Recipe: Chocolate and Coconut

Well I was trying to make "lamington" ice cream, but of course the main part of a lamington is the cake, something which this ice cream is obviously missing. So while I feel it does not deserve the title of Australia's most famous baked item, it does make a rich and tasty dessert nonetheless.

400ml milk
300ml cream
3 eggs
200g dark chocolate
~60g coconut (not sure about the quantity here)
1 tsp vanilla
100g sugar

Milk + eggs + sugar = custard. Then melt the chocolate using a double boiler (or the mitch's patented "cereal bowl in a saucepan" method. Stir the cream into that, fold into the custard and mix in the coconut and vanilla.

Remarks: It's too damn rich man! I would probably ease up on the chocolate next time...

Recipe: Wattle Seed and Grand Marnier

An Australia day special. Based on a recipe from the "serendipity" ice cream shop in Sydney.

400ml milk
300ml cream
4 egg yolks
250g sugar
3 heaped teaspoons wattle seed (yeah you gotta buy it, not just pick wattle off a tree, i'm afraid)
50ml grand marnier

Mix half the sugar with about 100ml of water and cook in a saucepan until the sugar disssolves. Add the wattle seed and grand marnier and simmer for about 5 minutes. Leave that to cool, and meanwhile do the custard thing with the eggs, milk and the rest of the sugar. Strain the wattle seeds out of the cooled syrup as best you can (you could leave them in, but I found them a little too bitter) and mix into the custard. Let the whole lot cool down, then add the cream and let the ice cream machine do it's thing...

Remarks: True blue fairdinkum you bloody beauty. It's a strange taste to be sure, somewhat like dirty coffee, but actually works out very well. Some voted this the best flavour so far. Who am I to argue?

Recipe: Strawberry

Old Mitchy went back to basics this week with this classic flavour.

500g ripe strawberries
300g sugar
juice of half a lemon
300ml milk
300ml double cream (i'm sure the single stuff is still fine, i just felt like experimenting)
4 egg yolks
1tsp vanilla

Take the green bits off the strawberries, put them (the berries, not the green bits) in a bowl with the sugar and lemon juice and crush them with a potato masher. Put the whole sloppy mess in a saucepan and simmer briefly until the sugar is dissolved.

Make the custard with the eggs 'n' milk 'n' vanilla (note - no need to add sugar to the custard for this one, cos it's all in with the berries).

Once the custard is cool, mix in the cream (the double cream is kinda thick, so you might want to use a whisk to break it up a little). Once the strawberries are cool, mix everything together. Look at the pretty pink shade. Refrigerate. Pour it in the machine and Bob's your bloody uncle!

Remarks: Some ICS patrons claimed this was their favorite flavour to date. High praise indeed! Personally, I found it delicious, but nothing to write home about (although, it seems, it is something to write on your ice cream blog about.) Different strokes for different folks though, I guess. The pieces of crushed stawberries probably could have been a bit smaller, as they tended to form a big frozen clump around the paddle of the ice cream machine...

Ice Bowl!

Well, Ice Cream Sunday for 2006 started off in fine fashion, with Tristan supplying an Ice Bowl for the occasion. Yes folks, the bowl is made out of ICE!!! Thanks T!

Recipe: Coconut and Banana

A Thai-inspired, anglo-made flavour.

2 or 3 ripe bananas
400ml coconut milk
120g palm sugar
300ml cream
4 eggs

Firstly, chop the bananas into small chunks and put in the freezer.
Secondly, grate the palm sugar.
Thirdly, make your custard in the usual way, substituting the coconut milk for the regular cow stuff and mixing it into the palm sugar and beaten eggs.
Fourthly, let it cool, add the cream and chill.
Finally, Put it in the ice cream maker. When it starts getting thick, add the frozen pieces of banana.

Remarks: A-roi! (Thai for "frikkin' delicious"). The palm sugar could be easily substituted for regular cane sugar without affecting the flavour too much. A great summer flavour, especially with the frozen banana pieces. I only used 2 bananas, but in hindsight should have gone with at least 3...

UPDATE: Although a little soft upon creation (perhaps due to the different chemical properties of coconut milk vs. regular?), further freezing of the left over ice cream produced a remarkably smooth texture, without the iciness that so often accompanies additonal freezing of home made, preservative-free ice cream...

How to make ice cream

Well, it seems that the Ice Cream Sunday revolution has inspired no less than three people I know to give the gift of an ice cream maker to their friends/loved ones this christmas. I'm absolutely speechless! I had no idea I wielded such influence over people... However, such power comes with great responsibility, so here, especially for you newbies, is a brief summary of The Mitch's ice cream production process. There might be better ways of doing it, and if you find such a way, then please let me know. In an case, listen carefully, cos I'm only gonna say this once...

To make ice cream, you gotta start by making custard. Because this involves heating things up, and ice cream, by definition, is served cold, you will need to do this at least a couple of hours before your preferred serving time. Custard consists of three things: eggs, milk and sugar. The proportions of each can be varied depending on your recipe, but I always do this step the same way:

1. Heat up the milk in a small saucepan. It doesn't have to be super-hot, and certainly should not be allowed to boil.
2. Meanwhile, lightly beat the eggs and sugar in a separate bowl with a fork or whisk. Some folk advocate separating the eggs and just using the yolks, which will give a richer, more custardy ice cream, though you may need to use more eggs to compensate for the reduced volume. Putting in the egg whites certainly works fine, though seems to lead to a slightly fluffier ice cream - something the purists would disagree with, but i'm a new-school kind of guy...
3. Take your hot milk and pour it slowly into the eggs/sugar mix, stirring the whole time. Doing this slowly whilst stirring ensures the eggs can slowly adjust to the heat of the milk, and won't instantly cook.
4. Transfer this mix back into the saucepan. Keep it on a medium heat and stir continuously until it starts to thicken. It doesn't have to be mega-thick, just enough so it coats the back of your stirring spoon. It is mighty important not to let the custard get too hot! At some point between 74 and 90 degrees Celsius, the egg protein gets all screwed up and separates itself from the rest of the custard, leaving you with scrambled eggs floating in sweet milk. Not cool. I keep the hot-plate at a temperature mid-way up the dial and it seems to work OK. Just keep stirring and watch carefully. Once it thickens, take it off the heat and keep stirring for another minute or two. If it starts to boil, you're screwed...
5. If you're adding any spices to the ice cream, it's best to add them during this heating stage so the flavours get released through the custard. Also, any ingredients that would benefit from being dissolved (fancy sugars, syrups etc) should be added during this part of the process.

So, once you've got your custard made, set it aside to cool down. Go out and kick the footy or read a book or go visit your parents. Then do this:

1. Once the custard has cooled down to room temperature, add in your cream, if using it. Any additional liquid flavours should be also be added now.
2. If you've got some time left before you wanna serve the ice cream, stick the mixture in the fridge to cool down further.
3. Plug in and turn on the ice cream machine (see your manual for details). Pour the mixture into the machine and watch the magic happen. If it doesn't freeze properly, you may have too much sugar, or simply too much liquid in the machine.
   
4. If you have solid ingredients (nuts, chocolate bits etc), wait until the mixture is partially frozen and then just drop them into the machine as it turns.

And that's about it. There's a few things to consider, but it's actually pretty simple to do, and pretty hard to stuff up. So get to it, dudes!