Ginger Ice Cream

At Ballymaloe, I started adding an occasional ice cream as an extra dish on my prep list. Ice creams were fun and allowed me to play around a bit. Although we did a variety of dishes each day, making ice cream gave me the chance for a small bit of creativity. And really, who could resist ice cream on a beautiful Spring day in Ireland? Actually, it's hard to resist on a cloudy day, in my mind. At any rate, this goes well as a balance to various Asian dishes.

Serves 4

Ingredients
350 ml / 12 fl oz milk
2 tsp ground ginger, powdered (4 tsp fresh ginger)
5 large egg yolks
125 g / 4.5 oz granulated sugar
300 ml / 10 fl oz cream
2-3 pieces of stem ginger, finely chopped

Over a medium heat, add the ground ginger to the milk and bring to just under a boil. Gently simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover with a tea towel and leave to cool for about 20 minutes. In the last 5 minutes of cooling the milk, whisk the egg yolks. After about 2 minutes, allowing the yolks to mix well, slowly add the sugar. Continue whisking until the mixture is pale and nearly doubled. Strain the milk and fold into the egg/sugar mixture, so as not to cook the eggs. Return to the mixture to a low heat and cook until it thickens enough to hold a line when running your finger over the back of a spoon. When cooled, stir in the cream and transfer to an ice cream machine. Add the stem ginger about halfway through the churning.


Things to remember
Powdered ginger will be twice as strong as fresh, hence twice the amount of fresh. Regarding sweetness and adding flavors, both will diminish somewhat during freezing, so add just a bit more on the front end. After a couple goes, you'll get to know the amount of flavoring to add.

By covering the infused milk with a tea towel instead of a lid protects it from developing a skin and reducing, while allowing it to cool.

Whisking the eggs and sugar until it doubles in volume gives additional creaminess to the ice cream.

"Folding" in the warm milk will help keep the consistency of the egg/sugar mixture. There are other methods of combining warm milk and eggs. It's a matter of trying each method, finding the texture you want in the end. Consider the flavor and whether the texture should be a bit creamier (chocolate) or a bit lighter (lemongrass). This is part of the fun...honest.

Adding the stem ginger halfway into the churning ensures it will be evenly dispersed throughout. Otherwise, if added before it's thick enough, the ginger will sink to the bottom.