That Travel Meal :: 5-Ingredient Sour Cream Ice Cream

[trip style = food + wine]

Making, eating AND writing about this sweet AND savory ice cream has been on my to-do list for almost three years. It's that simple, silky and satisfying. 

I originally came across sour cream ice cream in Araxi restaurant at Cornucopia {Whistler's celebration of food + drink} during a seven-course food and wine pairing meal. Everything about the harvest-fresh menu was memorable, yet strangely, the dish that made my taste buds dance was an accompaniment. 

The cool treat became a topic of conversation, and I learned from the veteran food and cookbook author sitting next to me how easy sour cream ice cream is to make—seriously, prep takes five minutes! 

I've spent the last two weeks researching and tweaking this Trip Styler recipe to mimic what I tasted three years ago. Here is the delicious result for the latest "bite" in our That Travel Meal series. Bon Appétit!

Sour Cream Ice Cream Recipe {serves 6}
- 2 cups sour cream
- 1 cup half-and-half
- 1 cup sugar
- Juice from half a lemon OR 1/3 a grapefruit
- Pinch of Maldon Sea Salt 

Instructions
Whisk sour cream and half-and-half together. Add in sugar and lemon. Blend well. Pour mixture into your ice cream maker and churn for 25-30 minutes. Serve and top with a pinch of sea salt or a fresh basil leaf. Store, sealed, in the freezer for up to three days.  

Related
That Travel Meal :: Pok Pok Som Thai Basil Gin Rickey
That Travel Meal :: Best-in-Show Burrata at Ava Gene's
That Travel Meal :: Chevre-Prosciutto-Pear-Arugula Pizza

[photos by @tripstyler] 

That Travel Meal :: Swedish Cinnamon Buns

[trip style = food + wine]

I'm packing my bags for Sweden next month, and if there's one indulgence I'm already dreaming about, it's kardemummabulle. This Swedish treat isn't just fun to say; it's also fun to eat.

Bullar {buns} are a quintessential component of fika, the Swedish afternoon coffee break. You'll typically see both kanelbulle and kardemummabulle in Sweden, with the only difference being the addition of cardamom in the dough. Fika is so central to Swedish culture that it's both a verb and a noun. In Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break, the authors write:

"Ska vi fika?" {Should we fika?} means "Let's take a break, spend some time together, slow down." Fika isn't just for having an afternoon pick-me-up; it's for appreciating slow living. To truly fika requires a commitment to making time for a break in your day, the creation of a magical moment in the midst of the routine and the mundane.

In a post about Stockholm's hippest hood last year, I suggested that a worthwhile activity would be to stop by every bakery in town for comparative taste testing. I stand by this suggestion, but you don't need to fly all the way to Sweden to enjoy their iconic treat. You don't even need to go to Ikea. Here's my favorite recipe for making them at home.

Kardemummabulle

Dough
- 7 tbsp unsalted butter {about 1 stick}
- 1.5 c milk
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 4.5 c all-purpose flour
- 1/4 c sugar
- 2 tsp cardamom seeds {crushed via coffee grinder or mortar & pestle}
- 1/4 tsp salt

Filling
- 7 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 c sugar
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed

Topping
- 1 egg, beaten
- Pearl sugar

Trip Styler Tip: Look for cardamom and pearl sugar in your local gourmet market.

Can't view the video? Watch it here.

Instructions

Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the milk. Heat until warm to the touch {about 110°F}. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in 3 tbsp of the warm milk/butter mixture. Stir and let sit for a few minutes until bubbles form on the yeast. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cardamom and salt. Yes, fresh cardamom smells like a fancy Nordic spa. Don't become too relaxed; stay on task! Add the yeast mixture along with the remaining milk/butter.

Work the dough with your hands to form a ball. Transfer to a flat surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 3-5 mins. The dough is fully kneaded when you slice into it with a sharp knife and see small air bubbles. Return dough to the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel, place it on your kitchen table and allow it to rise about one hour until it doubles in size. Do not take your eyes off the bowl for the full hour. Just kidding; that would be torture and cinnamon buns are the opposite of torture.

Grease a large baking sheet or cover it with parchment paper or a silicon mat. Set aside. Make the filling right before the dough finishes rising. Using a fork, cream the butter together with the sugar and spices until you get a spreadable paste.

When the dough has finished rising, place it on a flat, lightly floured surface. Roll it out with a rolling pin to a 13x21-inch rectangle. Place the rectangle on the counter with the long side facing you. Spread the filling on top of the rolled-out dough all the way to the edges. With a butter knife, mark three equal 7" sections in the dough, then fold the outer thirds one at a time on top of the middle section, creating three layers. Rotate the dough so the long side once again faces you and roll out the dough slightly. Cut 1-inch strips; you should have 18-22 strips.

Twist each strip into a rosette shape twice around your thumb and two fingers, pulling the end through the middle. There is no magic formula for this! Cover buns with a tea towel and allow them to rise for 40 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 435°F. Once the buns have risen, brush them with the beaten egg and sprinkle them with pearl sugar. Bake 8-10 minutes until they're golden on top. If you don't have pearl sugar, sprinkle the buns with granulated sugar as soon as you remove them from the oven.

This post is written by Trip Styler's Assistant Wayfarer/Editor Heather.

Related
That Travel Meal :: THE Italian Cocktail
That Travel Meal :: Pok Pok Som Thai Basil Gin Rickey
That Travel Meal :: Best-in-Show Burrata at Ava Gene's
That Travel Meal :: Chevre-Prosciutto-Pear-Arugula Pizza

[images by @heatherlovesit and recipe adapted from fika: the art of the swedish coffee break by anna brones and johanna kindvall]

That Travel Meal: T-H-E Italian Cocktail

[trip style = food + wine]

It's on every menu. It's on top of every table. It's on every set of lips. Enter the Vespa of Italian apéritifs.

To call the Aperol Spritz a meal {per this post's title} is a bit of a stretch; however, as this series profiles palate-pleasers from around the globe, for today's purposes, this tart, fizzy bevvy is the latest inductee into our That Travel Meal hall of fame.

I give you Italy's most in-demand drink—and the official Trip Styler summer cocktail—sure to transport you to a trattoria on a cobblestone street pronto.

Trip Styler Tip: Do like the locals do and pair it with prosciutto-wrapped cantaloupe or salty chips. 

Aperol Spritz
- handful of ice
- 2 parts Aperol
- 3 parts prosecco
- 1 part soda
- orange slice to garnish

Trip Styler Tip: To spice up your spritz, add a splash of Lillet and/or Hendrick's gin, and switch up your garnish to lime or grapefruit.

Related
That Travel Meal :: Pok Pok Som Thai Basil Gin Rickey
That Travel Meal :: Best-in-Show Burrata at Ava Gene's
That Travel Meal :: Chevre-Prosciutto-Pear-Arugula Pizza

[photos by @tripstyler featuring @MrTripStyler's hands] 

That Travel Meal :: Pok Pok Som Thai Basil Gin Rickey

[trip style = food + wine]

Editor's Note: In our "That Travel Meal" series, we recreate memorable dishes or drinks we've tasted while trip styling around the globe. Don't miss our previous posts with recipes for burrata and chèvre-prosciutto-pear-arugula pizza. 

Whenever I'm in Portland, I have to stop by one of Andy Ricker's restaurants for two things: Fish sauce chicken wings and drinking vinegar cocktails. Even if the idea of drinking vinegar makes you pucker your lips and say "heckkkkk no" you must try it—I've changed the tune of many skeptics with this creative cocktail.

Also known as shrubs, drinking vinegars have been around this continent since colonial times as a health tonic and form of fruit preservation. They've been around Europe even longer; Hippocrates prescribed apple cider vinegar with water and honey to cure coughs and Roman soldiers drank sour wine or vinegar with honey as a daily indulgence. These days drinking vinegars have regained popularity as craft cocktail mixers.

Pok Pok Som drinking vinegars, inspired by Southeast Asian street drinks, can be purchased online or in local specialty grocers. My favorite flavour, Thai Basil, is tart, sweet and peppery, and pairs well with cucumber gin and soda. This cocktail, inspired by my visits to Pok Pok, will make you dream of Phuket—or maybe just Portland.

Pok Pok Som Thai Basil Gin Rickey
- 1 oz Pok Pok Som Thai Basil Drinking Vinegar
- 2 oz Hendrick's Gin
- Squeeze of lime
- Ice cubes
- 4 oz soda 
- Cucumber slices
- Lime slices
- Fresh mint

Instructions
- Combine drinking vinegar, gin, lime and ice cubes in a cocktail shaker.
- Shake until chilled and well mixed.
- Pour into glass, top with soda and stir.
- Garnish with cucumber slices, lime slices, mint sprigs and extra ice as desired.

Trip Styler Tip: Forget the gin for an almost-as-amazing mocktail or swap gin for whiskey or mezcal for a smokier spritzer. Play with the drink; you really can't go wrong!

This post is written by Trip Styler's Assistant Wayfarer/Editor Heather.

Related
That Travel Meal :: Best-in-Show Burrata at Ava Gene's
That Travel Meal :: Chevre-Prosciutto-Pear-Arugula Pizza

[photos by @heatherlovesit]

That Travel Meal :: Best-in-Show Burrata at Ava Gene's

[trip style = food + wine]

Last month we started a series called "That Travel Meal," a taste of the delicioso dishes I savor while trip styling and tasting around the globe. The plates that make it into this series are the cream of the crop, the ones I must recreate—either through the acquired recipe or hours of  trial and error—and share with you as the travel souvenir that keeps on giving. 

That Travel Meal dishes won't keep you in the kitchen {or driving all over town to source ingredients} for hours; they're pretty easy to recreate. For example, I'm OB-sessed with Parisienne croissants, but that's something I'll leave to Le Cordon Bleu alumni.  

The latest fare I'm adding to the TS menu is a burrata appetizer I ordered last month from Ava Gene's, one of my go-to restaurants in Portland. As a burrata lover, I've tested a lot of the melt-in-your-mouth mozza, but this rendition is the best—ideal for a petite dinner paired with rosé, or as a dinner party starter.  

Ava Gene's Burrata {serves 2}
- 6" square of focaccia, sliced into 6 fingers
- 4 oz burrata 
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp jalapeno, minced
- 1 tsp shallot, minced
- 3 tbsp fresh corn 
- 2 tomatillos, sliced
- 7 gooseberries,  halved {or nectarine if gooseberries are hard to find}
- 2 tbsp chopped walnuts
- 6 mint leaves, slapped {to release flavor} and sliced
- salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Warm and crisp sliced focaccia in the oven at 200 F for 12 minutes. Mix 1 tbsp of olive oil with jalapeno, shallot, corn, tomatillos, gooseberries, walnuts and mint in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Take burrata out of the fridge, place on your serving dish and top with contents from your mixing bowl. Pour remaining olive oil over the burrata and mint mixture. Remove focaccia from the oven, place on your plate and serve. 

Trip Styler Tip: Ava Gene's changes their burrata weekly depending on what's in season. Use this recipe as a guide, but feel free to take a cue from Portland's obsession with local bounty and add or subtract what's currently growing in your backyard.

Related
That Travel Meal :: Goat Cheese-Prociutto-Pear-Arugula Pizza

[photos by @tripstyler]