Buttermilk Ice Cream

Is it 80 degrees out? I think it is!
To tell the truth, I barely use my ice cream maker. It feels like a lot of trouble for something I can buy pretty easily. But I'm slowly becoming interested in the machine again. I keep the base frozen in the freezer so I don’t have to think of freezing it when I want ice cream. (It takes 12 hours to freeze and it will not compromise with me on that...)

This ice cream is really simple. My fear with buttermilk ice cream is that it may be too watery and turn out like the hated ice milk of yore. I've solved the issue with heavy cream, of course.


Buttermilk Ice Cream
Makes 1 pint
This one is excellent with a tart or a cobbler.

1 cup buttermilk, cold
2/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups heavy cream, cold
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Whisk the buttermilk, sugar and salt together in a bowl until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved. Add cream and vanilla. Freeze according to the manufacturers’ directions on your ice cream maker.

Root Vegetables

We’re approaching spring, I’ve seen crocuses to prove it! I do think it feels wintery, however. Root Vegetables are a winter staple. If you get some great ones, they'll have the greens in tact, like the beets to the right. Radish, turnip and beet greens can all be sautéed with olive oil + garlic, sprinkled with sea salt and served with a squeeze of lemon on a piece of crusty bread. Radish and Butter Sandwiches.


What is a Root Vegetable & How do I Choose One?
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Roasted Root Vegetables (pictured above in a salad with a poached egg)
Serves 4 as a side dish
These simple vegetables can be served at room temperature with a salad or mixed with 2 cups cooked quinoa (pronounced: keen-wah) for a great side. Don’t limit yourself to using only these root vegetables, you can substitute beets, carrots or Jerusalem artichokes.

¾ teaspoon flakey maldon sea salt
1 sprig rosemary, roughly chopped(1 ½ t)
1 medium potato, cut in 3/4 inch pieces
1 medium turnip, peeled and cut in ¾ inch pieces
1 medum celeriac, peeled and cut in ¾ inch pieces
1 parsnip, peeled and cut in ¾ inch pieces
1 small onion, sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Place all the ingredients except the vinegar on a sheetpan with sides and use clean hands to toss them all together. Once everything is well coated in oil and rosemary bits, spread the mixture in an even layer. Roast for about 1 hour, until the vegetables are cooked through and golden brown at the edges and on the bottom. Toss with vinegar, adjust salt and pepper to taste.


Roasted Root Vegetables with Quinoa

Meatloaf Madness

The beginning of the week was a big sunny bunch of madness. Now, with the rain and a chill it’s a little sad. Which brings me to the great comfort of meatloaf. If meatloaf were emotion on display, it would be a long warm hug from a big friend.

Meatloaf for me had always been associated with the school cafeteria, but now I’ve grown to appreciate it’s self-basting fatty goodness. It’s really easy to make and above all, satisfying. I like to make it in a loaf pan so it is essentially simmering in its own fat the entire time. The fat drains off at the end, but it is no diet food - it’s a giant loaf of meat, with breadcrumbs.


Meatloaf
Serves 8

If you really want to get jiggy with this, add 2 tablespoons of beef marrow fat or bacon fat. Remember, fat equals flavor. It does not equal modeling contracts or the right to wear bikinis in public. Consider your priorities.


1 ½ cups Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) or coarse breadrumbs
2/3 cups buttermilk or whole milk
2 ½ pounds ground beef (85% lean is best)
1 large egg
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
½ cup tomato sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 large shallot
½ teaspoon chopped rosemary
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 strips bacon

Use your hands to combine all the ingredients except the bacon in a large bowl until well combined. Place the mixture in an 8 ½ inch by 4 ½ inch by 2 ½ inch loaf pan, form into a loaf shape.

Place the loaf pan on a sheet pan with edges. Lay the bacon over the loaf in a cris-cross pattern, tuck the ends into the pan if they hang over the edge. Bake at 375 degrees until internal temperature is 145 degrees, about 1 hour 20 minutes. Let the meatloaf cool 10 minutes, run a knife between the pan and the loaf to release it. Place the meatloaf on a platter or cutting board, discard the grease that is left in the pan or use it to make a gravy. Cut in 1 inch thick slices.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon

These cookies were recently dubbed "Weirdly Excellent" by my good friend, Dr. Smith. Two of my favorite adjectives, especially when used together.

A good question another friend, Erin Weston, asks when her notions about good food are challenged:"Is it good or is it gross?" a rhetoric, to which she always answers (herself & whoever is nearby) "Well, if you have to ask..."

The idea of Bacon in dessert can often fit snugly into the latter category, but here it actually works, that's a promise.


Chocolate Chip Cookies with Bacon
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

If you beat the egg into the batter for the full three minutes, they will have a lighter texture. You can spoon these directly onto a baking sheet once the batter is made, or you may hold onto the dough in the freezer, wrapped in 1 ½ inch diameter roll to bake off as you want to eat them. They’ll keep frozen for about a month, refrigerated for a couple of weeks.

3 strips thick cut organic bacon, cut in half crosswise
2/3 cups sugar
1 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest(optional)

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the bacon, cook until it just begins to brown, strain the fat and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Be careful the sugar and bacon don't burn. Remove to a baking rack to strain (it would stick to paper towel)once the bacon is crisp and golden. Let cool, crumble into tiny pieces, set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, soda and salt, set aside
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and remaining sugar together until lightened. Add the egg and beat until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the extract. Mix in the flour until just incorporated, stir in the chips and bacon.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two baking sheets. Place 1 tablespoon mounds of dough or ¼ inch thick slices of the log about 2 inches apart on an parchment lined baking sheet. Bake until lightly golden, rotating pan halfway through baking, about 12 minutes. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a baking rack to cool completely.

STRONG TIP

When I'm filling a Ziploc bag, I always turn the edge of it over to form a cuff.
That way, stray pieces of food don't get caught in the zipper part and interrupt the seal.

My Fat Sandwich

My Fat sandwich

I realize that I have a few versions of the fat sandwich. This one is my everyday. I started eating them on the way to a New Years Eve weekend one year.
What could be better than fat on fat on bread. Truly!

1 ripe avocado, preferable around February when they're best
2 teaspoons meyer lemon juice
2 tablespoons of soft salted rich European butter
1 teaspoon very fine extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
3 slices of crusty artisinal peasant bread, toasted or not

Halve and pitt the avocado(see below). Use a fork to mash each half within its shell. Add the Meyer lemon juice and olive oil, mash a bit more to combine, season with salt and pepper. Slather the bread with soft butter, then smear the avocado mixture on top.


Use a knife to cut the avocado lengthwise in half. Turn the halves to separate. Use a large knife to crack into the pit, lodging it lightly on the blade. turn the knife, this will release the pit.

Lima Bean Soup

Lima Bean Soup
Serves 2
It's been so rainy cold that I've just wanted to make some bean soup.
I had wanted to find these enormous gigante beans, but Met Food wasn't selling any. I settled on some goya dry lima beans. Depending on how old your beans are, they may need a soak before you cook them or they may take a bit longer to simmer and soften. If your beans are fresher they should take less time to cook.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup dry lima beans,
1 medium yellow onion, chopped (about 2 cups)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 drained peeled Italian plum tomato from a can, chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 tablespoon chopped cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish
1 small pasilla, ancho or other smokey dry chili, crumbled for garnish

Heat a large sauce pan over medium heat. Coat with olive oil. Add the dry lima beans, onions, and garlic and sautee, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and browned around the edges, about 15 minutes. Add tomato and vinegar, cook until the liquid has evaporated.

Add 5 cups filtered water and salt and cilantro. Bring to a simmer, cook for 90 minutes, or until beans are very soft, Remove half the beans from the broth, mash them in a bowl with a fork and return them to the soup. Adjust seasoning, garnish with additional chopped cilantro and crumbled pasilla chili.

Two Sweet Little Cookies

The Coffee Fennel Cookie
Makes about 7 dozen

These cookies are fascinating to me because of the clear chemical transformation that happens when you leave them sitting overnight before you bake them. I love them dipped in plain hot coffee.

1 cups granulated sugar
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1/2 vanilla bean
1 tablespoon ground espresso
2 large eggs
1 cups flour, sifted

Butter two baking sheets, dust with flour, knock out excess flour, set aside. In the bowl of a food processor or coffee grinder pulverize the sugar with fennel seed and vanilla bean and coffee. Use a fine mesh sieve to shake out the powder and leave behind the larger, woody pieces. Discard whatever is left in the strainer, (or put it in the sugar bowl you use for coffee to flavor your sugar).

In the bowl of an electric mixer use the whisk attachment to combine the sugar mixture with the eggs. Beat until light, thick and pale, about 7 minutes. Gently fold in the flour in three additions.

Spoon the batter onto the sheet pans by the teaspoon, smooth the rounds with the back of a spoon, Alternately, pipe the batter onto the sheet pan in 1 1/4 inch rounds. Leave the baking sheets sitting out at room temperature for at least 8 hours or over night. They'll look almost cooked in the morning.

Heat the oven to 350∞. Bake the cookies for 7 minutes, until crisp and pale on top and cake like layer has formed on the bottom. Cool on a wire rack, store in an airtight container for up to one week.


Ginger Dollar Cookies
Makes about 13 dozen

You can make these cookies bigger and get less of them. They store nicely in an airtight container for up to a week. They are buttery, not too spicy and perfect with tea.

1 cup flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
5 tablespoons soft unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons super finely diced crystallized ginger
1/2 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
4 large egg whites

Heat oven to 375∞. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper or silpat mats. In a small whisk together the flour, cornmeal and salt, set aside. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in an electric mixer using the paddle attachment, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla, gingers, zest and egg whites, beat until uniform. Add the flour mixture, stir until just combined.

Drop batter by the half teaspoon onto the sheet pans, leaving 1 1/2 inches between cookies. Bake until the cookies are golden at the edges and pale in the center, about 9 minutes. Remove to a baking rack to cool.

Inky Misty Darkness

Inky Misty Darkness Punch
makes 2

This is a great summer fruit punch. It's really black purply. Try to use the flesh from the center of the melon, where it is sweetest and most perfumy.

2/3 cup Campari
1 cup Black Currant Juice ("Currant C" is my favorite brand right now)
2 tablespoons finely chopped ripe ripe cantalope

Fill a cocktail shaker half way with ice. Add all ingredients and shake until your hand starts to numb. Divide evenly between two cocktail glasses, adding more ice if you need it.