England, Thailand, Iran - 3 Recipes

I love frozen desserts. I could eat ice-cream for all three meals. It would be part of my last meal. After a class on flavour profiles where we took three ingredients and cooked them in four different ways, I was inspired to reverse engineer that. What if you took the same format and used different ingredients? Could you create three different flavour profiles in one dish. To create these different profiles I was inspired in part by Samin Nosrat & Wendy McNaughtons World of Flavour illustration but I also incorporated some ingredients from memories of flavours that I’d tasted first hand.

Ginger, Cinnamon & Nutmeg Ice Cream w. Golden Syrup Swirl

For England I added sweetness to Samin’s suggested spices with golden syrup & clotted cream, both of which my dad used to spread onto soft, white bread, he called it thunder and lightning. The result is interestingly nostalgic, not too sweet and it doesn’t taste like ice cream, it tastes like christmas mince pies, my grans Eccles cakes, winter. Anything but icecream.

Ingredients

7 egg yolks
1/2 cup packed soft brown sugar
2 3/4 cup of full fat milk
1 tsp cinammon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 a nutmeg, freshly grated
1/4 tsp salt
100g clotted cream
3 tbsp golden syrup

Whisk 7 egg yolks in a bowl with 1/4 cup of the brown sugar.

In a saucepan whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar, the spices, salt & milk and then heat over a medium high heat until just about to simmer. Reduce to medium heat.

Take 1/4 cup of the warm milk mixture and pour slowly into the egg yolks whilst whisking them constantly. Do the same with another 1/4 cup of milk.

Add the now warm egg mixture into the saucepan, again, very slowly and using a spatula to stir constantly continue to warm until the custard starts to thicken. Once the custard coats the back of the spatula and a clean line holds when you run your finger through the mixture is thick enough. This will take 2 – 3 minutes.

Transfer mixture to a clean bowl and clean your spatula. To cool efficiently, put the bowl in a sink of cold water and ice, stirring occasionally. Once cool, transfer to refrigerator overnight.

When ready to churn combine clotted cream and golden syrup in a small bowl. Churn the custard in a ice cream machine until the consistency of soft serve. Pour in the cream mixture at the last second for a couple of rotations to create a swirl. Again, from here you can choose to eat as soft serve or freeze until solid, both work!

Lychee, Lemongrass & Kaffir Lime Sorbet

For Thailand I used lychee on top of the suggested herbs. The sorbet is like a welcome at a Thai hotel where they will give you a little sweet lemongrass tea in the lobby and then in your room you’re greeted with fresh fruit, often lychees or rambutan.

Ingredients

565g can of lychees, drained
1.5 cups coconut water
6 kaffir lime leaves
2 lemongrass stalks
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp glucose syrup

Blend lychees and coconut water at high speed until smooth. Strain into a bowl through a fine mesh sieve to remove any remaining pith.

Slice kaffir lime leaves and add to a small saucepan.

Remove the outer layers from the lemon grass stalks and finely slice the inner layers. Add to the lime leaves.

Add caster sugar and water to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer gently for 10 minutes and then remove from the heat and cool. Once cool, strain into a jar.

Once cool add 1/2 a cup of the lemongrass & kaffir lime syrup to the lychee puree as well as the glucose syrup. Whisk until combined. Cool overnight in the fridge.

Churn in an icecream machine until mostly frozen and then transfer to a container to freeze until solid. I’d recommend waiting for this one.

Orange Blossom Water & Saffron Frozen Yoghurt

I’ve never been to Iran but I’d love to. When looking at the world of Flavour though, I couldn’t resist an opportunity to add a floral note to fro-yo. Saffron added a wonderful colour and the yoghurt a tang that you don’t find in ice-cream.

Ingredients

0.5g saffron
3 tsp lukewarm water
3 cups (750ml) yoghurt (I used cyclops thick & creamy)
150g golden caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp orange blossom water

The night before churning in a small bowl soak the saffron threads in the 3 tsp of lukewarm water. In a larger bowl whisk together all the remaining ingredients until smooth and you can no longer feel the sugar in the mixture.

Just before churning add the saffron water (drained) to the yoghurt mixture and stir until combined.

Churn in an ice cream machine until the texture of froyo. Eat now or freeze until solid.