What a jerk!

Jerk seasoning, a staple in Jamaican cuisine, is not only easy to make, but is amazingly delicious. I like to marinate a bunch of chicken breasts and thigh pieces, grill them all up, and pack them for lunch. Traditionally, the chicken is grilled using a charcoal grill, but since I don't own one, I used a grill pan.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Ingredients:
produce
- 1 chopped red onion
- 1/4 cup green onion tops
- 5 jalapenos

seasoning
- 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (freshly ground, if you can)
- 4 tsp pepper (white or black)

liquid
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- some rum

1. Throw all the above in a food processor and pulse on high until it becomes a somewhat coarse puree.
2. Rub your chicken pieces with some lime and salt and add enough of the jerk seasoning to provide some good coverage and marinate in the fridge overnight.
3. Grill it up and eat!

It's Not Purple, It's Lavender.

Rumor has it that Alex Chen is getting an ice cream maker. So when I saw a recipe for lavender ice cream in the la times magazine I thought, hey. alex might want to try this. So here it is. Lavender ice cream!

Note: A recent trip to San Diego's Extraordinary Desserts and a taste of their white pepper ice cream probably inspired this interest in unconventional flavors. In light of that experience, the recipe below is posted mainly for entertainment's sake; I can't imagine anyone taking the time to buy expensive lavender "buds" and making "lavender sugar" but perhaps it is worth a try. so good luck.


Lavender Ice Cream

1 vanilla bean, cut in half lengthwise and seeds scraped
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
8 egg yolks
1 1/3 cups lavender sugar, packed (see note)
1 tablespoon orange honey
¼ cup fresh lavender buds, finely chopped

Place the vanilla bean, seeds, half-and-half and heavy cream in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring. Remove from the heat. In a bowl, whisk the yolks to ribbon stage and add the sugar and honey, whisking until smooth. Whisk a small amount of the cream mixture into the yolks, then add the remaining cream to the egg mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Return to low heat and cook, stirring constantly until it coats the back of a spoon. Cool completely in an ice-water bath. Remove the vanilla bean. For a 1-quart ice cream maker, freeze the mixture 2 cups at a time, adding 2 tablespoons of lavender buds to each batch at the end of freezing. Scoop into a container and place in the freezer until hard.

Note: To make lavender sugar, add about 1/4 cup of lavender buds to 2 cups of sugar. Mix and let stand in an airtight container for about 2 weeks, shaking every third day. Reserve the remaining sugar for another use.