Ragazzi, Annalena understands that many of you do not have ice cream makers; however, she does not understand WHY you do not have them. You know you love ice cream. And you know you can never find your favorite flavor. And you KNOW that even if you do find a favorite flavor "I can make this better," or "this would be better with..." Well, why not start acting on your thoughts? Ice cream making is not that hard. In fact, Annalena thinks that cookie making is harder. And once you get the hang of it, you COULD make ice cream every day. And, NO, you will not pig out and become 800 pounds. Yes, there is the initial love affair with the machine, but then, you settle down and make it, say, on the weekends, or once a month, or however. But it will equalize. Trust Annalena on this.
Today's ice cream recipe is an interesting one, because of the combination: rhubarb, and caramel. The result, all who tasted it agree, is not at all of rhubarb, or of caramel. In fact, one would say it was more like a sour cherry ice cream, with a strong vanilla base. Nothing wrong with that, is there?
The recipe is also an object lesson in why people think they cannot cook. The recipe has a good idea. It is also unworkable. If you were to make this as it is set up, you would fail. Indeed, Annalena herself looked through it, and had her doubts at several steps, and since she is experienced in the kitchen, knew when to veer from the recipe and do what she knew was best. And the result is a terrific ice cream. She will give you her recipe, explaining how it veers from that of the New York Times.
You start, with 1.5 cups of whole milk, 4 large egg yolks, 1.5 cups of sour cream, and half a cup of heavy cream. Sour cream in an ice cream is a bit unusual, but it works here. The stronger flavor of the sour cream balances the strong acid notes from the rhubarb. It makes the ice cream ridiculously tasty. We're going to put those ingredients aside, though, while we make the other components.
You need about 3/4 pounds of rhubarb, and if you're going to work with that odd quantity, buy a pound. If you can get it fresh, then chop it into small cubes. As small as you can. If you buy it frozen, then as soon as you can do so without hurting your hand , do the same to the frozen stuff. Do not wait until it thaws.
Put the rhubarb into a pot, with a cup of sugar. Bring it to low heat, and cook until the juices begin to run. With frozen rhubarb, this might happen in a minute or two. Contrary to the recipe, 4-5 minutes is far too little time for the fresh stuff to do this. It is more like 10 minutes. Stick the rhubarb with a fork, every now and then, to see if it's nice and tender. You want something which, if you were to press it (cool), against the top of your mouth, it would dissolve, but to still have its shape.
When you get there, move the rhubarb to a bowl. Increase the heat, and reduce the juices in your pot, until you have only about 2-3 tablespoons. The recipe says this takes 5-10 minutes. If you do that, you will have no syrup, and a burnt pan. Three minutes, max. Pour that syrup over the rhubarb and leave it be.
Now, you can of course make your caramel, but caramel making is tricky, and you can get burned, very badly (trust Annalena on this). You can buy excellent quality dulce de leche, and also milk caramel (Annalena likes American Spoon). Get a jar. You'll want about a cup of it. Use the rest on fruit, or to make sandwich cookies, or on your peanut butter sandwich.
This is going to make your life so much easier. Believe Annalena here. Now, you'll make your custard. You will do that by bringing milk, another 3/4 cup of sugar, and the seeds and pod of a split vanilla bean together with the egg yolks, in a separate, heavy pot. Over low heat, and stirring all the while (with a whisk, if you have one), cook the custard until it thickens. Keep an eye on it: the custard is done when you see it take on a glassy shiny look, and the whisk has to work just a bit harder. Now stir in the sour cream, and put this aside.
You have all the components of your ice cream ready. You need to get them cool, so put the rhubarb compote (which you can also use "as is" as a topping on custard, or cookies, or anything) and the custard, into the fridge for at least a few hours. When you're ready to make your ice cream, churn the custard for about 10-15 minutes, until it begins to firm up. Then, pour in the caramel. Annalena diverges from the recipe here, as she will explain below. When the ice cream looks just about ready, pour in the rhubarb with its juices.
Now, what the recipe as originally written does NOT tell you, is that this will immediately break the custard, and you will have to churn longer. But that's fine. Putting it in sooner will only produce little frozen bits of rhubarb that will hurt your teeth.
When it all looks ready, you can (and you should), do the following: if you don't have another use for the caramel, pour a little on the bottom of your container. Then add ice cream. And keep alternating (This is what the recipe originally called for, and it did not call for adding caramel directly to the custard). When your container or containers are full... you are done.
This is something new, to use a favorite ingredient, which Annalena, and many of us, love, but of which we have a very limited number of recipes. Try something new. You will be amazed at the taste of this wonderful dish. And put some rhubarb in your freezer now. It's almost gone, and you will make this in the winter and smile. Yes, you will
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