Huckleberry Redux: a love letter to some friends

Cycles, don't ya love them? I had remembered that I had written a blog entry entitled "My Huckleberry Friend," and I couldn't remember the precise date. It was back on November 12 of last year- just about a year ago. So, a year passes, a season repeats, and we're back to the same ingredients.

I guess that it is a sign of how creative people can be in the kitchen that someone can write more than one essay about what he does with an ingredient. I WILL confess, however, that what I'm writing about today is awfully similar to what I wrote about last year. It involves cream puff shells, and it involves lemons, and it involves huckleberries, but this time... we're gonna make ice cream.

I have written about certain magical flavor combinations. Tomato and basil. Cinnamon and apple. Foie gras and sour cherries. And I think another one of those magic mixes is huckleberries and lemons. It doesn't SOUND like it should be, if you think about it. There is an old adage in cooking that "what grows together, GOES together. " Tomatoes and basil come into season at the same time, at the same place. Lemons are a little later than huckleberries, though, and now that I think about it, I don't think cinnamon and apples grow in the same place. Oh well. Another Annalena dead end.

But moving along, huckleberries and lemon DO work together beautifully. Not that long ago, I had an incredible lemon/huckleberry granita. I had misread the dessert option and thought it was some of each, but in fact it was a combination and it was GOOD. There was real synergy there. Better than either one alone, or having to mix them in my bowl myself . But putting them together, in different forms, is also pretty darn good.

I have written about cream puff shells a few times, and I gave you all my recipe for lemon curd not that long ago. Please review. We're going to talk about huckleberry ice cream today, and you can , if you like, substitute blueberries for this and do the same thing.

Chances are, unless you're reading this on the West Coast during a very limited time span in the late fall, you're going to be using frozen huckleberries. And that's just fine. In fact, for making this ice cream, having frozen berries is actually better. The pulp of the fruit actually breaks down enough in the thawing of the berries that you don't have to worry about things like cooking them, pureeing them, and all that jazz. So get yourself a pound of frozen huckleberries. That's about two cups (and yes, this is a VERY generous amount of huckleberries for this recipe). You should let them thaw in a pot, until they're soft and very liquid. If you can, you should let it happen overnight. I suggest NOT heating them to hasten the process. I just don't think it's worth it. When they're soft, combine them with 3/4 cup of sugar, and three cups of heavy cream.

Yeah, this is a rich one. But you know what? You're not gonna add any eggs. Nope. That's because the pectin in the berries is such that the stuff will firm up without cooking the eggs. Don't believe me ? Well, try it.

When you've got these three lovely ingredients together, heat them gently, until the sugar has melted. That's all you have to do, except let the stuff cool down until it's cool enough to go into your ice cream maker.

If you refrigerate this mixture, you will get a gelled product that may remind you of the jellied soup that you would get if you made your own chicken soup, with all that gelatin in it. This sort of makes it "gelato" rather than ice cream, at least in many definitions of what gelato is, i.e., a lot of fruit, minimal sugar, good cream, and no eggs.

When you have your ice cream, fill your cream puff shells. then pour the lemon curd over them.

This is a dessert that you should keep for special occasions. Last night, we had our final monthly dinner of the year. That one is reserved for people who come to mind when Guy and I ask "how did I get through this year without....." and a name falls into place. No offense to our other friends at all. These are just people who were SUPER special this year, and they got all the stops pulled out for this dinner. Ragu. Cassoulet. Roman gnocchi. Poule Normande. Grape pie. Peanut vanilla ice cream. And the profiteroles. James, Michael, Chris, Matthew, Kevin, Chuck, David, Keith, you mean the world to both of us. Thank you SO much for getting us this far.