Almost-Instant Soft Serve + Cool Pottery

This email is mainly to share a very quick, easy, and tasty recipe for a fruit soft serve-style dessert that you should make...

But I happened to make it the night that I also made this delicious citrus-ginger grilled scallop over rice noodles dish with a side of Asian salad on the latest edition to our Mississippi pottery. If you've eaten with us, you've probably been educated on our collection of this famous handmade pottery. The blue plates are new and it's easily my favorite piece, and goes so well with the bowl and tumbler in the pic below. Had to show off the lovely plating of that luxury meal.

Anyway, back to the soft serve! I halved it and made peach and blueberry (separately, not mixed). They were both great. It's a tad sweet for me and I haven't played with how to back off the condensed milk and maintain the consistency, but then most people prefer sweet desserts, so it's probably perfect for you. Anyway, it takes just a few minutes, a few ingredients, and I can attest to the fact that it's just as great a couple days later as the recipe suggests (you do have to let it stand, as it says).

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ALMOST-INSTANT SOFT-SERVE

15 mins, makes 3 1/2 cups

1 1/2 pounds frozen fruit, such as strawberries, mangoes, blueberries, etc

3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Kosher salt

In a food processor, pulse the fruit with the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and a generous pinch of salt until the fruit is finely chopped. Puree until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; scrape down the side of the bowl as needed. Serve soft or transfer to a metal baking pan, cover and freeze until just firm.

* The soft-serve can be frozen for up to 3 days. Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

 

 

Crazy Cookin'

Jonathan was here for vacation this past week and Jeremy got to stop by for a few days, too. We cooked a LOT of fancy stuff, but the coup de grâce was...

TURDUCKEN

Neither of us had ever had turducken, so we went whole hog. I just used breasts, not the entire birds, so it's more of a roulade, but it's still a serious undertaking. I essentially rolled a chicken breast inside a duck breast, inside a turkey breast, with each layer smeared with a different stuffing, all made from scratch, and all with creole flavors– cornbread andouille sausage stuffing, whole grain giblet stuffing, and a shrimp stuffing in the center. With the overnight brining, all the butchering, and separate stuffings, it's one of the heftiest culinary projects I've taken on. Just tying it up really needed two people and some Boy Scout training.

It roasts for several hours all rolled up, so everything melds and you get a bit of all the flavors in each bite, but one might be more chicken-andouille heavy and the next is turkey and shrimp, then you get duck and giblets. Pretty fun. I commented to Jonathan the next morning that my house must smell about like Henry VIII's castle.

Mmmmmm.