I’d like to say that I was smart enough to order the dish that altered my concept of food – but as with many things, I was just lucky enough to have a good waiter. Instead I ordered the shaved white onion gratin. It was also divine.
After dithering and then passing on gazpacho with mustard ice cream our waiter, sensing my the my potential awakening might not come to pass, gifted the table with small bowls of the soup featuring perfect spoonfuls of mustard ice cream resting in the middle.
Mustard – I love it. As a kid I used to eat it on my Oreos. For all of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades my lunch every day was a sandwich made from Wonder bread, american cheese, dill pickle slices, and French’s mustard. I had it on sausages at ball parks, pretzels on the streets of New York. I branched into honey mustard, really good dijon, spicy creole. You name it – aside from capers, which are my favorite condiment, it’s mustard, or hot sauce. I even like the idea of mustard in my gazpacho. But ice cream? It threw me. So I tried it.
Mustard ice cream is naturally a little sweet because of the sugar in milk/cream. You can also add a touch more sugar or not, depending on your preference. With the addition of milk powder, it’s almost malty. The vinegar adds zing. If not using it in gazpacho, the ice cream would be awesome in a sundae with crunchy bits of salty pretzels and a dark chocolate stout sauce…
So anyway, I’m trying to do several things through this blog.
First, it’s about food. But since I’m a little, whatever, I want to dig into it. For July it’s going to be frozen things – mainly things made in my trusty ice cream maker, but also in popsicle molds, ice trays, and maybe a terrine. I’m going to do savory, sweet, weird, human, and canine.
Second, it’s about working with the various pieces of kitchen equipment I’ve amassed over the years. I may go the waffles next – but I may wait until the temperature is cooler. Anyway, I’d like to try pushing the limits of how I use the gadgets to see what I can come up with.
Third, it’s about forcing myself to learn how to use the digital communication tools that currently bewilder me. I hope over the course of this year to improve the look and function of this blog, connect to FB and Instagram and whatever else I should connect to, take better pictures – heck maybe even videos.
I’ve always relied on the good ideas of others to inspire and guide me. I hope to meet some new “others” who can share constructive feedback and ideas. As you will likely agree after reading this post, there is a lot of room for improvement.
So here’s my first recipe (yeah I’m working on figuring out the recipe widget):
Gazpacho with Mustard Ice Cream
Sources of inspiration:
Gazpacho: Serious Eats is a favorite website and provided the starting point for the version below. You can find their recipe here: Serious Eats Spicy Gazpacho
Mustard ice cream recipes are harder to come by. I consulted 3 sources:
- Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things Gazpacho Shots with Heston’s mustard ice cream
- Star Chefs Steak Tartare with mustard ice cream
- The Fat Duck cookbook recipe for borscht with mustard ice cream
For the Gazpacho
5 cloves garlic
2 medium or 3 small Serrano peppers (about 2 tablespoons chopped or to taste)
2 lbs mixed sweet tomatoes
1 large English cucumber coarsely chopped
1 medium red onion coarsely chopped
Juice from 1 lime
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon oil marinated crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
kosher salt to taste
Directions:
- Finely chop garlic and chilis in food processor, scrape down bowl. Add half of the tomatoes and process until finely pulped. Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add rest of tomatoes and cucumber to food processor and pulse until chopped but not as chopped as first batch of tomatoes. Add to bowl with tomato garlic mix and stir to combine.
- Stir lime juice, red wine vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil, and Worcestershire sauce to soup. Taste. If not velvety enough, add more olive oil, stirring vigorously to combine. Add crushed red pepper flakes and 2 teaspoons salt. Taste again and adjust. Chill until ready to serve.
For the Mustard Ice Cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk or half and half
1/4 cup powdered milk
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons country style dijon mustard
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sugar (or more, optional)
Directions:
- Add everything to a heavy saucepan; whisk to combine; turn heat to medium – medium high and stir while cooking until a light custard coats your spoon. Be careful not to let the mix scald on bottom of pan.
- Pour into a large measuring cup, a plastic bag or a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Chill overnight or chill rapidly in an ice bath.
- Pour mixture into an ice cream maker and process until it starts to pull from the cannister.
- Transfer ice cream to a container suitable for hardening the ice cream and put in the freezer for an hour or more.
To serve, put soup in a bowl and add a decorative scoop of ice cream.
You probably cant tell, but I just had a 4 hour delay while I crashed my system trying to upgrade some software and load pictures. It didn’t work very well and in the interest of time, I’ll update the photos Tomorrow! Sorry about that.
OK – trying again with one photo:
tada…