Cauliflower and White Chocolate Ice Cream

Since we have started to discuss the use of vegetables in desserts, I couldn’t but recollect a wonderful dish by Matt Moran (Aura restaurant, Sidney) which he presented at a master class in one of the episodes of Masterchef Australia Season 4.  It was a cauliflower and white chocolate ice cream served with vanilla cauliflower puree, nutmeg sponge and caramelized honey bread. Sounds weird, doesn’t it?  But do you know what I love about cooking the most? Nonconformality!  Thus, I decided to try the recipe at home.

I really enjoyed cooking this dish. There was much fun about putting sugar and vanilla in cauliflower puree. And I loved the technique of making honey crumble with the bread (I used a French baguette). And despite the “craziness” of the idea the dessert turned out to be one of the best which I managed to try recently. Even my husband who was very skeptical about it (at first he even thought that he misunderstood me when I said that I’m making a cauliflower ice cream) confessed that he liked it. Indeed, there is just a hint of cauliflower aroma in the dish which beautifully compliments white chocolate. The overall sweetness of the dessert is counterbalanced by the tartness of fresh raspberries and freeze dried raspberry powder (which I decided to add in order to get another texture and taste dimension in the dish).

I strongly recommend you to try this dessert and it definitely proves that we should step  out of our comfort zone of cooking and start searching new, nontraditional combination of ingredients!   

Blueberry and Lime Millefuille

   Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it! I was happy to learn that this month’s challenge is Mille-fuille because I’ve never actually made a real puff pastry myself – I only had an experience of making the soc called “quick puff pastry” which does not require laminating the dough a lot. My huscband was also very happy to learn that this month I’m gonna cook a mille-fuille – “napoleon” slice was his favourite dessert from the childhood! We even argued a bit because of it: I wanted to go creative with this challenge and he wanted to have a classic version of the cake!

   
   We reached a compromise: I made a classic French mille-fuilee instead of making traditional Russian Napoleon. For those who do not know the difference, let me explain: in Russia the slice is made with lots of thin layers of puff pastry and cream (which is usually not cream patisserie but more like a buttercream – a combination of butter and condensed milk) and is covered with crushed pieces of puff pastry (no icing – never!); the cake is left overnight in the fridge so that it becomes soft. Well, you see, that is what my husband always loved – and I wanted him to taste an original mille-fuille, French-style! So Ive made a custard-based cream and three layers of puff pastry and even an icing with strips of chocolate!

   One week later, however, I felt like doing something more. I remembered “Milena” – a beautiful slice by Pierre Herme consisting of raspberry jelly, dacquiouse biscuit, mint mousse and two layers of puff pastry. Taking it as an inspiration I decided to cook something similar – an idea of blueberry and lime ice cream mille-fuille came up! 

    Was it better than French millefuille or Russian napoleon? It was - just because it was different and it had more complicated textures and flavours: crispiness of puff pastry and softness of a sponge, sweetness of ice cream and sourness of jelly, zing of lime and freshness of blueberries. 

    Don't you like a fresh touch on a traditional dish?

Cheesecake Ice Cream

         I love cheese (well, this is pretty obvious when you look at the name of my blog!): I love to cook savoury things with it and, needless to say, sweet treats. No wonder, one of the most popular desserts in the world – classic cheesecake – is one of my favourite dishes as well. Whenever I yield to temptation to cook one, I try to restrict myself to having only one or two pieces and the rest of it – in case I don’t have a proper help for consuming it – usually goes into the freezer (luckily, it’s a type of a cake that can be easily frozen for up to one month). The only disadvantage is, if you suddenly have an urge to indulge into a piece of a velvety goody, you will have to wait for quite a while till it defrosts properly.

            Last year, however, I came across a cheesecake ice cream recipe. Wow! I’m actually a big fan of frozen desserts and the perspective of having my favourite cheesecake in the form of an ice cream was very appealing! It was a recipe by the British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson. Actually all her recipes are trust-worthy but since I had already tried her Margarita ice cream I was absolutely convinced that this woman is an expert in frozen yummy treats! As I don’t have a special machine at home, I couldn’t make this ice cream in a big container – it would have lost the creaminess in this case; setting it in small ramekins, with a crunchy base (just like a real cheesecake!) saved the situation. Now I can go for a cheesecake any time I want – just restricting myself to having only one piece…or two!

Crepe Suzette with White Chocolate and Orange Ice Cream

Last year I was at a party which, to say true, was quite boring until I found a person who shared my passion for food and was eager to talk about it. It was a middle aged woman who traveled a lot in her life and, therefore, was familiar with different cuisines. As I mentioned France, she noticed that this country has always been associated for her with a simple, yet very traditional dish – Crepe Suzette. At that point it suddenly occurred to me: how did it happen that I had never ever cooked this classic dessert? It was definitely a gap in my culinary knowledge to be filled. So, that same week I was making the orange sauce and flambéing my lacy crepes for the first time.

Actually this dish turned out to be a perfect breakfast for our family since my husband loves oranges (there was even a period of time in his life when he started every single day with this fruit) and, well, show me a Russian who would refuse to have crepes for breakfast! Of course, it’s a bit abnormal to indulge in an ice-cream at 8 am, but I can repeat it again and again: I don’t see anything wrong in giving yourself a treat at any time of the day.

Last time when I made Crepe Suzette I had a homemade white chocolate and orange ice-cream which amazingly complimented the dish (in a much more stunning way than a traditional vanilla one). I guess from now on I will always place a scoop of this tangy ice-cream next to my flaming crepes!

Ispahan Yule Log

       I love Christmas time, with decorated trees, carols and, of course, seasonal sweets. The bakery shops and confectionaries and full of Stolen bread, ginger cookies, light fruit and rich plum cakes and, to the top of it, the most beautiful yule logs. In fact, there are two types of yule logs in France: traditional Christmas ones – also called Bûche de Noël – which are made with chocolate and buttercream; and plain yule logs – also called entremets – which resemble a multi-layered ice cream and have no particular connection with any holiday. One of entremets – Ispahan – got my attention a few months back as I was looking for inspiration for my “Golden key” cake. I saw it on “Not Quite Niqella” blog and, to say true, I was obsessed with the idea of making it since then. No wonder, when the question of cooking something special for the Christmas was raised up, I got an answer to it: Ispahan! Trust a cold dessert fanatic not to love the idea of making an ice cream even in winter! And who cares that it’s not a traditional Bûche de Noël? In the long run, when you live in a country with tropical climate, choosing lychees and fresh berries for a Christmas treat sounds quite logical. So, as I eventually got all the ingredients for Ispahan and what seemed to be the right occasion to cook it, I headed to my kitchen to make this rose-scented, lychee-licious miracle. Should I tell you that the Christmas day lunch ended with a showstopper dessert?

Peach Melba Parfait

            One of the secrets of outstanding cooking is using fresh seasonal ingredients. However, usually as I see produce that is available only for a short period of time during the year I can’t but think of the ways of preserving it for future use in my kitchen.

            As the summer was about to be over, with all its vibrant and delightful fruits and berries disappearing in front of my eyes from the shops and street vendors, I desperately tried to consume as much of those yummy goodies as I could. And as one day I brought home a bag of ripe and juicy peaches, it was obvious that these were the last beautiful peaches available this year. I started to think of how I can keep them as long as possible and at first I considered the idea of freezing them (in the long run, that’s what I often do with seasonal vegetables in fruits). But then a brilliant idea struck me: making a peach ice-cream! The prospect of indulging into a dessert with a true summer flavour was so appealing that I immediately headed to the kitchen and started to cook.

            It was, in fact, amazing to enjoy this ice-cream later on in October and even November: such a great way to beat the autumn depression! Of course, the whole batch of ice-cream is gone by now but I really enjoy looking at the photos of it as they instantly bring those summer days to me again!

Margarita Ice-Cream

        In Russia we have a saying: “One can’t spoil porridge with butter”. For me it’s an arguable statement but I’m absolutely convinced that “one can’t spoil a dessert with liquor”.

            One of the spirits that I extensively use in my kitchen is Cointreau. I find it to be very versatile and I like the way its tangy flavour adds a zing to any sweet dish, so I never mind putting a splash of this orange liquor into a batter for my cupcakes, my chocolate mousse or a sauce that goes with a warm pie.

When it comes to desserts, I’m a real fanatic of ice-cream (and all sorts of frozen goodies in general), so when I once saw Nigella Lawson in her TV show “Forever Summer” putting Cointreau in home-made Margarita ice-cream (yes, an ice-cream which tastes like the world famous cocktail!), I instantly realized that it was a perfect recipe for me (should I mention that Margarita is one of my favourite cocktails, together with Cosmopolitan which (no surprise) has the orange liquor in it as well?). Bonus: it’s a no-churn ice-cream, so you can rustle it up in a jiffy and the following day you’ll be able to scoop it in a martini glass and serve it to your friends (a dessert that, no doubt, will be a showstopper of the dinner party) or to enjoy it yourself – simply by eating it with a big spoon, straight from a container. Yes, that’s how I usually indulge in my Margarita ice-cream - and I’m absolutely unapologetic about it (actually Nigella confesses that she does the same)! Try to make your batch at home and you will understand why it’s so hard to stay generous enough to share such a yummy treat with anyone else!

Amaretto Parfait

        When I first made my own ice-cream at home it was not, strictly speaking, an ice-cream but a parfait. As I saw the recipe in the Internet and then looked at a bottle of the Italian liquor in our bar, I decided to give it a try. As I tasted the parfait the next day, I actually thought that it was the best dessert I’ve ever tried (and cooked so far) in my life – I guess I had such an emotional respond to the dish either because I have always had some sort of “a crush on” Amaretto so that anything that has this almond liquor in it seems to be divine, or because I was incredibly proud of myself for making my first, deliciously creamy and irresistibly luscious ice-cream. No doubt, the name “parfait” (which means “perfect” in French) was given to this type of frozen desserts not for nothing. 

            Since then I always have a few portions of Amaretto parfait in my freezer. Even when we came to Russia for vocation this year I made it for a big home party and it was a huge success with all of our friends (girls were desperate to know the recipe but as soon as they heard that there’s “a double boiler” involved in a cooking process, their enthusiasm had somehow evaporated). I also made a big batch of parfait for my parents while I was staying at their house for a few days and, a month later, when we were already back in India, it was pleasant to receive a praise from the guests who came to visit my mum and dad, tasted my dish and got very impressed!

Chocolate Ice Cream with Baileys

             There is something about home-made ice-cream that makes you prefer it over a bought one. It’s not only because you are in charge of the ingredients you put in it (you can control the amount of sugar, change the fat content, balance the flavours according to your taste, nothing to say of choosing only high-quality products) but also because you generally add your love and care to that custard before putting it into the freezer. Indeed, this desert is not so easy to make (since you have to bother with cooking it in a double boiler for a while, with a heavy mixer in your hands) but it has a great advantage over other custard-based desserts: once you make it, you can keep it in the freezer for as long as three months (in fact, it keeps that long only if you don’t tell anyone about it), so you can enjoy it anytime and, besides, it will serve as a great “saving dish” in case of unexpected guests.