Short on time....

Sigh..... Have been so busy with cake work lately that I have hardly had time to experiment with new ice cream flavours in the kitchen.

Tomorrow though, I shall have some leisure time to play about with – and I intend to try making Butter Pecan ice-cream. My dear friend Elaine LOVES anything with pecans in it. So this quest to make the perfect Butter Pecan ice cream shall be in honor of her. Wish me luck!

Ah! My mother liked the Ginger Ice cream so much that she made me make her 50 individual servings of the said flavour, for her to serve her friends at a luncheon.

Mom asked me to make her 200 servings of Ginger ice cream for a charity fair next month..... My answer to her was simply.... "you can borrow my ice cream maker and get your 'gang' to help you make the it'.

It's no fun when the ice cream machine's capacity is only 1.5 liters per go. One thing I have learned is that.... making ice cream for fun, is well.... really fun. But if you have to make a lot of it at one time because you HAVE to.... then it really becomes a pain in the butt.

Lemongrass & Ginger ice cream recipe

PREPARING THE LEMONGRASS

Lemon Grass stalks

6, clean and crush the ends with the back of a knife handle

Water

8 cups

Sugar

3 cups

Pour water into a small pot and bring to a boil. Throw in lemongrass.

Turn heat to medium-low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes.

Add in sugar and gently boil, stirring constantly, until sugar has completely dissolved.

Set aside and allow to cool.

PREPARING THE GINGER JUICE

Fresh Old Ginger

Enough to get 1 full cup of ginger juice (add another 1/4 cup if you want it to have more kick)

Peel away skin. Cut into smaller pieces and thrown into a blender & whizz until it becomes a pulp.

Extract ginger juice.

MAKING THE ICE CREAM

Fresh milk 200 ml Whipping cream 350 mls

Lemongrass sugar syrup1 cup

Ginger Juice 1 cup Crystalized ginger candy 15 pcs, sliced thinly

Remove lemongrass from the sugar mixture. Pour all ingredients (except the crystalized ginger candy) into ice cream maker bucket. Mix Well.Taste the mixture. Add more sugar syrup accordingly. If mixture is too thick, add in more milk to thin it out a bit.

Remember that it should taste slightly sweeter than what you think is ‘just right’.Or else once it is frozen, it will taste bland. Follow though with your ice cream makers instructions.

Spoon into individual serving containers & sprinkle 1 tsp of sliced ginger candy into each serving. Give it quick stir with a chopstick to evenly distribute the ginger candy. Chill at least 2 hours before serving.

You should temper the ice cream by allowing it to stand for 5 t0 10 minutes before eating. This will allow the full flavour our the ice cream to come through.

Makes 1.5 litres of ice cream.

Meet my Maker....

... My ice cream maker.

It's been almost 3 weeks and my obsession with making ice cream still hasn't dissipated.

Good.... This means....Money not wasted! : P

Soooo many people have been asking me what the machine looks like, how it works, etc. Well, taaaa-daaaaa!!!!! Here it is:

The Cuisineart Supreme Commercial Quality Ice Cream Maker.

This stainless steel box has a built-in compressor freezer. This does away with the pre-chilled/pre-frozen bowls of the smaller Ice cream making machines. It has a fully automatic 60 minute timer. And comes with a 1-5 liter capacity metal bucket.

It retails at RM2,399.00 at ESH outlets. You can buy extra metal buckets at RM80.00 each (ideally, you should have at least 2. Am thinking of getting a 3rd one soon)

I initially wanted to buy and try out a smaller, less-expensive machine (Kenwood brand). ESH sells them at RM299.00). But in the end, I figured that since my family are such serious ice-cream die-hards, it would make good sense to get the better quality, less-hassle-giving, machine – even if it did cost quite a bit more... (errrrmmmmm....okay. A LOT a bit more... )

And, I reasoned that since it comes from Cuisinart, I couldn't go wrong. By the way.... it also comes with a 5 year warranty on machine parts. : )

I have absolutely no regrets with my decision I use the ice cream maker at least 3 times weekly. And it consistently turns out fabulous, perfectly churned, ice cream! I don't know who loves it more. The kids or me.... ; ')

There are however, 3 things about it that can be better.

Here's the Wish-List (Are you paying attention? You people at Cuisinart Inc!...):

The plastic cover that goes over the ice cream bucket's slip-on lock-on is really very flimsy.

The first thing my husband said when he saw me try to fit it onto the churning arm was, "...that thing is going to break in no time flat!". And darn'it! He was right! ^%^$%#@$#%^

One of the lock-on edges chipped off on day 2! I was sooooooooooo disappointed. But happily, when I called ESH, they got in touch with the Cuisineart rep, who said that they would replace it for me. Apparently, there is a 'proper way' to attach the cover onto the churning arm. But the way I see it, it's just boils down to poor design and also the usage of the wrong material for the cover.

The noise-level of the running motor is too loud. But if 50 to 60 minutes of constant whrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-ing sounds don't bother you, then it's no big deal.

The bottom of the machine has 6 stands. The bottom surface of each stand has a fit-on rubber cover (there are a total of 6 stands). The rubber comes off really easily and they can actually crack. I found a cracked loose piece on my kitchen table top a week after I had bought the machine. Imagine my shock when I looked under the machine and discovered that ALL of the rubber fit-ons were missing, except for one! They couldn't have fallen off at my house... because I never found any of them (except for that one cracked piece). So it must have already been this way when I first took it out of the box.

Luckily, the unit doesn't move at all when it's at work (because it is so heavy). So I didn't call up to make a big fuss.But the lesson here is.... before you take your purchase home, flip it over and check that ALL the leg stands have their Rubber fit-ons.

The bottom line is that I really do like the machine very much – even if there are a few design flaws.

The Cuisinart showroom in in SS2 in PJ. With the purchase of the ice cream maker, you are entitled to a demo class (you can invite your friends go come along). Am planning to attend a demo and learn a few new tricks and recipes, sometime in the middle of July. If any of you want to come along, gimme a call and let me know, k? :D

Okay. have to go now..... I want to experiment on concocting something interesting.... Ginger and Lemongrass Ice cream!