Caramel Snickers inspired Ice Cream

 I created this desert as a treat for a special friend of mine. I knew her favorite treat was snickers and I needed to make her ice cream so I decided to combine the two. Oh... My.... Goodness... there are a couple of components to this dish so this will take a bit of preparation, but it is so amazingly good if I do say so myself, I had to make this post just so I could remember how to replicate this recipe again. 

Not only is this creamy caramel gelato fantastic by itself but I add in smooth chocolate ganache with toffee bits and chunks of snickers bar you have yourself rich and totally indulgent dessert.

Ingredients

2 snickers bars cut into 1cm cubed pieces

1/8 cup toffee bits

Vanilla Ice Cream Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 TBS vanilla essence (or if you have vanilla beans available use 1 whole bean about 6 inches in length)

2 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

Caramel Sauce Ingredients

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup half and half

8 TBS butter

good pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla essence

Chocolate Ganache

1 1/2 cups milk chocolate morsels

Approx 2 cups heavy cream

I use a cuisinart Austomatic Frozen Yoghurt - Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker. It makes 1 1/2 quarts. Be sure to freeze your bowl 24 hours.

Prepare this ice cream the day before you want to eat it.

Begin by making your Caramel Sauce. In a sauce pan combine butter half and half on medium heat. As butter begins to melt add sugar and salt. Keep temperature low enough that it is not boiling yet. Allow sugar to melt completely before turning up temeperature to a medium simmer, simmer for 2 minutes before removing from heat completely. Allow it to cool while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

For the Vanilla ice cream.-

Combing eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl.  Use a hand mixer on medium speed to beat until the mixture is thick, smooth, and pale yellow in  colour, about 4 minutes.

Combine the milk and cream in a medium saucepan. Bring it to a boil and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes (do not boil too much or it will forma skin and become chunky).

Take 1/2 cup of milk mixture and add it to eggs.. this will temper them so you dont have scrambled egg ice cream. Beat together, add another 1/2 cup and beat as well into the eggs.

Slowly pour the eggs into the sauce pan with the milk and cream stirring constantly.. 

Cook stirring constantly, and being vigilant to scrape down the sides and bottom. Continue cooking over medium low heat until it starts to thicken without boiling - coating the back of a spoon.

Add vanilla (if you over cook this you will get custard)

 Add in 3/4 of your caramel sauce and  stir to combine, it should be fluffy and smooth.

remove from heat and allow this  to chill completely before making into your ice cream.

While your cream mixture is chilling MAKE YOUR GANACHE.

Ganache is always more of a feel for me than measurements.. it depends on your chocolate. In a regular cereal bowl pour the chocolate morsels.. allow them to sit evenly across the bottom.

Bring the cream to a boil and pour immediately over the chocolate. ONLY pour enough cream to cover the chocolate. Let it sit for about 30 seconds to melt the chocolate and then with a fork whisk the cream into the chocolate until it is a smooth runny mixture.

Place in the fridge until luke warm - it should be thick but still able to drizzle.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER! you have the components.. now lets DO this thing!

Turn on your ice cream machine to begin rotating. Pour in the caramel icecream mixture to manufacturer recommended level (remember it needs to be chilled not just cooled).

Allow it to mix, just before it is the desired thickness put in the toffee chips.

Let it continue to mix until it is the desired consistancy.

Take your freezer bowl and scoop in 1/3 the ice cream into your serving and setting bowl. sprinkle 1/3 your snickers pieces onto the ice cream and them dollop and drizzle ganache over the top. You want people to get a good blob of ganache. Continue to layer this way with ice cream, snickers and ganache. Lastly top with ice cream and snickers.

Cover with plastic wrap directly onto the ice cream so there is no air in the container or dish. Allow this to set in the fridge at least two hours or over night.

Save remaining caramel sauce in the fridge until you are ready to serve ice cream. Heat and pour on top.

Heaven in a bowl!

Seafood Laksa

This is one of those meals where if you have fresh seafood you should take advantage of it. This Thai meal allows the seafood to have front and center stage.

Allow 200grams of mixed seafood per person (Fresh fresh fresh is all I can say on this) - we used a mixture of mussles, calimari and fish in this paricular batch
Fresh chinese egg noodles or rice noodles if preferred
750 mls coconut milk
750 mls chicken stock
Laksa Paste (allow 1 tbsp per person)
fish sauce to season
1 tsp palm sugar
Laksa leaf (also called Vietnamese mint)
100 gms bean sprouts
crispy shallots
wedges of lime
fresh cilantro leaves
chopped tomatoes

Skim the thick cream off the top of the coconut milk.  Heat the cream in a large saucepan, add laksa paste, allowing one tablespoon per person. 
Fry gently until fragrant, about 5 minutes.  Add remaining coconut milk and chicken stock.  Bring to the boil.

Add palm sugar and fish sauce.  Add seafood, reduce heat and poach gently until cooked. (once it is simmering it is done!)

Blance noodles in boiling water and divide between the serving bowls.
Pour on laksa and garnish with sprouts, shallots, lime wedges, laksa leaf, cilantro and tomatoes. It sounds like alot to garnish but every little ingredients has their part to play in layering flavors and creating this beautiful soup.

Sausages and Lentils

Lentils are one of those ingredients that are hearty like rice or pasta yet extremely good for your body. In these cold winter months I have been trying new satisfying recipes that give me the warm fuzzy feelings without the calorie guilt. In my recent trip to Australia my mum made us this dinner that is extremely simple and wonderfully layered with flavor. Best thing about it is that it only took me 10 minutes to put together, and then it takes care of itself. Thats my kind of meal!

Ingredients

1 Large can of diced tomatoes (doesn't have to be diced can be crushed)

5-7 Sausages. (I love a big good quality aussie snag fresh from the butcher) I used Johnsonville IrishO'Garlic Sausages.

1 White Onion sliced and chopped

4 Garlic cloves

1 cup Lentils

Approx 4 cups beef stock

1/2 cup chopped Italian Parsley stems

1/2 cup chopped cilantro (coriander) stems

Cilantro Leaves to garnish

Heat up an extra large non stick fry pan to medium high heat. Begin cooking sausages, do not cook all the way through just brown on the outsides.

While snags are cooking micro-zest your garlic . This is one of my favorite utensils right now. Sometimes I do not have time to chop finely and this give me the chance for fresh garlic at high warp speed.
When sausages are crisping up and browned on the outside remove them from the pan.
To the juices in the pan add some olive oil and heat.
Add onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and saute gently until onion is see through.
Add tomatoes, beef stock, cilantro, parsley and lentils.
Mix together.
Place sausages back in the pan, place lid on pan and allow it to simmer slowly for approximately 1 1/2 hours.. or until lentils are soft and dahl like. If necessary add more beef stock.
When it has a dahl like texture serve immediately and sprinkle with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Woking it Satay Chicken

Satay is most commonly served as grilled skewered meat, however, I decided to try it throwing it in the hot wok and serving it "hang free" style. The perfect solution for a satay fix in those winter months when it's too cold to trek through the snow to the barby.

Satay Sauce Ingredients:

2 Cups coconut cream

2 TBSP red curry paste

1 cup roasted, unsalted, ground peanuts

1 TBSP palm sugar

2 TBSP tamarind juice

2 TBSP fish sauce

2 TBSP Kecap Manis

In a wok, heat half a cup of coconut cream, add curry paste and cook until fragrant.  Add palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind, ,sweet soya, peanuts and remaining coconut cream.  Bring to boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for a further 10 minutes.  Store in a sealed glass container in refridgerator.   Keeps well for 2-3 weeks.

To Assemble:

Heat 1 TBSp oil in wok on medium high heat.  Add marinated chicken/meat. Do not over crowd wok, if necessary work in batches. You don't really need to stir this much, in fact I like just letting it sit and get almost a crunchy crust on it.

Cook until meat is cooked through.Remove from heat, pour satay sauce over the top.

Serve with steamed jasmine rice, and fresh cilantro leaves and crispy shallots.

Satay Marinade

This marinade is suitable for 1lb chicken, pork, beef or extra large shrimp. Marinate for at least 2 hours and for best results overnight.  If marinating shrimp a shorter period is required.

Ingredients

1 TBSP Palm sugar
1/2 Cup coconut cream
1 TBSP commercial curry powder
4 cloves garlic
1 TBSP Fish sauce
2 TBSP finely chopped coriander root and stem.

Put all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.  Marinate meat for a minimum of 2 hours, preferable overnight.

Garam Masala

I have recently begun branching out to "Indian" flavors and combinations, I love the new food network star Aarti Sequira. She has great ideas for changing up common foods with Indian enhancements. However in my branching out I discovered that my local food stores do not stock the real Indian spice mix of Garam Masala. Here is the spice blend I have taken to using. You might as well mix up a double or triple batch and store it in a labeled container.

4 tbsps coriander seeds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 ½ tsps black cumin seeds (shahjeera)

1 ½ tsps dry ginger

¾ tsp black cardamom (3-4 large pods approx)

¾ tsp cloves

¾ tsp cinnamon (2 X 1” pieces)

¾ tsp crushed bay leaves

Heat a heavy skillet on a medium flame and gently roast all ingredients (leave cardamom in its pods till later) except the dry ginger, till they turn a few shades darker. Stir occasionally. Do not be tempted to speed up the process by turning up the heat as the spices will burn on the outside and remain raw on the inside.

When the spices are roasted turn off the heat and allow them to cool.

Once cooled, remove the cardamom seeds from their skins and mix them back with all the other roasted spices.

Grind them all together, to a fine powder in a clean, dry coffee grinder or spice grinder

Store in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.



Cool Chicken Summer Wraps

I will be honest, I am not a fan of pre-cooked/frozen food. But I saw the challenge from Tyson to create a meal with their new ready to eat grilled chicken and I thought it would be a good challenge to try to create a good tasting meal using it. My family had no idea they were eating pre-cooked chicken, and it saved me cooking, cooling and chopping my own chicken.

This recipe is flavorful and refreshing and a quick and satisfying meal for your family.

If you don't want to use precooked chicken go ahead and cook your own, but for me.. experiment tyson chicken strips was a success.

Ingredients

3-4 cups Tyson Grilled and ready chicken breast strips
1 small bunch cilantro chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped sundried tomatoes
3 stalks celery chopped
2 Lemons/juiced
Olive Oil to your preference
Salt to taste
1 Tbsp Poultry Seasoning
1 Tbsp dried oregano
Fresh tortillas

Directions

Heat Chicken strips and chop to small pieces.
Mix cilantro, tomatoes, celery, chicken  ingredients together in a large bowl.  Drizzle on olive oil and juice to desired moistness and sprinkle through seasonings.
Chill in fridge until you are ready to serve. Keeps well for up to a week. 
When ready to serve,warm fresh tortillas and let people just wrap up their own.
Quick, easy, tasty and crunchy this is a great cooling summer meal or snack!