Lavender is a staple of many Alaskan’s herb gardens. It can easily be grown in a pot on the porch or in a window box in and apartment. Besides it’s numerous therapeutic qualities, used sparingly, it can be a delicious addition to many dishes and drinks.
3/4 a cup of softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Tbsp. dried lavender flowers
zest of half a lime
Combine softened butter, sugar, lavender and lime zest until completely incorporated. Next add the flour, using your fingers to mix everything together until the dough can be formed into a ball. If the dough is still crumbly add a couple teaspoons of melted butter. Roll out the dough on a floured surface until 1/2 inch thick. Cut in desired shape and bake for 20 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350°F.
This ice cream isn’t too hard to master but all your friends will me amazed when you tell them you made this yourself!
A couple of years ago I went berry picking in the fall with my friend Jenn (I wont tell you where! It’s a secret, of course!). I don’t have a ton of patience for sitting in one spot monotonously picking pea-sized things off the ground, so I only managed to get about a quart of blueberries. When I brought them home I found I also did not have the patience to pick all of the teeny-tiny stems off the berries so I took the lazy way out. I blended them, stems and all. I then ran the puree through cheese cloth sitting in a mesh strainer. What I ended up getting out of all that was about two cups of thick blueberry puree.
I froze this for about 4 months and dug it out of the freezer for a New Years dinner. I used about half of it for a blueberry gastrique I made with lamb, and the rest seemed like enough to keep, but I had no clue what for.
We’ve had a Cuisinart ice cream maker for about two years (one that Nina generously gave me), and I never had managed to churn out anything good. Well I let my very precise husband loose on the machine and whereas I had always simply eyeballed the recipes, my husband managed to create a masterpiece of a dark chocolate stout ice cream. A remembered the blueberries and a light bulb seemed to go off in my head! Make ice cream with it, my brain screamed! But of course I am not the ice cream master, so I sat there as my dear husband concocted this blissful creation.
Seriously though. MAKE YOUR OWN ICE CREAM. It’s so creamy, and rich, and you can put anything you want in it! The key is in the custard!
Note: Best results come from putting your freezing canister in the bottom of a chest freezer for 24 hours, or better yet, put in outside in Fairbanks, Alaska in the middle of January!
Ingredients:
1 cup milk (we used 2%)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup blueberry puree
1/2 sugar (for the blueberries)
Instructions:
First heat up the blueberry puree with about 1/2 a cup of sugar, just to get the sugar to dissolve. In another pot mix milk, salt, and sugar and heat on medium low until steam starts to rise off of it. You can still stick your finger in the mixture at this point, but it’s pretty hot. In a separate bowl whisk four egg yolks until they are completely broken apart and a slightly lighter color. VERY SLOWLY pour the hot milk mixture into the eggs a little bit at a time as you whisk continually. Once all of the milk is incorporated pour the egg/milk mixture back into the pot and mix constantly with a wooden spoon until it begins to thicken. When it’s about the viscosity of maple syrup try the wooden spoon test. Pick your spoon up out of the mixture and run your finger horizontally over the back of the spoon. If the custard on top of the line doesn’t run down over the gap your finger made then it’s ready. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer into a bowl. Finally whisk in the heavy cream and the cooled blueberry sauce. Toss into ice cream maker and mix for about 30 minutes. When it is done it should be about the consistency of soft serve. Place into a storage container and freeze until it firms up completely.
The best ceviche I ever had was at a fine dining restaurant in Miami. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant now, but I can remember that the fish was cobia and it was tart and sweet and that it was topped with an icy asian pear granita. It was like walking in the desert and then suddenly coming across an oasis filled with sparkling, ice cold citrus water. I wanted to ask them to serve me 15 more plates of it and then tell them to kill me because I would never be able to taste something so delicious again. Of course I’m exaggerating, and I did live to taste other purely transcendental foods, but this memory will always be one of my favorites because it was one of my first times of experiencing true food nirvana.
My own go-to ceviche recipe is down right homey in comparison. I like to imagine it’s close to what you’d get served from a shack on a beach in Mexico along with an ice-cold cerveza. It’s a messy mishmash of comforting latin flavors and if you ‘d let me, I’d eat a gallon of it and horde it all to myself.
Ingredients:
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 one red onion, minced
1/2 of one jalapeño, minced
10 medium sized limes, juiced
1 large navel orange, juiced
1 avocado, mashed
1/2 cup of cilantro leaves, minced
1 lb. of a white-fleshed fish, shrimp, or octopus*
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
a pinch of pepper
a drizzle of olive oil
Instructions:
First prepare all of your veggies. Mince the onion and the jalapeño (making sure not to get any on your hands, use gloves if necessary). Slice the tomato lengthwise and remove all of the seeds before laying them flat and dicing them. They should definitely be cut larger than the onions, but be sure not to make them too large. Pull off a large handful of cilantro leaves and place them on your cutting board. Chop roughly with a sharp knife, making sure to stir up the mixture and run your blade through multiple times. In a separate bowl remove the avocado from it’s skin and mash it with a fork until there are no chunks left and it is very creamy. Using a citrus press juice the ten limes and one orange. You should have about a cup of citrus juice per pound of fish. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl adding your honey, salt and pepper, and olive oil last. The mixture will look slightly cloudy from the avocado. Taste mixture and adjust flavor as necessary. Finally take your fish (I used turbot this time) and slice it into 1 inch by 1/2 inch chunks. Combine with everything else and stir thoroughly, completely submerging all pieces of the fish in the liquid. Place in the fridge and allow it to cure for at least one hour.
*If you have just gone fishing and have fish or shrimp you caught with 12 hours this is the best possible protein to have. Second best would be purchasing sashimi grade or flash frozen at sea. Fish, shrimp and even sea scallop can be put into the ceviche raw and left to cure, but octopus must be cooked first. Google cooking instructions for octopus if you want to go this route.
Everybody has a dish that their family cooked for them better than anyone else. For some it’s their grandmother’s spaghetti, for other’s it’s their mother’s pot roast. For me it’s my dad’s barbecued salmon.
BBQ Sauce:
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions:
In a saucepan combine all of the above ingredients. Simmer on low until all sugar is dissolved and the mixture has thickened slightly
Place salmon pieces on a hot grill skin side down. Cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Begin basting the salmon when the flesh begins to sweat. Turn the heat up to medium high and cook for an additional 3 minutes, until the flesh begins to pull away from the skin. Be careful not to overcook. Remove salmon the from the grill by placing a spatula in between the meat and the skin. Leaving the skin on the grill.
Cook pasta as per instructions on package. Remove from boiling water to a colander and run under cold water to stop the cooking process, drain and set aside. Use your fingers to break apart the cooked salmon into small pieces. In a large bowl combine mayonnaise, honey, salt, pepper, vinegar and salmon. Add pasta and mix thoroughly. Add frozen peas. The frozen peas will help to keep the pasta cool until it is ready to be served. If serving right away, pre-thaw peas.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.