cherries were sweet and juicy, and the toasted almonds added a needed crunch. Not to mention the dessert is pretty enough to serve to your guests!

7/2/11

Fruit, Berry & Yogurt Trifle

Inspiration for recipes comes in all different forms for me. This time, the Fruit, Berry & Yogurt Trifle was inspired by Gina's Red, White and Blueberry Trifle.

Although I have two trifle dishes, I did not want to use them: they are just too big for one person to handle. Instead, I used a round short vase I bought at a discount store. Love things that are multipurpose: right now it's holding a sunflower.

But back to the trifle. I only used fruit and berries and yogurt. You, of course can also use cake!

Ingredients

32 ounces plain yogurt, drained over night

zest of 1 orange

variety of berries (I used strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)

champagne mango, peeled and sliced

Directions

1. Combine drained yogurt with orange zest.

2. Layer yogurt with berries and mango. Eat immediately because otherwise the yogurt may start to separate.

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I'm spending it with friends BBQing. The rest of the weekend should be chilling out, cooking, organizing and cleaning. Let's see how much I get done ;)

6/30/11

Sour Cherry Picking with Cecilia and Laetitia

Last Saturday, Cecilia, Laetitia and I headed out to pick sour cherries at Butler's Orchards. The weather was pretty much perfect, the sour cherries were plentiful and easy to pick, and we had a great time hanging out, lunching out and shopping at Ikea and Costco afterwards. What a perfect day with fun girls!

Below are photos from our adventures. I ended up picking 10 pounds of sour cherries: I gave 2 pounds to my friend Cindy, froze about 6 pounds and made cherry compote from the rest of the cherries. Let's just say there was a lot of pitting involved.

PS here's a post about blueberry picking I did last year at the same place with Mary and Jenna.

6/29/11

Grilled Vegetable & Havarti Pita-nini

Sunday was a busy day. I was baking mango, pistachio & crystallized ginger muffins, pitting nearly 10 pounds of sour cherries (I promise to post photos from the cherry picking and one of the things I did with them so far soon), making a berry/fruit/yogurt trifle, taking photos and avoiding doing the laundry.

Yes, avoiding doing the laundry counts as an activity.

Amongst all of my cooking projects, I also had to come up with a quick lunch idea. I had some adorable patty squash in my refrigerator from a farmers' market trip, red peppers, pita and havarti cheese. I thought I should make something with all of them...and thus came up with the idea for Grilled Vegetable & Havarti Pita-nini.

What's a pita-nini? Well, I just came up with this word...hope it's not as annoying as some of the cutesy words RR invents {y'all know who I'm talking about, right?}. Instead of using bread to make a panini, I used a pita!

You can obviously use any grilled vegetables you like and experiment with different kinds of cheeses. This is just an idea, not an exact recipe.

Grilled Vegetable & Havarti Pita-nini (for 1)

Ingredients
2-3 patty squash, sliced across {of course you can use regular zucchini}
1/2 red pepper, cut into large chunks
salt & pepper
olive oil to drizzle
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 slices Havarti cheese
1 wholewheat pita
1 ripe tomato, sliced
4-6 basil leaves

Directions
1. In a bowl, combine your vegetables with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Marinade for at least 30 minutes.
2. Grill your vegetables till they have softened and formed gorgeous grill marks. I used my panini maker for this: no need to turn your vegetables since they are being grilled on both sides at once! {about 7 minutes}

3. Using scissors, separate your pita into top and bottom pieces.
4. Build your pita-nini: pita, cheese, grilled vegetables, tomatoes, basil, more cheese, pita.

5. Cook your pita-nini for about 3 minutes on your panini grill just till the cheese melts.

I really liked the flavors in this dish, and it's simple to make and is not only colorful, but is super healhty! You can obviously make the same dish in a pan if you don't have a panini maker: just be careful when flipping the pita to cook it on both sides.

What are some of your ideas for a quick lunch? Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches do not count.

PS: for my other panini grilling adventures, take a look at Caprese Panini.

6/27/11

Mango, pistachio & crystallized ginger muffins

When I read Monica Bhide's tweet about baking mango bread, I knew I'd have to do it. Monica adapted her recipe from from Sweet Hands by Ramin Ganeshram. But you know me: I had to make a few changes myself!

Instead of making a mango bread, I decided to make mango muffins: cuter and easier to control the portions. Plus, they make a great portable breakfast or snack.

I thought that just using a mango puree wasn't enough: why not add chunks of mango {I used champagne mangoes} into the muffins themselves?

Monica's recipe used nutmeg, cinnamon and walnuts, but those are not my favorites. I thought pistachios and crystallized ginger would provide a better contrast to the sweet and relatively mild mango flavor.

As I was making the batter, even before I added mango chunks, pistachio nuts and crystallized ginger, the batter was incredibly thick. Perhaps my champagne mango wasn't large enough. I should have followed the cup measurement instructions in the recipe instead of going with the number of fruit. I panicked. What to do? I opted to add an extra egg and 1/4 cup of a Mangue Vinaigre I had left over from the shrimp & mango recipe I made for Robyn.

At the end, everything came together beautifully and the muffins were even a success with my friend's 2 year old son. What more can I ask for?

Mango, Pistachio & Crystallized Ginger Muffins

Ingredients
1.5 cups peeled and cubed mango
zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 teaspoon water
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 champagne mango, peeled & diced
2 tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger
3/4 cups shelled pistachios, chopped
optional: 1/4 cup orange juice, mango puree or Mangue Vinaigre to use in case you need to thin out the batter

{This is what my kitchen looks like when I cook. I told you I'm a messy cook!}

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. In a blender, puree 1.5 cups of chopped mango, lime juice and water. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
4. In a small bowl whisk together 2 eggs, oil and lime zest. Add to the dry ingredients and incorporate well. Use additional mango puree, orange juice or Mangue Vinaigre if the batter is too thick.
5. Mix in 1 chopped mango, crystallized ginger and pistachios.
6. Using an ice cream scoop, divide the batter among 12 lined muffin cups.
7. Bake for 20 minutes. Let the muffins cool slightly before eating.

I really liked these! And was really happy that they came out despite the fact that I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe. The muffins turned out moist on the inside with great bursts of sweetness from the incorporated mango chunks, a bit of spice from crystallized ginger and some bit and gorgeous green color from pistachios.

As if sharing my messy kitchen with you wasn't enough, click on the image above (the one on the right) to see what my recipe notes look like! {Also, notice the new green background: DIY project!}

6/24/11

What will I find at a farmers' market?

It's Friday and I'm feeling tired and a little lazy. So I'll simply share with you a few things I picked up at a local farmers' market last week.

When I go to a farmers' market, I rarely have an idea of what I want to buy. Instead, I stroll around, try a few samples, and see what sparks my interest.

Last week, instead of strolling from one stand to another, I was walking really quickly, holding an umbrella, and trying not to get drenched by the horrendous rain.

In the end, I picked up three different things: patty squash, little strawberries and red tomatoes.

What did I do with them? Well, the patty squash I thinly sliced and sauteed with onion and garlic, added some black beans, feta and fresh herbs: a lovely quick dinner.

I still have a few of the patty squash left in my refrigerator and will think of another dish to make with them this weekend. Growing up in Russia, my mom used to marinade and can them: delightful!

When it came to the little strawberries, they were overflowing with juices! I made a quick concoction of sour cream and sugar, and used it as a dip for the strawberries. That's something we used to do in Russia. Some people find it an odd combination, but trust me: it's divine and simple and sweet and slightly tart all at the same time. By the time I finished eating the strawberries, my fingers were bright red from the juices.

And then there were the tomatoes! One of them I sliced, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper and ate straight up. Others went into simple salads with cucumbers and dill. I might have eaten one whole like I eat an apple. What can I say? I ♥ tomatoes!

What have you picked up at the farmers' market lately? Any weekend cooking plans? I'm planning on going to a pick-your-own-produce farm with Cecilia and Laetitia, and spending some quality time experimenting with a mango bread recipe on Sunday.

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