Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

So, Titus turned four in May. He insisted on an ice cream cake. Unfortunately, he only likes vanilla ice cream. I figured it might be a bit boring.. but hey, it's his cake. And he loved it. So did all the guests! I served strawberries on the side - the birthday boy didn't have any, though. (And he didn't appreciate the chocolate cookies I used as decoration, either.. sigh.)

Vanilla Ice Cream Cake

200 ml full-fat milk
100 ml sugar (I used home made vanilla sugar)
1 tsp commercial vanilla sugar (or go ahead and use a scraped out vanilla bean if you happen to have one)
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
300 ml cream (full-fat)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the milk with the sugar, vanilla sugar and salt until steaming hot (but not boiling). Cover with a lid, and remove from the heat, and let it sit to infuse for about 30 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl. Re-heat the milk mixture, and when it's warm, add a little to the egg yolks and stir well. Pour the now-tempered egg yolks into the saucepan, and heat everything gently until slightly thickened. Stir all the time.

Take a clean bowl that has a lid, and place a sieve on top. Add the cream and the vanilla extract. Then sieve the contents of your saucepan into the bowl as well. Stir to mix, and cover with a lid. Let this cool completely, ideally over night.

Run in your ice cream machine until frozen, then pour into a small springform tin. Place in the freezer for at least four hours.

Decorate as you see fit... or more fun, let your toddler do it!

Speedy Strawberry Ice Cream

It's hot.  It's hot everywhere.  The country is on fire.  The mosquitos are having a field day.  I moved away from the Midwest 10 years ago and haven't had a mosquito bite until this summer.  What, is, going, ON Southern California?!?  I wake up every morning with bites in the most god forsaken places.  Like, the tip of my toe????  Or this morning... in between two fingers.  Thanks for that mosquito.  It's hot.  And no one wants to cook.  So when a friend sent me this recipe for a quick and easy strawberry ice cream, I knew it was something I had to share with you people.  My method doesn't even require an ice cream maker!  Just a quick stir every hour or so in front of the freezer, which is where you want to be anywhere, isn't it?  FREEZE TO DEATH MOSQUITOS!

p.s. This ice cream is creamy, refreshing and delicious.    

Speedy Strawberry Ice Cream

Makes 1 1/2 quarts

Source: Star Tribune

(Printable Recipe)

1 lb. strawberry - washed, trimmed and halved (or quartered if strawberries are big)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/3 cup heavy cream

1 T lime zest  

Place strawberries, sugar, cream and lime zest in a blender.  Blend until well combined.  Transfer mixture to a freezer-safe bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer.  Stir with spatula, scraping down sides, every hour until ice cream reaches desired consistency - usually about 4 hours later.

Cookin' It. Livin' It. Lovin' It.

Even though we have a very, very long history of written correspondence via the good old post office, for the past few years Paz and I have been taking turns sending each other 'care packages'. They are kind of, but not necessarily, for birthdays, Christmas, and the like. The ones from me show up on time – unless I accidentally send one to her childhood address where a bunch of frat boys now live, or I mess up the postage, for no good reason at all. The ones from Paz, well, they show up when they show up. I received my last birthday package on the first day of Fall. My birthday is in mid-June. And so, fittingly, she gave me my Christmas package while I was visiting home last month. In April.

From my end the packages are not what most people would describe as important or precious. Often I go through my house and find an odd mish-mash of tchotchkes, randoms and play pretties. Anything from old pictures, to stickers, to a Ryan Gosling coloring book, to old CDs, to clothes that no longer fit, to Chanel nail polish. The very Chanel nail polish she was oohing and ahhing over in some fashion magazine the last time she visited me in LA. To her credit, her packages do seem a little more thought out than mine. It certainly doesn't seem that she is ambling through her house grabbing this and that off of the shelves.

My recent April Christmas package was really kicky, actually. She had been back to visit her 'people' in the Dominican Republic very recently, and snagged some pretty great stuff for me during her stay. There were two types of rum (rhum?), white and black. I don't drink rum (rhum?), but fortuitously my dad does. So I left that behind for him. There was nail polish (not Chanel), a cowbell (no clue), a Guy Fieri spatula that reads, “Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It”, and a huge wad of straight-from-the-DR, dulce de leche. Paz knows me well. She knows I don't have a sweet tooth, per se, but I love the more savory, more muted versions of sweets: dulce de leche being a prime ejemplo.

And so from the Dominican Republic, to Richmond, Virginia, to Los Angeles, California, traveled this dulce de leche. And the Guy Fieri spatula. Of course. Funny thing about the Guy Fieri spatula; I know she gave it to me as a gag (we shared massive giggles over the, now-infamous, Pete Welle's scathing review of Guy's American Kitchen & Bar this past November). But, I have to admit, it is actually a really good spatula. Who knew Guy Fieri would ever be so prominent in my own Flavor Town; my kitchen.

Back to the dulce de leche, which is literally translated as candy of milk, or milk candy. The Dominican Republic version is made with equal parts milk and sugar with cinnamon, and the texture is a lot like fudge. Now. What was I going to do with it? I know that it is often used to flavor cakes and cookies. I've also seen toffee-like dulce de leche candies. But the weather is warm, the flowers are blooming, the tank tops are out, and when Fred and I looked at one another we knew. It's ice cream time.

Which is great, because that is all Fred. Fred is the ice cream man, and everyone who has eaten his ice cream will agree. He has a way. And when I say he has a way, I mean to say he has a French (or sometimes Italian) way. Fred is not afraid of the egg yolk. And considering eggs are so the new bacon, which is to say, wicked hip, why should he be? I guess my Fred is wicked hip.

To elaborate, French ice cream is made with egg yolks, so it's thick and custardy. Both French and Italian ice creams are made this way, while the French use a bit more cream to milk and Italy more milk to cream. Whereas American ice cream (also called Philadelphia-style) is made with sugar, milk and cream. No eggs. European ice cream is richer, silkier and it doesn't develop nearly as many ice crystals as its lighter cousin. And when I say cousin, I mean to say the kind of cousins that don't much care for one another. The French hate American ice cream.

Fred's ice cream is no joke – sweet, decadent, thick and velvety. For his dulce de leche ice cream he also added some toasty, salty almond chunks for texture. For a small dinner party coming up he is making a pine nut ice cream with fresh strawberries and honey. I mean, come on.

And yes, he makes the ice cream with our new Guy Fieri spatula. Because we, in fact, are “Cookin' It, Livin' It, Lovin' It”.

And Eatin' It.

Dulce de Leche Helado

Makes 2 pints

1 lb. Or 1 2/3 cup dulce de leche (purchased, or homemade)

2 cups whole milk

1 cup heavy cream

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons sugar

¾ cup chopped toasted (and lightly salted) almonds

Pinch of salt

Whisk together dulce de leche and the whole milk in a medium saucepan. Heat gently over medium heat until very hot, but not boiling. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light in color.

Slowly add the hot milk mixture to the eggs while whisking. Pour back into the pan. Gently cook over low to medium heat, until it starts to thicken and reaches 160 degrees F on an instant read thermometer. (Don't let it exceed 180 degrees, or it will curdle. If you don't have a thermometer, cook until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.) Strain the cooked custard through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl and add the cream.

When mixture is thoroughly cold, churn using your method of choice. Add almond chunklets to the ice cream when there are about 5 minutes left in the churning process. Transfer to a freezer safer container and freeze for several hours before serving.

Printable recipe.

One year ago: Classic Shad Roe with Bacon & Fresh Herbs

Three years ago: Lima Beans in Cream & Butter

Artisan Alfero Gelato ...New Outlet at Lorong Kilat

I first tasted Alfero's Gelato was when Marco just opened the outlet at Marina Square. Marco was peddling his gelato like a jovial ice cream man then. That was when The Baci was introduced to us which was like the Ferraro Rocher flavor. We tasted The Pistachio and were raving about it since. It was as good as the one we had at Grom in Florence, Italy. Then, I knew where to find the best Italian gelato in Singapore. Marco invited us to visit his laboratory in Macpherson where he concocted his gelato flavors. We did not visit his lab which is closer to where we live but we chose to travelled further to his newest gelato shop in Lorong Kilat.

Lorong Kilat looks so quiet on a Sunday afternoon but what lurks behind the line of parked cars are crazily popular Carpenter and Cook. Two shop spaces away is Alfero Gelato's newest shop.

The shimmering Alfero Carreto, the house gelato cart, welcomes us near the entrance. It was there serving folks in the heat of the Singapore F1 races.

The difference between Alfero Gelato and Ice Cream is all up on the chalkboard.

Premium flavors are marked with a red 'P'.

For the opening, the Lorong Kilat outlet is having a 1-for-1 promotion. We got The Pistachio, The Strawberry, The Tiramisu and Nuts About You.

My favorite flavor, The Pistachio, that I know that 'Even the godfather loves it!'

Only the best ingredients were chosen ... resulting in the best natural tasting flavors in the gelatos.

I concur that Alfero Gelato is my best in Singapore. Marco got me when he first dished out a spoonful of The Baci to me at Marina Square. Don't believe, then you got to try it to believe!

21 Lorong Kilat

Singapore 598123

Alfero Gelato Facebook

Churning Things Up.

My house flooded a couple of weeks ago. There was some damage, but not a ton. Mostly it was a big pain and a big bummer. But, after a week, most of the repairs had been completed by the workmen , the clean-up had been done (by me), and save for the warped hardwood floors and the stench of mildew, all was back to normal.

And another week passed. The mildew smell was not getting any better. In fact, it seemed worse. So I looked up mold on the internet. The words fungus and lungs (in the same sentence) popped out at me and I promptly freaked out. I emailed the landlord that he needed to bring over a dehumidifier tout suite and that he, himself, come check out the situation. That didn’t really happen.

Then one evening Fred was ribbing me about the lack of photos of us and moreover, the fact that I hate him trying to take my picture all the time, so I ran into my room to grab one of my old photo albums to illustrate the fact that many pictures of me actually exist. And well… the source of the mildew stink was unearthed. My precious photo albums had fallen victim to the flood. And they reeked.

I’ve often stated that, if I were only able to save one thing from my burning house (living things aside), that it would be my pictures. Though I’m not entirely certain I still feel that way, this made me quite upset. And so began the process of saving the pictures. It was kind of late at night following a few glasses of wine and Fred helped out. We started with High School. I pulled the pictures out of the album and he laid them out on any flat surfaces he could find in the dining nook. It took about an hour or so and it all looked very strange when we were done. There was High School – a mosaic of snapshots – covering every surface in the room. It appeared very abstract.

The next day I was trying to find space in the kitchen to put away the new cast iron items my mom gave me. There is a serious dearth of space in my kitchen. In this process we found my ice cream maker. We decided we should definitely make ice cream. Well, It was mostly Fred’s brain flower. So for the entire day we dug up crazy ingredients around the house and garden and made batch after batch of ice cream!

Well, mostly Fred did that. I had to deal with putting High School into a new album and beginning the same process with College.

It took a few days but I finished dealing with all the photo albums and the stinky is almost all gone. But what a mixed bag that turned out to be. I am usually prepared for what I am going to see and feel on the rare occasion that I bust out the old picture pages. I also can select which ones I will see. But seeing my life, my past, laid out in pictures across two rooms of my house like an in-progress ChuckClose piece… well...

Friends I hardly remember anymore, friends I think about all the time, friends that have died, friends that are still my friends, old loves, old likes, family – alive and dead, me with bad hair,  mom with bad hair, dad with the same hair, where I used to live, where I used to play, what I used to do and the people I did it with. All of this thrown up on itself all over the house over an innocent ice-cream-making weekend with Fred.

A mixed bag, I tell you.

But it was a good thing, really. I edited. Put some of the pictures away elsewhere, reorganized the albums, tightened them up, and all the while I remembered. It was a surprise gift, when I think about it. All of these images, people, places and events are part of the mosaic that is me and my journey. Pretty much exactly like a Chuck Close piece.

And when I was done, I got to sample what Fred was up to during this process:

Fresh Mint and Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Blood Orange Ice Cream with Vanilla Bean & Fresh Orange Thyme

Toasted Coconut and Thai Basil Ice Cream (pictured below)

The boy was busy! And, as it turns out, he is very talented in the ice cream making arena. The mint chip was my favorite as I like the classics. The garden-freshness of the mint added an energizing quality. The blood orange one ended up being very sherbet –like to me, but was my mom’s favorite. The coconut was probably the most interesting and successfully quirky-yet-also-delicious one of the trio. Amelia, from Lindy Grundy, was over the moon for that one.

Fred used a standard recipe for the basic ice creams and riffed when it came to the various flavors and textures. Here I am providing you with the mint chocolate chip recipe. Why? Because I have the most memories attached to that ice cream flavor. It was one of my favorites as a kid. And still is. I’d even go so far as to bet there is a picture of me eating a scoop of it in one of those photo albums.

Fresh Mint & Chip Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk

3/4 cup (150 gr) sugar

2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream

pinch of salt

2 cups packed (80 gr) fresh mint leaves

6 large egg yolks

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

For the chocolate chips:

5 ounces (140 gr) semisweet or milk chocolate, chopped

In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream, salt, vanilla and mint.

Once the mixture is hot and steaming, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for an hour to infuse the mint flavor.

Remove the mint and vanilla bean with a strainer, then press down with a spatula firmly to extract as much mint flavor and color as possible. Once the flavor is squeezed out, discard.

Pour the remaining heavy cream into a large bowl and set the strainer over the top.

Rewarm the infused milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, then slowly pour some of the warm mint mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.

Cook the custard, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. If using an instant read thermometer, it should read around 170ºF.

Immediately strain the mixture into the cream, then stir the mixture over an ice bath until cool.

When mixture is thoroughly cold, churn using your method of choice. Add chocolate chips to the ice cream when there are about 5 minutes left in the churning process. Transfer to a freezer safer container and freeze for several hours before serving.

Printable recipe.

One year ago: Yerp: Part 1

Two years ago: Strawberries, Chocolate Mint & Chantilly Cream with Cornmeal Shortcakes

Cooling Down in Holland Village #2

HY saw my Island Creamery Baked Alaska's post on facebook and decided to indulge herself with some frolicking.

Cooling down in Holland Village #1

I was waiting for HY for her hair cut in Holland village that was supposed to be only 1 hour's wait. The supposed 1 hour wait became 2. Found Island Creamery's new outlet and had a Baked Alaska. The wait cost me S$4.80 for the Baked Alaska and S$300 for a Nikon AF-S 50mm f1.8G from Parisilk.

Lime Ice Cream with Berry Sauce

We're having very, very, very warm weather at the moment (well, for Sweden) so I'm trying my best to cool down. Ice cream is always good, and I've been trying out a bunch of different smoothies from the smoothie contest as well! (I hope I can announce a winner this weekend, so stay tuned for that.)

This is a super fast ice cream that I made a few weeks ago, as a light dessert. It doesn't contain eggs, so there's no need to make a custard and let it sit overnight. Instead, you do all of your hard work - not so hard - in a food processor. There's a similar recipe in my favorite ice cream book, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, but using lemons. Will definitely try that, too!

The berry sauce should be fairly sweet to go with the tart ice cream. I use a white baking syrup which I imagine is close to corn syrup. You can use honey instead, if you'd like.

Lime Ice Cream
zest from two large limes
125 g sugar
125 ml fresh-sqeezed lime juice (I needed three large limes for this)
200 ml milk
300 ml cream (full-fat)

Zest the lime directly into a food processor, and add sugar and lime juice. Mix until the sugar has dissolved - about five minutes. Add milk and cream, and process for a few more minutes, until it's well mixed and starts to thicken.

Place the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour, then freeze in an ice cream maker.

Berry Sauce:
150 g strawberries
150 g raspberries
3-4 tbsp white baking syrup

I used frozen berries - semi-thawed, but it'll be just as good - maybe better using fresh berries. Mix berries in a blender and add syrup gradually. Taste to see that it's sweet enough, and not overly sweet. Serve with the ice cream.

Recipe in Swedish:
Limeglass med bärsås

And This Little Piggy Went to Mercantile...

Last week Doug, Kendra and I went out to dinner. It was kind of spontaneous as I thought I was going to just throw together something from my kitchen and had pretty much planned to do so in my sweats. But, at the Eleventh hour, we decided to go out. Something chill.

Our go-to in this situation is Cheebo. I have an affinity for their chopped salad. But their bar doesn’t cater well to three (it doesn’t have a corner) and I am not wild about the dining room experience there. I threw out a few suggestions and we ended up settling on Mercantile. I had a really nice lunch there a couple of weeks prior (excellent chestnut apple soup, celery root soup and the Frenchy sandwich) and a few glasses of wine (specifically a rosé I was particularly fond of) back closer to when they first opened - these two visits left me curious for a dinner. Plus, they have a corner at the bar.

I think Mercantile is very cute. It’s rustic with wood ceilings, antique wallpaper and jelly jar glasses. It’s both a café and a gourmet market, selling everything from small tins of mustard seeds to wine. It is also the latest addition to George Abou-Daoud’s Hollywood imperium (the Bowery, Delancey, the Mission Cantina). Unbelievably, chef Kevin Napier serves up his international comfort dishes in one of the smallest, most pared down kitchens I’ve seen in a while. I’m talking about two hot plates and a salamander. In his gnomic kitchen he manages to pump out brunch, lunch and dinner, serving up omelettes, biscuits and gravy, lovely soups, foie gras terrine, a badass duck confit salad, a yummy Cuban sandwich, beef shortrib and mac n’cheese.

In addition to a simple and well-priced wine list (sold by the glass, carafe and bottle), they also offer beer and liquor.

This recent evening we split a bottle of red and started things off with a cheese plate ($14 for three cheeses). I appreciate the descriptions of the cheeses with words like stinky and gooey, or earthy and hard, or musty and semi-hard. We went with one of each; a couple of sheep’s milk cheeses and the third with sheep, cow and goat’s milk.

We ate every ounce of our cheeses – we even had to request more bread on which to smear them.

We followed this with a salad of broccoli, burrata and pine nuts. I really fancied the flavors and temperature of this warm salad. I would have preferred a slightly charred broccolini to the steamed broccoli – but that’s just me.

Doug opted for the BLT for his main course. This was bacon, lettuce and tomatillo jam with charred jalapeño goat cheese and pickled red onion on toasty sourdough bread with an accompaniment of mixed greens ($11.50). Although Doug seemed a little thrown by the lack of the traditional T, he thought it was a cool twist.

Kendra ordered the salad of Fennel-Crusted Albacore with potato salad, haricot vert, soft-cooked quail egg, olive tapenade and arugula ($13). All three of us found this dish to be superlative. The tuna was seared to perfection with just the right amount of dressing, the potato salad was surprising and a great touch and the quail egg was beautiful.

I went for the Mushroom Soup ($6); a dairy-free puree topped with a dollop of crème fraiche and chives. I found the soup delicate and rounded. I was actually surprised it wasn’t finished with cream. I also had the Roasted Chicken Salad: butter lettuce, avocado, bacon, cherry tomatoes, chicken crispies, onion rings and tobasco ranch ($13.50). I’ll be honest, I ordered it solely because they used the words chicken crispies in the description. I liked my salad just fine. But I can leave it at that. It was just fine. It was slightly under-dressed with an enormous amount of the lettuce. The crispies were a little overly fried – a little overly crispied. 

During the course of our meal, we were entertained by both the music and our bartender/server (whose iPod was playing said music). After Kendra and Doug left I lingered for a while to try a few other wines and chatted with our DJ/bartender/server, Kyle. Good man.

I was also pleased to discover that they remain open until midnight. I also suggest checking out the cheeses, charcuterie, fresh pastries and ice cream in the case.

Liege Waffles

Believe it or not, there is actually a waffle under that big mountain of goodness. Here is the story behind this waffle.

The other night my husband and I were watching the Travel Channel where they were featuring all of the most unusual fast food joints in the country. One of them was a "waffle cart" where genuine Belgium waffles were sold, some as breakfast waffles, and others as dessert waffles.

If I remember right (and feel free to correct me), the traditional Belgium waffles that we're used to is from Brussels and is light, fluffy and has the thin batter. That is the waffle that is usually served for breakfast. And then there is a waffle that we don't see quite as much, from Liege, in southern Belgium. The batter is much thicker, more like a sticky dough that has much more sugar. This waffle, while I'm sure would still be delicious covered in syrup (what isn't?), is much better as a dessert, covered in things like chocolate, ice cream and...stuff like that.

About two and a half minutes after watching this special, my husband had a printed recipe in his hand and a smile on his face. Needless to say, we enjoy the famous Liege waffles at home that night, and they are delicious! Much sweeter, denser and cake-like, they are the perfect pallet for any embellishments you want to add. This would be a lot of fun to entertain with, especially if your guests had a nice choice of toppings. Either way you should give it a try. It's a fun new way to use that waffle iron!

Liege Waffles
Source Unknown

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1 cup pearl sugar (regular granulated is fine)
1 cup melted butter
3 eggs
1 (1/4 ounce) package yeast
1/3 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (add some vanilla sugar)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Take the lukewarm water and mix in yeast, 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar and salt. Let the yeast develop for 15 minutes. In the meanwhile you can melt the butter, but be careful - do not burn it.

2. Now take a large bowl and put in the flour, make a hole in the middle, pour in the yeast that you made in step one. Also add eggs and melted butter and knead until you get nice and even dough. Then let it rest so the yeast does it's magic and the dough doubles.

3. Now take pearl sugar and gently mix it in.

4. Again, let it rest for 15 minutes, in the meanwhile you can turn on the waffle maker so its nice and hot.

5. All there is left is to pour the waffle dough into the waffle maker and bake for 3-5 minutes (it's going to be thick and sticky, so there's going to be less pouring and more scooping). Because we mixed in the sugar late in the process it will melt and caramelize and give that special Liege waffle taste. Just be careful when you take them out of the waffle maker, caramelized sugar can make them sticky.

Udders Ice Cream ....... Milking outlet in the East.

Fresh made ice cream seems to be the name of the game for ice cream parlours nowadays. We have a spoil for choice now that there's Island Creamery, Tom's Palette, Ice Cream Chefs ....etc. Since I've moved to the East, the frequencies of visiting ice cream parlours have increased. The reason, the several ice cream parlours in this part of Singapore that opened to post dinner hours.

Udders is one of the ice cream parlour that had made a name for themselves for their freshly made uniquely flavored ice cream. Now their outlets are sprouting. Recently, they have one in Siglap. I've checked out Udders website and liked it that they are showing what flavors are still in the R&D phase. We've heard about the Mao Shan Wang Ice Cream and decided to visit for a takeaway.

On a Wednesday night, at 9.30pm, we were surprised that we were greeted to a full house. The Siglap outlet have 2 storeys and there were no space for us. HY and I had to do the takeaway.

Snickers Mars Honeycomb Vanilla

I tried their classic snickers and mars flavour and was sure that its going to be my own classic flavour if I visit Udders again. I love Mars bar, Snickers bar and Vanilla ice cream as a child. Now I can have the 2 chocolate caramel bars and milky rich vanilla ice cream all in one. The Snicker and Mars bar were crushed up into crumbs and then mixed into Udder's fresh and rich vanilla ice cream. Sometimes, you'll have to bite through the tough nuts in the snicker crumbs. This is a sweet one for the sweet tooth.

My Snickers Mars Honeycomb Vanilla flavour in a cone.

Mao Shan Wang

Mao Shan Wang is definitely one of the most popular durian varietal of the decade and Udder's had to blend it into an ice cream. The results, several empty ice cream trays that needs frequent refills. Like the real Mao Shan Wang, the ice cream is very creamy and tasted very 'durian'. Udder's creation of the Mao Shan Wang is potent for a durian ice cream but I still like the punch out of the real thing, the Mao Shan Wang straight out of the thorny husk.

HY's Mao Shan Wang Durian in a cone.

* Photos taken with my iPhone 3GS

87 Upper East Coast Road

Singapore

Tel: 65 6448 8732

Opening Hours

Sun-Thu 12pm-11pm

Fri-Sat 12pm-12am

Udders Ice Cream Website

Detour

In the late 1940s and early 1950s the French were watching a lot of the popular films coming out of this country.  After a little while they stopped to pause and wondered what in God’s teeth was going on over here?! In these films there were men coming home from the war to find the women had taken their jobs, their wives cheating on them or leaving them for the men who weren’t even “manly” enough to go to war, and their children were completely alienated from them. We were full of cynical attitudes and sexual motivation. Absolute disillusionment. We were broken people. A broken country.

But we didn’t seem to realize that at the time.

The French called this era, this genre of film, Film Noir. Black film. These films all have elements of German Expressionism and Italian Neo-Realism. They all incorporate low-key lighting, unbalanced compositions, femme fatales, narration, hard-boiled detectives, and non-linear plot structures (a lot of flashbacks and flash forwards). They are almost always self-reflexive. Some perfect examples of these are: The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, D.O.A., The Woman in the Window, The Lady from Shanghai, The Big Combo and Out of the Past. And I just adore The Blue Dahlia. Interestingly, most all of the material for these films evolved from the pulp novels of writers during the Depression (Chandler, Hammet, etc.)

It seems that usually when we, either as a body of people, or individually, go through big changes we don’t necessarily see it until after the fact. It then is something we went through to get to where we are or where we may be going. Change is more easily understood and seen in a future want, like a New Year’s resolution, but most commonly in retrospect. Others can usually identify our changes before we do.

But occasionally we have those times they are a changin’ that we are staring square in the face. You didn’t even make a New Year’s resolution but suddenly look around and every element of your life, especially the thing that is the most secure, is hanging in the balance. Everything is changing before your eyes, like it or not.

Good, bad, beautiful or ugly – welcome to my now. My change. And right at my birthday. And no, I’m not going through menopause.

This is good. Really. But admittedly, exceedingly daunting. I’ll let you know how it turns out when I can be less reflexive and more reflective.

One change that is occurring that I am conscious of and working towards is my panic with certain fruit related issues. I know I’ve touched on it at least once in the past, but let me really explain the way this works for me:

I do like fruit.
I don’t like fruit touching other fruit.
I don’t like hot or cooked fruit, but I’m getting a little better there.
I am usually wary of fruit in my savory dishes, but I’ve come a long way with that one.
Gooey fruit, such as that in most pies, crumbles, compotes, etc. disarms me. It’s unfortunate.
Fruit FLAVORED anything is a big no.
Any citrus is exempt from all of the above.
If I so much as see applesauce, I will leave the table. That will never change.

As I said, I’m working on most of these things. As a foodie it is a major detriment to hate anything edible. I’m aware of that. But I can proudly say that I will eat anything else in the world.
 
As you may know, my mom is the pastry chef for Dinner at Eight. The first dessert incorporated fresh strawberries. They were not cooked but they did have some liquid that made me a little edgy. I tasted every version we tested for that meal and enjoyed each one. But not without hesitation. For this last Dinner at Eight she made a rustic cherry tart with almond ice cream. Warm, cooked cherries. I tasted the first test and second test runs.

On the first tart we used whole, pitted cherries. They looked like bloody eyeballs to me. I did have a small slice, to make sure it was up to par for the dinner party, but no more than that. And it was really good. I just couldn’t get past the cherries staring up at me. Everyone else who tasted it thought it was divine. Round two is what is photographed here and its recipe is below. We just had to chop up those cherries a bit and I was okay with it (mostly). Again, everyone else that tried it was over the moon.

We’ll see what happens with my whole fruit thing. As I mentioned, I’m working on it. And I guess we’ll see what unfolds with all of these other big, broad strokes of my life. As my friend, Brian, used to always say, “Everything will work out. Or not.”

Rustic Cherry Tart with Almond Ice Cream

Crust
 
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup + 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted & cooked a little)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375.
Toast almonds on baking sheet for 10 minutes.
Cool and place in food processor with sugar; pulse to coarse meal.
Add flour and salt and pulse to combine with almonds.
Transfer ingredients to bowl, add melted butter, vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon ice cold water.
Mix until just combined.
Press dough into a buttered 9" fluted tart pan.
Chill for a minimum of 2 hours.


Filling

1 pound fresh cherries coarsely chopped (chop around pits); toss chopped cherries with 3 teaspoons of sugar and leave in bowl until ready to use
5 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400
Place butter, sugar, flour, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl; mix until combined.
Remove crust from refrigerator; prick surface with a fork.  Using an offset spatula, spread the mixture evenly over crust and chill 15 minutes more.
Remove tart from refrigerator; spread the cherries evenly over the tart mixture. Bake 20 - 25 minutes.



Almond Ice Cream

2 cups raw (whole) almonds
2 cups whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
4 egg yolks (large)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat over to 375
Toast almonds on baking sheet for 10 minutes.  Cool and chop coarsely.
Put 1 cup of the almonds in saucepan, pour in milk and cream.  Bring to boil over medium heat.  Remove from heat and cover- (30 minutes)-flavors will infuse.
Bring mixture to boil once again.  Remove from heat.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl.  Remove almonds (with slotted spoon or small strainer) from milk/cream mixture.  Whisk 2 to 3 tablespoons of warm mixture into the yolks & sugar.
Add remainder (slowly) while whisking.  Add vanilla extract.  Return to saucepan and cook over medium heat (stirring frequently with rubber spatula) for 8 minutes or until custard thickens and coats the back of the spatula. Strain mixture and chill for 2 hours.  
Process in an ice cream maker (refer to manufacturer's instructions).  Stir in remaining almonds when done.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Okay, I'm definitely holding my breath, but I think my trusty computer might make it after all. It has been requiring a bit more TLC than normal, but hopefully with a bit of pampering it will pull through for me afterall...please!

I love these cakes for so many reasons. They're rather impressive, a bit fancy and great for entertaining. But, they're also great when you're a lazy baker like me. They require very few ingredients, all thrown into the same bowl, mixed and poured into muffin tins, and voila! Delicious chewy cake on the outside, rich, molten chocolate pouring out of the inside. Serve with ice cream, and you'll have a happy crowd on your hands. Plus, the fact that they're fairly small won't make you feel TOO guilty when you have more than one!

Molten Chocolate Cakes
Great Food Fast, By Martha Stewart

Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, with extra for greasing muffin pan
1/3 cup granulated sugar, with extra for dusting pan
3 large eggs
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Generously butter 4 cups of a standard muffin tin. Dust with granulated sugar, and tap out excess. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, beat in the flour and salt until just combined. Beat in the chocolate (do not overmix). Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups.

3. Place the muffin tin on a baking sheet; bake just until the tops of the cakes no longer jiggle when the pan is lightly shaken, 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven; let stand for 10 minutes.

4. To serve, turn out the cakes and place on serving plates, top sides up.

Peanut Buster Bars

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'll go ahead and admit it, Glenn is quite the star in our kitchen. What makes him so popular is that while I prepare most of our healthy meals, he gets to make the fun things that I have no business eating! Here is a picture of him...hot stuff no?

And of course I kind of have to hate him because he has the metabolism to sustain a healthy pan of brownies three times a week without gaining a pound, what is up with that!

But on this particular dish, I have the split the credit between Glenn and his mom. After Glenn moved out of his parent's house, his mom handed him a binder full of all of her tried and true recipes that has been a lot of fun to explore. When I first saw this recipe, I have to admit to feeling a bit underwhelmed. It just didn't look that exciting to me, especially since I'm not much of an ice cream lover to begin with. BUT, now that it's a regular in our house, I'll tell you that it definitely falls in my top ten of favorite desserts. The best part of these ice cream bars is the chocolate topping, I've honestly never had anything so delicious, I would pour this on my cereal if I could get away with it!. A lot of times Glenn will even make extra to pour on top!

These bars take a few steps and a little bit of time, but the good news is you can make it days in advance. And I promise it's worth every second!


Peanut Buster Bars

Ingredients

1 16 oz package Oreo cookies
1/2 cup margarine
1 gallon Vanilla ice cream
1 1/2 cup salted peanuts
chocolate sauce (recipe below)

Directions

Crush cookies fine (we use our food processor). Mix well with melted margarine. Put in 2 pans- 1 (9x13) and 1 (8x8). We actually do this because it saves for a long time, and trust me, it will get eaten. If you don't have the freezer space, just halve it and put it all into 1 9x13. Refrigerate one hour. Slice ice cream in 3/4 inch slices. Lay over the crust. Pack seams together. Sprinkle nuts over and put into freezer. Prepare chocolate sauce and, when cool, pour over ice cream.

CHOCOLATE SAUCE

2 cups sugar
2/3 cup chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup margarine

Combine sugar, margarine, milk and chocolate chips in saucepan. Boil 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; add vanilla. Cool completely. Pour over ice cream and freeze again. Serve right from the freezer (it may not hurt to let it sit for five minutes in room temp before serving though, just to let soften a bit).