{"id":1663,"date":"2011-07-28T09:08:24","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T14:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=1663"},"modified":"2011-07-28T09:31:14","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T14:31:14","slug":"from-savory-to-unsavory-basil-strawberries-ice-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=1663","title":{"rendered":"From Savory to Unsavory: Basil (&#038; Strawberries) Ice Cream"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fthesoupblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D1663&amp;layout=button_count&amp;show_faces=true&amp;action=like&amp;font=arial&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;width=450&amp;height=30\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width: 450px; height: 30px;\"><\/iframe><\/div><div id=\"attachment_1665\" style=\"width: 354px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?attachment_id=1665\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1665\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1665\" class=\"size-large wp-image-1665      \" style=\"border-width: 5px; border-color: black; border-style: solid;\" title=\"Basil Syrup 3\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Basil-Syrup-3-820x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"344\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Basil-Syrup-3-820x1024.jpg 820w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Basil-Syrup-3-80x100.jpg 80w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Basil-Syrup-3-240x300.jpg 240w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Basil-Syrup-3.jpg 1029w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 344px) 100vw, 344px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1665\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Syrup from the local photoshopping center<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Years ago, my brother told me he didn\u2019t like soups that had fruit in them because he thought they confused the taste buds. At the time I smiled, nodded and cringed as I thought about the pepper and pear soup I had just made him as a Christmas present.<\/p>\n<p>Yet I understood what he meant. He wanted familiar foods to stay in their familiar places. <em>There are rules, after all!<\/em> Sweet goes sweet, savory with savory. That\u2019s why dinner and dessert are separate courses.<\/p>\n<p>Great chefs, however, like to tweak the rules. If they think a mix of persimmon and sweet potato will taste good, they won\u2019t hesitate to blend the two, regardless of what my brother says. These people are in the business of making tastes not following conventions. They also offer great ideas to people like me.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve made my share of savory soups that had fruit in them but until this week, I\u2019d never made a dessert that had something savory* in it.<\/p>\n<p>At the last multicourse meal we put on (back in April, see my Asparagus soup recipe,<a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=1408\"> take two<\/a>, (it&#8217;s buried in the Caesar Salad Soup recipe), my friend the executive chef (you can call me <em>sous<\/em>.) found a terrific strawberry shortcake that featured basil and (twenty-five year old) balsamic vinegar. It was incredible.<\/p>\n<p>As I thought about this week\u2019s ice cream, I took inspiration from my friend who himself took inspiration from someone even better. Why not try a basil ice cream with strawberries?<\/p>\n<p>It turned out to be a pretty darned good idea, for the most part.<\/p>\n<p>It started the same way all my other ice creams started, with <a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=1595\">Grandma\u2019s Vanilla ice cream recipe<\/a> from Good Housekeeping, minus the vanilla. Instead I made a basil infused simple syrup and used several tablespoons of that to flavor the ice cream base. So far so good.<\/p>\n<p>The problem started when I decided to blend in the fresh chopped strawberries. Despite my wise pronouncement last week that you shouldn\u2019t add fresh fruit to an ice cream freezer because you wind up with tiny fruit-flavored ice cubes. I had sidestepped this problem with my peach ice cream (see <a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=1653\">here<\/a>) by pureeing the peaches into the custard prior to freezing. I didn\u2019t sidestep anything this week.<\/p>\n<p>(Idiot!)<\/p>\n<p>What I wound up with was a number of strawberry flavored ice chunks dispersed in a really delicious ice cream. And I mean really delicious. My youngest, the one with a dangerous gift for flattery, called it the best ice cream yet. Of course, I could have melted the ice cream, strained out the frozen strawberries and refrozen the custard, but who has the energy for that. It\u2019s summer.<\/p>\n<p>Lucky for you, I\u2019ve given you ample warning not to put the strawberries into the ice cream freezer. Serve them on the side instead. Strawberries are great right now and the basil is as high as small ceramic elephant\u2019s eye. May as well feature them both.<\/p>\n<p>It is a chef-approved combination, after all. I\u2019m not so sure my brother could get behind it, but then I\u2019ve always been the rule-breaker in the family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>*NOTE:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>In the culinary world, savory and sweet are opposites. Typically, entrees tend to be savory, while desserts are sweet. Ironically, this makes all desserts unsavory and all unsavory characters down right sweet. Go figure.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Basil (&amp; Strawberries) Ice Cream<br \/>\n<\/strong>(about 2 quarts)<br \/>\n1 \u00bd cup milk<br \/>\n\u00be cup sugar<br \/>\n2 T flour<br \/>\nA few grains salt<br \/>\n2 eggs or 3 yolks (pasteurized, if possible, see note)<br \/>\n1 \u00bd cup cream<br \/>\n6 T basil syrup<br \/>\n2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Basil Syrup<br \/>\n<\/em>1 cup granulated sugar<br \/>\n\u00be cup water<br \/>\n\u00bd cup fresh basil, chopped<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Heat milk to 180-190\u00baF with sugar, flour and salt, stirring until thick, cover for 10 minutes.<\/li>\n<li>Beat eggs and add \u00bd cup of mixture while beating, then add eggs to mixture.<strong>HEALTH NOTE:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Since you\u2019re dealing with eggs here, you need to take care when cooking the custard. Too much cooking and the custard gets lumpy, too little and you risk salmonella.\u00a0 Another alternative is to use pasteurized eggs.<\/li>\n<li>Heat the mixture for one minute over medium, then cool with plastic wrap or wax paper pressed onto the top of the mixture to keep it from developing a skin. Cool for several hours or overnight.<\/li>\n<li>In the meantime, make basil syrup by heating the water in a small sauce pan and stirring in the sugar until it dissolves. When sugar has dissolved completely, remove the pan from the heat, add the basil and cover for 15-20 minutes before straining and cooling completely.<\/li>\n<li>Add the cream and 6 tablespoons of the cooled basil syrup to the cooled custard mix, \u00a0and freeze.<\/li>\n<li>Upon freezing, serve the basil ice cream with a generous helping of fresh strawberries.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><em>Photo Credit: <\/em>\u201cHome Grown Basil Syrup,\u201d <em>from the MS Paint and a camera<\/em><em>.<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s your choice for best savory dessert or unsavory for that matter?\u00a0 What\u2019s your selection for best sweet entr\u00e9e? Leave your nominee in a comment.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Years ago, my brother told me he didn\u2019t like soups that had fruit in them because he thought they confused the taste buds. At the time I smiled, nodded and cringed as I thought about the pepper and pear soup I had just made him as a Christmas present. Yet I understood what he meant. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,64,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fruit","category-herbs","category-ice-cream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1663"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1663\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}