Strawberry Ice Cream

Strawberry season has come to the North! So we packed up the crew and hit the fields. All the kids were enthusiastic about the expedition (I am projecting on Vegan Daughter a bit, I suppose) and helped us pick 6 baskets of berries without eating too many along the way. We immediately made jam and I set aside some berries to make this delicious ice cream. I know the garnish may cause confusion, but I suppose you could also use raspberries in this as well (I would strain out the seeds, though).

INGREDIENTS
- 4 cups fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
- 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
- 2 cups plain or vanilla soy milk, divided
- 3 tbsp arrowroot
- 1 can full fat coconut milk, left in a cool place (the fridge for a few hours)
- soy creamer (or more soy milk)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract (the real stuff)

METHOD
1. Place berries and 1/2 cup of the sugar in a food processor and process until desired smoothness is reached (I left mine a bit chunky). Set aside.
2. Place sugar and 1 1/2 cups of the soy milk in a saucepan.
3. While soy milk is heating up, whisk arrowroot into remaining 1/2 cup of soy milk. Keep whisking it regularly to make sure the arrowroot does not settle.
4. Skim cream off of the coconut milk and discard (or save for some other recipe) watery stuff. Place in a 2 cup measuring cup and add enough creamer to bring the volume to 2 cups.
5. Heat soy milk/sugar mixture over medium heat until steaming. Slowly whisk in arrowroot mixture and cook until glossy. I let mine bubble every so slightly. Add coconut milk mixture and whisk well. If it does not seem glossy, cook until it is. Otherwise, remove from heat.
6. Mix in strawberry mixture and vanilla. Let cool. Once cool, cover, and chill in the fridge overnight.
7. Make ice cream according to the directions that came with your ice cream maker.

Vegan Dad Cookbook Contest: Rest of the World Edition

I received many a request from readers outside Canada and the U.S. asking for a chance to win a copy of the Vegan Dad Cookbook. I felt their pain--I know all about blocked content (curse you, Hulu!), residency restrictions, and the ever-frustrating caveat: will not ship to Canada. And, of course, it was the outrageous shipping costs that forced me to limit the last contest to Canada and the U.S. The electronic option eliminates shipping, so here is your chance, everyone else! Up for grabs in this near global competition are 2 e-copies of The Vegan Dad Cookbook (colour or black and white, your choice). I rummaged through my utensil drawer and came up with this handy gadget (half the fun is figuring out what size it is). Here are the rules:

1. Identify the mystery utensil and email your answer to the address listed in the bottom right column of this blog. Title your email "Near Global Cookbook Contest."

2. Correct answers will be entered into a draw to win one of two e-copies of The Vegan Dad Cookbook. Two winners will be chosen via a random number generator.

3. Only one submission per email address, please.

4. Contest is open until July 15, 2009, 10:00 am EST.

5. Contest open to everyone except residents of Canada and the contiguous U.S .

Vegan Dad Cookbook Contest Winners!

Winners? Yes, winners! I was so amazed by the 521 entries that I felt obliged to give away another cookbook. You were all put at the mercy of Random.org which spit out numbers 317 and 117. Congratulations to Jennie and Denise who correctly identified the mystery utensil as a cherry (or olive) pitter! I have sent you emails asking for your address. For those who didn't win, print copies are available through Amazon for $16, and $10 e-books are available for download here.

I really had a blast with this contest. It was rather like everyone who reads the blog leaving a comment on a post. Thanks for all the encouraging words many of you added to your entries. I will definitely do this again--in fact, I already have my next mystery utensil picked out!

Decadent Chocolate Ice Cream

I love ice cream. Or, perhaps I should say I loved ice cream. It is/was my favourite dessert, bar none. In fact, during grad school I developed a very bad habit of too much ice cream and Coke that led to some fairly substantial weight gain (lesson learned: never go to grad school). Since going vegan a good scoop of ice cream has been few and far between. The choices here are fairly limited: Tofutti, So Good, and So Delicious, with the occasional Purely Decadent thrown in there, but they are prohibitively expensive to say the least. While some of these ice creams are good, they always raise a nagging voice in my head reminding me they do not taste as good as the "real" thing. Since reading about new ice creams made with coconut milk I have been wanting to make my own (I have not seen them in the stores here yet). So I was delighted to find a nice looking ice cream maker perched high on a top shelf at the thrift store, its $3 price tag beckoning me. I took it home, washed it up, and made this ice cream. For those who used to eat dairy, this is one of those very firm, fight-to-scoop-it-out-of-the-container, Haagen Dazs-esque ice creams. It is truly decadent and rich, though you can lower the fat by replacing the coconut cream with some other non-dairy milk. I love ice cream again.

INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp arrowroot powder
- 1 1/4 cup chocolate soy milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 cans coconut milk (that had been in the fridge for a few hours)
- 12 oz semi sweet vegan chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla

METHOD
1. Dissolve arrowroot into 1/2 cup of the chocolate soy milk and set aside. Skim cream from the top of the cans of coconut milk and place in a 4 cup measuring cup. If you don't have 2 cups worth, fill missing volume with soy milk, or the leftover water from the coconut milk). Whisk smooth as best you can.
2. Combine remaining soy milk and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking regularly. As mixture cooks, keep stirring arrowroot mixture to make sure arrowroot had totally dissolved. When mixture begins to steam, slowly whisk in arrowroot mixture. Continue to cook and whisk until mixture gets thicker and more glossy (you will see what I mean) and begins to gently bubble.
3. Remove pan from heat. Add chocolate chips and whisk until smooth (mixture will be thick).
4. Add coconut milk and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
5. Let mixture cool, then cover and refrigerate overnight. Make the ice cream according to the directions that came with your machine. Let firm up over night in the freezer.

Vegan Dad and the 2009 Veggie Awards

Today, my friends, is my 34th birthday. So, if you are inclined to do something nice for the birthday boy, please consider voting for Vegan Dad for Best Blog in the 2009 VegNews Veggie Awards. The competition is pretty stiff this year, I must say, so I will hope for the best. I would also like to thank all of those who wrote me in last year--from what I understand, the votes and write-ins from last year determine the nominees for this year. I wasn't even on the list last year, so thanks to all the loyal readers who made this nomination possible.

If you are interested in voting, go to this link by July 31 and complete the survey (I am about 5 pages in). You don't even have to complete the whole thing (unless you want prizes).

OK, enough pandering for one night.