Kumquat Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

I don't want make this desert sound fancy, but believe me the tasted just like from sophisticated restaurant. I decided have a bit fun with kumquat and blueberries as both easily find here in Sunnyvale California. First time I've seen kumquat was in Singapore during Chinese New Year. It's cherry size oranges, grow abundantly that for Chinese descendant as symbol of good wealth or prosperity. The good news is that the fruits is edible, rather lack of imagination how to present in the table.

As a basic recipe, I looked at Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream from Dorie Greenspan. With the addition of kumquat should  give such strong flavor and tangy, the ultimate aim of our ice cream.


Ingredients:
(Served about 1.5 quarts)

2 cups of blueberries -fresh or frozen (if frozen, thaw and drain)
1.5 cups of kumquat -slice and take seeds out
2 tablespoon grapefruit juice (you can use oranges, lime or lemon)
1 cup of sugar or more for taste
pinch of salt
2 tablespoon of dark rum
1.5 cup of heavy cream
1.5 cup of sour cream

Put blueberries and kumquat with juice, sugar and salt in medium non reactive saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring until the mixture boils and the berries pop and soften, about 3 minutes.

Turn the berries into a blender and whir until about homogeneous puree, about 1 minute. (I purposely leave some lumps). Add the heavy cream and sour cream and pulse just to blend. Taste and if you'd like add a squirt more sugar.

Pour the custard into a bowl and refrigate until it is chilled before churning it into ice cream.

Scrape the chilled custard into the bowl of ice cream maker and churn according the manufacturer's instruction.  Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.

Choc Banana: Ice cream for adult

Well, adult need treat and pleasure as they were kids. This ice cream recipe from David Leibovitz book Ready for Desert pg 147  involved no machine, straight forward without craving energy. The bitter choc came from 70% dark cocoa from Endanger Species, while very ripe plantain banana gave strong flavor to enrich the batter. I called it adult version as the recipe contains some liqueurs, such Baileys and dark rum. Since the bitter taste so intense, I decided to add 1/3 cup of sugar. The result just stunning. 

Ginger and more ginger

When I was kid, gingerbread always reminded me with The Famous Five (Lima Sekawan). Their adventure always brought imagination which I rekindled until now. It turned out my other half craved with ginger too. Love it so much that we always put in our backpack when we strolling down to a day walks.

I just received Ready for Desert book from David Leibovitz. Although his blog is great with lovely recipes, I found bit daunting to start with. Then, today I began with this easy cupcakes.

Actually it was left over Sierra Stout's 30th Anniversary trigger this trial. The dark and rich flavor from Stout made the batter even so lovely. I convinced to not replace any ingredients but just light molasses into darker because that's what we had in pantry.

Overall I am not impressed by the method, some text were not clear enough to describe the result of mixing that would be helpful for first Leibovitz's follower. The amount of ingredients also ended up less than the book said because I want to make decent amount of cupcakes. Somehow bit more effort and tricky, but I am willing to try again.

Finding comfort with this humble desert

This desert known in Malay or Indonesia for such delicate and humble appearance. Bubur kacang hijau or mung beans porridge served in cold damp night with warm coconut milk and piece of bread. Should I remind my self now is spring already? Last week Bay Area just poring rains, so best treat should be this desert.

I found recipe from Lidia Sianturi in Edmonton, who put effort to convince me this is easy job. Indeed, I found it is really easy with particular tricky technique. Below her recipe with adding some notes of how to cook, playing around and storage tips.


Bubur Kacang Hijau (Green Mung Beans Desert)

Ingredients:

• 350 gr of green mung (or moong) beans, wash and soak in water over nightly, discard soaking water before cooking. (see if the beans swollen and skin start open up little bit then the beans ready)
• 3 pandan leaves, tied in simple knot (you can find in Asian shop as frozen bay thoy leaf).
• 4cm of ginger, crack it with pestle. (I used whole ginger, finely chopped and added)
• 1 block/250gr of palm sugar, grate it. (decided to use less palm sugar as the color already too dark and added 2 tablespoon cane sugar).
• 1/2 can of coconut milk
  
• pinch of salt
• water to boil, enough to cover whole beans

Cooking methods:

Boil mung beans in medium stove for 15 minutes or until the skin open up in full. (You can test it by taste it softness. Add it ginger and pandan leaves, and let it cook for another 5-7 minutes. Add some water if you see bit dry and stir few times. Then add coconut milk to enhance the flavor. Reduce the power of stove into small, cover the pan and let it another 5-6 minutes or longer if you want less watery. Take the pandan leaves out for serving and storage.

Serving:
Served warm with piece of bread with add some thin coconut milk (cook separately). I am using whole milk for breakfast. Some Asian fellow served with durians, but since the fruit has some pretty strong odor, I tended not using it.

Storage:
I used to cook in batch and store in freezer. Pour the porridge at some deep pan (glass or metal). Put in freezer for 24 hours and then take it out. Cut (or bang) it in pieces that you want, put in container plastic bags. De froze (minutes depend on weight in microwave) then serve with milk or some ice cubes.

Search for wild mushroom

I begun love affair with mushroom since hiking in the mountain. Taking picture while they were sprung from the bottom of tree trunk is challenging, specially tiny mushroom that love shades and limited light. I found collecting wild mushroom very fun to do. Few can be eaten, others were poisonous that can be lethal. Wild mushroom as always lot more flavour and nicer texture when it cooked.

Last week we walked to the Half Moon Beach, unwittingly found these beautiful button mushroom. We followed the equitarian route and spot some in hiding among the grass. Some in good condition, but most being knocked out either by horses or insects. In California there are report of people died eating wild mushroom. So be careful.

This week we'd like to grow shitake mushroom at our home. Well, we experimenting how to make our gourmet food source. We bought the kit from Fungi Perfecti. I will post some development in the future.

Winter Apple and Berries Crumble

Since winter did not get away for sometimes soon, I decided to treat myself with traditional apple crumble. I had lovely joyride 37 miles with Bianchi Bike on New Year Day, and back home with these simple and rewarding desert. Very easy to make.

The best ingredients is sour or cooking apple. I choose Granny Smith which somehow appear in supermarket beginning January. I love the texture, slightly harder and last longer. For calories conscious I did not put too much sugar but compensate with butter.


Ingredients

Base:
4 large cooking apple or 6-8 small (peeled and seed out)
2 tbs sugar
1 tbs cinnamon powder
2 cups of mixed berries (in this recipe blueberry and blackberry)

Crumble:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup traditional oats
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
10 tbs butter

Cut apple in chunks, stew in a pan with sugar and cinnamon about roughly 5-6 minutes at low temperature. Stir occasionally and let the apple softened but not too much. When it done pour into glass/ceramic to cool down. Add the berries and stir roughly. (if you using frozen berries, add it when apples still on the pan. The heat will melt straight away without over cooking it).

Put oven on 375F for preheating. In the bowl add the crumble ingredients and mixed with hand until create crumbly consistency. Do not over do it otherwise the butter melt quickly. It doesn't matter if cannot cover all the grains.

Pour the crumble on top of apple and berries then bake about 45-60 minutes or until the crumble looks brownies. The berries will try to escape, probably best to put some addition plate on the second rack below the pie dish.

Served warm with custard or cold with ice cream.