Tomato Ice Cream

I've been talking about making a tomato ice cream all summer. Reactions are split down the middle. Half of my friends and colleagues think that it would be a delightfully refreshing summer treat (their exact words). The other half look puzzled and say "that's weird." If "weird" is the most negative comment I can get, then why not try it? And, seriously, it's a lot less weird than some of the ice cream flavors that I've been reading about this summer. Government cheese ice cream? Um, no thank you.

After deciding that I was definitely going to make this ice cream, I did some research. My go to is The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz. No tomato ice cream recipe!?! Unthinkable. I had to go online. One word sums up my search: gross. I was on my own. So, here's what I came up with:

2 lbs beefsteak tomatoes

1 cup whole milk

1/3 cup sugar

1 pinch of kosher salt

Peel and chop the tomatoes. Add all of the ingredients to a blender. Whiz! Strain the mixture into a bowl:

Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Simple. But when you don't know what you're doing, simple is usually best. My reaction: "what a delightfully refreshing summer treat!" The spouse's reaction: "that's weird." You can't win them all. But, I do plan to eat a scoop with a little cheesecake.

Blueberries

I love blueberries. They're small. Perfect for snacking. They're sweet-tart. Who doesn't love a little zing in their sugar? They're dusty-colored. That's deliciously weird. They're grown in Jersey. I grew up there! They stain my countertop. Okay, I don't love that part, but as you can see, blueberries are near-perfect. What then could I do to make blueberries even more wonderful? Put it in ice-cream, mix it with vodka, bake it into a faux-healthy muffin, and eat it with chocolate.

Blueberry Ice Cream

1 pint blueberries

1/2 cup sugar, divided

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

dash of kosher salt

4 egg yolks

1/4 tsp vanilla

In a saucepan, combine cream, milk, and salt over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar with a whisk. Once the cream mixture has reached a simmer, add one ladle of it to the yolk mixture. Whisk well. Pour the yolk mixture into the cream mixture and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the custard can coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and cool for about five minutes. Stir in the vanilla.

Strain the custard through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least three hours.

While the custard chills, mash blueberries and 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl. Cover and set aside in the refrigerator. Once the custard has chilled, add blueberry mixture. Then, pour the custard into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

This recipe made about 1.5 quarts of ice cream. It was fairly good right out of the ice cream maker, but the next day I had ice cream with chunks of blue ice. Should I have simply let the ice cream sit out longer before serving it or is this some other kind of problem? Ideas? Also, I think that the ice cream could have benefited from a little alcohol. Maybe creme de cassis?

Spiked Blueberry Lemonade

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup water

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

vodka

(agave nectar)

Combine blueberries, sugar, and water over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves, blueberries burst, and a syrup forms. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

(You will have a lot of syrup. Think pancakes. Think of drizzling it on cut fruit. Think of eating it by the spoonful. But don't make your syrup too thick because that's gross.)

For one drink, combine the lemon juice, syrup and vodka in a shaker with ice.

How much syrup? How much vodka? Whatever you want. Because I have only one measuring cup, I used an old shot glass from college to do all post-lemon juice measuring. I liked 2 shots of syrup and one shot of vodka. My husband thought it was a little tart, so we added some agave nectar until my non-blueberry loving spouse was satisfied.

Later this week . . . Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins and Savory Blueberry Chocolate Sauce!