Updates thru 8-28-11

Added:
Mission figs, cooked or raw
Beets, boiled
Bok choy, boiled or stir fried
Kohlrabi, boiled or baked
Mustard greens, boiled or stir fried
Fennel seed
Bounty paper towels
Sterling Vineyards, CA - pinot gris, sauvignon blanc

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

When this comes right out of the ice cream maker, it tastes a lot like I remember Dairy Queen soft serve tasting when I was growing up!  This is a good, basic vanilla ice cream flavor.  My taste testers either couldn't tell it'd been made from coconut milk or thought they could detect a slight pleasant coconut taste.

Coconut Milk Ice Cream

3 cans Trader Joe's Lite Coconut Milk (only ingredients are coconut milk and water)
2/3 cup organic sugar
1 Tablespoon homemade vanilla

Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan and add the sugar.  Bring to a simmer and keep simmering, stirring occasionally, for 1/2 hour.  Cool to room temp and then add the vanilla.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Process in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Variations:
Use organic dark brown sugar for a caramel flavor.

For peppermint, add 1 cup dried peppermint leaves to coconut milk and sugar.  Simmer  1/2 hour, strain out leaves, cool, add vanilla.

For ginger, add 2 T thinly sliced ginger to the coconut milk and sugar.  Simmer 1/2 hour, remove the ginger pieces, cool and add vanilla.  For a spicier ginger flavor, use 1 T grated ginger and leave it in.

Napa Wine Country

Last month Alex was at a workshop at UC Davis, so Jim and I flew over to California and treated him to a Napa wine weekend!  It's been a challenge to find wines that are oak free and not put through malolactic fermentation (increases the histamine levels), but we found several that were very nice.

I have to share these photos from Sterling Vineyards near Calistoga.  It was one of the most gorgeous wineries I've ever been to - and you get to take a gondola up a mountain to get to the tasting rooms!

Their pinot gris and sauvignon blancs are safe to drink - we tested them out thoroughly!  Their riesling is also no oak, no malo, but I'm not a big riesling fan.  Even at that, it wasn't bad, though.

Scones

I developed this recipe from an old one for cream scones using coconut milk in place of the cream.  Perfect for breakfast or for a snack with coffee/tea!  These are just plain, but a half cup of currants, blueberries, or other fruit could also be added.

Scones
Makes 8

2 cups rice flour
1/4 cup organic sugar
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/3 cup Spectrum palm shortening
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 flax egg substitute recipe
2 tsp. homemade vanilla
a little bit more coconut milk and sugar for the tops

Measure all dry ingredients into a bowl.  Cut in the shortening.  Add the coconut milk, egg substitute, and vanilla.  Stir until well mixed, finishing up by kneading with your hands.

On an ungreased cookie sheet, flatten into a flat circle about 7 inches in diameter.  Cut into 8 pie wedge shapes.  Separate the wedges so no sides are touching.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes - until they have a golden tint to them.

These freeze and reheat really well.  If you don't freeze them, eat them up right away as they get dry pretty quickly.  Different grinds of rice flour hold liquids differently - I grind my own.  If you find your scones are dry even when first baked, add a tablespoon or two more coconut milk.