After a rough day at the the food bank's farm, I wanted to do nothing else besides make some ice cream. I made the sorbet last week, but I haven't made an actual ice cream in weeks and was starting to go through withdrawal. That desire plus my never-ending addiction to peanut butter let to today's creation.
Peanut Butter Ice Cream
2 C heavy whiping cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 C peanut butter
I started by making the standard ice-cream base custard (read below to the post entitled I Love Ice Cream More Than Words Can Say to get a full description of the custard-making process). While the custard was still hot, I poured it into a bowl and added the 1 cup of peanut butter and stirred until it was totally melted and uniform. I then added the heavy cream and vanilla before chilling it in the fridge and putting it in the ice cream maker.
Anyone that knows me personally knows that I live and die by crunchy peanut butter. I believe you can tell what type of person someone is by the type of peanut butter they eat. But unfortunately I had to suck it up and use creamy peanut butter in this recipe for two reasons: 1) that is all that I had enough of (the people living in this house before us left an unopened jar, whereas my crunchy peanut butter is almost gone, and 2) While I have heard that adding peanuts to the ice cream makes it amazing, I had my concerns about the churning ability of this ice cream if it had crunchy peanut butter as opposed to whole peanuts.
This ice cream is very good! After the fact I thought of the idea of making peanut butter and jelly ice cream, but that must wait until another day. I have extra cream & milk left, so be on the lookout for another ice cream in the next week or so. My inclination right now is to try out avocado ice cream, which has been on my list of flavors to try for some time now. And avocados are so cheap here compared to the east coast that I feel obligated to give it a try!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Prickly Pear Sorbet!
Internet has been installed in my house and I am back in business! Thanks for your patience, friends.
When I found out that I was moving to Tucson for my fellowship placement, one of the first things I thought of was how awesome it would be to make prickly pear sorbet. I shipped my ice cream maker all the way across the country with this idea in mind. When I landed last week and asked where I could find prickly pear cactus fruit, I was informed that most of the cacti around stopped producing fruit the week before. My dreams quickly came crashing down on me inside an hour of landing! I kept my eye out for some prickly pear fruits but none could be found.
Last week, Raquel (my field site partner) and I went to our Mennonite Volunteer Service (MVS) friend's house for dinner. They told me that their prickly pear cactus had fruit left, but when I went out to check they had all been harvested earlier in the day. Again, my plan had been foiled! So I asked if they knew of anywhere that still had some fruit growing and I was informed that the gas station by my house had tons left.
So I left the MVS house complete with a bucket and tongs in hand (the fruit has tiny thorns on its skin so you can't pick them with your bare hands) in the middle of the night (actually more like 8:30, but it was dark out and I was still on east coast time). And much to my delight, there were hundreds if not thousands of prickly pear fruits growing all over the cacti in the gas station parking lot! And we harvested those fruits like crazy...almost an entire bucket full!
Now to make the sorbet. I had to run each fruit under cold water and wipe the thorns off while wearing a rubber glove and then again into a dish towel. Once that was done, I cut a half inch slit into the skin length wise on one side and peeled the rest of the skin away.
The fruit was then thrown into the blender and then the seeds and flesh were strained out, leaving only the juice. I took a half cup of the juice and put it in a pot with 1 cup of sugar and heated it for about 10 minutes to make a simple syrup. The syrup was then mixed back in with the rest of the juice with a splash of orange juice (since I didn't have lemon juice which is usually added to sorbets to help with the flavor), chilled, and then went to freeze in the mixer.
The sorbet has a a very unique taste. The fruit itself has very little flavor so the sugar and orange juice helped a lot. Te taste really can't be compared to anything I have ever had. It is sweet and tart. The only bad thing is that it leaves a funky aftertaste in your mouth. But it is such a gorgeous color!
On another note, the garden we planted is coming along well. Much was added since my post last week. We now have three types of basil (sweet, lemon, and thai), rosemary,sage, two strawberry plants, a habanero pepper, and 5 green bell pepper plants. Our onion seeds started sprouting today, which is so exciting, along with some mesclun and winter squash. There are also carrot, cilantro, parsley, chives, spinach, kale, sugar snap peas, and a few other seeds we are waiting to sprout.
My field placement for the fellowship is at the Community Food Bank here in Tucson. This food bank is so amazing and incredibly progressive in the field! They don't only pass out emergency food boxes, but they have their own farm which grows for their own farmers markets, garden classes, home garden instruction, and little grocery store, and so much more. I am working in the Community Food Security Center and most of my work will involve promoting all of the amazing work of the Center and creating a publication about the southern Arizona food system to show people how their food choices have a large impact on the community around them. Before starting on my project, though, I have been working all around the food bank to get a better understanding of how all their programs work. I am also working with Raquel on a project to show people just how much food can be bought with a $10 voucher at the food store and recipes they can use with those food lists.
So overall, things are amazing here in Tucson. I miss my family and friends so much, but I have never felt like I am in the right place as much as I do now. I know that I will be doing work that will help the Commuity Food Security Center, the food bank, and the community around me while giving me such invaluable experience. I know that I have learned an unbelievable amount during the week and a half of training and my week here in Tucson. I am looking forward to seeing what else I will learn over the next 5 months!
So, does anybody have any ice cream flavor ideas? Let me know in the comments!!
Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience while I was training/moving/getting settled/getting internet!
-Eric
When I found out that I was moving to Tucson for my fellowship placement, one of the first things I thought of was how awesome it would be to make prickly pear sorbet. I shipped my ice cream maker all the way across the country with this idea in mind. When I landed last week and asked where I could find prickly pear cactus fruit, I was informed that most of the cacti around stopped producing fruit the week before. My dreams quickly came crashing down on me inside an hour of landing! I kept my eye out for some prickly pear fruits but none could be found.
Last week, Raquel (my field site partner) and I went to our Mennonite Volunteer Service (MVS) friend's house for dinner. They told me that their prickly pear cactus had fruit left, but when I went out to check they had all been harvested earlier in the day. Again, my plan had been foiled! So I asked if they knew of anywhere that still had some fruit growing and I was informed that the gas station by my house had tons left.
So I left the MVS house complete with a bucket and tongs in hand (the fruit has tiny thorns on its skin so you can't pick them with your bare hands) in the middle of the night (actually more like 8:30, but it was dark out and I was still on east coast time). And much to my delight, there were hundreds if not thousands of prickly pear fruits growing all over the cacti in the gas station parking lot! And we harvested those fruits like crazy...almost an entire bucket full!
Now to make the sorbet. I had to run each fruit under cold water and wipe the thorns off while wearing a rubber glove and then again into a dish towel. Once that was done, I cut a half inch slit into the skin length wise on one side and peeled the rest of the skin away.
The fruit was then thrown into the blender and then the seeds and flesh were strained out, leaving only the juice. I took a half cup of the juice and put it in a pot with 1 cup of sugar and heated it for about 10 minutes to make a simple syrup. The syrup was then mixed back in with the rest of the juice with a splash of orange juice (since I didn't have lemon juice which is usually added to sorbets to help with the flavor), chilled, and then went to freeze in the mixer.
The sorbet has a a very unique taste. The fruit itself has very little flavor so the sugar and orange juice helped a lot. Te taste really can't be compared to anything I have ever had. It is sweet and tart. The only bad thing is that it leaves a funky aftertaste in your mouth. But it is such a gorgeous color!
On another note, the garden we planted is coming along well. Much was added since my post last week. We now have three types of basil (sweet, lemon, and thai), rosemary,sage, two strawberry plants, a habanero pepper, and 5 green bell pepper plants. Our onion seeds started sprouting today, which is so exciting, along with some mesclun and winter squash. There are also carrot, cilantro, parsley, chives, spinach, kale, sugar snap peas, and a few other seeds we are waiting to sprout.
My field placement for the fellowship is at the Community Food Bank here in Tucson. This food bank is so amazing and incredibly progressive in the field! They don't only pass out emergency food boxes, but they have their own farm which grows for their own farmers markets, garden classes, home garden instruction, and little grocery store, and so much more. I am working in the Community Food Security Center and most of my work will involve promoting all of the amazing work of the Center and creating a publication about the southern Arizona food system to show people how their food choices have a large impact on the community around them. Before starting on my project, though, I have been working all around the food bank to get a better understanding of how all their programs work. I am also working with Raquel on a project to show people just how much food can be bought with a $10 voucher at the food store and recipes they can use with those food lists.
So overall, things are amazing here in Tucson. I miss my family and friends so much, but I have never felt like I am in the right place as much as I do now. I know that I will be doing work that will help the Commuity Food Security Center, the food bank, and the community around me while giving me such invaluable experience. I know that I have learned an unbelievable amount during the week and a half of training and my week here in Tucson. I am looking forward to seeing what else I will learn over the next 5 months!
So, does anybody have any ice cream flavor ideas? Let me know in the comments!!
Thanks for reading and thanks for your patience while I was training/moving/getting settled/getting internet!
-Eric
Monday, September 15, 2008
Pictures of my Tucson House
There hasn't been any time for cooking yet, but I was able to upload a few pictures of my new house. They can be viewed from the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrannyofdistance/sets/72157607306017688/
My favorite part is the huge kitchen! (compared to any previous kitchen I've cooked in before). Raquel, my housemate & fellow fellow, and I also planted a little herb garden this morning complete with thai basil, lemon basil, sage, and rosemary. The soil is so dry here, but we will water them tons and hope they survive!
Be back again soon!
-eric
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tyrannyofdistance/sets/72157607306017688/
My favorite part is the huge kitchen! (compared to any previous kitchen I've cooked in before). Raquel, my housemate & fellow fellow, and I also planted a little herb garden this morning complete with thai basil, lemon basil, sage, and rosemary. The soil is so dry here, but we will water them tons and hope they survive!
Be back again soon!
-eric
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Alive & in Tucson
Hello friends! I am alive and well. Fellowship training was intense but amazing and I made it safely to Tucson, AZ yesterday afternoon. My house does not have internet (although it has a HUGE amazing kitchen) so posts will continue to be infrequent until I get that fixed. I am currently using the free wi-fi at Safeway, which is not the ideal place to get work done on the internet...but alas.
What have people been cooking themselves Post recipes!
I shall return ASAP.
What have people been cooking themselves Post recipes!
I shall return ASAP.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Slow on the Posts (+ Cinnamon Ice Cream)
The recent lack of cooking posts on Hungry Sprout will continue for about two weeks. This past week I went to the beach, visited St. Mary's, and have been packing for training in DC and the move to Tucson!
I did manage to make cinnamon ice cream a few days ago, which turned out incredible well. Simply add 2-3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon to the ice cream custard once take it off the heat and add the cream (see the french vanilla ice cream recipe below). Sorry for a lack of full directions.
So I am off for fellowship training this afternoon and won't be able to cook again until I get settled in Tucson. But I will have my computer and will try to update while at training if I learn anything interesting!
Wish me luck!
I did manage to make cinnamon ice cream a few days ago, which turned out incredible well. Simply add 2-3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon to the ice cream custard once take it off the heat and add the cream (see the french vanilla ice cream recipe below). Sorry for a lack of full directions.
So I am off for fellowship training this afternoon and won't be able to cook again until I get settled in Tucson. But I will have my computer and will try to update while at training if I learn anything interesting!
Wish me luck!
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