Blizzard NYC 2016

Missed it by that much! In New York City yesterday, a monster winter storm dumped 26.8 inches of snow onto the city, just one-tenth of an inch shy of the record. The roads were closed, much of the public transportation closed as well. The only thing to do was to stay inside, eat, drink, etc…

This was a storm we saw coming, so on Friday, the day before the storm hit, I went the stores to stock up on food and drink, and then I began cooking.

In cold weather I crave comfort food, and nothing is more comforting that what I made.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Moelleux au Chocolat, Red Berry Coulis

Vanilla Ice Cream:

250ml Milk 250ml Heavy cream 120g Sugar, divided 1 pinch of Salt 1 Vanilla bean 6 Egg yolks In a medium size pot, add the milk, cream, half of the sugar, and salt. Using a small paring, cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the insides, Place the bean and seeds in the pot with the liquid. Heat gently on medium heat, stirring in the sugar to dissolve until the mixture is just scalded. In the meantime, in a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar until well combined and lightened in color. When the milk mixture is scalded, remove it from the heat and ladle a little over the yolks while whisking. Add more liquid in stages until it is all combined. Then, pour the mixture back into the pot and using a rubber spatula, heat the mixture to 85C (185F), at which point the mixture with thicken and become a crème anglaise. Be sure to continuously mix during this time, so nothing burns to the bottom of the pot. Once you have made your crème anglaise, remove the pot from the heat and strain it into a bowl. Chill over an ice bath to reduce the temperature before putting it into your ice cream maker. Once churned, put your ice cream into a container and place it into the freezer to harden.

Moelleux au Chocolat:

280g Butter, room temp 500g Sugar 4 Eggs 1t Vanilla extract 3 Pinches of salt 155g Flour 175g Valrhona cocoa powder Preheat the oven to 180C Cream the butter and sugar together. Next, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well to incorporate. Add the salt and vanilla. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet. Spoon the batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter into buttered silicone molds about 3/4 of the way up. Bake in the oven until a knife stuck into the center and removed comes out clean. Remove the finished brownies from the oven and demold directly onto a plate. Serve the vanilla ice cream on top of, or next to, the warm cake. Garnish and enjoy.

Stay warm out there!