Halo top your smoothies / corn ice cream pt. 2

and more notes from the Berkshires

Thank you for reading! Today some thoughts on the tools that I keep in the kitchen and some comments from this year’s trip to the Berkshires!

Bought a dozen from one of the Berkshire’s many farm stands. Two of these have been turned into a basil and corn ice cream. Sharing the recipe below!

While New York is so much about meeting in restaurants and in bars, so much of my socializing has been shifting to cooking and, happily, being cooked for. I love it when my friends cook for me, but I also love peeping into kitchens. With such limited space, the gear that people stock their kitchens with is so revealing as to priorities and personalities. One of my friends had a brief but intense moment with an instant pot, preparing her own Greek yogurt and many batches of soups. Another saves space on her counter for both a coffee bean grinder and an espresso machine.

The kitchen now has things that I never thought I needed — a stand mixer — and is currently lacking the thing that I thought I always needed — a rice cooker. I cook 300 grams of rice (1.5 cups) at a time in my donabe and freeze six portions of it in ice cube trays to be zapped at a moment’s notice to be topped with an egg. It also currently holds space for a Balmuda toaster oven, which I mainly use for toast, but that I also use to make yakinasu (grilling eggplant whole until wilted and soft, with the skin peeled back and topped with grated ginger and bonito). I am now tempted though, by this toaster, which claims to also be an air fryer. Has anyone tried this?

Smoothies!

As we have been facing monsoon season in New York, I have been having a moment with my Vitamix.

It all started with some leftover coconut water (purchased after an especially sweltering run) and a tupperware packed with some very insipid watermelon. Watermelon is my favorite food that I must have at all times between July and September, but this year I have consistently been packing only the blandest. David has triumphantly been picking the good ones. I threw some of this watermelon into a blender with the coconut water, along with some random greens. My insipid watermelon was transformed.

Some of the combinations that I’ve whirled:

Watermelon Tajin (inspired by all of the fruit cups of CDMX)

• About 2 cups of watermelon

• Juice of 1 lime (sometimes I remove the skin with a knife and use the entire lime)

• Pinch of salt, red pepper flakes

• 1 head of Romaine lettuce

• 1 Persian cucumber

• Splash of coconut water

• Handful of ice cubes

Classic Green Smoothie (inspired by the green juice at Peacefood)

• Handful of parsley

• 2 stalks celery

• 1 lemon (skin removed)

• 2 large handfuls spinach

• 1/2 apple

• Splash of water

• Handful of ice cubes

• Knob of ginger

Breakfast Banana Smoothie (because it is too hot to bake and because our freezer overfloweth with frozen bananas)

• 1 frozen banana

• 1 tablespoon peanut butter

• 1 scoop of unflavored whey protein

• Splash of water

• Handful of spinach

I tried freezing this concoction and rather enjoyed it fresh out of the machine, although it was softer and icier, more like a sorbet than anything else (which makes sense given the ingredient list.

Banana Halo Top

• 1 frozen banana

• 1/2 cup whole milk

• 1 scoop of unflavored whey protein

• 1/2 cup water

• pinch of salt

Freezing this resulted in an eerily frothy frozen mixture that reminded me a lot of Halo Top (but tastes much better minus the erythritol). I wonder if adding some chia seeds would thicken the mixture so that it is not quite so frothy.

Berkshires!

I spent the past weekend in the Berkshires, with David and five other people graciously stopping along the way for:

• Peach picking at Fishkill Farms

• More produce at Taft Farms

• Cheeses and dips from Nejaime’s Wine Cellar (Lebanese owned - everyone loved the tabbouleh and their other dips). I wanted to go to Rubiner’s, but we were running out of top and couldn’t backtrack. I’m glad we went to Nejaime’s though - I had never tried their dips and they are honestly much friendlier.

• Apple cider donuts from Hilltop Orchards

• 50 minutes in a train of cars to close the last 0.8 miles of road before getting into Tanglewood for the John Williams concert¹

Inspired by the dozen ears of corn that I bought on the way back that were absolutely the sweetest and was inspired to update my last ice cream recipe, including some leaves from some basil plants that are languishing on our windowsill. No surprise - it is much better made with fresh corn rather than the frozen Trader Joe’s corn that I used before.

Corn-Basil Ice Cream

2 ears of corn

240 grams (1 cup) whole milk

5 egg yolks

small handful fresh basil

150 grams (3/4 cup) caster sugar

480 grams (2 cups) heavy cream

pinch of salt

1. chop each ear of corn into four and remove the kernels.

2. bring milk to a simmer with corn cobs and basil. cut the heat and let steep for 30 minutes. remove corn cobs and basil.

3. mix egg yolks with sugar and salt

4. puree corn kernels in high speed blender with milk and bring back to a simmer*

5. temper with egg yolks and cook on medium heat until slightly thickened*

6. add heavy cream

7. let cool before churning in ice cream maker. I am still using this Breville model so use the pre-chill option to cool the mixer before churning.

*at this point you could strain your corn kernels, but I wanted to try incorporating them, especially as I had used a high-speed blender.

Other notes

• I preserved two lemons from the lemon tree of a friend-of-a-friend in LA (quartering the lemons, showering with salt, and cramming into jars fresh from the dishwasher). I baked half of one into Alison Roman’s lemon shortbread and brought them to book club (we are reading Sharon Salzberg). So floral, salty, and rich.

• Saw The Doctor at the Armory and am so glad that I did. I love smaller venues and older buildings. It is so long that we were not sure if we would stick it out (and two of our friends left - one of them had a train to catch), but it is hard to leave when Juliet Stevenson is on the stage.

• I picked up a bag of the Momofuku spicy soy noodles and they are excellent showered with slivered cucumber, celery, and soft-boiled egg.

• I’m possibly a little basic (the highlight of my summer has been the news that a friend and I are seeing the Eras tour in Amsterdam), but rejoice at anything covered in sprinkles, so sadly the Trader Joe’s confetti cake gelato was a bit of a miss. The texture is so oddly chewy and airy

  

• Dinner with friends at Petite Crevette. Is there anything better than friends-in-the-know in your neighborhood?

1. I have never seen such crowds at Tanglewood. I described other concerts that I’ve been to with “superstars like Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Axe!” and was told by everyone present that these individuals are “more niche” than John Williams.