There's an iconic fast food mini-chain in Seattle called Dick's. Everything they have is delicious but I think a major lure is their fries. Weirdly limp but crazy good. I don't know about other families, but we would always eat ours with their special tartar sauce. So sometimes when we were little my brother & I would get to go. And sometimes, my mom would say "Tartar sauce? I can make that." And proceed to throw some pickles into mayonnaise. Not the same. I learned early not to expect homemade versions to taste like an adored store-bought.
It started like this: how does one make Thai iced tea ice cream with neither Thai tea nor cream? This is how most of my projects start–with a sweet tooth & nothing in the cupboard.
*I concocted a Thai tea approximation concentrate steeped in the milk for the ice cream, then made that into a custard. Some people do custards in double boilers, some people temper their yolks. I am not that patient and I don't mind whisking wildly for a few minutes so I just go for the gusto.
I would have liked to have added some tamarind paste because a) it's delicious and b) it's always hard to use up after that one pad thai but the mysterious overly aggressive fridge cleaner must have gotten to ours because I can't find it anywhere.
Thai Tea Ice Cream
Based on recipes from Giada and use real butter.
3 cups milk
10 bags black tea
8 stars anise*
1 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon orange blossom water
Bring the milk to a low simmer. Add the tea bags & star anise. Steep for about an hour.
Strain out the tea bags & anise. Whisk in the sugar & egg yolks. Whisk over low heat. It will get really foamy then start to subside. I switch to a spoon at this point and let myself not stir so vigorously. Go until the milk/egg mixture "coats the back of a spoon." What does that even mean? Go till the mixture noticeably thickens, about 8 minutes for me.
Pour into a bowl (or the large glass measure you used for the milk in the first place) and chill in the fridge till cool. I decided mine was cool enough after 3 hours.
Put it in the ice cream machine! My ice cream machine came second-hand, without instructions, so I let it go until it doesn't seem to be gaining any more volume.
PS: Have no fear, do not panic, go here with the extra egg whites. They will not be wasted. You will not be sorry. (Make a half batch.)
*bunches of star anise... ? star-shaped groupings... ?
**Um. These pictures are in black & white because I'm arty the camera was set to black & white for a previous project & I forgot to change it.
