Chai Ice Cream

Heh. I wanted to combine Chai and Ice in the title, but who on earth could pronounce Chaiice. You'd kill me, right?

So anyway, my buddies over at 37 Cooks have a challenge going with the folks at Leafcutter Designs who make the Recipe Dice, Chai Dice and Cocktail Dice. I said, sure, I'll play, but I don't need the dice, since I already have them.

I decided to roll some chai, and then I drank some chai and then I thought that iced chai might be nice and then the next thing you know the ice cream machine was churning.

It happens like that sometimes.

The really cool thing about the Chai Dice is that I don't have to think about what flavors to use (although you do need to decide how much, and you also need to think about what else you might add, besides what's on the dice).

The not-so-cool thing was that I rolled star anise, which happens to live at the very back left corner of my spice cabinet. I know exactly where it is, but it's a bit of a pain to get to. On the other hand, I like the flavor.

I guess digging for awkward anise was balanced by the fact that I had some dried lemongrass from Litehouse that I hadn't tried yet, so this was a good occasion to do so.

The chai dice told me to use milk and sugar ... but I fudged just a little by using a can of sweetened condensed milk. Close enough, I think.

Chai Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 star anise
2 green cardamom pods
2 teaspoons dried lemongrass
2 black tea teabags* (I used a decaf breakfast tea, but use what you like best)
5 allspice berries
5 black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Combine the cream, sweetened condensed milk, star anise, cardamom pods, lemongrass, tea bags (tear off the little paper tag - you don't want bits of that in your ice cream. Ick.), allspice berries, peppercorns, and salt in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer.

Let it simmer gently for just a minute or so. Give it a little stir to make sure all the spices aren't just lazily floating on top.

Turn the heat off, add the vanilla, and transfer all of it to a storage container. Let it come to room temperature (or close enough), then refrigerate until fully chilled.

Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove all the spices and tea and whatnot, and discard the spices and tea and whatnot.

Churn the cream mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instruction. Transfer to a storage container and freeze until firm.

*You don't actually need tea BAGS. If you buy loose tea, use that as-is. No need to put in in a tea strainer or other device - it will get strained out along with all of the other spices.

I received the Chai Dice from Leafcutter Designs for my use on the blog at no cost to me. Quite some time ago. Any perceived obligation to write about them is long gone. Now I'm just having fun.

Ch-ch-ch- Chai!

A while back, I received sets of cocktail, chai, and recipe dice from a company called Leafcutter Designs. The general idea is that you roll the dice and create a cocktail, chai, or recipe based on what you roll. It's a great way of brainstorming.

And it's a lot of fun, too. And tasty.

I'll admit that I don't follow the dice every single time - I mean, no one's looking, so if I roll an ingredient I don't have, I don't use it. Or I might tip one over now and then to get an ingredient I like better.

And pretty soon I'm going to cross out "arugula" on the recipe dice and maybe change it to endive or radicchio.

This time, I decided to roll the chai dice. I was in the mood for chai and didn't want to look up a recipe. I figured that the dice would lead me to some good flavors.

The funny part was when I rolled the dice and saw that I rolled black tea, I had no idea if I had any plain black tea.

I have a LOT of different teas, but most are mixed flavors, many are herbal, and some are green. I dug through my box 'o tea and through the random packets, and I found one black tea teabag. Just one.

But it was enough to make a single glass of chai and that was all I wanted.

The thing about the dice is that while you roll ingredients, you don't roll amounts, so two people could roll exactly the same thing and end up with completely different things.

Even with chai, where there are some pretty specific flavors that are expected, there can be a lot of variations. For example, I used a dried ginger product instead of fresh, and I used vanilla extract instead of a vanilla bean. And I used a whole cinnamon stick, but I could have opted for ground.

The "milk" die says milk on all sides, but I could have made my chai with almond milk or soy milk or any other milk. And I made a hot chai. I could have made a cold drink with chai flavors, too.

I liked this version. I might make it again. Or, you know, just roll the dice and see what happens the next time.

Chai

1 cup milk
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 green cardamom pods
1/8 teaspoon dry ginger bits
5 coriander seeds
1 cinnamon stick

Put all of the ingredients except the cinnamon stick in a small saucepan and heat gently.

You could also heat the milk in the microwave in the mug you're going to use, but keep in mind that it tends to foam up, and you risk having it foam and spill out of the mug if you don't watch it carefully.

Let the spices steep in the milk for a minute or two. Go ahead and taste it and see if it's strong enough. If not, let it steep longer. If you steep so long that the drink cools off too much, just re-warm it.

Hey, we're having fun here. There's no wrong way to do this.

Put the cinnamon stick in the mug you'll use. If you want a stronger cinnamon flavor, you could also let it steep with the rest of the spices. Your drink, your choice. I liked the idea of using it as a stir stick, so that's what I did.

Strain the milk into the mug. Serve.

Note: I got the dice at no cost to me from Leafcutter Designs for the purpose of a review. I already wrote about them here, but. I continue to use them because they're fun. You'll probably see them used here again.

Homemade Chip Dip Mix

I've been on a bit of a chip-dip binge lately. I've tried pretty much every brand of onion soup mix and dip mix that's out there.

Some of them were good, some were nostalgic. And unfortunately, some tasted way too raw-oniony for me. But buying little packets of soup mix to make chip dip seemed silly, considering I wasn't making soup, and I had a whole cabinet full of spices that I could use.

The idea was in the back of my head when I saw a recipe for onion soup mix on a blog called Save with Pennies. I was about to try that recipe to make chip dip when I thought, gee, lets skip the soup and go straight to the dip.

So I went into the kitchen, opened the world of spices, and started mixing. After several tasty tries - none of them were bad, really - I came up with something I liked.

This is a LOT of spices, but when they're mixed together and added to a creamy base, you don't really pick out the individual flavors of every single spice. It's just a very tasty dip.

Chip Dip Mix

1 tablespoon dried red and green bell peppers
1 tablespoon dried shallots
1 tablespoon dried romano cheese powder
2 tablespoons dried chives
2 teaspoons dried dill
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried horseradish powder
3 tablespoons dried toasted onion flakes

Combine all the ingredients in a spice grinder (I use a small coffee grinder) and blend for a few seconds. Add the toasted onion  and pulse a few times. I liked this best when there were small bits of onion rather than having it all powdered - but you can do what you like.

You could also simply mix the spices, but the shallots, onions, red & green bell peppers, and chives are all fairly large and you'd end up with a chunky dip, and that's not what I wanted.

If you don't have a spice grinder, you could go old-school and use a mortar and pestle to crush the spices, or you could try using a blender or food processor. I can't guarantee how well those methods would work since I haven't tried them - but from previous experience, the food processor doesn't seem to work as well with really small quantities.

To make the dip:

Add 1 tablespoon of dip mix to 1 cup of sour cream, yogurt, or a mix of sour cream and yogurt. Mix well.

While I love Greek yogurt, I think a little sour cream is needed for dip. A 50/50 mix of sour cream and yogurt is my preference, but when I'm short on sour cream and I have a lot of yogurt, a mix of 1/4 sour cream and 3/4 yogurt is pretty darned good.

But of course you can make it with all yogurt to cut the calories.

It's best if you make this an hour or so in advance and refrigerate it until you need it, so the dried herbs and spices have time to hydrate.

Sources:
For spices you can't find at the grocery store, check out Penzeys and Savory Spice Shop - that's where I got mine, but there are also other sources, I'm sure.

The Perfect Chai

Like Indian food? Want to make it at home?

The Cafe Spice Cookbook touts 84 "quick and easy Indian recipes for everyday meals," and the chef who wrote the book says that ingredients are readily available. That's good news, because I've grumbled that some Indian cookbooks require ingredients that have to be purchased in specialty stores.

Indian recipes typically use a lot of spices, but they're all common enough. The problem I had with other Indian cookbooks was that some of them required specific spice mixes like garam masala or chaat masala. This book does, too, but it also gives recipes to make those mixes yourself.

If you're near an Indian market or you have the mix in your pantry, you can use that - if you can't buy the mix, you can make your own from spices that are easy to find. A simple thing like that makes this book a lot easier to cook from. A lot.

The book also has a recipe for Ginger-Garlic paste, which is another item that is common in Indian cooking and sold at Indian grocers - but again, if you don't live near an Indian grocer, you can make your own.

The very first recipe that caught my eye was the Chicken Tikka Masala, and the second was the Tandoori Spiced Roasted Chicken. Another recipe I have bookmarked is a veggie sloppy joe - I don't think I'll serve it as a sandwich as suggested, but it sounds like it would be a really good vegetable stew.

But I decided to start with something simple, before I launched into one of the more complicated recipes.

Chai seemed about as simple as it could get, and I like chai. When I went digging through my stash of tea, I realized I didn't have any plain black tea. I did have a ginger-peach black tea, so I figured I'd give that a try, since the chai used ginger.

The chai was good, but the peach flavor in the tea I had was a little too strong in the finished drink. It would have been a lot better if I had used a plain black tea - I suggest that if you make this, you use the right tea

The Perfect Chai
Adapted from The Cafe Spice Cookbook by Hari Nayak

2 cups water
1/4 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 1-inch piece fresh peeled ginger, lightly crushed
6 green cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons loose black tea, or 1 teabag black tea (like English breakfast tea)
Sugar, for serving

Put the water, fennel seeds, ginger, and cardamom pods in a saucepan and bring to a boil on high heat.

Lower the heat to medium and boil for another minute.

Add the milk, let it return to a boil, then take it off the heat and add the black tea. Cover the pot and let the tea steep for 3 minutes.

Pour the mixture through a strainer into 2 teacups. Add sugar, as desired.

I received this book from the publisher at no cost to me.

Leftover Makeover: Jamaican Jerk Pork Stew

As a blogger, when a company named Buncha Jerks sends you an email, your ears perk up. No matter what the product is, the name lends itself to a whole buncha jokes when it comes to writing a post. And then the package arrives.

Buncha Jerks!
I mean, seriously... there must be a buncha them there. And then ...

They sent me their Jerk Seasoning Sampler, the hot version. They have three different jerk seasonings, Jamaican, Mexican, and Indian, in mild, medium, and hot versions.

Weird, right? When you think jerk, right after you think about that guy who stole your parking space, you probably think about Jamaican food. Not Mexican or Indian.

Since Jamaican jerk is traditional, I dove into that first, using the seasoning to reinvent a pork roast. I love making roasts, but since there are only two of us, a roast can last a little too long. So I'm always thinking ahead. Sandwiches? Tacos?

In this case, I decided to make a pork stew. Like this:

Jamaican Jerk Flavored Pork Stew

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, cut in medium dice
1 small zucchini, cut in medium dice
Left over pork roast (about 1/2 of a 4-pound roast), cut in bite-size cubes
1/2 teaspoon Bunch Jerks Jamaican Jerk seasoning
1 bottle beer (I used Corona)

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan or in a slow cooker that has a sear/bottom heat setting. I use a Ninja.

Add the onions and zucchini and cook, stirring as needed, until the onions soften a bit. Add the pork roast cubes, seasoning, and beer.

Cook on low until the vegetables are cooked through.

Taste for seasoning and add salt, if desired, or more Buncha Jerks seasoning.

I served these with cubed potatoes, but it would also be great over rice.

And now for a second opinion...

I had a few thinner slices of the pork that weren't suitable for the stew, so I cut them into thin strips and cooked them with a pinch of the Buncha Jerks Mexican seasoning.

I wasn't trying to create a recipe, I just wanted to try the seasoning. And the pork was perfect for tacos, so that's what I made.

The flavor was interesting. It wasn't completely Mexican, like an adobo or a taco seasoning or a salsa or a mole. It had definite Mexican flavors, but also hints of Jerk flavoring. It was really interesting. And tasty.

And just like the hot Jamaica Jerk Spice, it was pretty hot.

One great thing about these spices is that since the flavors are so strong, you really don't need a lot. And I don't just mean the heat - the spices are very flavorful.

Since I wrote this, I tried the Indian Jerk Spice on a pork tenderloin, and I really liked it. So that's three winners out of the three.

Have you tried these? Do you think you'd like them? What would you use them on.

Having fun with sous vide: Rib Roast

A little while back, I got an immersion circulator from Anova Culinary to test. I'd been itching to try one since the first home units came out, but the last thing I have room for in my kitchen is a big tank of water. The Anova immersion circulator doesn't include any sort of cooking vessel. Instead, it's the heater, pump, and controls in one fat cylinder.

The nice thing is that it doesn't take as much space to store. The nicer thing is that you can affix it to different pots. Sure, there's a size range. But I've used it with two different stock pots, and it's great with both.

I've been muddling around with it since I got it, and I'll admit that I haven't a clue what I'm doing. But I'm having fun and learning from mistakes. My fault, not the device's fault.

After cooking pork and chicken, I decided to move on to beef. I picked up a couple bone-in ribeyes, then noticed that the rib roasts were on sale. Like, half the price per pound of the steaks.

Okay, then, roast it is.

When I got home, I poked around online a bit, and found quite a few people who thought that using sous vide to cook a roast was a bad idea. I found just a few who liked it. Many of them cooked their beef roasts at about 145 degrees, which seemed odd to me. I wanted a roast that was medium rare, at most. Not medium.

So, I threw caution to the wind and went my own way.

I seasoned the roast with Healthy Solutions Bold Beef Rub. I just got samples of that, and figured it was a good opportunity to try it. Then I bagged the roast, and sealed it, and bagged and sealed again. I had run out of FoodSaver bags and bought a cheaper brand, and I didn't completely trust the bags, so I figured two bags was a good precaution.

Turns out, I didn't need to worry about the bags. But anyway ...

I set the temperature to 130 degrees and let the roast cook for seven hours. Yup, seven.

When that was done, I put it in the fridge - I was cooking it for the next day. So, I let it chill.

The next day, I took the roast of out the fridge about an hour before cooking.

This is the roast, sliced the next day, cold.

I cranked the oven to 450 degrees, took the roast out of its bag, got rid of the liquid, and put it on a foil-lined baking sheet.

I rubbed the top with a little more of the spice mix, then tossed it in the overn and let it cook for 30 minutes. I took it out of the oven, covered it with foil, and let it rest for 30 minutes before I sliced it.

It was about as perfect as it could be, and unbelievably tender. This was a basic supermarket on-sale rib roast, not a super-fancy prime cut of beef. They're never tough, but this was meltingly tender. I was totally shocked, and I'm definitely doing this again.

Because of the sous vide cooking, the meat was the same doneness all the way through. The short high-heat cooking browned the outside edge and warmed the meat, but it didn't affect that all-the-way-through doneness at all.

Want a slice?

And, I have to say I liked the flavor that the beef rub gave it. It wasn't overpowering, but it definitely added flavor.

I'm thinking the leftovers will make great beef sandwiches, either hot or cold. And the ribs will no doubt end up being lunch for me very soon.

Definitely a win all the way around.

To go with the beef, I cooked some potato chunks in the Phillips Air Fryer that I wrote about here. (See, I do use these things after I review them.) I drizzled the potatoes with olive oil and sprinkled them with another spice mix from Healthy Solutions. This time I used the Herb Crusted Tilapia mix. I know it sounds weird to use a fish-centric seasoning for potatoes, but the first three ingredients were onion, garlic, and parsley, so I knew it would work with my potatoes.

And I was right. The mix is relatively mild - which is what you'd want with delicate fish - and it was perfect for the potatoes. They tasted like potatoes with flavor rather than potatoes obliterated by spices. I think this would work well with pretty much any vegetables, as well as with fish.

I'll me sharing more sous vide experiments as I come up with things that work. I want to try some vegetables, and then maybe some shortribs - I hear those are great. Have you tried sous vide? Is there something you;'d like to see me try?

Disclaimer: I received the immersion circulator and the spices as samples from their respective manufacturers.

If your knife block and spice rack had a baby ...

... with a touch of mad scientist thrown in, you'd have the Spiceologist Block.

My friend Heather from Farmgirl Gourmet partnered with Savorx, a spice shop in her area, to create the Spiceologist Block, and now they're looking for funding on Kickstarter to pay for tooling and the first production run.

Most of my spices live in a kitchen cabinet, which is where they belong. But the Spiceologist block would be awesome for the spices that I use every darned day. And it looks cool. All retro-sciencey. I think it would be just plain FUN to pour my spices out of test tubes. I mean, really, I sort of cook like a mad scientist, so why not look like one, too?

Or wouldn't this be absolutely adorable for cake decorating supplies? Colored sugars, sprinkles, those little colored dots, edible glitter - can't you imagine that?

Or maybe for an array of salts and sugars for your bar. Or all of your favorite spices for popcorn. Or an array of chile powders, ranging from sweet paprika to ghost peppers. Or ... or ... whatever you can think of.

There's a starter block with 22 spices (or 22 empty holes or 22 empty tubes) and then you can add on with a second block that holds an additional 22 spices. I tell ya what. I've got NO space on my counter, but I want this thing just because it looks so awesome. And fun. And quirky.

But it's not for sale yet. First, it has to be funded. Then, it has to be manufactured. The estimated date you'd get your Spiceologist Block (if you fund the Kickstarter at that level) is November, 2013. Just in time for Christmas for you, or for a gift.

And if my friend Heather says that the spices from Savorx are good, then I believe her. I've already browsed the shop and there are some really interesting items I haven't seen elsewhere. And heavens knows I've got a ridiculous number of spices already. So if you can't fund at a level to get a Spiceologist Block, then maybe you need some spices.

Go, take a look. See what you think. See if it's worth funding. See if you've got $5 in your pocket to get an eBook, or a little more for some spices, or a little more to get a Spiceologist Block for yourself for Christmas. Won't it be a great conversation piece?

But don't do it for me. Do it for yourself. Because you want one of these, don't you? And do it for Heather. She's a great gal, and I'd love to see her vision become a reality. Check it out!

This is not a sponsored post.

Mighty Feiny Chicken Wings

A while back, I "met" a guy named Adam Feinberg on Facebook, and he kept posting about his "mighty fein rubs." Fortunately, he was talking about spice rubs. Because otherwise his posts would have made no sense at all. And then I found out that his spice rubs were a local product.

Yep, he's from Colorado. Denver, actually. So, not a neighbor, but close enough. Recently, he sent me a lovely collection of rubs. And they fit nicely in the Ball dry herb jars I reviewed a while back.

Well, they fit after I used a little bit. And that's kind of the point, right? To use them.

First, I tried rubs on two steaks - the Citrus BBQ and the Original BBQ.

Then I made a batch of chicken wings on the grill.

We like wings, and they're a great thing to have on hand in the freezer for a simple meal. And leftovers are great cold, so I tend to make bigger batches.

Another nice thing about wings is that they can be cooked directly from the freezer. Since a rub wouldn't stick to frozen wings, I threw them on the grill, then when they warmed up enough, I sprinkled the rub on. When I flipped them over, I sprinkled rub on the second side.

I tried two different rubs on the wings - the Original BBQ and the Everything.

As I continued cooking and flipping the wings, I sprinkled on more of the rub to get a nice coating.

The wings were cooked through right about the same time the skin had a nice color.

And that was that.

Dinner.

But how about the rubs?

I used to be a snob about using spice mixes and blends, but I have to say that it's great to have spice mixes on hand that I can just grab and go. The Feiny's spices are all either no-salt or lightly salted, which is great - you can add enough flavor before you add too much salt.

And ... they're not just rubs. I used the veggie rub in a vegetable soup I made. And I'm sure I'll find more uses for all of the others. The Original BBQ might be my favorite. I'm planning on using that on some ribs I'll be making a little later in the week.

When I get around to making some more creative recipes with the rubs, I'm sure I'll be posting them. Meanwhile, I'm having fun just trying them out.