i bought a kakigori (かき氷) shaved ice machine last week and have been using it almost everyday. in where i live where its summer all year round, this is more of a necessity than a luxury. i think its really fun because the combinations you can come up with are virtually endless.



recipe for the matcha kakigori is from here. the matcha syrup is very good! in fact the combination itself is fantastic, lots of interesting textures here. you could also have it with a scoop of matcha ice cream on top or drizzle condensed milk over. i'm really happy because we can finally eat bingsu/kakigori/shaved ice/snow cone whenever we want!

sometimes i just want to give my oven a break and make something really really simple. i get the feeling quite often these days, like wanting to make something yet i just want to laze around and do nothing. this one is really zero fuss and yields spectacular results. so good that i was surprise myself, consider i didn't even have a recipe to begin with.

i've practically been living on foodgawker and tastespotting 24/7 these days. beautiful food photos aside, i can't believe how much creative ideas and inspirations i've garnered from the site. i lost count of the photos i bookmarked and the recipes i wanted to try out "tentatively". i mean, how could you say no to stuff like strawberry yogurt-covered pretzels and very vibrant-looking red velvet cake made not with red food coloring but beet puree? and then i also came across this polka-dot strawberry milkshake which involves sticking cut marshmallows onto the side of the glasses to give it a polka-dot effect. totally creative and this is something that i wouldn't think of in a million years.

i was craving for something salty sweet the other day so i decided to make some salted caramel ice cream from the numerous egg yolks i've got from macaron-making. i bookmarked this recipe quite sometime ago and i was really confident it would taste good since its from david lebovitz, the ice cream guru. plus it doesn't use that many yolks and cream so i was enticed by it. unfortunately this wasn't what i expected it to be.

finally i've waited long enough for dates to be on the shelves again so i jumped at the change to try my hands on another recipe. my previous attempt last year was too cakey and i really wanted a pudding-like one this time. when i saw felicia's entry on it, i told myself i HAD to make it. hers look really really good! the truth is, this one is cake-like too but better than my previous. i'm wondering if i shd hv underbaked it a little but nonetheless its really delicious, with or without the sauce and ice cream. and OMG, i finally succeeded in scooping a one-spoon ice cream quenelle, much to my delight :D i've always wanted to scoop a quenelle coz its really elegant but the two-spoon method don't quite cut it for me. after much practice, i can safely say - i'm getting there!!

despite not being a fan of local/nyonya food, i actually adore coconut quite alot! and what better way to make ice cream with it. i think avocado and coconut is an ingenious combination, its even better with a drizzle of gula melaka (palm sugar). given the success of my pulut hitam ice cream, i decided to give a flavored coconut ice cream another go. this recipe is from poh ling yeow, the runner-up in masterchef australia. indeed, its very good. cool, creamy and very coconutty. this is also the first time i'm using single pouring cream instead of whipping cream as per recipe instruction. seriously, i don't see any difference! its still very creamy so i'm sticking to single cream in future since its lower in fat.

to be frank, making tea ice cream isn't something on my to-do list despite the fact that i love this combination alot. my favorite tea ice cream of all time must be canele patisserie's earl grey ice cream (packs a punch!) as well as island creamery's teh tarik ice cream. the reason is coz i think it takes alot of tea leaves to really bring out the flavor and aroma especially when ingredients like cream and milk are usually very overpowering. i made chocolate macarons with earl grey dark choc ganache before so i know. but there's so much tea leaves waiting to be used up and i don't normally like making tea on its own, i figured out it'll be faster to use them in baking/desserts.

all it took was one sentence from a friend - "i'm eating island creamery's pulut hitam ice cream" over MSN one day that got me into making this ice cream. island creamery's rendition is really good. smooth, coconutty, fragrant and easily one of my favorite flavors. though i didn't have a recipe to begin with, common sense tells me the easiest way to put this together is simply to find a coconut ice cream recipe and add in cooked glutinous rice that has been presoaked and boiled to a mush. and while a vanilla bean ice cream recipe will require you to place the vanilla bean pod together with the cream while bringing it to a boil, i added pandan leaves to the coconut milk. end result was a really rich and fragrant ice cream, better than i expected but a tad too cloying. might consider replacing some of the cream with milk if i'm ever gonna make this again.

i made some kickass & ridiculously good vanilla bean ice cream and i can't wait to share the recipe with you guys! it all started with a case of having too much leftover whipping cream from my previous attempt on the apricot panna cotta. nowadays i buy whipping cream in 1L carton instead of 200ml coz its alot more worth it that way. only about 8 bucks for 1L, compared to $3.40 for 200ml, but it'll also mean i get alot of leftovers, so what could be better than to make some cold comfort food like ice cream? vanilla bean ice cream is all i eat these days and i'm glad most patisseries are using vanilla bean in their ice cream coz you just can't beat the real stuff. and yes, i turn my nose up at the cheap supermarket variety, the kind that only use essence in them. i only regret not making it any earlier but its never too late! glad i now hv my stash of vanilla bean ice cream to call my own. and it also makes me wonder what i can't or won't do *chuckles*

a continuation from the previous topic on ice cream, this is something i made quite sometime ago. i promptly forgot all about it (actually its more like i didn't wanna post it coz this pic is really ugly). one blogger commented that it looks like century egg on 1st glance :( well, i hv to agree! the shape & color i guess, plus i couldn't really get a good picture in this sweltering heat. that is why i hate to photograph ice cream coz i can't take my own sweet time! then again i must post this coz its a really really good recipe. i've seen some black sesame ice cream recipes that use just ground sesame seeds but i think the flavor would be very mild, judging from the looks of it. whereas this one, it uses black sesame paste so its really potent & concentrated, as u can see! i like to order this whenever i'm out for japanese, or when i visit meidi-ya. so yes i think it comes very close to the japanese version.