One recent late summer evening, I felt inspired to combine my favorite of all abundant garden ingredients to make an ice cream. One of my most beloved soups is Tom Ka. I absolutely love the combination of these rich flavors together. I am happy to report my experiment worked and this ice cream turned out absolutely delicious! I served it at a dinner party atop peach cobbler and it was an incredible pairing. You will need an ice cream maker, a heavy bottomed pot, a double boiler set up, a fine mesh strainer, a whisk and a couple of mixing bowls to make this dessert.
Ingredients:
Milk Options: I have listed a dairy and non-dairy option below. Both make delicious Tom Ka Ice Cream.
- 4 cups whole, organic heavy cream (ideally raw or grass-fed milk) OR 3 cans organic Coconut milk (I like Native Forest)
- 8 egg yolks (ideally pasture raised, organic)
- 1 cup sugar of choice (organic cane sugar, organic brown sugar, maple sugar, maple syrup, honey or xylitol)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3-4 stalks fresh Lemongrass
- 4-6 Kaffir Lime leave, or lime or lemon leaves of any kind if Kaffir lime is not available
- 1/2 cup fresh Thai Basil
- Garnish: 1 cup toasted peanuts (optional)
Instructions for the herbs:
Lemongrass – place lemongrass stalks on a cutting board and mash with a rolling pin or the bottom of a glass jar several times to help open up the flavor. Discard the top part of the green leaves or use in tea. You want the stalks.
Thai Basil – take leaves off the stems.
Lime Leaves – if you are lucky enough to be able to find Kaffir Lime leaves, you are very blessed as these particular leaves have the most unique and heavenly flavor. All you need to do is tear them up a little bit to help open up the flavor on the leaves.
- On very low heat, slowly heat the milk in a heavy bottomed pot stirring every few minutes making sure not to scorch the milk or heat it too quickly.
- Add the herbs.
- Allow the milk to come to a simmer and turn off. Allow the herbs to steep for 1 hour with the lid on.
- Meanwhile, separate 8 eggs and place the yolks only in a mixing bowl.
- Add sugar, vanilla and salt to egg yolks and whisk together.
- If you have time on your hands, you can let the milk with the herbs cool and transfer to steep in the fridge overnight. If you want to speed up the process, create an ice bath and cool the milk mixture down faster.
- After you have steeped the milk (either for 1 hour or overnight), strain the milk through a fine mesh strainer into a mixing bowl or large glass measuring cup.
- Get a double boiler set up going. Pour the strained milk mixture into the double boiler. Slowly heat up and turn off just before simmering.
- Stir the egg mixture into the milk until the egg mix is dissolved and well combined making a Creme Anglaise.
- Allow milk egg mixture to cool. You can use an ice bath to speed this process up if preferred.
- Place mixture into ice cream maker and churn until you have ice cream!
- Serve with toasted peanuts.
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