For Turkey Day, Try Pumpkin Ice Cream
01.01.70
With Thanksgiving around the corner I have a one-track mind: pumpkin. Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin spice cake, pumpkin soup, pumpkin muffins and pumpkin ice cream. I’ve eaten all that in the past week. Do I have an addiction? Probably, but I’m okay with that.
For me, Thanksgiving is all about self-reflection and food. Originally intended to celebrate our freedom and to give thanks for a good harvest, Thanksgiving has morphed into a time when we gorge ourselves on foods, and spend time curled up on the sofa afterwards paying for it! Luckily, during this holiday pumpkin takes center stage.
The classic gourd, which many think of as iconic American, has a surprising Jewish connection going back 500 years. The “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food” explains that pumpkins were widely cultivated throughout the Americas for about 6,000 years and were among the first New World foods that the Native Americans introduced to the Europeans, who brought them back to Europe.
In the beginning of the 16th century, Sephardim and Italian Jews began selling pumpkins and adopted this key ingredient into their food repertoire. Among Sephardic Jews, particularly in Middle Eastern Countries, sweet pumpkin dishes were common during Rosh Hashanah and other fall harvest holidays because of their spiritual significance. The Arabic word for pumpkin, ¾ cup pecan halves
Source: Forward (blog)
How to Make Alcoholic Ice Cream, the Greatest Dessert of All Time
01.01.70
Oh, and here are a few important notes that didn't make it into the video:
• You want to scald the milk/cream/sugar mixture, not boil or simmer it. Overheating the milk may cause curdling.
• The reason for the tempering is that if you add the eggs to the hot milk too quickly they can cook, which would give you chunks of egg yolks in your ice cream. No bueno.
• Once the custard is made, you have to let it cool and set in the refrigerator for about 8 hours. Patience, my friend (or advanced planning, at the very least).
• The strainer is important, especially when you're transferring the booze/gelatin mix into the custard. Ideally, it won't have solidified much, but there will almost certainly be some very strong-tasting chunks that you don't want to end up in your ice cream.
• This stuff is ready to eat straight out of the ice cream maker, but if you want it to be a little firmer, then you can put it in the freezer for a bit, as in the video.
Source: Gizmodo