Beat the heat with home-made ice cream!

brenda — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:02:48 +0000

I prefer to make my own ice-cream these days. I know exactly what it contains and I can tailor the ingredients to a particular occasion. For instance, I recently served organic chestnut ice-cream to friends, with dark chocolate almond crisp topping and belgian wafers. It was a big hit and caused me to make another batch … this time, organic chocolate ice-cream. It didn’t sit around long enough for a photo(!) but here is my adaptation of a recipe that came with a Donvier ice-cream maker many years ago. Of course, you can substitute, but remember that as with all recipes, the taste and texture of the final product directly relates to the quality of the ingredients.

Ingredients

3 egg yolks (organic, free range)
1 cup organic sugar
1.5 cups milk (Avalon, whole organic milk)
2 cups whipping cream (Avalon, organic)
1/3 cup high-quality Fair-Trade, organic cocoa powder (Green & Black’s)
Seeds from 1 Madagascar vanilla pod (or 1 tspn organic vanilla essence)

Method

Makes one quart.

Beat milk and egg yolks together. Blend in the sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Remove from heat, sieve the cocoa powder into the mixture and beat until blended. Cool. Add cream and vanilla. Mix well and refrigerate overnight.

Next day, either follow instructions for your ice-cream maker or pour ingredients into a shallow tray, freeze for two hours and stir, freeze for another two hours, stir again, then leave to harden. Once you have made your ice-cream, transfer it to a sealable glass or pyrex container. If you use glass, you will avoid the transfer of plastic smell, taste and by-products to your creation. Final step: savour every delicious mouthful with or without a topping. I served it with a thin slice of olive oil cake …

Why I grow my own food

brenda — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:36:00 +0000

Garden-fresh food

Freshness has always been a key element of how I like to cook. I like to start with food that is as close to its natural state as possible, and then use garlic, onions, tomatoes, herbs, grating, roasting, sautee and steam to bring out the flavours. Mmmmmm! Nothing tastes better than garden-fresh produce and, naturally, there is no place better to start than in your own garden.

Last year, I grew multiple crops in my lawn-turned-edible landscape, including yellow and purple potatoes, carrots, globe artichokes, swiss and rainbow chard, two different varieties of kale, heirloom and San Marzano tomatoes, pole beans, runner beans, walla-walla onions, green onions, eggplant (just one!), many different types of lettuce, arugula, red cabbage, green cabbage, beets, chives, sage, rosemary, thyme, basil, mint, blackcurrants, grapes (one bunch) blueberries, rhubarb and Turkish figs (lots of them!)

With the precious help of my friend, Ryan, I conditioned the soil using a truckload of horse manure and dark, rich compost from my bin as well as Gaia Green organic fertilizer here and there. Ryan is passionate about every aspect of Mother Earth and is a wealth of knowledge about optimizing food production through healthy, mulched soil full of organisms! We planted a mix of seeds, over time, and watched as they grew. We thinned seedlings, sometimes twice, occasionally thrice,and each time I added excess baby seedlings to the compost bin I felt a pang of sadness but was comforted by the thought that in the bin they would be with other living organisms.

Although it had been three years since I had first turned my lawn into an organic edible garden, I had not had such a healthy, bountiful, and delicious crop as I did last year, with Ryan’s help, and using only natural products. It helped that the weather co-operated too.

I planted lots of edible flowers too, borage, calendula, lavendar and not only did bees (the real ones, not pesky wasps) come visit, but we had lots of butterflies, hummingbirds and no pests.

Planting an organic garden in 2010

It will soon be time to start the vegetable garden again, so I’m planning what I will plant this year. I will sow everything the same, with the exception of carrots (hate throwing those babies away!) and beets (I forget to dig them up-probably because I don’t enjoy them!) I’m also looking for ideas as to what else I should grow and welcome your suggestions for the West Coast climate. Please don’t suggest zucchini though … I grew them one year and my dear hubby grew tired of eating cakes, salads, antipasti pasta, etc. … all with zucchini! Also, I love peas, but so do the squirrels, so it’s a constant race as to who finds the tender pods first!

Nothing tastes better than the organic food grown in your own garden. And it sure tastes even better knowing that there are no harmful pesticides or fertilizer by-products.