It's Memorial Day and I'm making ice cream. Ginger is one of my favorite rhizomes. It has an intense spicy flavor and I wanted to take full advantage of its heat to flavor some cool, creamy ice cream. In order to do this I used fresh ginger and a blender. It's everything I hoped it would be and now the trick will be keeping it around long enough to see how well its flavor develops over a couple of days. Wish me luck with that. At least I know I can always make another batch.
Spicy GInger Ice Cream
80 grams/2.8 ounces fresh ginger
200 grams/ 1 cup sugar
6 grams/ 1 tablespoon tapioca starch
1.5 grams/ 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
520 grams/ 2 cups milk
240 grams/ 1 cup heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
Preheat a circulating water bath to 82°C
Slice the ginger and put it in a blender with the sugar, tapioca starch, salt and milk. Puree until smooth. Whisk together the egg yolks and cream. Stain the ginger milk over the cream and mix them together. Seal the custard base in a vacuum bag (alternatively transfer to a medium pot and cook over medium heat until it coats the back of a spoon and reaches 82°C/180°F) and cook in the circulating water bath for 30 minutes. Transfer to an ice bath and cool the custard. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and then freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's directions.
Years Past
May 28, 2005
