Eat More Green Stuff

I recently had a conference call during which I learned a certain grocery store chain plans to offer a program to rate the contents of your shopping basket, much like your mother might if she combed through your crumpled receipts. 

I suspect many of us have an internal dialogue about what we eat that we turn up or down like a transistor radio. But perhaps some people hope to go home and review a computer printout of their food purchases like it is a naughty or nice list from the North Pole.

A program like this brings up many questions.  It so happens—for me—I only go to this particular grocer for two very specific things: turkey subs and hot dogs. At my most recent trip, I was also lured into buying some canned beer from their liquor store warehouse. 

So it is pretty clear my report card would not be one to post on the fridge.  

At a recent dinner at the Rosebud, I debated this idea with a good friend of mine over negronis and fried vegetables. It was the kind of conversation you can have with someone you have known for nearly two decades. She pointed out a way to scam the system by paying cash for your undesirables.  I had not even thought of this, but it was a fast reminder as to why we are still friends.

It is ultimately sad that we need a computer to help decide if what we are buying is “good.” But I get it.  Marketing is powerful, and confusing, and many people find food labels to be like hieroglyphics.

Plus we are very busy and easily distracted by cookies.

But the food choices we make are also very complex.  I shop at four different spots to get what I need—and reasons for this vary from nutrition and sustainability to emotion and taste.

All are valid. And hard to judge in isolation, whether you are a machine or a human.

Take the ingredients to make this ice cream.  Fresh mint and matcha tea might make Dr. Weil happy.  But flavonols in the tea may be blunted by the addition of dairy.  Not to mention the matcha food miles. Plus the mint is not actually even eaten.

The dark chocolate is 70% cocoa, but is that enough? (Probably not.)  But it was produced locally and this allows me to implicate an unsuspecting factory in Somerville, Massachusetts in the post-rationalization of my cravings. 

And swapping brown rice syrup in place of the corn variety seems better, but is it once you consider the arsenic risk? 

All this aside, no one eats ice cream for its health benefits.  The ingredients, however, do make a very satisfying iced dessert.  It is smooth, bright, and grassy, with slight bursts of bitter chocolate. I originally added the matcha for shallow reasons (namely to impart a light green hue).  But it also contributes a vegetal note that plays very well with the mint and dark chocolate.  A computer is not going to know this. At least not yet.

So here is a little secret.  A way to simplify things.  Eight out of ten of us do not eat enough fruit and vegetables. This is not a metric that makes people very healthy.  It turns out broccoli does not have a sexy marketing campaign, either. (Though it should.)

But if you aim to eat more plants maybe, just maybe, you might have a little bargaining room for ice cream every now and again too.

Matcha Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Ingredients:

2 cups whole milk, divided

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch

1½ ounces (3 tbsp) cream cheese, softened

1¼ cups heavy cream

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tbsp brown rice syrup

pinch of salt

3 ounces fresh mint (including the stems) or about 3 cups lightly packed mint leaves (stems removed)

½ tsp matcha green tea powder

¼ tsp orange blossom water

2 ounces dark chocolate (preferably 70%), cut into small shards

Instructions:

In a small bowl, mix 2 tbsp of the whole milk with the cornstarch.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth. 

In a medium saucepan, combine the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, brown rice syrup, and salt on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture boils.  When it reaches a slow rolling boil, continue to stir for 4 minutes more.

Meanwhile, roughly tear the mint leaves into small pieces.  Prepare a large bowl with ice and a little water and put a smaller bowl inside the larger bowl; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the matcha tea into the orange blossom water until a slurry forms; set aside.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and gradually add in the cornstarch mixture; return the pan back to medium-high heat and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until it thickens (this will take a few minutes). 

Remove the saucepan from the heat and slowly whisk some of the hot liquid into the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the cream cheese mixture to the pan with the remaining liquid; add the torn mint and green matcha slurry and whisk to combine.

Pour the liquid into the prepared bowl on ice.  Let cool for about 30 minutes and then refrigerate, letting the mint steep for about 5 hours.  Strain out the mint and then return the milk mixture to the fridge (I prefer to let it chill overnight, but you can churn it once it is cold.)

When ready, churn the mixture in an ice cream machine for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it gets thick and creamy and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  At the very end of the churning, add in the chocolate shards while the machine is still running.  Pack the ice cream in an airtight container.  Cover with parchment paper cut to fit the container and freeze for at least 4 hours.

Makes about 1 quart

Notes:

-I luck out having Taza chocolate so close.  Luckily, you can also order it online.

Double Taza Stout and Stracciatella Ice Cream Con Panna and Good Humans

Good humans are among us.  I recently started dating one.

For one, he always puts the half and half away after making coffee in the morning.  This may seem simple.  But you might want to think twice about a person willing to let your milk spoil.

He was also able to provide three concrete reasons for getting a Christmas tree this year.  The smell.  The lights.  And as a meaningful adjunct to holiday cookies.

He counts his afternoon walk to Flour Bakery, for a coffee and chocolate chip cookie, as activity points.

He is concerned about taking too many dinner helpings for fear there won’t be lunch leftovers.

And though he doesn’t play fast and loose with compliments, they are really something when he dishes them out.

They catch you off-guard. Like claiming you look gorgeous after having just brushed your teeth.  Or calling you a genius for making ice cream. 

You’ll find instructions for such praise-inducing ice cream below. A version of this one.  But featuring local stout aged on cacao nibs from the Taza chocolate factory in Somerville, Massachusetts.  Then more of the same chocolate is finely shaved with a knife and added in shards the Italians call stracciatella, meaning little tears or shreds.

Stracciatella is often made by pouring a thin stream of chocolate into cold, churning ice cream and served con panna, or with whipped cream, at your request.  And reminds me of the gelato I had in Rome over a decade ago.  So I borrowed on this memory, adding in some espresso for good measure.  The bitterness, balanced by dark beer and set upright by chocolate, somehow makes the final product even greater than its parts.

And I really can’t take credit for all of that.  The praise belongs mostly to the instruction of Jeni Britton Bauer of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams.  And to the fine people at Taza chocolate and Night Shift Brewing who did the heavy lifting, lending talent and honoring fine ingredients. 

But that’s the thing about cooking. The one in front of the stove gathers the spoils. You can use a blueprint belonging to someone else, selfishly add some favorite flavors, and a memory or two from your past, and suddenly you’re the genius.  The good humans who have lent part of themselves in the way of instruction, or cacao, or beer make it all possible though.

In many ways, this all makes very little sense.  And, yet, perhaps the best way to reconcile it is to pillage yet another idea. A witticism from a storyteller artist and fellow human.

“There are things you do because they feel right and they may make no sense and they may make no money and it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other and to eat other’s cooking and say it was good.” –Brian Andreas

To share, and to care, and to eat chocolate may very well be the answer.  Merry Christmas.

Double Taza Stout and Stracciatella Espresso Ice Cream Con Panna

Adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk, divided

1½ tbsp cornstarch

1½ ounces cream cheese, softened

1¼ cup heavy cream

2/3 cup dark muscovado sugar

2 tbsp brown rice syrup

pinch of salt

2 tbsp instant espresso

80 grams (just shy of 3 ounces) dark chocolate (i.e. Taza), cut into small shards

½ cup chocolate stout (i.e. Night Shift Brewing Taza Stout)

Optional: ¾ cup heavy cream (for a whipped cream topping)

Instructions

In a small bowl, mix 2 tbsp of the whole milk with the cornstarch.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth. 

In a medium saucepan, combine the remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, brown rice syrup, and salt on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the mixture boils.  When it reaches a slow rolling boil, continue to stir occasionally for 4 minutes more.

Remove pan from the heat and stir in the instant espresso until it dissolves.  Meanwhile, prepare a large bowl with ice and a little water and put a smaller bowl inside the larger bowl with ice.

Return the infused espresso milk back on medium-high heat; gradually add in the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until it thickens (this will take a few minutes).  Remove from heat and slowly whisk some of the hot liquid into the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the cream cheese mixture to the saucepan with the remaining liquid; add stout; whisk to combine.

Pour into the prepared bowl on ice.  Let cool for about 30 minutes and then refrigerate until fully cooled (or overnight).

When ready, churn the mixture in an ice cream machine for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it gets thick and creamy and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  At the very end of the churning, add in the chocolate shards (we are technically cheating here, deviating from stracciatella form).  Pack the ice cream in an airtight container.  Cover with parchment paper cut to fit the container and freeze for at least 4 hours.

If desired, before serving whip ¾ cup heavy cream and top ice cream.

Makes about 1 quart.

Notes:

-Chocolate covered cacao nibs would likely be great here too for added texture, but I'd encourage the chocolate shards regardless, they melt ably in the mouth.

-The brown rice syrup here is a stand-in for corn syrup, which can be used in a pinch. As can dark brown sugar in place of the muscovado.

Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwiches with Chili and Cilantro, for Now

I am in a bit of a sinkhole at the moment.  

I’m researching the role of pasta in post-unification Italy for my final paper this semester.  I am also recovering from making the world’s worst pudding on Friday night.  And if I am truly being honest, I did not fair much better attempting a chocolate poppy seed krantz cake on Saturday.  Though, I did learn if your dough only slightly rises you can turn krantz cake into "rugelach." 

What I really want to do is sit down with the Sunday Times, have a mangled krantz-rugelach with a cup of coffee, and stop time.  But a paper on pasta in Futurist-Fascist Italy isn’t going to write itself.

Which is why I am bringing you cucumbers in November. 

This is one of my all-time favorite sandwiches.  They are perfect for summer, which is when I first made them. (Dave and I smuggled them onto the Downeaster to Portland a few months ago.)  They are also quick, and so they fit in any old time.

The ingredients hardly require a garden in our age of the supermarket.  It is also worth mentioning if you make any of Jeni’s ice creams—and are bagel-deprived—you’ll need a use for the leftover cream cheese.  (Here's my most recent incarnation using her lovely base.)

So allow me to introduce the cream cheese cucumber sandwich, of which I am ideological fan.  In reality those two need some spunk to get me excited about consuming them in tandem.  The chili garlic sauce, cilantro, and capers come in to make the magic happen.  You’ll also want a really good sourdough or nutty multigrain bread because the outsides are as important as the insides when crafting a sandwich.

Which we have the luxury of securing.  Because—thankfully—this is not fascist Italy.  This is post-ice cream New England, with sandwiches.

Now back to the twentieth century.

Cucumber Cream Cheese Sandwiches with Chili and Cilantro

Ingredients:

4 ounces cream cheese

2 tbsp capers, roughly chopped

10 to 12 cilantro sprigs, stems and leaves finely chopped

1 scallion, finely chopped

black pepper and salt to taste

~1½ tbsp chili garlic sauce, divided

1 cucumber, sliced

slices of bread (I prefer sourdough)

Instructions:

Combine the cream cheese, capers, cilantro, and scallion; taste and adjust seasoning.  Spread a little of the mixture on each piece of sourdough (about a tbsp).  Place a few slices of cucumber on one slice of bread and spread about a tsp of chili sauce on the other.  Combine sides.  Slice.  Eat.

Makes 3 to 4 sandwiches

Notes:

-Instructions are based on one sandwich.  The number of sandwiches will depend on how thick you spread it.

-A word about the krantz cakes.  I've been using active dry yeast (instead of instant) in recipes and this has historically worked out well, despite defiantly not dissolving the active yeast.  But my yeast is getting old.  

Cinnamon Piment d’Espelette Ice Cream with Buttered Walnuts Without Apology

The older I get the more I find there are two types of people in this world.  Those who like walnuts.  And those who cast them off as chalky, wrinkly little bastards. (Not my words.)

Who consider their presence abhorrent.  A good brownie, spoiled.  A chocolate chip cookie gone bad.

To all the he-man walnut haters, I say: feel free to substitute pecans.  The point is, do not let this prevent you from making this ice cream. You’ll get a ballet slipper beige cream with brick red flecks from the piment d’Espelette, a delicate chile with a subtle heat, said to have hints of peach and sea.

I find the walnut’s tannins a welcome contrast to the heavily steeped cinnamon.  And they convince me of this further once buttered and generously salted.  The ice cream does have a little kick to it, so feel free to play with the spices.  Just don’t nix the nuts.    

Call me crazy, but I think it’s a dessert even a walnut-hater could love. 

Cinnamon Piment d’Espelette Ice Cream with Buttered Walnuts

Inspired by Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home

Ingredients:

for the ice cream base

2 cups whole milk

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp cornstarch

1¼ cups heavy cream

2/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp brown rice syrup

1½ ounces cream cheese, softened

pinch kosher salt

½ tsp ground piment d’Espelette 

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 cinnamon stick

pinch of smoked paprika (optional)

for the buttered walnuts

¾ cup walnut halves

1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

½ tsp sea salt

Instructions:

Day 1:

In a medium saucepan, pour in the whole milk.  Take out about 2 tbsp of milk and mix with the cornstarch in a small bowl; set aside.  Add the cream, sugar, and brown rice syrup to the saucepan with the milk.  Bring to a rolling boil over medium heat and then let boil for 4 minutes.

Remove the hot mixture from the heat, whisk in the cornstarch slurry, and return to the heat until it thickens slightly, stirring occasionally with a rubber spatula (1 to 2 minutes).  Meanwhile, whip the cream cheese until smooth (this can be done with a wire whisk).

Gradually whisk the cream cheese into the milk until smooth (be sure the cream cheese is at room temperature or it will never fully incorporate).  Add the salt, piment, ground cinnamon, cinnamon stick, and paprika.  Allow to steep for 30 minutes (or until desired level of spice is achieved).  I wanted a little more cinnamon flavor, so 30 minutes was perfect for me, but this will depend on your preference and the strength of your spices, so start tasting after 15 minutes.

Once at the desired level of cinnamon, remove the stick and allow to cool.  (You can speed up this process by setting the ice cream in a bowl that has been set in a larger bowl filled with ice.)  Allow to chill overnight in the fridge.

To prepare the nuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Toss the nuts in the butter and salt and spread on a baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 15 minutes (or until toasted and fragrant), turning once during the baking.  Let cool completely and then seal in an airtight container.

Day 2:

Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister of an ice cream maker and spin until the ice cream starts to form a ribbon and pull away from the sides of the bowl; add in the buttered nuts during the last minute of the spinning.  Pack the ice cream into a freezer-safe container and seal with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit roughly the size of the lid.  Cover and allow to freeze at least 4 hours before eating.

Makes about a quart

Notes:

-I only had brown rice syrup, which I think I might actually prefer to the corn syrup that is usually called for with Jeni’s ice cream bases.  (It’s a little less sweet.)

-The nuts will almost taste too salty on their own.  But you’ll need this salt to come through the cold ice cream.

-In addition to pecans, another potentially interesting walnut substitute could be peanuts.