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Category Archives: Fruit
Strawberry Oreo Ice Cream
It’s strawberry season in Massachusetts! It’s also ice cream season and I’ve been slightly addicted to making ice cream lately. I came up with the idea of strawberry Oreo ice cream by combining a couple of ideas. My favorite ice creams of all time contain Oreo’s. Give me cookies ‘n cream — better yet, give me mint cookies ‘n cream — and I’m a very happy girl.
But lately, I’ve been craving strawberry especially combined with chocolate. Classic Neapolitan ice cream attempts to meet my berry and chocolate desires, but it’s always tricky getting the right amount of both in your bowl. Plus, then what do you do with the sad block of vanilla left over?
Strawberries, meet Oreos. What a perfect combination — strawberry and chocolate in every cold, creamy bite. I think I have a new favorite!
Strawberry Oreo Ice Cream
Makes 1 Pint
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup half & half
3/4 cup. sugar
1 egg yolk
8 oz. strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters
1 1/2 tbsp. Triple Sec
10 Oreo cookies
Combine strawberries, Triple Sec, and 2 tbsp. of sugar in a medium bowl. Mix well and let stand for 10-minutes. Then mash the strawberries with a potato masher until mostly smooth.
In a medium sauce pan, combine milk, half & half, and the rest of the sugar. Heat to a simmer.
Meanwhile, whisk egg yolk in a small bowl. When milk mixture comes to a simmer, slowly whisk in half a cup of warm milk to the egg. Once combined, slowly whisk the egg & milk mixture back into the sauce pan with the rest of the milk. Stirring constantly, warm the mixture back to a slow simmer and cook about 10 minutes until slightly thick (the mixture will coat the back of a spoon and when you run your finger through it, the mixture won’t run together.)
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and cool to room temperature.
Once the milk mixture is cooled, add the mashed strawberries — all the juices, too. Stir to combine. Refrigerate the mixture for at least three hours.
In a gallon-size Ziplock bag, smash the Oreos into bite-sized pieces.
Once the ice cream base is chilled, churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturers directions — mine took about 15-20 minutes to get to soft-serve consistency. Once at soft-serve consistency, fold in the Oreo chunks.
Move to a plastic container and freeze until hardened.
Posted in Dessert, Recipe, Strawberries, Vegetarian
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Ginger Orange Chicken with Green Beans
Sean and I just joined Boston Organics. It’s a really great deal for organic fruits and vegetables — and they deliver, to boot! I was pretty excited about it because they send a basically random box every week. I figured it would help me be creative every week in what I make for dinner.
This week, we got green beans and some organic oranges. I’ve noticed those two items go bad fast, so I wanted to use them. We also received 5 pounds of carrots last week and a huge bulb of ginger. Since one of our favorite Chinese take-out dishes is spicy string beans, I decided to try and make something similar with all of these ingredients we need to use up.
Ginger Orange Chicken with Green Beans
Serves 4
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 lb. boneless chicken thighs
1 lb. green beans, trimmed
2 large carrots, sliced on the bias
1 small onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
zest of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
2 tsp. freshly grated ginger, divided
1 tbsp. rice wine vineger
4 tbsp. soy sauce, divided
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. chili garlic sauce or siracha
2 tbsp. honey
Cut chicken thighs into 1 inch cubes. Put into a bowl and add 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce to season the chicken. Toss to coat. Set aside for 10 minutes.
Mix together half of the ginger, orange juice, orange zest, rice wine vinegar, the rest of the soy sauce, sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, and honey. Whisk to combine. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over high heat. Once the oil is very hot, add the chicken and cook until it’s cooked through — about 7-10 minutes. Remove from skillet. Set aside.
Once you remove the chicken, make sure the pan is still very hot, and add the onions, rest of the ginger, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the green beans and carrots. Stir fry until the carrots and green beans are al dente, about 10 minutes.
Add the chicken back to the pan and pour in the sauce. Cook uncovered for another 2-3 minutes, stirring, until the sauce is mixed into the chicken and vegetables well and starts to thicken. At this point, if you need to cook the vegetables a little more, cover for a couple of minutes to let the vegetables steam.
Serve over rice.
Posted in Asian, Carrots, Chicken, Cuisine, Fruit, Green Beans, Healthy, Main Dish, Meat, Oranges, Quick & Easy, Recipe, Vegetables
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Date and Manchego Wontons
Sean and I had the chance to join some friends for a Spanish Tapas dinner party a couple of months ago. I decided to reprise an old recipe I’d made a couple of times before. Originally, the recipe I put together had a combination of apricot jam and brie stuffed into a wonton and fried.
For this party, I wanted to make the recipe a little more appropriate to ingredients you’d find in Spain, hence the dates and manchego cheese. These were successful because they really combine the sweet and savory well — plus they’re fried and you could fry a old shoe and it would be tasty.
Next time I might try adding some toasted almonds to add some extra crunch.
Date and Manchego Wontons
Serves: a bunch
1 package dried dates, roughly chopped
1 cup water
zest of one lemon
Juice of one-half lemon
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 lb. Manchego cheese, medium dice
1 package wonton wrappers
Oil, for frying
Combine dates, water, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small pot. Mix and bring to a simmer. Let the mixture simmer until it’s a thick, jam-like paste. Remove from heat and let cool.
To assemble, put a teaspoon of the fig jam and a couple of piece of Manchego cheese in the center of a wonton wrapper. Fold in any creative way you’d like. Seal the edges together by brushing a little bit of water on each edge with a pastry brush or your finger. You can assemble these a day before you want to cook these. Store in the refrigerator on a cookie sheet in a single layer.
Heat oil to frying temperature — 350 -375 degrees. Once ready, drop the wontons into the hot oil a few at a time. Use a spider strainer to flip over to fry on all sides. Once golden brown all over, remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt to taste. It’s best to wait a few minutes before eating even though it’s really hard to wait — they’re like molten lava right out of the oil.
Posted in Appetizer, Cuisine, Dates, Fancy Pants, Fruit, Recipe, Spanish, Vegetarian
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Pumpkin Pie Milkshake
It’s fall! Fall means pumpkin flavored things! I thought that a pumpkin milkshake might be good and I was right (this time…believe me, some of my ideas are complete duds.) It really tastes like frozen pumpkin pie!
When you consider your regular run of the mill vanilla milkshake packs well over 400 calories and 16 – 20 grams of fat, this is a practically guilt-free indulgence. One shake is 325 calories and 8 grams of fat. Plus, it is an easy way to get some milk and has 2 grams of fiber from the pumpkin. So, drink up!
Pumpkin Pie Milkshake
1 cup vanilla frozen yogurt
1/2 cup skim milk
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 graham cracker, broken into smallish pieces
a pinch each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground ginger
Add all of the ingredients to a blender. Whiz up until smooth and creamy. Pour into a glass and enjoy! This is a reason to keep straws on hand!
Roasted Figs
File figs under a fruit that I’d never eaten until I was an adult — unless you count fig newtons. I’d never thought of figs — until I had some dish, somewhere with figs. Actually, I remember exactly where: Little Italy in Montreal — I had a sweet and savory pasta dish with figs as a main attraction. And. They. Were. Delicious.
I wanted to see what would happen if I roasted them. Turns out they become soft and sweet. I roasted these with a little butter and honey. I think they’d be perfect served warm on top of vanilla ice cream as a sophisticated dessert — or spread on toast with goat cheese as a fancy canape.
Roasted Figs
6-8 fresh figs, cut in half lengthwise
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. honey
Put the figs in a oven proof baking dish, cut side up. Melt the butter and honey in the microwave for 20-30 seconds. Pour the honey butter over the figs. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until figs are softened. You’ll end up with the figs and a bit of honey, figgy syrup (which would also be great over some vanilla ice cream!)