Two ingredient Five-Spice Peach Ice Cream

I had an almost serious thought about how ice cream is made. Much like that fruit-at-the-bottom yogurt concept where it is just plain yogurt + jam, I thought I might try to add a finished jam (five spice peach) to the two-ingredient no-churn ice cream base. These no churn recipes are for the extra lazy. Taste-wise, you're much better off making an actual custard base for ice cream for a more balanced taste that doesn't taste overly dairy-like. The prep time is so short that from start to finish, you could be eating this ice cream in about six hours (what it takes for the mixture to set in the freezer).

Photo-wise, it doesn't look that interesting. And since the jam is essentially pureed peaches with sugar, pectin, and spices, there aren't visual orange peach bits in the ice cream. I think the "five spice peach jam" comes from the Food in Jars cookbooks.

This has the texture of an ice cream; but it lack the body and flavor depth that an egg-based custard brings to the dessert. Maybe it could be plated up with some grilled peaches. That'd be a dashing display.

Makes: 1.5 quarts

Ingredients

1 pint organic heavy cream
One 14-oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 pint peach jam

Directions

In a large bowl, whip the heavy cream to soft peaks (about 10 minutes) with an electric whisk. If you do this step by hand it takes much longer and requires serious upper body strength.

Once soft peaks have formed, whisk in the sweetened condensed milk. Then stir in the peach jam. Make sure you break up the jam so that it is evenly distributed.

Put the ice cream mixture into quart containers and freeze for at least six hours.

Five Spice Powder Roasted Chicken

This came out decent and a tad undercooked in the thigh area; more or less edible straight from the oven. This is adapted from my dad's roast duck recipe. If I do this recipe again (the first time I never wrote it up), I'll have to try the slower roasting method. Most poultry roasting recipes call for 50-60 minutes of unadulterated time in a very hot oven, with temps ranging from 400 degrees F to 450 degrees F. A slow roast would involve dropping the oven temp to 275 degrees F but increasing the time to roast to 3-4 hours. That would definitely not be a weekday meal unless I started it on a weekend.

Ingredients

1 whole fryer chicken, cleaned and giblets removed

2 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder
4 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp red Chinese rice wine
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
3/4 tsp kosher sea salt
1 c filtered water

Directions

Place chicken breast-side up into a 9" x 13" baking dish (or roasting pan, if you have one).

In a bowl, combine five spice powder, sugar, salt, soy sauce, rice wine, and water.

Use a spoon or basting brush to cover the chicken (all sides) with the five-spice sauce.

Roast for an hour in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees F.

Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before carving.

Five Spice Roast Duck

It's been a while since I last made this dish and I ended up adjusting it because I roasted the duck in a pan that was too large for the duck and a lot of the tasty sauce boiled off during baking. When I took the duck out of the oven to baste it a second time, I had to deglaze the pan with some red wine and added another cup of water to the pan for the final hour of baking. I think my dad uses a 2-quart oblong casserole dish with a 3/4" rack inside.

Total cook time should be roughly 1.5 hours, but with taking the duck out to baste and pour off the oil, the cooking/prep time can easily be 3 hours. Plan ahead if you are using the oven to make other things.

This spice ratio is a family recipe; which, in our family means that my dad created it out of experimentation and someone bothered to write it down. No one has the time to grind a custom five-spice powder anymore; any store-bought mixture of Chinese five-spice powder will do.

Ingredients

1 whole duck, giblets removed
2 tbsp organic granulated sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 tbsp five spice powder
6 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp Chinese rice cooking wine
+ 1 cup of water (for 2nd basting)
+ 1/4 c to 1/2 c wine (for deglazing the roasting pan)

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Tear out a sheet of aluminum foil that is long enough to cover the entire duck. Poke holes in it with the tines of a fork.

1. If using a frozen duck, thaw completely before roasting. If using fresh duck, wash the duck inside and out with water and remove all the giblets from inside. If you intend to trim the excess fat, do not discard it. Place the excess fat and giblets on the bottom of the roasting pan under the rack. The fat will melt during baking and can be used in any lard-based recipe. Place in baking dish.

2. Combine spices and wine in a bowl. Using a spoon, pour the sauce over the duck. Flip the duck and baste the other side of the duck. It shouldn't matter which side is up for the first or second bastings, it should just be the opposite side... ehh if that makes any sense.

3. For example, if the duck goes in breast-side up then for the second basting, the duck should be turned so that it is breast-side down. The goal here is to get both sides of the duck roasted to a gorgeous golden brown.

Roast for:

20 mins, breast side up
45 mins, remove duck from oven, baste with pan juices, breast side down
60 mins, remove duck from oven, baste, cover with aluminum foil

4. Remove from oven when the duck breast or thigh meat measures 165 degrees F with a meat thermometer. Let rest for 15 minutes before carving. Serve warm (with steamed bao, if using).