OMG a Recipe: Holiday Eats and Treats on the Move!

I admit, I'm remiss on the holiday hoopla on the blog this year, not that we haven't decorated the house or put up a tree -- the house is festooned with festive-ness! I just haven't had a chance to take proper photos and post accordingly, but feel free to peek at our holiday shenanigans on my Instagram feed. I will share some of the resources for my holiday eats -- this year has been busy with making treats that can be mailed, and pre-made items easy to bring to others' houses, so that's why I call this Holiday Eats and Treats on the Move!

Homemade chips n' dips - an easy make-ahead/portable party snack - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Mixed Plate: Keep Calm and Bake a Crostata

No offense to May, there were some really fantastic things going on, like fun restaurant meetups, mixing art and food, and yes, even a television appearance! But I have to say, May, I'm through with you. I'm dumping all your stuff out of that extra drawer and you'd better take that prized anthology of Police Academy DVDs with you on your way out. Thankfully it has nothing to do with food or restaurants, it's just the tough, sinewy gristle of Life that really made for some extra drama that nobody needs. So All Hail June, and may you be boring and drama-free!

Even the crostata couldn't keep itself from falling apart from all the craziness afoot - Photo by Wasabi Prime

May started out quietly enough, but it brought the hammer down with a couple of Whammies about midway through, when we had a total freak accident happen to the house, and then we took the dog, aka Miss Indiana Jones, for a routine teeth cleaning that got all Bat Country on us. One sandtrap at a time, I know -- as to the house, or the garage to be more specific, it kind of had the opposite of an organ prolapse. As in, hey lookie - the outsides are now on the inside! It was an accident, plain and simple, but a big industrial lawn mower went out of control and sorta crashed into our garage -- with the door still closed. It felt like a meteor hit the house, everything shook. The force of the impact blew the lower half of the garage outside-in, which is rather impressive considering the door is attached with springs that have enough torque to take your head off if you were messing with them. The mower is about the size of a small car, and luckily neither of our cars were damaged -- Brock was at work and mine was miraculously shielded by a support beam, which got Streetfighter-smackdowned by the mower. Ouch. 

What your garage should not look like, fyi - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I totally expected the Mayhem character from the Allstate ads to show up in his bedraggled black suit, covered in band-aids and do a little jig amid the chaos of spinning blades and wet grass spattered everywhere. The main thing is, no one was hurt, the landscape company that we've been with for years and are very good, were equally very good about taking care of things. Sometimes poop happens.  I admit, my brain was in a haze for a while and it was hard to focus that week, trying to deal with getting that sorted along with the daily work. End-of-day cocktails were a must, and I imbibed with gusto and unholy passion.

Don't mess with the Cone of Shame - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Our next doozy was Indy-related. She's getting older -- she's over 7 years, which is semi-ancient in dog years -- so that means dental care is more of a priority. It's not like we're shoving candy bars and ice cream her way, not that she'd complain, but plaque builds up and dogs can't brush and floss on their own; once teeth go bad, it's like with people -- it's painful and you're more prone to infection. We scheduled Indy's teeth cleaning, which means they have to put the animal under anesthesia. Knowing we're having to pay for the total knock-out, we got other stuff taken care of -- surgical shopping spree! She had a tiny, benign little bump on the edge of her eyelid that had the potential to grow and bother her eye later, so we had it removed. This is all with good intentions of course -- professional teeth cleaning, weirdo growth removals -- but we wind up looking like total dog owner monsters because I brought home a completely stoned Indy with a shaved eye, having to wear The Cone of Shame for two weeks until her eye could heal and the stitch was removed. She looked like a really crappy pirate, minus the eye patch. And the Cone only added insult to injury. We "leveled up" her hard plastic Cone of Shame with a soft but sturdy nylon version, which was easier to get on and off with velcro. This led to Indy being velcroed to the carpet a few times after a nap, which I admit, is kinda funny. Zero peripheral vision, a much wider turn radius, and many collisions with furniture and our legs, it's been an awesome couple of weeks.

Stay calm, Cone Dog, dessert is on the way - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Which finally leads me to the food part -- sure, they say it's not healthy to cushion the sting of whatever emotional slings and arrows with food, but dessert sure helps. I had a frozen pie crust at the ready, which I think everyone should have in their freezers -- there's no evil that can't be undone with a fresh baked pie. The CSA delivery brought us fresh strawberries and rhubarb, and making a crostata, a rustic, flat version of a pie, is probably one of the best things you can do in a pinch. You can fill this flat pie with anything, really -- sweet and savory alike. I actually cushioned those emotional slings and arrows with several different foods, but this dessert is one that can be made in record time, if you have the basics at hand. And even if you don't, store bought pie dough works in a pinch. It's a crisis man, we require dessert triage! Let the blog title ring true, when trouble sets in, simply keep calm and bake a crostata.

OMG a Recipe: Bourbon Whisky for Dessert

There's nothing wrong with a little hair o' the dog after a day in the saltmines of cubicle-land. There's also nothing wrong with a touch of sweetness at day's end. So let's put our hands together for making it a little less socially awkward to say you're having whiskey for dessert.

Who says you can't have whisky for dessert? - Photo by Wasabi Prime

We always have a bottle of Maker's Mark around the house. No, not stashed in the sock drawer or places where the late night ads ask a bunch of questions to determine if you have a problem or not. We keep it around the kitchen because it's as handy for sipping as it is for cooking. I add a little to the cheap vodka that's steeping vanilla beans for vanilla extract -- you can also draw from this to mix cocktails. I deglaze pans with a splash of it and some chicken broth, making a nice little sauce to go with some seared chicken paillards. It's a good bourbon whisky, more expensive than other brands, but the flavor is nice, and you don't need much to add its caramel, lightly smoky taste to things.

So of course I wanted to incorporate some liquor when I made a bourbon-themed dessert of ice cream and pie. Duh, who wouldn't? The pie was a basic apple pie, which I added pears in, just because I had them -- thanks, CSA box. The pie crust is, as always, Wasabi Mom's vinegar pastry crust. The filling was a basic apple pie -- about 2 or 3 pounds' worth of cored apples (and pears, in my case) sliced thin and tossed with a couple of teaspoons of ground cinnamon, a teaspoon of fresh nutmeg, a quarter cup of sugar, a tablespoon of flour to help absorb any excess fruit juices, and I saw this on a food show -- a dash of Angosturra bitters. A pie shop in NYC was being profiled (sorry, I can't remember their name!!) and they mentioned their use of bitters in their pie filling, to balance out the sweetness and give it a nice balance. Brilliant! I had to try it. For this pie filling, I also folded a bourbon caramel sauce with the seasoned fruit -- it added more volume and liquid to the mix, which I wasn't in love with, so I'd skip the caramel sauce in the filling or maybe drizzle the top with it. That part needs re-working, so I'm not listing details until I get something that's worth sharing, and it was likely just gilding the dessert-lily anyways, since I made ice cream to go with the pie.

There's always time for pie - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Bourbon in ice cream = Winning. I used my standby basic ice cream recipe, and added about a tablespoon or two of good maple syrup. And I mean the real stuff, not in the squeeze bottle shaped like a bad racial stereotype. I put a little less than a shot of whisky, so about an ounce, while the milk/sugar/vanilla/maple mixture was simmering. I do this before the eggs, as I want some time for the liquor to burn off. I know -- what's the point?! I don't want the alcohol content too high to where the ice cream won't set properly. I doubt a shot of booze would keep the ice cream from doing its thing, but I also like to keep the ice cream available for 21 and under. You still get the little bite of whisky, but the flavor is heightened with the extra vanilla and the maple really compliments it. On its own, it's a great alternative to a typical vanilla, but on a pie of any kind, it's ridonkulously good. And yes, that's a real word. An awesome one.

Ice cream and pie, best looking couple ever - Photos by Wasabi Prime

One of the reasons I was playing around with bourbon in desserts was because I was working on a dessert for Drink Me Magazine. I liked the combo of maple and bourbon so much, I developed a maple bourbon cheesecake for the latest issue that's out now. There's a kick of spice to it, so it's not all sweet, which I prefer with desserts. Cheesecake isn't a quickie dessert, it needs a little love, but it's worth the time and I'm particularly pleased with the brulee top. Giving it a smoky, candied sugar crunch adds a pleasant texture against the creaminess of the cheesecake. And it's fun to shout out, "Let's kick the tires and light the fires!" as you hand torch the crap out of the top of a whole dessert.

Behind the scenes on a photo shoot day - Photos by Wasabi Prime

Head to Drink Me's site to check out the whole magazine online, or if you're in the San Francisco area, printed copies are available. You can also check out their new look, they've been doing some fun things with the magazine and I look forward to developing more recipes. It's always a challenge to try and incorporate wine, beer or liquor into things on a plate, versus a glass. Hope you like the recipe, or if nothing else, the notion of mixing your drinks with food!

OMG A Recipe: Thanks, Mom

It's a little early for Mother's Day, but I have to say that Moms are great. Along with the whole giving birth thing, they also happen to pass along some lifelong wisdom that you'll carry with you for the rest of your life... including a darn fine pie crust recipe.

Mom's Vinegar Pastry Crust - for reaching Dessert Nirvana - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I've talked a good game about Wasabi Mom's Vinegar Pastry Crust, which has pretty much become my staple. I have plenty of recipes and tried different versions, but quite frankly, this is the one I have decided is my forever go-to, and that's that. Strong words, yes, but aside from the fact it's the pie crust I grew up around, it's a pretty solid recipe to use, whether your'e doing fruit or custard-based pies. It bakes up crisp, flaky and quite sturdy. This is a real crust, like Plate Tectonics, the whole Pangea nine yards -- it will not get mushy or fall apart against any pie filling foe. This is likely due to the vinegar, which don't worry, doesn't flavor the crust, its purpose is to keep the dough moist while it's getting mixed and disappears upon baking. Since vinegar is basically wine gone sour, the alcohol burns off in the baking process and helps ensure a flaky and crisp crust. There's also egg in the recipe, which I know sounds a little odd -- most recipes don't use an egg, but this one does and I don't question the Wisdom of Mom, so I just leave it be, believing it to add to the crust's signature sturdiness. Most of the pies I've been making lately are overloaded with fruit and I'm never completely certain how much liquid the fruit filling will give off, but this crust remains a good old soldier and stands up nicely to whatever kind of pie you make.

I made an apple and pear pie recently, a nice treat after a cold weather dinner of the equally carbohydrate-laden roasted squash and fennel-topped risotto. I blame the chill of a rainy evening on the need to just go balls-out for the carbs, making a creamy batch of risotto while some fennel and kabocha pumpkin roasted away in the oven. Can you not hear the lyrics of Milli Vanilli's Blame it on the Rain right now? Maybe that's just in my head... I know doctors recommend medication for this sort of problem. Bah -- silly details!! The risotto was another CSA-inspired meal -- I like how fennel loses its strong licorice flavor and gains more sweetness after a good roast, and kabocha has such a pleasant natural sweetness to it already. After the oven had its way with them, I thought they would be a hearty topping to risotto and be a comfortable thing to tuck into one cold night. Especially when you have 1990's lip-synch pop stars singing in your head.


Roasted Kabocha and Fennel over Risotto on a Cold Winter's Night - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Dinner was dropping bombs of nomz as the rain pelted the windows and turned the Seasonal Affective Disorder knob to Eleven on the Misery Scale, but of course the highlight is always dessert. And maybe that's why I made the pie. Aside from the fact that our CSA box included a small commune of apples and pears, there's nothing that lifts the spirits quite like something delicious being baked in the oven. And Mom Knows Best -- when she bakes, the house smells amazing and all the problems and stresses of the world just seem a little smaller, knowing there's going to be fresh-baked pie coming out of the oven. Having made the dough a few hours earlier in the food processor and letting it rest in the fridge, it was soft and rollable, easy to split into two rounds, with one half used for the bottom crust and I rolled and sliced the remainder of the dough into strips to make a lattice top. I can never weave it perfectly, there's always some wonky weave action happening, but covering a big pile of peeled and sugared pear and apple slices covered in cinnamon and nutmeg, no one's going to care if you should have over-ed instead of under-ed.

Pie and Risotto, and much like Milli Vanilli, I Blame it on the Rain - Photos by Wasabi Prime

So, without further adieu, here's my mom's pie crust recipe. I'm sure she doesn't mind me sharing it with everyone, just send out a Wasabi Mom Shout-Out when you're baking pies on rainy days. Pie Thug Life 4-EVER.

Wasabi Mom's Vinegar Pastry Crust (makes two pie crusts)

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups cold shortening or butter, cut into cubes
3 cups sifted all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp vinegar
Up to 5 tbsp cold ice water

In a mixing bowl or food processor, add all dry ingredients, sifted together. Cut shortening or butter in, until the mixture resembles small peas. Add the egg, vinegar and slowly add the ice water until the the pastry just holds together. You may end up using less water than the 5 tablespoons, it just depends on the weather and humidity of the air. Gather the dough together and form into a large disc, wrapping tightly with clear plastic. Place wrapped dough into the refrigerator and allow it to chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling into the shape of a pie crust.

When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake until golden brown. To give it a more rich color, lightly brush with milk or cream before baking. Add a sprinkle of sugar to caramelize and add texture.

UnRecipe: Summer Retrospective and a Hearty Welcome to Fall

It of course comes as no surprise to anyone that summer has Peaced-Out. The golden hues of autumn are literally setting the trees ablaze in color, there's a distinctive nip in the air, and I spent part of this past weekend covered in dirt and smelly stuff, putting our vegetable garden "to bed" for the winter, turning and amending the soil with our collected compost for the year and planting what I hope are the last of the future spring bulbs I had on order. Digging around in the dirt and causing mass hysteria to the local earthworm community, I thought of the summer goodness we were able to enjoy, from our own garden as well as our CSA Box o' Mystery Goodness (which I believe will continue through winter, but no idea what we'll be getting beyond mountains of kale).

Peach and nectarine crostata - farewell, Summer! - Photo by Wasabi Prime

Some of the last truly summer dishes I made this year included making some desserts with what felt like the swan song of stone fruit from our CSA delivery and enjoying fresh heirloom tomatoes from our own garden. We received a bunch of peaches and nectarines in one delivery, but you could tell they were pretty firm, you didn't get a heady scent from the fruit implying ripeness and probably picked early, before they could get super-sweet. I know you can bag-ripen the fruit and let the sugars develop further, but I was also getting ready to head out of town and didn't want to be wondering what to do with several pounds' worth of super-ripe fruit before getting out of Dodge. Desserts are some of the best ways to use a surplus of fruit, and the underripeness I think helps with baking, as there's not too much excess liquid and the dessert isn't overly sweet. I made two things, a regular pie and a crostata, sort of a rustic cross between a pie and a tart. I had too much fruit to pile into a single pie, and most pie dough recipes provide enough to make two bottom pie shells. I like crostatas as they're desserts you can make in a pinch, with just about any fruit, and it's meant to be imperfect, since you're not using any special dishes or molds to make it. You literally roll the pie dough flat, lay your filling evenly in the center, leaving enough room to fold the excess perimeter of dough over to create a barrier to hold everything in. Brush an egg wash or some milk on the exposed dough and sprinkle with some large sugar crystals to give it sparkle before baking it off. Not that pies are particularly fussy, but crostatas are even more easy and basic, and the finished dessert literally frames the fruit filling, so it truly celebrates your ingredients.

Stone fruit celebration - desserts with the last of the summer goods - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I know everyone loves the pretty lattice-work of a classic pie. I've done it a few times and it's lovely. But lately I really like seeing the fruit in a pie, so I skip covering it up and just make a crumble crust to top the pie. I use oats, sugar and some flour (basic fruit crumble topping; can use from any favorite recipe), which help give it a little crunch along the top, it helps absorb extra liquid from the fruit, but you still see the filling in all its rustic glory. I also don't trim off the excess overhang when you lay the bottom shell into the pie pan. I just add the fruit filling and take the excess dough and fold it over, so it keeps the fruit contained along the edges and you keep that unfinished, rough-hewn look. When you brush it with some milk or an egg wash, it browns nicely and helps keep the shape of the pie slice when you cut it, just like with the crostata. Again, it's that whole rustic, unfussy look I've been gravitating towards. It's due in part to a bit of laziness and a desire to see the ingredients and know what you're eating.

Enjoying tomatoes in the raw or slow cooked - Photos by Wasabi Prime

I got really excited when I harvested this year's tomato crop. And I mean REALLY excited, because were I to be judged as a fit garden-mommy, the Garden Protective Services would have to step in and haul my precious veggies away. I was a baaaaaad garden mom. I picked out several different heirloom tomato plants of all sorts and sizes, getting several from the local farmers markets. I got varieties like Early Girl, for its fast maturation, some smaller varieties like a cherry-sized Black Krim, as the wee ones usually can be harvested earlier, and some other ones that had equally short maturation periods as we already knew the summer would be a short growing period. I had all these good intentions, got the soil all ready for tomatoes since the plants can be a bit of a drain on nutrients, but when the heat of summer really hit, I admit, I got lazy with watering and for all intensive purposes, I didn't deserve to harvest anything. Granted, I didn't get a booming crop of ripe tomatoes, but I got enough, including one big fat red heirloom, to make a couple of sauces and get a nice summer salad. The Garden Gods smiled upon me with amazing kindness!

I don't know if it's normal to pair fresh tomato with canteloupe, but I really wanted to enjoy the big red heirloom tomato in its raw, fresh goodness. I sliced the tomato and shuffled it with slices of fresh canteloupe that came from the CSA. A sprinkle of salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar was all it needed, and I layered it with crumbles of goat cheese. It was sort of a riff on the traditional Caprese salad, minus the fresh mozzarella and basil, but the canteloupe's sweetness was so nice with the fresh tomato and the tangy flavor of the vinegar and cheese.

I roasted the rest of the tomatoes I had, making a Bolognese style sauce with some other CSA vegetables, which topped roasted portobello mushrooms. That wasn't meant to be a particularly fancy dinner, I just had a wicked craving for lasagne one night, didn't want to get filled up on pasta, so made a hearty sauce that could go on a big mushroom and shaved a pile of Parmesan over the whole thing. This was around the crunch time of getting work done before leaving town -- dinners during that time are like an epicurean version of Gone in 60 Seconds, where instead of boosting cars, I'm busting out fast-paced meals that are using up whatever's in the fridge and can be good next-day lunches the Mister can bring to work.

Even if we weren't struck with a spoil of summer's bounty, we enjoyed every bite! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

As with most things, you never get to enjoy your own party, and our meals and desserts using the last of summer's sweet goodness were fleeting and I probably didn't enjoy as much of it as I'd have liked. A combination of being rushed before a vacation and the ingredients being in short supply were the dueling culprits. The crostata was given away to a friend for a game night. The pie was really good, and I had a couple of slices, but I knew the Mister appreciated the sweet treat even more, so let him whittle that down. I took my lion's share of the fresh tomato and canteloupe salad, but that was the last of the large ripe tomatoes. But I'm not sad about not having weeks worth of summer's fresh bounty on our table. I've had this discussion with others before -- while the downside of cooking with whatever's in season means you are at the whim of whatever's fresh, even if there's not much of it, but the upswing is of course you make the most of every bite, however fleeting.

UnRecipe: It's the End of the World as We Know It and I'll Have Pie

So, like everyone else, I was talking with some friends about the fever pitch over the Rapture that was supposed to have happened this past Saturday, and being a believer or not, is it really something newsworthy? I have little doubt that even if the holy heavens swept through to claim the faithful, I'd most certainly be left behind with my heathen ways, but I came to the conclusion that yes, the Rapture-fever is relevant, because then I can do a totally silly post about it. So there.

The almost-last supper - Photo by Wasabi Prime

While there's nothing particularly Biblical about a savory bread pudding, I did en-Rapture my arteries in a lot of cheese and bacon for this dish. During the week prior to the supposed End Times, I tried cleaning out my fridge like the world was gonna end, cooking with every random scrap of food we had sitting around. We always wind up with spare bits of stuff from previous dishes. I'd used some bacon for pork meatballs, bread for sandwiches, and random things that were impulse buys at the farmers market -- my fear of wasting food kicks in and then a whirlwind of cooking panic drives me to make something that uses as much of this stuff as possible. Compulsive cooking syndrome? There's a reality TV show waiting to happen there.

End of Days ain't so bad, there's dinner and cocktails involved - Photos by Wasabi Prime

As always, UnRecipe-ness rules supreme. See that random pile of ingredients? Just throw it together and hope for the best! In this case I felt fairly certain it would be a tasty pile of UnRecipe-ness. Chopped up bacon, rendered crisp with the fat reserved to saute leeks and some shallots until lightly caramelized. The leftover bread was just the stale heels from two loaves bought at the farmers market. This was a great way to use up the weird little pieces, as it's too small for a sandwich and while they would have made great croutons, their stale-ness made them extra thirsty to soak up the flavor of the bacon, leeks and creamy egg custard that brought the whole thing together. I had a little wedge of gouda, also from the farmers market (it was on sale, and I can't resist discount cheese), and the flavor is a bit pungent, so it's not something you just bite a hunk off. The cheese-wang was strong with this wedge, but crumbled and mixed into the egg batter, and it melted down in wonderful ways, seeping into the bread and making the whole thing savory and rich. The garden is finally yielding a healthy batch of herbs, so I was happy to sprinkle in handfuls of fresh parsley, sage, chives and thyme into the mix.

Savory bread pudding that just came together on its own - Photos by Wasabi Prime

You can't face your maker without dessert. Again, an impulse buy of rhubarb, likely from my impatience with our own rhubarb plant taking forever to grow edible-sized stalks, was cooked with strawberries and made into a pie. Nothing fussy with perfectly woven lattice-work, just a simple foldover of the excess dough and a sprinkle of sugary oat crumbles to make a crusty top. This was more like a "yay, the world didn't end" reward, as the day of the supposed Rapture had us getting gussied-up and going out with some friends for dinner and drinks. It wasn't to party-on through the reaping of souls, it was just good timing. But we raised our glasses after 6pm and said, yep, we're still here. And we had a strawberry rhubarb pie, with strawberry ice cream, to celebrate with on the following post-Rapture Sunday. Win-win, right?

Get fancy, have pie and ice cream, avoid the end of the world -- good weekend, no? - Photos by Wasabi Prime

OMG a Recipe: Ice Cream Death Match 3000

What a title. Ought to have its own theme song, I'd reckon. Something that would be played to roaring post-apocalyptic crowds wielding prison-worthy weapons and ramshackle armor cannibalized from an old Buick. But, Wasabi, what the hell are you talking about -- it's ice cream on a little fruit tart. But that's where you're wrong. Beneath that creamy, soft-lit exterior is a smoky, oily, meaty underbelly. This is Thunderdome Ice Cream.

This...is... BACON! Spartans need not apply - Photo by Wasabi Prime

I know everyone's so over "the bacon thing," but I can't help but dabble in the Dark Arts of Baconology, simply because I dig on swine. I got to thinking, bacon ice cream on its own would be pretty repulsive, all greasy, meaty and cold. That's not an after dinner treat, that's something you let sit to congeal in a glass jar before throwing it out, lest it choke up the drains. But what about treating bacon like salt, a secondary savory element to just help coax out other flavors? My issue with most baconized weapons of edible destruction is that they tend to be overpowering in the smoky or unsettling meaty-ness. Save it for my BLT, suckas. I decided to make a maple bacon ice cream. I say "maple bacon" and not "bacon maple" because I wanted the maple sweetness to come first, and only have the bacon be a slight textural crunch, with a hint of savory smokiness. Maple is a familiar companion to bacon, since they're such good pals at breakfast, so I thought the familiarity would not breed contempt with unsuspecting tasters.

This idea came about from an earlier ice cream making event, where I made a brandy butter spiced pecan ice cream. Why so fussy, Wasabi? Just say it's butter pecan like everyone else. Well, I had a little jar of brandy butter that was so luscious, but on its last scraps, so I knew this would be the best way to give it a Valhalla-like sendoff by incorporating it into an ice cream. I was concerned the brandy flavor and just the sheer butteryness of it would be overpowering, so tossing the pecans in a bit of cayenne before roasting them lightly helped cut that richness with a bit o' heat.

Indy attempts her best "Sad Pup Face" for ice cream. It no worky - Photos by Wasabi Prime

So, big duh, the buttery spicy pecan ice cream was freakin' delicious, my love handles grew three sizes too big, and that combination of flavor and taste sensation was what begat the maple bacon ice cream. You're asking, what's with the fruit pie? Two things -- one, I was tasked with bringing a dessert to a small weekend dinner gathering and I thought just the bacon ice cream would gross people out to the max, so needed the pairing with a pastry to help cushion the blow, and two, maple bacon ice cream on its own just looks kind of bland for photos. Only a food blogger would bake a whole pie (and mini fruit tart from the scraps) as a garnish for pale ice cream. Le weird, what can I say?

Don't give me that picky baby face - try it, I think you'll like it! - Photos by Wasabi Prime

The maple bacon ice cream over a warm serving of nectarine pie is quite nice, I gotta say. The late harvest nectarines are super sweet, with a nice bitterness from the skin. The flaky pie crust helps as a buffer between baked fruit sweetness and the rich ice cream. Consider it training wheels to get people used to the idea of meat ice cream, as you don't immediately get a bacon-y flavor, just small savory doses of it when you get a little crunch of it, plus that round sweetness of maple helps keep everything in check. This was the thought behind pairing pie with such an odd frozen treat. Consider it pastry subterfuge; the spoonful of sugar helping to get the bacon bits down.

Maple Bacon Thunderdome Ice Cream
4 slices of reduced sodium, non-peppered bacon, chopped small
3 eggs at room temperature
3 cups half and half
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (the real stuff, not that fake-o corn syrup stuff)
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons of reserved bacon fat

Heat a pan to medium/low heat and begin to render the chopped bacon until fully browned and crisped. Reserve a couple of tablespoons of the fat and set aside the bacon bits in a separate bowl.

In a separate saucepan, combine the half and half, sugar and maple syrup and bring to a low simmer. Stir constantly to incorporate the ingredients. Check the temperature of the liquid to make sure it's about 170 or 180 degrees and then temper (add a little of the heated liquid in a bowl with the eggs and mix to raise their temperature) the eggs before incorporating them with a whisk to make sure they don't scramble in the liquid. Go ahead and shut off the heat and whisk in the vanilla extract and reserved bacon fat. Strain the custard through a sieve and chill for a few hours.

As you're churning the custard in your ice cream maker, add the bacon bits towards the end of the churning cycle, when it's a soft-serve texture. This will make sure they don't get too broken up and retain their crunch.

You of course don't need to bake a pie to go with this, but it's not a bad thing to serve with a fruit dessert. I think it would actually go well with an apple pie or pear tart. Maple bacon ice cream isn't as scary as you'd think, so don't squinch your face up like a five year old and widen your taste horizons to the Thunderdome of Desserts.

An overzealous garnish and buttery pecan heaven - Photos by Wasabi Prime