Bourbon Pumpkin Mousse

Haven't updated the blog in a while, so here is a quick and easy recipe for fall.

Bourbon Pumpkin Mousse garnished with walnuts and honey handkerchiefs

Bourbon Pumpkin Mousse

A light and airy mousse with a hint of bourbon to liven things up.

1 Can Pumpkin Puree
1/2 Cup Sugar
2 TBSP Molasses
1 packet Gelatin
2 oz Bourbon
1 TSP Cinnamon
2 C Heavy Whipping Cream
Walnuts to garnish

Put bourbon in a heat-safe bowl, and sprinkle gelatin over the top to bloom. After 5 minutes, set bowl in a small pan of simmering water until gelatin melts.

In a food processor, combine pumpkin, sugar,  molasses and cinnamon. When gelatin is melted, add to pumpkin and continue to process until well combined and very smooth.

Beat the heavy whipping cream until it is stiff. Add about 1/4 of the whipping cream to the pumpkin and pulse to combine. This will lighten the pumpkin mixture and make folding much easier.

Fold remaining whipped cream into pumpkin, being careful not to over mix. Spoon into dishes and chill until well set. Garnish with walnuts and, if you are feeling particularly adventurous, honey handkerchiefs.

Stuffed Fairy Tale Eggplant

Two dollars. That's the cash I had left when I approached the Coleman Brothers tent at SKY Farmers Market. They were selling Fairy Tale Eggplant, a tiny variety of the purple vegetable, smaller even than the Japanese variety I've come to favor in the last few years. I wanted to try a few, so I asked for two dollars worth.

He gave me 35 of them - a perk of shopping before closing time, I suppose.

The lovely and delicious Fairy Tale Eggplant

Meltdown ice cream and a few Shade Tree sauces

I get inspiration from a lot of places, be it beer, music, or family. When I meet somebody else who is inspired to cook, the feeling is contagious and it makes me want to play off their creations.

Meltdown Lemonade Sorbet with Rooibos Caviar

My first exposure to Meltdown, Susan Warrell's upstart ice cream business here in Bowling Green, was through my priest. I was doing a dinner for him, and he had gotten some Chocolate-Covered Strawberry ice cream from her and asked me to work it into our dessert. Had he said vanilla or chocolate something else like that, I may have been tempted to relegate it to a mere garnish, a topping for whatever-pie a la mode. Instead, and fortunately, I decided to let the ice cream be the main player - without having even tasted it - based on the intriguing flavor we were given. The addition of a simple sauce and some fresh berries was all it needed to be the star of the meal, and to make me anxious to try what else Meltdown had to offer.

I've gotten to try a couple of other flavors since that night, and quite honestly they could all stand alone. But I can't help but experiment when the inspiration hits me, so here are three recipes, all using different flavors of Meltdown ice cream, to liven up your summer afternoons.

Apple-cumin pork ribs

Been forever since I've posted. Taken on some new responsibilities, and it has made it tough to find time to write. But I'm still cooking!

I had to come up with a recipe yesterday, on the fly, for some boneless pork ribs my brother and I picked up. What came of it was some heady aromas and tender, tasty ribs with very little clean up. Best of all, it used stuff you probably have in your kitchen right now anyway.

These are a great addition to a cookout as an appetizer - or a chef's treat. You can make them ahead, and they just take a few minutes to finish on the grill.

Apple-Cumin Pork Ribs
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 of a sweet onion, diced
1 jalapeno, finely diced (leave in the seeds for more heat)
2-3 small apples, chopped
2 lbs boneless pork ribs
1 tsp salt, to taste
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp thyme
Black pepper, to taste
1 cup apple juice

The ribs we found were pretty small, so I was able to do this all in a large sauce pan. You could scale it up easily for larger, bone-in ribs, or even make this as a marinade for chops.

Saute onion and jalapeno in olive oil over medium heat until softened. Add apples, and continue cooking until apples have softened and start to give off some juice. Add ribs. You'll finish these on the grill, so don't worry about browning them. Just get them down in amongst the apples and onions. Add seasonings and enough juice to barely cover the ribs and bring to a boil. Lower heat, cover, and simmer 60-90 minutes (you'll need longer for bigger ribs). You want the meat to be tender, but not absolutely falling apart so they hold up on the grill, so check them every 15 minutes or so.

Finish ribs on a medium-hot grill, 2-3 minutes per side.

As for sauce, we didn't make one and didn't miss it. I didn't have my stick blender with me (shame on me), but I would have liked to try pureeing the blending liquid with just a hint of added sweetness - agave nectar comes to mind - and maybe a little added cayenne. I'd add that either as a last-minute glaze or a dipping sauce.

Pho, Egg Rolls and a Trip to the Market (Part 2)

Finally getting around to finishing this post, which is long overdue. I'll skip to the good parts, and just post the recipes. If you missed it, here is part one.

My niece's handiwork, with a bit of Chinese mustard, Hoisin and Sweet and Sour.