mango "sticky rice" ice cream

I just realized that I never posted last year's Miss Mary's Ice Cream Crankin' submission. (Also vegan for the Veg)

Mango "Sticky Rice" Ice Cream**
**Sorry no pics, it was eaten way too fast

mix together and heat over medium low heat until small bubbles begin to form and batter begins to thicken:
2 cups coconut milk
2 cups rice milk
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup sugar
2 tbs arrowroot starch

add and let steep for 5 minutes:
1 tsp jasmine pearl tea

Strain tea out and cool batter in fridge overnight, or in freezer for 4 hours or so.

toast 1/2 cup coconut (about 5 minutes at 350F)

Chop one ripe mango into 1/4" dice and put in freezer.

Make the ice cream according to your ice cream makers directions. During the last few minutes of freezing add the mango and toasted coconut, to taste.

Wow your friends with the fact that this ice cream is vegan.

Salted Coconut Caramel ice cream

Since the Veg's last day of work was Friday, I made her the long-awaited coconut milk caramels as part of her going away present. For those, I dipped in dark chocolate* and sprinkled toasted coconut on the top. I had some of the caramel left, and Miss Mary's Ice Cream Crankin' was coming up, so Salted Coconut Caramel Ice Cream, seemed like just the ticket.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream (vegan)**
**pictures to follow when it comes out of the freezer

2 cans coconut milk (approx. 4 cups)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Coconut caramels (recipe below)

heat 1 can of coconut milk over low heat with the sugars and salt until the sugar and salt melts. take off heat and add in the other can of coconut milk and the vanilla. Stir to combine and chill.

Once chilled (I stick my batter in the freezer for a few hours), churn according to your ice cream makers directions.

When frozen, alternate layers of the ice cream with the caramel sauce.

Coconut caramels (or coconut caramel sauce)
2 cans coconut milk (approx. 4 cups)
1/3 cup corn syrup
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a sauce pan combine the combine 1 1/3 cup coconut milk with the sugar and corn syrup. Over medium / medium high heat bring to up to a boil, without stirring, and then cook to 245 -250 deg F, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. The mixture will darken significantly during this time.

Add 1 1/3 cup coconut milk and again cook to 240 deg F, or so.

Add the last 1 1/3 cup coconut milk and cook to 220 deg F for caramel sauce or 235 deg F for soft caramels.

Off heat add the vanilla.

I found that this is different than using true cream, as there is a higher fat to water ratio with heavy cream. This mixture takes a while to get up to temp and stirring will lower the temperature of the mixture.

* Dipping the caramel's in chocolate is key for the summer weather in GA. Since coconut oil melts at a low temperature, the caramels will get very "soft" (read spread everywhere) and the outer chocolate shell keeps them in a manageable piece. To dip the caramels, cut into pieces and freeze, take a few of the pieces out at a time and dip into the chocolate.

Cooking Club: Japanese

So The Veg and I along with a few others from work have this cooking club thing. We get together once a month or so and have a great meal. This last month was a Japanese meal, sushi, soup, and cookies and ice cream.

ummm, cookies and ice cream??

Yes, as you can see we stuck with the traditional meal and I got to make the traditional cookies and ice cream. Actually, they were definitely Asian inspired and gluten-free and vegan to boot. I'm sure you are all on the edge of you seats waiting for the fantastic recipes that follow!

Jasmine green tea Almond Breeze "Ice Cream"

3 cups Almond Breeze
4 TBS Jasmine Dragon Pearl loose leaf tea
2/3 cup sugar
2 TBS Arrowroot

I think that is the recipe, I am currently doing this from my faulty memory*

Bring 2 cups of the Almond Breeze to a boil add the tea and steep off heat for 15 minutes

meanwhile, stir together the remaining sugar and Almond Breeze, bring this to a boil making sure all of the sugar has dissolved add the arrowroot stir in and take off heat. last time I added the arrowroot straight to the hot liquid, I think it would incorporate better if you mixed it with a little of the Almond Breeze with it before adding it to the hot liquid.

Strain the tea out of the reserved Almond Breeze and mix it in with the hot liquid. Chill overnight and then use your ice cream maker of choice to turn it into frozen goodness.
* I think I may have added some vanilla too, I'll have to go back and check.... nope no vanilla added

* Please note the very Asian maple leaf cookie cutter I found at Dekalb.

Now, Black Sesame Cookies with Matcha Tea Icing
totally ripped from this site: justhungry.com made gluten-free and veganized by me and the Veg

The real ingredient list: (modifications in italics)

Black sesame cookies with matcha icing

For the cookies:

• 50g / 1.75 oz. raw black sesame seeds
• 120g / 4.25 oz. dark brown muscovado sugar
• 250g / 8.8 oz. whole wheat or white cake flour (‘soft’ flour) or regular white all-purpose flour (totally skipped this flour and added the "nearly normal" mix I always talk about)
  
• 100g / 3.5 oz. unsalted butter, at room temperature (we are going vegan here folks, so some strange margarine took the place along with vegan shortening when we ran out of the margarine. Mom, please stop shuddering at the word margarine, I promise I don't have any in my house!)
  
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 large egg (again vegan, I was going to use egg replacer, but the Veg didn't have any so we mixed a tablespoon or so of tapioca starch with about a quarter cup of water, it kind of worked)
  
• A few dashes of almond extract

For the icing:

• 8 Tbs. powdered (icing) sugar
• 2 Tbs. matcha tea powder
• 1 Tbs. egg white or egg white substitute

* I don't think I measured any of this and just did water instead of the egg white. Oh, and the only matcha tea I could find was double matcha green tea. Hence, the green flecks in the icing.

recipe directions can be found here: Leaf shaped black sesame cookies with matcha tea icing

Believe it or not both were very yummy and will be made again...

Eating with a Vegan

So, one of my good friends on board with me on the mothership is a pseudo vegan (kind of like I'm a pseudo celicac, who knows, I may be a real celicac?). Anyway, other than the occasional ice cream, or dessert, she eats only vegetables and grains, sometimes cooked. And has since she was about 2.

About once a week or so we break away from the mothership and scavenge for food somewhere other than our lovely cafe by the lake. I thought it might be interesting to give a little review of restaurants in the northern 'burbs of Atlanta. We will rate them for overall quality of the food, ambiance, and experience, as well as, how friendly they are to our imposed diets.

So, today the Veg and I went to JP Sushi this restaurant came at the recommendation of a "creative" friend at the mothership who scorned our current close and quick sushi place Sushi Haru.

I decide on the sushi lunch, at $12.95 it was a little pricey, but when it came it was a ton of food (soup, salad, 8 piece California roll, and 8 pieces of nigiri), more than I would have gotten from Sushi Haru, but also more expensive. Sushi Haru has a sushi bento box for $9.95 (soup, salad, 2 piece california roll, 4 pieces of Nigiri sushi, spring roll and this awesome pickled salad, it is a good size for a lunch with lots of little tastes). The Veg got the tofu udon, I think it was around $9, or so. Those veggies always eat cheap!

So, to better inform you of our lunching experience we are coming up with a list of questions, here is the first edition, including our answers: The Veg in purple, me in green.

One word to describe your meal at JP's: (you can explain why, if you want)
Wasabi! It is the kind of place where they stick a little bit of wasabi inside the sushi. While this can be good, I like to know in advance so I don't add additional wasabi to my soy sauce (yes I know I shouldn't be eating soy sauce, but this little bit of wheat doesn't seem to bother me)
Vanilla: Nothing about my meal set JP's apart from comparable sushi joints.

What did you enjoy most about your lunch?
The texture of the udon noodles; it's hard to get them soft enough for easy slurping, yet firm enough for biting.
I think the miso soup, it was really good and the tofu had a great silken texture.

Was there anything you hated about your meal?
The inari was a little too sweet and I wished the rice inside had some vegetables or sesame seeds mixed in, but "hate" might be a little strong in this case.
I agree, the inari, was rather dessert-like. I'm glad I didn't get the udon

On a scale of 1-10, how was the veganess/celiac-friendiness of JP's?
5. Though to be fair, I only saw the limited lunch menu and I didn't ask about vegan variations of other dishes.
7. As long as you stuck to sushi, there were a number of choices. Other than that, it didn't look like there were a lot of options.

If you were going to take a celeb (living or dead) to JP's who would it be any why?
Hmmm... i'll have to think on that one...
I agree, it wasn't "out of this world" or totally awful, so I'm not sure who I would take.

Was the food worth the price?
Not quite. I paid $9.95 for a bowl of soup and 2 pieces of inari, and I can get a plate of hibachi, soup, and salad from Sushi Haru across the street for $6.95. If the soup were out of this world, I might have said "yes".
I would have liked a cheaper sushi plate as well, I could have easily had enough lunch with half of the sushi...I wonder if they would offer a half lunch?

Is there anything you would have changed about your experience?
Not off of the top of my head Ditto.

What type of lunch place is it:
A. Dine and Dash - short on time and short on money
B. I've got an hour between conference calls and need a good lunch (the Veg agrees)
C. I've worked my ass off this week and I deserve my lunch and a little bit of a splurge
D. Jan, hold my calls, I'm not coming back in this afternoon and spending like I have an expense account

All in all the Veg gives it 1.5 chopsticks and a half a bowl of satisfaction. I give it 2 chopsticks and a half a bowl of satisfaction.