Goodbye Summer: Fluking Ice Cream

Officially, there are only 4 days of summer remaining, although our summers do like to linger behind weeks after we’ve bade her farewell. What can I say, she likes it here in Sydney and how could you not, we welcome her with open arms, plead with her not to leave come February and yearn for her return mid August.

Sydney I think, is at its best in summer, some may argue that it is spring when she is her prettiest and this may be true, but all we are, are merely waking up from the slumber of humdrum winter days. Sydney is most alive in the summertime, when the sun is out, the humidity is at its peak and flies are doing their best to cling to you.

Yes, nothing beats a hot, fly-infested summer. I think the locals have become accustomed to this nuisance come summer, although the visitors have a hard time coping with it. A friend studying here from Africa is convinced she is under attack, although they never seem to bother me anymore, but enough about flies.

So now that we are counting down, numbering the precious days we have left of genial weather and resplendently abundant sunshine, I must turn to the fact that I have only blogged about ice all but once this entire season. I have been making use of the ice cream machine that came into my possession over the Christmas period, although most excursions have been undocumented. Undocumented in the fact that they have, well, not quite up to the standard that I like to regale my readers.

The ice creams in question were so disastrous that my freezer for some time had become a morgue for deceased ice cream. It became the case where creative inspiration, alas did not meet with successful realisation. The only realisation that took place was the realisation that my ice creams sucked. They actually didn’t suck that much at the time of conception, sure the concept was great, although something must have gone awry in the process of execution that I somehow gave birth to a mass of icy abominations.

Perhaps I should just stick to more familiar flavours, like run and raisin, rocky road, even vanilla. At least success would have come more easily. Luckily after the third disaster, I decided to stick to combinations I knew were tried and tested and not even I, the fumbling ice cream maker could not stuff up. After the many misappropriations of cream, milk and eggs, I eventually managed to churn out something worthy of this blog. I wasn’t going to lower the bar for those other things that even my dog wouldn’t eat.

Let’s just say that clementine and champagne ice cream sounded like a great idea on paper. But, in actual fact, it tasted worse than that cherry flavoured cough syrup that your mother used to force feed you as a child, as you writhed in discontent as it unwillingly made its way down your throat. Feeling a like a complete loser, here I present to you my two best creations: Coffee and Hazelnut Ice Cream and Honey Ginger Gelato.

The coffee ice cream is made with hazelnut flavoured coffee so the hints of hazelnut are quite subtle. Although if you are more inclined to use ground hazelnut, go for it. I wasn’t too sure about what this would do to the texture of the ice cream, and given my track record, I decided to go for something a lot simpler, the fewer ingredients the better.

The gelato, was little bit more of a gamble, I had never used honey in an ice cream before, and was scared about what this would do to the taste. But it’s a wonder what the combination of milk, eggs, honey and ginger can do, as by the end it looked like what gelato shoudl look like and, unlike previous attempts, it actually seemed edible! In fact at first I wasn’t too keen on the honey ginger combination, which surprised me as I love it cakes and biscuits, but somehow it didn’t taste quite right to me. However my family loved it, so I guess it wasn’t a complete failure.

So give these recipes a go, but I cannot sure you that they will turn out successfully. Who knows these could have been a fluke.

Coffee Hazelnut Ice Cream

100g sugar
4 egg yolks
400ml full cream milk
1 tbsp hazelnut flavoured coffee ground
500ml pure cream (35%-55% milkfat)

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and egg yolk together until think and pale.
Place milk and coffee in a medium heavy based saucepan over low heat and bring the milk just to a gentle simmer.
Remove from heat and strain the milk using a fine sieve.
Gradually pour the strained milk into the egg and sugar mixture, whisking slowly as you go.
Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk the custard until it thickens. (If you have a thermometer, the custard should be at about 60°C.)
Remove custard from heat and pass through a fine sieve again to remove any clumps that may have formed. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 1-2 hours.
Using a whisk, incorporate cream into the custard*.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions**.
When churned, transfer ice cream to a 1.2-litre air tight container and place in the freezer.
The ice cream should be ready to serve after 1-2 hours.

*Ensure that you do not add the cream to a warm custard.
** Under no circumstances should you place warm custard into an ice cream machine, unless you want to destroy it.

Honey and Ginger Gelato

800ml full cream milk
7 egg yolks
100g honey
1 small knob of fresh ginger, sliced (for infusing)
1 tsp ginger ground

In a large saucepan set over a pan of simmering water, whisk milk and egg yolks together.Add the honey , ginger slices and ginger ground and continuously whisk until honey has dissolved and the mixture has thickened. This will take about 20 minutes and the custard should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.Remove the custard from the heat and remove ginger slices.
Allow the custard to chill in the refrigerator.When the custard has completely chilled, pour into an ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.Store the ice cream in a 1-litre air tight container and freeze.The gelato should be ready to srve after freezing for 1-2 hours.

Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling...

Love. The very mention of the word can conjure up sweet reminiscence of coy glances exchanged across a room or of amorous lovers’ silhouetted by the moonlight. On the contrary the very word can summon up vile recollections of bitter heartbreak, screaming matches in the car and all too messy break-ups. Whichever end of the love game you’re at, isn’t it just grand?

With Valentine’s Day just over and done with, I think the topic of love and relationships is quite apt. I am by no means an expert on the subject, although it seems to me that wherever I go, the subject of relationships cannot escape me. Those in relationships talk about theirs (me included) and those who aren’t in one talk about their lack of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I was single for a large chunk of my life so I don’t take being in a relationship, and a great one at that, for granted. It seems to be, for as long as I can remember, perhaps even daresay from the beginning of time, the pursuit of love has been pertinent to us all.

It all starts at school on the playground; Tommy says he likes you, but you don’t want anything to do with boys. Little girls clap their hands together and chant about boys having “cooties” and then a game of kiss and catch erupts across the playground.

Then comes high school; love notes are passed across the classroom, “Do you like me? Yes? No? Maybe? Smiles are exchanged and hopes arise that perhaps he will ask you to the dance. Even then, schoolyard romances are rife with drama that could rival that of any Shakespearean tragedy.

Then you’re out of school, and it seems that nothing really changes, except that the playground just gets a lot bigger. The playground also seems a lot more difficult to navigate and it things tend to get a bit more tangled up, although the feelings of bliss and hearts-a-fluttering and the feelings of despair and heartbreak still remain the same. Oh how thorny is the path to love.

Why all this talk of love and relationships on Milk and Cookies you ask? I usually like to steer clear of contentious topics and prefer to talk about inane trivial matters like whether or not you should dunk your biscuits in your coffee, shoe shopping and what we did on the weekend. But it just so happens that this month’s Sugar High Friday's theme is all about seduction.

If you ask me when it comes to love and culinary pursuits, it’s the sweet stuff that always sucks you in. And if there ever were a sure fire way to love, I would have to say that this cake would be one of them. A spoonful of this Chocolate Clementine Cake is enough to seduce any would-be lover or even one who is only slightly inclined to the sweet stuff. It’s rich, but not too rich; it’s sweet, but not sickeningly so and it’s chocolaty yet tinged with subtle hints of citrus. The cake is almost flourless, so all you can taste is the chocolate and the clementines.

Clementines, I found out are a variety of mandarins, they are not as tangy as oranges but are sweeter and juicier. They are sometimes mistaken for tangerines, and to be honest I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart if they were next to each other. All I know is that when I found them at the supermarket, I exclaimed at the event of finally finding myself some clementines. I always wondered what they tasted like, although never came across them anywhere until now. Nigella Lawson has a great sounding Clementine Cake recipe on her website, although for the purposes of seduction I decided to pair this sweet fruit with one of most proficient seducers of the culinary world- chocolate.

So make this cake for someone you love, be it a secret love, or one that you want to shout from the rooftops. I can assure you, your intentions won’t be lost in translation.

Chocolate Clementine Cake with Chocolate Syrup
serves 8-10 people

340g bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao)
225g cup unsalted butter, diced
7 large eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
¾ cup plain all-purpose flour
2 tsp clementine zest
2 clementines, coarsely chopped*
3 tbsp orange blossom water (can be substituted with juice)
¼ tsp salt
whipped cream, to serve
Chocolate Syrup (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 23cm springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper or alternatively grease 8-10 individual metal moulds.
Melt chocolate and butter in a small heavy based saucepan over low heat until smooth. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat egg yolks and ¾ cup of the sugar until thick and pale.
Add the melted chocolate mixture and continue to beat until well incorporated.
Fold in flour then the zest, chopped clementines and orange blossom water.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks.
Add the salt and the sugar in small additions, beating until stiff peaks form.
Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in three additions.

Pour batter into pan or moulds and bake for 40-45 minutes (for individual moulds) and 50-55 minutes for springform pan.
The top of the cake/s may crack slightly.
Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes.
Remove sides of springform pan and place cake onto a serving plate.
If you are baking them in the individual moulds, invert moulds and the cakes should slide out easily.
Serve with chocolate syrup and a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

*after zesting clementines, use a knife to remove peel and white membrane from fruit and coarsely chopped peeled clementines.

Chocolate Syrup
makes up to 1¼ cups

100g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
¼ cup whipping cream
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and melt over low heat, stirring for about 5 minutes until smooth.
You may serve this sauce warm or at room temperature.

NOTE: This sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days and heated up when required.

First Time With Soufflés

If there were ever a desert that could be described as the most theatrical, I think the soufflé would be an earnest contender. No sooner than when they emerge from the oven, all proud and puffed up that they turn into something completely different. Their dramatic exit from the oven is punctuated more so by their dramatic deflation. All in one act they go from gloriously risen to depressingly deflated; the soufflé is a culinary thespian if there ever was one.

Seasoned “soufflérs” are probably hardened to the melodrama of making soufflés. All that business of whisking and delicately folding the egg whites into the mixture, then all your work is undone the moment they come out form the oven. I didn't know how to take it at first, it was my very first time making soufflés and I truly thought that all my work would last at least more than just a brief moment. Luckily, although most of the soufflé’s puff is lost in the first few minutes, its taste is not lost.

They say that you should never judge a book by its cover, and rightly so, I probably would have never read or bought plenty of books if I had based my judgements on such things. Although one habit I cannot shake off is to judge a cookbook by its deserts. I am pretty hopeless with main meals and to be honest all I can really make are deserts so when I get a cookbook, I usually skip all the other chapters and head straight to the end where the sweet stuff is. And so far, this method has been a good gauge.

I adapted this recipe from Aria chef Matt Moran’s new cookbook, which I bought simply on the basis of seeing his Grand Marnier soufflé recipe. His soufflés were fortunate enough to be baked in gorgeous shiny individual copper pots that afforded his soufflés the most magnificent of rises. The soufflés were quite a sight to behold and I have to admit there was little bit of kitchen paraphernalia envy when I came across those copper pots.

Seeing that I could only revel in the thrill off the risen soufflé for but a moment, I wanted to know what vessel could produce the best rise. I didn’t have pretty copper pots to play with so I had to settle for what I had and conducted the experiment using ramekins, dariole moulds and ceramic espresso cups.

The verdict, well, the dariole moulds produced the most even rise while cooking beautifully all the way through. The espresso cups produced the highest rise; although the higher the rise, the more haphazard the fall, so some soufflés collapsed unevenly and cracked at the side. The espresso cups were also the thickest of all the dishes, so the batter failed to cook completely through leaving the bottom half quite soggy. Lastly, the ramekins produced the smallest rise, although rose evenly and did manage to cook all the way through.

So I would say that I got the best results using the metal dariole moulds, I estimate that they were probably the most even conductor of heat and therefore produced the best and most level rise and cooking all the soufflés all way through.

Being my first venture into the realm of soufflé making, the enterprise was met with some trepidation. All those steps, all that whisking and of course the glaring possibility of failure, what if my soufflé doesn’t rise? I guess that is the question every virgin soufflé maker must ask. And it is not that this fear is unfounded, you always hear and are forewarned about the things you must do to make your soufflés lift and unless these things are adhered to, then, what becomes is a failure. You’re frightened off even before you get the chance to attempt the recipe.

Luckily for Moran, he never cautions you about how your soufflé may not rise, all he says is that they are dead easy to make and he has been making this same recipe since he was an apprentice chef. Now this chimes with much more optimism and is exactly what the novice wants to hear. If an apprentice chef can make it then so should I be able to.

And so I went on to embark on this process and I have to say that it was not as terrifying as some of those cookbooks make it out to be. The operation was a success and after consuming several soufflés later, I was ready for another round of baking.

With these soufflés, rather than using orange flavourings like Grand Marnier as Moran did in the cookbook, I opted for using a coffee flavoured base. I infused the custard with coffee and Marsala, a fortified wine that is commonly placed in desserts like Tiramisu and Zabaglione. What results is a soufflé that tastes a lot like Tiramisu. Here is the recipe.

Coffee and Marsala Soufflé
adapted from this cookbook

25g cornflour
15g plain all-purpose flour
135ml milk
3 egg yolks
½ tbsp instant espresso
50g caster sugar
50ml Marsala
butter for greasing soufflé dishes
100g caster sugar, plus extra for coating soufflé dishes
300g egg whites, from 9-10 eggs
¼ tsp cream of tartar
icing sugar, to serve

FOR THE SOUFFLE BASE
Combine cornflour, plain flour, 25ml of the milk and one egg yolk in a small bowl.
In a small saucepan, bring the remaining milk and instant espresso to the boil, stirring occasionally to make sure the coffee has dissolved and then remove from heat.
Whisk in the cornflour mixture, then return to the stove and cook over low hear, stirring constantly until the custard thickens.
In a separate bowl, stir together the sugar and the rest of the egg yolks, then add to the coffee custard in the pan and cook for another two minutes, whisking constantly.
Remove from heat and stir in the Marsala.
Strain through a fine sieve placed over a bowl.
Cover mixture with some plastic wrap and leave to cool.

Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Grease the soufflé dishes with butter and coat with caster sugar.
Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in a bowl and whisk until they form soft peaks.
Gradually add the sugar and continue whisking until they are stiff.
Place the soufflé base in a large bowl and using a large metal spoon, gently fold in half the egg whites, then fold in the other half.
Spoon the mixture into the soufflé dishes to fill them right to the tops and then level with a spatula.
Bake for 8-10 minutes until they are well risen.
Remove from oven and dust with icing sugar.

A Summer's Day Out

When summer in Sydney is at its height, there is no better way to spend it than to get out in a boat and head off for a picnic by the beach. G and I spent last Sunday navigating our way through the super yachts and luxurious marine vessels of the well-to-do Sydneysiders and dropped anchor at the secluded Collins Beach.

The only way to get there was by boat or by foot through the national park so the small beach was only occupied by several families and us. It was great to have the beach almost to ourselves and as we anchored by the shore, there was a great sense of serene seclusion that so often seems to escape us in city life. The beauty of our city is that you can feel like you are so far away, yet still be right in the midst of the metropolis as beaches and national parks are in such close proximity to each other.

It’s a hard life that we live, as we spent the afternoon having lunch, lazing in the sun working on our tans, (well G didn’t have to) and cooling off in the water. It’s paradise on our doorstep and I have to say that you couldn’t convince me to live elsewhere.

If It Ain't Broke...

You know that something is broken when you have to start hitting it to make it work. I first found this out when I was 14. It was 1996 and our television began its slow decline into disrepair. First it would flicker black and white, then green and red, then blue all over. Colour television, this familiar luxury afforded by our generation soon became a distant memory.

Our routine of watching hours of cartoons every afternoon after school soon came to none, as futile attempts were made to convince our parsimonious father to buy us a new TV. It was only until my sister and I became so fed up with the thing and began to beat it violently that we found a way around this problem. Blow after blow to the top of the TV with a closed fist seemed to make the picture get better and better. I guess we thought that no damage could be done, how much more broke could this TV get?

Well, I have now been in denial about the condition of my car radio for quite some time but it looks as if the same fate is inevitable. It never bothered me at first, it became somewhat of a morning ritual having to strike at my car radio like a mad woman to just get it working. A few slaps with an open palm, then if that didn’t work, a fist would be formed and off I went pounding at the thing until some form of resonance would materialise. It’s not pretty, but I have now come to accept that my car radio does need replacing, at least until all the hitting stops working.

Which brings me to these madeleines, now do we really need another madeleine recipe? Will the world profit any gain if another madeleine recipe is posted on a blog, perhaps not, but I must say that these madeleines are exceptional and best of all, this recipe works. There’s no need to throw these madeleines out as I think they are just perfect.

I’ve already posted about them twice before but somehow I can’t seem to bring a halt to this fixation. I don’t know if it’s how they taste or how they look or the fact that they originated from France, but I cannot get enough of these little treats. Last year may have been the year of the cupcake, but I think I have to say that this year could be the year of the madeleine.

I have a tendency to romanticise certain things and I imagine that I have done this very thing to the madeleine to the point of placing them in them in too lofty a pedestal. They are just too delightful and whatever it is about them that I love, yet cannot articulate, then so let them remain on that pedestal. Perhaps it’s that sense of serenity that they elicit; the innocence and simplicity of days gone by. But there is something idealistically rustic about them, like spending a weekend in a summer cottage. I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, it works for me.

This madeleine recipe is from Matt Moran’s self-titled book that was released in October last year. He doesn’t really illustrate what these madeleines taste like, unlike his other recipes that are preluded with a short description. I guess most people know what to expect with madeleines; yet I was really intrigued to try them.

This recipe calls for honey and butter to be melted together, something I have never seen in a madeleine recipe before. What results is a moist cake with a crisp outer edge. Despite the absence of any sort of leavening agent like baking powder, the cake produces a light airy crumb. I guess the inclusion of 4 egg whites aids in the rising part.

Classified as a tea cake by many, typically, madeleines are paired with tea or coffee; although this time I wanted to do it as a dessert. So instead of tea or coffee I decided to pair it with some Bailey’s Ice Cream that I had made earlier. The ice cream’s taste is quite subtle and has a somewhat soothing effect against the sweetness of the madeleines. You can reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe of you don’t want the ice cream to be too sweet although I found that the 100g is quite adequate.

Homemade ice cream, unless you have one of those professional grade ice cream churners will never turn out as fluffy as those store-bought ones. Simply put, your home ice cream maker cannot physically churn that much air into the ice cream as the ones you find in your supermarket, so don’t lament at the fact that it doesn’t look as light and airy. It should taste a lot better than those generic brands you find while grocery shopping.

The texture is much thicker and creamier and the good thing is that it isn’t full of preservatives, you can pretty much make whatever flavour you fancy and you can eat less of it and feel more satisfied. It's the pleasures of making ice cream yourself!

Enjoy!

Matt Moran’s Madeleine Recipe
from his self-titled book

100g unsalted butter
35g honey
100g icing (confectioner’s) sugar
40g almond meal
40g plain all-purpose flour
4 egg whites
butter for greasing
a little caster sugar, optional

Melt the butter and honey in a small saucepan, remove from heat and allow to cool to body temperature.
Combine the icing sugar, almond meal and flour in an electric mixer.
With the motor running at low speed, slowly add the egg whites.
Once all the egg whites are incorporated, gradually add the butter and honey mixture and combine well.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Lightly brush a madeleine tray with butter and sprinkle with caster sugar for a nice crunch.
Half-fill the moulds with the batter and bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on large your madeleines are.
They should be golden brown and well risen.
Immediately turn out the madeleines onto a cooling rack.
Serve while still warm.

Bailey’s Irish Crème Ice Cream
makes 1 litre

500g pure cream
300g full cream milk
4 egg yolks
100g granulated sugar
¼ cup Bailey’s

In a large saucepan set over simmering water (double broiler), whisk cream, milk and egg yolks together.
When the mixture is starting to heat up add the sugar and continuously whisk until dissolved and the mixture has thickened.
This will take about 20 minutes and the custard should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Remove the custard from the heat and mix in the Irish creme liqueur.
Allow the custard to chill in the refrigerator.
When the custard has completely chilled, pour into an ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Store the ice cream in a 1-litre air tight container and freeze.

Weird Things About How I Eat and What's in My Trolley?

If you are one of the several bloggers who have tagged me for a meme then wondered whatever happened to the response, then all I have to say is that I am sorry. I do eventually get around to them, but it just takes me a while. What happens is that I get tagged, then I completely forget about it, then through some random spurt of memory recollection I remember that I promised someone a while ago that I was going to do a meme.

Well to kill two birds in one stone, here is a meme that Marce of Pip In The City tagged me with some time ago: 6 food oddities about myself and an event that I assured Rachel at Food Maven I was going to join, but never did called What's In Your Basket? So here they are:

6 FOOD ODDITIES ABOUT ME

First of all, for most people that have known me for sometime, seeing the word food so close to my name is an oddity in itself. It was well renown that I liked to eat, although my reputation never went as far as being known to enjoy making food and especially to the point of gushing profusely about things like the discovery of wattleseed, the appearance of the season's first asparagus and things of that sort. Although I have been at this blog for almost a year, this food thing is a relatively new distraction. But here are six other idosyncrasies I have with food.

1. I have an ambiguous relationship with onions. I hate them raw, I hate them half cooked and I hate the crunching sound they make in my mouth when they aren't cooked all the way through. That said, I do love how they smell and I am not opposed to eating them when they are cooked completely, thus rendering them crunch-less.

I suppose that it is the crunching noise they make when I eat them because I have to say that the same goes with raw celery. You will never catch me gnawing on a raw stalk of celery, even if it was smothered in peanut butter.

2. Simply put, I cannot abide by coleslaw and think that it should be outlawed.

3. I am quite happy to drive an hour from home to have a nice big breakfast although I will refuse to make one myself at home, even though this would probably require less effort and expense. To me Eggs Benedict always seems to taste better when eaten somewhere that is not your own home.

4. This might come as a shock to you because I’m Asian, but I don't like Asian desserts. Call me a traitor but I just don’t get them. The combination of beans, jelly, tapioca and condensed milk just doesn’t sound tempting to me and I cannot bring myself to eat anything that has the work mung, moon or lotus in its name.

5. I've eaten SPAM, enough said.

6. I am allergic to all types of melons; watermelon, rock melon (cantaloupe), honeydew, you name it, if it's a melon, I can't stand it. They make the inside of my mouth and my throat really itchy to the point that I will scratch my neck in a vain attempt to soothe my itchy throat only to have it look like I have severe sunburn on my neck. I was never always allergic to such fruits, although I found this out when I was 12 and at a friends party and was whole-handedly polishing of the fruit platter consisting mostly of melon fruits.

Let's just say I missed out on playing pin the tail on the donkey as my mum had to come and pick me up.

WHAT"S IN MY TROLLEY?

Here's what I bought at my local IGA...
(pictured)
1. Clementines
2. Asparagus
3. Buttermilk
4. King Island Vanilla Yoghurt
5. Yellow Squash
6. Baby Carrots
7. Baby Beetroot
8. Trocomare
9. Medjool Dates
(not pictured)
10. Waffle Cones
11. Butter
12. Button Mushrooms
13. Lindt 70% cacao Chocolate
14. Yakult
15. Lemons

TOTAL: $59.47