Frozen happiness!

[chattius 2,519]

Sad sad sad for you. no vitamin pills...

 

A former classmate runs a small restaurant specialized in our barbaric local cuisine. At a class reunion this summer he did:

 

a sorbet from red beetroots (added a bit blood orange juice)

Small coins cut with a glass from sour dough bread. The coins roasted. Then layed with Sauerkraut, Schmand (or creme fraiche) onions, caraway, cheese. some salt and pepper and the coins and the mix baken again till the cheese melts.

 

The sorbet served as balls on the still warm coins.

 

It tasted way better than it reads I fear.

[Delta! 985]

I have made some new frozen delights.

 

White chocolate, macadamia nut, and espresso parfait. Was for a function, and I was scared there might not be enough, so I made a double batch. Turns out it was more than enough and I can put it on the menu every now and then. The texture and flavour came out really well(I adapted my dark chocolate parfait recipe)

 

Coconut sorbet, made only with coconut milk, coconut cream, and a bit of sugar. Really tasty and tropically.

 

Rose ice cream. The estate is quite big, and there are hundreds of rose bushes everywhere, I just picked about 40 different coloured roses, picked of the petals, and infused it in the cream, and at the last moment decided I'm not going to strain the petals out, but rather leave it in. if you bite into a petal, there is a sudden burst of natural rose(not artificial bathroom spray rose).

 

I'm not sure what this would be classified as, a frozen panna cotta I suppose, because that is exactly what it is. We had a function over the weekend for a bunch of important people from the Blackberry company(the CEO was there with her husband and child) at first they booked for 30 guests, then it changed to 27, then 25, then 20, and 2days before the function the confirmed that there will be 18 guests. So I started with my pastry prep that could be done a day or 2 in advance, ice creams, sorbets, and mostly dairy free things. on Friday I made the dessert for Saturday evening, a milk chocolate and cardamom panna cotta(I wanted to make sure it has enough time to set). Then we found out the numbers has gone done to only 9 guests(one of them only 3 years old), so what to do with the extra desserts? I popped them in the freezer and unmoulded the next day. still tasted good.

 

Delta!

[Delta! 985]

Some new Ice creams and sorbets.

 

In the middle of November, the head chef took 3 days away from normal prep and he made christmas puddings. He made way to much and said I should turn the left overs into ice cream. It came out very delicious, with nuts, chestnut, fruits and the liquer.

Plum sorbet made with plums that was picked on the estate.

Pomegranate basil and lime sorbet

Festive ice cream, flavoured with chestnuts, cherries, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, and nutmeg.

 

Delta!

[Dragon Brother 619]

I've just read through all of this...and dang! I want to try all of these!!

[gogoblender 3,066]

Some new Ice creams and sorbets.

 

In the middle of November, the head chef took 3 days away from normal prep and he made christmas puddings. He made way to much and said I should turn the left overs into ice cream. It came out very delicious, with nuts, chestnut, fruits and the liquer.

Plum sorbet made with plums that was picked on the estate.

Pomegranate basil and lime sorbet

Festive ice cream, flavoured with chestnuts, cherries, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, and nutmeg.

 

Delta!

Delta, you are cruel sir!

pomegranate basil and lime sorbet?

We're going to have to kidnap you and hold you hostage to be the onsite desert chef!

 

gogo

[Delta! 985]

 

Some new Ice creams and sorbets.

 

In the middle of November, the head chef took 3 days away from normal prep and he made christmas puddings. He made way to much and said I should turn the left overs into ice cream. It came out very delicious, with nuts, chestnut, fruits and the liquer.

Plum sorbet made with plums that was picked on the estate.

Pomegranate basil and lime sorbet

Festive ice cream, flavoured with chestnuts, cherries, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, and nutmeg.

 

Delta!

Delta, you are cruel sir!

pomegranate basil and lime sorbet?

We're going to have to kidnap you and hold you hostage to be the onsite desert chef!

 

gogo

I hope I become a deSSert chef and not a desert chef gogo, sounds kind of lonely... lolz

I had a delicious combination of ice cream flavours yesterday. creme fraiche + apricot, lemon curd swirl, toasted coconut, vanilla + plum. I took 2 flavours and my friend took the other 2, all of them interesting and mouthwatering. it is a small cafe in Newland, Cape Town called The Creamery Cafe Handmade Ice creams.

http://thecreamery.co.za/the-ice-cream-club/

 

Delta!

[chattius 2,519]

My last ice cream at my restaurant owning friend was something he called Fire and Ice.

 

Schlehenfeuer (sloe fire) is a booze made from sloes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloe_gin

 

Ice was made from sloe sirup poured with Schlehenfeuer. Served after roasted venison.

 

Schlehenfeuer can be selfmade. The commercial product is made by the same company who does the way more famous Jägermeister.

 

[gogoblender 3,066]

 

 

Some new Ice creams and sorbets.

 

In the middle of November, the head chef took 3 days away from normal prep and he made christmas puddings. He made way to much and said I should turn the left overs into ice cream. It came out very delicious, with nuts, chestnut, fruits and the liquer.

Plum sorbet made with plums that was picked on the estate.

Pomegranate basil and lime sorbet

Festive ice cream, flavoured with chestnuts, cherries, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, and nutmeg.

 

Delta!

Delta, you are cruel sir!

pomegranate basil and lime sorbet?

We're going to have to kidnap you and hold you hostage to be the onsite desert chef!

 

gogo

I hope I become a deSSert chef and not a desert chef gogo, sounds kind of lonely... lolz

I had a delicious combination of ice cream flavours yesterday. creme fraiche + apricot, lemon curd swirl, toasted coconut, vanilla + plum. I took 2 flavours and my friend took the other 2, all of them interesting and mouthwatering. it is a small cafe in Newland, Cape Town called The Creamery Cafe Handmade Ice creams.

http://thecreamery.co.za/the-ice-cream-club/

 

Delta!

lol, hear ya on the distinction

Saw the pix on facebook of the place you went to, looks like pure sin

 

My last ice cream at my restaurant owning friend was something he called Fire and Ice.

 

Schlehenfeuer (sloe fire) is a booze made from sloes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloe_gin

 

Ice was made from sloe sirup poured with Schlehenfeuer. Served after roasted venison.

 

Schlehenfeuer can be selfmade. The commercial product is made by the same company who does the way more famous Jägermeister.

 

 

 

This is new to me, Chattius, the concoction looks fantastic. I have never even seen that drink as well

 

 

gogo

[Delta! 985]

made a new flavour of sorbet last week. we have fig trees on the estate(mostly purple figs, but 2 green fig trees). they are in season now, they are delicious and packed with flavour, so to use up a lot of them at once, I made a sorbet. Fig and sherry. the colour is a beautiful deep maroon/red/purple... and it taste like someone threw a ripe, juicy fig on your face, and a bit of a sherry warmth that comes through at the end... it doesn't contain a lot of sugar, because of the alcohol in the sherry keeping the texture soft.

 

Delta!

[gogoblender 3,066]

Love your description of it

especially that color, deep maroon/red/purple

how many of these in a happy hour^^

 

 

gogo

[Delta! 985]

New ice cream/sorbet/frozen yoghurt flavours that I made.

Honeycomb Ice cream. used 100g of honey per liter of cream, let the mixture cool completely, and then I put it in the churner with some chopped up honeycomb that I made the day before... the honeycomb all dissolved during the churning process, although that was kinda expected and it gave the ice cream a nice golden brown colour, and a delicious honeycomb flavour, but I wanted little bits of crunchy honeycomb, so I just added more chopped pieces in the last minute of churning. it was a hit with everyone.

I had 20L of juice to use up(front of house over ordered and it got shoved to the kitchen) 5L of cranberry juice became cranberry and oats. cooked 500g of oats in cranberry juice with some sugar and glucose, blended it to make the oats smoother, and churned for almost the whole day(the churner only handles 2L max)

5L of pineapple juice became pineapple and ginger sorbet, a deliciously refreshing sorbet that cleanses the palate very well. I reduced 4L of the pineapple juice to about 2,5L and blended in a whole pineapple to add some pulp to the mixture as a stabilizer.(if only juice is used the end result can be very icy and form unwanted crystals). I melted some gelatin into the warm pineapple juice along with 200ml of freshly squeezed ginger juice and the pulp. As smooth as I coulda wished for!

 

5L of apple juice was reduced to 2L. I infused the juice with some star anise, cinnamon, rooibos tee, buchu leaves, nutmeg and cloves while it was reducing... and then I started thinking, ANOTHER sorbet... meh, let me try and make a frozen yoghurt, I have never seen them make frozen yoghurts at La Residence before, but just maybe they will like it and I won't get into trouble, but just apple also doesn't sound that WOW... mmmmmm. apple... what will go well with apple flavour and creaminess... well apple goes into Waldorf salad and uhm, Waldorf salad -> walnuts! we have plenty of walnuts in the kitchen and we don't use it that much... in the end I used the 2L of reduced and infused apple juice, 3L of double cream greek yoghurt, and +- 1kg of chopped toasted walnuts for an apple and walnut frozen yoghurt. It was extraordinary if I may say so myself, and Chef liked it. YAYness!

 

5L of orange juice and about 500g of mint leaves became orange and mint sorbet.

 

I also had some leftover almond chocolate brownie, and decided to make that into chocolate brownie ice cream. Used half the amount of sugar that I would normally use, and melted/dissolved pieces of brownie into the cream while warming it up. cut up the rest of the brownie into small pieces and kept it aside. the colour of the ice cream became deep dark chocolate brown just from the brownie that I melted in. I added the rest of the brownie pieces in at the last 2 minutes of churning and just let it mix in properly. you get these delicious smooth nutty pieces of chocolate brownie while you are eating it.

 

Pomegranate and Champagne(method cap classique) sorbet. I had to use quite a lot of gelatin to stabilize this. I didn't cook the alcohol out and I still used a bit of sugar as well, the pomegranate juice was quite tart... the texture came out smooth like a cloud ride, and you almost get a bubbly feeling on your tongue from the sparkling wine.

 

Strawberry, shortbread and macadamia ice cream. It was one of the desserts on the all day menu that was placed in the rooms and that guests could order from after 15:00 when the shifts change.

 

Creme fraiche ice cream. It was paired with a dessert a while ago, and I made a basic creme fraiche ice cream and a raspberry & creme fraiche ice cream

 

Hope you enjoy reading about my frozen fun!

 

Delta!

Edited May 31, 2014 by Delta!

[Delta! 985]

I made a new sorbet today.

Lemon verbena and basil sorbet. We have a small lemon verbena tree in the garden, so I raided it but the leaves didn't look very good. I didn't want to infuse the sugar syrup with it cause I felt it won't give as much flavour, and I need as much as possible. Quickly looked online and got a guide. Blending sugar with the leaves until the colour and taste changes. It worked well, and I made he stock syrup with the flavoured sugar, strained it out, there was a few big pieces of dried leaf still there. Blanched some fresh basil leaves and shocked them in ice water(it helps to keep the wonderful green colour and prevents it from turning black/brown once blended). I blended some syrup with the leaves and added gelatine to stabilise. Let it cool down and the I churned it. The texture is very smooth and almost creamy, the colour is a gorgeous light pastel green, and the taste is sooo refreshing. We are serving it as a palate cleanser on Saturday for the Chaine Des Rotissuers function we are hosting.

Delta!

Edited July 20, 2014 by Delta!

[gogoblender 3,066]

I'm so jealous you get to be creative with all these beautiful ingredients. great work on the research and congratulations on the success

 

 

gogo

[chattius 2,519]

Sounds better that the ice we had monday. But, heh, soccer world championship demanded sacrifices.

So the german flag was made of 3 balls of ice, one of each:

black mamba

dark red cherries

yellow cherries

 

Black mamba is an icecream with grinded medical active coal for the black colour. The original would be with vanilla, but our ice cream shop made the black mamba with black cherries and the bought black colour coal mix. Its just the season for cherries here.

 

 

The coal is first grey. Only if all molecules sucked up water it turns black. The inventor named the ice cream after the favourite roillercoaster of his grandson at an nearby amusement park.

[gogoblender 3,066]

First class ice cream!

 

 

gogo

[Delta! 985]

That does look good chattius. I like the 3 colours... I would've tried to make it black using liquorice, and a bit of squid ink... maybe, or last resort food colouring...

 

Delta!

[Bondbug 32]

omg - to have to admit that I have just found this thread and that I don't know Delta except by name! I think I was scared off because she knows too much and has the sort of expertise that freezes me in my boots. As for "Black Mamba" my poor old mind boggles. I don't think the coal miners of my home region knew that one, lol.

So - much reading to do. Our only attempts at ice cream making were not too successfull - sorbets easier. Viv and I will have to work thro some of this, but I suspect our only valid, though unhelpful, comments will be of the "wow", "wonderful", variety. We dislike/distrust commercial ices on the whole. But we have access to plenty of fresh milk from a local farm, so perhaps with some of the guidance here we may be able to manage to produce something better (I say this without having read the thread yet so don't know if you "make" or only "use").

I used to know a bloke who had a somewhat broken down castle in Scotland, who had a collection of vintage Rolls Royces (also a bit broken down but he managed them himself). He had converted some into vans and sold ice cream he made. I got the impression that making good ice cream was very difficult. Ice cream vans touring the housing areas were standard practice then, though perhaps not now. Temporary summer jobs driving these vans and selling ice cream were good summer holiday work for students in those days, visiting coastal areas that the family budget could not rise to.

Up till now we have stuck to standard tubs of standard French Vanilla ice cream, and Viv makes fruit "sauces" to have with it. Otherwise we are still generally in the banana split and poire belle hélène rut with all but the ice cream put together at home. Hopefully, Delta and all, we may be able to move forward now! Specially as we have just gone through a 95°F heat wave (perhaps not so high where you are, but more than enough for us).

[Delta! 985]

omg - to have to admit that I have just found this thread and that I don't know Delta except by name! I think I was scared off because she knows too much and has the sort of expertise that freezes me in my boots. As for "Black Mamba" my poor old mind boggles. I don't think the coal miners of my home region knew that one, lol.

So - much reading to do. Our only attempts at ice cream making were not too successfull - sorbets easier. Viv and I will have to work thro some of this, but I suspect our only valid, though unhelpful, comments will be of the "wow", "wonderful", variety. We dislike/distrust commercial ices on the whole. But we have access to plenty of fresh milk from a local farm, so perhaps with some of the guidance here we may be able to manage to produce something better (I say this without having read the thread yet so don't know if you "make" or only "use").

I used to know a bloke who had a somewhat broken down castle in Scotland, who had a collection of vintage Rolls Royces (also a bit broken down but he managed them himself). He had converted some into vans and sold ice cream he made. I got the impression that making good ice cream was very difficult. Ice cream vans touring the housing areas were standard practice then, though perhaps not now. Temporary summer jobs driving these vans and selling ice cream were good summer holiday work for students in those days, visiting coastal areas that the family budget could not rise to.

Up till now we have stuck to standard tubs of standard French Vanilla ice cream, and Viv makes fruit "sauces" to have with it. Otherwise we are still generally in the banana split and poire belle hélène rut with all but the ice cream put together at home. Hopefully, Delta and all, we may be able to move forward now! Specially as we have just gone through a 95°F heat wave (perhaps not so high where you are, but more than enough for us).

ice cream, sorbets and frozen yoghurts are all easy to make at home, however if you want to test the water first, try making granita.

easy enough all you need is juice, and a bit of sweetness(honey, sugar, syrup, glucose, fructose) or alcohol.

for a liter of unsweetened juice, you can use 120g of the chosen sweetener, or 125ml of a strong alcohol(brandy, whisky, vodka, fruit flavoured liquer). dissolve the sugar in the juice/mix the alcohol, and freeze in a shallow tray, after the first ice crystals starts forming, then just break it up every hour with a fork. it has an icy texture but is very refreshing.

 

the other recipes and/or methods are all posted here in the forum, the first page has a basic ice cream recipe, and explains some frozen desserts and the principles of frozen desserts.

HAVE FUN!

 

Delta!

[Delta! 985]

I made a new sorbet at work yesterday...

roasted red bell pepper. it is a savoury sorbet, meant to be served with a starter or maybe main course, where you would normally use red peppers, with tomatoes, onions, aubergines, white fish....

 

after roasting the peppers, I skinned it and took the seeds out, blended it with some liquid glucose, salt. pepper and half a cup of tequila, to give a smoother texture when it is frozen.

 

I think it came out very well, and so did lots of others who tasted it, a few where to shocked and admitted it is not for them, but it is not unpleasant.

 

Delta!

[chattius 2,519]

The problem with black food colouring at least in germany is that the colour is either dark blue, dark brown or illegal because of being unhealthy. So medical coal is allowed and the most black.

We had a big family meeting sunday and we did a sorbet from Reineclaudes (greengages) which were fallen down already. Added some leftover champagne, some vanilla, sugar, and grated citron skin. Using the citron juice for making marmelade (citrom acid prevents the marmelade from loosing its nice colour).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greengage

[gogoblender 3,066]

Just saw this a few days ago and was dying to show it to you Theuns

It costs about 800 a couple, and it's the last course in a 20 course meal in Chicago's Alinea restaurant

 

what you think?

 

 

gogo

[Delta! 985]

I think the man is a genius... and I admire his work in the food industry! did you know that he was diagnosed with tongue cancer a few years back? He recovered fully, and some of his best dishes where designed while he could not taste anything, he had to rely on his other senses, especially smell.

 

I made some new happiness!

Caramelized onion sorbet. fried the onions till they were a nice golden brown colour and caramelized, blended it with some glucose, salt, pepper, a few sprigs of thyme, some icing sugar, and about half a cup of water. It came out delicious, and has been served with tomato tarts, goats cheese souffles. and salmon salads where some onions/caramelized onions are good accompaniments.

Rooibos tea and coconut ice cream sandwich. Strongly infused the cream with the rooibos, and added some desiccated coconut to the biscuit mixture for the sandwich. It tastes like a piece of wonder smashed into your face!

Blueberry baked alaska. made a thin vanilla sponge and lined some darial moulds with it, put the ice cream in once it was done churning, and let it freeze overnight, the next day I made the meringue, unmoulded the desserts and covered it with meringue on order and just touched it with a blowtorch for the "baked" part. the guests all liked it, and a few even sent compliments.

 

Delta!

Edited August 24, 2014 by Delta!

[Delta! 985]

A few new flavours that I made.

 

We have a wedding at the end of the month, and the bride is half Indian, and she will have lots of Indian guests. A part of the dessert is Kulfi, an Indian frozen dessert that is made similar to ice cream/granita(the traditional way). The old way of making it is by reducing full cream milk for a very long time period, this increases the fat content to the liquid/water content. Most sources from books recommended at least 5 hours of barely a simmer... but what I found online was that you can "cheat" a little bit, some sources say just "use cream and sugar, bring to boil to infuse flavour, and let freeze in a shallow dish", others stated that using just cream will still make it icy... 2 sources said I can use condensed milk along with full cream milk, and reduce it for a short while. I thought of making up my own method using the different sources. I reduce 2L of full cream milk, 400g condensed milk, and 1L of cream till about 2L of liquid over a 3hour time period, she did not specify the flavours that she wants so I went with more common flavours of Kulfi first. Pistachio, rose, and cardamom. at first I made those 3 different flavours, but the rose and the cardamom both lacked something... more. so I tasted the 2 together and they went very well. the pistachio stayed a flavour on its own. When Chef did the menu tasting with her he, he used the Pistachio because of the contasting colour to the rest of the dessert(strawberry & almond tart, sweet chocolate panna cotta, white chocolate mint and then Pistachio kulfi) she like it and dessert was the only dish she didn't have criticism on.

 

For a function I made a pear and vanilla frozen yoghurt, Joseph said "it tastes like sex in your mouth" (kitchens can be very vulgar places...) he didn't immediately realize what he said, until he saw us all looking at him funny, and he responded with "not that I would know what THAT tastes like"

 

Banana frozen yoghurt, someone over ordered on bananas and I used a few bunches to make frozen yoghurt, it came out delicious.

 

Rose and Hazelnut Ice cream, also made that for a function and I was surprised by the taste, I can be a little bit skeptical when it comes to using rose flavour(if you use a little bit to much then it tastes like potpourri). I was very careful and added most of the rose syrup at the end and tasted before adding any more, I roughly chopped the nuts in a blender and mixed it into the base. the rose was present at first taste, but subtle, and the hazelnuts came through very well.

 

Green Grape sorbet. YAY, grapes are in season again! just had to add a little bit of gelatin as a stabilizer, but it is very refreshing and make a good palate refresher.

 

Red berry sorbet. Ok Ok, I know they are not all red, but I used red grapes, starwberries, blueberries, and mulberries(they stain your hands a purple/red), also a palate refresher, and I think it came out very well, very fresh and flavourful.

 

Tutti Frutti sorbet. I used all the left over fruit from one of the breakfast buffets, Kiwi, orange, strawberries, blueberries, red and green grapes, mulberries, papaya, melon, grapefruit, and passion fruit, blended all together, and also using it as a palate refresher. It has a great balance between sweet and acidic.

 

Delta!

[Delta! 985]

I made a pistachio and dried apricot nougat last week. the constant high speed blending, and the thickening of of the nougat as it cools, kinda broke the kitchen aid, or more like the gears jumped out and doens't turn the whisk anymore... the nougat didn't set properly, since it still needed at least another 30 minutes of whisking... But luckily I needed nougat for an Ice cream. We have a group staying with us for a few days and the Menu for tonight had a macadamia nougat ice cream on, so I added some toasted chopped nougat into the cream and melted 200g homemade nougat into a liter of cream as sweetener, I didn't add any additional sugar. it came out great!

 

made some more fudge ice cream, and Pickled Ginger frozen yoghurt again

 

Delta!

[gogoblender 3,066]

Theuns, you have written outstandingly! This is the kind of detailed food writing I love to read in the morning. In fact, I have been returning to your sweet adventures during my day breaks just to re-visit the unique and rather extraordinary taste sensations.

Pickled Ginger frozen yoghurt?

I see cook books in the future...

 

 

 

 

gogo

 

p.s. very clever with your solution finding for the khufat, and the feedback of the chef must be important useful to your experience. Is he older than you?