Summer Treat -- Coconut Ice Cream (non-dairy)

A few weeks back I made one of the best purchases at Goodwill -- a Cuisinart ice cream maker for $14.99.

Last year I tried some sorbet recipes and just put them in Ziploc bags in the freezer and set a timer for a series of 20 minute intervals for "smooshing" the bags.  The end product was OK, but I found myself longing for a real ice cream maker.  God heard the cry of my heart, and there was an ice cream maker calling my name for the shelf at the Lakeville Goodwill Center.

I've made vanilla and chocolate ice creams (recipes to follow), non-dairy coconut ice cream, and strawberry sorbet (using strawberries from my garden).  Below is the coconut ice cream recipe:





Coconut Ice Cream (Vegan)
from the Hungry Mouse website
2 (13 oz) cans of unsweetened coconut milk (not reduced fat)
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

Combine completely the sugar with one can of the coconut milk.  Add the second can and the flavorings.  Chill for at least 4 hours.  (I chilled it over night.)
Process the mixture in the ice cream maker for 15 to 25 minutes, following the directions for your particular ice cream maker.

Freeze for an hour before serving.  Store in the freezer in a covered container.

Three Cheese Experiments

Below are my three experiments, continuing my adventures with milk.  The first was exactly by the recipe that I found on the "Chef in You" website.

Ricotta Cheese #1
Ingredients
2 quarts whole milk (I didn't use organic as the website suggests)
1 cup whipping cream (again, not organic)
3 Tbsp white vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
1.  In a heavy saucepan, combine mile and cream.  Warm in moderately high heat until the surface becomes foamy and steamy and a thermometer reads 180 - 185 degrees.  Don't let the milk boil.

2.  Remove the pot from the heat.  Add the vinegar and stir gently for 30 seconds; the mixture will curdle almost immediately.  Add the salt and stir for 30 seconds longer.

3.  Cover the pot with a clean towel and let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.

4.  Line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth, allowing several inches of overhang.  (Note:  I didn't have "butter muslin," just the cheap grocery store stuff.  The weave is far too loose and the curds and why ran through.  A cotton tea towel worked much better.)
5.  Using a slotted spoon, transfer the curds to the colander.  (Note:  It would take far too much time to spoon a half gallon of stuff into a colander. Using a metal mesh colander and a tea towel set  over a large bowl, I simply poured it all over the towel/colander set-up.)

6.  Let the ricotta stand, stirring occasionally.  I let mine sit for a couple of hours, squeezing the liquid out every now and then.  When you're satisfied with the consistency of the cheese, it is ready and can be refrigerated.  It will last at least 4 days.

The next cheese experiment occurred because I had a batch of yogurt that didn't set.  I tried the suggestion from another website and let it incubate a little longer.  Still no yogurt.  Thankfully, this yogurt maker had a further suggestion for using failed yogurt.

Ricotta Cheese #2
Ingredients
1 quart of "failed" yogurt

Directions
1.  Heat the yogurt until the white curd is visibly separating from the greenish, watery whey.
2.  Set a colander over a bowl and line with a towel.
3.  Pour the entire contents, "curds and whey," into the colander.
4.  Allow the cheese to drain for a couple of hours.  As with the cheese above, I occasionally stirred the mixture and squeezed the liquid out.
5.  Refrigerate and use.

Since I was spending the morning in the kitchen, I thought I might as well give a little time for experimenting, as opposed to following any specific recipe.  I really don't know what you would call the result.  It was like a super-thick sour cream/cream cheese/quark kind of thing.

Not-Ricotta Experiment
Ingredients
1 quart whey strained from the week's batches of yogurt
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup yogurt that didn't set right.
1 T. vinegar

Directions
After incubating it for a while longer, I reheated the mixture to 190 degrees and added the vinegar.  Like the other ricotta recipes, I let it set for a couple of hours before pouring it in a colander/ tea towel set up.  The whey drained out, leaving sour cream.  It got pretty think, and was really delicious.

More Deliciousness -- Ricotta Cheese

This has turned out to be a dairy-oriented summer for us!

It started with digging out our old yogurt makers and using them for making fresh yogurt for my family.  We also decided that we like to strain our yogurt so that it would be thicker.  Store-bought yogurt has thickeners (pectin or gelatin), and some of our batches with skim milk turned out pretty runny.  Whole milk makes a much thicker yogurt.




Straining the yogurt gave us a significant amount of whey.  I wondered, "Does this stuff have any nutritional value?" and "What should I do with it?"  One website, Livestrong, gave instructions for making ricotta cheese with the whey leftover from the strained yogurt.  I tried these instructions twice, and it failed both times.  But that got me thinking  (which I do on a frequent basis, anyway).  "Is there another way to simply make ricotta cheese?"  And, viola!  I found multiple recipes on-line.




Before I explain this wonderful process, let me explain what whey is to other novices like myself.  In yougurt and cheese making, two main proteins exist:  whey and casein.  The liquid that separates from the yogurt is whey.  The uninitiated, like me a little while back, think that when they see this on the top of commercial yogurt that it's a sign that it is going bad.  While some pout this down the drain, yogurt whey contains all of the vital amino acids that make a protein "complete."  It also contains calcium, potassium and vitamin B-12.

Now to my ricotta cheese experiments.  One morning, armed with whole milk, cream, vinegar, whey, and yogurt, I put my hand to making my own soft cheese in my own kitchen.

Simple Granola

I've written about our family's increased use of yogurt.  Along with yogurt, the kids are eating more granola.  They've always loved granola mixed with other cereals, yogurt, or ice cream.  I found that I just couldn't get to the grocery store enough to keep up with demand.

Solution:  make my own.  Again, like granola, this was something that I used to do about 20 years ago when the older kids were little.  I went to my faithful More-with-Less Cookbook and an old recipe I used to use.  It's one of the simplest recipes you'll ever find.



Basic Granola
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Ingredients
7 cups dry ingredients (at least 3 - 4 cups oatmeal)
1 cup liquid ingredients.

Mix the dry ingredients and spread them in a jelly roll pan or large roasting pan.  Mix the liquid ingredients and pour over the dry ingredients.  Mix with a spoon or a pastry blender.  The pastry blender will result with a finer granola, as opposed to a chunkier granola.

Bake for 60 minutes, stirring the the granola every 15 minutes with either a spoon or a pastry blender.  Let the granola cool before storing in a container.

About the ingredients:
Dry ingredients can include:  quick oats, old-fashioned oats, white flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, bran, wheat germ, dry milk, sugars, oat bran, sunflower seeds, coconut, chopped almonds, raisins, cranberries, mixed dry fruits, cinnamon

Liquid ingredients:  Milk, water, oil, melted butter, juice, honey, vanilla, maple syrup, peanut butter, (note:  I try to use at least 1/3 c. of oil/butter)

Making Yogurt

With my old yogurt makers out of storage and dusted off, I've rediscovered a simple love for making and eating fresh yogurt not doctored with sugars, gelatins, and other misc. ingredients.  With a yogurt maker, the process is really pretty simple.  I've found a few websites (here, here, and here) that were especially helpful. Some people have alternate ways to incubate the yogurt using a crockpot, the oven, or a cooler with a heating pad.  I'm glad I have my yogurt maker because it takes some of the guess-work out of the process.


Here's my process:
1.  Heat 1 quart of milk to at least 185 degrees.  (In the old days of unpasteurized milk, they suggested bringing the milk to a boil.  I did this once and had burned milk on the bottom of the pan.  If you want more information about the "whys" of milk temperature, follow this link.)

2.  Cool the milk to 110 degrees.  My yogurt maker has a scoop with a built-in thermometer that is marked with a range of 100 - 110 degrees.  At this point I add the starter with my scoop, which is about 2 tablespoons.

3.  Put the yogurt in the small 6 oz. cups and place in the yogurt maker.  When the yogurt maker is plugged in, it keeps the yogurt at a constant temperature.  I've never measured mine, but the pros say the temperature should stay between 85 and 100 degrees.

4.  Incubate for 10 hours, according to the directions for my 2 makers.

5.  Refrigerate for a couple hours before eating.  This further allows the yogurt to set.

6.  I strain about half of my batch to make a Greek-like yogurt.  Homemade yogurt is a little runnier than commercial yogurt because it doesn't have gelatin or pectin.  I use a paper coffee filter and a mesh colander to strain out the whey.  I like the result of this over using  multiple layers of cheese cloth or even a cotton tea towel.  The resulting whey has NO milk in it, which by the way makes it impossible to use for making ricotta cheese.  Sometimes I let the yogurt strain for 20 minutes and sometimes for 2 hours.  I like to scrape the sides and bottom of the filter; this seems to help the straining process.

Lots of websites give more detailed information and may answer specific technical questions.  I'm more of an experimental cook who likes to view directions/recipes as suggestions as opposed to commands.

Next up:  making ricotta cheese!

Loving Yogurt.

This summer, with kids eating breakfasts and lunches at all hours of the day, yogurt has become a hot item with my family.  (I say that figuratively since they had been reaching into fridge for their little cups of Yoplait, Gaymont, or Old Home yogurt.)

I started inspecting the ingredient lists on the packages at the grocery store.  So many of them had sugar and high fructose corn syrup high on the list.  In fact, in the Yoplait yogurt, 63% of its calories are from sugar.  Even the trendy Greek yogurts have a high sugar content.  I decided that it was time to crawl into the depths of my kitchen cupboard to find the yogurt makers that I used when the kids were little.

Years ago I'd gotten 2 yogurt makers at garage sales.  They were both Salton 5-cup yogurt makers with simple instructions, and I used them quite a bit at that stage of my life.  Thankfully, I saved the manual/ instruction booklet.  In simplest terms, you heat the milk, cool the milk, add the starter and incubate it.

The result is a most beautifully smooth and creamy yogurt.  I've been straining it using a mesh colander and a paper coffee filter. The whey drains out, leaving Greek-syle yogurt.  When I have pictures, I'll post them along with directions.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Now that I've shared what a marvel I am at soups, I thought I'd pass on three of my favorites.

Baked Potato Soup
5 # potatoes, scrubbed and baked
Bake at 350 for 1 - 1 1/2 hours
2 leeks
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1/2 # carrots
12 - 16 oz. frozen corn
1 - 2 T. olive oil
2 cans broth (vegetable for vegetarians and chicken for non-vegetarians)
2 cans evaporated milk
1 pt. sour cream
1 T. parsley
1 T. chives
1 t. dill
2 t. salt
8 oz. cream cheese, softened


Scrub potatoes and prick them 2 - 3 times. Place them on center rack of the oven. Bake the potatoes at 350 for 1 - 2 hours.

While the potatoes are cooling, elevate the oven temperature to 400. Quarter and thinly slice leeks; mince the garlic; thinly slice the carrots. Toss with the olive oil, place in a shallow pan and place in the oven. Stir every 15 minutes for 1 hours.

Cut the slightly cooled potatoes into large pieces. Add potatoes, roasted leek mixture, broth, and canned milk to a large pot.

Mix herbs with the sour cream and add to the pot. (If the herbs are fresh, blend them with the sour cream in a food processor.) Slowly heat the soup to almost boiling. Allow it to cool. (As it sets, the seasonings develop with the potatoes.)

After the soup has cooled, add 1 - 2 cups broth to the softened cream cheese. Mix well. Add this mixture to the pot of soup and reheat.



Italian Tortellini Soup
3 # hamburger
2 small onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 can spaghetti sauce
1 large can tomato puree
2 cans beef broth
1 T. beef bouillon
2 cups dice carrots
2 cups cut up green beans
3 packages of frozen tortellini
2 t. Italian seasoning
(or a mixture of oregano, basil & parsley)

Brown the hamburger. Drain the fat. Add the chopped onion and minced garlic to the meat and saute. In a very large pot, add the spaghetti sauce, broth, tomato puree, chopped tomatoes and seasonings.
Add the meat mixture to the pot. Bring to a boil; add bouillon and vegetables. Cook until the vegetables are done.
In another pot, cook the tortellini according to directions. After drained, add to the soup pot.



Fresh Tomato / Basil Soup
(with fresh tomatoes)
about 2 dozen fresh tomatoes
1 T. oil
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/ 2 cup fresh basil
2 T. fresh oregano
1/4 cup fresh basil
1 t. salt
1 1/2 t. sugar

A note about cooking the tomatoes:
Some people don't like the seeds in tomatoes. If this is the case, cook down the tomatoes and then put them through a sieve.
Your result will be a tomato puree.

If you want a chunky soup, peel and dice the tomatoes and cook them down for about 30 - 45 minutes at a medium to low temperature.
Don't put it through a sieve.

After the tomatoes are cooked to your preferences, set aside. In another pan, saute the onions and garlic in 1 T. olive oil.

Add all but 1 cup of cooked tomatoes to the sauteed vegetables. In a blender or food processor add the remaining tomatoes and the herbs. Blend well. Heat to almost boiling and add the salt and sugar.

A Soup Goddess

I love making soups.

Soups are an excellent venue for various ingredients: meats, spices, liquids, herbs and vegetables. I've never made the same soup twice. In other words, each pot of soup is a fresh creation. Every time it's a different combination for that never-before-tasted bowl of soup. Experimenting with seasonings and fresh ingredients takes time; time makes the best soup!

When I serve soup at the dinner table, I'm usually the first one to comment on how good it tastes. My children like soup and almost always ask for a second helping, but I'm my biggest fan. The more time and experimentation involved in a particular pot of soup, the more I enjoy the product. We had guests one day and the wife commented, "You really love making soups, don't you?" When I asked "Why?" she responded that she could tell how my much my family was enjoying the meal.

One of our family's favorite soups is what I call "Magic Soup." Much like Stone Soup, I feel as if I produce a great soup from water alone. OK, I add turkey bones and fat, a few onions and carrots and simmer it almost forever. The result is a rich turkey broth begging homemade noodles.

As much as I love soup, I rarely order it when we eat out. Most restaurant soups are from mixes or come completely pre-made. (If I wanted to open a can and add water, I'd do that at home.) I did however, have an excellent bowl of Tomato/Basil/Feta Soup at St. Peter's Food Coop.

My track record as a soup maker is pretty good. I've learned a thing or two over the years. If you add pasta to your soup don't let it sit for too long. Pasta continues to absorb liquid, especially just cooked pasta in hot soup. Rutabaga adds a sweet-like flavor that doesn't mesh with well in soups. (Believe me, I've tried.)



As far as I can remember, I've only had one disaster with a soup. I bought a mix at a gift shop at the North Shore for a beer cheese soup. I added the right amounts of milk and beer and IT WAS TERRIBLE! Most unfortunately, it was an evening when my son had invited 2 friends from school for dinner. My family and guests sat politely stiffing their hot soup and taking only the smallest sips of the stuff. I finally took my first spoonful, I almost spit it out. Our guests, though very polite, looked relieved when I whisked the bowls off the table and brought out the bread and peanut butter.

Even the popcorn meant to jauntily float on top of the soup couldn't redeem it.

Christmas Cookie Favorites

Our family does some extra baking during the holiday season. Not like my mother, who was baker-extraordinaire at Christmas, however. I learned early on that if I baked, I ate. Even if I hid the cookies, bars, etc., I still knew where they were. And no one in the family would know if I'd eaten a whole batch of cookies if they didn't even know those cookies existed.

My daughter, Faith, baked for a couple days in order to take baked goods as gifts to friends and co-workers. She tried some new recipes. My baking, on the other hand, will be our family's traditional stand-bys.

Below are the recipes that we always make:


Plantation Bars
1 pkg. almond bark (24 oz.)
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup salted peanuts, crushed
5 cups cereal (Rice Krispies or Cheerios)
(or skip the peanuts and use 6 cups cereal)
Melt the almond bark. Add peanut butter and mix well. Stir in cereal. Spread in a buttered pan or drop by teaspoonful on waxed paper.



Magic Cookie Bars
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup chopped nuts (opt.)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
15 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
Layer the ingredients in the above order. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.



Gingerbread Boys
2 cups butter, softened
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
6 cups flour
3 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons cinnamon
3 teaspoons ginger
3 teaspoons cloves
1 cup flour for rolling
Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg and molasses and beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Refrigerate for 1 hour or more. Roll on lightly floured surface. Cut with floured cookie cutters. Bake on greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 8 - 12 minutes. Bake smaller cookies for briefer times. Decorate if desired.



On Top of the Stove Cookies
Boil together for 1 minute:
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk.
Remove from head and add:
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 cups quick oats.
Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

Let me know if you try any of our family recipes.

Magic Soup

I've always loved the book Stone Soup. This is a story of three clever soldiers who trick a stingy village into giving them a meal. My favorite aspect of this book is the subtle way in which the soldiers are able to make something out of nothing. Vegetables and meat, once hidden from the traveling men, make their way into the large pot. Laughing, feasting and dancing replace the villagers' wary suspicions.


With the same gusto and cleverness, I make "Magic Soup." Whether I use a carcass from a turkey or one from Cub's broasted chicken, I have made many pots of this soup for my family.

Others call it "turkey stock" or simply broth. But in our house, it's Magic Soup. After I've pulled off the larger bits of meat I place the bones, skin and drippings in my third largest pot. Two gallons of water nicely cover it all. Whole, cleaned carrots, celery, parsley and onions join the water. After the pot comes to a boil, I turn the heat down and "simmer the heck out of it." (Another bloggers words, not mine) Then the magic begins.

The fragrance makes its way up to the bedrooms. The slight bubbling and rattling can be heard in the living room. As people go through the kitchen, they stop to give it a stir. My husband asks if I know that something is cooking and should he turn it off. The cat becomes a little more vocal.


When some time has passed, (not a little, not a lot) those 2 gallons of water have magically turned into 3 quarts of rich, golden-brown broth. After straining out the bones and mushy vegetables, the pot cools on the back step. Another magic transformation occurs as it gels and the fat hardens on the top. Now it's ready to become the secret ingredient in any number of recipes.

Rutabaga Puff ... at last!

Tonight was the night to try my first of many rutabaga ("R") recipes. With mashed "R" in the fridge I made Rutabaga Puff, a recipe found on the Southern Food section of About.com. For others with mashed "R" lounging in their fridges, here's my recipe:

Rutabaga Puff
2 cups mashed rutabaga
2 T. butter
1 T. fresh chives or fresh dill
1/2 t. garlic salt.
2 eggs, separated.

Add the butter, herbs and salt to the mashed rutabaga. Mix in the 2 egg yolks. Beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold into rutabaga mixture. Lightly pile into a greased 1 1/2-quart casserole. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until set and top is golden brown. Spoon into a serving dish and serve.

We served this with meatballs in beef gravy, mashed potatoes and home-made wheat berry with craisins and raisins bread. A very yummy meal!

Soups!

I'm just tickled that Fall is here. One of my favorite meals to create is a large pot of soup, fresh bread or rolls, a green salad, and sliced apples. A common meal around our house is "Mama's Soup Surprise" which is anything I make up. (the name comes from a children's song about chicken hips and lizard lips and alligator thighs.) Once the air gets a little nippy, I make up all kinds of soup.

My most recent creation was a fresh vegetable soup with a tomato base (tomatoes from my garden), green beans, spinach, corn and the first rutabaga from my garden. Rutabagas are a Prichard food. On my husband's side of the family, we always have rutabaga for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For my soup, I cubed it and boiled it in the tomato stock with the other veggies.

I would have taken a picture of this lovely soup, but after I added some pasta it ceased to be so lovely. I boiled the pasta in the liquid of the soup and set the pot on the back of the stove until supper time. Wouldn't you know, that little elbow noodles swelled to jumbo size leaving little of that pretty broth. It tasted fine; the next day the noodles absorbed even more and we called it a casserole.

Some day, I will make a lovely meal and take a picture. Probably not on a corndog night, though!