Cool Creamy Fruity Ice Cream and Mexican Chili "Hot" Popcorn

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.  That pretty much sums up the week here in Chicago!!  We broke all kinds of high temperature records with multiple days reaching above 100°!!  You could literally fry an egg on the sidewalk.  We even had some wacky rain storms as a result of the crazy heat.  B”H we managed to get our broken air conditioning fixed on Tuesday…or you would have been able to mop us up with a Swiffer mop!  I’ve been trying to keep my optimistic garden from completely drying out, which has been a bit of a challenge (until yesterday’s crazy rainstorm), and I even “Miracle Growed” it to give the garden a fighting chance.  We did get some awesome tomatoes – hooray!  The cute heirloom little yellow ones ripened (my Mom KIH described them as very “tomatoey”), and we picked the first harvest of the bright red cherry tomatoes – there are a lot of little green ones just waiting to turn.  The squash is flowering, but sadly our cucumbers and strawberries fell victim to the pesky #$@&* squirrels.  For some reason the peppers haven’t really been producing, maybe they realize that there’s already enough heat in the yard!!

It looks so innocent - but it's HOT!
(can't stop shnookering!!)

In honor of the extreme heat this week I decided to give you a “hot” recipe – Mexican Chili “Hot” Popcorn, and to make up for the extra heat – a cool one too: Cool Creamy Fruity Ice Cream!   Thursday night, Dear Husband and I were trying to decide what recipes to add to this week’s article.  Now it turns out that our favorite second oldest son works for the local Kosher Chinese restaurant, Tein Li Chow (shameless plug), and he brought home some extra Kung Pao Sauce (thanks!).  Dear Husband had added the sauce to some leftover multi-grain rice and was eating that while we were having the discussion.  It smelled incredible (I was actually sniffing the empty bowl when he was done!), and I kindly asked him to make some for me too (YUM!!).  Now, although you all know that we love spicy food here, it may be a lesser known fact that Dear Husband and I love to snack on popcorn.  We usually air pop a huge bowl, spray it with butter flavored non-stick spray, then sprinkle on the Kernel Season’s white cheddar seasoning.  OMG – it’s SO good!  We can easily polish off an entire bowl during a movie.  It was a really simple transition to go from eating incredible, fiery Kung Pao rice, to spicy popcorn – right?  This time I made the popcorn in a pot instead of air popping it.   In order to make the popcorn really hot, I used a little bit of oil and heated the crushed Mexican Chili in the oil.  It really brought out the heat of the peppers!  I then added the popcorn kernels, tightly covered the pot and a few minutes later – perfectly popped hot popcorn.  I used some fine sea salt, but you could use any type of popcorn salt as well.  The popcorn was awesome.  It has a subtle heat to it that somehow manages to get hotter as you eat it.  For those that like it hot, this is the perfect snack!!  Dear Husband was commenting that you could theoretically make all different types of flavored popcorn this way.  I’ll keep you posted.

To make up for the extra heat that I just added to your already hot summer, here is a recipe for Cool Creamy Fruity Ice Cream.  Originally, this is one of my aish.com Summertime Recipes and is posted as a layered popsicle type dessert or a refrigerated parfait.  You can make it as a single pan of your favorite flavor of fruity ice cream though.   I had enough people that liked the vanilla section by itself that you could leave the fruit out altogether (gasp!) and just make some really fast, easy, and delicious vanilla ice cream too – no ice cream maker required.  It’s a great recipe to “chill” to.

Enjoy and stay cool! 

GFE: Great for the Gluten Free Eater! 

Mexican Chili “Hot” Popcorn (GFE)

·         2 tablespoons canola oil

·         1 teaspoon crushed red peppers/Mexican chili

·         ½ cup popping corn

·         ½ teaspoon extra fine salt, or to taste

Coat the bottom of a large stock pot with the oil.  Add the crushed red pepper and turn the heat on to medium-high.  Add the popping corn and shake the pan to coat the corn.  Allow the oil to heat for a minute, then cover tightly and reduce the heat to medium.  Pop the corn, shaking the pan frequently to keep the corn from burning.  When the popping slows considerably, turn off the heat and allow the corn to pop for another minute until the popping stops.  Sprinkle with the salt and toss to coat.  Transfer to a bowl and enjoy!

So easy...

Use the best ingredients...

 Heat the oil and crushed chilis....

 Add the popcorn...

 It may look innocent...

but watch out!!

This stuff is HOT baby! 

Cool Creamy Fruity Ice Cream (GFE)

·         2 pints blueberries, washed & dried

·         2 teaspoons blueberry extract (optional)

·         blue gel food coloring (optional)              

OR

·         2 pounds strawberries, hulled, washed, dried and cut into halves

·         2 teaspoon strawberry extract (optional)

·         red gel food coloring (optional)

·         1 package instant vanilla pudding mix, 3.4 ounces

·         2 cups heavy whipping cream

·         2 tablespoons sugar

Using a food processor, coarsely chop the fruit and 2 tablespoons of sugar.  Place the fruit in a medium bowl and set aside. 

In a large mixing bowl, whip the heavy whipping cream and pudding mix until stiff peaks form.  Fold the fruit, extract, and food coloring (if using) into the cream.  Transfer to a large aluminum pan or plastic storage container with a tight lid.  Cover and freeze for at least 3 hours.  Scoop into individual dessert cups and garnish with your favorite toppings. 

Notes:

·         For vanilla ice cream omit the fruit and proceed with the recipe as described above.

·         For chocolate ice cream, substitute chocolate pudding mix.

For mini cream pops and for individual dessert cups see my article Summertime Recipes on aish.com.

Kosher Everyday is dedicated to the memory of my father

Dr. Theodore Saltzberg - Tuvia Ben Nachum Z”L

May his memory be for a blessing - Yihi zichro baruch.

Look for additional information about Edible Experience Kosher Everyday at www.koshereveryday.com,

aish.com, Mishpacha Magazine’s Kosher Inspired Magazine,

The Chicago Tribune Syndication,

 or on Facebook at Edible Experience by Sharon Matten.

These recipes are for sole, personal use of visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible Experience Kosher Everyday. Edible Experience Kosher Everyday recipes are for your enjoyment but are not to be posted or reprinted without express permission from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!

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Plum Kuchen

Plum Kuchen - looks like it
came from a magazine....

Nearly every newspaper ad, and store email advertisement are headlined with “Back to School Sales”!  The PTA back to school committees are hard at work planning for the new school year, and we’re all starting to get our kid’s school supplies ready for the start of school just a few short weeks away.  Where did the summer go?  Wait, I know what happened…I blinked…and summer flew by while my eyes were closed! 

One of the back to school tasks we parents have (for those of you yet to be parents you can live vicariously through me) is getting in those ten thousand sheets of back to school forms.  Many of them are important medical forms which require us to have our children on the expedited appointment list because we didn’t get them in to see the doctor during the year!  This also generally means long waits in the doctors’ waiting room, while the doctor sees the children of other procrastinating parents!  Now most people might see the need to kill time as a down side to a doctors’ visit...not me!  As long as I don’t have another urgent appointment, I love waiting in doctors’ waiting rooms (please don’t tell them that…even though I happen to like being there I still have other things I could be doing)!  The reason is because I get to read all the magazines that I don’t subscribe to at home.  I don’t mean Golf Digest, or Modern Undertaker, I’m talking about magazines like Rachael Ray, Cooking Light, Family Fun, and Good Housekeeping – magazines that have great articles and especially great recipes!   I always manage to find the best recipes in the magazines I read while waiting for appointments.  I think the receptionists hide when they see me because I’m the crazy patient that begs them “Can you make a copy of just this one recipe…please!? Doesn’t it look SO good?!”   The better offices have more current magazines…those are the best.  You can find awesome recipes using fresh seasonal ingredients.   I was recently at the eye doctor with my daughter and found an amazing recipe for Plum Kuchen in the July 2011 edition of Cooking Light Magazine.  A Plum Kuchen is just a round coffee cake baked with tons of fresh plums on top.  I love the fact that it uses a rainbow of different colored fresh plums.  It caught my eye because it was just so pretty!  Additionally,  I was excited about this recipe because I got to use my pastry cutter gadget, which normally doesn’t get a ton of use.  The Plum Kuchen also has some incredibly interesting spices which blend deliciously in this cake.  Even though this recipe came from Cooking Light, I made it even lighter.  I cut the amount of margarine in the recipe by nearly half, and also cut the amount of sugar.  It’s a great breakfast cake with your morning coffee or tea.  It just tastes incredibly fresh!

My cool pastry cutter tool!

Although school is just a few short weeks away, we may try to squeeze in a short family vacation to a place that’s a driveable distance away.  Here in the Midwest we may even find some farm stands along the way…how fun would that be?!!  I’ll let you know what I find…

For those of you that are trying to figure out what to make while on vacation take a look at my past blog Cooking Kosher Vacation Style for fun and yummy recipes you can make while on the road!

PLUM KUCHEN

1 ½      cups                 all-purpose flour

2          tablespoons      sugar

2          tablespoons      brown sugar

1          teaspoon          baking powder

¼         teaspoon          salt

1/8       teaspoon          ground cardamom

4          tablespoons      margarine

½         cup                   soy milk

½         teaspoon          pure vanilla extract

1          large                 egg

                                    Non-stick vegetable spray

FOR THE TOPPING

1 ½      pounds             plums, multi colored, pitted, and

                                    cut into quarters (I cut the reallylarge ones into 8ths)

1          teaspoon          grated lemon rind

¼         teaspoon          ground allspice

½         cup                   sugar (original recipe calls for 2/3 cup)

1/8       teaspoon          salt

Preheat oven to 425° F.  Spray a 9” springform pan with non-stick vegetable spray, then line with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cardamom in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.  Cut in 4 tablespoons margarine with a pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Combine soy milk, vanilla, and egg in a bowl, stirring with a whisk.  Add milk mixture to flour mixture, and stir until just combined.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and spread with an offset or regular spatula until evenly distributed.  Arrange plums in a circular pattern over the batter.

For the topping, combine lemon rind, allspice, sugar, and salt in a small bowl.  Evenly sprinkle over the top of the plums.  Generously spray the cake with non-stick vegetable spray.  Bake for 40-45 minutes until browned and bubbling.  Cool in pan 1 hour on a wire rack.  Cut into wedges and serve to excited family and friends!

Original recipe can be found on the Cooking Light website: Cooking Light Plum Kuchen

PLUM KUCHEN

The ingredients...

 This is what a "coarse meal" looks like:

Evenly spread the batter in the pan...

Fresh, colorful, juicy, sliced plums... 

so pretty!

Place the plums in a circular pattern

on the batter...

Make the sugary topping...

Sprinkle the sugar on the plums...

My version of the Plum Kuchen...

sooooo yummy!!

and..."It tastes as good as it looks!"

Look for additional information about Edible Experience Kosher Everyday at www.koshereveryday.com, aish.com,

 or on Facebook at Edible Experience by Sharon Matten.

These recipes are for sole, personal use of visitors to Sharon Matten -Edible Experience Kosher Everyday. Edible Experience Kosher Everyday recipes are for your enjoyment but are not to be posted or reprinted without express permission from Sharon Matten. Thank you!!