Another cooking blog.
I'm not going to be sharing any new, unheard of, unique recipes here... Just my take/attempt on making stuff, with good ingredients. Because I'm becoming obsessed with food - everything about food. Where it grows, buying it, making it, and eating it.
Today's recipe:
Strawberry Semifreddo
What's a semifreddo?
I don't know, before today I'd never eaten one. It's cold and light, and it doesn't require an ice cream maker. That's why I decided I would make it. It does require a mixer. So, if you're like I was up until about a month ago and you don't have one of those, move on unless you have some muscles.
It's the end of the local strawberry season... Or it was, 2-3 weeks ago. I made this with Canadian strawberries. I like local food, so this was stretching it, but my brother is visiting and I know he likes strawberries. So Canadian strawberries were forgivable.
Recipe:
2 pints of strawberries, washed and hulled
1/3 cup of granulated vanilla sugar plus ~2 tablespoons (vanilla sugar is sugar infused with a vanilla bean for extra flavor, you can substitute plain granulated sugar if you're not that fancy)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 egg whites
Good pinch of salt
Start by pureeing half the strawberries in a blender. Go until it's, well, a puree - thick liquid with no chunks. Whip the heavy cream and salt to soft peaks and set aside. Combine the puree, the egg whites, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla in a mixer and mix until it's pale and frothy. This took me about a minute to do, but it's going to vary based on the speed of your mixer and whether it's a hand or a stand mixer. Then gradually add the 1/3 of a cup of sugar. Fold in the whipping cream.
Pour the mixture into whatever container you would like, I used a small rectangular Pyrex dish but you could use ramekins, a brownie pan, the bowl you mixed it in - whatever is handy. Cover and place in the freezer. It will need to freeze for at least 4 hours or until it's solid.
Meanwhile, cut the remaining berries into slices. Taste them, if they're super sweet start by adding 1 tablespoon of sugar rather than two. Add the rest of the vanilla... Then taste again. If the alcohol in the vanilla is overpowering or it's not sweet enough, add more sugar. If it's too sweet, you can add a little lemon juice. This really goes by taste rather than a set recipe. Cover the berries and place in the refrigerator.
When ready to serve, spoon the semifreddo into a serving dish and place a heaping spoonful of the sliced strawberries on top.
So, what to do with the leftover egg yolks?
I made homemade chocolate pudding (waste not, want not).
This isn't milk chocolate pudding... It's a little more intense. You could try substituting the semi-sweet chocolate for milk chocolate and thus having a sweeter pudding. You could also substitute a dark chocolate and have dark chocolate pudding.
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
4 teaspoons corn starch
1/3 cup of good cocoa powder
Good pinch of salt
2 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate, broken into small chunks
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
Whisk a 1/2 cup of the milk, the egg yolks, salt, vanilla, and cornstarch in a bowl until well combined.
In a saucepan, combine the remaining 1 1/2 cups of milk, the sugar, and the cocoa powder. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat. Add the chunks of chocolate, whisking constantly until fully dissolved.
Now the only semi-tricky part: GRADUALLY add the hot milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Nobody wants scrambled eggs, so add the hot milk very slowly to allow the egg mixture to come up to temperature.
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Return to medium heat and cook, whisking constantly until it comes to a full boil. At that point, reduce the heat to a simmer and continue whisking for 2-3 minutes or until thickened.
Pour the pudding into whatever you want to serve it in (cups, bowls, a big bowl, whatever). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Top the pudding with some whipped cream before serving.
