Vanilla

Auntie Anne tried something new at the weekend - vanilla salt. To be honest, it was fairly disgusting. It's not obvious why anyone would think vanilla salt was a good idea. But vanilla does have lots of exciting uses and you might be surprised at some of them.

Vanilla is the seed pod of an exotic orchid. The best stuff comes from Madagascar. The pods are dried and cured to give them their characteristic dark, slightly shriveled look. But inside are thousands of tiny seeds that hold the flavour.

It's the second most expensive spice in the world, after saffron, because its cultivation has to be done by hand and is very labour intensive. But real vanilla tastes divine.

If you decide to make your own ice cream (maybe I'll do a recipe for that some other time) it's invaluable. You can flavour ingredients for it in many different ways. You can boil a pod in milk (for gelato) or steep one in cream, or you can split the pod and scrape out the seeds (as in the photo above). That will give you that trendy 'spotty' effect that shows you've used real vanilla.

Don't throw away the pod when you're done. Even if it's been boiled you can re-use it in a number of ways. Just dry it by dabbing it with some kitchen towel. If you split it first, try not to dislodge too many of the remaining seeds.

Pour some caster sugar into a clean, screw-top, jar and push the vanilla pod into it. Within a couple of weeks the sugar will have taken on the flavour. Use it to make cakes and sweets and just keep topping up the sugar until you notice the smell is fading.  That will take quite a while. Depending on how much baking you do, it should last a year or so. *

Buy some really nice Ceylon tea bags (or whatever your favourite type is that's not already flavoured) and treat them to their own tea caddy. Add the used vanilla pod to the caddy and seal it up for a couple of weeks. After that you'll have delicately scented tea that will impress whoever you serve it to.

Wrap the used pod loosely in some muslin or treat it to one of those voile bags that they sell to put wedding favours in. Slip the bag into your knicker drawer and you'll find your undies come out smelling sweet! *

Try vanilla in:
hot chocolate
custard
rice pudding
French toast (eggy bread)
soups (specially ones with sweet things like parsnips)
salad dressings


* You can do that with lavender seeds too, if you like that sort of thing.

(Healthy-ish) cheesecake

The Auntie Anne household is exclusively diabetic so we're always on the hunt for sugar-free treats. (To cut a long story short we have to watch our cholesterol too, but this isn't a medical blog so go elsewhere if you want to know more about that bit.....)

So we bought some sugar-free ginger biscuits at a food fair and- to be honest - they were awful! We thought about pouring custard over them but that seemed a bit feeble so here's what happened:

Bash the biscuits into crumbs. (Stick them in a plastic bag and hit them with a rolling pin). Melt about an ounce of butter. Yes, it has to be butter. Low-fat spreads don't hold their shape. This is the only naughty bit in the whole process! Add the crumbs and stir around until they are well covered, then press them into the bottom of a serving dish.

 I also put a collar of greaseproof round it because this dish is quite shallow.  If you want to turn out your cheesecake at the end, use a loose-bottomed dish. Pop it in the fridge to set while you make the topping.

Next mix a 250g pot of light cream cheese with a good dollop of natural yoghurt. The exact amount you need will vary with how thick it is. If it's too runny you don't need so much. But look at the picture for a rough guide.  Also add a couple of tablespoons of artifical sweetener. (If you're not diabetic you can use icing sugar.)

Split a vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds. Add the seeds to the cheese mixture. DO NOT DISCARD THE POD. There are things you can still do with it!

Give the cheese mixture a really good stir then pour it onto the biscuit base.  Put it back in the fridge to set, preferably overnight. Make a nice pattern on it if you like or you can just spread it thusly:

ENJOY!