Oomame Chile Crisp Ice Cream

Moroccan Oomame on Oatmeal with feta

One of my favorite products discovered at the 2021 Fancy Food Show was Oomame's line of globally-influenced chile crisps. Originally from China, chile crisp has become a popular condiment among chile-heads and others who enjoy a flavorful bit of spice plus crunchy texture. It's great on dumplings, but also pizza, pasta, and just about everything else. What I like about Oomame's product is that it comes in four varieties - a classic Sichuan style, plus others borrowing flavor profiles from Mexico, Morocco, and India. While I still like to use the Sichuan version on typically savory dishes, I have found that the dried fruits in the other varieties (fig in Moroccan, papaya in Indian, mango in Mexican) add a subtle sweetness that makes them also work well with foods that are traditionally sweeter. Try a drizzle of Moroccan Oomame with a sprinkle of feta cheese on your next bowl of oatmeal--rather than the usual brown sugar or maple syrup and fruit--for something totally unexpected and totally delicious. But let's push that proverbial envelope a bit, shall we?

Some ice cream shops in Sichuan province have taken to drizzling chile oil on vanilla soft serve. And while a chile crisp sundae seems like a fine idea, I took it even further by putting chile crisp in ice cream. Yes, I did! The Mexican-inspired version of Oomame Global Chile Crisp, in particular, seemed ripe for taking a savory condiment fully into dessert territory. But rather than using vanilla in my frozen confection, I borrowed some elements from the chile crisp itself to flavor the creamy base. I started with Jeni's ice cream recipe, which uses corn starch and cream cheese in place of eggs as a thickener, and infused it with mango and orange peel, adding peanuts as a substitute for the pepitas in the Mexican Oomame. (While they're great for crunch, I didn't think they'd add all that much flavor.) 

The result exceeded my wildest expectations. Mr Minx wasn't all that thrilled with the flavor of dried onion in his ice cream but it didn't bother me. Nor did the occasional hit of cumin. The predominant flavor was orange peel, even more so than chile, which I thought was enough to keep my creation well within the realm of dessert. If you're an adventurous eater, give it a try. 

I have no regrets.

Oomame Chile Crisp Ice Cream

1 clementine or half a small orange

2 cups milk

1 1⁄4 cups heavy cream

1 ounce dried mango strips

Small handful of roasted unsalted peanuts

4 t cornstarch

2⁄3 cup sugar

2 T light corn syrup

1⁄4 t kosher salt

3 T cream cheese, softened

2 T Oomame Mexican Chile Crisp

Additional roasted unsalted peanuts

Chocolate chips (optional - I used a Seattle Chocolates Mexican Chocolate bar, cut into slivers)

Peel the clementine or orange in large strips, saving the fruit segments for another use. Carefully scrape the white pith from the inside of the peel with a small knife. 

Reserve 1/4 cup of milk and put the remaining 1 3/4 cups plus the cream into a 4-quart saucepan. Add the mango, peanuts, and clementine or orange peel. Over medium-high heat, bring the milk to almost a boil. Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and allow the flavorings to steep for about 20 minutes. 

Stir the cornstarch into the reserved 1/4 cup of milk and set aside. 

Strain the steeped milk into another 4-quart saucepan, reserving the fruit and nuts. Add the sugar, corn syrup, and salt to the pan and bring the milk to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook for 4 minutes, then stir in the slurry. Bring back to a boil and cook until thickened, 2 minutes.

Put the cream cheese in a large bowl and pour in 1/4 of the hot milk, whisking until smooth. Carefully whisk in the rest of the hot milk. Stir in the chile crisp. Pour the milk into a storage container. Add a layer of ice cubes to the bottom of a baking pan large enough to fit the storage container and put the container on top of the ice in order to cool the milk mixture down quickly. After about 15 minutes, put the container in the fridge to chill completely, 4 hours or overnight.

Cut the steeped mango and orange peel into small pieces and reserve along with the peanuts.

Put the chilled ice cream base into the bowl of an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's directions. After the ice cream has started to thicken and is almost done, add the mango, orange, peanuts, and chocolate, if using. Scoop ice cream into a freezer-safe storage container (I just used the same one I used for the hot milk) and smooth with the back of a spoon. Cover and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

Serve with additional chile crisp, or over your favorite brownies. Or eat straight out of the container.

* Any products in this post that are mentioned by name may have been provided to Minxeats by the manufacturer. However, all opinions belong to Minxeats. Amazon links earn me $! Please buy!

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

Back in the day, we had an ice cream maker, one of those Donvier things, and once in a while I'd whip up some simple, no-cook, dull flavor of ice cream. But turning the crank was a bore, and we had to wait to eat the stuff because it was always too soft to consume immediately. Now we have a fancier electric Cuisinart ice cream maker that requires no effort on my part except to plug it in and push a button, so I want to make ice cream all the time. And I find myself creating more interesting and intricate flavors to go with the less-basic equipment.

I get a regular email from an outfit called Book Bub that offers cheap e-books. Really cheap, like $1.99. Recently, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home was on offer, and I couldn't pass up adding it to my growing library of ice cream cookbooks. Jeni's is a pricey super-duper-premium brand one can find in specialty supermarkets; it owes its creamy texture not to the usual eggs, but to a cornstarch and cream cheese combo. I flipped through and decided that I didn't want to use any of the flavors presented therein (at least not right now), but would make one of my own, using Jeni's technique: key lime pie.

Key lime pie is crazy simple. Basically, it's sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, and eggs in a crust. Seemed like an ice cream would be equally easy. I borrowed the base from Jeni's lemon ice cream and substituted sweetened condensed milk for half the regular milk and lime for lemon. I also toasted some graham cracker crumbs (crushed Teddy Grahams) to mimic the crust.

The original lemon ice cream required a lemon syrup that was added to the cooled base while it was in the machine, I assume to prevent any curdling. So I made a separate lime syrup as well, but found that the sweetened condensed milk had thickened the base considerably. Rather than trickle the syrup into the base as it churned, I dumped it all in and gave it a good stir. That seemed to work fine. The end result was amazing - the texture was perfect, creamy and rich, with a nice lime flavor and crispy bits of crust. It tasted exactly like key lime pie. Do try it for yourself and let me know what you think!

Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

2-4 limes
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons softened cream cheese
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Zest from 3 limes
4 ounces graham crackers, crushed
3 tablespoons melted butter

With a microplane, zest three of the limes and reserve. Halve the limes and squeeze enough juice to make 1/2 cup. (We had enormous limes and only needed two.) Combine juice and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and refrigerate until cold.

Mix 2 tablespoons of the whole milk with the cornstarch to make a slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt together until smooth. Prepare a shallow ice bath: in a large bowl or baking pan, place an inch or two of cold water and several ice cubes. Set aside.

Cook the remaining milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, and zest in a large saucepan until it comes to a rolling boil, Bring for 4 minutes, watching carefully so it doesn't boil over (stir when it starts to expand), remove from heat, and slowly whisk in the slurry. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Blend a few tablespoons of hot milk mixture into the cream cheese to loosen it, then pour the cream cheese mixture into the pan of milk. Whisk well until smooth. Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and place the container into the ice bath until cool, ensuring that the water level doesn't come up as far as the lid. When the mixture seems somewhat cool, refrigerate until completely cold.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine the crushed graham crackers and melted butter so all the crumbs are coated. It will seem a little dry. Pour onto a foil-lined baking sheet and pat out into one thin layer. Bake for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and toasty-smelling. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Stir lime syrup into chilled ice cream base - base will be very thick. Freeze ice cream according to manufacturers instructions. Once ice cream is done, scoop some into a lidded storage container. Layer on some of the crust crumbs. Continue to add ice cream and crumbs to container until both are used up. Press a piece of wax paper onto the surface of the ice cream. Seal container and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.



Posted on Minxeats.com.