Recipe: Matcha green tea ice cream with furikake

I’ve been writing a lot lately about healthy living, but as I’m a firm believer in the saying, “everything in moderation,” here’s a nice, fatty post for you this week.The best ice cream I’ve ever had was in San Francisco. Let me preface this by saying gelato is different from ice cream—in a nutshell, gelato has less fat and churns at alower speed, thus has less air incorporated into it (read the more in-depth explanation of ice cream vs. gelato from Serious Eats)—and I’ve definitely had some amazing gelato in Italy. I’m also not referring to the ice creams I can find in supermarkets across America (Lord knows I love Ben & Jerry’s). Today, I’m talking about ice cream shops I’ve discovered during my travels or even strolling around my hometown of Houston.In my 2011 trip to SF where I ate my way through the Bay, a friend who loves food as much as I do took the hubs and me to Bi-Rite Creamery, a little ice cream counter inside the Bi-Rite Market. Who knew a bunch of grocers could produce ice cream so heavenly?The first flavors I’d tried on my initial trip to Bi-rite were salted caramel and honey lavender. The salted caramel, which is one of their most popular flavors, was all right to me, but their honey lavender blew my mind. It was the first time I’d tasted lavender in ice cream, and it wasn’t overwhelming as I’d expected. This made me run home to Houston and immediately come up with my own honey lavender recipe, which you can find in my cookbook, Recipes from My Home Kitchen.During our last visit to SF, it was a beautiful sunny day, and my friends and I’d just finished lunch. We decided to wash it down with some dessert, so we walked to the nearest Bi-Rite Creamery, and I had the roasted banana. Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey is one of my favorites, so I knew I’d like banana flavored ice cream. We went up and down the aisles of Bi-Rite, licking our cones, when my hubster, John, exclaimed, "Bi-Rite has an ice cream cookbook!” Of course we bought it.Breville is a sponsor of my Canadian cooking show, ”Four Senses”, and as a token of gratitude after we wrapped filming the first season, they’d sent me a lovely new Breville ice cream maker. Before this, I’d been churning my ice cream in a little Cuisinart, which worked fine, but it required me to pre-freeze the bowl which took up valuable freezer space, and if I forgot, well, I'd be SOL until tomorrow. This Breville ice cream machine, however, has a built-in compressor which means no pre-freezing necessary: just turn it on, and give it a few minutes to bring the container down to proper temperature. And then ta-da! Just pour in your custard straight from the saucepan (no cooling down with an ice bath even necessary!), and you’ve got soft-serve ice cream in less than an hour. (I freeze mine for at least four hours afterwards, though, because I like a “bite” in the consistency.)Now with this Breville, making ice cream has never been easier. Every little bit helps when you’ve got friends coming over all the time asking if you’ve got any homemade flavors in the freezer.We’ve made Bi-Rite’s Earl grey ice cream twice and, this past weekend, churned a quart of green tea. The best green tea ice cream I’ve had came from a 7-11 in Hakone, Japan, but maybe this is the second best. It’s better to use matcha green tea powder because it's more concentrated in flavor due to the fine milling process, and thus translates into ice cream better than, say, simple green tea leaves. I used the matcha green tea from Costco, which I drink on a regular basis. The ice cream turned out a tad sweet for my preference, but incredibly delicious nonetheless. Below is the recipe with the sugar tweaked to my liking. I also made the amazing discovery of sprinkling the scoop with furikake--a Japanese rice seasoning made of seaweed, sesame seeds, and fish flakes--which gives the luscious, sweet, slightly bitter green tea a dose of salty umami. It was AMAZE-BALLS. But don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself. If the Blind can Cook it, you can too.Do you make ice cream at home? Which are your favorite flavors? Which machine do you use?

Recipe: Matcha Green Tea Ice Cream

Notes: Adapted from Bi-Rite Creamery’s recipe. You’ll need an ice cream machine, such as the Breville Smart Scoop. And I hate wasting, so use those leftover egg whites as a face mask or in an egg white omelette (not the tastiest, but definitely healthy, which makes up for this green tea ice cream you’re about to devour).

Ingredients

1. 5 egg yolks
2. matcha green tea powder of 4 tea bags from Costco or 1 tbsp matcha green tea powder
3. 5/8 c granulated sugar, divided
4. 1.75 c heavy cream
5. 3/4 c 1% or 2% milk
6. 1 pinch kosher salt
7. furikake for garnish

Instructions

1. In a stand mixer with whisk attachment, mix together egg yolks, 1/4 c granulated sugar, and the matcha green tea powder. Whisk until well combined.
2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, stir together cream, milk, salt, and remaining 3/8 c sugar until sugar is dissolved. Be careful not to boil the mixture or it will curdle, make a mess, and possibly burn.
3. While mixer is on medium speed, very slowly add 1/2 c of the warm cream mixture into the egg mixture. It’s important to go slow to “temper the eggs,” or bringing the eggs timidly up to the same temp as the cream so as to mix without cooking (unless you like chunks of scrambled eggs in your ice cream). Slowly pour another 1/2 c of the warm cream mixture into the stand mixing bowl, and whisk until just incorporated. Turn off mixer and pour the contents back into the saucepan while stirring with a heatproof rubber spatula.
4. Heat custard over medium heat, stirring frequently, until it thickens and coats the back of the spatula, approx 1 to 2 min more. Remove from heat, strain through a chinois or fine mesh sieve into a container. Now if you have the Breville Smart Scoop like me, pre-cool the machine according to manufacturer's directions, and get straight to churning. But if you have a machine that won't cool the base automatically, cool the container in an ice bath. Once fully cooled, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hrs or overnight.
5. When ready to churn, first put the container in which you’re going to store the ice cream into the freezer. Then churn the ice cream base in the ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s directions.
6. Once done churning, you can enjoy it right away if you like the soft-serve consistency. But if you’re like me and prefer a more al dente texture, transfer the ice cream to the pre-frozen container, leaving 1/2” room from the top for expansion. Cover and freeze for at least 4 hrs. When serving, sprinkle some furikake on top of the scoop. YUMMY.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 10 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 1 qt