Dragonfruit-Basil Mascarpone Ice Cream and Mochi Ice Cream

Have you noticed how there've been way too many recipes using dragonfruit on this blog lately? It's not that I can't help myself, but I really can't! Red-fleshed dragonfruit is seasonal, just like strawberries, and rhubarb and God knows what else. It lasts a mere few months and then I have to wait nearly a whole year to do this again. A whole year of resisting using artificial pink food coloring. Yes, my name is Maya and I'm a PINK addict. Do you think I need to join a support group as a form of therapy? :-)

International Incident Party: Healthy Breakfast Sundae

The theme for this month's IIP is Sundae. I looooove ice cream and desserts to my own detriment because this sweet addiction often translates into an annoying but rather endearing "muffin-top".While doing some *cough* research on this theme, I came across a sundae served in a hot dog bun and while I thought it was an interesting concept, I'm not sure if I'd be tempted to eat that sundae, even while holidaying in Thailand.  It's like combining last month's theme (Hot Dog) with this one's! Totally absurd.

I decided to go in a different direction, creating my own twist on the old ice cream sundae. Prepare to set aside any guilt, for you can eat my sundae for breakfast. Now ice cream for breakfast isn't as crazy as it sounds when you think about the amount of sugar-soaked calories in a typical stack of pancakes, smeared jams on toast and a bowl of processed cereal. And when you consider that this ice cream is eggless (sadly, not cream-less) and machiavellianly made with oatmeal, the whole concept starts to feel vaguely *winks* healthy.

The other twist is that instead of serving the ice cream in scoops as per usual in a sundae, these frozen babies were shaped into cones. Upside-down cones, yes sure, but conically-shaped nonetheless to pay homage to the most popular way of eating ice-cream (a.k.a. in a waffle cone).

So that’s the ice cream part sorted out, but where’s the actual Sundae, you ask? I started to grapple with the idea of a healthy dessert that can actually be eaten for breakfast without any guilt. Well, not much guilt, I should say. After a bit of umm-aahhing, I decided to serve the breakfast sundae in the following ways:

1. Oatmeal Ice Cream Sundae with Chocolate Roti Jala, topped with Honey-Passion Fruit Sauce, and...

2. Oatmeal Ice Cream Sundae with Apple Waffle, topped with Blueberry Yoghurt
and Toasted Almonds.

Roti jala or “net bread” are lacy, net-like pancakes or crepes (they’re very thin) that are popular in Malaysia and around this region in general. They are created using a special deep ladle with several syringe-like holes at the bottom where the runny batter can flow through into the hot pan. Normally, they would be served as a savory item alongside a meat or curry dish, and they would be yellow in color due to the turmeric powder used. However, here I decided to make a chocolate version of roti jala. Drizzled with the honey-passion fruit sauce, they proved to be a perfect accompaniment to my oatmeal sundae. I just couldn’t photograph all my steps quickly enough before the crepes started burning, so here’s a good video to show you how it’s cooked.

The other breakfast sundae version with apple waffle wasn’t too bad either. I just don’t think I need to go into a lengthy explanation on what constitute waffles, and no, no, I didn’t make the blueberry yoghurt myself – it was store bought. Once the ice cream lost its conical shape and melted into the roti jala/waffles (it took a fair while as the oats were pretty good at holding everything together), the guilt factor of having to eat both of these breakfast sundaes in one sitting melted away as well... ;-)

Thank you Penny a.k.a. Jeroxie for being a fabulous host, as always! Do check out the other sundae creations by some of the most talented bloggers I know by clicking on their thumbnails below.

Eggless Oatmeal Ice Cream 'Cones'

(makes 3/4 L)

Ingredients:

100g brown sugar

1 tablespoon glutinous rice flour

1/4 tsp salt

200ml single cream

200ml milk

250g quickcook oatmeal

Method:

1. Place all ingredients in a saucepan and whisk to combine. Bring mixture to simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook until mixture has fully thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Let cool completely either in an ice bath or in the fridge. I put mine over the ice bath, while stirring to quicken it. Pour into ice cream machine and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions.

2. In the meantime, prepare cone moulds. Cut four 20cm x 25cm sheets of baking paper. Trim four sheets of A4 paper or aluminium foil into the same size. Lay a baking paper sheet over a sheet of regular paper or foil, bring top right corner down to the middle of the paper and roll to form a cone shape. Secure with a sticky tape. Repeat with the other papers and place each cone in 4 tall slim glasses or containers.

3. Scoop the soft ice cream mixture into the paper cones, packing down ice cream tightly and leveling the top. Transfer to the freezer for at least 6 hours or overnight. To serve, remove tape and unwrap paper. Invert cones onto serving plates.

Chocolate Roti Jala

Makes 4 net pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup of all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder

2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

1 1/4 cup of milk

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Method:

1. Mix all the above ingredients thoroughly. There should not be any lumps. You can either pass the batter through a sieve or blend the mixture in a blender to get a smooth mixture.

2. Heat a non-stick pan and brush lightly with some melted butter. Fill 1/4 of the roti jala mold with the mix and move it over the hot pan in a continuous spiral motion. Hold the mold close to the pan otherwise the mixture will form into droplets rather than continuous strings of batter. (If the batter is too thick or does not flow well, add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil to the batter).

3. It cooks very fast, about a minute so make sure you keep your eye on the pancake. Lift the edges and fold the pancake into half, then into half again to make a wedge/triangular shape.

Apple Waffles

Makes: 4

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 large apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 cup milk

¼ teaspoon butter, melted

Method:

1. Preheat a waffle iron and oil as required.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, apple, cinnamon and salt with a fork. In another bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed until foamy. Combine the two mixtures, blending until the dry ingredients are well moistened and the batter is smooth.

3. Pour ½ cup of the batter onto the waffle iron and bake according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Remove waffle from the iron and continue until all the batter is used.

Honey-Passion Fruit Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup honey

1 passion fruit

Scoop the passionfruit contents and mix into the honey. Use as a topping by spooning onto ice-cream and pancakes.

Two ways with the Healthy Breakfast Sundae:

1. Make the roti jala, place oatmeal icecream on top or side of it and drizzle generously with the honey-passion fruit sauce. Serve immediately.

2. Make the apple waffle, place oatmeal icecream on top and drizzle with blueberry yoghurt. Sprinkle with some toasted almonds. Serve immediately.

My Way With Pear Pt. 2 - Pear and Cashew Cream Sorbet

Remember this beautiful pear? Well, the fantasy continues. For my second pear recipe installment, I decided to make a lovely, tangy pear-lime sorbet. But wait, I say "sorbet" quite liberally here because after I threw in the roasted cashew nuts into the mix, the texture of this frozen dish turned cream-like. So I'm not quite sure if there's ever such a thing as a creamy sorbet, but  here it is. It's naturally sweetened, and melts lingeringly on the tongue (or, in my case, on the dish, in the bright sunlight).

On their own, the pear and cashew flavors are fairly subtle. This is where the lime came into play, because the tanginess of the citrus somehow enhances the sweet-tartness of the pear and the sweet-creaminess of the cashew nuts. Don't ask me how, it just does.

Pear and Cashew Cream Sorbet
Ingredients:
2 Forelle pears
1-2 large limes, squeezed
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup water
1 cup cashew nuts, unsalted and roasted

Method:

1. Peel, core and slice pears, place in the water and honey in a pan and poach for 10-15 minutes until the pears are soft. Leave to cool completely.

2. When cool, pour pears and poaching liquid into a food processor, add the lime juice and cashew nuts and blend until the nuts are finely ground.

3. Freeze in an ice cream maker, or if you don't have one, just freeze the mixture for an hour in a suitable, covered container. When the ice crystals start to form, scrape down the sides and blend again until smooth. Repeat this process two more times over the next 2-3 hours, then leave to freeze for 4 hours or overnight.

4. Serve on its own or with some thinly sliced pears soaked briefly in salted water.

I used small jelly molds to shape the sorbet. It was less messier to serve up and didn't melt as quickly!

My Banana is Bigger... Oh Yea.

My helper came into the kitchen yesterday lugging a bunch of really BIG bananas from our garden. Wow! I wondered what nutrients we gave to the plants around here that they are able to grow like that? I think they may be plantains, but I'm not quite sure as I'm no banana expert (in the kitchen, anyway). And I'm too lazy to Google.

So here they are, and to give you some perspective on the size, I've placed a regular-sized fork on top.

I had no real ideas what to do with them and it was only breakfast-time. Well, the quickest thing was to grill them in the oven with a pinch of butter and sprinkling of nutmeg on top.

There, my grilled bananas. Drizzled them with some honey and they're gone in an instant!

Another sweet-savoury adaptation is to add cheese on top. I squeezed some cheddar on mine.... vicious!

Btw, if you're wondering what that yellow, plastic contraption is in the pic at the top of this post - it's called a Banana Saver. You know, to save those half-eaten bananas for later and prevent them from oxidising. I bought this novelty item while I was in the US a few months back and while I love the concept part of it, I haven't used it yet to save any bananas (we always finish ours in one go!). Ok, now you now I'm a Chindogu-lover too, but hey, someone's got to be a fan of these useless things...