Bourbon Ice Cream

I have been searching lately for some interesting recipes for ice cream to hone my skills and technique at the ice cream machine. I have found some interesting ones and one of those has Bourbon in it. I like the flavor of Bourbon in cooking and sipping so I thought this one might be interesting. It was. Here's the deal:
2 Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
2 Cups Half & Half
1/2 Cup Nonfat dry milk powder
6 large Egg Yolks
1/2 cup Sugar
1/4 Cup (packed) Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
5 Tablespoons Bourbon
1 Tablespoon Pure Vanilla Extract
Bring the first 3 ingredients to a simmer in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the milk powder dissolves completely. Remove from heat.
Combine egg yolks, sugar, brown sugar and kosher salt in a large bowl; whisk until thick and blended. Gradually whisk in the hot cream mixture into the egg mixture. Return mixture to to the same saucepan and stir over medium-low heat until custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (175 to 178 degrees), about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the Bourbon and Vanilla. Refrigerate the custard uncovered until cold, stirring occasionally, about 3 hours. Process in an ice cream maker and transfer to containers and freeze for at least 2 hours.
Serve however you like!
I have heard that the longer you chill the custard before processing, the smoother the ice cream and this has proven true. This stuff is amazingly smooth. I hope you will try it and others I pass along here.
Tim

Deviled eggs

I had a craving today for deviled eggs so I dropped six eggs in cold water and brought them to a boil and then turned off the heat and let them sit, covered, for 15 minutes and then into an ice bath for about 5 minutes and then peeled them and cut them lengthwise and removed the yolks to a small bowl and set them in the refrigerator for a few minutes and then mixed the yolks with about 3Tablespoons of real mayonnaise, 1/2 teaspoon of granulated white onion, 1/2 teaspoon Fox Point Seasoning(Penzey's.com) and about 2 Tablespoons of Smoked Whitefish, chopped finely. I mixed the ingredients with a fork and then divided it between the 12 1/2-egg whites and then sprinkled them with Smoked Spanish Paprika.
This was absolutely amazing! I am like a kid in a candy store when it comes to deviled eggs! The smoked fish came from the Northern Waters Smokehaus and the rest I had on-hand.
These deviled eggs and a good beer is about as good as food can get.
Good Stinking Eating, my friend!
Tim

New Ice Cream maker

My lovely wife brought me a new toy the other day in the form of a Cuisinart ICE-30BC ice cream maker. We have been talking about this for quite a while and I now have a little time on my hands so we decided to purchase one. I have been wanting to experiment with some unusual flavors of ice cream, like Dark Chocolate with Cayenne, maybe a Bacon version, Salted Caramel, things like that.
My first batch went in tonight and it was fairly innocuous but still interesting; I made a traditional Vanilla but added some Buttered and Salted Pistachios to the mix. I love that sweet-salt combination and I happened to have Pistachios on hand so I added 1 1/2 cups of chopped Pistachios to 2 Tablespoons of melted unsalted butter and 1/2 teaspoon of Kosher Salt.
The remainder of the recipe is pretty simple, including some cream, whole milk, sugar and Vanilla. That went into the machine and about 25 minutes in I added the Pistachios for the last 5 minutes. The machine produces a fairly soft ice cream so I saved a little to taste (quite nice, by the way) and put the remainder in containers in the freezer to harden up for tomorrow.
I was really pleased with the results in terms of taste; nice and creamy, and I am looking forward to seeing how well it freezes up and what that texture ends up like.
I look forward to reporting on the final results and how Teresa likes it as well!
Tim

Off the roof

I must apologize for not posting anything here for some time now. I have not been cooking much. A couple of weeks ago I was working on my roof and was getting down from it. I stepped on the ladder and as I put my full weight on it the ladder flipped sideways and I was headed for the ground from seven feet in the air. It is amazing how much thinking one can do at lightning speed while on the way to the ground! I could see I was going to land face-first so I decided to try to flip on my back. I made it part way around and landed on my left side. It knocked the wind out of me and I quickly realized I was home alone and this could be very bad. I got up on my knees and finally got my breath back and then stood up slowly. My word, did that hurt!
I was still breathing and I didn't have any obvious leaks or serious cuts but it did feel like I might have broken something. I managed to sort of pack up the job site and put my tools back in the truck because I figured I was going to have to get to the hospital somehow. I locked the house door and sat on a lawn chair for a minute to take stock of what I needed to do. My wife Teresa is an RN and was working so after I had crawled up into the truck and started down the road for the half-hour drive to the hospital, I called her and told her I was on my way there.
She met me at the emergency room and we soon found out that I had broken four ribs(#6,7,8,9) and had a grade2 laceration of my spleen.
To make a long story short, I spent the next five days in the hospital and am back home now trying to heal up. It will take a while and I will post as often as I can.
Thanks for your patience,
Tim

Sclavi's Restaurant

Teresa and I met my boss Marshall and his wife Mary at a relatively new restaurant in Superior, Wisconsin called Sclavi's. It has an Italian theme and is in the old Palace Bar location next to what used to be the old Palace Theatre which has now been torn down. the atmosphere is very nice and has a beautiful old tin ceiling painted in dark brown with sandblasted brick walls, very high ceilings and a minimalist feel about it. It is a fairly small space so the minimalist look suits it well, I think. the remaining walls are done in a light oak flat paneled look that is very elegant and the tables are set with nice white table cloths and very comfortable booths set similarly. the food was very good. We had an appetizer of Bruschetta and some good house wine. I ordered the Veal Marsala and Teresa had the Chicken Marsala and both were very nice. The sauce was excellent and the accompanying bread was a nice, crusty Italian loaf with a good chewy exterior and soft interior that I think is just perfect in a bread. The Bruschetta was excellent, with the same bread sliced thinly and toasted with a layer of mozzarella, olive oil, Pesto and chunks of tomato, onion, garlic, salt and pepper; really good stuff! I would definitely recommend this as good eats. The prices were very fair and a good value for the meal.
Good eating!
Tim

Slider experiment

Tonight I am getting ready for our dinner group's August event which is "burger night" and I am working on some sliders toward that end. I downloaded some recipes for various versions of sliders and burgers and they all looked very interesting but I thought I would do a little experimenting of my own.
I took a pound of 85/15 ground beef and cut it into 8 sections , 1/4 pound each and made them into patties about 2 1/2" in diameter and about 3/4" thick. Next, I rubbed them with a mixture of Spanish smoked Paprika ( available at Penzey's Spices www.Penzey's.com), Instant Espresso Powder, Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. I heated the gas grill to high and cooked them about 3 minutes per side until just cooked through. To finish them I made a mixture of Shredded Mozzarella, Shredded Parmesan and Gorgonzola crumbles and topped each slider with about a Tablespoon of the mixture, then closed the grill cover to allow the cheese to melt nicely.
Next, I grilled the buns after spraying them with olive oil cooking spray and served them with a dollop of mayonnaise and a spoonful of my Smoked Tomato, Pepper and Onion Ragu.
Frankly, these were amazing! I ate three of them! The smoked Paprika and coffee flavors blended very nicely and the Smoked Ragu really made them "pop". I am definitely going to use this recipe at our Burger Night this month. On to the next experiment with sliders!

Pressure Cooker experiments

I am at the time of this writing having some fun with a vintage pressure cooker that my friend Jim Dreier found for me at a rummage sale. He and his wife Cindy are the consummate "rummage salers". They make it a part of their weekend event schedule and if I am looking for something I ask Jim if he could find it for me and he usually does. He found me a KitchenAid stand mixer and this pressure cooker. He's amazing. We have been friends since my 5th grade year in school and we hunt deer together and hang out at his grandparents' homestead in Toimi, MN, a place I call "Paradise in the North Woods". I digress. The cooker he found me was a Mirro-Matic Pressure Cooker and it is quite large. I tested it for pressure at 5 lbs, 10 lbs, and 15 lbs and it functioned perfectly. He paid $2.00 for it and it is excellent!
My first recipe is an adaptation of an Emeril LaGasse recipe for white beans; a Mexican quick meal consisting of Chorizo, white beans, Ancho chilies, Lime juice, Tequila, salt and pepper. I substituted Hot Italian Sausage and made it into meatballs about 1 1/2" in diameter. I had the rest of the ingredients and started at 10lbs for 45 minutes and then tested for doneness and taste. It was good but the beans were a little too hard so I put re-set the cooker at 15 lbs and cooked for another 15 minutes and that was the right amount of time.
The meatballs are very tender and the beans are just nicely cooked. Very tasty as well, I might add. I think this is going to be a fun way to cook. I am going to order a cookbook from my cookbook club featuring pressure cooker recipes and start to experiment. I will report my findings along the way and give you the recipes to try as well.
Cooking under pressure,
Tim