Baked Pears with Mascarpone Cheese Cream

I've made roasted pears with mascarpone cheese twice this fall and each time they have been perfect.  Any kind of pear works. Nice red ones on the holiday!

The great thing about this is that the pears can be somewhat unripe. A bit crunchy to the bite. But perfect baked.  

Cut pears in half. Leave stem in or out. Cut out (or if very ripe, scoop out) the seeds and core. You want a good soup spoon hollow in each pear.

Place them cut side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a buttered dish. Fill cavity with honey and butter or brown sugar and butter. Add some nuts if  desired. Place a cinnamon stick, star anise and cardamom pod next to the pears if you want. Bake for about 15-20 minutes at 375 degrees until the juices are flowing and you have a caramelized run-off.  Make sure they aren't mushy, so test after 15 minutes to see how nicely a knife slices through. Then bake another 5-10 minutes cut side down.   

Take about 1/8 cup mascarpone for each pear and whip with a little cream to make a whipped topping. (I use an immersion blender. Mix with a little honey and the caramelized juice.  Maybe a little lemon.  Vanilla or other extract (coffee?)Or a liqueur.  Get creative. Spoon some of the caramelized juice on the plate, place a dollop of cream into each pear. Sprinkle with sweetened sugar (vanilla sugar or lemon sugar, for instance) and chopped nuts (pistachios?) Or serve with the cinnamon stick, star anise and cardamom on the plate.

Delicious!

Goda's Masala

Goda Masala (Grandmother’s Spice Blend) 

I double and quadruple this recipe to make small jars for friends. 

1 Tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut; 1 Tbsp. cumin seeds; 1 tsp. sesame seeds; 1 tsp. poppy seeds; 3 whole cloves; 1 stick cinnamon; 1dried red chilis; 3 cardamom seeds. All toasted briefly in a scant 2 tsp. oil, cooled and ground. 

 Toss a pinch into cooked rice or grains, or steamed vegetables. Delicious sprinkled on cakes, sweets, ice cream.

This recipe is from Urvashi Pitre's Indian Instant Pot® Cookbook: Traditional Indian Dishes Made Easy and Fast

Roasted Pumpkin 5-Spice Ice Cream

I love pumpkin ice cream. Other pumpkin flavors don't really turn me on, although I do like a slice of pumpkin bread or pumpkin pie every so often. This recipe is not sweet, but has wonderful, rich pumpkin flavor. The 5-Spice gives it just the right touch of spice. I garnished a scoop with chopped pecans and a drizzle of our honey.

 I decided to make Jeni's Roasted Pumpkin 5-Spice Ice Cream last weekend. I had what I thought was a Kabocha pumpkin. I apparently didn't! It must have been a Pie pumpkin - lots of dark orange meat with a very dark orange skin. I roasted it and had plenty for the ice cream. The base is very different from the other ice creams, so I will list all the ingredients here:

1 small pie pumpkin, Kabocha, or other dark, savory squash 

2 cups whole milk 1 T plus 1 tsp. cornstarch

1-1/4 c. heavy cream 

1-1/2 oz. cream cheese, softened 

1/4 tsp. fine sea salt 

1/4 c. honey 

2/3 c. packed light brown sugar 

2 T. light corn syrup 

1 T. Chinese 5-spice powder 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and membranes. Place cut side down on a bakin sheet and roast for 30-40 minutes, until soft when pierced with a fork. Let cool slightly. Scoop the flesh into a food processor and puree until completely smooth. It should not be watery; if is is, let sit in a sieve for an hour or until it is thick like that that comes in a can.

Measure out 3/4 cup for the ice cream and reserve the rest for another use. Mix about 2 T of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth and add the pumpkin puree and the honey and whisk until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water. Heat the milk and cream on low heat. Add the brown sugar, light corn syrup, turn up the heat to medium and bring to a boil, stirring so that it does not burn for four minutes. Turn off heat or remove pan from electric burner. Add the Chinese 5-Spice powder and stir. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and stir until dissolved. Boil for one more minute. Take off heat. Take one cup of the hot custard and stir with the pumpkin, honey, cream cheese/salt. If it is lumpy, use an immersion blender and add another cup of custard. Stir all together and pour into a cold pan that sits in the large bowl with ice water. Cool for about an hour. Process as ice cream.

Honey- & Fig Balsamic Roast Lamb Shanks

 I found some lamb shanks we had had in the freezer since we moved from Norwood. Walden Meat had triple-wrapped them, so they were still perfectly-frozen and nice and meaty.

I used  this recipe by Rachel Hanawalt from Simple Seasonal and adapted it somewhat. Instead of plain balsamic vinegar, I used Fig Dark Balsamic from LeRoux Kitchen.   

SimpleSeasonal.com

Mix 2 T flour with 1/8 tsp each of cumin, rosemary and thyme, and 2 dashes of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. sea salt. 

In the crockpot, place the shanks and cover with flour mixture. Turn shanks over and cover with any flour on the bottom.  Pour over the shanks: 1 cup of chicken broth, 1/2 c red wine, 1 Tbp. honey and 1/4 cup of the fig balsamic.  Toss 1 large yellow onion cut into large chunks. Place the lamb on top and grind salt and pepper generously over the top. Place fresh rosemary and thyme sprigs on top (if you have them. Place the potatoes on top of the meat.

Cook 5 hours on high in the crockpot. Mix the potatoes into the juices for the last hour.

• 2 Tbsp flour
• ⅛ tsp cumin
• ⅛ tsp rosemary
• ⅛ tsp thyme
• 2 dashes of cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 C chicken broth
• ½ C red wine
• ¼ C fig-balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2-4 small lamb shanks
• 1 sweet yellow onion cut into sixths
• Fresh rosemary and thyme sprigs
• Several yellow potatoes cut into wedges
  

Lebanese 7 Spice

 I've been doing a lot of instant pot cooking AND Indian cooking lately. Today, though, I decided to make lamb shanks using a recipe calling for Lebanese 7 Spice.

Here's the combination. I had to grind the fenugreek seeds into powder:

1 Tbsp. each of ground allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, ginger, and fenugreek.

I made two recipes and will give one away with a recipe for lamb.

Birthday Cake Ice Cream

Make Jeni's Vanilla Ice Cream base. I added ground vanilla bean to the base or Vanilla Bean Puree to the base.

When the ice cream is nearly done freezing, mix in a generous amount of rainbow sprinkles and freeze four hours.

BANANA HONEY ICE CREAM

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 3 large, very ripe bananas
• 8 egg yolks
• 7 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons orange blossom or clover honey

In a large saucepan, scald the cream and milk with the vanilla bean. Remove from heat, cover and let flavor infuse for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, mash bananas well or puree briefly in a food processor, set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the egg yolks and the sugar for a few minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and pale yellow, set aside. Reheat cream mixture to scalding and about 1/4 of it into the egg yolks, whisk continuously. Return mixture to the saucepan and whisk together with remaining cream.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Pour into a bowl and whisk a few times to release heat. Stir in banana puree, sour cream and honey. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer. Chill. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

From The Lovely Food Blog

Lemon Cream Ice Cream

Update May 2020 - This is the best lemon taste ever! This time, I goofed and zested two lemons before remembering that the zest needed to be in strips! Fortunately, I had plenty of lemons, having bought a whole bag at Costco last week. I wondered what to do with the zest that I would not use so I added some sugar and some Lemon Sugar Crystals and left it overnight to crystalize and dry out. I'll sprinkle some on the ice cream when I serve it.

I also boiled the sugar/lemon juice down to about 1/4 cup. I added some Nielsen-Massey Lemon Paste to it before adding the cold lemon syrup while the ice cream was churning and had chilled up a bit in the compressor.

Remove the zest from 2 lemons in large strips and reserve.  Halve the lemons and squeeze 2/3 cup juice. Make a lemon syrup with the juice and 2 T sugar by bringing to a boil in a saucepan and stirring until sugar is dissolved. Refrigerate until chilled or when cooled place in small Ziploc in the ice water along with the ice cream custard.

Make the ice cream base as with other ice cream bases using milk, cream, sugar, light Karo, salt, cream cheese, and cornstarch. Add lemon zest to cream and milk in the pan before cooking.

After chilling in a ice water bath for 30 minutes or until cold, remove the lemon zest from the ice cream (straining through a sieve if necessary.) Pour the ice cream in the ice cream freezer and turn on. After about 10 minutes of chilling, stream the chilled lemon syrup through the opening on top.

Chill for at least one hour before packing. Freeze until firm at least four hours.

Hummingbird Cake

Update! During social isolation (COVID-19), I'm baking some of my favorites. I finally found flour at Costco, but I used King Arthur Cake Flour this time around.

The cake was once again delicious and this time I creamed the oil and the sugar, added the eggs, beating until creamy. I then added the fruit and nuts and made a well in these wet ingredients. I gently stirred in the dry ingredients, folding until mixed. I used three layers but might try four next time. I doubled up all ingredients for the frosting with the exception of confectionary sugar. I used about half, lightly frosting the sides as if only for a crumb coating. I used the portrait function on my iPhone for the photo which is much better than the original!

April 18, 2017.  I'm trying out cake recipes for this year's Volunteer Appreciation Tea at the Library. I love Cakewalk by Robbin Gourley, especially her personal stories about each cake, so I've picked three cakes to try before making the final version for April 28th: Hummingbird Cake, Walnut Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting, and Red Velvet (or Hand-Me-Down Cake).

The Hummingbird Cake is currently the winner. Gerry took 3/4 of it to work this morning and saved a bit for himself. This cake is moist and lovely with bananas, pecans, and pineapple.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and use parchment to line three or four 8" cake pans. (I used three.)

Combine 3 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 t. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon. Mix well. Make a well in the middle and add 3 eggs and 1 cup of vegetable oil and 1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract. Stir these ingredients until moistened and don't beat! Mix in 8 oz. crushed pineapple in its juice, 1 cup chopped pecans, and 2 cups of chopped bananas.

Spoon this batter into prepared pans and spread evenly, baking for 20-25 minutes until a bamboo skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pans 10 minutes and then cook completely on racks.

For the frosting, combine 8 oz. cream cheese, 16 oz. confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1 tsp. vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy and frost the cake. Sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans around the border and on the cake plate.

Corned Beef Hash and Eggs

We had plenty of corned beef left over (the flat cut), so I decided to make a corned beef hash out of this tougher cut.

I subscribed to the Misfits Market box of veggies once COVID19 hit, thinking I'd save myself from hunting for vegetables in the grocery store.
We got some nice root veggies I could use in the hash: a small turnip, two small beets and three small potatoes.

First, I diced the corned beef (about 1/3 of a flat cut brisket, cooked in the IP), the turnip, and the beets (all peeled). I added two diced yellow onions, 5 smaller cloves of garlic (pressed). I tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet on 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I diced the peeled potatoes and added another large Russet to the mix. I tossed them with olive oil, salt, pepper, celery salt, dried thyme, oregano, dill and basil and then threw in a handful of chopped parsley and some fronds of dill (from our Aerogarden.) I roasted them for 20 minutes.

I put all of this in a large skillet and slowly added a small box (2 cups) of chicken bone broth. I added a generous tablespoon of Grey Poupon mustard and some more salt. I cooked the broth off over high heat.

I fried (with a little butter) four eggs, sunny side up, yolk broken near the end. It was delicious!