Eat With The Pandits

Coffee should have been a religion. I cannot think of another beverage that has this kind of global following. Now tea drinkers could argue that they too would like a Tealigion, but hey to each their own, right?

During our last trip to Turkey, we came across a nation of people whose obsession with coffee is at another level. And I am not talking about your regular Starbucks excuse for a coffee, but a drink, which is made passionately, and understood even better. Having coffee anywhere in Istanbul has been a wonderful experience.

One of the most famous coffee suppliers is Mehmet Efendi. With an outlet near the grand bazaar, they sell some of the best coffee, cocoa, and grinds I have ever come across. Once you navigate the serpentine queues and get to the window for the delivery, one is not sure, what should be left behind. Just to be sure, we picked up extra, of everything.

I have been experimenting with coffee ice cream for a while now. And the coffee you choose has a huge impact on the end result – consistency, color, flavour, and fragrance. I’ve tried whole beans for flavouring, and I have tried decoctions to get the right flavour profile. But something has always been amiss. I think, with this coffee, I have come as close to eating a coffee as possible.

I used the Turkish grind, from Efendi, and everything else, that I usually use. No change in the method. This is a custard based ice cream, and has egg. But you can replace the eggs with a slurry of corn flour.

Ingredients:

1. About 75 gms of finely ground coffee
2. 300 ml full fat milk
3. 400 ml heavy cream
4. 50 gms icing sugar
5. 5 large eggs
6. Lots of Ice

Method:

1. Make sure ingredients are at room temperature.
2. Heat the milk, cream and coffee powder together in a heavy bottom pan. This is your mix 1. Make sure this does not boil over. If it boils over at this stage, you could cool it down, and run the mixture in a blender, but this will eventually impact the end result, and the ice cream will be grainy. So DON’T let it boil over. Let it simmer, in about 7-8 minutes on a low flame, keep aside to cool.
3. In a separate bowl, whip the egg yolks and sugar nicely. This is your mix 2. Whip till the color becomes pale yellow, and the volume almost doubles.
4. Once Mix 1 is lukewarm, strain it into Mix 2, slowly, while continuing to whip the mix. The straining will ensure that the coffee grind is removed, somewhat.
5. When both the mixes have blended in properly, and this is your custard base, put it back in the heavy bottom panned, and cook on a medium flame, till the custard thickens.Stir constantly to prevent the custard from burning. It should have a nice velvety consistency.
6. After the custard is ready, cool it in an ice bath, to prevent further cooking. As soon as this mix is cooled to room temperature, strain once more and keep in the refrigerator to chill for about 6-8 hours.
7. Churn it in your ice cream maker as per instructions.

The final result would be a creamy coffee ice cream. This would be liking eating chilled cold coffee, with a bit of crunch from the ground coffee we had used earlier. Try it out, and let us know how you like it?

If you have any questions or queries please feel free to write to us at hello@eatwiththepandits.com
Tada!