Even if time has become a valued commodity lately, I still like to cook, and to occasionally try out new things. On this long weekend, I ventured to explore a heavenly taste combination: Basil and Strawberries. I remembered this combination from idly thumbing through Culinary Artistry, an extraordinary and inspiring book by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page. Follow me below the fold for the recipe!
Basil Ice Cream
~40g fresh basil leaves
6 egg yolks
500ml regular milk
100ml cream (Vollrahm – wenn schon, denn schon)
120g white sugar
1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
Pick leaves from basil, wash and dry carefully. Chop coarsely, and reserve 1/4th of the chopped basil. Bring milk and cream to a boil. While cooling down, add 3/4 of the chopped basil to milk, let infuse.After 5-10 minutes, pass through sieve to remove basil.
In a pot, beat egg yolks and sugar until white and foamy. Slowly add handwarm milk to mix. Heat mixture up while stirring until it reaches 85°C and coagulates. Keep stirring for 5 more minutes. Cool down in bain marie with ice water. Add reserved chopped basil and a pinch or two of black pepper and keep in fridge over night.
The following day, spread in large plastic freezing dish. Mix thoroughly every hour while freezing. Alternatively, use ice cream maker and save yourself all the trouble 
Meringue
Since the ice cream leaves us with plenty of egg whites, here’s a quick way to do something nice with them:
6 egg whites (clean, no egg yolk contamination)
375g white sugar
2.5 tsp vanilla extract
Beat egg whites several minutes until very stiff, gradually adding half of the sugar. Using a spatula, carefully add the rest of the sugar, as well as the vanilla extract. The consistency should be “blancs d’oeuf au bec d’oiseau”, that is, the egg white should form a little beak-shaped droplet if you put your finger into it.
Put baking paper onto two baking trays and use an icing bag (or an improvised one) to make 8cm long meringues. I could make about 50 of them with the above quantities. Cook for 50′ at 120°C in the oven. Let cool down gently by switching off oven and keeping door slightly open over night.
Plating suggestions:
Quarter two ripe strawberries and place. Decorate with balsamic reduction (goes well with Basil, goes well with Strawberries), a single scoop of the ice cream and a meringue. For good looks, I browned the meringue for 1 second with a blowtorch.
Bon appétit!
… can highly recommend to taste Poedis ice-cream. Beeing ready for a new experience I could hardly believe it only consisted of basil, eggs, milk, cream and sugar.
Left by Konsti on May 10th, 2009