Coconut Sorbet

This is a Cuisinart recipe and frankly, it doesn't have that much coconut flavor to it. Maybe I should have used coconut cream instead of coconut milk. It tastes like sweetened vanilla water that has been colored white. Even though the coconut milk was unsweetened, there is still too much sugar in the recipe. Next batch should cut the sugar down to 3/4 c.

Ingredients

1.5 c water

1 1/3 c granulated sugar

1 whole vanilla bean, halved then seeds scraped

pinch of salt

2 cans (13.5 oz each) unsweetened coconut milk

Directions

1. Combine water, sugar, vanilla bean pod and seeds and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to just a boil then remove from heat. Let the ingredients steep for an hour and strain into a separate bowl. Add coconut milk. Stir. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Process in Cuisinart (or similar) ice cream maker. Transfer sorbet to a container and freeze for at least two hours until firm.

Crockpot Pear Butter

This is the first attempt at making pear butter. A new crop of D'anjou pears were on sale at the grocery store so I bought enough to make six pints of fruit butter. For apples and pears, one pound of fruit typically yields one pint. I though this came out too sweet. Two cups of sugar is way too much if the fruit is ripe and sweet.

Ingredients

6 lbs ripe pears, cored and cubed
2 c sugar (need to cut to 1 1/2 c sugar, or less)
1 tsp grated orange zest
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 orange, juiced

Directions

1. Wash, core and cube pears. Mix with the rest of the ingredients. Place all ingredients in a crockpot. Set for 8 hours on LOW.

2. If storing butter for long-term use, process using sterilized jars in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

Candied Citrus Peels

It seems that all you really need is a dry summer day. Laying the sugared peels on a rack then waiting 24 hours for the peels to dry is nonsense. I was able to make a batch of lime peels and a batch of orange peels in the same day. And, a batch of candied lemon peels the next day. Probably could have made it all in the same day if I had more drying space.

In terms of quantities, the peels of six limes filled an 8 oz jar; one medium mandarin orange filled 1/4 of an 8 oz jar, and two large lemons filled 1/2 an 8 oz jar.

Use a sharp edged (not serrated) vegetable peeler to remove the peel from the fruit. Thinly slice the peel into strips. The less pith (white stuff) that is on the peel, the more translucent the peel will become when it is boiled in the sugar syrup.

I used one batch of sugar syrup for all these fruits. I still have 10 oz of sugar syrup leftover.

Sugar Syrup

2 c organic granulated sugar
1 c water

Combine water and sugar in a small pot and bring to a boil. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

The Process

1. Peel the fruits and slice the peel into strips. Place the strips into a pot and fill with just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes. Drain the water.

2. Place the boiled peels into the sugar syrup. Bring to a boil. With a candy thermometer, maintain the heat until the thermometer reads 230 degrees F (syrup stage). The peels should begin to turn translucent. This is best observed with lemon and orange peels. You'll have to make a judgement call when doing lime peels. Boil at 230 degrees F for at least 5 minutes.

3. Remove peels from the syrup using a fork or chopsticks. Lay in a single layer onto a Silpat mat or drying rack. I prefer using a silicone mat for easier removal of the sugared peels. This is just so that the peels cool down a bit.

4. Once the peels have cooled. Fill a shallow bowl with 1/2 c granulated sugar. Transfer peels to the sugar and stir until the peels are coated. Set aside. Every few hours, stir the peels around the sugar. When the moisture has sufficiently evaporated from the sugar-coated peels, remove the peels to a separate container.

I use a canning jar with its inner lid removed and use a square of a paper towel as the temporary lid; using the sealing band to keep the paper towel in place. This way the peels can still dry out and the jar can sit on the counter without bugs getting in.

Watermelon Granita

A warm summer in the Pacific Northwest is a great time to enjoy other recipes using watermelon. This recipe is mixed with lemonade for a refreshing summer cooler. I suppose you could also just eat it as an iced watermelon treat. If you're extra crafty, you can peel the limes with a vegetable peeler and reserve the lime peel to make candied citrus peels.

Makes 1 quart.

Ingredients

6 c seedless watermelon, cut into chunks
1/4 c lime juice (3 limes)
1/2 c organic granulated sugar

Directions

1. Wash and juice three limes. Strain out the pulp and set aside.

2. In the bowl of a 7-cup food prep, add sugar and lime juice. Then fill the bowl with watermelon chunks. Purée until smooth.

3. Pour into a 9" x 13" glass baking dish. Place dish in the freezer.

4. When frozen, use the tines of a fork to scrape the frozen purée into granita.

Scoop into tall glasses and fill with lemonade. Enjoy.

The only difference between this and watermelon sorbet, is that the latter has added water and is processed in an ice cream machine.

Salt and Pepper Squid

While this recipe is a keeper, the most time-consuming task of the recipe is cleaning the squid if you are using fresh squid. I don't know of any seafood counter at an Asian grocery store that cleans squid before packaging it for sale. This is the third recipe attempt from a collection of Fuchsia Dunlop cookbooks. This recipe comes from her book Every Grain of Rice, which won this year's James Beard award for international cookbooks. The photo of my dish doesn't even look remotely close to the pretty squid shapes in the photo of her book. It was tasty regardless.

Salt and Pepper Squid

This is a dish that you could order at a restaurant and not think twice about how long it takes to prepare it. Between cleaning the whole squids, slicing, then deep frying them, it took about an hour from start to finish. I doubt that starting with cleaned squid tubes would have helped all that much; besides those are usually sold frozen. Fresh squid just has a different taste and texture.

The cookbook has a vegetarian option for this recipe where instead of the squid, you use 14 oz of plain white tofu cut into bite-sized cubes then deep fried until golden.

Note: there is no black pepper nor white pepper in this recipe. The pepper here is Sichuan pepper, commonly referred to as Sichuan peppercorns. Also, two stalks of green onions were plenty for this dish. And, when deep frying the squid, watch out for the oil.. it will splatter and spit and crackle when moisture from the squid hits the hot oil.

Ingredients

1 lb squid, cleaned

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

3 tbsp potato flour (for deep frying)

1 1/2 c neutral cooking oil, such as peanut oil

2 tbsp olive oil, for frying

2 tbsp fresh garlic, minced

2 tbsp spring onion whites, minced

2 tbsp spring onion greens, minced

1 fresh red chili, thinly sliced

1/4 tsp toasted Sichuan pepper mixed with 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Directions

1. Clean squid. You'll only be using the tentacles and the body. Trim the tentacles from the head, then slice in half lengthwise. Score the body using diagonal cuts with a knife.

2. Toss the squid body and tentacles in a bowl with Shaoxing rice wine. Let this marinate while you prep the other ingredients.

3. Drain the liquid from the squid and dredge in potato flour. Deep fry in a wok (or other appliance for deep frying) at 350 degrees F. Use a metal slotted spoon to remove the squid when it has reached a light golden brown color. Drain the oil from the squid on paper towels.

4. Drain off all but one tablespoon of oil from the wok. Add garlic, spring onion whites, and chili to the wok and stir fry over medium heat. Raise the heat to high and return the squid, Sichuan pepper, and salt to the wok. Stir and toss for a minute.

5. Add the spring onion greens last, mix well and serve.