Rum Raisin Gelato

Being summer it is a perfect time to try out a frozen treat recipe. Rum raisin is a flavor of ice cream that I have never tried before, so when I was looking through all of the recipes I could choose from this one struck me because of its uniqueness. 

Yumeiro Patissiere is a shojo series (shojo is the Japanese word for young girl) created by Natsume Matsumoto. It is about a middle school girl named Ichigo Amano who up until the start of the series was a clumsy but good natured girl who stood a bit in the shadow of her talented younger sister. In the first episode of the show you find out that as a young girl she ate a cake made by her grandmother, who was a talented pastry chef. At the time she had declared that she wanted to grow up to be a patissiere as well, but it wasn't until after a competition her sister performed in and won, that she went to a sweets fair, and it was mentioned that she has a very sensitive pallet, and should consider going to a pastry school in Tokyo.

Ichigo convinces her parents to let her transfer, and once there she meets three boys who are very talented despite their age, and begins her journey with them to becoming a talented chef in her own way. She is still clumsy, and because she doesn't have any experience she is learning from scratch, but she is very industrious and works hard to complete her tasks. Each episode is heart warming and makes you cheer for the main characters.

In one episode the four main characters are competing in Paris with a bunch of other teams from around the world. They decide that the sweet they are going to make is Gelato, and the flavors they come up with are Peach, Pistachio, Rum Raisin, and Salted Sakura Blossom. 

Having never made this recipe before I relied on a recipe that I found online to give me a starting point. It was a pretty simple recipe, but like with any ice cream recipe, you need to make sure to plan ahead. Not only do you need to let the mixture cool after you have cooked it on the stove, but you also have to let the raisins soak in the rum, so definitely make this a day before you plan on eating it. 

Rum Raisin Gelato

Ingredients

1 C. Raisins

1 C. + 1 T. Rum (I used Bacardi Silver. Depending on the type of rum you use the flavor will differ a bit, so choose whichever type you prefer to drink)

1 inch strip of Orange Zest

3 C. Almond Milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice, preferably one that is rich)

1/3 C. Organic White Sugar

1/3 C. Stevia

3 T. Corn Starch

1 pinch of salt

1/4 C. Silk Creamer (or non-dairy creamer of your choice)

1. Place the raisins, 1 C. of rum and orange zest in a small sauce pan. Heat until it simmers and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover and let it sit overnight. 

2. To a medium sized pot add 1 C. of almond milk, sugar, stevia, cornstarch, and salt , and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the remaining almond milk and continue stirring until it comes to a low boil. Turn the heat down and continue to cook while stirring for another minute.

3. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the creamer and remaining tablespoon of rum. Transfer to a container and let it cool until room temperature. Once it is cool put it in the fridge overnight. You do not want to put warm gelato mix into the ice cream machine or it will not freeze, so be patient and wait until it is completely chilled.

4. Unless you have the type of ice cream machine that does not require you to freeze the bowl you should put the bowl of the ice cream machine into your freezer at the same time you put your mixture into the fridge. By the the next day the bowl will be frozen and ready to go. 

5. Once your mixture is cold, and the bowl is frozen you are ready to begin the final stage.

6. Strain any remaining rum mixture as well as the orange peel from the raisins and keep the raisins to the side of the machine. 

7. Put the ice cream bowl into the machine with the paddle that churns the ice cream, and turn the machine on. Slowly pour in the gelato mixture, and then add in the raisins. The machine will mix everything, and in 15-20 minutes depending on how hot your kitchen is, the gelato should be ready.   

This was a very unique flavor. It is definitely one that I think is best enjoyed in small quantities, perhaps along side a cookie or pastry of some sort. If you really like the taste of rum definitely use the quantity of rum mentioned above, but if you don't want the taste of rum to be quite so strong perhaps use a little less rum to soak the raisins in. The rum flavor is quite strong, so adjust it depending on your particular taste. Also, due to the quantity of liquor in this dish I would not recommend serving it to children. I have a low tolerance for alcohol, and I think it definitely gave me a bit of a buzz (I'm quite a lightweight now, but even knowing that I don't think it would be appropriate for children). 

If you try this recipe let me know what you think, and if you like cute feel-good anime definitely try out this anime. Crunchyroll used to stream it, but the episodes are no longer up on their website, so unless you have a dvd copy of the show, you can watch it on Youtube. Be warned that those episodes aren't high quality due to being uploaded by fans, but you can still enjoy the show. I hope that someone gets the rights to the show again and releases it online officially, so that we can watch it in higher definition (and more importantly legally). If you know of where we can watch it legally online let me know, and I will update this post with links. Being an artist I always want to support the creators and content owners.

Addicted to Curry...and other food anime

Food has a way of bringing people together. When you eat a good meal you get to enjoy the combination of the tastes each ingredient brings to the dish. In addition to all the good flavors of the actual food, you can enjoy the memories that come with that meal, whether it is from creating the recipe, adapting it from a family favorite, or the memory of sharing it with friends, family and loved ones. 

Food-centric anime manages to bring all of these things together. There are a number of types of plots that center around food in anime and manga. You have the food competitions, life in a restaurant plots (which usually combines a young cook eager to learn with an expert who teaches them the trade), and the every day slice of life plots that bring in your every-day life with wonderful looking food.

I decided that I would combine my interest in anime, manga, and food to create some blog posts that would introduce you to not only specific recipes but also anime and manga that feature delicious looking food. I am vegan and wanted to find a way to bring to life the foods I have seen (sometimes often) in anime and manga, and make them vegan. 

One of my favorite series is one that has not been distributed in the US yet. It is called Addicted to Curry. It is created by Kazuki Funatsu. The main character is a young curry chef named Makito Koenji. In the beginning of the series he is down on his luck and ends up collapsed outside a curry restaurant named Ganesha, which happens to be owned by the other main character, Yui Sonezaki's, father. 

Their meeting spurs a relationship that brings the two of them together to not only discover and create new curry recipes that will appeal to the locals and the (many) curry fans that end up coming by each chapter. Makito's main goal is to find his father, and Yui's AWOL father, who is a mentor of his, promised to help him find him, so Makito decides to stay until he returns.

The series combines comedy, competition, romance, and some drama. Not only that, but the author has clearly researched curry and loves the topic because the detail is exceptional, and there are often recipes to go along with each new curry creation. 

One of the recipes that I pretty much made straight from the manga is Beta Sabzi. The recipe is vegetable based (mainly pumpkin and tomatoes). The ingredients were easily found in my local Asian Grocery Store, so I decided to start out this series with this recipe.

Beta Sabzi, Chapter 92

I will continue by giving the caveat that this recipe did not serve 5-6. Perhaps it would serve that many if it was just a side dish, but if you are treating this as a main dish, which I did, you will get about 4 servings.

You can see the image capture above, which shows the page from the manga that this recipe is from, but as I modified it a little, as some of the quantities seemed to need a little adjustment, I will post the recipe and steps below as well.

Beta Sabzi

Ingredients

• 3 C. Kabocha Squash (if you can't find Kabocha use Acorn or Butternut)
• 3T. Vegetable Oil
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 inch hunk of Ginger
• 2 Dried Red Chili Peppers
• Garam Masala to taste
• 2 L. Tomatoes
• 1/2 tsp chili powder (an Asian style, not the kind you would put in chili)
• 1 tsp Ground Coriander
• Salt to taste

Steps

 1. Peel the squash and cut into 3 cm sized pieces.

2.Heat the oil in a medium sized pot or Dutch Oven and toast the mustard seeds until they are fragrant.

3. Add the Chilis and finely minced Ginger to the pan.

4. Add Coriander, Chili Powder, Salt and tomatoes to the pot and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add the squash along with 2-3 C. of water (I recommend starting with a lower amount of liquid and adjusting depending on how thin you want the sauce to be. Bring to a boil and cook until the squash is tender.

Turn the heat off and add Garam Masala to taste. I added 1/2 to 1 tsp.

Serve either over rice or with the rice on the side.

I enjoyed this recipe. It was simple to make, and the flavors were light with some nice spice accents that gave the dish some personality and interest. I have made curry before, and this dish was not like any curry I have had. 

I would definitely recommend trying this recipe, at least once, and if you enjoy manga with humor, heart, and good food, definitely check out Addicted to Curry (keep in mind that this manga was written for teenage boys, so there is some gratuitous fan service sprinkled throughout. I have still enjoyed the series, and generally it is all in good humor). I continue to hope that it will eventually be officially translated. With the amount of anime and manga in its genre that have been released in the past few years I definitely could see a market for it.