Tag: <span>Freezing food</span>

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Woodfired pizza has a very distinct taste. Using a wood fired pizza oven tends to achieve an all over bake, often quicker than it happens in a traditional oven. Typically, the ideal temperature to get your pizza oven up to for even cooking is 450 degrees Celsius. This temperature can be achieved pretty quickly depending on what type of oven and how much wood you’re using. A stainless steel pizza oven will take around 45 minutes to reach 450 degrees. A clay or brick oven will take around 3 hours or so. Either way, the flavour wood fired cooking adds to your food will be well worth it.

Whether you make homemade dough or purchase store bought dough, the decision is solely up to you depending on how much time you have. If you choose to make a more traditional Italian pizza, there tends to be less toppings used as the distinct flavor comes primarily from the homemade dough and farm fresh ingredients. If time isn’t a luxury, there are plenty of quick dough recipes you can make, rather than a sour dough which takes a good couple of hours over several days. You may also consider making a larger quantity of dough and freezing some of it for next time you cook in your pizza stove.

For those who enjoy piling many different toppings on their pizzas, the main rule of thumb is the less toppings a pizza has, the shorter duration that it needs to bake. The last thing you want is for the base to be cooked and your toppings cold so keep this in mind. Remember that cooking pizza in a stainless steel pizza oven only takes a few minutes to cook, so be sure to stay close by, have a large pizza peel on hand and keep an eye on the cooking progress.

Some of you may not be as familiar with cooking other items in your wood fired pizza oven, but you really are only limited by your imagination. Because all food cooks so quickly in your wood fired pizza oven, it is great for cooking for large gatherings or get togethers. Wood fired pizza ovens are often large and have a vast interior. You can expand on your meal offerings by making homemade bread, pasta casserole dishes, desserts, the choices go on and on. Homemade bread takes on a subtle crunch and texture that cooking in the wood fired oven produces.

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Source by Reyazul Masud Riham

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Just about everyone loves the sweet temptation of chocolate. Here are some intriguing statistics and facts:

1. The average American eats 10-12 pounds (4.5 kg) of chocolate a year. The average Swiss eats 21 pounds a year.

2. Chocolate is the food most commonly craved by women, but can contribute significantly to bulimia, obesity, and binge eating.

3. Several medical studies show that eating chocolate in moderation can actually prolong your life by reducing risk of blood clots and fighting bad cholesterol.

4. It is not physically addictive and does not cause acne, as shown in several medical studies.

5. Chocolate is not high in caffeine. A 1oz bar of milk chocolate contains only 5-6mg of caffeine. This is significantly less than in coffee, tea, and soft drinks.

6. Chocolates can absorb other flavors and scents, and should be kept away from other household chemicals.

7. It can be frozen for up to six months. It is best to seal it in a zip lock bag before freezing.

8. In general, the shelf life is a year. Chocolate that is refrigerated may not melt as readily. Thus it is best to store it in cool dry areas 55-60 degrees F.

9. U.S. manufacturers use 3.5 million pounds of whole milk every day to make chocolate.

10. The largest candy bar ever made weighed over 5,000 pounds and was made in Italy in 2000. The largest slab of fudge was over 2,000 pounds and was made in Canada.

11. Children are more likely to prefer chocolate when they reach 10-11 years old than when they are younger.

12. Chocolate is America’s favorite flavor, according to recent surveys with a little over 50% of adults preferring chocolate to other flavors.

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Source by Criss White

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When it comes to ice size really does matter. Size, density and ice clarity are the intangible part of any good cocktail recipe. The shape and size can impart the proper dilution and chill that make a cocktail better tasting than one made using the same recipe but inferior ice. Large cubes especially ice spheres brought about by the resurgence of classic cocktails are all the rage at the high-end cocktail bars. So the simple question is why not take your home cocktail experience to the next level.

Large cubes or ice spheres will melt slower than traditional ice. This is great news for cocktail enthusiasts who not only want to showcase the perfect marriage of flavors but also are keen to present their creation elegantly. If you are a Scotch drinker and enjoy your Scotch on the rocks the last thing you want to do is use small ice that will turn 20+ years of cask aging into a diluted icy slush.

So how can the home cocktail enthusiast duplicate the high-end cocktail establishments experience? So unless you can afford $8,000 ice maker that pumps refrigerated water throughout the freezing process creating gorgeous 300 pound slabs of crystal clear ice your options might be limited. Once you harvest your 300 pound block you can carve it and shape it for the desired use and application.

Another option is using an ice press which range in price from $400-$2000 which press square blocks of ice ranging in size of 1 inch to 2.75 inches into perfect spheres. These presses come with silicone trays that make the large square ice blocks that you will place in the press to be formed into beautiful spheres. Watching a skilled bar person shape a large block into a sphere and watching a press in action will definitely score huge style points. The only caveat on the silicone tray used with the press is that unlike the ice maker the raw ice you are starting with will never be crystal clear.

The reason why is physics, ice formed in a tray will always freeze from the outside in thereby trapping any impurities in the water and air in the center of the cube, that is why cubes always have cloudy centers with striations and cracking. Now there are some tricks that can be used to control the direction of freezing which will allow you to start with crystal clear ice but we will address that at another time. You’ll also hear people talking about double boiling or using distilled water to get clear ice, trust me don’t waste your time. Why? Because unless you can control the freezing direction it won’t matter physics is physics. But the purer the water the better tasting your final product will be.

If you’re on a budget then there are different ice molds that can be used to give your home bar some class and style. These molds are either made from plastic or silicone or a combination of the two. I think we all have experience with the plastic type tray and we all know how hard it can be to extract the ice. Silicone on the other hand stays malleable even once frozen so releasing the ice from the mold is much simpler. There are several brands out there that make’s large square cubes or spheres. Tovolo’s tray makes 2 inch cubes, Rox makes four 2 inch balls, and Whiskey Rounders silicone ice mold makes six 2 1/2 inch spheres at once.

Though the silicone molds don’t have the same panache as an ice Carver or press they do offer versatility and ease of use. Since they are constructed from silicone and are usually dishwasher safe you can make more than just ice in them. Many people will freeze juice, coffee, tea, wine, or create fruit garnishes that infuse their favorite drinks with flavor. There is no limit to what you can create with these great silicone molds. The only problem you will find is making enough of them to entertain your friends. So for what it would cost for a couple of rounds of drinks at your favorite watering hole you can bring a new level of sophistication and class to your home bar with these versatile yet inexpensive ice molds.

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Source by Carl D Craane

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As winter is approaching it’s time to start enjoying some hearty soups and stews. For the most part they are simple to make and most of the cooking can be done without too much of your attention.

As most soups use a variety of vegetables in the base and often meat, they are usually nutrient dense and filling.

They are also perfect for freezing and having on hand when you need them.

There is something warming about having a pot of soup simmering on the stove on a cold day.

These are my tips for making stews and soups this winter.

1. Sweat the vegetables

Most soups have a base of aromatic vegetables such as carrots, onions, garlic and celery.

Sweating these vegetables out on a medium heat with butter or oil will release aromats and create a base of flavour for your soup.

2. Stock

Using a home made or good quality fresh stock is always going to give you a better quality soup than using stock cubes or flavour enhancers.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to make your own stock then there are some good quality stocks available form specialty food stores.

Also consider carefully which stock you use for which dish. It is better to use chicken or vegetable stock for light soups and darker stocks such as beef for heartier soups and stews.

3. Seasoning

Season your ingredients moderately as you go along. This will enhance the flavours of the individual ingredients without making the soup salty.

Use sea salt flakes instead of table salt for a better flavour.

Once the soup is cooked out adjust the seasoning as necessary. Taste the soup add a little salt at a time until the full depth of the ingredients can be tasted.

Such a simple step but so often the difference between flavour-some soups and bland ones.

4. Consider Texture

Different elements of your dish will need to be cooked differently to produce the desired texture. A carrot for example takes a lot longer to cook than a pea.

Texture comes down to selecting the right ingredients and adding them to the dish at the right time so they are all cooked through at the same time.

Consider from the start if you want a smooth blended soup or one with lots of body and different components.

Add green and leafy veg such as spinach right at the end to avoid it becoming over-cooked.

Croutons, cheeses, crackers, nuts, bean shoots or even pork rinds can be used to add texture and flavour.

5. Cut to size

Pay attention to the size you are cutting your vegetables and meat. Too big and it may be difficult to eat or take a long time to cook while other components over cook. Too small and it may break down completely.

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Source by Bradley Backhouse

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Do you drink ice water… or have drinks straight out of the fridge?

There’s a saying in Chinese medicine that goes: “Above all else, protect your digestion.” By “digestion”, they mean processing of both FOOD and FLUID.

Think about this…

If you aren’t processing foods properly, you aren’t turning food into BLOOD and ENERGY (“Qi,” as the Chinese call it) for your organs to function properly – so your organs are literally “fatigued” and can’t perform their jobs well.

Your heart can’t function. Your lungs can’t function. Your kidneys, bladder, liver, gall bladder, stomach and intestines are all “fatigued” and can’t do their job.

And, your immune system doesn’t have the energy to protect you from cancer, colds, flu, radiation, etc.

And that’s just the problems with not processing foods. If you’re not processing fluids properly…

…fluid collects in your tissues (Chinese medicine calls this condition “Dampness”.)

This fluid ultimately congeals, and becomes a condition called “Phlegm” (this includes, but is not the same as, having phlegm or mucus.)

This “Phlegm” leads to obesity, depression, urinary infections, dementia, seizures, cysts and tumors, sinus headaches, allergies, all breathing problems like sinusitis, asthma, COPD, and a host of other problems.

Furthermore… the processing of food and fluids includes elimination… so you will have problems with constipation, diarrhea and urination.

*************Sidebar****************

If you look through my website you’ll see that

all the diseases listed there have improper eating as one of the main causes of that condition.

In some cases, the problems come directly from the food itself. But, in most cases, the problem comes from how the food negatively affects your digestion, with the weakened digestion then leading to the disease condition.

************************************

So, how do cold drinks damage your ability to process food and fluids?

Here’s a simple analogy…

When you put water on the stove, it moves faster… there’s more activity.

When you put water in the freezer, it slows down (freezes)… there’s less activity.

Cold decreases activity. Heat increases activity.

Chinese medicine describes the act of digestion as a warm process. Energy (and life itself) is warm. When we are dead, we’re stone cold dead…

It has been shown through thousands of years of observation in China that, if we drink chilled or cold liquids, we decrease our digestive activity.

We hurt this warm process of digestion (cold negates heat).

FIRST OF ALL, this causes food and liquid to be digested poorly. Similar to when your car can’t completely combust fuel, food isn’t digested properly and you’re left with a “sludge” (which, in Chinese Medicine, is called “Stagnant food” and/or “Phlegm“.)

That “sludge” is often the root cause of problems such as a weak immune system, weight gain, fatigue, cysts, allergies, sinusitis and certain types of headaches.

SECONDLY, warming up the cold fluids consumes energy (heat), leaving you with a net loss of energy.

THIRD, your weakened digestion now can’t produce good quality energy from the food you eat, leaving you with less energy for your organs to function properly…

…do you get the picture? You can (and will) end up with nearly every disease imaginable.

What to do about this?

You might be lucky enough to have strong digestion and not feel too affected by cold drinks. Consider yourself blessed. But, if you’re already in a somewhat weakened state…

…drinking COLD drinks might be one of the “straw’s” that breaks the camels back. Here’s my advice:

If you have ice water with your meals, stop.

If you drink your drinks cold from the refrigerator, stop.

Drink no more than a teacup of room temperature or warm water (or green tea) with your meals.

If you eat at restaurants, tell the waiter “No ice, please!”

One the biggest offenders is the ice water you get out at the restaurant. Just before eating a big meal, you put out your “digestive fire” (read that as DAMAGE your digestion) with that freezing cold water. Big mistake!

Iced drinks really aren’t good for anybody. Nature didn’t intend for us to frequently drink cold or frozen liquids. Refrigerators and freezers are extremely recent in terms of the history of human diet.

Not to mention, there’s just not a lot of refrigerators out there in nature!

*** Think about the implications of cold foods here, too. Obviously, they’re equally damaging. ***

It may take some getting used to, but drinking room temperature or warmer water is a good first step toward being healthier.

If you’d like to discover more ancient wisdom from Oriental medicine, visit http://www.natural-health-remedies.net/ where I discuss the little-known but effective treatments that work in my own natural health clinic.

Keep it warm!

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Source by Bob Dorris

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Normally, a leaf functions to make food. Some leaves may be specialized to perform other functions. Take the poinsettia as an example. When you look at its red coloring, you will think of it as the flower structure of the plant. These leaves are naturally colored to attract insects. By then, it’s very tiny, inconspicuous flowers will be noticed. In other plants, leaves are also modified to store food or water, provide support for climbing plants, or even capture insects.

When you eat celery, you actually eat the petioles of the leaves. These petioles serve to store food. Other leaves also serve as food sources for animals and humans. Lettuce and cabbage are good examples. For grazing animals, grass leaves provide food. Leaves are sometimes especially adapted. The bulb leaves of onions are thickly adapted to store food. The leaves of pine trees or conifers are modified into a needle like structure. This kind of structure enables the plants to withstand freezing or very cold temperature.

You can also see leaves as that of a cadena de amor or squash. These are an example of vegetables in a grapevine area. Their leaves are modified into tendrils. Tendrils are long slender structures that curl and wrap around branches or other objects. They support the plant as it climbs. Some leaves are modified into sharp structures called spines. If you grasp a cactus or bougainvillea, you will note that the presence of spines prevents you from touching them easily. These structures protect the plants.

Notice a leaf that is hairy. At times when you touch it, your skin gets irritated. These are hairs with tiny vessels at their tips. There are plants that contain a great quantity of hair on its surface. This makes their surface coarse, thus making it ideal for cleaning cooking pots and pans. Sometimes leaves store food and water in their blades and petioles. All they do is thickening. Plants with this kind are called succulents.

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Source by Celeste Merkins

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There is no denying the fact that Robert Bridges was a classicist. He discarded modern-day trends and modernization in poetry in favour of a more easy to get to, with good grace understood, technique that is perceptible in the exquisite poem, London Snow. to the sight of a protracted fall of snow unremittingly floating town to cloak the City and The poem addresses four of the five human senses – vision, hearing, taste and touch, and employs a restrained use of metaphor. The reader is introduced muffle the usual noises. The ear unusually ‘listens’ to stillness – an oxymoron. Schoolboys put out their tongues to catch snowflakes, metaphorically described as manna (.ie. food from Heaven), and make snowballs, freezing their tongues and hands. The snow lying on the ground is “white-mossed wonder”

• The poem is accessible as a lone stanza of thirty-seven lines. The effect that this form produces is one of a self-contained endless chain of events, ongoing by snowfall that persists all the way through the hours of darkness.

• There are three end stops in the poem – at lines 9, 24 and 30 (plus the final stop at line 37). The stops indicate a brief pause in the narrative.

• By encamping across the points where some poets might have chosen to create stanza breaks, Bridges has created a flow through the poem, mirroring the unremitting, lengthy, snowstorm.

• The length of the lines ranges from eleven syllables to seventeen syllables and the metre is irregular, creating a poem with a rhythm that resembles the rhythm of speech.

Poetic imagery in London Snow by Robert Bridges is used to defamiliarize the familiar or to familiarize the reader with unusual phenomena. In London Snow, Bridges both defamiliarizes London streets (“the city brown” has become white) with an acute observation of the action and transformational effect of snowfall. He familiarizes the reader with the phenomenon of snow, which is infrequent enough in the South of England to cause a frisson of wonder and excitement (“The eye marveled- marveled at the dazzling whiteness”).

to the sight of a protracted fall of snow unremittingly floating town to cloak the City and The poem addresses four of the five human senses – vision, hearing, taste and touch, and employs a restrained use of metaphor. The reader is introduced muffle the usual noises. The ear unusually ‘listens’ to stillness – an oxymoron. Schoolboys put out their tongues to catch snowflakes, metaphorically described as manna (.ie. food from Heaven), and make snowballs, freezing their tongues and hands. The snow lying on the ground is “white-mossed wonder”

Alliteration in London Snow by Robert Bridges

There is a great deal of alliteration in London Snow. Alliteration is the repeated use of a letter or a syllable, usually, not always, at the start of a word. For example, the sibilant consonant s, this slows the pace – asleep, snow, stealthily, settling, silently sifting. Sibilance in poetry is a stylistic device in which consonants, used in quick succession, draw emphasis on words.

A Stylistic Device in ‘London Snow’

• Most adverbs end with the letters ly.

• Adverbs tell us more about the action described in a verb.

• Bridges has used adverbs of manner extensively in ‘London Snow’. They tell us how an action was performed – in this case the manner in which the snow arrived. See lines 1-9 and pick out the adverbs.

Use of the -ing Verb Form in ‘London Snow’

• A verb ending in ing is a present participle when used with a verb of movement. It describes to us how an action was performed. For example, in line 1 the snow came flying. (Came is the past tense of the verb to come and flying is the present participle of the verb to fly).

• Bridges has used the present participle extensively, as a poetic device of repetition, in lines 1-9 to describe how the snow came. e.g. settling, hushing, deadening.

Suffice it to say that ‘The British Poet Laureate’ is an honorary role, nowadays awarded by the reigning monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister after appropriate consultation. There are no specific responsibilities but there is an expectation that an incumbent poet laureate will write poems to mark significant national occasions. If you enjoyed reading London Snow and would like to read more poems by Robert Bridges, a former Poet Laureate, I recommend this collection of his works. Indeed, the originality of the laureateship date back to 1616, when a pension was provided to Ben Johnson by the reigning monarch, King James I. Each poet laureate is awarded a modest annual honorarium. The tradition of also providing a barrel of sherry continues to the present day.

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Source by Kh. Atiar Rahman

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If you are in the mood to make ice cream with your ice cream maker, these three easy strawberry ice cream recipes can make a nice summer treat. Each are different, so you have options depending on the ingredients you have at home.

Recipe #1 – NON-DAIRY STRAWBERRY

2 teaspoons kosher gelatin

1/4 cup apple-strawberry juice

2/3 cup all-fruit strawberry jam

3 cups vanilla soy milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over apple juice. Let sit, stirring occasionally, until gelatin is dissolved and softened, about 10 minutes.

2. In a medium saucepan, whisk together jam and 2 cups soy milk. Cook until just hot, stirring frequently; remove from heat. Add softened gelatin to hot milk mixture, stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved. Stir in remaining soy milk and vanilla; let cool, cover, and refrigerate until very well-chilled.

3. Spoon chilled mixture into the canister of an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions.

Makes about 1 quart.

Recipe #2 – OLD-FASHIONED STRAWBERRY

1 pt Strawberries

1 c Sugar

1 Egg

1 c Half and half

1 t Vanilla

3 c Heavy cream

Hull the berries and cut the larger ones in half. Place the berries in a double boiler and add 1/2 cup sugar. Heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is very soft. Puree the fruit in a blender. Transfer puree to a bowl and cool in the refrigerator.

Put the egg, half and half, remaining sugar and vanilla extract in the blender and blend on medium speed till mixture is smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Slowly add the cream and continue blending on low speed for 30 seconds. Transfer the mixture to your ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

When the ice cream is about half frozen, add the strawberry puree to the mixture. Continue freezing. Makes slightly more than 1 quart.

Recipe #3 – STRAWBERRY SORBET

You might make extra purée and use it as a sauce under the sorbet. A fresh mint spring makes a pretty garnish.

2 pints strawberries, washed and hulled

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons superfine sugar

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Purée the strawberries in a food processor. You should have about 3 cups. Stir in 1 cup of the simple syrup and the lemon juice. Taste and add remaining syrup if necessary. Pour the mixture into the bowl of the machine and freeze.

Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Enjoy!

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Source by Kara Kelso

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Obviously you may can your tomatoes, but that means dragging out pans, jars and lids for maybe one or two jars worth of tomatoes. Consider making stews and spaghetti with all your tomatoes. You can freeze and label smaller portions of your stew and spaghetti and have it last through the winter. It makes for a great “emergency” meal, when you don’t feel like cooking or you get home late and everyone is hungry.

Even though you may lose some of the nutrients by skinning them, skinned, garden fresh tomatoes are still better than buying them in a can. Just put several in a metal sieve, dunk them in boiling water for thirty seconds and then rinse them in cold water. They should peel easily.

Cut them up and place them in a crock-pot for stew. I like to add a half-pound each of hot Italian sausage and either lean pork or chicken to the pot, along with a couple cans of Great Northern beans. If you’re in a hurry, brown and cut up the sausage and other meats before adding to the pot. If using canned beans, just read the label to make sure the contents don’t have a lot of sugar, fructose or other stuff.

Add a whole cut up red onion if you like. Stir-fry the onion in a little olive oil to speed up the cooking. What really makes this a special stew is the addition of 3-4 sliced parsnips. Their nutty flavor complements the white beans and lean white meat. Use Italian spices, some fennel and a little molasses for a smoky flavor. Let simmer on low or high, depending upon how quickly you want results. You can stick the crock-pot in the refrigerator and let the flavors soak into the meats and then cook it on low the next day. Let it cool and then place it in containers for freezing. Adjust the recipe for your own needs. Beans have protein and are a great filler, so you can easily add another can or two.

Spaghetti sauce is equally as good, although the sauce can taste too sweet with fresh garden tomatoes. The Italian sausage helps here also or you may sprinkle them with a bit of cayenne pepper if you dare. Once again you can stir-fry your ground beef, add sliced tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste and the Italian spices. Add extra oregano. The sauce can seem thick, so you can easily expand it by adding additional tomato or spaghetti sauce. That works very well when you underestimate what you might need or you find you have some neighbor kids staying over. It also helps if you think the sauce might be too spicy for the younger crowd.

Freezing can strengthen the cayenne flavor and diminish the Italian herbs. To combat the acidic nature of tomatoes and cayenne, add just a pinch or two of sugar. Perk up the Italian spices by adding more to your defrosted batch of sauce or stew.

If you hate to waste food, using up the garden tomatoes in a stew or with spaghetti sauce is a great way to put those tomatoes to immediate use and make you feel better. You might even get an extra hug at bedtime, too.

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Source by Linda Murdock

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Hi, there. I’m so glad you came back! Today’s post promises to be a yummy one! It’s a bit involved but so worth the effort. There is nothing quite like a batch of homemade ice cream, regardless of the country of its origin. So, here goes:

Typically, the ice cream is placed in a mold that resembles a “bomb”…the cherry cream being in the center, the pistachio next and the chocolate layer on top. If you don’t have a mold, you can use a large loaf pan or large Tupperware or plastic container to freeze the ice cream as you assemble it. The loaf configuration is referred to as terrine. You’ll also need an ice cream freezer to freeze the ice cream as you make it.

Spumoni Ice Cream – Terrine style

• 3 cups each of chocolate ice cream, pistachio ice cream and Spumoni cherry ice cream – all three recipes will follow.
• Get a large loaf pan or Tupperware or plastic container and line it with plastic wrap, being sure to overlap it in the pan and allow for some overhang around all four sides.
• Spread the 3 cups of chocolate ice cream onto the bottom of the pan / container.
• Cover this with plastic wrap and freeze for a minimum of 30 minutes or until slightly hardened (you may wish to freeze it longer to allow the layers to be more solid when adding the additional ones on top).
• After appropriate freezing time, remove the top plastic wrap and repeat the above steps with the pistachio and the cherry ice creams, freezing between each layer.
• To serve, run a sharp knife under hot water and wipe dry. Slice down through the layers to get a multi-colored / flavored slab of Spumoni.

Chocolate Ice Cream

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons Dutch-process Cocoa powder
• 5 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 cup whole milk
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 5 large egg yolks
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¾ cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
• In a medium saucepan, heat 1 cup of the cream with the cocoa powder.
• Whisk this to completely mix the cocoa powder.
• After bringing the mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer the mixture at a very low boil for 30 seconds while you whisk continually.
• Take the mixture off the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate, mixing until smooth.
• Add the remaining 1 cup of cream, stirring to blend.
• Place the mixture into a large bowl and place a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.
• Be sure to scrape the saucepan as thoroughly as you can.
• Using the same saucepan, add the milk, sugar and salt and heat to just warm.
• Using a separate mixing bowl of medium size, whisk the egg yolks and slowly add the warmed milk mixture to it stirring continuously with the wire whisk.
• Return the now warmed egg yolk mixture to the saucepan, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as you can.
• Heat the mixture over medium heat with a heat-proof spatula or spoon until the mixture coats stirring utensil, or until an instant-read thermometer shows 170 degrees. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan as you stir it.
• Now, add this mixture into the chocolate mixture by pouring it through the mesh strainer you placed over the first bowl in the earlier step. You’ll need to stir it until it is smooth.
• When this mixture is smooth, you can then add the vanilla.
• Prepare an ice bath by running cold water in your sink or a larger container than the bowl you’re now using and then place ice cubes in it. Place the bowl into the ice bath and stir until it is cooled as it will be pretty hot at this point.
• Once the chocolate mixture is cooled, the next step is to chill thoroughly it in the refrigerator.
• Once thoroughly chilled, it can be frozen in your ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer instructions.
• If you find that your chocolate mixture is too thick to pour into the ice cream freezer machine, just whip it vigorously until it thins out.
• Once the ice cream is churned, stir in the chopped hazelnuts with a rubber spatula.

Pistachio Ice Cream This recipe doesn’t make a really green colored pistachio ice cream because it uses all natural ingredients. If you want the brighter green color, feel free to add a couple of drops of green food coloring to the mix.

• 1 1/3 cups shelled pistachio nuts
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• Pinch of salt
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ¾ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
• Using your food processor, process the 1 1/3 cups of pistachios until finely ground, but not to a paste. Set this aside.
• Heat the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt in a medium saucepan, stir constantly to dissolve the sugar.
• Add in the ground nuts and stir to blend.
• Cover the saucepan, remove from the heat, and let the mixture steep for at least 30 minutes.
• Strain the warm nut mixture — press on the nuts to extract as much liquid as possible, and then discard the solids.
• Place the milk and cream mixture back into the saucepan.
• Pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.
• Whisk the egg yolks together in a separate medium sized bowl.
• Slowly pour the heated mixture into the egg yolks, continuously whisking. Be sure to scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
• Using a heatproof spatula or spoon, stir the mixture continuously over medium heat, be sure to scrape the bottom as you stir. Continue to stir until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula or spoon.
• Add the custard through the strainer and mix it into the cream with your spatula or whisk.
• Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix until combined.
• Refrigerate until cold.
• Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.
• Once the churning is completed, fold in the ¾ cup pistachios with a rubber spatula.

Spumoni Cherry Ice Cream

• 1½ cups pitted ripe sweet cherries (from about 3/4 lb cherries)
• ¾ cup whole milk
• 1¾ cups heavy cream
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons Amaretto, cherry liqueur, or rum (optional)
• ¼ cup chopped maraschino cherries, patted completely dry
• ¼ cup pineapple chunks, coarsely chopped and patted completely dry
• ¼ cup coarsely chopped almonds
• Into a medium saucepan, place the cherries, milk, 1 cup of the cream, sugar, and salt.
• On medium heat, cook the mixture until it is steamy.
• Reduce the heat to warm and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring with a rubber spatula and scraping the bottom of the pan.
• Cover the saucepan and let the mixture steep for at least 30 minutes.
• Add the mixture into a blender or food processor, or an immersion blender, and carefully purée. Be sure to be careful because you are dealing with a hot liquid. Be sure you hold the cap down securely on the top of the blender while puréeing.
• Strain mixture into a large bowl.
• Mix in the remaining 3/4 cup of heavy cream.
• Chill this mixture for several hours in the refrigerator. It needs to be completely cold.
• Put the chopped maraschino cherries and pineapple chunks on a plate on a single layer and freeze until the ice cream is churned.
• Before placing the mixture into your ice cream maker, you’ll need to stir in the lemon juice and the Amaretto or other liqueur if you are using these. Note… that you can skip the alcohol if you want, but the addition of it will help keep the ice cream from getting too icy, and the amaretto can add a nice flavor boost to the ice cream.
• Churn the ice cream in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Once the churning is complete, add in the cherries, pineapple and almonds with a rubber spatula.

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Source by Vicki Fassler