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Category Archives: cooking

I make! Guava ice cream edition

I’m a big fan of guavas.  My parents are aware of this.  So my parents at some point planted at least five different guava trees in our yard, all different varieties.  This was fine when they were taking care of the trees.  But they are no longer taking care of the trees.  I have to take care of the trees.  It’s enough to make me reconsider whether or not I’m a fan of guavas.

Anyway, the current fruit tree I quite dislike right now is the one the with the pink-fleshed fruit.  They’re one of the more fragrant guavas, but they tend to be all soft and mush.  I don’t really like eating soft, mush fruit.  I prefer the really crisp and slightly tart Asian cultivars.  So I have this giant tree of fruit that I don’t want to eat and it’s raining guavas down into my yard.  What do?

Make ice cream.  (Sorry, I don’t have a photo because every time I’ve made this ice cream, people have fought to get the last spoonful.  I’ll add a photo when I make another batch.  I still have like 19827391283791823lbs of guavas.)

Ingredients:

  • 2lb guavas, quartered
  • 1c evaporated milk
  • 2c heavy cream, divided
  • 0.5-0.75c sugar, depending on sweetness of fruit
  • pinch of salt
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

  1. Preheat oven to 375deg F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Evenly spread quartered guavas on the baking sheet. Bake until soft, about 15-20 minutes. Mash guavas with a potato masher or back of a ladle.
  2. Combine guavas with milk, 1 cup of cream, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a heavy duty saucepan. Heat over medium high heat until steaming, stirring occasionally.
  3. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks in a medium bowl until smooth. Ladle about 1 cup of the hot cream mixture into the eggs while whisking constantly.
  4. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture coats the back of a spoon.
  5. Meanwhile, pour the remaining cream into a separate bowl and set a fine mesh sieve on top. Remove the custard from heat and immediately pour it over the sieve. Try to press as much of the liquid through the sieve as possible. Remove the sieve and stir in vanilla extract.
  6. Cover the bowl and refrigerator until completely chilled, at least 2 hours then churn in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.

Notes:

  • Depending on your ice cream maker, this makes about a quart of ice cream.
  • If you want a contrast in texture, take a stick blender to the guavas after heating it with the milk/cream mixture before adding the eggs.  You’ll still need to strain it afterwards.  The resulting ice cream will have a little bit of crunch from the chopped up seeds.  I made it this way the first time and lots of people wanted to know if I had put peanuts into the ice cream.
  • If you’re not a big fan of straining all that liquid, you could try using a food mill.  I don’t have one so I’m not sure how the seeds would react to the milling though.

I make! Berry zucchini bread edition


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I continue to have too much stuff and need to find ways to get rid of it before it spoils.  This time, zucchini.  I thought it would be a good idea to buy a Costco-sized bag of zucchini.  Mind you, it would only be me eating this zucchini and I’m hardly home long enough to cook.  So of course, I had this massive amount of zucchini that was starting to go soft and I really needed to get rid of it.  And thus I made a whole bunch of berry zucchini bread and foisted that off on people.

I made a version of this recipe that I found and it’s pretty good.  I had people hoarding slices for breakfast the next morning.  I bet it would make really good French toast.  Anyway, it’s definitely something I will make again when I have too much zucchini.

Here’s my adaptation.

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1.25 cups white sugar
  • 3 cups shredded zucchini
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 0.25 teaspoon baking soda
  • 0.25 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 pint mixed berries
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Procedure:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease loaf pans.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
  4. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated and then add 1/2 the zucchini and mix until incorporated.  Repeat ending with the dry ingredients.
  5. Fold in berries and walnuts (if using).
  6. Transfer to loaf pans and bake for 70-80 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
  7. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

Notes:

  • I might do a mix of granulated and brown sugar next time for a hint of a molassesy flavor.
  • I increased the shredded zucchini to 3c, which is about 2 medium zucchini (you don’t understand, I made A LOT of zucchini bread).
  • I’ve made it with and without the walnuts.  I think I prefer the texture with walnuts.
  • I don’t remember how big my loaf pans are, but the recipe yields 2 larger loaves (as opposed to 4 mini-loaves).  But I did have to increase my baking time to about 70-80min.