Ginger Ice Cream

I made this at Thanksgiving to serve with pumpkin pie.  I could see it as going with apple pie or some sort of chocolate as well.  Heck, it's delicious all on its own.

Turned out really, really well.



Ginger Ice Cream (From Gourmet Magazine)

4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup grated fresh gingerroot
2 Tbs water
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup crystallized ginger

In a large bowl lightly whisk yolks. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook sugar, fresh gingerroot, and water over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add half-and-half and bring to a simmer. Add hot half-and-half mixture to yolks in a slow stream, whisking, and pour into pan. Cook custard over
moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until a thermometer registers 170°F.
(Do not let boil.)

Pour custard through a sieve into cleaned bowl and stir in cream and vanilla. Cool custard. Chill custard, its surface covered with plastic wrap, until cold, at least 3 hours, and up to 1 day.

Finely chop crystallized ginger. Freeze custard in an ice-cream maker, adding crystallized ginger three fourths of way through freezing process. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden. Ice cream may be made 1 week ahead.



CUSTOMIZATION:  

1) I added 1/4tsp of ground cardamom when I added the vanilla.

2) Reading the comments, there were several saying that there were too many mushy ginger pieces in it, so I strained out 2/3 of the ginger before freezing it.  While freezing, I buttered then toasted some pecan bits plus ground up a couple of tablespoons of crystalized ginger.  I then folded in the pecans and crystalized ginger dust before transfering to a container and placing in the freezer.



The texture of the ice cream was really good, and it was pretty darn tasty.

Late For What Are You Reading Wednesday

I suppose I'm late because I'm not really reading anything (which isn't to say that I'm literally not reading anything, just that I haven't been doing anything but amusing myself with audible books or the occasional 99c {or free} fluff novella.

What I Just Finished:
Jennifer Tobin's From Troy to Constantinople: The Cities and Societies of Ancient Turkey(available at Audible.com)

I enjoy history.   And when I find an era that intrigues me, I tend to read a lot around the subject.  (I did that with reading a lot about the Tudors once upon a time.)    From Troy to Constantinople came as a result of my having been intrigued by another lecture series on Troy.  Archeology and the Iliad: The Trojan War in Homer and History by Eric Cline (also available at Audible.com)   The Eric Cline lecture series is very, very interesting as it isn't just about the Iliad, but the characters (and they certainly were characters) who dug up Hisalik (aka "Troy")  in the 19th Century (Heinrich Schliemann would make a great anti-hero in a novel  {part con-man, part-adventure...pervasive liar}) up through the ongoing controversies around "Priam's Treasure" which got caught up in WWII looting and now has museums stretching from Russia, to Germany, to Turkey arguing that the display 'belongs' to them).

Another car in that reading train was Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans: Foundations of Western Civilization by Timothy Shutt

The thing that connected this for me and which interested me as I read was the realization during it that The Illiad and The Odyssey  are much more than odd artifacts that we're forced to read in Junior High Lit.    In their way, they are as important to the world as The Bible, and were in many ways invented in much the same time frame.

Whatever ones religious beliefs, it's somewhat difficult to miss the way that the collection of oral histories/stories/myths surrounding Bronze-age civilizations found in the Bible have influenced subsequent cultures (most definitely including our own).   I had not fully comprehended that the somewhat contemporaneous oral history/stories/mythology surrounding The Iliad has also had a incredibly huge impact.

It's easier to go without detecting its influence because it's not like we have mega-churches on television on Sunday morning preaching about the sacking of Troy.  It's mostly an odd artifact we suffer through reading in some Lit. Class that we largely forget.  But, the thing is, while we not remember its impact, when you really look at it, it's huge because the Ancient Romans believed in it.  It heavily influenced the development of Ancient Rome, who liked to cast themselves as the heirs of Troy (which is why Octavian/Augustus Caesar commisioned the writing of The Aeneid ('sequel' to the Iliad) in the first place.  Much of the Roman identity was predicated on being the successor of Troy (and the submission of Greece).  Basically, between Greek philosophy, the Roman adoption of being the heirs of Troy, and the Torah/Bible (and further, the Quran) you have oral history of early Bronze age civilations that have held great (and even current) sway over the history of the Western World.

Anyway, I rec all three lecture series for anyone who likes Ancient History.
Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans: Foundations of Western Civilization
Archeology and the Iliad: The Trojan War in Homer and History
From Troy to Constantinople: The Cities and Societies of Ancient Turkey


What Am I Reading Now?
I'm really not.  I mean, not really.  Sure the .99c and/or free from Unlimited fluff reads like the sweet/spicy Christmas Romance Novella By Samantha Holt but nothing of any particular size or interest.   (The Holt thing was pure Christmas fluff, but enjoyable.)