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!

Cranberry-Walnut-Chunky Apple Cake

This week, our New Bedford friend Karen Hetu (and Oreo's breeder) dropped off several pounds of fresh cranberries from her bog. They are amazing - so big and luscious. (See photo that compares them to a dime and quarter.) I was making a Chunky Apple Cake for dessert, so decided to add the berries and about 1-1/2 cups of chopped walnuts to the batter. I knew that our guests from Asia (YSEALI fellows Shirin from the Philippines and Shwe from Myanmar) needed to have some local cranberries and apples while they stayed at our home in Marion for three days.

I cut about a cup or so in halves and combined them with the chunks of apples in a Grove Collaborative reusable bag and 3/4 cup sugar. I added about 1 T Citron Sea Salt flakes instead of squeezing in some lemon juice. I also left out the salt in the dry ingredients. I baked for about an hour on 350 degrees in Convection Bake in a bundt pan. The batter rose beautifully, but not too high.

They had cake again for breakfast! I guess they loved it!