Chiles Rellenos, Round 2

So I bought some regular old sweet peppers; one yellow, one red, and one orange. Carlos says that is what they use in Guatemala. I have some of the filling left over, so I will leave that for another day. But today is more for the peppers and the whole process. I just took the peppers out from under the broiler, they have nice charred parts here and there but are not burned. Carlos said I do not need to peel them. Thank goodness! That part sucked and eventually led to the demise of 2 of my poblanos from my first attempt at this. It made the peppers to flimsy and delicate for my gorilla hands. So I will let the peppers cool and then cut a small slit in the side of them and scrape the seeds out. At which time I will fill them and proceed to fry them. Carlos and I did not even discuss the tomato sauce I had made. More on that tonight too I guess. Adieu til later. Oops wrong language. Adios!

Catalinas Coconut Custard

I am testing a coconut custard recipe for Catalina for her to enter in a Food Network Magazine contest. Its a family recipe that has been passed down for generations. So needless to say there is no written recipe. Its all been passed down verbally. So I am trying to make it and write the recipe to go with it for all others to recreate. She has told me how to do it 3 times now. The first time was when I was at her house. The second time was Wednesday and the third time was today. When she told me the recipe on Wednesday I was expecting to make it Thursday. But I ran out of time.....So I got around to it today. I was looking at the notes she gave me...basically the ingredients and could not remember clearly the process. So I had to cal her and get refreshed on how it is made. So I have made it (still not sure if I did it the way I was told). It is now cooling on the counter before it can go in the fridge to cool completely. I can't wait to try it later and call her to tell her how it went. Now to write everything down I did!!!! I will let you know how it comes out!

Blueberry Ice Cream update

It is not quite blueberry enough. Next time I will try adding a 1/2 cup of blueberry puree. PLUS...lesson learned.....adding frozen fruit to ice cream that is in the ice cream maker almost immediately seizes it up!!!!! Next time have them at least partially thawed. Gotta go chisel the ice cream out of the ice cream maker!

Blueberry Ice Cream

Today I am attempting to make ice cream for the third time! Today I am making sugar free blueberry ice cream. The "custard" is now in the fridge chilling. I did use heavy cream and whole milk.....but used splenda to sweeten it. So far so good! To get that bright, delicious blueberry flavor, I took some of my fresh blueberries from last summer that I froze and thawed out about 1/3 of cup of them. I then placed them in the mini food processor with a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and pureed them. Once the "custard" was cooked and thrown in another bowl in an ice bath, I added the blueberry puree. I stirred it up and then poured the "custard" through a sieve to get out the blueberry bits. What a great purply/blue color the custard is!!!!!! Taste blueberry too! I plan on adding frozen blueberries to the ice cream in the last 5 minutes of churning later this afternoon. I will let you know how it goes!

Cherry Chip Ice Cream part 1

Cherry chip ice cream is a two parter. Today I made the "custard". beat egg yolks and sugar together. Heat milk, cream and sugar. Slowly add milk mixture to the egg mixture while whisking. Return it all back to the pan and cook for about 8 minutes. Meanwhile I had defrosted some frozen cherries, drained them, reserving the liquid. At this point I should add the reserved liquid after the custard comes off the heat. But not thinking I added it while heating the milk mixture for the first time. But to be honest I am not real sure what difference it makes. Once the custard is at the right temperature you place in a bowl that is sitting in an ice bath. While it was cooling I chopped up the cherries in small pieces (see mango ice cream mistakes). Once I did this I realized there was more liquid comeing from the cherries. I placed the cherry pieces in my salad spinner and got the rest of the liquid out. THIS liquid I added to the custard while it was cooling. Once the custard had cooled I covered it and put it in the refrigerator. Tomorrow morning I will get up and finish the ice cream adding the cherry pieces and chocolate chips.

Ice Cream 101

I finally broke down and bought and ice cream maker. Yesterday I made sugar free mango for Carlos. It was okay. Not as creamy as I wanted (probably cuz I used skim milk in stead of whole). Plus I did not make a "custard" first. I did the quick ice cream. This is where you whisk the sugar into your milk, add the cream and vanilla and throw it all in the ice cream maker for 25 minutes or so. I found some frozen mango in the freezer so I threw that in in the last 5 minutes. Although it was good.....I should have pureed up some of the mango to stir in to the ice cream AND I should have cut up the mango chunks smaller. I do not like to chew my ice cream! Plus, as has been stated in other blog posts, I am not a big fan of Splenda (am I allowed to name it in here? Is Splenda going to sue me?) I just do not like that Splenda after taste. This is all trial and error. Next up is cherry chip with real sugar!!!!!

Caprese Panini

This is one of Carlos' FAVORITE dishes and luckily one of the easiest and somewhat healthy! It is especially good in late summer when the garden os overflowing with tomatoes and basil. You can only eat just so many caprese salads and pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil. We have probably had Caprese Panini 3 times in the last 2 weeks. When our schedules are busy and we don't want take-out (which we never do anyways!), I just whip up a caprese panini. There are almost always tomatoes in the bowl on the counter, pesto in the refrigerator (store bought is ok and a great item to have in the fridge, more of that in another posting), ovoline, and whole wheat pane from Trader Joe's. Add some baked potato chips and/or an arugula salad and PRESTO, dinner is ready in minutes! Of course I could not do it without my Pampered Chef grill pan and grill press! You do not need one of those gadgety panini presses! In fact you could make panini with a regularsaute pan and a smaller pan weighted down with a big can of tomatoes! It just needs to be squished! Those fancy grill marks are great, but not necessary! MMMMMMM I just mnade myself crave a caprese panini!