Pistachio ice cream

Two things this week have convinced me I should trust my instincts more often.

I saw a teaser for “The Wrestler” many months ago and thought “this is my kind of film”. A director a deeply admire – Julia Roberts got all the awards that year, but they should have gone to Ellen Burstyn – working with an actor from one of Alan Parker’s finest moments (one of my all time favorites. Can’t tell you how much I love that movie).

All I can say is thank you, Mr. Aronofsky. Thank you for one of the greatest films I have ever seen. Thank you for 2 hours of drama, poetry and all sorts of emotions. And thank you for NOT letting Nicolas Cage get the part.

The other nice surprise I had was food related. When I saw Ana Elisa’s pistachio ice cream I knew I had to make it - it had my name written all over it.
I finally made her recipe early on this week and the result was an ice cream I simply cannot resist. Absurdly delicious.

Ana, thank you. Thanking you 100 times would not be enough. :D

Pistachio ice cream

1 ½ cups (200g) raw, shelled and unsalted pistachios
3 ¾ cups (900ml) whole milk*
4 egg yolks
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (180g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

Place pistachio and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil; reduce the heat and let it simmer for 3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon to keep the foam from overflowing. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes.
Pour the pistachio-milk mixture into a blender. Cover with the larger lid and remove the central one. Place a folded kitchen tower over the remaining lid and blend the mixture until smooth – removing one of the lids will release excess steam from inside the blender and the towel will keep the mixture from splashing. Be careful when blending hot liquids.

Line a fine colander with fine muslin or cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Pour the pistachio mixture over the cloth and set aside for about 10 minutes.
Gather the cloth ends and squeeze out over the colander until you get as much liquid as possible – you should get about 2 ½ cups (600ml) of pistachio milk.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Set aside.

Heat the pistachio milk once again until it almost comes to a boil. Remove from heat and pour about ¼ of the mixture over the egg yolks, whisking well until smooth. Pour the remaining liquid, whisk and then return it all to the pan.
Place it over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard is thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 76 to 79ºC/170 to 175ºF on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil).

Strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, add vanilla and salt and mix well. Refrigerate it half-covered for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Freeze custard in ice cream maker, transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer until firm, about 4 hours.

* I had some heavy cream in the fridge begging to be used (it was about to expire), so I replaced 1 cup milk for 1 cup cream.

Makes about 1 quart (950ml)

Bill’s coconut bread

It’s 32ºC (90ºF) now here in Sao Paulo and many people wish they were at the beach. But not me – I don’t like going to the beach...

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Now that you have finished throwing rotten tomatoes at me, I’ll go on. :D

I don’t like the salt, the sand, the heat... I do go to the beach, though – Joao loves it. And people do the craziest things for love, don’t they?
Luckily, I have found 2 or 3 beach haters like me in the world – like Mark – and stopped feeling like a freak. :D

Bill Granger reminds me of the beach – it seems that everything he makes has a tropical, fresh feel. Not to mention that gorgeous house by the ocean we see on the show (Joao would love to have one like that). This is one of his recipes and I liked the result very much.

Bill’s coconut bread

2 eggs
1 ¼ cups (300ml) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 ½ cups (350g) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
150g unsweetened shredded coconut
75g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF; grease and flour a 21x10cm (8 ½x4in)* loaf pan.

Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.
Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add sugar and coconut, and stir to combine.
Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined.
Add melted butter and stir until the mixture is just smooth, being careful not to over-mix.
Pour into prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until bread is cooked when tested with a skewer.
Leave in the pan to cool for 5 minutes, and remove to cool further on a wire rack.
Serve in thick slices, toasted, buttered and dusted with icing sugar.

* I used a 26x10.5cm loaf pan and it was pretty full. The batter did not overflow, though.

Makes 8-10 thick slices

Sweet corn ice cream

Food bloggers love sharing recipes and I am no exception – I have made tons of recipes from other blogs and it’s a huge pleasure for me when people try the recipes I post here. It’s a great exchange and I feel lucky to be part of it.

What makes me even happier is being able to show my foreign readers a bit about the food we eat here in Brazil, or at least in the region I live. I once got an email from Marta - a lady from New Zealand - asking about my butternut squash compote. And a few months ago the compote was featured on Apartment Therapy – The Kitchn. Faith prepared the recipe, adding her own twist, and liked it!

I give you now a very Brazilian ice cream flavor – it’s common to use corn in sweet recipes here (remember my corn fudge?). I slightly adapted a recipe from Nestlé’s Brazilian website – a touch of cinnamon and the ice cream reminded me of curau.

Sweet corn ice cream

1 can (200g) corn kernels, drained and rinsed
1 ¼ cups (300ml) whole milk
1 can (395g) sweetened condensed milk
1 cup (240ml) heavy cream
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

Place the kernels and milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Push mixture through a sieve and put it back in the blender. Add the sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, cinnamon and salt and blend.
Pour into a metal/glass bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in the freezer until firm, at least 4 hours, before serving.

Serves 8-10

Chocolate ice cream with macadamia brittle

I’ve already told you how much I love blogging and the several reasons for that – being you, the people who read me, an amazing one.

Another favorite reason is that I’ll write what I want, about what I want... About people I find beautiful and talented, or ugly and shallow – it is MY blog, after all. You have the right to disagree with me and we can have a nice “conversation” this way - because you are a very important part of my blog.

Of course there are those people who will only comment to show how inconvenient they are - I guess they have too much time in their hands. But I don’t care – for each one of those, there are 50 like you.

Because you make my days a lot sweeter I want to share this ice cream with you – with an extra help from crunchy caramel and buttery nuts.

Chocolate ice cream with macadamia brittle
from here and here

Ice cream:
2 cups (480ml) heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
140g (5 oz) bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped – I used one with 70% cocoa solids
1 cup (240ml) whole milk
¾ cup (150g) sugar
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Warm 1 cup (240ml) of cream with cocoa powder in medium saucepan, whisking to thoroughly blend the cocoa. Bring to boil then reduce heat and gently simmer for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate until smooth. Stir in remaining cup of cream. Pour mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as much as possible. Set mesh strainer atop the bowl. Warm milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan. Stir mixture constantly over medium heat making sure the scrape the bottom and corners, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (I used a wooden spoon). Pour custard through strainer and stir it into the chocolate until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Continue to stir over ice bath until cool – I just let the mixture reach room temperature then refrigerated it, covered.
Refrigerate the mixture to cool thoroughly and then freeze it in your ice cream machine per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Yields 1 quart

Macadamia brittle:
¾ cup (180ml) water
1 ¼ cups sugar
¾ cup unsalted macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

Butter a large baking sheet; set aside.
In a heavy saucepan, mix water and sugar with a wooden spoon. Place over medium heat and cook without stirring – you can swirl the pan around – for 12 minutes or until golden. Quickly mix in the chopped macadamias and pour the mixture over the prepared baking sheet. Set aside to cool completely then break into pieces or cut with a sharp knife.
Serve with ice cream.

I'm in a marshmallow state of mind...

Quoting – I mean, sort of – Billy Joel reminds me of the day I saw him and his teeny-tiny wife on Oprah. Katie Lee Joel was showing their apartment and telling how she had gotten Nate Berkus to decorate it, after watching him on Oprah one day. When the cameras got to her room, I was in complete shock – the doors of her (huge) closet were all covered in gold. Yes, people, GOLD. Seriously – I found that so tacky I had to laugh. Out loud. Who needs gold splashed on the walls, for heaven's sake? I wonder if they would air that episode nowadays.

Well, back to something important – the marshmallows. These are great and even though there are extravagant amounts of sugar and corn syrup involved you can still taste the fruit. Make sure you check the post I got the recipe from – her marshmallows look absolutely amazing.

Strawberry marshmallows

2 tablespoons (or 8 sheets) unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup strawberry purée – blend/process 5-6 strawberries and pass through a fine sieve to remove the seeds
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups (300g) sugar
¼ cup + 2 tablespoons water
½ cup + 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup (140g) confectioners’ sugar
3 tablespoons corn starch

Line a 20cm (8in) square pan with parchment paper. Coat this with a very thin layer of vegetable oil*.

Fit a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. In the mixing bowl, combine the puree with vanilla extract. Sprinkle with the gelatin and allow to bloom (soften).

In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, salt, corn syrup and water. Bring to a boil with the lid on and without stirring. When it is at a boil, remove lid and continue to cook without stirring until it reaches the soft-ball stage – 112-115ºC/234-240ºF.

With the mixer at medium speed, pour tall of the hot syrup slowly down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Please be very careful with the hot mixture - use a splash guard if you have one. When all the syrup is added, bring the mixture up to full speed and whip until mixture is fluffy and stiff about 8-10 minutes – if you are using a Kitchen Aid mixer that will take about 5 minutes.

Pour marshmallow into the parchment lined pan and smooth with an oiled offset spatula if necessary. Drop food coloring over the marshmallow and swirl around with a toothpick to create the marbled effect. Allow to sit, uncovered at room temperature for 10-12 hours.

Mix confectioners’ sugar and corn starch and sift over the rested marshmallows. Turn slap onto a cutting board, peel off paper and dust with more of the powder mixture. Cut as desired and dredge again in the powder mixture, and shake off excess powder – using a lightly oiled knife makes this step a lot easier.

* I had a hard time removing them from the paper, but it was worth it. :D

Makes 36