Rhubarb Pie

One of the main reasons (if not the only reason) I love living abroad in 4 season countries, would be because of the FOOD! The variety of produce and ingredients available here just makes me want to bake everyday! A day at the Farmers market is like a day in paradise to me.

 Just look at these amazing produce I found at Hastings Farmer's market! 

A couple of days ago, I was given a bunch of rhubarbs by a lady who said she didn't like the tart taste of rhubarbs. She said it would go pretty well with apples and maybe I could make an apple crumble and throw some in. Well, I was pretty darn excited. Give me something strange and tell me it tastes like a funny word, and you'll get me going! 

They basically look like red celery sticks. But they are sour. And they don't taste like celery. So, okay. I went searching for a recipe for an Apple-rhubarb crumble, and I came across a Fresh Rhubarb pie recipe. It looked pretty darn easy.. All it needed was:

• 4 cups of chopped rhubarb
• 1 1/3 cups of white sugar
• 6 tbs flour
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie (I used sweet shortcrust pastry)

And these are the directions..

1. Preheat oven to 230 degrees C
2. Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust.
3. Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 175 degrees C, and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

I didn't want to simply cover my pie and be done with it... I wanted to make it look a little more kooky... (like I do with all my other food). Also, I know for a fact that I would make a big ugly mess if i were to just roll out my shortcrust pastry and cover the damn thing. So I cut out little pieces of starts to cover the top. Note, if you plan to do this or make a weave out of strips of pastry on top, make sure you cover quite alot of the pie. It helps to keep the steam and heat between the pastry and cook your rhubarb into a nice gooey jammy texture. I also sprinkled some course raw sugar on top :D

Of course, I couldn't serve my pie without a dollop of New Zealand's  famous super delicious ice cream. I bought a pretty cheap box of local ice cream (about $4.98). Deep South Vanilla ice cream was on sale... they also had French Vanilla. I wonder what is the difference? 

I went for a 'pre dessert run' earlier today, because I know I'm so gonna pig out tonight!!

Home Made Ice Cream

Strawberry and Mango Ice Cream! Can you say YUM? XD

I love making my own ice cream - partly because I can put in whatever I like in 'em, partly because I know it's not laden with sugar :D

Its much easier than you think. I know you might be familiar with recipes that requires egg yolks and ice cream making machines....(ice cream makers??) but my recipe needs none of those! I'm not too keen on the idea of having raw egg yolk in my ice cream myself... However, this recipe is reaaaallly easy and needs only 2 main ingredients:

Milk & Powdered Creamer (coffeemate?)

How to:
Just beat milk and creamer together - adjust the proportions by slowly adding in the creamer till the mixture is thick and creamy in consistency (like melted ice cream). Add in your flavorings - depending on what you feel like. Freeze for about an hour (or till the cream touching the sides of the container has frozen) then take it out and beat the mixture again. Repeat the freezing and beating step several times (I usually do it about 3 times) till you find that ice crystals don't form in your cream anymore, and you get more of an ice cream texture.

Poke it a couple of times in the freezer, if it feels like ice cream, you can stop beating it.

These are some of my favorite ice cream combinations:

Rum, Raisin and Coffee
- no doubt, gets the highest requests from my family members. Just add in rum, raisins and some coffee powder in your milky mixture.

Fruits (anything with less fiber - mangoes, berries...)
- use a blender instead of a beater to make your ice cream mixture, and add in your fruits. It blends in your fruits well with your cream.

Good ol' chocolate
- add in a couple of tablespoons of cocoa, and some chocolate chips if you desire. Some nuts would go great too!

Oreos
- Don't add in your oreo bits till the last ice cream beating, or everything will end up soggy and you'll get gross grey ice cream. Stir in oreo bits to create nice oreo swirls.

Easy and Healthy....err.. healthierrr.. ;D