Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Black and Blue: Black Licorice and Blueberry Ice Cream

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Cracking the spine to find a recipe for
blueberry with pinot noir and licorice jam all those weeks waiting for an inter-library loan were worth it. (p.s. libraries are fun places. all the cool kids are renewing their cards...and by cool kids i mean me).
"Mes confitures," written by Christine Ferber the "jam fairy of France" proved to throw oil on my long burning obsession with jam making this summer.
Being a fairy myself I liked the idea of licorice and blueberry together and started thinking about them folded into a smooth ice cream .

When I think of blueberries I think of my parents.
First of my dad - smiling with his infectious grin and giving me the last bite of his blueberry pie in Philadelphia - the greatest sacrifice of love any human being can make for another.
My father grew up in the city and being the worlds greatest dad has always been hyper vigilant when it comes to protecting me.
This applies doubly when considering the dangers of eating unidentified things from the fields and forest's I'd run through barefoot as a kid.
If it could be picked, plucked or picked up I brought it home despite his animated protests of "That stuff will kill ya!"

My mom on the other hand , having spent her childhood in the South was all about being bare foot and twiggy.
I can still remember the magic of watching her pick fruit straight off a branch and bite into a berry. Beautiful in dappled light my mother stood lovingly offering me a small round fruit.I was hesitant at first but her daring gave me permission to taste.
I can imagine how Adam felt. The Garden would have been lost that much sooner if the serpent had a blueberry in his pocket instead of an apple.
We laughed there on the wooded path juice running down our chins.

Being my parents son I could not fight the draw to wander in the woods but was also careful not to ingest every damn thing i picked up.
In time I learned what was OK and what was not.
But until that day I'd walk , eyeing my clenched fists of wild berries with suspicion. Rolling them around like so many rosary beads,
I'd say Hail Mary's on the walk home as a charm against the seductive idea of shoving open palms stained blue with want into my mouth before I reached the screen door.
Like Halloween candy they were suspect and as such needed to be investigated and identified before consumption.
Though fairly certain they were edible I wouldn't take a chance as per my fathers warning.
I wanted to be a good boy.
But I also wanted those berries.
Every so often I'd only make it a few paces before succumbing to an impromptu taste test.
If the berries were too sour my panic would send me into ecstatic fervour praying full force the whole way home. I hoped at least one Hail Mary would cushion my young soul in case my father was right.

Though having completed the northeastern half of their tour, a friend from the local farmers market passed along a quart of late bloomers a few weeks ago.
We tend to romanticize blueberries as being sweet, and they can be,
but they have got much more depth then that.
Their acid content can vary dramatically from one to the next
(as well as their cancer fighting and eye boosting antioxidants - anthocyans).
And
there is an earthy quality to them often unremembered that combines nicely with the gentle spice of licorice root making this combination more reasonable then it sounds at first.

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An unpopular candy, licorice doesn't carry pom poms and it doesn't listen to pop music. Madmartigan will even tell you it'll put hair on your chest.
However while it is wearing leather, licorice is not without its lace.
Licorice root is no doubt strong , but much more gentle then the concentrated candy,and easily tamed by a short steeping time and small portions.

Most of the recipes I found (like this one I tried )for licorice ice cream use the candy , and a shot or two of Pernod (which while lending its own flavor is a fickle cousin of absinthe with varying amounts of licorice depending on the maker, invariably offering an extreme amount of anise ).
In case you missed it neither of these things are the root.
I imagine this is in part because its not the sort of thing that you can easily find in your grocers freezer.
My suggestion would be to try your local Asian market or a kick-ass herb store like Frontier.

With Halloween right around the corner I decided to try the candy out in a test batch omitting the Pernod.
Why no Pernod?
Because I couldn't possible imagine a time when I'd bust it out again.
I don't plan on chasing absinthe or entertaining any oompa loompas in the near future and I like alcohol far too much to just allow it to sit useless and stupid in the closet.

Trust me its still plenty liquorishy without the liquor.

I extrapolated my own root based version which you will find below.
The results were different enough to note.
The root infused ice cream subtly lent its warmth in the way cinnamon might to an apple cobbler.
The candy version was stronger, blacker and more predictable.
Of course the original recipe using candy here did not call for the addition of blueberries. That was my own doing, but even without the Pernod it overpowered the blueberries.
A practical note should you try the linked version:
I'd suggest making sure that your licorice is soft.
Soft licorice melts much more easily.Try Panda brand. Not only is it generally "fresher" but the animation on their page is ADORABLE!
I would also use 1/2 to 3/4 of the recommended amount of licorice unless you get your jollies on intense licorice flavor.

Don't get me wrong, I can TRUCK up some candy but this time around
daddy likes it raw.


Black Licorice and Blueberry Ice Cream

  • 2 cups half and half

  • 2 cups heavy cream

  • 1 and 1/4 cup sugar

  • 1-2 long sticks of licorice (or two tea bags)
    a little common sense and a little tongue go a long way here kids.
    peel some of the stick and taste it.
    if its strong and fresh use less. If its weak and old more makes it bold.

  • 1 and 1/2 cups blueberries

  • 1/2 tbsp vanilla


Blend up 1 cup of the blueberries and set aside the other 1/2 cup.
Mix the licorice with the milks and sugar in a saucepan and bring to just under a boil stirring all the while.
once cooled add in the berry puree and the remaining whole berries.

Now comes teh most important part.
Taste.
Ice cream loses some of its sweetness while freezing. It has to do with our taste buds and how they function under the duress of cold.
It should taste more sweet then you'd like it when completed and licorice-y.
Take out the tea bags after the mix reaches room temp-ish.
Depending on the distributor it could make your mix more bitter if left over night.
If using sticks Don't take the licorice out until the morning / before freezing.

Freeze ice cream according to your machines instructions.

If you don't have a machine you can place the mix in a long container (like a disposable Tupperware) in the freezer and use a fork every hour or so to scrap it up. You want to make sort of a snow flaky mixture.
It wont have the same consistency as churned ice cream but it will do the trick.



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