Godley Head

Une de mes photos publiée/entreposée sur Flickr a été choisie pour illustrer la section Christchurch du guide Schmap. Les guides Schmaps sont gratuits, publiés sur internet. Allez voir la sous-section Trips & Activities - Out & About, cliquez sur le paragraphe Godley Head. C'est ma photo!

Pétards

Mes voisins semblent confus dans leurs dates. Plusieurs de mes voisins semblent confus dans leurs dates: c'est le troisième soir de suite que les restants de feux d'artifice de Guy Fawkes Day éclatent dans le ciel de Linwood. Jusqu'à maintenant c'était des 'petits' pétards/gros feux de bengale (comme sur les gâteaux de fête), mais là - à 23h50! - c'est un véritable spectacle d'explosions colorées. Un voisin différent à chaque fois.

Les feux d'artifice 'de jardin' sont légaux pendant 4 jours pour Guy Fawkes Day (le 5 novembre et la fin de semaine qui précède) et je crois pour le Jour de l'an... j'imagine que les pétards illégaux le 30 novembre viennent avec le type de quartier - Bienvenue à Linwood!

Saving the best for last: Murphy's Coconut & Rum Ice Cream

The question is, what to do with 5 cups of dessicated coconut? Leaving Christchurch in 3 weeks means I've entered the 'let's empty the pantry' phase. Beens and couscous, flour, three different kinds of sugar (heh) - this I was expecting. But a jar of coconut (fine shreds, organic from Piko) AND a nearly full bag (long shreds, inexpensive supermarket version) left me perplexed. When did I buy all this? and what was I expecting to do with it?!?

Then I found the Coconut & Rum ice cream recipe among those on Kieran Murphy's previously mentionned list of flavours in need of a tester/taster . It looked like I had an answer:

I really like this logo...

Murphy's Coconut & Rum Ice Cream
1 Cup (237ml) Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
1 1/8 Cups(266ml) Milk
3/4 Cups (175ml) Coconut milk
3/4 Cups (60ish gr) Dessicated (dried and shredded) coconut
4 tbs. (65ml) Malibu Rum
1 tbs. (15ml) Lemon Juice
3/4 Cups (175ml) Cream

What to do:
1. Beat the sugar and egg yolks together until thick and pale yellow.
2. Bring the milk to a simmer.
3. Beat the milk into the eggs and sugar in a slow stream.
4. Pour the mixture back into pan and place over low heat. Add the coconut milk.
5. Stir until the custard thickens slightly (around 70C). Use a thermometer, as at 75C the eggs will scramble!
6. Refrigerate over night.
7. Toast the desiccated coconut over medium heat in a dry saucepan, stirring all the time, until they turn a golden colour. Allow to cool.
8. Stir the toasted coconut, rum and the lemon into the refrigerated custard.
9. Whip the cream and gently fold in the custard.
10. Freeze using a domestic ice cream machine, or cover and place in the freezer.

Notes from the creator:
1. Coconut milk has all different strengths, so taste it and make sure you’re happy with the flavour. You can always add a bit more, but remember there will be more coconut flavour coming from the desiccated coconut and rum.
2. To pasteurise the eggs, heat the custard to 73C and keep at that temperature for three minutes. Use a cooking thermometer, though, and keep stirring! If the custard goes any higher than 76C, the eggs will scramble. Immediately cover and place in the freezer until cool.

My Notes:
In the spirit of emptying the pantry, I used what I had on hand and substituted coconut cream for the coconut milk, and amber Appleton Estate rum for the Malibu rum.

I came back from working at the market Saturday afternoon and was able to make the custard, quick and easy, before heading out to Christmas in the Park. This morning, I perfumed the kitchen toasting the coconut, woke up a couple flatmates whipping the cream with my extremely noisy, one-speed-fits-all hand mixer, and tempted everyone with coconut custard for breakfast. Decadent!

The ice cream froze in about 5-6 hours, mixing it every hour or so to keep it creamy and balanced - the coconut tends to fall to the bottom until it firms up a bit - and of course licking the spoon before heading out into the heat again for some gardening.

As opposed to the other two recipes we tried, this one turned out just sweet enough. The coconut taste really develops during the cooling and freezing process, and the rum adds depth and balances the sweetness, without being overpowering. The final result is fabulously delicious.

I found some old ice cream cones in the pantry, but they were rather on the soft side and barely held long enough for a picture. I turned my attempt over into a mug, and ended up eating the whole thing before taking out the camera... I think I'll try it with some crushed pineapple (yep, a can of this in the pantry as well) and make it into Pina Colada ice cream - look out for updates & pictures in a day or two.

Now, if anyone has suggestions/recipes for 4 cups of remaining coconut and 5 egg whites...

Murphy's Manuka Honey & Orange Blossom Ice Cream - Mom is taking over the blog!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present my mother's contribution to the Testers/Tasters food blogging event: Murphy's Manuka Honey and Orange Blossom ice cream.

We live in New Zealand, so I used artisan-made manuka honey - very strong and dark. The recipe was pretty much followed* and the results are nice, if a little too sweet for my taste.

The honey gave the ice cream a very strong taste, and a slightly gooey texture. Comments from testers were that it was as if corn syrup had been added to the mixture (or golden syrup, depending on the origin of the testers!)

Everyone enjoyed the taste and texture of the manuka honey, but very few were able to identify the other ingredient (orange water). I would suggest following note #2 and using a lesser amount of manuka honey to make sure the orange blossom perfume comes through.

And the flowers in the picture above are, in fact, orange blossoms - freshly picked from the garden on a beautiful spring day.

The recipe is here.

* I must say I am impressed. My mother sometimes rarely never follows recipes... Kieran Murphy, you are one lucky cookbook author!

Recette de chocolat chaud

Parce que j'aime aider les gens ;)

la recette

Une semaine de plus que prévu

Je viens de réaliser qu'il me reste 3 semaines entière à Chch.

J'ai commencé mon contrat de recherche avec quelques jours de retards et je commençais à me demander comment j'allais compléter mes 80h de travail ET débuter ma propre recherche pour mon mini-mémoire. Dans ma tête, le 15 décembre était dans deux semaines. Le stress et mes capacités de perception temporelle...

Après une série de calculs élaborés, j'ai pu conclure que le 15 décembre est bel et bien dans trois semaines. Je peux donc arrêter de stresser, faire mes 20h/semaine de recherche payée tel que prévu, faire mes Xh/semaine de recherche personnelle (autant que nécessaire pour mieux définir ma thèse), et avoir un minimum de vie sociale. Je dois aussi rattraper une dizaine d'heures de jardinage pour mon proprio, donc thérapie-les-mains-dans-la-terre et coups de soleil sont au programme d'ici mon départ.


L'ironie de la semaine:
samedi le 24 novembre est Buy Nothing Day, version internationale (vendredi le 23 en Amérique du Nord) - une journée de protestation contre l'hyper-consumérisme du temps des fêtes, qui commence avec L'Action de Grâce américaine en fin de semaine.
samedi le 24 novembre est la date du spectacle Coca-Cola Christmas in the Park à Christchurch - un évènement de Noël avec chanteurs, danseurs, vieilles stars de la télé (Hawaii Five O?), cheerleaders, Miss New Zealand et sa soeur jumelle identique, et beaucoup, beaucoup de boisson gazeuse...

Elles me tombent sur les nerfs, mais elles sont tout de même jolies

Les mouches auxquelles j'ai affaire ne piquent pas, ne mordent pas, n'essaient même pas de se poser sur moi. Il y en a des petites (comme celle-ci), il y en a des grosses (comme une abeille), des colorées et des poilues. Malheureusement, les plus nombreuses sont la très commune 'house fly', celle qu'on associe à la tapette-à-mouche et qui met ses sales pattes sur tout ce qui est comestible. Et elles sont partout. Partout. J'en ai avalées deux (de la variété moucheron tout petit) en vélo ce soir, et j'en ai pris une (de la variété moucheron pas si petit que ça) dans l'oreille.