Synergy (Apricot - Blueberry Crumble with Ginger Ice Cream)

Apricot-Blueberry Crumble with Ginger Ice Cream

When I saw the ingredients list for this months Royal Foodie Joust I knew immediately what I wanted to make. I have been putting together fruit Crisps and Crumbles for years and one of my all time favorites is the Apricot-Blueberry one. We are fortunate that we live in Oregon because of all the great berries (raspberries, strawberries, marionberries, blackberries, etc.) that are grown locally.
While I like fresh fruit, I think that when apricots and blueberries are cooked their flavors are actually enhanced. The apricot takes on a smoother texture and the blueberry adds a fresh acidity that provides balance. With this dessert the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I think that is called Synergy.

Since it was over 100 degrees yesterday (rare in Portland) it gave me a bit of a push to pull out my ice cream maker. When I was a kid we used to have to take turns cranking the ice cream freezer. As you can see a little technology has eliminated the need to conscript children into the process. While this does take some of the romance out of ice cream making, it leaves in all of the flavor.

Apricot+Blueberry = Awesome

Apricot - Blueberry Crumble
Ingredients
1 lb. Apricots-pitted and quartered
1 cup Blueberries
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. corn starch
1 tsp. vanilla extract (or you can use a 1Tbsp. of dark rum in a pinch)

Topping
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup of flour
3/4 cup brown Sugar
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 lb. butter (one stick)

Directions:

For the fruit go ahead and combine all the dry ingredients into a bowl, mix and then toss with the fruit and the vanilla extract. The fruit can sit in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours to let the apricots and blueberries to macerate.
For the topping go ahead and add all the dry ingredients into a food processor and give a quick 2 second pulse. Add the butter in chunks (6-7 slightly softened chunks) and pulse for a second or two. Just barely incorporate the ingredients. The mixture should look like sawdust when it is done. This topping recipe will provide enough mixture for multiple crumble desserts. You can make a large batch and keep it in an airtight container in the freezer for when you need to throw together a quick dessert.

When you are ready to cook the crumble go ahead and put the fruit into a ramekin and top with the crumble mixture. Place the crumble into a 325 degree oven for 30-35 minutes. When done, pull and cool on the stove top for 10 minutes. Serve warm with a scoop of the Ginger Ice Cream (recipe below)

This topping looks like sawdust....don't you think?

Ginger Ice Cream

Ingredients
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup coarsely grated peeled fresh ginger root ( I go ahead and chop this to a fine mince)
2 tablespoons water
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla


Preparation
In a large bowl lightly whisk yolks. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook sugar, fresh ginger root, and water over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add half-and-half and bring to a simmer. Add hot half-and-half mixture to yolks in a slow stream, whisking, and pour into pan. Cook custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until a thermometer registers 170°F. (Do not let boil.)
Pour custard through a sieve into cleaned bowl and stir in cream and vanilla. Cool custard. Chill custard, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day.

Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Lime Marscapone Panna Cotta w/Raspberry Coulis

Panna Cotta is a dessert that I came to late in life. Growing up in Payette, Idaho there weren't many (actually any) ethnic Italian families. Dessert at my house usually consisted of Popsicles, Ice Milk (Ice Cream was for company), a Betty Crocker Cake or if we were really lucky we got to go to the Dairy Queen and get a sundae. It would take until I was well into my 20's to discover the joys of desserts like Tiramisu and Biscotti with Vin Santo.
Panna Cotta is a dessert that fights well above its weight. It so simple (basically it is a cream Jello) that I am curious as to why we haven't seen a Jell-O brand mix for this (note to self-get do a patent search).
I thought I would try and kill two birds with one stone. First I wanted make an entry into the Royal Foodie Joust cooking contest for June. The three theme ingredients for this month are raspberries, lime and almonds. Secondly, I was fortunate enough to be going to Heather and Scott's house for dinner. Heather writes Gild the Voodoolily and this happens to be a case of where a blog friend also only lives about 5 minutes from my house (I am the luckiest boy in the whole world). I will have to do a separate post regarding the dinner. So, without further fanfare, here is my entry for the June Royal Foodie Joust (if I hadn't been a knuckle-head and missed the entry cut off time)-oh well, there is always next time.

Lime Marscapone Panna Cotta w/ Raspberry Coulis
Ingredients:
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 teaspoons grated lime peel
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
1 1/4 cups whipping cream, divided
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
Small handful of fresh raspberries for garnish

1 cup fresh raspberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 lemon-juiced


Preparation
Combine 1/4 cup juice and peel in small saucepan; sprinkle gelatin over. Let stand 5 minutes. Add 1/4 cup cream to gelatin mixture; stir over low heat just until gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat.

Whisk mascarpone and 1/2 cup sugar in medium bowl; gradually whisk in remaining 1 cup cream until smooth. Stir this mixture of very low heat until the cream just starts to simmer then remove from the heat .
Whisk gelatin mixture into cream mixture. Pour 4 ramakins or wine glasses. Chill until set, at least 4 hours or overnight.

For the coulis stir the lemon juice juice, 1/4 cup sugar, and the berries together in a small sauce pan. Gentle heat and let simmer for 5 minutes. Puree the raspberry mixture in a blender then strain the mixture through a mesh sieve and refrigerate .
To plate, warm the ramakins to help loosen the panna cotta, invert and plate-spoon or use a squeeze bottle decorate the plate with the Raspberry coulis and then grate peel from 1 lime directly over desserts.

I also baked Belgian Touile cookies (my son didn't think it was possible to get that much butter into a cookie) that I hand dipped in chocolate and dusted with almonds for the Coup de grâce

Royal Foodie Joust

One of the food blogs that I frequently read hosts a monthly cooking competition called: "The Royal Foodie Joust" Every month three theme ingredients are chosen by the previous months contest winner. Voting takes place by the contestants themselves and the group seems to be more supportive vs. competitive.
This month the three theme ingredients are Mango, Brown sugar and Cardamom. While these seem to be obvious baking or pastry ingredients I immediately took the savory approach to these three ingredients.

I remembered a Cardamom & Coffee rub I had used several years ago and I also have used Mango for drinks, desserts and salsa.

For May's Royal Foodie Joust my entry is:

Menu

-Entree-

Grilled Double-cut Pork Chops with a Cardamom & Coffee Dry Rub served with Mango Salsa.

The chop is brined with Brown Sugar and Kosher Salt then dry rubbed with Cardamom, Coffee and spices. Flame Grilled to medium rare.

served with
Sesame Asian Rainbow Cole Slaw
Red and green cabbage, scallions, carrots, bean sprouts and cilantro are dressed with a sesame/soy/peanut dressing
&
Cheddar, Jalepeno Corn Muffins with Honey Butter

-Dessert-

Chocolate Mousse

-Wine-

2005 Sineann Old Vine Zinfandel
&
Wehlener Sonnenuhr
2001 Riesling Auslese
S.A. Prum

The menu is definitely influenced by the more traditional Southern meal of pan fried Pork Chops, Cole Slaw and Cornbread.
I had fun tweaking the three menu items to compliment each other and I would definitely use the Cardamom & Coffee rub again.

Cardamom & Coffee Spice Rub
Ingredients:

1/4 cup finely ground Italian Roast Coffee Beans

2 tablespoons kosher salt

2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

4 teaspoons ground cardamom (an coffee grinder works great)

8 garlic cloves, minced

3 teaspoons very finely chopped fresh ginger

Start with the dry ingredients and mix together in a small bowl. Add the garlic and fresh ginger and stir well. The rub will still be fairly dry after you incorporate the two "wet ingredients".
Rub the meat 4 hours before you are going to start to cook.

Mango Salsa in its native state.

Mango Salsa
Ingredients:

1 large fresh mango

1 cup of chopped frozen mango chunks (for a creamy texture)

1/2 small red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced

1 small jalapeno chile, cored, seeded and minced

1/4 cup minced red onion

2 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro

1 to 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Chop, mince, juice and and combine the above ingredients (So easy, even a caveman could do it....no disrespect to cavemen/women intended)

Asian Rainbow Cole Slaw
Ingredients:

1/2 head green cabbage, sliced razor thin
1/2 head red cabbage, sliced razor thin
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon chile paste
3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
1 carrots, shredded
1 cup bean sprouts
6 scallions, julienned on the bias
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, for garnish
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, for garnish

Toss the cabbage together in a salad spinner. Sprinkle the cabbage with salt and let stand for 15 minutes. The salt draws out some of its moisture so that the slaw remains crunchy. After 15 minutes go ahead and spin the spinner to draw out the excess moisture and add the rest of the ingredients to a large bowl. You can have this salad ready to go and then dress just before eating.

In a bowl, whisk together the vinegar, soy sauce, oil, chile paste, peanut butter, and ginger. Toss together with the cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts and scallions; season with salt and pepper. Garnish with sesame seeds before serving.

Brown Sugar Brine
Ingredients:
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
4 garlic cloves (smashed)
1/2 lemon, cut into wedges
1 quart water

Boil the water with the salt and sugar mixture for 10 minutes and then turn off the heat and add the lemon and garlic. Let cool to room temperature and add the chops. I brined the meat overnight.

These Pork Chops were 2" center cut chops.

You can see the relative scale of these "Fred Flinstone" Pork Chops. While I was happy with the results, when I do this again I will probably order 1 1/2" thick chops. Even chops this thick cook quickly and the total cook time was about 4 minutes per side on a hot grill and then another 8 minutes cook time with the chops cooking over indirect heat (not over the coals).