The ice van cometh

[Rachel Perlow]

Come on! You have to post some pictures!!! Please?

[Carlovski]

How about hokey pokey ice cream - it's made from vanilla ice with added 'hokeypokey' - ie cinder toffee.  You'd have to make the cinder toffee yourself, I suspect, but that's quite fun. It's a great name, traditionally English, and having had some in Cornwall on holiday last year, can confirm that it tastes good too.  HP + toasted almond might be even better.

Edit - apparently it's not English but NZ - I have an old Good Housekeeping recipe, so assumed it originated here

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I love that stuff!

Also, a bit lowbrow maybe, but maltesers icecream is just the best.

[adt]

Olive oil ice-cream is gorgeous. Doubt that children would go for it, though.

[circeplum]

my mother makes praline ice cream and stem ginger ice cream.

both are to. die. for.

x

[origamicrane]

Richard Corrigan has given me a recipe for Horseradish ice cream which we will try out soon and sounds absolutely delicious. We have been trying to make a Wasabi ice cream which is working on the same principle but have achieved less than satisfying results so far, so if anyone has any ideas for this (the hot and cold thing..it is a proper japanese ice cream but cant find any leads..)

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how have you been making the wasabi ice cream?

I use a teaspoon of wasabi powder mixed in about 60ml of milk

before mixing it into 500ml of ice cream base.

The longer you allow the ice cream to sit in the freezer the strong the wasabi flavour will be.

[Jon Tseng]

Green tea ice-cream is super-nice

But pls make it creamier than the traditional japanese recipe, which I find a bit sorbetty/tannic

cheers

J

[alexw]

I thought it could be so fabulous to get a flask of liquid nitrogen on the van, have my custard and make ice cream in twenty seconds in front of the kids...apart from the theatricals of billowing gas, it would be a great science lesson!

Sounds fantastic for showmanship. Presumably the custard will need some slight structure (e.g. lightly aerated/mousse-like), in the absence of churning, to make the texture of the finished product work?

Unless the speed of freezing renders the ordinary churning process simply unneccessary.. you're manifestly going to the right place to find out...

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Mrs Margaret Marshall (of the FD's Ice cream cone fame, currently), was the first lady to use "liquid air" to freeze ices, only some 15 years after they discovered how to liquify gas. As far as I am aware she used a simple rotating paddle in a bowl (same as todays domestic churning machines) to ensure texture.

The van sounds great and having just again read about it in restaurant magazine, will try and pop and find you one day when I actually manage to get out between one of my split shifts

look forward to it.

Alex.

[Morfudd]

I have got pictures but dont know how to post them on this thread. I will e mail egullet and hope they can be added that way. With the wasabi ice cream I thought of just making a simple custard and adding the wasabi to taste. I am sure that is not the correct way though.

[origamicrane]

I have got pictures but dont know how to post them on this thread. I will e mail egullet and hope they can be added that way. With the wasabi ice cream I thought of just making a simple custard and adding the wasabi to taste. I am sure that is not the correct way though.

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throughly whisk the wasabi powder into some milk first

then whisk that into the cream you should get a better flavour that way.

Although you will have to trial and error with the amount of wasabi you require.

The ice cream should be sweet and just have a mild wasabi flavour it shouldn;t really be hot just scented. have fun

[grahamR]

A PX ice-cream sounds fantastic. Sounds like excuse enough to visit Upper Street.

My only successful ice-cream invention is a deconstructed pesto. It’s really just Joyce Molyneux’s Basil Ice-Cream (from the wonderful Carved Angel book) with a nut brittle made with pine nuts.

The basil ice-cream on its own is interesting but I found I didn’t want more than a spoon or two. The smashed up and sprinkled brittle makes it quite yummy.

Years ago when the gourmet pizza company was just getting going (and used to be good! ) they used to make a terrific lemon meringue pie ice-cream. I’ve always lusted after that recipe, but never tracked it down.

[helenjp]

Haven't found any recipes in Japanese for wasabi ice-cream (mostly because it's most popular here as soft-serve, restricted pretty much to tourist areas).

Did get these comments thouygh...

Some have chunks of grated fresh wasabi root in them.

I got the impression that some may use pureed fresh (or maybe blanched, but not dried) wasabi leaves for fresh taste and green color.

Some people commented that regardless of zing, some wasabi icecream leaves an unpleasant irritation at the back of the throat after eating.

I was wondering how a wasabi icecream or gelato "kicker" would go - pay a little extra and have a portion added to your serve of cherry icecream, dark grape icecream, chocolate sorbet...wasabi and cherry has really caught my imagination though...

Edited July 16, 2005 by helenjp (log)

[origamicrane]

how about shades of green ice cream?

a basil , a wasabi, a green tea, a pistachio

[Rachel Perlow]

I'd let the wasabi powder steep in the dairy for a while before freezing it. That will release more of flavor than resting after freezing.

[Morfudd]

thank you for all the hints re the wasabi ice cream...all of this has become a bit of a time thing...I could have twenty vans out there all selling ton loads of ices in this weather, I simply am not capable of producing enough ice cream, and even if a dozen other restaurants did the same thing, they wouldnt be competition.

So far the vanilla with PX is going down very well, also affogato al caffe - a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a shot of espresso on top (adults) As a matter of interest, my licensing solicitor didnt have an answer to my question of whether i was permitted to sell shots of alchohol from an ice cream van (never been asked before!) So I have my bottle of PX in the van and I guess so long as it is only a small shot, there wont be a problem (let you know if I get arrested!)

The kids are loving the bitter cherry sorbet and the mint ice cream along with the other obvious ones. So many requests for flakes! Does anyone know how to make them?

I love the idea of the desconstructed pesto sorbet with all of the textural stuff, pine nut brittle. Thank you. We have been making some herb ice creams, like rosemary for example, which I think taste rather nice.

I think there is a lot of room for other people to do the same thing if they want to start a home production. Pacojets cost about 3K and make ice creams very quickly, but you can pick up the robot coupes for about 700 and they theoretically make a litre every twenty minutes. Register your business with the council, no restrictions for selling except in Westminster, off you go.

[Morfudd]

Helenjp, have you ever tried wasabi and cherry? it sounds fascinating..

Origamicrane, when you say shades of green ice cream, do you mean 'a flight of ice creams? We do wine flights at Lola's and the ice cream flight would be a great idea. would you put them all together in the same tub? would they conflict?

[sabiha]

Wow your ice-cream sounds delicious Wish I was closer and not like 100 miles away

[origamicrane]

Origamicrane, when you say shades of green ice cream, do you mean 'a flight of ice creams? We do wine flights at Lola's and the ice cream flight would be a great idea. would you put them all together in the same tub? would they conflict?

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hmm... would they conflict?

I think they would but i think that is where the interest would come.

ok bear with me here as i ramble a bit.

I saw this idea in a hong kong restaurant it was a dessert of 4 small balls of ice cream about the size of ping pong balls served on a long grey rectangular plate.

Each ball had a toothpick frozen into the middle of it like a mini ice lolly.

You would pick up the ice cream ball by the end of the tooth pick and eat the whole thing.

I think the flavours were sesame, taro, green tea and orange.

so the colours where grey, purple, green and orange

I just liked the idea of the way it was presented very colourful and very pretty.

So i thought it be nice to have a similar idea with 4 green coloured ice creams served in a similar way.

Making a nod to the Fat Duck's beetroot and orange jelly each one of the green balls will be a different flavour so it would be a play on the senses.

The difficulty in this dessert i think is getting the right intensity of each flavour.

For instance you don't want one flavour to drown out the other

so each flavour has to be subtle but able to hit different tastes buds and build progressively.

I think it would go in this order i think

green tea - slightly bitter

basil - herbal

wasabi - hot

pistachio - sweet

i think this will be an interesting project and i be really impressed if someone is able to pull this one off

You could do something similar for other flavours like strawberry, rhubarb, chilli and rose.

hmmm... let me know if you plan to try this

i'll be happy to volunteer as a taste tester

[alexw]

personally would swap the positions of the basil and the wasabi, as basil is a volitile flavour, would work to it's own flavour, but is short lived cleaning the pallate ready for the "dessert" course.

very interesting idea though, will toy with a few things at home over the weekend and get back.

Alex.

[origamicrane]

cool Alex

have fun let us know if it works ok

hmm i have a sudden urge to go make ice ceam now.

only problem is it take a whole day for my bowl to freeze properly

sigh i wanna pacojet too!!!

Morfudd

if you haven't tried it before make sesame ice cream.

1 Tbs black sesame seeds

1 Tbs white sesame seeds

1 Tbs sugar

dry roast the seeds together in a pan on medium heat until the white sesame go golden and you can smell the aroma.

Then grind the seeds into a paste with the sugar in a blender and pour it into 500ml of plain ice cream base.

it is really good

Edited July 16, 2005 by origamicrane (log)

[Jonathan Day]

OC, when you say "plain ice cream base" do you mean a custard mixture? Equal proportions of milk and double cream? How sweet is your "plain ice cream base"?

[origamicrane]

hi

my ice cream base is actually based on a ben and jerry's recipe from their ice cream cookbook.

500ml heavy cream

250ml milk

2 Large eggs at room temp

1/3 cup caster sugar

Whisk eggs into peaks then whisk double cream until stiff

then combine these two together.

Whisk the sugar and milk together and then whisk in the flavour.

( ie: .vanilla, wasabi powder, green tea powder, ground sesame paste, etc)

Then slowly whisk the flavored milk into the eggs and cream mixture

then churn in ice cream machine.

vary the sugar to taste but I like my ice cream to be not too sweet

[Jonathan Day]

...

2 Large eggs at room temp

...

Whisk eggs into peaks then whisk double cream until stiff

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Does this mean that you simply whisk whole eggs? Or do you separate yolks and whites, whisk the whites into peaks and then fold in the yolks?

Does this base make a rather light and "airy" ice cream? I have usually aimed for a denser mixture, but your method looks worth trying and I'm intrigued by the sesame paste idea. I use a Musso "Lussino" machine which has an integral freezer.

[origamicrane]

Does this mean that you simply whisk whole eggs?  Or do you separate yolks and whites, whisk the whites into peaks and then fold in the yolks?

Does this base make a rather light and "airy" ice cream?  I have usually aimed for a denser mixture, but your method looks worth trying and I'm intrigued by the sesame paste idea.  I use a Musso "Lussino" machine which has an integral freezer.

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Hi

yes I whisk the whole eggs, its raw eggs so for adults only

Yep the ice cream results in a pretty light and creamy texture.

You should get a denser mixture if you don't whisk the cream,

just pour it into the eggs instead.

I like dense ice cream too, actually... i like all ice cream!!

i tried a few different ice cream base recipes

ie: seperating the whites and yolks, using condensed milk, heating the custard mixture,etc.

But i found i like this recipe and method the best

mainly because its the simplest and quickest method I have found.

yes definitely try sesame ice cream its lovely

if you like stuff like peanut brittle you will like sesame ice cream.

you will be thanking me (hopefully)

I wish i could justify to myself buying a ice cream machine with a refrigeration unit.!!

[Morfudd]

OC have tried your poppy seed ice cream, though I only had black seeds, it was very good. What do the white poppy seeds do to enhance the flavour? The shades of green ice cream I think I will try as a flight in the restaurant first when I have time. I am still considering their order. Ithink I will make them all then see which order they go in. will let you know when I have my act together. x

[origamicrane]

poppy seeds? you mean sesame seeds right?

You can just use white sesames seeds actually

but I like the grey colour that results from using black seeds.

I use black and white sesame seeds together when I am dry roasting the seeds.

It's hard to tell when black seeds are done so if you mix white seeds in

when the white seeds go golden you know the black seeds are done too.

Otherwise ou can burn the black seeds.

Cool let me know when you do figure out the green ice cream

I will definitely come down to try that.

a Flight of Emerald ice?