Cookin again

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nifty!

 

[Beleriphon]

If you like Creole food (and I gather that you do ) Indian food isn't all different in terms of flavour, richness, and even cooking method. There's a lot of low and slow cooking for traditional India food, and most of it is super easy to make vegetarian (or is vegetarian) for anybody that has that concern.

I'm personally super, super fan of Indian confections. Indian sweets make the finest French pastries taste like paper covered in powdered sugar. There's something to be said about the base of a cookie recipe that uses milk that has been reduced to the consistency of a bread dough.

Some stuff though you're better just buying commercially and warming up, naan bread comes to mind. Its nearly impossible to make authenticate naan without a wood fired oven you stick the dough to the inside of. I've tried with a pizza stone and the results are good, but I can't get the over to 1000 degree surface temperature to cook the bread quickly enough really.

 

[Beleriphon]

Cheese Cake Ice Cream

3/4 cup white sugar
5 egg yolks - reserve whites for meringue if you like
2 cups 2% milk (or reduced fat, same thing)
2 226g or 8oz bricks of cream cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
20 graham crackers, broken into large chucks (ideally 1cm or 1/2 inch across each, some small crumbs a good, bigger is not)
3 tbsp butter (for melting)

You will need an ice cream maker. I have a KitchenAid mixer attachment, but anything will work in theory.

Process:
Mix egg yolks into sugar in a large bowl, blend completely
Scald milk (86C, or whatever that is in Fahrenheit)
Temper 1 cup of milk into the eggs, add egg mixture back into the milk.
Add cream cheese and vanilla to milk mixture. Stir constantly until the cream cheese is melted and the batter is thick (it will get very thick due to the cream cheese)
Strain with a fine mesh into a bowl. Set aside and cool (ideally it should be cold, so stuff it in the fridge for a bit)

Melt butter in a pan over medium-low heat. Add the graham cracker crumbs and toast until crunchy. Cool along with your ice cream batter.

Once the ice cream batter is cold add to your mixer. Keep mixing until set, depending on your mixer this could be as much as 20 minutes. Add the graham cracker crumbs. Let is mix until thoroughly blended throughout.

Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least two hours.

Additional things I want to try:
Mix in streaks of some kind of caramel sauce so it streaks.
Mix in some kind of berry/fruit mixture.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And that recipe is called?

 

[Beleriphon]

And that recipe is called?

Forgot a title. Cheese cake ice cream. Made an edit to add it in.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I make a homemade trail mix- all nuts & dried fruits + sunflower seeds- that I occasionally mix into yogurt with honey for dessert. It would probably make a good cheesecake topping. (Sans sunflower seeds, perhaps.)

 

[Beleriphon]

That would probably be pretty good. I imagine it would be nice with a fruit sauce, cherry or strawberry perhaps.

For food I was thinking about a recipe I like. Its not a full meal or anything, but its a darn tasty base for any kind of cheese based sauce.

So, here's Beleriphon's Ballin' Cheese Sauce

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
3 cups whole milk
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp yellow mustard

Melt your butter in a pot. Add flour. Cook until it kind of smells like short bread cookies and gets a toasty sandy colour. Add milk slowy and whisk briskly. Add cheese a bit at a time to melt and dissolve in the milk until you have used all of it. Add mustard. Whisk frequently until the desired consistency is reached. I like mine relatively thick, but still able to be poured.

We usually use it to serve warm over steamed veggies. Personally I like it on brocolli or cauliflower, but its great with a baked potatoe or nachos.

Additions and substitutions:
Use equal parts of different cheeses that add up to around 1 cup. I've used a mix of smoked gouda, cheddar and mozzarella which was really good.

Try changing out the mustard for dijon or something else of your choice. Non-grainy is best, but you do you.

To convert to queso add in some chili powerder while toasting the flour and diced pickled jalapeño after the cheese melts, also try some more traditional Mexican cheeses in addition to the cheddar.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Melt your butter in a pot. Add flour. Cook until it kind of smells like short bread cookies and gets a toasty sandy colour.

In creole cooking, we call that a roux. I sometimes use butter, lard or bacon grease for certain dishes, but most o the time, I use some kind of plant based oil.

In gumbos, I like to get my roux between a light tan to a milk chocolatey brown- the lighter it is, the more it can thicken. The darker it is, the more flavor it brings.

Use equal parts of different cheeses that add up to around 1 cup. I've used a mix of smoked gouda, cheddar and mozzarella which was really good.

AMEN! Mixing cheeses to get different textures and flavors is a an important culinary weapon. I must have a dozen different cheeses in my fridge right now- smoked gouda, truffle gouda, blue castello, cambozola, Stilton, Boursin, swiss, Parrano, truffle gouda, Monterrey Jack, American (both Kraft singles- for my Dad- and the real stuff for every other use), havarti, butterkäse, port wine, cahill, herbed D’Affinois, belletois, and so forth.

Even with simple things like grilled cheese sandwiches, I use mixes.

 

[shawnhcorey]

In creole cooking, we call that a roux.

Also in French cooking since it's a French word. In French, a consonant at the end of a word is not pronounced unless the next word starts with a vowel. So roux would be pronounced "roo".

In gumbos, I like to get my roux between a light tan to a milk chocolatey brown- the lighter it is, the more it can thicken. The darker it is, the more flavor it brings.

I would be tempted to make two and mix them: one to thicken, one for flavour.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yep on the pronunciation.

As for the thicken Vs flavor conundrum, I haven’t mixed any rouxs, but I have sometimes made my roux extra large. I did that with the last gumbo I made, and it thickened up quite nicely.