The Icecreamists

We all have a story about THAT kid.  The mean, rolly-polly boy who makes your dog bark.   The kid who is always trying to sneak a peak at the girly magazines in the 7-11.  The kid who always manages to be first in line at the ice cream truck, even though he was the last one to arrive.  He can turn the most simple phrase into a dirty joke.   He scores a near perfect in the epistemology of a serial killer.   You look at him and think, "One day he will be in jail and I pray I am alive." Now, imagine that very kid becoming obsessed with that ice cream truck and turning it into a passion, a deranged and magical passion.  Meet Mark O'Connor.

Like French cookbooks, I am a sucker for ice cream books.  They all tend to follow that siren's call of summer; bright colors, sun-drenched backgrounds, piles of ripe fruit, blond children.  You know the drill. There is not a single blond child in The Icecreamists.  The ice cream is dark and rich and decadent, with whiskey and cigars instead of picnics. 

I am fond of ice cream in winter filled with pumpkins, cranberries, and eggnog.  I never met an ice cream that I didn't think would be greatly improved with a libation.  Mark O'Connor is a kindred spirit.  He became renown for an ice cream called Baby Gaga, made with human breast milk.   Lady Gaga was not amused.  Neither were the London health inspectors.   At roughly $28 a scoop, however, it quickly sold out.  Before you ask, the answer is, Yes! the recipe is included in the book, but with the new name, Baby Googoo and the proviso to have the proper blood tests done before consuming breast milk.

No we are not giving you that recipe, but this rather lovely elderflower sorbetto.

Easyslider

1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup superfine or granulated sugar
1/2 cup elderflower syrup, plus extra for drizzling
juice of 1 lemon
sprigs of mint to decorate

1 pour the water into a saucepan and add sugar.  Place over low heat and bring to a boil, whisking often, until the sugar dissolves.  Reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes, continue to whisk until the liquid turns to a syrup.

2. pour the sugar syrup into a heat proof bowl and set aside for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until cooled to room temperature.  For more rapid chilling, fill a sink halfway with cold water and ice and place the bowl of mixture in it for 20 minutes.

3. Whisk the elderflower syrup and lemon juice into the sugar syrup.  Cover and refrigerate, ideally overnight, until thoroughly chilled (at least 40 $.)

4.  Pour the chilled mixture into an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufactures instructions,

5.  When the churning is complete, use a spoon or spatula to scrape the sorbetto into a freezer-proof container with a lid.  Freeze until it reaches the correct scooping texture (at least 2-3 hours.)

6.  Drizzle a little elderflower syrup over each portion and finish with a sprig of mint before serving.

Seriously, who is he kidding, toss a shot of  St. Germain over the top and enjoy.

You’re All Invited

Well known chef and Nose-To-Tail enthusiast, Fergus Henderson has always had a secret weapon, his wife Margot.  While Henderson was out front founding restaurants and promoting offal, Margot Henderson helping out while running a successful catering business and feeding their growing family.  

A New Zealander by birth, Henderson has the central casting look of an Irish cook – pale, ginger-haired, and solid.  She looks for all the world like the one person who could remain calm during a massive kitchen fire, getting the people and pets out safely and grabbing a loaf of bread, a hunk of cheese and a bottle wine in the process.  Form everything that has been written about her, her personality matches her looks.  She likes the word “chaos.”

 “We’re a one-course-and-cheese family.  I like organized chaos when entertaining…and I think people are more relaxed, if things aren’t too formal: relaxed chaos.”

The way to relaxed chaos is careful planning.  Low flowers, the same with candles; a flowered tablecloth, a good drink and familiar food.

There is polenta and pasta and Brussels sprouts.  There is pork belly and lamb shank and roasted bird of every size and shape.  Finish it off with something chocolate, lemony, and fruit tarty… and some cheese.

Truth be told, there is probably not a single recipe in You’re All Invited that you have never heard of.  You have heard of them all, you have probably eaten them all, but gathered together; they are like family – comforting, inviting, and rich in every sense of the word.

This may well be the most “exotic” of Henderson’s recipes due to the inclusion of feijoa, a fig-like fruit often grown New Zealand. 

Feijoa Ice Cream

400g ripe feijoa

juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon vodka

1 tablespoon Cointreau

175g caster sugar

250ml double cream

250ml whole cream

Trim the feijoas top and bottom, then halve or quarter them.  Put them in a food processor with the lemon juice, vodka, Cointreau and sugar and whiz into a puree.  Stir in the cream and milk, then put in an ice cream freezer and churn.  Once slightly frozen, transfer to a plastic container and put into the freezer for at least 4 hours.

In the back of the book, Henderson lists a series of events that she has catered and the numbers of people attending.  She then provides the menu for each. You may not have 80 for a gallery opening or 240 for dinner, but the menus offer up the same planned chaos that have made Margot Henderson’s cooking a treasure.

The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto

Years ago...

I would venture into Whole Foods and grab a pint of the most delicious blood orange sorbet made by Ciao Bella.

Then the evil queen...

also known as Oprah, decided to make Ciao Bella's Blood Orange Sorbet one of her "favorite things."

Poof...

It was gone. Oprah's minions set out to eat it all. It was a full three years before one could find Ciao Bella's Blood Orange Sorbet in any store.


So you can just imagine our unmitigated joy when we found out that they were writing a cookbook. AS you know, we have a plethora of ice creamy cookbooks at our disposal. But this is a gem. In the first place, they make the whole process rather easy. Well about as easy as making ice cream can be, provided one owns a big ol' ice cream machine. But still...

Since moving far far away from the dazzling Whole Foods, transporting ice cream has become a bit of a hassle. So the DIY approach suits us well and if there is anyone we want to DIY ice cream with it would have to be F.W. Pearce & Danilo Zecchin. If you don't believe us, check out this New Yorker article.

Now we just love chocolate, but it is a bitch to clean up in our Simac. Next to the blood orange, this is terrific.

Classic Chocolate Gelato

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (about 60% cacao), finely chopped
4 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar

In a heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the milk and cream. Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally so a skin doesn’t form, until tiny bubbles start to form around the edges and the mixture reaches a temperature of 170°F. Turn off the heat and whisk in the cocoa powder. Add the chopped chocolate, and stir or whisk until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth.

Meanwhile, in a medium heat-proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Gradually whisk in the sugar until it is well incorporated and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Temper the egg yolks by very slowly pouring in the hot milk mixture, whisking continuously. Return the custard to the saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and it reaches a temperature of 185°F. Do not bring to a boil.

Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring every 5 minutes or so. To cool the custard quickly, make an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water and placing the bowl with the custard in it; stir the custard until cooled. Once completely cooled, cover and refrigerate until very cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Pour the custard into the container of an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving.

If you don't live next door to the Whole Foods, grab up a copy of this book before summer and make your own.
If you do live next door, make your own anyway because one never knows when Oprah will open her mouth and steal away your favorite sorbet.

The Lewis & Clark Cookbook

If you read the post over at Lucindaville, you have been regaled with pawpaw facts. Continuing in that vein, here is an entry from the journal of William Clark, September 18, 1806:

"Subsisting on poppaws. we divide the buiskit which amounted to nearly one buisket per man, this in addition to the poppaws is to last is down to the Settlement's which is 150 miles the party appear perfectly contented and tell us that they can live very well on the pappaws."

Clearly, me and Clark share a love of speling! As one might remember, in 2006 there was a celebration of the bicentennial of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Every museum in every state that Lewis or Clark ever set foot in had an exhibition and books proliferated.

Leslie Mansfield wrote The Lewis & Clark Cookbook: Historic Recipes from the Corps of Discovery & Jefferson’s America. It is a nice cookbook featuring foods that Lewis & Clark might have encountered on their journey as well as (note the subtitle of the book...) recipes prevalent during the Jeffersonian era. George Washington was supposed to be greatly enamored with iced pawpaw as a dessert. Not to be outdone as a statesman or botanist, Thomas Jefferson cultivated the pawpaw at Monticello.

Even the great naturalist painter, John James Audubon was not spared from the plentiful pawpaw. It makes and appearance below.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo in Pawpaw Tree, John James Audubon

Given all the Lewis & Clark hoopla, Mansfiled's book generated more than one "Lewis & Clark Dinner." This was favorite dessert:

Pawpaw ice Cream

2 cups pawpaw puree, thawed if frozen

2 cups heavy cream

1/2 cup milk

1 cup sugar

Place the pawpaw puree in a bowl and set aside. In a heavy saucepan, stir together the cream, milk and sugar. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Slowly pour the cream mixture into the pawpaw puree, whisking to blend. Cover with plastic wrap and completely chill in the refrigerator. Pour the cold mixture into an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Yes, Lewis & Clark did eat more than their share of pawpaws.

No, they did not bring their Cuisinart ice cream maker along with them.

If they had, no doubt, Sacagawea would have had to tote it on her back and make the ice cream.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home

We finally got our copy of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home by Jeni Britton Bauer. It has been on order since she stated writing the book. Lucindaville is the land of ice cream. We have quite the repertoire of favorite flavors including our Berries and Balsamic, Pimm's Cup, Red Velvet (hey we can turn any recipe into Red Velvet --it's a Southern thing), Pumpkin, Bloody Mary, if you can eat it, we can make it into ice cream. We recently ran across a recipe for asparagus ice cream and it is on our summer experiments list.

It is no wonder that our cookbook shelf is has an entire ice cream section. Bauer uses an interesting technique for making her ice cream. Instead of eggs to thicken it, she uses a corn starch. At Lucindaville where eggs are a mainstay, we were a bit shocked by this. So we were beyond anxious to give this corn starch thing a try. (Please don't tell our chickens about this cookbook. They are firm believers in offering up fresh eggs for ice cream and the thought that Jeni doesn't like that eggy taste in her ice cream will leave the girls miffed.)

Here at Lucindaville, the ice cream maker is a 1982 Simac Il Gelataio that was 20 years old when we got it. It is slightly smaller than a VW Beetle and weighs about the same. During the summer it sits on an old milk crate in the middle of the floor, close to the fridge. The freezing bowl does not come out. Generally it takes 40 minutes to make ice cream and 2 hours to clean it, but I still haven't found an ice cream maker that I would trade it for.

We were glad to see some of our staples in Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home, like Sweet Potato and Olive Oil. We have been experimenting with a number of olive oil ice cream recipes, so we are adding Jeni's to our trial list. Another ice cream in the book that has us all aglow is the Oakvale Young Gouda with Vodka-plumped Cranberries. But let us begin with vanilla.

Ugandan Vanilla Bean Ice Cream


2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
Prep
Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. fill a large bowl with ice water.

Cook
Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla seeds and bean in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heat-proof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Chill
Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag into the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

Freeze
Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Of course it is Ugandan vanilla, but you can use plain old vanilla beans if you don't have the ones from Uganda. But then you will have to drop the "Ugandan" from the name. Now you need to go out right now and get yourself a copy of this book so that you, too, can make ice cream. If you live close to Jeni, just grab a pint. She's opening up a new store in Nashville real soon. Jeni is always on the prowl for new ice cream ideas, so check out her blog, salty caramel to follow more Jeni updates.

So now we have the ice cream machine sitting on the milk crate, the corn starch and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home, let the summer begin.

Ice Cream Desserts

It may be September, but it is still in the 90's here, so we are not packing up the ice cream machine just now.
I pulled out Louis de Gouy's book Ice Cream Desserts. It is filled with recipes and nifty bits of information that everyone should know. For instance:

There is a subtle distinction between a fruit cocktail, a fruit cup and a frozen cup. Fruit cocktail is essentially an appetizer; whereas fruit cup is often served as a dessert, and a frozen cup, usually composed of fruit and ice cream, attractively dressed, is also a dessert.

Pay attention, there will be a quiz.

Louis de Gouy has quite the culinary persona. His father, Jean, was the Esquire of Cuisine at the Imperial Courts of Austria and Belgium. After studying at Daddy's knee, Louis moved on to study with Escoffier. He worked at some of the most illustrious hotels in Europe and America including the Grand Hotel, Hotel de Paris, Hotel Kennsington, and the Waldorf-Astoria. In addition he worked on J.P Morgan's yacht, Wild Duck, on a round-the-world cruise.

In his copious free time, he wrote over 20 books. His "masterpiece" was The Gold Cookbook, with nearly 3000 recipes. My favorite is the two-volume Derrydale Cook Book of Fish and Game. But today --ice cream.

The purpose of this volume was to enable the home cook in preparing delectable frozen treats. Given the time period, 1938, there are few options for making ice cream other than the hand cranked freezer or simply placing the base in the freezer. Unlike Baskin Robbin's 31 flavors, there are 470 recipes in Ice Cream Deserts.

Here's a recipe that sounds totally modern and well beyond the 31 flavors.

Cornflake Ice Cream

1 cup fresh milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, combined with 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cup corn flake cereal
2 cups heavy cream, whipped custard-like

Combine sugar and cornstarch and mix well. Stir int he milk, a small amount at a time, cooking over hit water until mixture is thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from hot water, cool slightly, then stir in slightly beaten egg. Return to hot water and cook for 2 short minutes, stirring constantly, Strain through double cheesecloth. Stir in the heavy cream, whipped to custard-like consistency alternating with corn flakes and flavoring extracts. Freeze in refrigerator tray until mushy. Remove from refrigerator , scrape bottom and sides, then beat smooth. Return to freezer try and freeze for three hours.

What a lovely idea -- breakfast ice cream!

Annemarie’s Personal Cookbook

At 21 years old, Annemarie Huste stood in front of Billy Rose, songwriter,entertainer and household name and told him that he should hire her as his private chef. So he did. Within six weeks she was promoted to his executive housekeeper, managing a staff of 12 people. Eight months later, Rose died and Huste was looking for a new employer. It just so happened that Jacqueline Kennedy was looking for a chef and soon Huste was cooking for kings, queens and the leaders of the world who often visited the Widow Kennedy after paying respects to President Lyndon Johnson.

Unfortunately, for Huste, her access to the most famous woman in the world and her incredible good looks and youthful demeanor,made her fodder for gossip columnists. Mrs. Kennedy did not approve, so Huste was told she would no longer be needed.

Fortunately for Huste, her access to the most famous woman in the world and her incredible good looks and youthful demeanor, made her a natural for television and as they say in the press, there is no "bad" publicity, so being fired by Mrs. Kennedy made her cache rise as a bidding war for her first cookbook ensued. That was followed by the talk-show circuit, a television cooking show, food editor of the Saturday Evening Post and the German edition of Family Circle, and executive chef of Gourmet magazine.

When her book, Annemarie’s Personal Cookbook, was published The New York Times wrote:

"From “just a little something special” about pistachio ice cream, or things a beginner can do in minutes ti a hamburger to win a man’s heart… to wonderfully simple advice about elegant cuisine and gracious entertaining… her is “a fun cookbook.”

Here is her pistachio ice cream.

Pistachio Ice Cream

4 cups heavy cream
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
Green food coloring
1 1/2 cups chopped pistachio nuts

Pour heavy cream into a bowl and whip until slightly stiff. Add the sugar and almond extract and beat thoroughly. Add a drop or two of food coloring (easy does it). Fold in the pistachio nuts. Pour mixture into a mold or other container and place in the freezer.

After 1 hour, stir the cream gently so that the nuts are well distributed and don’t sink to the bottom. Finish freezing for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Today, Annemarie Huste is still cooking, teaching and writing. She runs Annemarie's Dinning Room, offering private dinning and cooking lessons.

Sarah Raven's Complete Christmas

Sarah Raven is a noted British writer of food and gardens. I am always pestering my friend, Sandra, to order me something from her gardening a catalogue and ship it "over the pond" as they say. Raven has written several wildly popular cookery books and a lovely book on growing a cutting garden. She is married to Vita Sackville-West's grandson, Adam Nicholson. Her daughters should not only have green thumbs but green toes!

She has assembled a fine book for Christmas entertaining. She takes the event in stride and lays out a system of planning so one can actually have a good time over the holidays. Of course, as I have mentioned before, taking on a trusted genre and keeping it at the same time traditional and fresh is a colossal pain. Raven has tried valiantly, but there are those detractors who say the book is just no "English" enough. Bah Humbug!

Here is a lovely, light dessert that is just what one needs after a roasted goose.

Blood Orange and Pink Grapefruit Sorbet with Limoncello

juice of 5 blood oranges (should give about 500ml juice)
juice of 2 pink grapefruits (should give about 300ml juice)
150g sugar
limoncello, to serve

Scrub and dry the fruit and, using a zester, remove the zest of the oranges. Dissolve the sugar in 200ml water in a small saucepan over a low heat. Add half the orange zest and bring to the boil for 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool and strain.

Squeeze the juice from all the oranges and grapefruits and combine it with the cold syrup and reserved, uncooked zest.

Pour into an ice-cream maker. Freeze/churn for 20-25 minutes and pack into a plastic container. Freeze for at least an hour before serving. If you haven't got a machine, pour into a plastic food container and freeze for 2 hours. Take out of the freezer and stir with a fork. Return to the freezer and repeat this process twice, stirring at two-hourly intervals.

Allow the sorbet 20-25 minutes in the fridge to soften slightly before serving. Put 2 scoops per person into a glass and pour a little limoncello over each one.

Divine! Simply divine.

Any book by Sarah Raven is a welcome gift, under the tree or for any occasion. Adam Nicholson is a fine writer, too.

The Myra Breckinridge Cookbook

Rarely does a cookbook post allow us to mention, in no particular order: Edith Head, a book I edited, cumin covered cock, and Mae West. Not to mention Gore Vidal and Raquel Welsh. So it not hard to understand why The Myra Breckinridge Cookbook is such fun.

Once upon a time, Gore Vidal wrote a book, Myra Breckenridge. Then for some unknown reason (read $$$) he allowed the book to be made into a movie which is where Edith Head enters the picture.

Head was asked to do the costume design for stars including Farrah Fawcett, Raquel Welsh and, of course, Mae West. When West agreed to the part she insisted that Edith Head design her costume, not knowing that Head had already signed on to the production.


This design was an homage to West in "Belle of the Nineties." And this lovely number was just how I want to look when I am 80.



Then there was this iconic ensemble for Raquel Welsh.



Years later, Richard Peabody and I edited a book of interviews entitled Conversations With Gore Vidal.


But, before we edited Conversations With Gore Vidal, Beverly Pepper and Howard Austen wrote The Myra Breckinridge Cookbook which is where the cumin covered cock comes in. For those of you who have a slightly more than passing knowledge of Vidal, you will recognize Howard Austen was Vidal's companion for over 40 years.

The cookbook, as in the movie, features dishes from some of the old celluloid masterpieces. One chapter, however, features Myra's Favorites. Needless to say, the favorites are a minefield of double entendre and and not so "double" references. In addition to the Cumin Covered Cock (chicken I presume), there are dishes whose titles include kiss, faggot, trick, bun and hole. That Myra! Here is the rather tame...

Coconut Balls

Roll balls of chocolate ice cream in freshly grated coconut early in the day. Keep them in the freezer until serving.

I am not quite sure one does it "early in the day" perhaps it is because you shouldn't be rolling your balls right before dessert. Mae made me say it!!! Here's a little number from Myra Breckinridge, courtesy of Mae West.

Hard To Handle -- Mae West mp3

Always remember:

A Treasury of Great Recipes

Most people remember Vincent Price from his vocation as an actor. But, for some of us, he may be as well known for his avocation as a cook. With his wife, Mary, Price traveled the globe visiting the finest restaurants in the world. In 1965, they gathered recipes from many of their favorite restaurants as well as some favorite family recipes and created a notable cookbook.



A Treasury of Great Recipes by Mary and Vincent Price is a large, unmistakable tome in its padded leatherette cover. In addition to the recipes, there are menus and photographs from many of the restaurants. One of the Price’s favorite haunts in Chicago was The Pump Room, founded in 1938, it is still going strong. When the Price's ate there, The Pump Room featured a plaque and a dessert bearing the name of the fabulous Gertrude Lawrence. Lawrence was in Chicago doing a play in 1938 and she went to The Pump Room every night of the 90-day run, firmly establishing its caché.

One of my favorite blogs, Little Augury, recently posted about the divine Miss Lawrence. Since she has been swirling in the air, it is fitting and proper that we feature a dish that was named after her. Price says of the dessert,

“the sauce is very much in the tradition of The Pump Room’s cuisine – it is an interesting combination of flavors, and it flames, almost a prerequisite for appearing on their menu."

Gertrude Lawrence in Vanity Fair

Coupe Gertrude Lawrence

Vanilla ice cream
Orange
Jamaican Rum
Salt
Semisweet Chocolate
Brown sugar
Cream

CHOCOLATE SAUCE (Makes 1 Cup)

In a saucepan put: 4 squares semisweet chocolate, broken into small pieces, 1 cup brown sugar, 2/3 cup cream, and a pinch of salt. Stir over low heat until chocolate is melted and sauce thickens. (Extra sauce will keep in a jar in refrigerator for several weeks.)


PRESENTATION

Put: a scoop of vanilla ice cream into each of four bowls or coupe glasses. In a chafing dish put: 3 tablespoons grated orange rind. Stir in pan to heat, then add: 4 tablespoons Jamaican Rum and ignite. While flame is burning add 4 tablespoons of the chocolate sauce. Pour over ice cream and serve.

If you missed Gertrude Lawrence's 1938 performance on the stage, don't despair. Here is a little snippet of what she sounded like.

Someone To Watch Over Me -- Gertrude Lawrence.

Vincent Price was also an innovator by recording a “cookbook” Here is one of his recipes.

Viennese Stuffed Eggs -- Vincent Price


As unusual, our Friday post is stolen from Lucindaville's Famous Food Friday.

Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s

Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s is not really so much a cookbook as a history. A history of a dinner whose conversation changed the course of American history; actually the dinner probably preserved American history.

The subtitle of the book is Three Men, Five Great Wines, and the Evening that Changed America.


The three men in question were:

Thomas Jefferson

James Madison

&

Alexander Hamilton

The five wines were:

A Hermitage, a white wine made in the hills near the village of Tains

A 1786 Bordeaux from the canton of Grave[sic], another white

A Montepulciano from Tuscany

A Chambertin, an exorbitant red

A Champagne, a rare champagne non-mousseux, Jefferson believe the real connoisseurs disdain bubbles, preferring the simple grape to shine without the pretension of effervescence.


The Evening was a dinner party hosted by Jefferson. The purpose of the dinner was to heal a rift in the between Secretary of State Jefferson and Treasury Secretary Hamilton that threatened to destroy the foundation of United States Constitution. Madison was seen as the father of the Constitution and sided with Jefferson who wanted the 13 original colonies to retain much of their powers. Hamilton wanted power concentrated in a Federal entity. The fear was Hamilton was moving the republic toward a monarchy.

I won’t spoil the ending, but, needless to say, dinner was a success.

While Jefferson did not introduce ice cream to America, he was a huge supporter of the cold confection. He often served ice cream in a baked pastry shell, making it appear as though the ice cream was baked into the pastry. Today’s cook probably finds it easier to turn out ice cream than in Jefferson’s day, of course, Jefferson had servants to make the ice cream so it was very easy for him.

Jefferson’s Vanilla Ice Cream

2 quarts heavy cream
1 vanilla bean
6 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar

1. Bring the cream and vanilla bean to a simmer in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until smooth and whisk in the sugar. The mixture will be quite thick.
2. Slowly beat about 1 cup of the hot cream into the egg yolks and gradually stir this egg mixture into the hot cream. Cook, stirring constantly, until lightly thickened, enough to coast the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Strain the custard through a double layer of cheesecloth or a fine strainer, and remover the vanilla bean. Stir until slightly cooked. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1 hour or overnight.
3. Freeze the custard in an ice-cream machine according to the manufacture’s directions until set but still a little soft. Scoop the ice cream, into a three-quart mold, or several smaller molds, running a spatula through the ice cream and tapping the mold firmly to remove any air bubbles. Fill the molds completely. Cover and freeze.
4. To serve the molded ice cream, dip the mold briefly in hot water, or wrap briefly in a towel that has been heated in a clothes dryer. Run a knife around the top edge to separate the ice cream slightly from the mold. Invert the mold over a serving dish and gently lift it from the ice cream.

The next time you entertain the notion of having a dinner party, but think it might be too much trouble, remember Thomas Jefferson. You can just run out to the store for the ice cream. And when you whip up dinner for three, you will never have to worry that one of your guest might want to subvert the constitution and become King.

Annie Bell's Vegetable Book

Annie Bell is one of my favorite cooks. She wrote Living and Eating with architect John Pawson.


Annie Bell's Vegetable Book is one of her harder books to find. It is the kind of book that makes even the most ardent carnivore (like me) want to run out and be a big old vegetarian.

Here is a recipe that Bell got from Sirio Maccioni of Le Cirque. Ironically, she says this is recipe she would not have tried on her own.

Since it is summer, and I love ice cream, I thought you would enjoy this recipe. I am all for making interesting types of ice cream. While I do love chocolate and vanilla, there are just too many possibilities out there. Try our Pimm’s Cup Ice Cream on the Lucindaville Blog. And then try this. Make some Sweet Cornbread Madelines with Thyme to serve as a side.

This ice cream is not made with a custard, so remember to eat it right away – like that would be a problem.

Corn and Vanilla Ice-cream

10 oz raw corn kernels 91 1/2 –2 cobs)
8 fl oz milk
4 1/2 oz caster sugar
12 fl oz double cream
seeds of 1 vanilla pod
2 medium eggs, whisked
1 tablespoon Cointreau

The corn kernels should be freshly stripped from the cob, by holding the cob upright on the chopping board ans cutting down with a large, sharp knife. Place these in a small saucepan with the milk and sugar, bring to the boil, cover and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes. Puree and pass through a sieve into a bowl.
Whisk the corn puree with the cream, vanilla seeds, eggs, and Cointreau and pass through a sieve. Freeze in your ice-cream maker according to the manufacture’s instructions. Remove to a bowl, cover and freeze.

Nothing says summer like ice cream and sweet corn. Mix them together and it's summer heaven.

“Queen” Cookery Books – Ices

The Queen (the magazine and not Victoria) published a series of 13 small cookbooks covering a range of topics. I have No. 2 in the series, Ices. It is my goal, to eventually own the complete set but for now, Ices will have to do. The recipes were compiled by S. Beaty-Pownall, the “Housewife and Cuisine” editor of The Queen. So few magazines, today, have a position for a “Housewife and Cuisine” editor.

In the introduction, from 1902, S. Beaty-Pownall reminds the reader that,

“Not so many years ago an ice pudding was looked upon as a triumph of culinary art, that even the average good professed cook would as soon have thought of trying to make, as of trying to fly.”

A hundred years later one can fly and eat ice cream at the same time. I adore making ice cream. I own many a cookbook filled with ice cream recipes and I am always experimenting –Berry Balsamic, Honey Squash, Pimm’s Cup, Absinthe, and Red Velvet are just a few of my concoctions. In searching through Ices, I ran across a term of which I was unfamiliar, spongada. According to my little ice book a spongada is:

“…another form of ice, somewhat of the nature of a parfait, but not frozen so hard, and seldom, if ever, moulded nowadays…. The distinctive mark of this kind of ice is its frothy lightness”

The word is derived from the Italian, spumante, meaning sparkling, effervescent. I immediately began looking for references. Elizabeth David’s Harvest of the Cold Months was my first stop. David references a confection called a spongati. The first mention in English was from a pamphlet by William Fuller, the inventor of a freezing tub for ices. David describes it thusly:

“A simple chocolate water-ice, for example, could be changed into a chocolate spongati by the addition of meringue.”

I have a reprint of Mrs. A. B. Marshall’s book on ices and her “large” cookbook and nowhere is a spongada listed.

Want to be the first kid on the block to resurrect the spongada? Here’s what you need.

Coffee Spongada

Have ready a half a pint of black Mocha coffee, in which you have dissolved 4 oz. to 8 oz. of sugar (this is a matter of taste), and when cold stir it into a gill of unwhipped egg whites and a quart of stiffly whipped cream, run it through a sieve into the freezer, and proceed as directed above adding just before serving a little more sugar syrup and a glassful of cognac, and finish it off.

The “above” direction seems to refer to the actual operation of the ice cream freezer. And if you are not up on your quaint English measurements a gill is about 4 ounces or a 1/2 cup.

Alas, The Queen (the magazine, not Elizabeth II) no longer exists. In 1958 it became simply, Queen no "The" needed. Ten years later it was sold to Harper's Bazaar and rechristened Harper's & Queen and finally the Queen was abandoned. During the period when it was simply, Queen and long after the “Housewife and Cuisine” editor were gone, Clement Freud summed up the kind of woman that read Queen. He said the reader..." had long hair, was named Caroline, had left school at age 16, was not an intellectual, but she was the sort of person that one ended up in bed with."

Ah, but did she make ice cream?

Totally Garlic Cookbook

Celestial Arts in Berkley did a series of small cookbooks. The gimmick --the cookbooks were cut in the shape of the main ingredient. The Totally Garlic Cookbook looks like a big head of garlic.

I was skeptical about such a cookbook. It’s clever, but there are no pictures of the food and in such a small format, how good can the recipes be? Well, pretty good, yet pretty basic. Still, they are great little books to tuck in a gift box. Add The Totally Garlic Cookbook, a bottle of olive oil, several bunches of garlic and a nice sea salt and you have a smashing hostess gift.


Here’s a recipe wroth the cost of the book.

Lemon-Garlic Sorbet.

I cup sugar
1 head roasted garlic, peeled
Skin one small lemon
Dash of salt
3 cups water
2/3 cup lemon juice

In a food processor, combine sugar, roasted garlic, lemon skin, and salt. Process until skin is finely chopped. Transfer to a saucepan and add water. Heat just until sugar dissolves. Cool, then add lemon juice. Cover and chill. Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. Store, tightly covered, in freezer.

The roasted garlic adds a sweet complexity to the tart lemons. Be brave, give it a try. I wouldn't lie to you.