Cèilidh Nam Freumhan

Tag: recipe

  • Millions of Peaches (Okay…4 Peaches)

    Millions of Peaches (Okay…4 Peaches)

    I won’t do the thing where you have to scroll past three pages about how my family has used this recipe for six generations and built an empire from it.

    But I still have to explain how I got here, so bear with me…

    I had four peaches that were getting way too soft, and I wasn’t about to let them go to waste. So I tossed them in the freezer and decided to make peach nice cream in my Vitamix.

    It turned out so much better than I expected. It’s creamy, refreshing, ridiculously easy, and perfect for using up fruit that’s on its last leg.

    Ingredients

    • 3-4 ripe peaches, peeled (if you want), sliced, and frozen
    • 1/4-1/2 cup plant milk (I used almond milk)
    • 1-2 tbsp maple syrup, sugar, or agave (I used agave, but the sweetener is optional)
    • 1 tsp vanilla extract
    • Tiny pinch of salt

    Instructions

    1. Add the plant milk to the Vitamix first.
    2. Add the frozen peaches.
    3. Add the vanilla, sweetener, and salt.
    4. Insert the tamper (using the lid, of course!).
    5. Start on Variable 1, quickly increase to Variable 10, then switch to High. If your Vitamix has an Ice Cream program, you can use that instead.
    6. Use the tamper continuously to push the peaches into the blades while blending.
    7. Blend for 30-60 seconds until the mixture resembles soft serve. If it’s too thick, add more plant milk one tablespoon at a time.

    Note: I actually blended mine for several 30-60 second cycles because I wanted it extra thick.

    Transfer the nice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze for 2-3 hours before serving.

    Enjoy!

    And if you happen to have millions of peaches instead of four, I suppose you could just make a bigger batch.

    Yeah, I ate some before I took this pic.
  • Bring Back a Shrubbery!

    Bring Back a Shrubbery!

    As someone who has become increasingly committed to using what I already have, I’m always looking for creative ways to avoid wasting food.

    Which brings us to three persimmons.

    Two days ago, I had three persimmons that had become far too squishy for me to willingly allow into my mouth. It’s a texture thing, okay?

    After some searching, I found a recipe for something called a shrub—a sweetened vinegar syrup that can be mixed into everything from bourbon cocktails to sparkling water.

    Naturally, I had to try it.

    The process begins by peeling the persimmons and squishing out the insides.

    Shudder.

    The resulting pulp goes into a bowl. The basic ratio is about 1:1 fruit to sugar, so I combined 1 cup of persimmon pulp with 1 cup of sugar. I also added roughly a tablespoon of ginger powder because it sounded like a good idea at the time.

    I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it in the refrigerator overnight.

    The next morning—at approximately 6:40 a.m., for reasons I still cannot explain—I strained out the solids and was left with about 2 ounces of syrup.

    solids separated from syrup
    This will be great in yogurt or something later.

    The solids weren’t wasted. I saved them in a separate container with plans to add them to yogurt later.

    Next came the vinegar.

    I chose apple cider vinegar because I thought it would pair nicely with the sweetness of the persimmons. Most shrub recipes call for a 1:1 ratio of syrup to vinegar, but since this was my first attempt, I approached it cautiously.

    After all, you can always add more vinegar.

    You cannot un-vinegar something.

    I started at about 50% of the recommended amount and gradually worked my way up to around 75%, tasting as I went.

    Once I was happy with the balance, I transferred everything to a mason jar and gave it a good shake.

    Then I tasted it.

    Wow.

    This is going to be good.

    4 ounces of shrub in a jar
    At least this wasn’t days of work to only get 4 ounces.

    At the time of writing, I haven’t actually used it in a drink yet. I want to give the flavors another day or two to mingle before I start experimenting.

    Besides, I only ended up with about 4 ounces of shrub.

    If it’s as good as I think it’s going to be, I need to exercise at least a little self-control.