Rolled Almond Meringue with Christmas Mince Ice Cream & Cookbook Sundays # 3

Happy Christmas everyone - I hope you are all enjoying a lovely day with your families, and enjoying good food on your tables.  This year is a quiet Christmas for me, my partner being away in Australia for work, and finances being such that travelling to spend time with family or friends was just not an option this year.

Nevertheless, I am having a lovely relaxing day, and will certainly be enjoying my share of festive fare.  Dinner tonight will be a salad of crispy-skin, five-spice duck, with watercress, mango, sweet potato & crispy noodles, with a tamarind and sesame dressing.  Dessert will be this rolled almond meringue filled with a fruit mince ice cream.  The great thing about a dessert such as this is that I can cut off a slice (or three), and keep the rest frozen for another occasion.

This is an adaptation of a recipe from Jan Bilton's Fresh & Fancy Fare, a book I've had for about 25 years and haven't used nearly enough, so I thought this would be a great submission for this week's Cookbook Sundays.  The original recipe calls for a filling of whipped cream mixed with shredded coconut and oranges, but since I wanted to create something less perishable the ice cream filling instead of cream seemed the way to go.  And besides, who really needs an excuse to make ice cream?!

As luck would have it, I just happened to have half a jar of Christmas fruit mince left over from last year.  It was however looking a bit dried out and sad, but I remembered that it had been particularly good, so I felt sure that if I gave it a bit of love I could resurrect it and use it as the base for my ice cream.  I added a heaped tablespoon of my home-made Seville orange marmalade, 50g of chopped chocolate (I used Whittakers Dark Ghana), and a hefty slosh of my Damson gin.  Not only did that breathe new life into my old Christmas mince, but I think I successfully improved it.  Any good quality Christmas mince that you happen to have on hand will suffice here.

For my ice cream custard, I used David Lebovitz's base for his Brown Bread Ice Cream - well, him being the God of all things ice cream in my opinion, where else would I turn?

There is brown sugar and sour cream in the ice cream base which gives it a lovely caramel base flavour, with a hint of tartness, all of which married beautifully with the spices, bitter orange, chocolate and almond flavours coming through from the Christmas mince - utterly divine.  You can be sure there will be more than one batch of this whipped up over the summer - actually beautiful flavours for a winter ice cream too, which is not to be sniffed at since ice cream is (hands down) my favourite dessert all year round.

The meringue is beautifully chewy and marshmallowy (is that a real word? - you know what I mean), and the hint of almond adds yet another layer of flavour to those coming through from the ice cream.

Rolled Almond Meringue with Christmas Mince Ice Cream

Adaptations from recipe by Jan Bilton

from Fresh & Fancy Fare

and recipe by David Lebovitz

Serves 6-8

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

For the ice cream:

1 cup whole milk

1-1/2 cups cream

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light brown sugar

pinch of salt

225g (8 oz) sour cream

5 large egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup good quality Christmas fruit mince

For the meringue:

5 egg whites

1 cup caster sugar (mine was vanilla infused)

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon white vinegar

2 teaspoons cornflour

Begin by making the ice cream, and I suggest that you start this at least 24 hours before making the meringue.

First of all make an ice bath by putting ice cubes and a bit of water into a medium bowl.  Then put the sour cream and 1 cup of the cream into another medium sized bowl.  Stand this bowl in the ice bath and set everything aside.

Put the egg yolks into yet another bowl, whisk slightly to break up the yolks, and then set this aside also.

Put the milk, the remaining 1/2 cup of cream, the sugars and the salt into a medium-sized saucepan, and heat over a gentle heat.  Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved completely and the mixture is warm.  Test by sticking your little finger into the mixture and when it is too hot to hold your finger there it is ready.

Remove from the heat, and gradually pour some of the milk mixture onto the egg yolks.  Whisk constantly as you pour - this is important or you will end up with scrambled eggs.  Once about half of the milk mixture is incorporated into the eggs, scrape the whole lot back into the saucepan, again whisking constantly.

Set the pan back over low heat, and stir constantly until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spatula.

Remove from the heat, and strain the mixture over the top of the cream and sour cream mixture resting in its ice bath.  Whisk constantly until the mixture is smooth and has cooled completely.  Stir in the vanilla.

Cover with cling film, pressing it right down onto the surface of the custard.  Refrigerate for several hours at least - ideally overnight.

Next day, churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.  Remove the churned ice cream to a cold bowl, stir through the Christmas mince, then freeze until firm.

Now make the meringue.  Begin by preheating your oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Lightly butter a Swiss-roll tin and line it with parchment paper.  Set aside.

In a scrupulously clean bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff.  Add the sugar, a little bit at a time, and continue beating until all the sugar is dissolve and the mixture is stiff and glossy.

Fold the almond extract, vinegar and cornflour gently into the meringue.

Spread the mixture into the prepared tin, and bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, spread another sheet of baking paper out onto your kitchen bench and dust it liberally with icing sugar.

Remove the cooked meringue from the oven, and turn it out onto the icing sugar dusted baking paper.  Allow to cool completely.

Spread ice cream over the centre of the meringue (soften your ice cream first if necessary), roll up from the long edge.  Wrap in parchment paper and freeze until you are ready to serve.

Enjoy and have a happy Christmas - for those of us here in New Zealand it's nearly over, but I know that for many of you it is only just beginning.

 

Earlier I mentioned Cookbook Sundays.  What is that all about, you are perhaps wondering.  Well, if you're anything like me you have dozens of cookbooks gathering dust on your bookshelves, some of which have never even been cooked from.  Sure I spent hours browsing through them when I first bought them, marking all the recipes I was going to make with little post-it notes, and yet still those books languish in the bookcase and never make it to the kitchen.  There are others from which I have made but one recipe which was such a resounding success that I've made it over and over again, and yet somehow I've never made anything else from that book.  Sound a bit familiar?!

Take comfort - you are not alone, and now Cookbook Sundays is your opportunity to change that.  Every Sunday I'm going to share with you a recipe that I haven't made before from one of my ever expanding collection of cookbooks.  And, because I know that if you have read this far then you are guilty of this too, I'm inviting you to join in with me.  Each week my Cookbook Sundays post will have a linky for you to share something you've cooked from one of your cookbooks.

The rules for joining in are simple:

1. Your post must state the author and the title of the book your recipe has come from.
2. Your post must mention Cookbook Sundays and link back to this post.  Including the Cookbook Sundays badge is optional, but always appreciated.
3. You may submit as many entries as you like, and you may use the same cookbook as many times as you like.  Old posts are also welcome.
4. Lastly,  remember that what goes around, comes around - one of the reasons you are participating in this is because you want people to read your posts, so do the right thing and go and visit a few of the other participants. 

Now, go and dust off those cookbooks and get cooking!  Use the linky tool at the end of this post to submit your entry/entries - simply scroll down to where it says "You are next ... Click here to enter", and then follow the instructions.  The linky will be open for one week.

Lastly, if you would like to use the Cookbook Sundays badge in your post, simply copy the code in the box beside the badge below and paste it into your post.  Feel free to also use it in your sidebar if you wish.

<a href="http://couscous-consciousness.blogspot.com/p/cookbook-sundays.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa476/Susan_Busch/CookbookSundaysBadge.jpg" border="0" alt="CookbookSundays"></a>

 

I am also sharing this post with Sweet New Zealand, a monthly blog event created by the very lovely Alessandra Zecchini, and which this month is hosted by the equally lovely and incredibly talented Bron Marshall. This is an opportunity for all Kiwi bloggers (whether you are living in New Zealand or overseas), as well as for non-Kiwi bloggers living in New Zealand, to connect and share some of those sweet treats from your kitchen.  So, head on over to Bron's and share something sweet.

I'm also sharing this at Bake with Bizzy.

Chocolate, Almond & Damson Slab, and Cookbook Sundays # 1

 

I'm very excited that today is my first day for hosting Cookbook Sundays (keep reading for more details), so something a little bit indulgent and celebratory to share with you seemed to be in order.  This sweet treat makes the perfect ending to a meal with a coffee or a "sticky", or a lovely handmade festive gift for a special friend.

This recipe comes from "Maggie's Kitchen" by Maggie Beer, but I do confess to having made a bit of a departure from the original recipe which called for the inclusion of prunes soaked in sherry.  You might have seen this post back in February when I made, amongst other things, Damson Gin.  Well, a couple of weeks ago I decided that said Damson Gin would be ready for drinking.  I strained the liquor off into a bottle, but was then left with the gin-soaked damsons themselves.  After sampling a couple of them, I decided that they were far too good to discard.  So they've been sitting in a jar in my fridge waiting for some inspiration, and as soon as I stumbled on this recipe I knew I'd found just the right thing.

 

The damsons, after sitting in alcohol for 10 months impart an almond flavour and fragrance, which I thought would complement nicely the almonds in the slab.  It did occur to me however that I could be setting you all up for cyanide poisoning, but after eating quite a lot of the gin-soaked damsons this afternoon I can tell you that I have come to absolutely no harm - did get a bit tipsy though - just saying! And, of course, it was purely in the interests of public safety - such are the lengths I will go to in order to ensure your well-being.

This was a doddle to make, even in a slightly inebriated state, with the hardest part being waiting the hour for the chocolate to set.  Now, I know not everyone has boozy damsons hanging around the place, so I will give you the directions for the prunes as well.

Chocolate, Almond & Damson Slab

Adapted from a recipe by Maggie Beer

in Maggie's Kitchen

Vegetarian

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

100g (3.5 oz) pitted gin-soaked damsons (see notes below for alternative)

(just pull the damsons apart with your fingers until you have 100g of flesh -

they will easily come away from the stones)
100g (3.5 oz) blanched almonds

200g (7 oz) dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

(I used Whittakers Dark Ghana)

1/3 cup cream

20g (.7 oz) butter

Note:  if you don't have the damsons, you will need 100g of pitted prunes and 50ml (1.7 fl oz) of sweet sherry

Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F).

Spread the almonds in a single layer on a baking tray and roast in the pre-heated oven until they are golden brown - approximately 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven, cool and then chop roughly.

Note:  If using prunes, soak them in the sherry until they have soaked up all the liquid, then chop roughly.

Chop the chocolate roughly, and put into a heatproof bowl with the cream and butter.  Set the bowl over a gently simmering pan of water, stirring occasionally, until melted and glossy.

Add the damsons (or prunes) and almonds to the melted chocolate mixture, and stir to combine.

Pour the mixture onto a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.  Spread evenly into a slab, and refrigerate until set - about 1 hour.

 

Once set, break into pieces and serve with coffee or dessert wine.  I served mine with damson gin - what else?!  Store in a cool, dark place (not the refrigerator) in a sealed, airtight container.

 

Now, at the start of this post I mentioned Cookbook Sundays.  What is that all about, you are perhaps wondering.  Well, if you're anything like me you have dozens of cookbooks gathering dust on your bookshelves, some of which have never even been cooked from.  Sure I spent hours browsing through them when I first bought them, marking all the recipes I was going to make with little post-it notes, and yet still those books languish in the bookcase and never make it to the kitchen.  There are others from which I have made but one recipe which was such a resounding success that I've made it over and over again, and yet somehow I've never made anything else from that book.  Sound a bit familiar?!

Take comfort - you are not alone, and now Cookbook Sundays is your opportunity to change that.  Every Sunday I'm going to share with you a recipe that I haven't made before from one of my ever expanding collection of cookbooks.  And, because I know that if you have read this far then you are guilty of this too, I'm inviting you to join in with me.  Each week my Cookbook Sundays post will have a linky for you to share something you've cooked from one of your cookbooks.

The rules for joining in are simple:  your post must state the author and the title of the book your recipe has come from, and your post must mention Cookbook Sundays and link back to this post.  That's it really.  Including the Cookbook Sundays badge is optional, but always appreciated.  You may submit as many entries as you like, and you may use the same cookbook as many times as you like.  And remember, what goes around, comes around - one of the reasons you are participating in this is because you want people to read your posts, so do the right thing and go and visit a few of the other participants. 

Now, go and dust off those cookbooks and get cooking!  Use the linky tool at the end of this post to submit your entry/entries - simply scroll down to where it says "You are next ... Click here to enter", and then follow the instructions.  The linky will be open for one week.

Lastly, if you would like to use the Cookbook Sundays badge in your post, simply copy the code in the box beside the badge below and paste it into your post.  Feel free to also use it in your sidebar if you wish.

<a href="http://couscous-consciousness.blogspot.com/p/cookbook-sundays.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa476/Susan_Busch/CookbookSundaysBadge.jpg" border="0" alt="CookbookSundays"></a> 

 

I am also sharing this post with Sweet New Zealand, a monthly blog event created by the very lovely Alessandra Zecchini, and which this month is hosted by the equally lovely and incredibly talented Bron Marshall. This is an opportunity for all Kiwi bloggers (whether you are living in New Zealand or overseas), as well as for non-Kiwi bloggers living in New Zealand, to connect and share some of those sweet treats from your kitchen.  So, head on over to Bron's and share something sweet.

Bacon, Booze and other Bits and Bobs

It's been a funny old week really.  I don't really seem to have done too much cooking this week, more a case of just assembling a few salads really, but I have had several "cooking projects" on the go.

First of all has been my first attempt at curing my own bacon, the first project in which I'm participating for the Charcutepalooza group, hosted by Mrs Wheelbarrow's Kitchen and The Yummy Mummy.  I would have liked to start last month, but last month's challenge was duck prosciutto - sounds amazing right, and I so want to try this.  Problem is you need a cool humid place to hang your breasts (yes I did just say that), and that's just not happening in a hot, dry Canterbury summer - so keep watching this space for duck prosciutto when winter comes around.  In the meantime here's a first glimpse of my bacon - today's lunch in fact - about which you will be hearing much more next week.

Project # 2 - my dear friend Clare, who has just started a lovely blog called Arnold River Ramblings (where she shares great recipes and tales from their home on the banks of the Arnold River on the South Island west coast), dropped me off a few pounds of damsons.  These are not something I had ever used before, so I turned to a book I've had for years called Jams and Preserves by Olive Odell for inspiration.  The moment my eyes rested on Damson Gin in the index, I knew this would have a place in my future. Looks beautiful, doesn't it ...

Now I'm supposed to let this mature for a minimum of 3 months.  Other recipes I found for Damson Gin suggest leaving it for 6, 12 or even 18 months.  I'm thinking that 9-10 months would be perfect, in which case it would be ready just in time for Christmas, and all those glorious summer cocktails to enjoy on long, warm summer evenings.  I question, however, my ability to wait that long, so I'm thinking I may need to make a back up bottle just in case!

Once my Damson Gin was made, I got so ridiculously excited about my ability to make liquor, that I decided to make what I imagine will turn into a kind of coffee/orange liqueur.  This is a recipe from Laura Calder called "44" that I had been wanting to make for many months.  You simply take an orange and poke 44 holes in it, then push a coffee bean into each one of those holes - got that so far? 44 coffee beans pushed into an orange.  Then put the coffee bean studded orange into a large glass jar, and add 44 sugar cubes.  Fill with one litre of vodka, seal jar, and store in a cool, dark place, giving it a shake every day for 44 days.  Not that I'm counting or anything, but only 43 days to go!

Now, to those "bits and bobs" I mentioned.  Quite a while back (about October actually - I know, I'm pretty slack) two of my favourite bloggers Veronica at The Enchanted Cook and Michele at The Fit Foodista tagged me.  To cut a long story short, I was supposed to answer a few questions that each of them asked and pass it on to a few more bloggers and ask them to do the same.  Well, I just didn't get around to it.  Not long after I was given the "One Lovely Blog" Award by two more lovely bloggers - Louanne's Kitchen and Kitchen Flavours - similar deal, answer some questions and pass it on - did I get around to it?  In short - no.  Then more recently I was given the "Stylish Blogger" Award again by Louanne's Kitchen (she must really like me), by Melynda at Mom's Sunday Cafe, by Daniel at The Haggis & The Herring, by Ms Enplace, and by Annie at Second Helpings.  So I thought it was high time I got my act together and did a bit of sharing.

Firstly, let me say that I am deeply humbled by the kind thoughts and high praise these bloggers have bestowed on me.  The open-heartedness with which fellow bloggers reach out to each other across continents, making connections with people they've never met, never ceases to amaze and inspire me and is what makes this whole thing worthwhile for me.  So, now to share a bit about me, I selected several of the questions from those that were asked from different sources - read on ...

 

If you had to narrow down your diet to just one cuisine, what would you choose and why?

I love so many different cuisines that narrowing it down to just one is tough - I think it would probably be Italian (but it would only be nudging out Spanish or Greek by a nose).  I love pretty much all of the ingredients that we associate with Mediterranean style food;  I love the often very simple and rustic way in which dishes come together, relying on nothing more than outstanding, seasonal ingredients rather than a lot of fancy or "chefy" techniques to pull off a great dish.

What has been your most memorable meal to this point in your life?

Don't even have to think about this one.  It was a rabbit dish that I had at a little restaurant in Barcelona called The Grill Room.  It was quite a simple little restaurant as I recall, but the rabbit was outstanding.  Half a rabbit was placed on a long skewer, carried through the restaurant and plunged into an open wood-fired oven at the back of of the restaurant.  I could see the rabbit cooking from our table, and half an hour later it was brought out of the oven and set before me.  It had been given only the simplest of treatment - a brushing of olive oil, some fresh rosemary, and plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper - but it tasted sublime.  Proof once again that good food doesn't need to be messed with.

What’s your funniest kitchen/cooking disaster?

One time when we were kids (me about 7, my little brother about 5), my brother fell out of a tree and badly gashed his knee.  My mother rushed him off to the doctor to get it stitched up and, anticipating that Dad would be home from work soon, left me home alone.  While I was waiting for Dad to get home, I got to thinking that there had been a lot of blood "coming out of my brother" and he might die.  Well, even though I found a little brother enormously irritating at that stage of my life, I really didn't want him to die.  Just on the off chance that he might live, however, I decided to bake him a jam tart.  So, I duly got out my play dough, found a pretty plastic bowl in the cupboard, lined it with a play dough crust, filled it to the brim with jam, turned the oven onto high and popped my "pie" into the oven.  You don't have to be a rocket scientist to imagine the mess that made!!

What's your favourite kitchen/cooking success?

A week ago, I think I would have said the first time I made mayonnaise and discovered how easy it is.  However, as of today, I think it would have to be the first time I cured my own bacon (see above) - I'm loving myself sick I think I'm so clever right now.

What are your three “go to ingredients” that are always on hand in your kitchen?

Lemons, good extra virgin olive oil, and garlic.

What's your earliest food memory?

Spending a childhood Saturday afternoon in my grandparents kitchen while they made preparations for Sunday lunch.  Nana grinding spices, rolling little balls of lamb, while Grandad grated fresh coconut, for Kofta Curry;  Nana rolling balls of dough for parantha;  and Grandad rolling balls of "cottage cheese", deep frying them and bathing them in rose water, making galub jamun.

Why do you like to cook – what about it makes you head back into the kitchen again and again?

The opportunity to cook for others is an opportunity to show them how much I care for them - it is an expression of love.  Time in the kitchen is always a time of real peacefulness for me - a kind of meditation in a way, and a time in which I feel connected with my "food memories" and the cooks who came before me.

So, now we get to the hard part, and I guess this is why I've been avoiding this for so long.  I am supposed to pass this on to several other bloggers.  My difficulty with that is that I am reluctant to bestow an obligation on anyone who doesn't want to play along, and secondly there are so many of you out there that I love I just can't whittle my list down to a dozen or so "worthy recipients".  So I've decided on another way of playing it forward.  I frequently cook dishes that I come across on your blogs, and when I do I try to make a point of stopping by and leaving a comment on your post letting you know that I made it.  But it occurs to me that it would be even better to let my readers know that I made it, and make a regular feature of the things I make from your blogs - a real Forward Friday, if you like.

So kicking that off this week I want to tell you about this Lentil & Potato Curry ...

This is actually a Mark Bittman recipe from How to Cook Everything, but I first came across it over at girlichef, a blog that never fails to inspire me.  Heather has a way with words that literally pulls you into the kitchen alongside her, and takes photos that would pretty much make a bowl of dirt look appealing.  So the moment I saw this Lentils and Potatoes with Curry I knew I wanted to make it.  Heather did not let me down - the dish did not disappoint, and it has become a regular favourite in my kitchen.  Thanks so much for the inspiration Heather.

Lastly, thank you to all of you who take the time to read my blog, to leave your thoughtful comments and offer your encouragement and support - it means more to me than I could ever say.

I'm also submitting this post to the Hearth and Soul blog hop, a place where you'll find lots of wonderful people who are passionate about great food and cooking from the heart - do go and have a look at what they're all cooking this week.