The days and nights of acugirl

There once was a man named Bertold
Who drank beer when the weather grew cold
As he reached for his cup...
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From here.

Kulfi

1 cup milk or heavy cream
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 slices white bread, crusts removed
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch salt
2 tbl finely chopped pistachios, plus 1 cup ground pistachios for serving

1. Place the three kinds of milk in a saucepan with the cardamom, cinnamon, salt, and 2 tbl pistachios. Tear up the bread into pieces and add to the pan. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then remove from heat and let cool a couple minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Pour the mixture into popsicle molds, muffin cups or tall glasses. Freeze until firm. (Note: for kulfi ice cream, you can churn the mixture in your ice cream maker)
3. To serve, quickly dip the bottom of the mold in a bowl of hot water to release the edges. Unmold the kulfi and roll the edges in the finely ground pistachios.
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I did not add salt, as my pistachios were salted. We also did not get around to rolling the edges in ground pistachios, as the popsicles had to be dug out of the molds with spoons. (Sticks did not stick.) So I would recommend muffin cups. Or freezing FOREVER. It really was a great consistency, I thought, just not something a stick would hold in. Frozen for 24 hours and driven for half an hour in a car whose ac blows hot, that's what you get.

For those of you who do not cook, I imagine this would work just fine if you tossed everything in the blender to start with. However, heating it helps the condensed milk flow and develops the spice flavors.

adapted from "what we ate last night" as seen on tastespotting.

1 ripe banana
1/2 c butter, margarine, or shortening
1 4 oz cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1t vanilla extract
1t peppermint extract
1t salt or 3/4t kosher salt
1t baking soda
1/2c cocoa
2c whole wheat flour
1 package mini peppermint patties
extra chocolate chips to taste

Cream fat, fruits, and sugar. Add extracts (having no peppermint extract, I used 2 drops essential oil and water to volume), salt, and baking powder. Stir in cocoa powder. Gradually add flour. (That was all done in the stand mixer, but do this part by hand!) Gently fold in chocolate and mini-peppermint patties. These baking candies break really easily!

Drop onto lined cookie sheets and bake at 375F until done. Mine were still way too soft at 13 minutes but would probably be burnt by 20. Cool on rack.


Oddly, these tasted better after a day or two. The ones off my silpats worked great; off of wax paper they were a little crumbly on the spatula. Fresh out of the oven, the fruit was really overwhelming. I could distinctly taste both the apple and the banana. Somehow once they got a little stale, the fruit got more subtle and the mint really came out. If I'd had vodka, I'd definitely have used that to round out the volume instead of water so as to disperse the peppermint oil better. Alas, the only alcohol in the apartment was tequila, and I didn't think Cuervo would go in cookies so well, even a teaspoon. Though I actually have used anejo especial in biscotti in place of orange liquer, and they were pretty good!

Chop 1/2 head of red cabbage. Wok (you need some room, so an actual wok is best) fry in (all approximations) 1T sesame oil, 1T soy sauce, 1 1/2 t apple cider vinegar, 2 dashes tabasco, 1t sugar, few grinds of pepper. Stir until cabbage is broken up. Keep cooking until the big chunks are as tender as you want them.