When it's as high as an elephant's eye: corn ice cream

Yes, it's high summer.  Annalena does not care what anyone says about Labor Day being the end of summer, nor does she care that the official end of summer according to the solstice is about September 22.  Nope. Summer ends when the last ripe tomato is on the vine.  Then it's over.  Until then, summer rules.  Granted, there is beauty in  Elinor Wylie's sonnet about the seasons, and the line  "summer, much too beautiful to stay," but we put artificial boundaries on the seasons, folks.

Ok, out of the way.  This is probably the best time of the year for the seasonal cook.  Yes, we have said goodbye to favorites like peas, fava beans, snap peas, apricots and cherries.  But you never know.  Someone showed up at the farmers market last week with freshly picked rhubarb.  In  August. Sometimes there is a second crop of peas or fava beans.  Who knows.  But putting aside the unknowns, this is the time of year when we can get corn and grapes.  Plums and peppers.  Peaches, and acorn squash.  Yes, it is all there ragazzi, just take advantage of it, any way you can.

This is one such way.   Corn is way beyond ascendance right now.  The only other thing that might be more prevalent in the market, is eggplant (and Annalena is not complaining about that).  Keep in mind that "corn" or "corn on the cob" as we call it , is also called "sweet corn."  There's a reason for that:  it is loaded with sugar (corn syrup ragazzi, corn syrup.  Where do you think it comes from?).  There was a time - and Annalena is personally aware of it, where the instructions for cooking corn were:  start a pot of water, and when it comes to the boil, run out to the corn field, pick the corn, shuck it as you get back and drop it into the water."  That is because the sugar in corn - at the time - turned to starch quickly, and you would lose some of the sweetness.  Today, genetic modifications have changed this.  We can lament it, or go along with it, or look for varieties like silver queen, which have not been altered, but facts are facts everyone:  if you buy corn, even at the farmers market, it has been altered genetically, to make it sweeter, longer. 

Many vegetables will surprise you with their sweetness content.  And that is why they are ideal for dessert applications.  This one, comes from a new favorite ice cream book "Humphry slocombe ice cream book."  It is the creation of a store in San Francisco, known in large part for their interesting ice cream flavors (including foie gras).

Ragazzi, buy this book.  Buy two copies of it and give a copy to your friends.  It is a wonderful read, and you will, at some point, make one of the recipes or even more. As Annalena has.

Annalena first ate corn ice cream in a Mexican restaurant, which makes sense.  She remembers it as being tasty, but very granular, almost like ice milk.    This year, looking for something different, she scoured her sources for corn ice cream recipes, and she found plenty.  She settled on this one because it made some very salient points:  the taste of corn is subtle (it is), so when you make an ice cream, you should use as much corn as you can, and cut out as much as you can.  Heavy cream , for example, plays a very important role in ice cream, but compare the taste of a cream free sorbet, to a cream filled ice cream.  The intensity of flavor in the former, cannot be matched in the latter.  So if you have a subtle flavor....   So, too, with egg yolks, which add a richness, but mask flavor.  This ice cream recipe had neither cream, nor eggs in it. 

Game on.

A few things, ragazzi.  First, with the final product not being a cooked product, it will melt on the tongue faster.  As it is not as rich, you may find yourself eating more of it.  And DO NOT go for low fat dairy in this.  If you are going to do that, make something else. 

Now, let's make our ice cream.

You will need about a cup of fresh corn kernels.  This can be anywhere from 2-4 ears, depending on their size.  Cut them from the cobs (Annalena provides instructions in this blog), and DO NOT FORGET   to run your knife over the cob, to get the corn milk.    Then, put this in a large pot with 2 cups of whole milk, and a cup of sugar, and a tablespoon of salt. 

The salt is here, both to bring out the flavor, and also to help break down the kernels.  Don't leave it out.    Bring this to a simmer over low heat, and cook it for half an hour.  This constitutes overcooking, but you want the corn to be soft. 

Now, use a blender (a food processor is, theoretically an option, but it does not do such a great job), and pulse this mixture to puree it.  Use some logic: you can do this hot, but if you do, please protect your hands by covering the top of the blender with a towel.  Steam will come off of the liquid when agitated, and may even "blow" the blender (it has happened to Annalena).    Now, strain this, through a fine milled colander or strainer, and press down to get every last drop.

Stir in a cup of sour cream, or creme fraiche, or even whole fat yogurt.  Stir it all together, and then cool it in the fridge.  Get out your ice cream maker when it's cold, and, as the good book says "to every thing, churn, churn churn."

At the end, you will have one quart of a product which, if you tell your friends what it is, they will say  "uh, interesting.  Do you have any chocolate?"  If you have them taste it first, they will come back for seconds.   So maybe you should make two batches.

Really good t his is, with the cobbler provided immediately before. 

Go get corny.  Make the ice cream.