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nausicaa83Lo and behold, what follows is a lenghty, image-heavy entry about a project I've been working on all week. It combines two of my passions, plus some healthy advice from my therapist, and a good trip down memory lane. And a sprinkle of fairy dust. :D Do not forget to listen to this while reading this entry, it was my soundtrack all day. ;)
Two weeks to buy the tools, read tens of versions of the same recipe, buy the ingredients twice (one never knows), consult with my therapist (who sent me multiple texts to know how the cooking was going), and now I can finally present you:
Sea-Salt Ice Cream
And now, a little intro. Tati goes on holiday next week, and I've been spending the better part of this month trying to come up with something really cool to celebrate her return. And then Kingdom Hearts 1.5 came out and I spent every free minute playing it (I might have skipped a couple of lunches too, oops), and halfway through the 358/2 Days movie, while sobbing in Sakura's fur, I had this great epiphany: I should make her Sea-Salt Ice Cream!
For those who haven't played the game, sea-salt ice cream is a flavour of ice cream created by Scrooge McDuck in Radiant Garden, ten years before the first game. It is then eaten by various characters in very poignant scenes of the games, and it's one of those things that instantly bring Kingdom Hearts to mind to a fan. What we know about it is that it's blue, it's sweet and it's salty (like tears - yes, that's canon). And that Nobodies can eat nothing but it for a whole year.
It symbolizes the friendship between many of the characters, especially Axel and Roxas, and later Xion. And since it was invented for a videogame, many people tried to come up with a suitable recipe. The one I chose (there are so many out there, it's great) is for simple ice cream, custard and vanilla-flavoured, with a touch of sea salt. It's fantastic. Sweet and salty, and it tastes amazing.
Contrary to what I usually do, this time I took a picture of every step of the recipe. That's because today was more of a test: the ice cream sticks were delayed, so I had to go with purple stamps, but I wanted to try my new ice cream maker this weekend, in case something would go wrong and I had to send it back. Plus it was my first time using food colouring. I took a lot of notes, and this entry serves both as a recipe for those who'd like to try it themselves, and as a helpful guide for me. ^^
What we're going to need is:
2 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt, blue food colouring. For European fans (and sane people, because measuring stuff in cups makes no sense) it's 1/2 liter of milk, 80g of sugar, 200g of cream. Cups. What the hell.
First separate the yolks and the whites into two bowls. Use the biggest bowl for the whites. Mix the sugar and yolks until thick.
Slowly bring the milk to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Tip: only use wooden spoons, or plastic, but nothing metallic.
Pour the hot milk into the sugar/yolk mixture, very slowly, and mix well. Be careful here, because you'll risk ending up with little pieces of frittata if the milk hits the eggs too fast. Tip: always stir in the same direction, never change it or you'll make a mess.
Pour the mixture into the pot and heat on medium until thicker. Now, what we're making here is custard. That means, DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Keep the heat low, stir it with a wooden spoon, and in ten minutes it should be ready. Again, do not boil it, or it'll be ruined. You'll know when it's ready by that film on the back of the spoon. I left the room for a few seconds to change my shirt, safe in the knowledge that it was on low heat, and my ipod, set on random, started blasting One-Winged Angel as soon as I stepped outside the door. That gave me a proper scare, and I never let anything unattended anymore. :D That thing is possessed, I tell you!
While the custard is getting ready, beat the egg whites until stiff. Of course, if you're doing it manually (don't), you'll have to start on this step a lot earlier. Once it took me half of Lawrence of Arabia to beat six egg whites, me and a fork. Do not attempt that ever. My arm still hurts just thinking about it.
Pour the custard with the beaten egg whites and mix well.
Add 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt. Taste it to be sure, but any more than that would be nauseating.
Put the bowl in the fridge for 5 hours. Go play a videogame while you wait. ;)
Ok, here we are, five hours later. Get the bowl out of the fridge, add cream and vanilla and mix well.
And here's the best part! Add 15 drops of blue food colouring, or, in my case, two spoonfuls of the stuff. Enough to make it look blue but not too much, or it'll look like smurf ice cream.
ice cream maker time! It sputtered a bit when I turned it on, and gave me a few gray hairs in the process, but then it started doing its job. I cleaned up the table, and sat in front of it, staring for 30 minutes. I'm a very anxious person. ^^" If you don't have an ice cream maker, put the mixture in a metal pan in the freezer. Wait until the edges are firm, then mix it well. Repeat until it's frozen.
Put the ice cream in the stamps, the stamps in the freezer, set the alarm four hours later.
Since I only had six stamps (thanks to the courier, who delayed my proper stamps and sticks until next week), I had a whole bowl of the stuff left. It took me longer than I care admitting to realize there was only one way to solve the problem:
That's my Stitch bowl, by the way. Since Stitch was in Kingdom Hearts too, I thought it appropriate. :D
And at 9 pm, here are the proper, Radiant Garden, Axel-approved Sea-Salt Ice Cream sticks:
I started working on it this morning at 9.30. At 10.30 the mixture was in the fridge. At 15.30 I did the last steps, and by 16.30 the stamps were in the freezer. I chose to do it on a Saturday to be safe, but it doesn't take much time, and it's both a great treat for a fan, and a lovely way to eat ice cream that's completely natural and safe. Not to mention it's a great recipe for simple ice cream as well. Just skip the salt and blue steps. But trust me, it tastes fantastic as it is. *__________*
Next week I'll have the proper sticks, and I'll post pictures of the final result as well. Stay tuned! ♥
Two weeks to buy the tools, read tens of versions of the same recipe, buy the ingredients twice (one never knows), consult with my therapist (who sent me multiple texts to know how the cooking was going), and now I can finally present you:
Sea-Salt Ice Cream
And now, a little intro. Tati goes on holiday next week, and I've been spending the better part of this month trying to come up with something really cool to celebrate her return. And then Kingdom Hearts 1.5 came out and I spent every free minute playing it (I might have skipped a couple of lunches too, oops), and halfway through the 358/2 Days movie, while sobbing in Sakura's fur, I had this great epiphany: I should make her Sea-Salt Ice Cream!
For those who haven't played the game, sea-salt ice cream is a flavour of ice cream created by Scrooge McDuck in Radiant Garden, ten years before the first game. It is then eaten by various characters in very poignant scenes of the games, and it's one of those things that instantly bring Kingdom Hearts to mind to a fan. What we know about it is that it's blue, it's sweet and it's salty (like tears - yes, that's canon). And that Nobodies can eat nothing but it for a whole year.
It symbolizes the friendship between many of the characters, especially Axel and Roxas, and later Xion. And since it was invented for a videogame, many people tried to come up with a suitable recipe. The one I chose (there are so many out there, it's great) is for simple ice cream, custard and vanilla-flavoured, with a touch of sea salt. It's fantastic. Sweet and salty, and it tastes amazing.
Contrary to what I usually do, this time I took a picture of every step of the recipe. That's because today was more of a test: the ice cream sticks were delayed, so I had to go with purple stamps, but I wanted to try my new ice cream maker this weekend, in case something would go wrong and I had to send it back. Plus it was my first time using food colouring. I took a lot of notes, and this entry serves both as a recipe for those who'd like to try it themselves, and as a helpful guide for me. ^^
What we're going to need is:
2 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 1/3 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt, blue food colouring. For European fans (and sane people, because measuring stuff in cups makes no sense) it's 1/2 liter of milk, 80g of sugar, 200g of cream. Cups. What the hell.
First separate the yolks and the whites into two bowls. Use the biggest bowl for the whites. Mix the sugar and yolks until thick.
Slowly bring the milk to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Tip: only use wooden spoons, or plastic, but nothing metallic.
Pour the hot milk into the sugar/yolk mixture, very slowly, and mix well. Be careful here, because you'll risk ending up with little pieces of frittata if the milk hits the eggs too fast. Tip: always stir in the same direction, never change it or you'll make a mess.
Pour the mixture into the pot and heat on medium until thicker. Now, what we're making here is custard. That means, DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Keep the heat low, stir it with a wooden spoon, and in ten minutes it should be ready. Again, do not boil it, or it'll be ruined. You'll know when it's ready by that film on the back of the spoon. I left the room for a few seconds to change my shirt, safe in the knowledge that it was on low heat, and my ipod, set on random, started blasting One-Winged Angel as soon as I stepped outside the door. That gave me a proper scare, and I never let anything unattended anymore. :D That thing is possessed, I tell you!
While the custard is getting ready, beat the egg whites until stiff. Of course, if you're doing it manually (don't), you'll have to start on this step a lot earlier. Once it took me half of Lawrence of Arabia to beat six egg whites, me and a fork. Do not attempt that ever. My arm still hurts just thinking about it.
Pour the custard with the beaten egg whites and mix well.
Add 1/2 tablespoon of sea salt. Taste it to be sure, but any more than that would be nauseating.
Put the bowl in the fridge for 5 hours. Go play a videogame while you wait. ;)
Ok, here we are, five hours later. Get the bowl out of the fridge, add cream and vanilla and mix well.
And here's the best part! Add 15 drops of blue food colouring, or, in my case, two spoonfuls of the stuff. Enough to make it look blue but not too much, or it'll look like smurf ice cream.
ice cream maker time! It sputtered a bit when I turned it on, and gave me a few gray hairs in the process, but then it started doing its job. I cleaned up the table, and sat in front of it, staring for 30 minutes. I'm a very anxious person. ^^" If you don't have an ice cream maker, put the mixture in a metal pan in the freezer. Wait until the edges are firm, then mix it well. Repeat until it's frozen.
Put the ice cream in the stamps, the stamps in the freezer, set the alarm four hours later.
Since I only had six stamps (thanks to the courier, who delayed my proper stamps and sticks until next week), I had a whole bowl of the stuff left. It took me longer than I care admitting to realize there was only one way to solve the problem:
That's my Stitch bowl, by the way. Since Stitch was in Kingdom Hearts too, I thought it appropriate. :D
And at 9 pm, here are the proper, Radiant Garden, Axel-approved Sea-Salt Ice Cream sticks:
I started working on it this morning at 9.30. At 10.30 the mixture was in the fridge. At 15.30 I did the last steps, and by 16.30 the stamps were in the freezer. I chose to do it on a Saturday to be safe, but it doesn't take much time, and it's both a great treat for a fan, and a lovely way to eat ice cream that's completely natural and safe. Not to mention it's a great recipe for simple ice cream as well. Just skip the salt and blue steps. But trust me, it tastes fantastic as it is. *__________*
Next week I'll have the proper sticks, and I'll post pictures of the final result as well. Stay tuned! ♥
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no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 07:58 pm (UTC)La cosa strana è che sarei io a doverti fare un regalo, visto che hai compiuto gli anni questo mese...
Ti giuro no so davvero cosa dire ^/////^
Grazie (*v*) TVB
no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 08:01 pm (UTC)(lascia perdere regali, il mio regalo sarà sedersi davanti a kingdom hearts sul tv nuovo mangiando il gelato!)
no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 08:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-28 10:48 pm (UTC)Apropos of nothing, Axel is such a super babe.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 07:21 am (UTC)Apropos of nothing,
indeed he is. :D
no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 08:16 am (UTC)P.S. W le fruste elettriche! Anche il mio braccio destro ha patito esperienze irripetibili...
no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 08:21 am (UTC)La frusta elettrica è il dono di dio ai mortali. Altro che fuoco.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 12:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 12:20 pm (UTC)Quando si decideranno a inventare il teletrasporto di Star Trek???
no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 01:31 pm (UTC)Bravissima :D
no subject
Date: 2013-09-29 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-30 02:13 pm (UTC)2- Quella è l'icon più bella che ci sia, oh my god!!!!
3- Ti sto aspettando per rigiocare il primo, ho ancora due playthroughs da fare per i trofei, e uno mi piacerebbe farlo insieme a te il mese prossimo. ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 10:20 am (UTC)I am always insanely impressed by your culinary adventures. Not just because I am utterly useless in that respect - don't have the desire, the drive, the common sense, the patience, the flair - NOTHING - but also because you make cool stuff! And it comes out cool as well, which is definitely worth noting in my books!
Also, strange combinations of flavours such as Sea-Salt Vanilla Custard Ice cream?
no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 10:38 am (UTC)This has been my most ambitious culinary project yet AND the nerdiest thing I've ever done! :D
no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 10:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-10 10:46 am (UTC)