Instant Ice Cream

I received an email the other day from someone wanting to know how they can make ice cream without the machine I demonstrated in our vanilla ice cream video. I replied that you really can’t, since it’s the churning of the mixture while it freezes that gives you the desired texture.

Then, the very next day, I saw this video from my friend Johnathan Lynch, showing how to make a berry ice cream with no ice cream machine. Technically it’s frozen yogurt, but still. You do need to find a food processor, but if you can, this trick does work very well, and as you can see, its very fast and easy. 

By the way, yes, that is Fabio Viviani making a cameo appearance! Thanks to Johnathan for sharing, and I invite you to check out his YouTube channel for more. Enjoy!

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Review And Giveaways New Zealand Natural Ice cream Part II

Continue from the previous NZN Ice-Cream Giveaway, above are the 2 Lucky Winners out of the 53 entries. Congrats to Chocbundt(1st Winner) and Jade Koh(2nd Winner). Please contact me via email at ellenaguan@hotmail.com so that I could advice you on the collection details.

For those who missed out or did not win during this 1st Giveaway, dont worry we have another round two with more yummy icy treats which will whet your taste buds. Lets read more to find out.....

COOKIES AND CREAM

Cookies and Cream is always an all-time favourite for those who prefer something more than a smooth and creamy ice-cream. With those crunchy and tasty bits of chocolate cookies swirling in between the creamy ice-cream definitely leaving each and every mouthful with a desire for more.

As you can see we love to have it with bread for our afternoon tea-snack in away to fill the stomach and cool the heat.

FOREST BERRY

Similar to Mango Sorbet(you can check it out HERE), Forest Berry is a almost 97% Fat Yoghurt product which taste great with its natural refreshing flavour and generous bits of berry traces in each scoops. For your information this Forest Berries is made with live probiotic cultures, strawberry juice blend, blueberry, raspberry and etc. Mostly it contains both the antioxidants fruits and yoghurt which is good for our body and at the same time rewards us with some healthy aftermeal treat.

HOKEY POKEY

Hokey pokey origin from Australia and New Zealand where it is make from plain vanilla ice cream together with small, solid lumps of sponge toffee. And friendly speaking this is our first time trying out NZN Hokey Pokey ice-cream and to our surpised it really taste great especially with those crunchy bits of honeycomb and chewy caramel in it. I bet you will help yourself with more than 2 scoops if you love caramel stuffs.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE THE

NZN ICE-CREAM GIVEAWAY(PART II)

Similar to the previous NZN Giveaway, if you are residing in Singapore and keen to participate this "New Zealand Natural Ice-Cream Giveaway", just leave your Name and Answers to the following questions in the "Comment Box" below. (example: Ellena, Ans: Hokey Pokey, Cookies and Cream......").

Questions:-

1. Name the 6 Flavour of New Zealand Natural Ice-creams mentioned in the 2 Giveaways post.

2. Name the Supermarket where you can purchase these pint size of New Zealand Natural Ice-cream? (hint: Read more HERE)


I will pick up ONE lucky winner with all the correct answers on Monday, 22 August 2011 and he/she will get  2(Cookies and Cream And Forest Berry) complimentary pints from NZN Ice-creams at NZN, Paragon outlet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For Facebook Giveaway on the NZN Hokey Pokey Ice-cream:-
Please click on this link HERE to participate.


Good Luck everyone!!!! Have Fun!!!!

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Strawberry Ice Blended 草莓冰沙

Christmas is around the corner and one of my best friends suggested if having a Christmas Party at my place this year. (We used to have random makan sessions at my (old) place.)



It wouldnt be a party, just a get-together with a few of my very good friends. Incidentally, they were also my bridesmaids too, all three of them. ;) Its going to be my 13th Wedding Anniversary soon. Hence, you might have guessed that our friendship must be longer than that. The longest being 26 years? I dont know them all at the same time but during some time of my life. However, its great that they somehow became friends themselves too. :)

Oh! Theres a torn among the roses (other than my husband) too. He is my husbands ex-co-worker, who also become all the gals friend somewhere in time. He was also one of my husbands best-man too. In case, he reads this and I didnt mention him, he will think he is not invited to the get-together. Actually, I bet he is secretly hoping that I will forget about him. LOL

Anyway, being a kiasu, Im already thinking what to cook and trying them out to reduce blunders on that day. No more BBQ & Steamboat this time. One of the dishes will be an Oven Roasted Maltose Ribs (more on that next time). Ill be making this very easy Strawberry Ice Blended for after meals. I can make this a day before and blend it on the day itself so there is lesser things to do and lesser clean up. I love the colours! Very Christmassy. :)


Im looking forward to the Xmas Makan Session, that is after our makan session next week! LOL. And like what my husband said earlier today, hopefully my food wont be burned. :P

Ingredients:(serves 2-3)

• 1 punnet of strawberries (abt 450g), hauled


• 1 tablespoon Golden Granulated Sugar or regular sugar or to taste


• 2 glasses of Ice Cubes

How to do it:

1. Blend strawberries till smooth.


2. Blend in sugar with the strawberries paste.


3. Add in the ice cubes and blend till ice cubes are crushed and smooth.Serve immediately.

Note:

• Im using very small ice cubes; abt the size 15mm x 15mm. It makes blending easier.


• The amount of sugar depends on how sweet/sour your strawberries are, so adjust the sugar contain on your own.


• I prefer Golden Granulated Sugar but regular sugar works fine too.


• If you intend to make it a day before, you can use water instead of ice cubes. After blending, put the mixture into ice cube tray and freeze it. You can blend the strawberries ice cubes the next day.


• Please use a blender that is able to cut ice to do it in order not to damage the blade.

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Tropical Ice Block With Yoghurt

During hot summer afternoon, I am sure one or two of these ice-pops/ice-blocks would be great to ease the summer heat and at the same time cool down  your warm and perspired body system. These icy treat can be made by freezing coloured or flavoured liquid such as fruit juice around a stick. Once the liquid freezes solid, the stick can be used as a handle to hold the ice-pop too.

Apart from my "[Durian or Avocado] Sago Gula Melaka" (read more HERE) which fulfil this month Aspiring Bakers theme on "Fruit", I would also like to submit this "Tropical Ice-Block with Yoghurt" as the next following post. This fruity ice-block use 3 different types of tropical fruits such as Mango, Orange and Passionfruits which gives the dessert a nice bright orangy colour which resemble bright sunny day.

Since it is Mango season now, you can easily grab a couples of sweet and decent mango at any supermarkets with valuable price as low as 3 for S$2.00.

Ingredients: (makes 4 - 6, 1/4 cup capacity ice-block)
100ml Plain/Mango Yoghurt
1 Medium Mango, sliced and cubes
100ml(1/2 cup)Fresh Orange Juice
2 - 3 Medium Passionfruit, halved

Notes:-

~ You can get this 4 - 6 holes, 1/4 cup capacity ice-block mould from Daiso(Singapore readers).

~ Cut passionfruit in half, using a teaspoon, scoop passionfruit pulp from halves.

Method:-

1. Spoon 1 tablespoon yoghurt into each ice-block mould.

2. Freeze for 1 hour or until just firm.

3. Blend Mango and orange juice until smooth, stir in passionfruit pulp.

4. Carefully spoon/pour mango mixture pour yoghurt in moulds.

5. Place lids on moulds, freeze for 4 hours or until frozen.

6. To serve, stand the ice-blocks at room temperature for 1 - 2 minutes before removing it from mould.


  For a switch of different flavour, you can also make use of Pineapple, Mango and Passionfruits for this recipes to achieve a more refreshing taste. If fresh Mango is not available at your area, you can always replace it with pre-packed mango juice.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #5 : Fruity March (March 2011) hosted by Jess @ Bakericious.

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Mango Pudding with Mango Ice Cream 芒果布丁

Mango Season is here again. I bought 5 mangoes for under $5 which makes it less than a dollar each. The last time when it was in season, I made homemade mango ice-cream.



This time, I using it to make the very popular, Mango Pudding. Im serving it will a cheat mango ice-cream done using vanilla ice-cream, with the texture like milky shaved ice.



You probably have your own recipe but if you dont, you might want to try mine out.

Ingredients:

• 2 Mangoes, 1 1/2 puree and 1/2 cut into cubes


• 100ml Mango Juice (Im using Peel Fresh)


• 100ml Whipping Cream


• 10g Gelatin Powder


• 50ml Water

How to do it:

1. Sprinkle gelatin powder on the water and set aside.


2. Warm mango juice but do not simmer or boil.


3. Pour it over the gelatin mixture and mix.


4. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.


5. Pour into cups and chill to set.


6. Best served chilled with condensed milk or a scoop of ice-cream.

Note:

• I did not add any sugar as the mango I used was sweet and I added mango juice to it as well. In addition to that, I served it with a scoop of ice-cream.


• If you prefer it a little sweeter, melt some sugar with the mango juice in step 2.


• You can replace the mango juice with water.


• However, you will have to add sugar for sweetness.


• Melt about 50g sugar or to taste when warming the water before adding to the the gelatin mixture.

For cheat ice-cream:

1. Mix 500ml vanilla ice-cream (Im using Nestle) with half of a mango chopped into bits.


2. Add in 3-4 tablespoon of mango puree if you like too.


3. Do not stir the mixture vigorously. Use a fork to gently stir a little to make it airy.


4. Return to the freezer and repeat every half an hour till the ice-cream is frozen again.


5. The end results of the ice-cream will look rough and messy. Almost like granules sticking together.


6. To scoop, you can loosen it with a fork or bring the ice-cream out of the freezer for a minute before scooping.

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Rambutan Ice Blended

I recently had a Rambutan (flavoured) Ice Blended at those $1.50 ice blended stall. I was telling myself how expensive it was. It was just ice, syrup and some sago. For $1.5o, I could buy a can of rambutan.



That thought gave me the idea of making this. I freeze 10 canned Rambutan with pineapple and the 3/4 can of syrup with 1/4 can of water in ice cube tray for 2 1/2 hours. The syrup wont be totally frozen, which is good as it makes blending easier. Add the fruits and the syrup ice into the blender and blend.



If you find it not sweet enough for you, add in some of the leftover syrup. Add lesser rambutan if you dont like to your drink to have a lots of pulp. The drink wont turn pink. You have to add a tiny drop of red colouring. Try using a chopstick to dip in the colouring and then stir it in the blended ice. Dont pour from the bottle or spoon. Red isnt very nice.



I have tried using blue and green too. They are all nice, as long as you use only a tiny drop. You may want to consider using the same method for longan, lychee or any fruits and use different colours for them.



Nice to serve it at your party.

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Endomela ice cream shop in Akko Israel and a recipe for a wonderful apricot sorbet

 
Youll find the recipe for this wonderfully aromatic and flavoursome apricot sorbet at the end of this post.  

Endomela is a play of three Hebrew words, Ein-Dome-La. The meaning? "Similar to none" or "Unlike no other". This is the name of a small ice cream parlour in Akko (known as Acre in English), a small town in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel. Akko was first mentioned on the tribute-lists of pharaoh Thutmose III in the 16th century BC, and is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in this part of the world. A place with history indeed.

We visited Akko in the midday heat in the middle of the hot Israeli summer, so it was hard to grasp that the city is a home to some 45 thousand inhabitants. I guess that most of them were hiding in the safety of their cool and possibly air-conditioned homes and not wandering around the streets.

We were in Akko for a reason, of course. As we were exploring the culinary delicacies Israel has to offer, we had arrived to have a light lunch at a famous seafood restaurant URI BURI, meet the man behind the restaurant, Uri (Jeremias) Buri (pictured just below), visit his ice cream shop and enjoy a private tour of his recently opened beautiful boutique hotel Efendi and finish with a "light" tapas-style lunch at the hotel restaurant. Ill write about the fish restaurant and the hotel another time, today Ill give you a peek into his ice cream shop, the smartly-named Endomela.



Heres Uri Jeremias aka Uri Buri and me in front of his ice cream shop in Akko. American journalist Eric Westervelt described Uri Jeremias in his article for NPR.org as having stepped out of a Tolkien novel, with "his thick, long, elfish beard, ample paunch and mischievous smile". My 3,5 year old daughter is convinced that I was served ice cream by Santa Claus/Father Christmas himself :)

Uri (Jeremias) Buri had been making and serving ice cream at this fish & seafood restaurant for years, but as the restaurants kitchen is tiny, he had to move out his ice cream business into separate premises. He opened Endomela within a short walking distance from his restaurant just over a year ago. In addition to a number of sweet sorbets, ice creams and frozen yoghurts, he also makes some intriguing savoury combinations. We had a taste of this wasabi-sorbet, served with smoked salmon, as well of arak-flavoured sorbet destined as a palate-cleanser between various fish courses at his restaurant. 



Uri scooping some of his lovely ice cream for us. (Photo by Noa Magger). We got to sample pretty much all the available flavours.


Endomelas ice cream selection. (Photo by Noa Magger).

All ice cream is made at the premises and in small batches. At the time of our visit, they were churning a very refreshing pineapple sorbet. My very favourite one was Endomelas mint ice cream - so fresh and minty, definitely not your regular beach-front chocolate and mint concoction (you can see it on the right on the photo above). Uri told us he uses a combination of spearmint "Nana" (Mentha spicata, Israelis call it sweet mint or nana) and the highly aromatic Emperors mint or Roman mint (Micromeria sp)  to achieve the immensely refreshing and bright minty flavour.

The runner-up was Endomelas apricot sorbet. Yet pretty much everything else we tried was wonderful as well - cardamom ice cream, passionfruit sorbet, halva ice cream, lime and poppyseed frozen yoghurt - you name it.

Ive made apricot ice cream before, but not apricot sorbet, and thats what I decided to replicate at home first. As the reigning king of all things ice cream and sorbet, David Lebovitz, was also taking part in our trip to Endomela, I decided to use his recipe as a base. I know David provides his recipes both in Imperial and Metric, but his starting point is still the pound and not a kilo, so I did some minor revisions (if Id ask for 900 grams of apricots or 110 grams of chocolate chips in a store, Id get very weird looks. While these amounts would make perfect sense to someone whos grown up with pounds and ounces, then 900 grams (2 pounds) of apricots and 110 grams (1/4 of a pound) of chocolate would make perfect sense. For us, its a weird 100 grams less than a kilo and a funny 10 grams more than 100 grams, if you know what I mean). I also reduced the amount of sugar just a tiny bit, as the apricots I was using were very sweet and very ripe (ripeness and the amount of fruit sugar are related, you see).


The Bergeron apricots @ Marche de Saint-Antoine, Lyon, France. August 2009
 
My favourite apricots for making all kinds of desserts are the French Bergeron ones. This time I used a lovely Spanish alternative - dark orange, very sweet and just a perfectly slightly acidic. You may add more sugar or a dash of lemon juice to the sorbet mix, depending on the type of apricots youre using.

Apricot Sorbet
Slightly adapted from David Lebovitzs excellent book The Perfect Scoop
Makes about 1 litre



1 kg very ripe apricots (thats just over 2 lbs)
250 ml/1 cup water
200 ml/170 grams caster sugar (thats 1 cup minus 3 level Tbsp)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Split the apricots in half, remove the stones, and cut each half into thirds.
Place the apricot pieces and water in a medium saucepan, cover. Cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apricots are softened and begin to fall apart.
Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Once cool, pureé the mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth. Season with vanilla. Cover and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, preferably overnight.
Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Similar posts:
Erin Zimmer of Serious Eats writes about Endomela: Snapshots from Israel: Uri Buri and his ice cream.
Other posts about my trip to Israel.
Other ice cream and sorbet recipes here on Nami-Nami.
More ice cream and sorbet recipes on David Lebovitzs blog.

* Disclaimer: I spent six days in Israel in late June/early July as a guest of a non-profit social start-up Kinetis, more specifically their Vibe Israel programme. This particular trip hosted five international food bloggers and writers, introducing them to the multifaceted and pluralist Israeli culture and cuisine. Visit to Uri Buri restaurant, the Efendi Hotel and the adjacent ice cream parlour Endomela in Akko/Acre in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel was part of that trip.

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