English pea
August 3, 2011
English pea
August 2, 2011
No wonder it’s been bananas out my window all afternoon.
Penthouse Potluck – An Afternoon Foodstravaganza with South Florida Foodies
This past Saturday, my DH (Daring Husband) and I had the chance to meet up with a group of fellow foodies (South Florida Foodies @SFLFoodies) for an afternoon of fabulous food, drinks and mingling in one of Midtown 4’s beautiful penthouses.
The view from the penthouse was stunning, and graciously provided by our host Jason (whose company has just launched Digest Miami, a really cool food-related augmented reality iPhone app and soon-to-be one-stop resource for the best Miami’s culinary scene has to offer. Check it out in the App Store). Unfortunately I was on overdrive mode from cooking non-stop since 6 that morning, and didn’t do the view justice.
This is the lone shot I took of the sweeping views from the Bay to Downtown to the west side we were treated to.
Check out many more shots of the view, as well as the attendants and their dishes, in this video complied by Maude Eaton, South Florida Foodie curator, Foodie Diva and coordinator extraordinaire.
The potluck theme was “avant garde”, and boy did some people hit the creative mother load. Most notably in my mind (after having two days to think) were Gretchen & David… who not only made appetizers (pb&j with spicy peanut satay and mango agar jelly and little caprese tomato bites with balsamic pearls), a main (mashed potato sushi bites with little crabs and steak strips) and dessert (a coffee agar jelly coconut concoction), but two drinks (a light pear candied kumquat cocktail and really good bubble tea) as well. I also heard a rumor about spam and a bloody mary… A creativity knockout.
And I can’t forget Gail’s bacon-wrapped Peeps. Quite the interesting combo–If I ever run into a surplus of Peeps anywhere, this is how I will dispatch of them 🙂
Everything I tasted was fabulous, though I must admit to being completely stuffed after the appetizers! So much so I didn’t get the chance to taste about half of the mains and hardly any desserts. I can say that what I did have was very, very good. Pork belly nachos with some sort of fabulous bourbon chaser?! Yes, please! Scandinavian beef spread? Oh yeah!
The DH and I loved attending and getting to meet so many passionate people. Thank you to all who liked my dish–I absolutely adore cooking for people, especially new people, and the support was very appreciated. I freaked out over this dish for over a week, hoping it would work, and hoping it would fit the ‘avant garde’ bill, and I’m glad to say it was a success! Hopefully we will have another potluck soon–I have a bunch of things kicking around in my head I’d love to try out for a crowd 🙂
Below is a quick pictorial of the dishes we saw (and tasted) at the potluck. A more in-depth piece on my dish, Ramen with Kickass Broth and “Scallop” Mousseline is coming soon.
Previous South Florida Foodies event at Sustain
August 1, 2011
Dalek-reminiscent lighting at Publix.
July 31, 2011
My DH making things go bang. Turns out I do have hand-eye coordination after all!
July 30, 2011
Had a wonderful afternoon at the South Florida Foodies potluck event in Midtown. Met a lot of passionate & talented fellow food lovers and got the chance to try out a new recipe–ramen in Momofuku broth from Lucky Peach Vol. 1 with scallop and crab mousseline “scallops”. More to come on the potluck later (including a pictorial). Just had to snap a pic of this newfangled propaganda poster for my POTD. 🙂
Almond Milk & Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Oreos
Or, Ice Cream Take Two
This was our second batch of ice cream made with the Kitchenaid mixer ice cream maker attachment, and like the first attempt, it wasn’t half bad. Where the first attempt was eggy and a little on the brittle side, this version had zero eggs and a a nice creamy mouth feel. It was too sweet by far, but the texture was pretty decent. Not quite like Ben & Jerry’s and I’m not 100% sold on the cornstarch slurry, but not bad.
Almond Milk & Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Oreos
This recipe is based on Dana Treat’s Cherry Crisp Ice Cream, which was in turn adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home
2 c. almond milk
1 1/4 c. heavy cream
1.5 oz. cream cheese, softened (we used reduced fat Neufchâtel)
1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. corn starch
1/8 tsp. fine sea salt
a slack 2/3 c. white table sugar
2 Tbsp. agave nectar
2 caps vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. crushed Oreos (we used reduced fat)
Place the bowl of your Kitchenaid mixer ice cream maker in the freezer 24 hours prior to your desired ice cream having.
Make the component parts:
Cornstarch slurry: mix 2 tsp. almond milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to form a smooth slurry.
Cream cheese: mix cream cheese and salt together in a medium bowl until smooth and well combined.
Cookies: crush Oreos. Resist the temptation to visit the bowl of cookie bits between steps.
Chilling Station: place a large bowl in the sink, fill with ice and water.
Make the ice cream base:
In a medium pot over medium-high heat, combine remaining almond milk, cream, sugar, agave nectar and vanilla. Bring up to a boil and keep it there for 4 minutes. Watch your pot like a hawk, or it is going to boil over. If your pot continues to boil over like mine tried to, pull it halfway off the heat if you can, and if not, knock the heat back a little until the boil is less enthusiastic.
Remove from the heat and whisk in your slurry.
Return to the heat and cook, stirring, about 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Remove from the heat for good this time.
Slowly pour the milk mixture into the cream cheese mixture, whisking until smooth. Pour into a 1 gallon freezer bag and submerge as best you can in the freezing water. Let stand until cold, about 30 minutes.
Ice cream it:
Assemble your frozen ice cream maker attachment right before the 30 minutes is up. You want this sucker to still be near-freezing when you add the ice cream base.
Carefully pour your ice cream base into the frozen ice cream maker bowl and let spin on mix until thick and creamy, about 25 minutes. Add the cookies and let go another 5 minutes.
Spoon out into your container of choice and freeze until your desired serving consistency is reached; for us this was about an hour.
Serve & enjoy. Makes about 5 moderate servings.
July 29, 2011
Mousseline… mousselining.
July 28, 2011
Peas!
July 27, 2012
New workout outfit. My six year old self is going *Squee!* and dancing around in happiness about the matching purple headband.
Gastography 