Dark Side of the Fridge

As American as Apple Pie. Or Baseball. July 22, 2010

Do you realize that July is officially National Ice Cream Month?

Yup.  Back in 1984, President Ronald Reagan recognized that 90% of Americans enjoyed ice cream, so he said “make it so,” and it was.  He also declared that the month, as well as National Ice Cream Day (third Sunday in July) should be observed with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.”

Now THAT is an executive order I can get behind.

Heh.

You know, whatever you may or may not think about old Ronnie, you’ve got to admit, he had a somewhat puckish sense of humor, didn’t he?  Appropriate ceremonies and activities, indeed.

In addition to ice cream season, summer is the time to fill up on all the beautiful fresh produce – the fruits and vegetables that just aren’t as good out of season – the fresh peas, delightfully sweet strawberries, sun-ripened tomatoes.

And figs.  Fresh figs aren’t something we see too often around here – unless you happen to know someone with a fig tree.  So it only made sense to (carefully!) grab those delicate little fruits when I saw them at the public market, didn’t it?

I suspect that it’s human nature – please tell me it’s not just me!  When something starts coming into season, I get all excited about it and come very close to “going overboard” (A whole case of figs?  Really?),  but by the time I’m almost thoroughly sick of it, well, it’s time to bid it adieu and move on to the next new and exciting thing!

The biggest problem I have with those sort of off-beat things like fresh figs is . . .what to do?  I mean, take into account the fact that there isn’t a real glut of fresh-fig recipes out there.  Add to it the notion that Peeps is not a huge fan of fruit in general.  Then there’s the added pressure of that ticking clock – figs give new meaning to the word “perishable.”

And then I found the answer – fig ice cream!  This recipe is from the world’s ice cream guru, David Lebovitz.

You remember him, right?  His pork mole was Out Of This World!

So.  Onward and upward.

This was, as ice creams go, actually pretty simple.

(Read:  no custard.)

I used my entire case of figs, chopping each individual fruit into eighths, tossing them into a medium stainless saucepan (with a lid) as I went along.

I added to that 1 tablespoon of water (the recipe actually said 1/2 cup, but I, um, misread it, I guess. ) and the zest of one lemon.

Cover and cook gently until the figs are softened – maybe 10 minutes over medium to medium-low heat.

They’re ripe figs – this won’t take long!

Remove the lid (which, obviously, you’ve already done if you’re going to check and see how tender the figs are!), then add about 3/4 cup of sugar – you don’t need much, because figs are SWEET!   (Or at least they’re supposed to be, anyway.)

Next time, I’d also add just a pinch of salt at this point – salt has a way of kind of punching up the flavors a little – not too much, just a pinch.

Now you’re just going to want to simmer (again, gently!) until the liquid reduces and the fruit has a “jam-like consistency.”

You know, when I think of jam, I think of the stuff you spread on your toast.

That’s not really what we’re looking for here.  (I hope.)  I went for something somewhere between a jam and a syrup.

This is going to take a while – after all, there’s nothing but a couple of ounces of sugar in there to thicken it!  Basically, though, your beautiful figs are going to turn to mush, and eventually (maybe 20 minutes?  half an hour?) the liquid will be reduced enough to be able to say “yeah, that could pass for ‘jam-like.’ “

I’m not the most precise of people, am I?  This is why I passed on the chemistry in college and went with geology.  I like approximations.

Now we get to the “cream” part of the ice cream.

We got so hung up on the “jam” that I almost for got the cream!  Perish the thought!

We simply need 1 cup of heavy cream (which happens to come in the handy-dandy little “half pint” size – no need to keep any extra around!) and the juice from that naked lemon that we zested earlier.

Now here’s the thing with cream – there are evidently different “sorts” of cream available in most supermarkets.  There’s “heavy cream” (which we want) and “whipping cream” (which has “stuff” added to it to “enhance” whipping).

What our supermarket had was “heavy whipping cream.”

Sigh.

So just look at your ingredient label – there should be a grand total of ONE ingredient – cream.

OK, I’m gonna admit here – I doubt it would be the end of the world if you ended up with “whipping” cream or even “ultra-pasteurized” cream.  But really, why?

So.  Where was I?

Let your fig jam cool a bit, then dump in the cream, and squeeze in a bit of lemon juice – 1/2 teaspoon, more or less (depending, I assume, on how sweet your figs are), and blend them all together.

You DO have a stick blender now, don’t you?

And there you have it.  Well, almost.  Blend the fig stuff and the cream together well, and let the mixture cool (I left it in the fridge until the next evening).  After that, it’s just your basic ice cream – dump it in the ice cream freezer of your choice, and follow the directions.

This makes just under 1 quart of ice cream – and it’s much better once it’s had a chance to freeze solid.  That’s not to say you can’t taste it – by all means, please do – it’s absolutely wonderful!  I’m just saying – it’ll be EVEN BETTER the next day, that’s all!

So much better, in fact, that I keep forgetting to get a picture of it, but, honestly, it looks just like it did before it was churned, only colder.

Now I would say this is an “appropriate ceremony or activity” to celebrate National Ice Cream Month, wouldn’t you?

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