De Retour with Mango Sorbet

Where did the last five months go? I can't believe the last time I sat down to write was back in January when I was in Seattle visiting my sister, brother in law and new baby niece!  She is now five months old and winter has turned into summer (almost).  I feel as if years of events and experiences have been squeezed into these past few months.  Distractions have kept me from doing what I like doing the most - cooking.  Maybe it was the stress of long days at work, or personal distractions that ended up being just that, nothing but distractions.  My desire to cook had all but disappeared for a while.  I used to cook to relieve stress.  I used to put aside the things that were bothering me that day and concentrate on chopping, stirring, grating, and reducing.  For some reason none of those things appealed to me for a while.  I'm not completely sure why I took a break from the kitchen, but I'm glad I'm back.

I don't know a lot about tropical fruit and when they are in season as you can find most of them year round in the grocery store.  I was craving mango salsa and shrimp for dinner this week (post to come about that soon) so I walked to Whole Foods and found small little yellow mangos that were so ripe to the touch they were impossible to resist.  These champagne mangos are much smaller than the ones with the red-ish yellow skin you are used to seeing.  After a successful mango and shrimp feast I was hooked on my new super sweet mango discovery and I went back for more this weekend.  But what to do with 6 small mangos?  Make sorbet!

I've tried to make sorbet before and have been disappointed with the outcome.  I've made some pretty tasty icecream but I have yet to make sorbet I am proud of.  The black currant sorbet I made was a bit grainy and the prosecco sorbet I made didn't freeze correctly (too much prosecco... can you blame me?)  A while back I was "tasting" the lemon sorbet we were serving for one of my events at work and chatting with the pastry chef. I asked her what made this sorbet so much creamier than what I have made in the past.  It almost tasted like sherbet.  She assured me there was no dairy in it, just egg whites!  Raw egg whites in fact.  While the fruit puree is freezing in the ice cream maker, you add the whites of one egg.  This gives the sorbet a much smoother, creamier consistency.  Who knew?  Once you get over your fears of salmonella, it makes sense.  I decided to put the tip to the test.

If you look online for a sorbet recipe you will find a variation of the same recipe over and over again.  Take fruit, puree it, add water, sugar and a little bit of alcohol (so it doesn't freeze into a fruit brick when you put it in the freezer) and that's you're done.  I decided to go with a David Lebovitz recipe and put my own twist on it.  His recipes are pretty fail proof.

Mango Sorbet

adapted from a recipe by David Lebovitz

2 large, ripe mangos (I used 6 champagne mangos) 2/3 cup sugar ( I used a 1/4 cup agave syrup instead) 2/3 cup water 4 teaspoons fresh squeezed lime juice ( I used a half a lime) 1 tablespoon dark rum, plus more to taste (I used homemade limoncello I made a few years ago) pinch of salt ( I forgot this.  Oops! It tasted just fine though)

1 egg white

Take the meat off the mangos by slicing down each side, following the pit with your knife.  Squeeze the rest of the meat off the pit with your fingers to make sure not to waste anything.  Puree the fruit in a blender along with the water, sugar/agave syrup, lime juice and limoncello.  I used limoncello just because I thought the citrus would go well with the mango and I'm not a huge fan of rum.  I completely forgot about the pinch of salt.  I'm sure it gives that final sweet/salty balance that all cooking/baking needs.  I think the sorbet tastes just fine without it but I will include it next time.

Once all your ingredients are pureed together, chill it for about an hour (I chilled mine overnight) and then freeze it in your ice cream maker for about 20 minutes or until it looks like a slushy.  Add the whites of one egg at the very end of the freezing process.  It gives the puree a silky taste and a pretty sheen.  A great addition to the recipe!

Don't you love my old food processor?  It makes about as much noise as a margarita machine.  My neighbors must have thought I was having one heck of a party yesterday.

 

 

After it is finished freezing in the machine, put the mixture in a container and let it finish freezing in the freezer.  I had to steal a taste before it was finished.

Delicious, creamy, fruity and cold.  I wouldn't call it perfection but it's pretty good!  I had some leftover papaya so I tried the same process with it too. Instead of limoncello I used some of my homemade lemon verbena vodka.  The papaya had less flavor than the mango did but the lemon verbena vodka added a delicious herbal dimension to the cool treat.

Having been back in the kitchen and experienced what I used to enjoy so much, I know I will be back again soon.

A bientot.

 

 

 

 

 

A Peachy Summer Weekend

Growing up, summer days meant going to camp.  We would bring our own brown bag lunches and toss them in a big rubber bin along with all the other lunches, hoping the bag on top of yours wouldn’t leak and rip your lunch bag.  I can still picture all of us sitting outside on the designated “lunch hill” eating our sandwiches and drinking the box of “fruit punch” provided by the camp.  While other kids ate their Twinkies and cupcakes, I usually sank my teeth into a sweet juicy summer peach.  I distinctly remember always having sticky fingers after lunch. Juice would dribble from the peach down my chin and onto my hands.   Ah, summer.

While I no longer have the luxury of going to summer camp, thankfully peaches are still part of my summer!  My eyes tend to be bigger than the number of recipes I have when I am at the farmers’ market.  I bought a LOT of peaches.  Thankfully they keep pretty well if you put them in the refrigerator.  I put some away and kept a few out and went on a peach recipe hunt.  After looking at recipes for cobblers, tarts, pies, and a cakes I figured peach ice cream would be the best way to honor the summer staple.

Ice cream recipes, as I learned when I made my favorite, mint chocolate chip, are VERY simple.  Häagen-Dazs isn’t kidding with it’s new ad campaign highlight how pure and simple the product it.  It’s not just Häagen-Dazs but all ice cream really.  All the recipes I looked at had the same cream/milk/egg combination.  The only thing that really changed was the sweet component.  I decided to go with honey.

In the spirit of intellectual honesty, I read the following blogs as inspiration and basic ratios. www.eatatblurp.com, www.peterandrewryan.com, www.dessertfirst.typepad.com.

Summer Peach Ice Cream

Ingredients:

4 large ripe peaches for the puree and 1 for to put in the ice cream later

1/8 of a cup of honey (the recipes I read called for a 1/4 cup.  I thought this would make the ice cream too sweet.  Depending on the ripeness of the peaches you can decide for yourself.  I went for less.  I also don’t like my desserts to be too too sweet.  I get honey from a family friend and try and use my local honey as much as I can!)

1 cup of whole milk

1 cup of heavy cream

3 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp vanilla (I used the 2 tsps and I also split a vanilla bean in half, used the seeds and simmered the bean in the milk/cream pan for added flavor. )

Directions:

Peach Puree:  Peel and cut up the 4 peaches and simmer them in a saucepan with the honey until the peaches become very soft and are cooked through (about 15 minutes).  Let the mixture cool a bit and then puree it in a food processor until it looks smooth.  Easy! (Note: you could probably do this with just about any fruit.  You could make a berry puree, a plum puree…. experiment!)

 

Custard for the ice cream: Pour milk and cream into a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, separate your eggs and mix the sugar with the egg yolks with a whisk until they are a light yellow color.  When the milk and cream are nice and hot, take about a 1/4 cup and pour it slowly into the yolks, whisking all the while, to temper the eggs.  Make sure not to curdle them!  Now that the eggs have warmed up a bit, slowly pour the rest of the milk mixture into the eggs in a slow trickle. 

Split your vanilla beans and scrape the seeds out.  Instead of throwing away the vanilla pod you can either put it in a sugar canister and make vanilla sugar, or do what I did and just add it to the custard to give it even more vanilla flavor.  I had been saving my vanilla beans for something special.  My brother in law got them for me during a trip to Madagascar.  Peach ice cream sounds special enough to me!

Pour the egg, milk and peach puree and cream mixture back into your saucepan and stir on medium heat until it thickens into a nice custard that covers your spoon. Add the vanilla extract, vanilla seeds and plop in the vanilla pod to infuse the mixture.

Refrigerate the custard for a few hours or over night to completely chill it.

The next day: (Don’t you hate it when you start making a recipe without reading the whole way though and you get to the part that says “the next day” and kick yourself?…. It happens to me… a lot.)

Take the chilled custard out of the refrigerator.  Dice the remaining peach into small cubes.  Pour the custard into the ice cream maker.  When it is about the consistency of frozen yogurt, add the peaches. 

Put it back in the freezer for a few hours for the whole thing to firm up and enjoy!

This ice cream has such an intense peach flavor.  I couldn’t have been more pleased with it.  Delicious.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream – a preview of summer

It almost feels like summer and what better way to usher in warm weather and long nights than ice cream!  Mint chocolate chip has always been my favorite flavor.  What’s not to love about green colored ice cream with chocolate in it?!  I’ll admit rainbow sherbet was a close second but mint chocolate chip was always my go-to kind.  While I’ve moved away from the green colored brands I still like the more natural looking scoops. 

I made it to the end of the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook and found TK’s dessert section.  It was almost like fate.  Right next to the cherry ice cream recipe that will probably go untouched was one for mint chocolate chip! Perfect!  Unlike the other Thomas Keller recipes this one was relatively simple! 

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

as found in Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cups loosely packed mint leaves

1 1/3 cups granulated sugar

10 large egg yolks

3 ounces 55% chocolate chips

 Eggs, Cream, sugar, mint, chocolate. It couldn’t be more simple!

Directions:

Separate the yolks from the white.  Ready.. go!       

 

 

 

 

 

Going…

 

 

 

Going…

 

 

 

 

… gone!

 

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan and add the mint (picked from the stem and washed…. mine was really sandy!)  Turn the heat up to medium until it reaches a simmer, then turn the heat off and let the mint “steep” for about 20 minutes to transfer all the minty goodness from the leaves to the milk and cream.  I found local milk and cream at my Whole Foods so I am going to call this “slow” ice cream.  The creamery sells non-homogenized dairy products.  Other than promoting laziness I’m not really sure why milk and cream are homogenized to be honest.  Nothing wrong with a little shaking before drinking! 

 

Strain the leaves out of the liquid, add 2/3 of a cup of sugar and bring to a simmer over medium heat to dissolve said sugar. 

While the sugar is dissolving whisk the remaining sugar into the egg yolks until the whisk leave a faint trail.

Slowly, add the hot milk/cream mixture to the yolks a 1/2 cup of at a time, making sure not to curdle the eggs. Strain the mixture back into the pan.  (Prepare an ice bath and set it aside for later).

Put your saucepan over medium heat and stir it constantly to make a custard.  Make sure to scrape the sides and bottom so it doesn’t get lumpy or gummy. Stir until the mixture thickens enough to coat your wooden spoon.  When it gets to this point take it off the heat, strain it into a bowl and put the bowl into the ice bath to stop the cooking process.  Leave the custard in the ice bath, stirring once and a while, until it cools off.  

Put it in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight.

I left mine in overnight (cooking it hard work!!)

 

 

The following day, pour the mixture into your ice cream machine and “follow the manufacturer's instructions”. When the mixture is the consistency of frozen yogurt add the chocolate pieces, let it churn a little longer, and then put it in Tupperware to freeze and then eat!!

I added a few pieces of chocolate on top! Can’t hurt.

Here’s to warmer weather, longer nights and a glimpse of the summer to come!