ice cream – EcoSalon

Joe Biden is One Cool Guy [Video]

Abbie Stutzer — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 07:00:07 +0000

Ice Cream and Joe Biden are a match made in heaven.

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Vegan Neapolitan Ice Cream Cake Recipe

Aylin Erman — Fri, 27 Jun 2014 16:25:15 +0000

This vegan Neapolitan ice-cream cake recipe will melt you in all the right places.

Ice cream cakes literally takes the cake when it comes to the best part of childhood birthday parties. Sure, a fluffy, light cake has its virtues, but when it comes down to it, nothing can beat the dense, cool flavors of ice cream cake. Unfortunately, regular ice-cream cake is best left as a happy childhood memory, as it can be incredibly heavy and easy to overeat. But alas, the tragedy ends here, as I’ve experimented with a ice-cream cake that lets you have it all. The follow Neapolitan ice cream cake recipe is light, fruity and so good you can have piece after piece on any day, not just on your birthday. Enjoy!

In the average ice cream cake, there are some 400 calories per serving, 15 grams of fat, 60 grams of carbohydrates – not the kind of stats you want to hear when you’re already married to your third slice. Even worse is that few of us actually make our own ice cream cake, so we are often left consuming one that is prepped by an ice cream store that uses artificial flavors, preservatives, hydrogenated oils, colorants and emulsifiers. These add-ins come in the form of guar gum, mono and diglycerides, carrageenan, soya lecithin, fructose, algin, sodium phosphate, disodium phosphate and caramel color. Nutritional profile aside, an ice cream cake isn’t your best bet for a cool-down summer treat.

But, I wouldn’t bust your mood without offering an alternative! The following recipe is for a Neapolitan ice cream cake that is vegan, sugar-free and full of flavor. It also bears the same texture to regular ice cream cake. In a classic Neapolitan, there is a vanilla, chocolate and strawberry layer, but please feel free to swap the strawberries for any other berry and to play around with other add-ins. For example, you can add dark chocolate chips to the chocolate layer and chopped walnuts to the vanilla layer. There are endless possibilities, so have fun with them!

Neapolitan Ice-Cream Cake

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

Strawberry layer:

1 cup frozen strawberries (or any other berry)
2 medium bananas
1/2 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon agave (optional)
Dash of sea salt

Vanilla layer:

2 large bananas
1/2 cup almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon agave (optional)
Dash of sea salt

Chocolate layer:

2 large bananas
1/2 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon agave (optional)
Dash of sea salt

Directions

As far as prep is concerned, it is important to freeze the bananas before making the cake. You want to use overripe bananas; you know, the ones with the unattractive brown spots? Those are the sweetest of the bunch and are perfectly safe to use.

Peel, chop and place banana pieces in zip-lock bags. For this recipe, put the pieces of two bananas in one bag. Each layer requires two bananas, so this allows you to quickly use one bag per layer instead of guessing how many pieces make up two bananas. Toss the bags into the freezer and let them freeze completely – this step will take about 3 hours. I like to do this the night before so I know I’m ready when the time comes to blend.

When the bananas are frozen, remove them from the freezer and let them sit for about 15-20 minutes before use. Meanwhile, line a loaf pan with plastic wrap. This will prevent the ice-cream from sticking once it freezes.

Now, for the blending part. Let’s start with the strawberry layer. Place the frozen pieces of two frozen bananas in a blender or food processor with the berries. Pulse a few times and then add the almond milk, vanilla, agave and sea salt. Blend until smooth and fluffy. Scoop the strawberry mixture into the bottom of the loaf pan and use a spatula to even it out. Place into the freezer while you prepare the next layer.

Rinse the blender container, dry it and then add all the ingredients for the vanilla layer. Blend until smooth and fluffy. Scoop the mixture on top of the strawberry layer in the loaf pan. Use a spatula to even it out. Place into the freezer while you prepare the chocolate later. Rinse and dry the blender container.

Lastly, add all the ingredients for the chocolate layer and blend until smooth and fluffy. Add to the loaf pan as the final layer. Use a spatula to make the top of the chocolate ice-cream flat and smooth. Cover with Saran wrap so that it clings to the ice cream, leaving no room for air.

Place into the freezer until it freezes – about 3 hours to be sure. Invert the loaf pan and the ice-cream log should simply pop out. If it doesn’t, run some hot water along the edges of the pan (not the ice-cream top) to help release the ice cream’s frozen hold on the pan.

Use a powerful knife with jagged edges to cut slices. Enjoy!

Related on EcoSalon

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Sunday Recipe: Fig & Walnut Cake

4 Vegan Ice-Cream Recipes to Satisfy Your Summer Sweet Tooth

Photo Credit: wikipedia

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Behind The Label: Ben & Jerry’s

Jessica Marati — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 07:00:30 +0000

ColumnBen & Jerry’s has long been a poster child for socially responsible business, with its hippie branding, activist leanings, and emphasis on incorporating “happiness” at every step of the ice cream supply chain.

The company’s story begins in 1978 with an abandoned Burlington, Vermont, gas station and a $5 correspondence course on ice cream making. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield wanted to create a company that would churn out the ice cream flavors they always dreamed off, filled with cookies, candy, fruits, nuts, and other fixings. They sourced their dairy from local farmers and christened their signature blends with quirky names like “Chunky Monkey” and “Phishfood.” Within a few years, Ben & Jerry’s had expanded to locations throughout Vermont, and in 1984, it became a publicly owned company.

But then the fairy tale turns cautionary. Ben & Jerry’s continued to grow through the 1980s and 1990s, but according to Fast Company, “the Ben & Jerry’s alternative management style lacked the fiscal and managerial discipline market analysts and investors demanded.” When British-Dutch conglomerate Unilever stepped up to acquire the company for $326 million in 2001, the board was forced to accept out of obligation to its shareholders.

“We very carefully negotiated an acquisition agreement that was supposed to maintain the values of Ben & Jerry’s,” Greenfield told The New York Times in 2010. “What we are learning is, if you are owned by a corporate that, despite whatever words they might say, does not share those values, it’s incredibly difficult to maintain those values.”

But just how much have Ben & Jerry’s values strayed in the 12 years since its Unilever acquisition? This week’s Behind The Label dives into the good, bad, and questionable.

The Good

Since its inception, Ben & Jerry’s has been a sustainability pioneer, from sourcing ethically produced ingredients to designing recyclable packaging. In the 1990s, it was one of the first companies to wage a public battle against rBGH, the Monsanto-developed growth hormone often injected into cows to increase milk production.

Despite acquisition, the company’s commitment to social responsibility doesn’t seem to have wavered in the past 12 years; in fact, it appears to have strengthened.

The company has long sourced its ingredients from fair trade sources – bananas for Chunky Monkey come from the El Guabo cooperative in Ecuador, for instance, while the brownies in Half-Baked are cooked up by Greyston Bakery, a Bronx-based social enterprise providing jobs and skills training for people who face barriers to employment. And in 2010, Ben & Jerry’s made an even more ambitious commitment when it pledged to source all possible ingredients from certified Fair Trade suppliers by the end of 2013. On its website, you can mouse over each flavor to see which ingredients are fair trade and which are still in the process of being certified.

And then there was the recent announcement that Ben & Jerry’s would be converting to entirely non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) ingredients by the end of 2013 and adjusting its packaging to reflect responsible GMO labeling standards by 2014. Ben & Jerry’s has publicly announced its support of the GMO Right-to-Know Labeling Movement, and its founders regularly speak out in support of GMO labeling efforts in Washington, Vermont, and Connecticut.

The Bad

But while Ben & Jerry’s has been a vocal advocate of GMO labeling, its parent company has sided with the opposition. Official documents reveal that Unilever spent $467,100 on efforts against Proposition 37, the California labeling act that was defeated last November.

This finding led the Organic Consumers Association to call for a Ben & Jerry’s boycott, until the company pledged to donate the same amount to pro-labeling campaigns in Washington and Vermont.

It’s bad enough that Ben & Jerry’s offers NO organic ice cream flavors. And that the company hasn’t yet eliminated genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from all of its products. But propping up its “progressive” image by telling consumers the company supports GMO labeling, while refusing to help the campaign out with what it really needs: cold hard cash? C’mon guys, you can do better.

And despite sourcing non-GMO, fair trade, and rBGH-free ingredients when possible, the sum of Ben & Jerry’s parts is still not entirely natural. In 2010, the Center for the Science in the Public Interest publicly requested that Ben & Jerry’s remove “all natural” language from its labeling, since many of its products contained alkalized cocoa, high fructose corn syrup, and partially hydrogenated soybean oil. While Ben & Jerry’s maintains that it used the natural labeling in accordance with FDA standards, it complied with the request to prevent consumer confusion.

The Questionable

While Ben & Jerry’s has been able to operate with relative independence since its acquisition 12 years ago, comments from its founders reveal internal conflicts.

In a 2010 interview with The Guardian, Cohen famously described the relationship as a “forced marriage”:

Unilever quite likes to hold up Ben & Jerry’s as kind of the poster child of socially responsible business and does use that to try to give an example of ‘here is how socially concerned Unilever is, you know, we have the Ben & Jerry’s brand’. And you know Ben and Jerry’s does happen to be very high profile but when Unilever holds up Ben & Jerry’s as ‘our example of how socially responsible we are’, you know, we should understand that Unilever is what? – a $40bn-$50bn business and we’re a little piece of that.

So it is greenwash? the reporter asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ben responded.

On the other hand, Unilever has emerged in recent years as model for corporate social responsibility, most notably with its much-hailed Sustainable Living Plan. The plan lays out some pretty ambitious goals, from sourcing all of its agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020 to halving greenhouse gas impact by the same year. The plan’s annual progress report, released Monday, revealed significant progress toward those goals.

Many speculate that it was partly due to the Ben & Jerry’s partnership that Unilever executives decided to take on such an ambitious project. And according to B Corp’s full impact assessment, Ben & Jerry’s has achieved impressive marks when it comes to governance, workers, community, and environment – enough to earn it B Corp status last year.

Ben and Jerry may grumble, but it appears that their company is not only in capable hands, but that it is also playing a significant role in the socially responsible makeover of one of the world’s largest conglomerates. The Ben & Jerry’s-Unilever marriage may have been forced, but it seems to be working.

Images: Ben & Jerry’s, theimpulsivebuy

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Sunday Recipe: Simple Vegan Banana, Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream

Anna Brones — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 15:22:20 +0000

Because ice cream should be super simple.

When I came across one-ingredient ice cream on Food52, it seemed too good to be true. But it’s not.

The beauty is in bananas, which when frozen and put in the food processor, turn into a fluffy mass of goodness. And it’s raw. And it’s vegan.

I was so excited about the discovery I immediately sent it to fellow food connoisseur Aylin Erman, who promptly responded with “Girl, you need to make this ASAP. It changed my life.”

A life changing recipe that only involves one ingredient? Yes, please. But as we all know, bananas are only made better by chocolate, so this version gets the addition of homemade hazelnut chocolate spread (in other words: homemade Nutella) for a decadent but super simple dessert.

Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream

For ice cream:

3-4 frozen bananas

For chocolate hazelnut spread:

1 cup roasted hazelnuts
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 cup sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
4 tablespoons canola oil or hazelnut oil

Directions

To make chocolate hazelnut spread, put all ingredients in food processor and mix until a spreadable consistency.

To make ice cream, cut the bananas into small chunks and place on a baking pan. Freeze for at least 1-2 hours.

Place banana pieces into a food processor and churn until a smooth consistency.

Mix together two parts banana ice cream and one part chocolate hazelnut spread until well blended. Serve immediately or store in airtight container in freezer.

Want more food inspiration? Check out the rest of our Sunday Recipe series.

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Foodie Underground: Would You Like a Scoop of Geoduck Ice Cream?

Anna Brones — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:29:46 +0000

ColumnArtisanal ice cream gone wrong.

Salted caramel ice cream. Orange coriander ice cream. Sweet summer corn buttermilk sherbert.

The whole put-anything-you-can-find-and-see-if-it-works-in-ice-cream-trend is tasty at times, edgy at best, but has become so ubiquitous that off-color flavors rarely merit a reaction.

That was until I saw the geoduck ice cream sign.

I was driving home to my parents’ house, a big yellow house nestled somewhere between some trees and a few salt water bays in the Puget Sound. I had taken the backroads to avoid traffic, which entailed driving through a quaint, waterfront town of Allyn. There is a knitting store that we go to in the winter, a burger joint in the summer and a small dock to walk on. A good afternoon excursion on the days when you need to spice up country life.

Windows down, music blaring I slowed down to the required 35 miles per hour and took in the sea salt air of home. I was going slow enough that the sign was hard to miss.

“Geo Duck Ice Cream.” Right below the “Fresh Peach Sunda.” Who needs the “y” anyway?

I’m sorry… what?

I was tired of driving and didn’t have the energy to turn around, but I was so shocked that anyone would ever dare make ice cream out of Washington State’s most treasured/hated shellfish that I made a mental note of the sign, and told myself that before the week was up I would have to return.

For those who aren’t well versed on the geoduck, it’s a shellfish that happens to be the largest bivalve along Puget Sound. In laymen’s terms: it has a three foot-long neck and looks pretty gross. But we kind of have a thing for them up in Washington. A sort of love/hate affair. The Chinese certainly love them, which means they’re good for the economy, and Evergreen State College thinks they’re so great that they’ve even made mascot status.

A Washington native, I had personally never tried one. But this was the summer of “just say yes” policy. It’s a travel policy that I try to stick to, even when travel means returning to my home state. And of course, even when it means tasting geoduck ice cream. Fortunately my good friend Dave had come up for the weekend, and as my regular co-host of dinner parties and lover of all things food related, I knew he had to be up for the challenge.

“I am so glad you wanted to go do this with me,” I said, after parking in Allyn and walking up to the small Olympic Mountain Ice Cream shop.

“I didn’t say I wanted to do this,” he responded.

Right.

It should be noted that when you walk into an ice cream shop featuring geoduck ice cream with two cameras in hand, it’s sort of obvious what you want to order.

“Oh, there’s the cream kind and a sorbet,” I said, wondering why in God’s name you would make two variations of the stuff.

“Well, the cream based one is a stronger one. A really strong geoduck taste with butter. That’s what we recommend for people that really like geoduck.” said the young woman working behind the ice cream counter. I tried hard not to visibly shudder. “The other one has a really good lime taste and is a little lighter because it’s a sorbet,” she continued. “You really should test both.”

And that was how Dave and I came to be standing with test spoons of geoduck ice cream and sorbet.

A normal person would of course try the samples, pat themselves on the back, kindly say “that was interesting, but I think I am good,” and continue on their merry way. Not in my case. I was just off a week of picking backyard blackberries, muddling them with basil simple syrup and baking almond, cardamom, red currant scones for breakfast. I had to switch things up. You can only go the mason jar and sea salt route for so long.

“Well, we have to get a full scoop… it is what we came here to do,” I looked at Dave somehow trying to coax some encouragement from him.

“Ok, fine, a cup,” he said.

$2.71 later and we had ourselves a styrofoam (I know, I know) cup of lime geoduck sorbet. The things you do for a culinary experience.

If you’re wondering what geoduck sorbet tastes like, it’s simple: a delightful, zesty dose of sweet lemon, lime flavor, followed by a really weird infusion of chewy geoduck, which really just tastes like a bad clam. No really, it’s sorbet with small pieces of geoduck in it. As Dave put it after we both agreed that despite our hatred of food waste, we simply couldn’t finish the thing, “I only had one meal, I really should have been able to eat more of that.”

Appropriate solution to geoduck sorbet? Big Bubba’s Burgers of course, an institution in the town of Allyn. As we walked, I spit out a piece of geoduck that had lodged itself in my teeth. Traveling is a funny thing, causing even the most devoted kale and quinoa addict to order a sorbet and then opt to follow up with the “Western,” a burger with barbecue sauce, fried onions and pepperjack. Dave added bacon. We got a small order of fries.

We walked down to the water and took in the salt air.

“Geoduck sorbet followed by this? I am totally going to puke later,” I said.

“Yeah, but at least you’ll have a column,” he responded.

And a renewed sense of why I don’t like shellfish in my ice cream, or sorbet for that matter, but a reminder of why I love coming home. It’s real. Not upscale. Not serving a new crazy dish because that’s what they read on about on a food blog. Just sort of off-the-wall local food that’s worth eating at least once in life, because it gives you a sense of the place. The kind of thing that we’re all somehow looking for, right?

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

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The Friday 5: Say What? Edition

Mike Sowden — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:08:09 +0000

The best of the week at EcoSalon, hand-quoted for your perusing pleasure.

“What to make of news that the Saudis are building a women-only industrial city in the Eastern Province of Hofuf – with similar plans for four more cities elsewhere?”

“It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM.”

“With that, I vowed to concoct my own variety (and acquire an ice cream maker to get the consistency just right). So, here we are, nearly 730 days later.”

“The seaside city is still dotted with my French Canadian relatives who must still believe that religious statues bleed and cry when we sin and masturbate.”

“Hummus is grey and tan and dull; it is the color of hopelessness.”

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Vegan This: Salted Caramel Ice Cream (That took 730 Days to Perfect)

Jennifer Barckley — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 14:00:02 +0000

Time stands still as the best blend of flavors melt in your mouth.

Two summers ago, I had a dream: Salted. Caramel. Ice Cream. Just hearing those words together, I could taste the cascade of sweetness, saltiness, coolness and warmth, all at once, melting in my mouth. And so, the quest began to experience what I imagined would be the sweetest delight on earth.

And then, it happened. Salted Caramel Ice Cream hit the charts. Nearly every micro-creamery was whipping up the flavor. To make it all worse for a tantalized vegan, some began to add crispy bacon to the affair. And yet, my search for a vegan version remained futile. With that, I vowed to concoct my own variety (and acquire an ice cream maker to get the consistency just right).

So, here we are, nearly 730 days later. I’ve whipped up batch after batch and tasted spoonful after spoonful to create the richest, smoothest, creamiest and yes, even healthiest, recipe for all to enjoy. The base of this melting concoction is handmade cashew nut milk. While rich in fats, an ice cream staple, cholesterol-free cashews are full of monounsaturated fats, the “good kind” of fats. They are also full of copper, magnesium, zinc and even Vitamin E—critical to stabilizing a healthy blood pressure and preventing against heart conditions, all while supporting a balanced nervous system and with it, a good mood. It’s no wonder you’ll feel so joyful with every little spoonful.

The Original – Salted Caramel Ice Cream
From Brown Eyed Baker, adapted from David Lebovitz’s original

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (divided)
• 4 tablespoons salted butter
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 5 egg yolks
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

The Vegan Version – Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Makes approximately 2 pints

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups cashew nut milk (divided):
• 1 cup raw cashews, soaked
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup coconut milk (optional—can substitute with an additional cup of cashew milk)
• ½ teaspoon gaur gum
• 1 cup granulated sugar (divided)
• 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salted vegan butter (I used Earth Balance soy-free butter)
• ½ teaspoon (or more—to taste) fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pecans or other nuts (optional topping)

Directions

1. To make the cashew nut milk, first soak the 1 cup of cashews in tepid water for at least 3 hours or overnight. Then, in a large blender, mix the following for at least three minutes, until thoroughly blended: cashews, water, agave nectar, coconut oil and vanilla extract. Once the cashews are thoroughly blended, use a nut milk bag or very fine cheesecloth over a large bowl or Mason jar to strain the milk. You should be left with a creamy mixture (just like milk) in your bowl or jar.

2. Pour 2 cups of the nut milk back into the blender and add the coconut milk, if using, along with the guar gum and vanilla. Blend together and let stand.

3. In a quart size pot, melt the sugar over medium heat, stirring constantly until liquefied. Once the sugar begins to turn to a copper-red color, add in one tablespoon of butter and stir until melted. Then, slowly add in the ½ cup cashew nut milk and stir together until fully mixed and boiling. Remove the mixture from the heat. Let cool slightly, and pour ½ cup of your caramel mixture into the cashew nut mix in the blender. Blend together until fully combined.

4. Pour the custard mixture into your ice cream maker and use according to the manufacturer’s directions.

5. Meanwhile, add at least ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt to your remaining ½ cup caramel mixture. Once the ice cream custard has been mixed together in the ice cream maker for at least 15 minutes, add in the remaining caramel by simply pouring it into the custard base.

6. Freeze your ice cream until it’s reached the desired consistency, and enjoy!

* Note, top this sweet summer delight with your choice of nuts, caramel, chocolate sauce, cherries or any other vegan toppings you can dream of. I made a candied pecan topping by chopping a few tablespoons of pecans and toasting them on the stove top (in a shallow cast iron pan), with 1 teaspoon melted vegan butter, 1 teaspoon of light brown sugar and a dash of cinnamon and sea salt, until lightly brown and crunchy.

Images: Jennifer Barckley

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Foodie Underground: We All Scream for Artisanal Ice Cream

Anna Brones — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:13:11 +0000

ColumnArtisanal ice cream is keeping the summer streets hot.

It’s June, which means you’ve only got one thing on the mind: summer (or at least that’s what I spend my time daydreaming about as we approach the equinox). Long days, dinner parties in the garden and plenty of warm weather drinks. Seasonal bliss to the max.

So let’s talk food. Take a moment and imagine a hot, sweltering summer day. Then think of the most iconic American food image that comes to mind. What is it? Better say ice cream. But what was once a classic has taken an underground turn, being infused with lavender, mixed with beer and topped with sea salt, making it a go-to classic with an artisanal twist, perfect for the foodie summer you’re about to embark on.

I remember my first time at Bi-Rite in San Francisco, where salted caramel reigns and the definition of artisanal ice cream was practically created. A staple of the Mission District, the line around the block sort of says it all: San Franciscan locals and tourists alike are obsessed with artisanal ice cream. And they’re not alone.

Ice cream is so hot on the foodie list, that hip new shops can’t even stay open because of ice cream mavens eating up all the inventory. That’s the case in Brooklyn where Ample Hills Creamery, which boasts a handmade Stout ‘n’ Pretzels blend, had to shut down four days after it opened. Apparently that’s how long it takes to sell out of 130 gallons of homemade frozen cream.

Last week in London you could score a cone on a floating ice cream truck, the HMS Flake 99, putting the ingenuity of most food carts to shame, while in Portland, Salt & Straw embodies the “farm to cone” ideal, whipping up batches of ice cream with local ingredients like Rogue Creamery Blue Cheese and Olympic Provisions charcuterie. A calm spoonful of exotic green tea ice cream? Compared to the creative combinations of this summer, that seems so early 2000’s.

Forget the organic, specialty flavor pint cartons at your local co-op though; when it comes to ice cream, any self-respecting foodie is buying it from the source, or local markets. At Ashland Farmers Market you can pick up a pint of Chocolate Oatmeal Stout from Artik Creamery and at the Brooklyn Flea Market you’ll find yourself drooling over shaved ice from People’s Pops, flavored with syrupy goodness like organic lemon and rhubarb cinnamon.

And if ice cream stands are too mainstream for you, there’s always ice cream from the back of a tricycle. Still not sure about investing over a few bucks a cone? All you need is a good how-to guide (snark included) for how to best enjoy the artisanal treat.

Of course the ultimate in artisanal anything is mastering it yourself. Start with sorbet, which entails a whole lot less work and really only requires a freezer. My current “must try” recipe comes from Food & Wine:

Sour Cherry Lambic Sorbet

Ingredients:

3 cups pitted sour cherries (18 ounces)
3/4 cup Sugar Syrup
1 cup cherry lambic beer

Instructions:

In a blender, puree the cherries until smooth. Stir in the Sugar Syrup and the cherry lambic beer. Pour the sorbet base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Pack the sour-cherry lambic sorbet into a plastic container. Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the sorbet and close the container with an airtight lid. Freeze until firm, 4 hours.

Then again, maybe artisanal ice cream is just the new cupcake, and after we gorge ourselves on too many blends of cream, eggs, sugar and ice, we’ll be desperately hoping that those smarter than us will be putting the recipes to good use, like fighting terrorism. But for now, let’s just enjoy that cone of bacon-java-sea salt bliss.

It’s good. I swear.

Images: Anna Brones

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10 Foods You Didn’t Know Were Processed

Mike Sowden — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:34:07 +0000

In the wake of Unprocessed October, you may have developed a taste for more simply-prepared fare. Problem is, you can’t trust your senses. Think that rolled oats are as untouched as food gets? Think again – and check out the rest of this list of 10 surprisingly processed foods!

1. Oats. Ever tried to squash a groat? It’s an eye-opener into the effort required to roll an oat flat (above left). But that’s not all: the average rolled oat has also been steamed and lightly toasted. If you’re going for the steel-cut variety (above right), you’ll skip the rolling and enjoy extra bran in your diet, but they’re still steamed and then dried to keep them fresh.

2. Dried Pasta. Flour and eggs, mixed and squeezed into a variety of shapes. Sounds a simple process…until you look past the pasta and at the flour it’s made of. Industrial flour-making? Next time you have a few days spare, have a look at all the processing involved, especially when preservatives enter the mix.

3. Ice Cream. Ever fought to run your scoop through a tub of ice-cream fresh from the freezer? If the answer is “I only buy the soft stuff”, you’ll have stabilizers to thank. These compounds (usually polysaccharide gums) stop ice cream hardening and also separating into gritty ice-crystals. And let’s not forget emulsifiers, there to make your ice-cream smooth and whippy.

4. Olive oil. The first sight of an untreated, unprocessed olive can be a shock. This tiny green bullet is an olive? Imagine the energy expended in grinding it into paste, spread out and pressed until the oil squeezes out – at which point this oil is further processed to get the excess water out. (You’re allowed to feel a new respect for ancient farmers here).

5. Tofu. Take a handful of soya beans, compress them – get tofu? Sadly no. You need to coagulate soy milk, and that requires coagulants – gypsum, calcium chloride, or a host of other chemicals used in the process. Then comes the straining and pressing. Lots and lots of it. The firmer the raw tofu, the more processing it’s had.

6. Low Fat or No-fat Milk. In the old days, making low fat milk was as straightforward as skimming of the top layer to remove the cream, leaving the rest of the mix fat-depleted – but now they use centrifugal separators. Those health benefits come with an energy cost. Oh, and since no-fat milk feels watery in the mouth, dairies pop a little of the milk solids back in at the end. Yes, the cream.

7. Corn tortillas. Corn? Flour – and all the processing and additives that entails. Unless you aim for a masa that was made from maiz blanco (field corn) – and even then it can be a lengthy process to go from masa to tortilla.

8. Cheese. What a marvel cheese is. Leave milk until it forms curds and whey, add a lactic starter and watch as it lumps together into cheesy goodness. Well – kinda. That’s cottage cheese, the simplest form. Commercial cheesemaking requires all sorts of enzyme coagulants, bacteria (eg. penicillin for “blue” cheese), washing, pressing, ripening, and all those special ingredients that make each cheese distinct. There’s an awful lot to it all.

9. Bread. Domestic breadmaking is deliciously good fun, making your entire house smell like your local bakery and providing you with bread that tastes like bread. Go on, you know you want to. But if you insist on the commercial variety, know that the processes involves are many. “Quick breads” (those cheaper loaves at the supermarket) are chemically hurried along the leavening cycle, while yeast breads can still be stuffed with bread improvers.

10. Herbal Teas. Alas that our modern tastes demand that commercially-produced herbal teas – by their very nature bitter (but invigorating) brews – need a little adjustment before they hits our palates. Artificial flavors ahoy. Check the label carefully!

Images: little blue hen, FotoosVanRobin, St0rmz, Taras Kalapun, avlkyz, R’eyes, lucianvenutian, Karl Palutke, Emily Carlin, blgrssby

The post 10 Foods You Didn’t Know Were Processed appeared first on EcoSalon.

10 Foods You Didn’t Know Were Processed

Mike Sowden — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:45:35 +0000

Images: little blue hen, FotoosVanRobin, St0rmz, Taras Kalapun, avlkyz, R’eyes, lucianvenutian, Karl Palutke, Emily Carlin, blgrssby

The post 10 Foods You Didn’t Know Were Processed appeared first on EcoSalon.