May 2012 – Food Follies

Kiwi Sorbet

It’s 85 degrees with 100 percent humidity. You happen to have a nice bunch of fresh kiwi fruits in the refrigerator. Do you just cut them up and eat them?

Well, you could. And it would be delicious. But even better because of the high temperature, make kiwi sorbet! Here’s the recipe we used, pieced together from various versions found online to make our own:

Kiwi Sorbet Recipe

4 or 5 kiwis
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 cups ice cold water
ice cream maker of some sort

Cut your kiwi up into small pieces into a medium sized bowl. Sprinkle the lemon juice over it. Then sprinkle the sugar over it and mix it up a bit. Cover it and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Take the kiwi out of the fridge, and put it in a blender or food processor and blend/mix until it’s puree. Some chunks are okay. Add the corn syrup and the cold water and mix until blended – won’t take long – a few bursts is all. Final concoction may seem a little liquidy, but that’s just right.Â (If you don’t want the little seeds in your sorbet, this would be the best point to put the liquid through a strainer – if you still had chunks in your puree though you’ll have to manually make sure those get into the final mix of course.)

Pour it into your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer directions. Put in freezer!

And *poof* – hot day deliciousness…

Regrowing Green Onion Sprouts in Water

Both John and I really love adding green onions to many of our meals, and after doing a little research on the internet (just search for ‘regrowing green onions’), we decided to try a very simple experiment.Take the root ball end of the green onion (ours had a little green up top still, as you can see in the image) and put it in a jar of water in a sunny place. It will regrow at an alarming rate! This image, taken yesterday, shows growth of only about a day and a half. This morning it was even more surprising – like some kind of fragrant alien flora or the vegetable equivalent of a tribble. 😉

After reading some of the suggestions online, I think I’ll be planting these in soil after a few weeks/months too, and see where it goes from there. It’ll be fun to try this with other herbs too (basil was suggested in one article – buy a clipping and root it in water before planting), although eventually we’re going to run out of counter space and have no place to chop up the onions in the first place… or maybe that’s their evil plan to begin with!

Crumb Top Apple Pie

This Crumb Top Apple Pie recipe is just the thing if you don’t have enough apples to make a regular apple pie; the recipe originally called for three cups of sliced apples instead of the usual six cups. Of course, this recipe requires a lot more butter for the topping than the basic apple pie recipe too, but we actually HAD butter we needed to use up (long story involving a malfunctioning refrigerator) so it worked out for us.

I started with the recipe from the The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook and made a few changes – you can see our modified version below.

And here’s the glorious outcome!

The topping was nicely crisp, and since the apple filling layer is thinner, it’s not QUITE as much sticky-sweetness as a normal apple pie. I’d recommend eating it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to round out all the flavors nicely.

Crumb Top Apple Pie

This pie is two equal depth layers – apples on the bottom and crumb topping on the top.

Crust Ingredients
(or use one part of a prepared crust)
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cups butter, slightly softened
3 tablespoons ice water

Filling Ingredients
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
3 cups tart apple slices (we recommend Granny Smiths)

Crumb Topping
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups lightly brown sugar, NOT packed
1 cup of unsalted butter, softened, cut into small chunks

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Crust: Measure the flour into a large bowl. Use a pastry blender
(or two knives) to cut the butter into the flour until you get very
small chunks. Add the ice water, by tablespoon – not all at once,
into the mixture, tossing with a fork until integrated into the dough,
and the dough is moist all around. Using your hands, form the dough
into a ball, and roll it out on a lightly floured surface, large
enough to fit the bottom of a 9-inch glass pie dish. Fold and crimp
the edges to finish.

Filling: In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Add the apple slices and mix gently until all of the apples are coated.
Scoop the apple mixture into the pie crust.

Topping: In a medium or large bowl, mix the flour and brown sugar together.
Using a pastry blender (or two knives), cut in the butter until the mixture
LOOKS like a coarse crumb topping. Sprinkle the mixture over the filling
in the pie pan – make sure it’s well covered.

Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 375 and
bake for 25-35 minutes longer, or until golden brown on top. Serve with
vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.