Tag: Ancho Chilli

The Ice Iced Vovo with Ancho Sorbet

Ice Iced Vovo 4

 All right, Stop.  Collaborate and listen, I am back with a brand new invention….

Thanks to my lovely friends at the Spice Peddlers we are mixing up the flavours of Mexico with an Australian icon to create a dessert that has more contradictions than a Katy Perry song.

This baby is hot and it’s cold, it’s sweet and it’s sour,it’s crunchy and gooey, it’s pretty in pink but it packs a wicked punch and it’s fruity and boozy…ok, technically, those two aren’t opposites but this is awesome and fucks with your head in the best  possible way. Et voila, the Ice Iced Vovo.

Ice Iced Vovo 4
Ice Iced Vovo 4

  But first, for those of you not familiar with the Iced Vovo, it is probably the most legendary biscuit in Australia. 

Well….right behind the Tim Tam. And the Anzac.

We are a nation of biscuit lovers.

Anyhoo..it’s right up there. 

Iced VovoAccording to the Arnott’s Biscuits website:

An Iced VoVo is a lovely biscuit topped with two strips of pink fondant and a strip of strawberry jam, all sprinkled with coconut – a symphony in pink!

A much smaller symphony in pink than what I remembered from my childhood but a symphony in pink nonetheless.  Anyway, forget about them for a while.  Think of this as a play. Australia has exited stage left.

Because we need to talk about sorbet.  More specifically this sorbet which I made from some ancho chillies (sent to me by my friends at the Spice Peddlers), some raspberries, tequila and lime.  Enter Mexico stage right….

Ancho Sorbet

So I whipped up the sorbet.  And it was delicious Mind you, with those ingredients how could it not be?

It is really good just on it’s own. 

Ancho Berry Sorbet
Ancho Berry Sorbet

 But anyone can have ice cream in a cone.  It tasted great,  but I was feeling a bit blah about the presentation. I actually made this ages ago but because I didn’t love it, I found it really hard to write about.  When I feel that way about most things, I just don’t write about them.  But this one haunted me, I had to write about it but the cone just seemed so boring.

So, after pondering about it for a few weeks, I thought maybe an ice cream sandwich would be a bit more interesting.  So I hightailed it down to the supermarket to buy some biscuits.  I had in my head something like a shortbread or those cats tongues?  And then I saw the Iced Vovo’s. 

So I had my components.  My first idea was a very simple ice cream sandwich:

Ice Iced Vovo 1
Ice Iced Vovo 1

 This looked great and was pretty much what I wanted.  However, the main problem with it was that when you bit into it all the sorbet oozed out over your hands.

Ice Iced Vovo 2But it was good, it had the flavours and a normal person would have probably left it there.  Luckily for you, I ‘m not normal.  I liked the sandwich better but was still not absolutely inspired.  Then, this morning I was writing my journal and it came to me….

The strip of jam down the middle of the vovo was the same colour as the sorbet….so what if…..you took a biscuit, any biscuit and you put a  little line of sorbet down the middle?  Then instead of fondant what if you took some of those little baking marshmallows….hmm…how would you stop them rolling off?  What if you toasted them?

If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it. Check out the hook while my djay revolves it.

Ice, Iced Vovo

Ice Iced Vovo 3
Ice Iced Vovo 3

These are best eaten straight away, when the marshmallow is still gooey and before the sorbet melts…so good…and once you’ve made the sorbet it takes about 3 minutes to make. Super easy, super good.  Seriously the hardest part is making sure the marshmallows don’t fall off the biscuits as you put the tray in the oven!

I ‘m going to be thinking up some more kooky recipes for the rest of the month of crazy.  Have a great one whatever you do.  Meanwhile, enjoy the duclet tones of Mr Robert Van Winkle AKA Vanilla Ice.

 

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Century Scallop Ceviche with Ancho Chillies (Spice Peddler)

About a billion years ago, the wonderful team at the Spice Peddlers sent me some fabulous Ancho Chillies to have my evil way with.  I had never cooked with Ancho chillies before so this was a totally new and delicious experience for me.

I also have a new manifesto for my Spice Peddler treats – I’m going to try to cook one thing in the spirit of which it was intended and then I’m going to go kind of out there with the next one.  So, to familiarise myself with the anchos and also to push my own boundaries I decided to make a ceviche.    I have  always been terrified to make sashimi or any “raw” fish at home in case it killed me. And before you start shouting, I am aware that ceviche is technically cooked but it’s not like it’s been  crumbed, fried and coated with cheese is it?

Ancho Scallop Ceviche3
Ancho Scallop Ceviche

But I did it and hey, still alive!!!

And it was super delish!!!!

So why the century ceviche I hear you ask?  First I am fond of alliteration but second…the last post I wrote was the hundredth for this blog!!!

So let’s all raise a glass of something (Jenny, I hope it’s another of those Joan Crawford Cocktails) and join in as I do a little celebratory dance….

It seems fitting to celebrate this milestone by showing off some of the ingredients from the amazing team at the Spice Peddlers.  They have been such big supporters of this blog and I, in turn adore them and their products!!!  The ancho chilles were a very dark blackish red colour, and quite fleshy.  They were not not very hot at all but were quite fruity and had a touch of sweetness ( this actually went really well with the scallops which are also slightly sweet.

Spice Peddler Ancho Chillies
Spice Peddler Ancho Chillies

The perceptive of you may have noticed from the photos that my ceviche is loaded onto a very un-Mexican pappadam.  I guess traditionally this should be a tortilla chip.  However, we had gobbled all of them with Joan Crawford Danti-Chips and I couldn’t be bothered going back to the shops so pappadams it was.  And in some weird Indo-Mexican affinity they actually worked quite well with the ceviche.

Ancho Scallop Ceviche
Ancho Scallop Ceviche

The last 100 posts have been super fun to do and I am really looking forward to the next 100.  In fact, I have so many ideas for posts at the moment, I feel like I have the next 100 already planned.

I was going to end this with one of my favourite ever Blur songs “End of A Century” then I realised the key lyric  is “End of a century, it’s nothing special” which is completely wrong because whilst I love doing this you guys are what makes it special.  Thanks to you all for reading and your comments, it is always lovely to hear from you.

You’re the best.

Around.

So, as you wax on, wax off this week, make it fabulous!

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