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April 17, 2005

early summery



Cherry blossoms are now gone - in Tokyo or in Kyoto - and we are blessed with lovely weather, a little warmer than normal it is like in May. A perfect weather to make ice-cream for those of us non-regular-ice-cream-makers.

I found the recipe of Elderflower Ice-Cream in Martha Stewart Living Annual Recipes 2002 (Oxmoor House, 2001) several months back when I was still in Hawaii and didn't know where to get elderflower cordial that is required in the recipe. I knew and long loved elderflower cordial in Japan though, so I clipped the recipe and waited till I am back in Japan. Now I was and got a pretty bottle of cordial without problem, so I went. (In the book, this ice-cream was meant to accompany berry tart - but who cares? I don't.)


To me, elderflower is very English - so far, every elderflower product I have ever seen was either found in, or from the UK. I haven't even seen fresh flowers - I would really love to one day, but for now I have some resources to get a bottle of this sweet and soothing beverage.

The recipe of elderflower ice-cream was fairly plain, with common ice-cream ingredients plus cordial. The thing was, I don't own an ice-cream maker at home - nor any room to accommodate one. But you have to live with what you have and what you don't, right?

I whipped up the ice-cream mixture and put it in the freezer to freeze, during which I manually churned it a couple of time, trying to smoothen the cream. The result, unfortunately, was't as smooth as I had wished it to be, with some bits of unwanted crystals mixed into the cream.


It was okay though, my ice-cream was definitely charmed with the sweet aroma and light flavor of elderflower cordial, no matter how it was innocently-looking as if it had been ordinary vanilla ice cream. A little plain it might have tasted, but along with a strawberry or two for a bit of tartness, the ice-cream made a dessert lovely as the early summery day like this.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

strawberries are so beautiful! 

Posted by Cat

Anonymous said...

I live in Denmark, and I'll take pictures of the elderflowers for you if you want - they blossom in June, I think!  

Posted by Anja

Anonymous said...

Your ice-cream looks simply gorgeous,I really do think the strawberry adds a whole new dimension to the look :) I totally love ice-cream, esp. green tea ones, yum! 

Posted by Chris

Anonymous said...

just wana say hi, and beautiful photos you have! I hope I can visit Japan some day... :) 

Posted by Penny

Anonymous said...

nice cup too. I saw that at Illums in Ikebukuro. 

Posted by tokyogoat

Anonymous said...

she who eats.

my ice cream maker is my most indispensible small kitchen appliance. i can't live without ice cream. your scoop looks amazingly good despite your technique - good to know that i can make ice cream sans my machine churner.

u.e. 

Posted by ulteriorepicure

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

Cat - strawberries are so cute, aren't they :)

Anja - I'd most definitely love to see a picture if possible, thanks!

Chris - you should come to Japan with your friend, green tea ice-cream over here is simply gorgeous.

Penny - thanks a lot, I hope you'll make it happen some day!

tokyogoat - yep that's where I got mine :)

u.e. - it is undoubtedly better with an ice cream maker... 

Posted by chika

SinoSoul said...

hmm.. elderflower ice cream just doesn't sound complete. still thinking about what to mix with it...