Thursday, April 05, 2007

In the interest of research....

It's one of those nights. Grey's Anatomy is a repeat. I'm not really in the mood to cook dinner. A load of laundry is almost done. And it's only 7pm!

So... I made ice cream -- twice!

The first I have been meaning to make for a while now - Nigella's Lemon Ice Cream from How to Eat. I wanted to make it for ages as soon as I realized there was no cooking custard required. Capital! I am afraid of custard, and I'm not ready to bite that bullet yet.

It's a really easy recipe -- just mix up icing sugar with lemon juice and zest. Then, add it to some whipped heavy cream. Simple. I thirded the recipe because I only had one lemon, so it didn't make a lot, but if we end up not liking the ice cream for whatever reason, at least we won't have tons of leftovers. It did taste a tad bit tart before I put it in the freezer, but not a tragic case.

While I was on my ice cream making (and no custard!) roll, I decided I finally need to use up the coconut milk in my fridge. All the coconut ice creams I had googled over the last week included a cooked custard. I said, 'phooey, there must be some way to make coconut ice cream without the custard!', so I turned to an old favorite recipe for ice cream, Tessa's maple vanilla ice cream. This one is basically a mixture of vanilla, maple syrup, light cream and milk. I have found this ice cream to be difficult to scoop into gorgeous glossy balls, and I think that is due to the fact that it doesn't have eggs (i.e. fat) to bind it well. So, I thought the next best thing would be to fatten this ice cream as much as possible. So instead of the light cream, I used heavy cream. I subbed the milk with the coconut milk -- I had exactly the amount I needed too! I know it's weird to think of coconuts with maple syrup, but really, I think the maple syrup acts as the sweet factor, even in Tessa's recipe. I've also used golden syrup in the past for the original recipe -- sweeter but definitely delicious. The possibilities are endless when you refuse to cook up eggs on the stove!

Well both ice creams are ripening as I type this -- so the results will be tested tomorrow. But, I had to sneak a taste of my coconut ice cream, the part that was left in the ice cream maker bowl.

As you could see, I double spooned it. Had to get every last bit. This was GOOD! Definitely coconuty, very much like the coconut ice cream I can't ever remember the name of in Italian restaurants -- I want to say tartufo?, tartuno?, tortoni? It had the right amount of sweetness, and I can't wait till we dig in tomorrow. The best part of these ice creams -- they are okay to eat for Passover, yay!

This holiday is never easy for me. I am a carboholic. No bread, no pasta, no rice, you kiddin'?! Last night we went to an Italian restaurant for our anniversary. That was torture! Rafa looked so happy dipping the lovely bread into the olive oil/balsamic vinegar bowl on our table... and his main course was completely breaded!!! I don't know how people on Atkins do it, I really don't!

So, soon I'll report how the ice creams tasted!

2 comments:

Anna's kitchen table said...

I'm such a coward when it comes to ice-cream making, don't know why, just don't feel very confident about the whole thing.
So of course, you altering recipes to me sounds so wonderfully confident and assured.
Well done you!
xxx

Kelly-Jane said...

Looking forward to hearing how they turn out :)

KJxx