Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple Ice Cream

Another winning David Lebovitz ice cream recipe!  Rich, creamy peanut butter ice cream with fudge ripple swirled through... plus I tossed in some roughly chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to put it over the top. 

Both the ice cream and fudge ripple recipes are from The Perfect Scoop, my go-to ice cream bible, but you can find the peanut butter ice cream recipe online here and the fudge ripple recipe here.  I love that the ice cream doesn't require eggs, making it much faster and less labor intensive than other custard-based ice creams. 

Jeni's Salted Caramel Ice Cream: Meh

Hmm... while this ice cream looks kinda awesome, it was unfortunately, meh.  The recipe receives the thumbs up from neither Tim nor I.

I have successfully made salted butter caramel ice cream before and loved the recipe (from my fav, David Lebovitz), and yet I found myself tempted to try this recipe for salted caramel ice cream that I stumbled upon on The Bitten Word.  The methodology differs from the Lebovitz way in that it does not acquire its thickness from an eggy custard, but from an intriguing combination of cream cheese, corn starch and corn syrup.  Plus the internet is full of raves about Jeni's ice cream, a popular ice cream shop in Ohio and Tennessee.

It wasn't very hard to pull together, but we just plain did not like the results.  Too bitter (maybe I prefer the larger amount of sugar called for in the Lebovitz recipe?), too weirdly cheesecakey from the cream cheese (it's hard to believe that "cheesecakey" could be a bad thing, but here it is), strangely sour (maybe from boiling the milk?).  Sad...

We tried to jazz it up with some caramel sauce (Simply Recipes' version), but to no avail.  Oh well... live, learn, stick to the tried-and-true basics when it comes to ice cream.

Lemon Basil Ice Cream

While looking for mint, basil and cilantro at our local grocery store (to use in my grilled veggie salad), Tim and I unknowingly stumbled upon a new (to us) herb: lemon basil. 

 

I saw a bundle of it it tucked in the greens section, which is a tangle of some familiar and some unknown greens marked haphazardly in English, Bahasa Indonesia and Japanese.  It looked basil-esque, so I picked it up and gave it a sniff, only to inhale an awesomely fragrant lemony scent.  Once the produce guy (who is my new BFF, as I ask him the name of a new veggie or herb every time I shop there and he obligingly informs me of the name in at least 4 different languages) rang it up, I saw that it was called "daun kemangi."  Apparently it's used pretty regularly in Indonesian cooking and, since it's local, it's dirt cheap: a massive bundle for 2590 rupiah, which is the equivalent of 27 U.S. cents.

Anywho, I dropped some of it in the salad,  and then had a ton left over.  David Lebovitz and "The Perfect Scoop" to the rescue, yet again.  He had a recipe for basil ice cream spiked with lemon zest, so I followed his recipe, substituting lemon basil for the traditional Genovese basil.  Awesome stuff- creamy, lemony (somewhat lemongrassy), herby, sweet.  A good accompaniment to spicy Asian dishes, I'd say.  Get thee to thy green grocer or farmer's market and find some lemon basil!

New (To Me) Tips, Techniques and Recipes

Here are some easy but interesting tips and techniques, as well as a couple new recipes that I tried out this week... excuse the unattractive photos- all of these techniques were implemented after dark! 

Skillet smashed potato technique:

Pretty cool, easy and fun technique for making potatoes a little bit more exciting.  I boiled mine in chicken stock and a pat of butter until tender (based on this recipe), then smashed them lightly, seasoned with salt and pepper and threw them on a hot cast iron skillet to crisp up on the outside. Yum.

Vanilla-scented sugar:

I had scraped the seeds out of a vanilla bean for my coconut/vanilla rice pudding earlier this week, but didn't want to let the still-fragrant vanilla pod go to waste, so I stuck them into my sugar.  The pods release their remaining seeds and awesome vanilla scent into the sugar.  It's pretty intoxicating to open up the jar every morning to get sugar for my coffee.  Give it a try!

Creamed spinach:

Tim bought some fancy Australian filet mignon at our neighborhood butcher, so I seared them on the cast iron skillet and served them alongside this tasty creamed spinach from Tyler Florence.  I loosely interpreted it since I had frozen spinach and wanted to add some shallots. I sauteed the garlic and shallots first, then added in the cream and spices per the recipe and then dropped in the frozen spinach, which I had defrosted in the microwave and then de-watered by squeezing it with my ricer.  The spinach soaked up the cream, so it doesn't look very creamy, but it tasted rich and delicious.

Nutella banana pancakes:

I needed to use up one lone overripe banana we had hanging around, so I decided to make these super easy, extremely light and fluffy nutella banana pancakes.  So good!  The key to these pancakes is to not over mix them.  Leave the lumps. Don't be tempted to try to get a smooth batter.

 PS: Tim made me take a picture of these particular pancakes he made because he was proud of the perfect color and shape he achieved. 

Creamy parmesan salad dressing:

 Quick and delicious creamy parmesan salad dressing, based on the house dressing from a famous chain restaurant.  Takes about 3 minutes to make and tastes awesome.  So much better than pre-made salad dressing.

Chocolate Mousse

Haven't thought of anything to make for Valentine's Day?   Protesting Valentine's Day, yet still want something chocolatey and delicious?  This chocolate mousse is super quick and easy, with very few ingredients.  Put it in a wine glass or whatever fancy looking dish you have and you're golden, valentine or not.

Me, I decided that my nonexistent V-day plans ("Happy valentine's day, Tim!  I splurged on imported ground beef from Australia!") needed to be perked up, so I looked through the fridge and realized that I had all of the ingredients for the Other Martha's chocolate mousse... mmmm.  

Not sure I used bittersweet chocolate.  The Indonesian chocolate packaging is a little bit vague about its cocoa content.  Maybe it was semi-sweet?  Delicious nonetheless.  I made a half recipe and it was 2 big servings.

Creamy Tomato Soup and Baked Parmesan Zucchini "Fries"

The tomatoes just keep coming... this time in the form of a delicious creamy tomato soup. Perfectly accompanied by baked crunchy Parmesan encrusted zucchini "fries."

Cantaloupe Sherbet: Meh.

The flavors of this cantaloupe sherbet were really tasty: creamy, fruity, a hint o' lime. However, the texture was off-putting- lots of little bits of cantaloupe took away from the smoothness you want from a sherbet... I give this recipe a resounding "Meh." Maybe if I'd run the cantaloupe puree through a seive or chinois before mixing it with the cream and freezing it, it wouldn't be as weird?

Broccoli, Gruyere and Pancetta Quiche

Since she had the day off, Chuck pulled together this quiche, using a recipe from the Washington Post and adding cooked pancetta, Gruyere instead of Swiss, and steamed, chopped broccoli. Delicious!

Chicken Scaloppini

Martha is in town and she's craving pasta. We had the majority of the ingredients for this chicken scalopini recipe with artichokes, mushrooms, capers and pancetta, so we decided to give it a try.

This was really tasty. Since it's a Paula Deen recipe, it requires an entire pound of butter in the lemon sauce... don't go there. We made it with a quarter of that and it was still rich and delicious. Even Martha, who would eat a butter ice cream cone if she could, thought it was great with just one stick of butter.

Mushroom and Chive Toasts

Deb from Smitten Kitchen raved about these creamy mushroom chive toasts so much that I had to give them a try. Simple ingredients (stuff you probably have in your pantry), easy preparation, but luxurious tasting. Like the gougeres, perfect for a cocktail party.

I only had regular button mushrooms and simple white bread, and that worked just fine.

Ina's Lemon Fusilli with Broccoli and Arugula

About 5 heads of broccoli, a bunch of arugula, and a whole bag of lemons were crowding up the fridge, so I chased down this well-reviewed Ina Garten recipe that included all of those ingredients and put it to work.

Ina's pasta salad was really good, although probably not an everyday meal since it had so much cream in it. The creamy lemon sauce was simple, but really flavorful.

Pear-Caramel Ice Cream

I got a bunch of fresh pears from the CSA last week and was trying to think of a fun way to cook them. I had been complaining to Chuck and Tony earlier this week about the lack of ice cream in our freezer, so I took this opportunity to bust out this pear-caramel ice cream from the fabulous David Lebovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop.

I was nervous about the caramel part of it (I had visions of the caramelizing sugar escaping from the pan and burning/hardening all over the counter, my hands, everything), but it was very easy, as long as you keep your eyes on it.

This ice cream is really unique- it has the buttery sweetness of the caramel, but a fruity flowery flavor from the pears.