Strawberry Crumble Ice Cream

Summer has finally arrived! It is not really a good idea to turn on the oven when the weather is so hot, but if the family wants pizza, well then it should be. Thanks to that my kitchen has turned into a sauna, but that didn't stop me from cooking a portion of veal stock and rhubarb-strawberry jam. I also planned a portion of strawberry crumble for dessert with a lot of homemade vanilla ice cream. Suddenly, I had the idea to combine the two into one: that's how this strawberry crumble ice cream was born.

Ingredients:
for the ice cream:
200 g strawberry
500 ml milk
60 g sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 1 vanilla pod
125 g mascarpone
for the crumble:
50 g flour
50 g almond
25 g sugar
35 g butter

 
Sprinkle diced strawberries with a little sugar and bake over 180°C for 10-15 percig minutes. Puree half of the strawberries and set aside. For the ice cream bring milk to the boil and in the meantime whisk egg yolks with sugar, then stir in vanilla paste. Pour hot milk into the egg yolk mixture while stirring constantly. Then put it back to onto the stove and heat until it has reached 85°C. Let it cool and stir in mascarpone. For the crumble put the ingredients into food processor and pulse until it is mixed. Bake crumble over 200°C for 5-7 minutes or until it gets slightly brown. Pour ice cream base into an ice cream maker together with with the strawberries (the machine will 'chop' them while stirring). When the ice cream is almost ready add crumble then transfer it into a bowl. Fold in the pureed baked strawberries and freeze for another 20-30 minutes. Serve with some additional crumble on top.

 

White chocolate coffee mousse - anise flavoured dark chocolate ganache tartelettes with cocoa bean meringue

These tartelettes are the smallest I have ever baked! Only 5 cm diameter, but the taste rocks! First you are simply surprised that that white mousse actually tastes like coffee, then from behind a light touch of anise is exploding on your tounge. It is really important to be careful with the amount of anise, because in this case it is more than true: less is more! Dare to try this combination because anise goes perfectly well with both the coffee and the dark chocolate. For me it was love at first bite! The missing excitement comes with he cocoa bean meringue on top of the tartelettes.

Ingredients:
for the pastry:
125 g flour
50 g butter, softened
50 g icing sugar
1 egg
1 pinch of salt

for the white chocolate-coffee mousse:
100 g white chocolate
50 ml cream
1 tablespoon coffee beans
25 g sugar
25 g water
1 egg yolk
1 sheet gelatine
100 ml cream
for the anise-dark chocolate ganache:
75 g room temperature butter
80 g chocolate (70% cocoa)
55 ml milk
1/4 teaspoon anise

for the meringue:
30 g egg white (about 1 egg)
30 g sugar
25 g icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
pinch of ground anise
crushed cocoa bean

Makes 4 tartelettes shells á 10 cm, but for these you have to double (or even triple) the amount of the mousse. The ganache and the meringue should be enough.

For the pastry sieve flour and icing sugar and make a mold into the middle. Add diced butter and salt and crumble butter with flour. As soon as it well crumbled add the egg and knead a smooth dough. Chill for 2 hours. Preheat the oven to 200°C Roll out pastry about 2-3 mm thick and place them into the tartelettes rings and blind bake for 7-11 minutes, then cool on a wrack.

For the coffee mousse bring 50 ml of cream together with the coffee beans to the boil, then let it stand for 15 minutes. In the meantime melt white chocolate over steam, then add sieved cream and mix until smooth. Bring sugar with water to the boil, then let cool. In a water bath whisk together the egg yolk and the syrup and whisk until thick and creamy. Stir in the previously soaked gelatine, then fold it into the chocolate mixture. Finally fold in the beaten cream and chill in a piping bag.

Cream butter with a help of a fork and set aside. Chop chocolate and bring the milk together with the anise to the boil. Pour hot milk through a sieve over the chopped chocolate, then stir until smooth. Finally stir in butter with a help of a wooden spoon.

Beat egg white with a pinch of salt until half stiffm then add sugar gradually and beat until stiff. Fold in icing sugar and cornstarch. Pipe meringue in any shap you like onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with crushed cocoa bean. Bake over 90°C depending on the size and thickness for 90-120 minutes.

Pasta with Pea Sabayon

Probably, you would hardly find an easier and quicker recipe here "at the corner", at least not from the past 2-3 years. For the most important elements of this dish, namely the paste and the sauce, you only need a single egg. The egg white gonna turn into the pasta and the egg yolk is for the sauce. The rest is just a bonus! The sabayon is made with green peas, but I also added snow pea and pea shots to the dish. And I haven't told you the best part yet! You only need two pots to cook this dish. In the one for the water bath you can cook the peas, blanche the snow peas and cook the pasta. In another pot over it the sabayon is done within a couple of minutes. So not that you have a real qucik lunch, but the washing up is also done super fast! If you want you can add some cream or mascarpone to the sabayon if you want it more creamy. Ah, and do not forget to sprinkle a few slices of oven dried parma ham over the top among with loads of parmesan! Honestly, is there still someone out there who buys ready made pasta sauce?!

Ingredients:
for the pasta:
1 egg white
about 80 g flour
20 g durum wheat
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt

First prepare the pasta dough: sift flour, add egg white, salt, durum wheat and olive oil. Start kneading and when the dough is getting viscous keep on kneading until you get a smooth dough. Chill for an hour before using it. With a help of a pasta machine roll it out and cut in any shape you desire.
 

for the pea sabayon:
100 g green pea
1 teaspoon butter
1 egg yolk
50 ml white wine
50 ml vegetable or chicken stock + 1-2 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan
salt, pepper

 

Boil green pea in salty water, then puree with butter and 1-2 tablespoons of stock. While that beat egg yolk with white wine and stock over steam, once it is thick and foamy stir in green pea puree (that was previously mashed through a strainer). Season with salt, pepper and freshly grated parmesan. Add any type of fresh herb you desire.

 

Asparagus Parfait with Strawberry

Although woodruff isn't blooming any longer, luckily I had some in a pot on my window ledge. Yep, this fragant forest flower is actually available in stores. Though it is much less romantic to use it from a pot, then collecting it in the forest. However, when the weather so rainy is, it is better to use some that was in a dry place, because it has a more intense flavour. I thought I get back to the good old strawberry-asparagus combination and make a light summer dessert, well summer weather is missing, but the dessert was great!

Ingredients:
200 g asparagus (weighed peeled)
50 g sugar
1 bunch woodruff
2 egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
200 ml cream
150 g strawberry
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
2-3 tablespoon sugar or honey 
few drops of lemon juice

Cut the peeled asparagus in about 1 cm pieces and cook in enough water so that it is just covered. Sieve and set 100 ml of the cooking liquid aside. Bring this liquid together with the woodruff to the boil and let it stand for 15-20 minutes, then sieve and cook a syrup using the sugar. Over steam beat egg yolks with the syrup, vanilla extract until it is thick and foamy. Stir in the pureed asparagus and fold in beaten cream. Freeze for 2-3 hours. Slice strawberries in quarters and together with the sugar and corn starch bring it to the boil and cook until the liquid thinckens. Season with a few drops of lemon juice.

Zander-scallop rolls with curry on coconut-cauliflower puree with lemongrass foam

What a busy week it has been! I baked a bunch of cakes and prepared other sweet treats. I think it is enough if I mention that I served a couple of desserts like ice cream, parfait together with about 50 kgs of strawberries on a local festival. It was pretty tight, but I would do it all over again. However, I missed cooking and blogging so much! There is monthly blog event in the Hungarian blogsphere and I am the host right now. I thought to challenge the fellow foodies and asked for white recipes with only one other colour in the dishes. This is my first entry, that I prepared for the event: zander/pikeperch-scallop rolls with curry on coconut-cauliflower puree, lemongrass foam and a few coconut chips.

Ingredients:
for the rolls:
4 fillet of zander
150 g scallops
1 shallot
1/2 teaspoon butter
1/4 teaspoon curry spice mixture
2-3 pinches of tumeric powder
80-100 g cream
20 ml white port wine
1 small egg white
salt, pepper
for the cauliflower puree:
200 g cauliflower
100 ml coconut milk
1 teaspoon butter
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
salt, pepper
for the lemongrass foam:
50 ml fish stock
1 lemongrass
1 shallot
1 teaspoon butter
50 ml coconut milk
50 ml cream
salt, pepper

For the rolls puree the cold scallops with the butter sauteed onion, cream, egg white, port wine, curry anc tumeric, then season. Place a piece of foil onto a piece of tin foil and place a fillet on top. Smear some scallop farce onto the fish fillets and roll it up with the help of the first layer of the foil. Then roll up the next layer and poach fish roll for 15-20 minutes in simmering water. For the puree cook cauliflower florets in salted water, then puree with the coconut milk, season with salt, pepper and some nutmeg. For the lemongrass foam, chop shallot and sautee in a teaspoon butter, pour fish stock over it and add lemongrass, reduce, add coconut milk and cream and cook for 5-7 minutes. Before serving remove the lemongrass and foam it with a blender.

Prawns with coconut-avocado risotto, strawberry-mango salsa and spicy coconut foam

Actually, I planned to prepare three different dishes with white asparagus, but then I ended up making this risotto. However as a starter I made one of them. Something really simple: white asparagus with thin tarragon omelette, parma ham chips and freshly grated parmesan. Then I started to make plans for the main course. I saw a black risotto with pieces of white asparagus and fried prawns. But somehow there was something missing. Besides I couldn't get the strawberry-mango jam out of my mind, that I cooked yesterday. So I got rid of the king of the spring vegetables and included the fruits, an avocado and coconut in the dish instead. I didn't want to use any cheese and butter in the risotto, but instead I wanted to reach that typical risotto consistency with the help of the avocado and creamy coconut milk. However, the black colour was still bothering me, so instead of the white coconut foam I made it dark grey pimped with squid ink and a little garam masala.

Ingredients:
for the risotto:
100 g risotto rice (e.g. carnaroli)
1 shallot
1 celery stalk
1 teaspoon butter
50 ml white wine
500 ml fish or vegetable stock
70 ml coconut milk
1/2 avocado
salt, pepper


Melt butter, add finely grated shallot, celery and sautee, then sweat it for a few more mintues together with the rice. In another pot bring stock to simmer. Pour wine over the rice and let it reduce. Season with a little salt and pepper. Add some stock and let it cook over medium heat, while stirring, as soon as it has absorbed add another portion of stock and repeat it until the rice is almost cooked through. Add coconut milk and cook it for a few more minutes. Stir in avocado puree and season with salt and pepper and adjust consistency with more coconut milk.

for the strawberry-mango salsa:
30 g strawberry
70 g mango
1/2 chili or as desired
1/2 lime 
few pinches of ginger

Cut strawberry and mango in cubes, mix together with the finely chopped chili and season with lime juice, zest and a little ginger.

for the spicy coconut foam:
50 ml fish stock
1 shallot
1 teaspoon butter
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
50 ml coconut milk
50 ml cream
4 g squid ink
salt, pepper

For the spicy coconut foam, chop shallot and sautee in a teaspoon butter together with the garam masala, pour fish stock over it and reduce by half. Add coconut milk and cream and cook for 5-7 minutes. Sieve before serving, add squid ink and bring it to the boil, season and foam it with a blender. Fry prawns in a mixture of butter and olive oil, season with garlic and cayenne pepper.