{"id":1803,"date":"2011-09-30T00:59:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T05:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2015-11-06T16:08:18","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T22:08:18","slug":"not-taking-leave-fig-and-banana-ice-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?p=1803","title":{"rendered":"Not Taking Leave: Fig and Banana 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%3D1803&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_1804\" style=\"width: 380px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/?attachment_id=1804\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1804\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1804\" class=\"wp-image-1804\" style=\"border: 10px solid black;\" title=\"Goodbye Eden\" src=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goodbye-Eden.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"370\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goodbye-Eden.jpg 236w, https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Goodbye-Eden-82x100.jpg 82w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 370px) 100vw, 370px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1804\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thus Endeth The Honeymoon<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Unlike the images all over the internet today&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>most of the naked &#8220;art&#8221; I remember growing up involved delicately placed fig leaves. My home town of Palos Verdes Estates even had a statue of a naked King Neptune standing in the middle of Malaga Cove Plaza, who, by the time I was old enough to snigger about it, also had a fig leaf discreetly attached to his\u00a0front.<\/p>\n<p>That and the horribly abused fig tree at the bottom of the bank that spilled off our lawn is all I can remember of figs from back then. I certainly don\u2019t remember eating them.<\/p>\n<p>My wife on the other hand is a huge fan of figs.<\/p>\n<p>As far as I know, this passion only began in San Francisco when a cooking school friend brought a fig, goat cheese and arugula salad to brunch. The salad had a terrific combination of flavors that, together with a nice group of people, good wine, conversation and perfect rooftop summer weather, made a lasting impression in my wife\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n<p>That salad was from the early days of our relationship. Well before we were married, but after the long, slow courtship via US mail and the telephone. We had both moved to San Francisco as a neutral city (I\u2019m from LA, she\u2019s from Chicago), and were still trying to learn how to live in the same place.<\/p>\n<p>Some of our best, most intimate experiences from those times were built around food and wine. My wife\u2019s other favorite salad is the Caprese, which we first made with little pear and cherry tomatoes we got on a trip to the ferry building farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n<p>It was there that we first got into the habit of making food for Christmas gifts, starting with infused oils and whole grain mustard.\u00a0Just north of SF, we had our first hand-shucked oysters, from a dozen we bought in Tamales Bay along with an oyster knife. We wound up eating them all on a rest stop picnic bench. Then there were the chartered bus trips into wine country where we were fed and treated like culinary royalty by winemakers who were betting that many of us one day would be.<\/p>\n<p>It was a time of pure romance.<\/p>\n<p>And it was with this in mind that I made this week\u2019s ice cream. My wife had a box full of figs. We also had a few ripe bananas. I decided to put the two together.<\/p>\n<p>When the ice cream first came out of the ice cream maker, it was wedded bliss\u2014a perfect balance of the two fruits. Sadly, when we took it out of the ice box a few days later, the fruit were no longer on such good terms\u2014as if the honeymoon was over.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the way it goes with couples. The passionate intensity of the beginning just doesn\u2019t last. In many cases, the relationship doesn\u2019t either. The two people may stay together and put a fig leaf over what is essentially a joyless union but they\u2019re not fooling anyone. Others break apart entirely.<\/p>\n<p>Still others keep their bond alive not with fig leaves but with whole figs, and ice cream and maybe a nice bottle of wine.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the food of love. Maybe not the only one. But who says there has to be just one.<\/p>\n<p>Enjoy it all at once.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fig &amp; Banana Ice Cream<br \/>\n<\/strong>(about 2 quarts)<br \/>\n1 \u00bd cups 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 \/>\n8 oz. bananas, pureed<br \/>\n8 oz. fresh figs, pureed<\/p>\n<p>1. Blend milk with sugar, flour and salt, and heat to 180-190\u00baF stirring frequently until thick, cover for 10 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>2. Beat eggs and add \u00bd cup of mixture while beating, then add eggs to mixture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>HEALTH NOTE:\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.<\/p>\n<p>3. 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.<\/p>\n<p>4. Add the cream, bananas and figs to the cooled custard mix and puree with an immersion blender, then freeze.<\/p>\n<p>5. Put the frozen ice cream in the freezer for a couple of hours to give it a chance to firm up.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\nNOTE: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>When freezing ice cream, you need to use an ice cream freezer to ensure that a certain amount of air is mixed into the frozen cream. This gives it a lighter, less icy consistency. When freezing sorbet, you may also freeze it in a popsicle mold, a bowl or on a sheet pan. Be sure to stir the mixture occasionally to limit the size of the ice particles. Larger chunks of ice make for granita, miniscule chunks make for a nice smooth sorbet (an ice cream freezer is ideal).<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Photo Credit: <\/em>\u201cThe Honeymoon\u2019s Over, Original Version,\u201d from the Sistine Chapel and an errant pair of fig leaves<em>.<\/em><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>There is still a lot I need to learn about ice cream and what happens to its flavor after it leaves the machine. Some hold together. Some get better. Some do not. I\u2019ll keep learning whatever I can. But if there are any insights you have to share, please, let me know in a comment.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike the images all over the internet today&#8230; most of the naked &#8220;art&#8221; I remember growing up involved delicately placed fig leaves. My home town of Palos Verdes Estates even had a statue of a naked King Neptune standing in the middle of Malaga Cove Plaza, who, by the time I was old enough to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,48,142,35,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bananas","category-dairy","category-figs","category-fruit","category-ice-cream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803","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=1803"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2303,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1803\/revisions\/2303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesoupblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}