White and Fuschia Dragonfruit Coconut Sherbet

Check out this thing: dragonfruit! It's nature's drag queen. Fabulous!

This is what the white one looks like on the inside. The flesh is easy to scoop out. The texture of this fruit is just like kiwi-fruit, but the taste is not nearly as sweet. It's more of a neutral and almost bland flavor.

This is the white dragonfruit coconut sherbet, made by combining (in a food processor) the flesh of two dragonfruit, 1 cup of coconut milk, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the juice of half a lime. Place this mixture into an ice cream maker and run for 30 minutes. The sherbet actually came out too sweet, probably because of the coconut milk I used, which was already sweet. Next time, I'll omit the 1/2 cup of sugar. This recipe is adapted from this one: http://mikes-table.themulligans.org/2008/08/05/dragon-fruit-and-coconut-sherbet/

Here's the fuschia dragonfruit, cut open. . . .

. . . and the fuschia dragonfruit coconut sherbet.

Pan-Seared Ahi with Lemon-Butter-Galangal Sauce

Willie and I bought an ahi sashimi tray from Costco. Some of the ahi pieces were not sashimi quality anymore, so we decided to sear those pieces. We placed the seared pieces on a bed of fresh baby arugula and poured a lemon-butter-galangal sauce over the whole thing. It tasted like one of those fancy French sauces you might get at a restaurant! Very tasty. The recipe was adapted from the Lime and Galangal Butter sauce recipe, found here.

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, minced

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 tbsp minced galangal

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup butter, cut into 1 tbsp-size pieces

1 tsp grated lemon zest

2 tbsp lemon juice

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 tbsp freshly chopped cilantro

Directions:

Wash baby arugula and mound onto a plate. Pam-spray a small sauce pan. Salt and pepper the ahi pieces. Put pan on medium heat. Sear ahi pieces, 1-2 minutes per side. Arrange seared ahi pieces on the mound of arugula.

Place the garlic, shallot, galangal, and white wine in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and reduce the wine to 2 tbsp. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time, adding each piece after the last one has melted. Once the butter has been incorporated, whisk in the lemon zest and juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in cilantro. Pour over the ahi and arugula and serve immediately.

Lemongrass Galangal Tea

Look at this knobby thing I picked up at the Fort Street farmers' market! It's galangal, or Thai ginger. It is spicier than ginger, with citron notes. I made a lemongrass galangal tea out of it tonight. The tea is like a mix of hot and cold: zingy heat from the galangal, but cooling and refreshing from the lemongrass. It's also easy to make:

Put 5-6 cups of water into a pot. Bruise two lemongrass stalks, cut them into two-inch pieces, and throw them into the pot. Peel a 2-3 inch piece of galangal and cut it into thin disks; throw these into the pot. Bring pot and contents to a boil, lower heat, then simmer for five minutes. Steep lemongrass and galangal in the water until it cools. I steeped mine for about an hour. Serve over ice.

The original recipe for this drink is here: http://blog.gourmet-lunch.com/gourmet-lunch/2010/03/lemongrass-tea-just-in-time-for-spring-weekend.html

Cheers! Galangal, like ginger, is supposed to be good for the digestive system.

Lemongrass Panna Cotta

Making panna cotta is so easy! Heat up 2 cups of heavy cream over medium heat in a sauce pan. Dissolve in 1/4 cup of white sugar. When the sugar is dissolved, add in 1/2 cup of chopped lemongrass stems (use the greener parts), turn off the heat, and steep for half an hour. Remove the lemongrass stems.

Bloom one packet of gelatin powder in 3 tbsp of cold water. Let stand for 5-10 minutes.

Add the still warm lemongrass cream to the bloomed gelatin and stir until the gelatin dissolves.

Pour into containers. You can Pam-spray the containers beforehand if you want to unmold the panna cotta onto a dish for serving. If you want to serve the panna cotta in the dish in which it was chilled, pour the panna cotta into pretty glasses (wine glass, martini glass).

Chill for at least two hours. To unmold, run a knife along the edge of the chilling dish. Garnish with fresh berries, lemon basil, mint, etc.

Here's the link from which this recipe was adapted: http://http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/04/perfect-panna-cotta/

Enjoy!

Honey Lavender Ice Cream

Remember that restaurant in the old Palomino spot? Yeah, me neither. But I do remember celebrating a birthday there over lunch and having lavender ice cream for dessert! It was unusual and savory-sweet. I wanted to recreate it. I got this recipe from "Homesick Texan":

Ingredients:

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups half-and-half

2 tbsp dried edible lavender flowers (Adrienne's note: I got mine at R. Field, Foodland Beretania)

1/2 cup light honey

2 egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/4 tsp salt

Method:

-->Cook the half-and-half and cream on medium heat until warm. Do not let it come to a boil. Turn off the heat, add the lavender to the pot, cover and let steep for half an hour.

-->After flowers have steeped, strain the liquid and discard the flowers. Add to the liquid the honey and heat on medium low until honey has dissolved. Again, do not let the liquid come to a boil!

-->Beat the egg yolks with the vanilla, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt. Stir into the eggs a half cup of the warm liquid and then add the eggs to the pot.

-->Heat this on medium low for five minutes or until it gets slightly thick. You'll know it's ready when it coats the back of your spoon. Cool in the refrigerator for four hours.

-->Freeze and churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions.

-->Yield: 1 quart

Batido de Guanabana (Milkshake with Soursop Fruit)

When we lived in NYC and visited Puerto Rico now and then, Willie introduced me to the wonderful world of batidos: thick, Caribbean-style milkshakes often made with exotic fruits. He likes batidos de mamey; I like batidos de guanabana. The guanabana is a freaky, reptilian-looking fruit. When cut open, it has meaty white flesh strung through with fibers and studded with large, smooth, dark seeds. Here are Willie's thoughts on eating guanabana: "A guanabana doesn't taste how it looks. You think it would be creamy and vanilla-ish, but it isn't. When you bite into it, you experience an explosion of tropical flavors"-- a mash-up of banana, strawberry, lilikoi, and citrus. To make a batido de guanabana, throw the following into a blender and mix until smooth: 1 cup guanabana pulp; 1/2 cup cold milk; 1/4 cup sugar; and 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy! Recipe credit: http://www.food.com/recipe/batido-de-guanabana-guanabana-shake-120818

Enoki butter

When I was 18 and in college, I worked at Sharaku, a Japanese restaurant in the East Village in NYC. They served a grilled mushroom dish called "Enoki Butter." It was a simple preparation but so delicious. Oh, hey, dirty little secret about Sharaku circa 1993, 1994-- if you dined there and didn't eat your leftovers and didn't ask for a doggie bag, the reason why it took me forever to bring you your check was because I was eating your food back in the kitchen. Okay, I feel better now coming clean.

I found a recipe for Enoki Butter from the blog Kirsten's Recipes. If you click on the link, you'll also see a nice candid photo of Kirsten and her friends in Las Vegas with Suge Knight! (???) I'm kinda scared of Kirsten! Here's her (adapted) recipe:

Cut off the spongey ends of the enoki mushrooms. Toss enoki mushrooms with 1 tbsp sake, 1 tbsp ponzu shoyu (just mix ponzu with shoyu), salt and pepper. Place in foil. Put a 1 tsp to 1/2 tbsp knob of butter over the mushrooms. Seal up the foil pack and bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

http://homecookkirsten.blogspot.com/2007/07/roasted-enoki-mushrooms-izakaya-style.html