Often overshadowed by the similar looking walnut, and disguised in overly sweet Thanksgiving pies, pecans rarely have the opportunity to stand on their own flavor. Taking a moment to sample a raw pecan may surprise you with the nuances discovered within.

Lightly smoky in flavor with a hint of maple syrup essence this nut is anything but simple. With three times the sugar content of a walnut, pecans can offer themselves up as a wonderful return to subtle sweetness in our meals and snacks. Sprinkled on top of oatmeal, added to a salad, or stirred into homemade veggie burgers introduces the soft crunch of a raw pecan with its smoldering sweetness. To kick your pecan experience up a notch, make a decadent raw pecan milk to roll over your tongue and then make a roasted pecan milk to see how they compare. Added to smoothies, or poured over oatmeal, pecan milk will have you asking who needs another nut?

Fresh Pecan Milk

• 1 cup of raw organic pecans
• 2 medjool dates, pitted
• one pinch of salt

In a mason or glass jar, cover pecans and pitted medjool dates with hot water, and soak overnight.

Pour the saturated pecans, dates, and soaking water into a blender and add the pinch of salt with more water to bring the liquid level 3/4 of the way up the blender. Blend well, grinding the pecans as finely as possible to extract their flavor.

Continue blending, tasting the mixture for sweetness levels. Additionally, Agave Syrup or maple syrup can be added to further sweeten the pecan milk.

Strain the mixture through a medium sized sieve, pressing the liquid out of the nut pulp.

The nut pulp can be returned to the blender and ground again with more soaked dates for a second extraction. The resulting second extraction is good, though not quite as flavored as the first extraction.

Strain all the liquid through a clean damp cloth for a finer product, squeezing as much of the liquid out as possible.

Regarding the nut pulp: toss it in your garden or spread it out in a thin layer and dry in the oven. When dry, toss it into your next batch of bread or muffins.

Refrigerate and enjoy!

“Oh wow- I haven’t had that since I was a kid!” was the most common reply I received. However, it was the question from my Chinese coworker that really made my brow furrow in an attempt at a reply: “What is Magic Shell?”

Beyond the mystery industry ingredients used by Smucker- what is Magic Shell’s functionality?

Why not just melt up chocolate and pour that over ice cream? It will harden into a shell with snap, just like Magic Shell. One can do that, I definitely have. However, melting chocolate for ice cream tends to yield a topping that would be more accurately described as Magic Glop. The thick layer that melted chocolate over ice cream yields is a formidable force to your spoon- one that will squish the ice cream underneath- not exactly a thin shell.

Additionally, chocolate’s temperature range in which it remains a fast running syrup like liquid is a small window. One that a teenager at a microwave will likely have little patience to experiment with on a weekly (or daily) basis. A free flowing liquid like syrup is easier to pour on ice cream to achieve a thin shell easily snapped with a spoon. Hence, why there is such a thing as Magic Shell in the world.

All this translates into a good science lab example on melting points of mixtures. The melting point of a mixture will be lower than the melting point of mixtures components individually, a property exploited by this topping. Homemade magic shell will melt easier than chocolate, and stay liquid longer too.

How to Make Magic Shell at Home

Food blogger Naomi Poe has a recipe on her blog the Accidental Vegetarian that sounds like the best way to make magic shell. It doesn’t use butter, as a lot of other recipes online do, but instead uses coconut oil, our favorite multitasker! Theoretically, with the correct chocolate, you can even make Magic Shell vegan (the mind boggles at the discongruities in that statement).

Poe’s basic recipe is to simply melt together coconut oil (1 cup) and eating chocolate (1 – 2 cups), adding more chocolate than coconut oil.
At home, I found the following weights to work well for measuring out the ingredients for the Magic Shell recipe:

• 150 g finely chopped eating chocolate
• 100 g of refined coconut oil*
• pinch of salt

* I feel that using a touch of unrefined virgin coconut oil helps aid in the elusive “fake” flavor that store bought Magic Shell imparts. If you really want to go the nostalgia route, try out 80 g refined coconut oil + 20 g unrefined virgin coconut oil.

Combine the ingredients in a pyrex or glass bowl and melt in the microwave till almost, but not completely liquid. Stir to finish the melting outside of the microwave.

Pour melted mixture into a squeeze bottle or recycled pancake or maple syrup container. The mixture does not need to be refrigerated for storage. It will be liquid at room temperature in the warm summer months, and will be hard during the winter.

To reheat the Magic Shell to drizzle on your favorite frozen dessert, heat in the microwave (~ 40 seconds twice at 80% power), or sit the closed container in a cup of hot water for about 10 minutes.

Making different flavors and varieties of Magic Shell

Starting from the basic recipe format, several varieties of Magic Shell can be made in your kitchen.

Altering the fat affects flavor
Coconut oil comes in two basic varieties, refined and virgin. Refined coconut oil acts as a neutral fat with minimal flavor. Using virgin unrefined coconut oil imparts a light coconut flavor.

Altering the chocolate changes flavor
Any chocolate can be used in this recipe: bittersweet, semisweet, milk, or even white. Heck, you could melt your favorite dagoba bar or other high end gourmet flavored chocolate bar and use that in your magic shell. Xocolatl Magic Shell with chilies and nibs? Yes please!

Adding fat soluble flavors
Oil based flavors will blend easily with your Magic Shell since it is a mixture of mostly fat. Food grade essential oils are great for this project for that very reason, just use them sparingly as they are very potent. Some flavoring extracts found in grocery stores are oil based vs alcohol based. Just check their labels. I didn’t test alcohol based flavorings. They will probably work, though may run the risk of not staying in solution when the mixture hardens.

Natural sources of flavor (bacon) outside from extracts can be gently heated in coconut oil (bacon) and left in the cooled fat to imbue their flavor (bacon) This is a method used in perfume making as some scents are more soluble in fat than alcohol. Cinnamon, teas, and other whole spices may yield up different flavor notes under this method of extraction.

Adding color to your Magic Shell
Using your typical food coloring to make pretty magic shell colors with the white chocolate will be a bit frustrating. Average food coloring is water based, and fights combining with all that melted fat. If you can find a paste food coloring that is fat based, use it with the white chocolate magic shell for a special colored treat.

Different flavor ideas for homemade Magic Shell

I’m a sucker for variety, and this is a great recipe to play with. Simply toggling a flavor with different varieties of chocolate will yield nice variety.

• Peppermint Patty: drops of mint flavoring with dark chocolate
• Creme de Menthe: drops of mint flavoring with white chocolate and green coloring
• Candy Bar: 70:30 mixture of refined:virgin coconut oil, drops of almond flavoring and milk chocolate
• Silky Orange: drops of orange oil in dark chocolate
• Creamsicle: drops of orange oil in white chocolate with orange coloring
• Spring Lemon: drops of lemon oil in white chocolate with yellow coloring
• Lime Me Up: drops of lime oil in white chocolate, and a sprinkle of salt on the shell as it hardens
• Midnight Chocolate: dark chocolate with smoked salt

See how tantalizing this project gets? One thing is certain, stock up on ice cream now before you resort to eating this off of frozen spoons.

To allow our cocktails to be available both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, I made the drinks virgin and brought along a shaker of half tequila and half triple sec. Keeping the alcohol separate allows us to dress up each drink individually. However, in a serendipitous moment, my boss Monte brought in a bottle of Champagne today for us to toast the lab’s new research paper. Champagne sorbet floats part II! Just the sparkle our slushy Friday needed.

Our drinks, soon to be sorbet: a bottle of Santa Cruz Raspberry Lemonade -unadulterated, and a batch of guava puree mixed with orange juice, lime and a touch of simple syrup.

This Flickr set gives a photo journey of my lab making the liquid nitrogen sorbets, step by step.

I was initially afraid that the drinks would seize up into hard frozen chunks since I wasn’t using a sorbet recipe. They surprised me by behaving beautifully with the liquid nitrogen. Continuous stirring of the drinks results in a sorbet that’s as amazingly smooth as pudding.

Since these sorbets don’t need alcohol or excess sugar to act as antifreeze (theory outlined in Alton Brown’s Melon show: Melondrama) they can carry wonderfully subtle flavors that don’t get buried in sugar. In fact all you need is a favorite liquid and you can transport it directly into sorbet with no recipe tinkering.

if you have liquid nitrogen on hand that is. Not that you needed an excuse to befriend a scientist…

Liquid Nitrogen Guava Sorbet

In a sauce pan combine 1/4 cup of sugar with 1/4 cup of water. Boil for 2 minutes and allow to cool.

Combine sugar solution with:

• one thawed 14 oz pouch of Goya brand guava pulp
• juice of one lime
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• enough orange juice to bring concoction to a volume of four cups

Pour into a plastic or metal bowl and assemble your helpers and liquid nitrogen. You will need:

• one person to pour the liquid nitrogen
• one person wearing protective gloves to hold the bowl in place
• one person to stir
• approximately 1 liter of liquid nitrogen

While constantly stirring the fruit mixture, gradually pour the liquid nitrogen in directly on the fruit mixture a drizzle at a time.
The mixture will produce a lot of fog during the cooling process. Continue to drizzle in liquid nitrogen. Eventually the fruit mixture will thicken into a slush. Add liquid nitrogen until the mixture is too thick to stir.

Transfer into an air tight container or plastic bag and freeze till ready to eat.

Liquid Nitrogen Frozen Margaritas

single serving
In a cup scoop two servings of liquid nitrogen sorbet.
Pour over three tablespoons of tequila and one tablespoon of Triple Sec.
Gently stir and enjoy with a lime garnish and salt if desired.

More Great Frozen Recipes

• Seattle Orange Spice Tea Ice Cream: The tea kisses the ice cream with warm cinnamon and a light citrus hint, that I embellished with the addition of my recently made candied orange peels.
• Cantaloupe Sorbet with Green tea Ice Cream: I paired creamy homemade green tea ice cream with the soft sweet crunch of cantaloupe sorbet for my next flavor combo. The result is a perfect pair! The green tea ice cream tempers the sweetness of the melon sorbet and seems to highlight the honey flavor of the cantaloupe.
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Tofu Ice Cream: The chocolate peanut butter variation won over my ice cream taste buds immediately! The tofu remains silky smooth in its chocolate embrace, and continues the illusion of a heavy cream base.
• Eternal Sunshine Frozen Honey Mousse (and Sunburn Salve): The chill on this dessert helps keep the sweetness of the honey from overwhelming the palate. This frozen mousse is ideal for creating an airy ice cream product without the aid of an ice cream maker. Its creamy sweetness is perfectly set in the tangy sweetness of raspberries or a simple raspberry sauce.
• Carbonated Ice Cream Experiments: What resulted is an incredible light fluffy ice cream that looks exactly like white bread! I think it has a bit of carbonation to it, but its a little difficult to tell. The ice cream’s look and texture in my mouth is the most exciting part of this experiment.
• Mango lassi Layered with Poison Oak Honey Date Ice Cream: This final creation combines the icey tanginess of mango lassi with the smooth sweet creaminess of honey date ice cream. The mango tartness cuts into the sweet ice cream, and the slushy consistency of the lassi is a nice compliment to the creamy honey.
  

A recent trip to our local Latino Market also added new inspiration in the way of cool frozen fruit pulp from Goya. We grabbed a bag of mango, cherimoya, and guava pulp, all destined to be blended up or stirred into salsa.

This fizzy recipe uses the newly discovered cherimoya pulp with lime flavored fizzy water. The resulting smoothie is light and fruity, with the feel of adding banana but without the flavor. The cherimoya lends a flavor like pineapple and apple whirled in. it’s quite refreshing and a nice change of pace.

Blueberry Smoothie Float

In a blender add:

• cherimoya pulp, frozen: 1/2 cup
• blueberries, frozen: 1 cup
• kiwi, scooped out insides: 1
• soy milk: 1 cup
• vanilla extract: 1 tsp
• kosher salt: small pinch

blend till smooth and add:

• lime flavored fizzy water: 1/2-3/4 cup

Pulse in the blender ever so briefly. Pour into two glasses for a small treat, or one glass for a healthy snack or breakfast.

One Year Ago

Food Memories- Prince Pücklers

I took a spoonful off of the top of the chunky container, a bright green sampling of Pistachio Almond. Before popping it in my mouth I noticed that there were dark green flecks in the mixture- that almost looked like threads of pineapple. Curious I slipped the spoon into my mouth and before I knew it, my mind was whisked off to a childhood summer afternoon, with a bowl of Mom’s pistachio marshmallow salad!

Our weather here in the Willamette Valley is keeping Eugene on its toes. My garden’s mini daffodils are finally in bloom, and I see more varieties pushing through the earth. This would mean its spring, right? And yet- we just had snow flurries on Wednesday!

These chilly spells have sent me looking for warm soupy comfort, and dumplings are marching hand in hand with our slurp of winter vegetables.

My recent experiments with finding a dumpling recipe led me to the realization that my recipe for flour tortillas works well in this capacity. The tortilla recipe is made up in a food processor, with extra liquid added, and then dropped by rounded tablespoon fulls into hot soup to cook. Further experimentation with frozen vegetables has brought to light how flexible this recipe is with the inclusion of processed vegetables. Whirling in frozen peas yields bright green dumplings that a extremely light and fluffy, a wonderful match to chicken soup, stew or chili.

This injection of bright springlike peas into our hearty winter soup’s dumplings have given us a perfect transition meal that reflects our weather being both winter and spring like.

I’m taking the time to enjoy winter’s opportunities for culinary comfort a little bit more. Spring will be here in full… soon.

Bright Green Pea Dumplings

In a food processor, combine:

• 1/2 cup ap flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

pulse to combine the dry ingredients and drizzle in

• 1 Tbs fat (oil, lard or butter)

Add to the processor

• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 green onion
• 3-4 fresh mint leaves

pulse the food processor till thoroughly combined and gradually add

• 1/2 cup warmed milk (soy, milk, or buttermilk) or broth

Bring your pot of soup to just below a simmer and drop in tablespoons of the dumpling batter. I find that a small ice cream scoop works very well for portioning dumplings.

This may take one to two batches of cooking, depending on how much soup you have to comfortably fit the dumplings in. I cook for two and therefore have a smaller pot of soup. So I break this up into two batches of dumplings- the second one cooked for leftovers.

Put a lid on the soup and turn the soup down to your lowest setting and cook for 13-15 minutes, till a tested dumpling reveals itself to be light and cooked in the center.

This recipe makes 18 – 20 tablespoon sized dumplings.

Enjoy!

More Dumpling Recipes from Fellow Food Bloggers

• Delicious Days: Pretzel dumplings with creamed chanterelle mushrooms
• Lex Culinaria: Fish Dumplings in Lemon Garlic Broth
• Bakingsheet: Blueberry Dumplings

As I descended into the depths of this latest cold (and accompanying foggy head syndrome), I found myself coming up with all sorts of great ideas for modification to this American classic dessert. Stopping short at my idea of making grapefruit flavored rice crispy treats (I fear my flavor genius would be unappreciated without the undertaking of cold medicine by everyone else), I hit a simple Eureka moment with my previous recipe of Chocolate Cashew Rice Crispy Treats. Modifying this candy/cookie hybrid with the inclusion of raisins, hits that soul satisfying combination of nuts, chocolate and raisins.

I should warn you though- self restraint is a must if these are to be in your household for very long. The resulting carnage can be difficult to explain if these treats are intended to be given away as presents. I advise getting the completed cookie out of your house as soon as possible!

Chocolate GORP Rice Crispy Treats

GORP: Good Old Raisins and Peanuts.
Lightly oil an 8″ x 8″ baking pan and set aside.
Combine in a sauce pan:

• light corn syrup, 1/2 cup
• light brown sugar, 1/4 cup packed
• salt, 1/4 tsp

Bring to a full boil and remove from the heat.
Stir in:

• peanut butter butter (or any favorite nut butter), 1 cup
  • Warming the peanut butter jar in the microwave makes the 1 cup easier to scoop out.
• vanilla, 1 teaspoon
• crisp puffed rice cereal, 3 cups

With oiled hands, press the mixture firmly into the buttered 8″ x 8″ pan.

Sprinkle the top with chopped raisins and enough grated or finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate to cover the entire pan, making sure to get the chocolate in the corners, as well as thick enough to form a layer. As I was working with a large block of chocolate and free-form with the raisins, I don’t quite remember the quantities required. A four ounce chocolate bar and 1/2 cup of raisins are a good place to start.

Using a blow torch (or a brief visit to the broiler), melt out the chocolate layer to help adhere the raisins.

This cuts best before the chocolate has completely hardened.

I’m lucky in that this was the extent of my tumultuous childhood conflicts; endure the teasing of eating something that resembled a bodily function output, never mind how tasty this pudding cup was? I’m sad to say, I never encouraged the inclusion of such pudding in my lunch, as I didn’t want to be the center of such attentions.

With this childhood rooting I seemed to have banished chocolate pudding from my adulthood as well. Whenever a sweet chocolate fit would strike, brownies, mousses, and cookies found their ways into my repertoire, but the simple pudding remained shunned.

In a recent fit of dessert longing and chocolate craving, Sweets offered up this simple exclamation: pudding!

To appease him, I looked up a recipe on Epicurious, and came upon a Double Chocolate Pudding. The ingredients are simple and to the point- the recipe is quite straightforward. We cooked up a batch that night and even ate it warm…

Oh, I forgot how good pudding is! And eaten slightly warmed seems to increase the flavors even more. Its rich, filling, a good way to revel in a particularly wonderful specialty chocolate. This pudding is a good in small amounts, to be savored in cute little cups.

Double Chocolate Pudding

This recipe is a slight revision of the one found on Epicurious. With a good chocolate that doesn’t contain dairy, this recipe can easily be made vegan.
In a saucepan, whisk to combine:

• sugar, 3/4 cup
• cocoa powder, 1/3 cup
• corn starch, 3 Tbs
• salt, 1/4 tsp

Put the saucepan over medium heat and have ready 2 1/2 cups of dairy:

• Be it soy milk, half and half, milk, or a some mixture of all of the above, your results will be wonderful.

Gradually whisk in the dairy component, and bring the mixture to a boil.
Remove from the heat and stir into the hot pudding 3 ounces of grated eating chocolate and 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla.

Allow to cool slightly before eating, or cool with plastic making contact with the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming.

I imagine this pudding would respond well to the dairy portion being decreased with a simultaneous inclusion of rum to make up the missing volume!

Sweets took this as an opportunity to show off our mad cooking skillz and brought home marshmallows and a box of cereal. “You mean I can’t make the marshmallows?” I asked looking at the four bags of large marshmallows sitting on our kitchen table. He sighed and rolled his eyes at me. “Ok, ok, I get it- that’s not the point…” I answer as we get to work making up a batch of traditional rice crispy treats. We added extra vanilla and a good pinch of salt to just push them even closer to nirvana.

For our second batch of treats, I was interested in jazzing up the flavors a bit. My memory of eating rice crispy treats for the first time in England, also introduced me to the possible flavor mutations that tend to erupt in these sugar bombs. As a kid, going next door to Catherine and Amelia’s house ushered in my first crispy sweet square. I seem to recall the chocolate and peanut butter permutation showing up at their house for Halloween as well. Its odd in that it was my British neighbors who introduced the States me to the very American treats of marshmallowed rice crispies and creating elaborate environments for our Star Wars figures.

Sleuthing around the web brought forth a nutty recipe from About.com’s website that surprisingly doesn’t call for marshmallows. Instead, you create your own sugar, corn syrup concoction for these salty chewy dense squares, that are sure to be just as addictive as the traditional marshmallow based ones.

Chocolate Cashew Rice Crispy Treats

Lightly butter an 8″ x 8″ baking pan and set aside.
Combine in a sauce pan:

• light corn syrup, 1/2 cup
• light brown sugar, 1/4 cup packed
• salt, 1/4 tsp

Bring to a full boil and remove from the heat.
Stir in:

• cashew butter (or any favorite nut butter), 1 cup
• vanilla, 1 teaspoon
• crisp puffed rice cereal, 3 cups

With buttered hands, press the mixture firmly into the buttered 8″ x 8″ pan.

Sprinkle the top with enough grated or finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate to cover the entire pan, making sure to get the chocolate in the corners, as well as thick enough to form a layer. As I was working with a large block of chocolate, I don’t quite remember the quantity required. A four ounce chocolate bar is a good place to start.

Using a blow torch (or a brief visit to the broiler), melt out the chocolate layer and spread smooth with a spatula. While the chocolate is still soft, drag a toothpick through it to score out the future lines for your knife cuts: 4 x 4 rows and columns.

Pop in the refrigerator and allow to harden. Cut when firm and enjoy showing off to your co-workers.

I spent my second year of college in my first apartment with three roommates: my freshman year roommate Molly, her childhood friend Jenny, and Jenny’s partner in crime Hailey. While being introduced to splitting a household for the first time, this year in the apartment also gave me a new perspective on cooking and choosing food for reasons beyond flavor.

Our roommate Hailey was my first exposure to someone who is a vegetarian. She also chose her meals not just to be meat free but to also be healthy and nutricious- considerations I was aware of, but had never really seen someone do for themselves. It was fascinating! She exposed me to my first tofu, brown rice, peanut sauce topped broccoli, and Brag’s Amino Acid meals. These were just slightly ok in my book… I much prefered my adventures making cheese soup in bread bowls at the time.

One night, Hailey pulled out all the stops and made us teriyaki tempeh. While the concept of tofu was new to me- tempeh was unfathomable. I had no clue what it was- but it was wrapped in wonderful salty sweet teriyaki sauce, and passed the test of my taste buds.

Eugene hosts its own locally made tempeh put out by Surata Soy Foods. Tempeh is dense and meaty, being made of soybeans that are pressed into a brick and fermented giving it a deep flavor. Its density makes it very well suited to be cooked or grilled in a slab and eaten hamburger style on a soft bun.

I often find myself enjoying a food best in the style it was first introduced to me, and tempeh is one in that category:

Grilled Teriyaki Tempeh

In a sauce pan over medium high heat combine:

• 1 cup of mirin
• 1 cup of soy sauce
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of sake
• 1 inch of sliced fresh ginger
• 3 cloves of garlic sliced

Bring to a simmer and lay in your servings of tempeh. Simmer the tempeh in the teriyaki marinade for 5 minutes. Remove the tempeh to drain slightly and continue to boil the teriyaki sauce till reduced to one cup of liquid.

Slightly oil a grill pan and heat. Cook the tempeh till grilled nicely on each side.
Remove the tempeh and brush with the reduced sauce.

May be served ontop of salad with a sprinkling of green onions, toasted sesame seeds and juicy mandarin oranges, or as a burger like slab on a bun with a slice of tangy pineapple.

Enjoy!

Sweets and I had a nice dinner at Marche this last week. He had a dinner of Wood Oven Roasted Oregon Wild Chinook Salmon with Horseradish Crème Fraîche, Balsamic Beet Coulis and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes and Beets. I had a Blood Orange Salad with Fried Artichoke Leaves, Provençal Olives, Goat Cheese and Champagne Vinaigrette and a main course of Wood Oven Roasted Totten Inlet Mussels with Apple Cider, Curry and Cream, Served with Grilled French Bread. We swapped bites of golden beet for blood orange then realizing the fun switch-er-oo of colors our meals had provided us: beet colored oranges and orange colored beets!

This color switch serves as a nice pairing of winter flavors. However, I’m noticing alot of variability with the Blood Oranges in my area. The ones I had at Marche were deep burgundy and sweet, however the ones I had at home barely had a bruise and were very tangy. I adjusted this recipe to offer a variation to help soften tangy blood oranges: slivers of avocado in the mix.

Golden Beets with Blood Orange

Scrub clean 4 small golden beets. Roast in a 375F oven till fork tender about one hour. Allow to cool and scrub off the beet peels. Trim off both ends and slice into 1/8ths or 1/16ths for a slender sliver of flavor.

Section one small blood orange. Look to Beyond Salmon’s how-to post for pictures of this technique.

Toss together the beet and orange slices in a simple vinaigrette. Epicurious has a selection of recipes here for straight forward vinaigrettes.

Assemble alternating slices with a sprinkling of toasted walnuts and a dusting of cracked pepper.

Recipe variations:
- sprinkling with toasted hazelnuts
- pairing with goat cheese
- temper a really tangy blood orange with slices of avocado and a sprinkle of sugar in the dressing.