Suzi's Blog
Apocalypse Chow: A Cocktail with That Final Kick
Having a last name with an apostrophe is tough. Mine is O’Rourke. It’s that second “our” piece that cause the confusion for people. They haven’t written down the apostrophe because they don’t know what it is. I have given them one “or” and now comes “our.” All I get then is a cold stare: hey, buddy, you can’t even spell your name.
Matt O’Connor might just share my anger at the world. His brilliant new book, The Icecreamists, is an extreme tome fondly devoted to ice cream. I blogged the Cold Sweat ice cream yesterday, the one with chile, ginger and lemongrass. Now, Matt clearly has some ambivalence about ice cream: do you eat it or drink it.
You can eat that Cold Sweat or you can drink it, drink it in the Apocalypse Now.
I do rim my cocktail glasses. With salt, with sugar, with flavored salt, with flavored sugar. You put lemon or lime juice on the rim, then dip into the salt or sugar of your fancy.
In this drink, no citrus juice. No salt. No sugar. You wet the rim with Tabasco sauce, then dip it into dried red pepper flakes. Add the Cold Sweat Ice Cream and top with chili vodka.
Just one word of caution, do not drink this and smoke and the same time. Or you will be smoking, personally, permanently.
I did not adorn my beverage with the chopped chile or ginger he suggests. I was a tad concerned about the heat level at this point and 911 response time can be slow in Olive, New York. [Yes, Matt uses “chile” and “chili” interchangeably and so do I.] I was thirstily impatient and skipped lighting the cocktail as suggested below in the recipe. So my ice cream was pretty cold. I used a spoon and ate my cocktail. It was a first. It won’t be the last.
Apocalypse Chow
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
- Tabasco sauce
- Dried red pepper flakes
- 2 scoops of Cold Sweat Ice Cream
- 1 fresh red chile, seeded and finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped preserved ginger
- Chili oil
- 1 shot of chili vodka
Preparation:
Take 2 saucers and drizzle one with Tabasco sauce, the other in red pepper flakes. Dip the rim of a martini glass first in the Tabasco, then in the pepper flakes.
Place the ice cream in the glass. Decorate with the chopped chile and ginger, and sprinkle with the chili oil. Serve with a shot of chili vodka poured over the top and set alight.
Source: The Icecreamists by Matt O’Conner
Photo Information: Canon T21i, EFS 60MM Macro lens, F/5.6 for 1/60 second at ISO 3200 [no flash]
Cold Sweat Ice Cream: Chile, Ginger and Lemongrass
Cold sweat. You’ve probably had one or two in your life. Not pleasant. Usually associated with a period of high stress or danger.
It’s time to change the whole meaning of the phrase. Now let “cold sweat” stand for something good, possibly even divine. This ice cream, from the kinkily wonderful new book The Icecreamists, is a mixture of flavors you normally don’t associate with ice cream: chili, ginger, and lemongrass. Okay, ginger ice cream is unusual but not unheard of. But this combination? No, this recipe is different, deliciously different.
What flavor do you get with all these things? It’s going to depend on you. I found my batch to be ginger with final notes from the chili and the lemongrass. Depending on the characteristics of you ingredients, and just how carefully you measure, you might have a flavor profile this different, hotter, with more tang on the tongue.
The recipe, like all those in The Icecreamists, is brilliant. Tomorrow, there comes a cocktail using this ice cream. Next week, I’ll give you a tour of The Icecreamists. If you get just one ice cream book a year, then this is the year of The Icecreamists.
Cold Sweat Ice Cream
Yield: 1 ½ cups
Ingredients:
- 1 cup whole milk
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 egg yolks
- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon superfine or granulated sugar
- Pinch of sea salt
- 1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
- Thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and coarsely grated
- 1 stick of lemongrass, fine chopped
- Chili oil, to serve
- Crystallized ginger, optional
Preparation:
Pour the milk and cream into a large saucepan and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the mixture begins to steam but not boil.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl until smooth. Add the sugar and whisk until pale and slightly fluffy. Gradually and slowly, pour the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking continuously to prevent the eggs from scrambling — this technique is called tempering. Return the mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat, stirring frequently, until the custard thinly coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not let boil.
Add the chili, ginger, and lemongrass to the custard and blend until smooth. [At this point, you can let the custard stand, the longer you do, the more flavor you add]. Strain twice through a strainer or cheesecloth to remove all fibers and seeds. Pour back into the bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooled to room temperature. For more rapid chilling, use an ice bath.
Once cooled, cover and refrigerate, ideally for overnight but at least for 6 hours. Pour the chilled mixture into your ice cream machine and process and then store as you normally do.
When serving, you can drizzle chili oil on top for one more bang.
Or, you can do what I did and top with pieces of crystallized ginger.
Source: The Icecreamists by Matt O’Conner
Photo Information: Canon T21i, EFS 60MM Macro lens, F/5.6 for 1/60 second at ISO 3200 [no flash]
