Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Exercise in Extract



Aside from every recipe I've ever tried of Ina Gartens'...here's one more marvelous thing she taught me.  Like ten years ago, when her first cookbook came out.  Seriously, I bought it (hardcover, from an over-priced, specialty bookstore), and then devoured almost every dessert recipe.


About a month ago, I stacked a fistful of whole vanilla beans into mason jars and flooded them with vodka.  According to Garten, this will create a potent vanilla extract in about a month.




 And, I can happily report that a mere 21-days into this experiment...we are wickedly close to the final product.  The best part?  As the bottle empties, you can simply add more vodka to re-seep the beans.  You can even cut open the whole pods and scrape out the beans for cooking, as well.  Brilliant!

No comments: