As many of you know, I was in Asia last summer and I miss it very much. I miss the yummy (and cheap food), and the funky desserts. Mostly I really want green tea and sesame ice cream (not together!) but I'm thinking more along the lines of frozen yogurt.
I came across this recipe here for green tea froyo and plan on doing without the vanilla, but there are some problems:
- I do not have an ice cream maker
- I only have green tea bags
- I do not know what "fold in" means
The casein in cow's milk is thought to inactivate the healthy catechins in green tea. For this reason, it's best to use non dairy milk such as soy, almond, oat, or rice milk when making these products. Start by adding a teaspoonful of matcha green tea powder to a pint of nondairy milk. The matcha green tea powder doesn't dissolve when the milk is cold. Heat the milk green tea powder combination in your microwave for two minutes and stir thoroughly to dissolve the powder. You may need to put it back in the microwave for an additional minute to get the powder to completely dissolve. Add more matcha powder and sweetener to taste, if necessary. To make green tea yogurt, add a teaspoon of matcha powder to a cup of vanilla yogurt and mix thoroughly. Again, soy based yogurt is best since it lacks casein.(source: eHow)
Any suggestions, insights, or willing experimenters?
Also, do you think mango and walnuts would go well with this, and in blended or chunky form? I don't have a blender but I could always try smashing them by hand.
And anybody have any ideas for sesame froyo? I don't want just sesame chunks--I'm interested in actual sesame flavor--but bear in mind that I don't have a blender...
If either of these pan out I'd consider other interesting desserts. I just went to Toscanini's with a friend and got goat cheese-brownie ice cream and bourbon ice cream. It was delicious, but overpriced.
Thanks!
Sesame oil? It might work ok if you don't use a totally fatless dairy base (maybe defeating the purpose?).
ReplyDeleteFold-in means to stir very gently, transferring the bottom of the bowl to the top on each stir. The idea is to keep the eggwhites relatively airy.
Sesame is also sold in ground/powdered form, which you can stir into your ice cream, frozen yogurt, or yogurt immediately before eating it.
ReplyDeleteYeah I was about to say that folding is is basically adding with a minimum of stirring so the fluff doesn't collapse. The green tea bag problem can be remedied by just cutting them open--the stuff in a bag is pretty powdery anyway so it should be ok. Or you could just make tea, which (now I actually read the recipe) seems to be what they want anyway. The biggest problem is probably the making of the ice cream itself without an ice cream maker; I have never had such a thing so I've just never tried making ice cream. Probably you would need to babysit it so that you stir it up in some half-frozen state to get rid of ice crystals and the like. Also, I have this recipe (from my french children's cookbok) for an orange sherbet thing which first makes a slushy mixture of most ingredients and then adds the eggwhites when it's all half-frozen already. I don't know if it works better that way though or what; it's a different end product after all.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what to do about the casein. Or the sesame. And yes you should chop up some mango and walnuts and put them on. Easy and delicious.
Thanks, guys! Y'all rock :) I'll try it out when I have the chance--wish me luck...
ReplyDeleteTahini is Sesame paste. It might be just the ticket for sesame flavor without the texture of seeds or the bizare mouth feel of oil.It can be found in the Middle Eastern or Mediteranian sections of most grocery stores.
ReplyDeleteThe work around for the ice cream freezer is a bit more tricky. I have seen a recipe for ice cream that skips the freezer which really only acts as a control for the crystal formation during freezing. I would try skipping the water, and steeping the tea directly in the half and half. Instead of whipping cream, use an equivalent (by weight) amount of whipped cream that you find in a tub at the grocery store. fold the 1/2 & 1/2 tea into the whipped cream and freeze in a covered container. It might even be a good idea to put plastic wrap directly touching the mixture.
Enjoy,
Dustin's crazy uncle