chai ice cream

The process used to make this ice cream is similar to that of arabic coffee ice cream. In both cases, the concept is to infuse milk with spices and turning the milk into ice cream. You begin by infusing milk with spices by heating them together over the stove, and finish by cooling the milk and then freezing it in your ice cream maker. If you don't have all the spices, feel free to leave a few out. It will still taste good.

sesame ice cream

I first had sesame ice cream at Matsuri in Paris, a magical dream-come-true restaurant where sushi revolves around a conveyer belt before your very eyes. When I started searching for recipes, I mostly came across French- or custard-style approaches, which involve slowly heating raw eggs in order to create a thick custard base. I tried a few of these recipes with disastrous results. The eggs cooked too fast and I just couldn't get the consistency right. The actual frozen end product actually tasted good once you got over the frozen-then-blended omelette texture, but I prefer this simple Philadelphia-style no-egg recipe that I came up with.

Ingredients

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup cream

1 cup whole milk

Directions

Toast the sesame seeds in a fry pan. Make sure you don't burn them - when they start to smell aromatic you know they are ready.

Blend the toasted sesame seeds with the sugar, cream, and milk until smooth. Refrigerate for an hour and then freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions. Sprinkle with sesame seeds when serving.