9 November 2011

your shoulders are frozen, cold as the night

It's been a long time, shouldn't have left you, without another ice cream recipe. Although this isn't ice cream at all but its tangy cousin, Frozen Yoghurt. I did that thing where I dream up a cool ice cream flavour, but then I went and forgot it and tried to retrace my steps mentally to work out exactly what it was that I thought was so good - a bit like that Sweet Valley Twins book where Jessica accidentally made those amazing cookies then pretended that it wasn't an accident and she had to recreate them for the TV show Lifestyles of the French and Famous and they stay up all night trying to work out what the flavour was and then they retrace their steps and get the flavour just in time and also the make up artist makes it look like they had a great night's sleep. And Jessica does not acknowledge that serendipity played a part in her success. Just. Like. That. Fun fact: I didn't Google any of this, I just knew it. 


Lucky for me, while trying to work out what it was that entranced me in the first place I managed to come up with something else entirely: Applemint and Fresh Tumeric Frozen Yoghurt. Yep, the very same tumeric that you normally put in curries, and yep, Applemint is just the words Apple and Mint squished together because it pleases me. Also pleasing is this combination of flavourants - crisp apple, cool mint and the golden presence of tumeric. Whatever the original idea was, this one wins - for one thing, it actually exists, unlike the other idea which continued to fade further and hazily-er out of reach the harder I searched for it. 


I'm not fussy about all things in life but I am about yoghurt. Clearwater's Organic is the kind that I used for this recipe - it's heavy and rich and topped with cream and you can buy it in a two litre bucket which I find truly exciting. Otherwise I'd look out for Collective Dairy or Zany Zeus, two other NZ brands that are outstanding in the field of excellent yoghurt. If you want to make this vegan, you could replace the yoghurt with a couple of cans of coconut milk and even call it Froconut if you like. Coconut milk makes awesome ice cream, so no need for fear here.


Please notice the beautiful parfait glasses, unexpectedly given to me on a trip to Petone by magnificent ladies Jo and Kim. Having these parfait glasses did motivate me to make some more ice cream to put in them, but that's not saying much really because I could look at a shrub, a sofa cushion, a small badger, and still suddenly want to make ice cream.

Applemint and Fresh Tumeric Frozen Yoghurt

Note - if you don't have access to fresh tumeric, leave it out and add in a teaspoon of ground ginger instead. If you don't have palm sugar, use plain brown sugar or any sugar at all, to be honest. And finally, if you don't have a food processor, just grate up the apple, and finely chop everything else and stir it in. This is just my lazy way.

2 1/2 cups lovely thick plain yoghurt
3 tablespoons palm sugar, roughly chopped
1 Granny Smith apple, roughly chopped (skin on)
About 1 centimetre segment of fresh tumeric, peeled and roughly chopped.
1/4 cup mint leaves - or as much as you like really - washed.


Blitz the apple, sugar and tumeric with a couple of tablespoons of the yoghurt in a food processor, until everything has become tiny and the green skin of the apple is as small as confetti. Add in the mint and the rest of the yoghurt, process for another ten or so seconds to mix everything in, then scrape into a 1-litre container and freeze, stirring occasionally.


Allow to sit out of the freezer for 20 minutes before serving so it's not rock-solid.


To be straight up with you, this will be a lot more luscious if you blast it in the food processor halfway through the freezing process. I couldn't be bothered, and this achieved me a frozen yoghurt full of ice crystals, which I soldiered through and ate anyway. It's still delicious, but keep this in mind. The delicate and fragrant yet juicy apple is perfect with mint's almost-spicy freshness, and the tumeric isn't overtly present but hints at flavours of carrot, ginger and lemon, and it sounds quite cool in the title so don't go leaving it out if you don't have to. It's all very light and refreshing but with plenty of flavour.

To remain straight up with you: frozen yoghurt doesn't necessarily make the most effective ice cream soda. Its icy texture doesn't really amalgamate in with the fizzy drink, instead busting into large particles floating round. It all looks unbelievably undrinkable, but it's all good, as long as you don't look too closely. I thought this flavour would be cool with ginger beer and I was so very correct - just avert your eyes and drink up. And yes, occasionally I succumb to pretty things and these stripy straws were one such instance of that. Just to convince myself that they weren't just bought out of  aesthetic aimlessness, I made myself drink the entire glassful through them.






































Sometimes pretty > useful.

Speaking of, we had a big clean-out of our closet and found heaps of things that hadn't seen the light of day since we moved in two and a half years ago - including my old pointe shoes. And because instead of tidying, I tend to just wear as much of the clutter as possible...I tried them on.


That on the far left is a bloodstain, in case you're wondering. This pair is actually one of my cleanest - Grischkos, still with the same ribbons I would've sewn on and burnt the edges of so they didn't fray. While there came a point where it was very clear I wasn't going to be a professional of any kind, nothing gave me as much happiness as dancing - I guess not till cooking came along. Best believe I've been prancing round in these more than once since, in fact attempting a pirouette ill-advisedly on our wooden kitchen floor this very evening. Put a stop to that quick though, no need to add more blood stains to these shoes!

Can't believe I forgot to mention this but amongst all the hubbub of last week maybe it's not surprising. A couple of weeks ago Tim and I attended the excellent launch of Fast Fresh Tasty, a new, local food app filled with seasonal and beautiful recipes. It's best described over at the Wellingtonista - but if you're into food apps and have a smartphone I definitely recommend it. 
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Title via: The Arctic Monkeys' exciting 2005 debut, I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. I wrote a probably terrible essay in uni on how The Internet was changing the music industry because these guys had a fanbase on Myspace or something. It all makes me feel very old and very young at the same time.
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Music lately:

The opening of The Crystals' Da Doo Ron Ron has got to be one of the best there is, with those blaring horns and galloping handclaps. We used to sing this song in primary school, but it wasn't nearly as cool as the original itself. 

Heavy D and The Boyz, We Got Our Own Thing. RIP, Heavy D.
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Next time: No kidding, I thought up another ice cream recipe idea almost immediately, but I might put that on hold and serve you up an awesome Christmas Cake recipe - you can't ignore that it's rapidly approaching, and Christmas Cakes need plenty of planning ahead!

16 comments:

  1. How well I remember the pointe shoes ... blood could just have easily come from me stabbing myself with needle while attaching ribbons...

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  2. Ahaha I can so relate to wearing stuff from the depths out of the closet on the pretext that you're cleaning. It's why I never get to the rest of my room/flat when I'm tidying ;)

    And applemint! Excellent, I'm all for the creation of new words, especially ones so delicious-sounding. And the end product looks fabulous as well.

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  3. Love the combo here, yoghurt, apple, mint and turmeric!?! Awesome.

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  4. I am a little afraid of mint and apple (why? I don't know) but the idea of two of my favorite words: "Christmas" and "Cake" together sounds AMAZING.

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  5. Oh so jealous - NZ, without doubt, produces the best(!) yoghurt ever! And having flies in the kitchen (despite all doors being sealed shut) is definitely the queue for some serious ice-creamering! (i.e. summer is fast approaching!)

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  6. I've never been a huge yoghurt fan, but I adore Collective Dairy. I'll be on the lookout for Clearwater's now too. I've always seen yoghurt as a food, never thought of yoghurt as an ingredient. Thanks for sharing.

    I know what you mean about getting sidetracked when you're supposed to be clearing out. I haven't cleared out my wardrobe in a long time. I still have bag of stuff I set aside to take to the Sallies from the last time I cleared out my wardrobe. It made it another metre closer to the front door over the weekend though. Hopefully it will be out of the house soon.

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  7. Ok so my husband and I are housesitting and just found a HUGE tub of delicious thick greek yoghurt in the fridge that will shortly expire. I think I can foresee that yoghurt's future... Sounds like an awesome mix of flavours - will totally process it halfway through freezing!
    PS I love that you don't use an icecream maker. It's true. They didn't have icecream machines 50 years ago yet somehow they had icecream...

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  8. Yeah, I love you. Also, anyone who has to google SVH storylines is just lame, in my opinion. When I think of the kinds of "relationship" (that's my euphemism so you don't get scary spam) plots that are on shows like Gossip Girl these days, I can't stop laughing about the scene where Jessica gets incredibly indignant and breaks up with Bruce because he unties her bikini top in the water. OMG! :P

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  9. I like turmeric in desserts (it is spelled with a R though, I thought I should let you know :-), maybe it is a bit unusual to see it in sweet treats in NZ, but it is a truly versatile spice. Never tried it in Ice cream/frozen yogurt though, thank you for the idea :-). and if you like to try a cake with turmeric I posted this ages ago: http://alessandrazecchini.blogspot.com/2008/11/turmeric-cake.html

    ciao
    A.

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  10. Such an intriguing and refreshing combination of flavours. I would love to try it!

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  11. Oh god- I remember that Sweet Valley High. Brilliant. And I love applemint (I bet Jessica would have too)- it's got far too much sass for Elizabeth. Brilliant stuff.

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  12. @rhiby

    We've really been producing some brilliant stuff in the last couple of years - spoiled for choice! You should definitely check out my ice cream tag, I've got squillions of recipes :D

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  13. @delacasa

    Have fun house-sitting, hope you enjoy the recipe! And yeah, you totally don't need an ice cream maker, thanks for the back-up :)

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  14. @Hannah

    Hee, thanks for the spam consideration. SVH had the original marry-a-prince plotline, years before GG - I'm sure about ten different princes fell in love with them at some point or other. Very plausibly.

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  15. tumeric in yogurt? must try :)

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  16. And here I spent my childhood thinking that those slutty sweet valley tramps were prissies not worth my time [guess i'm not watching out for spam considerations]. Shoot, childhood wasted !

    I also spent my childhood disliking dance, then decided when I was fifteen that I wanted to learn to dance properly (fueled by concerns that my musical theater skills were incredibly lacking compared to my competition). I took one two-week course with some middle aged ladies, and haven't returned to it since. But I'm still intrigued...

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