Every once in a while I go all out and make Thai food, usually when we are having guests over so I can make a lot (then we won't have to eat leftovers for a week straight). It was the perfect meal for my sister's visit. I invited my parents and sister up for Pad Thai, red curry with prawns and peppers, eggplant with cashews and larb (it's a spicy ground meat that you place in lettuce leaves, so good!). It's quite a spectacle with the wok on the stove burbling away, rice steamer lid clattering and the flames licking up the sides outdoor wok. And it was really good, if I do say so myself!
But what was the best part of the meal was dessert! Most Thai restaurants offer a version of Thai iced coffee that is very similar to Vietnamese iced coffee; sweetened condensed milk in the bottom of a tall glass filled with ice then coffee is splashed over. I love the way the milk mixes into the coffee, like a swirling cloud until it fills the entire glass with the cafe-au-lait colored concoction. If the restaurant makes it just right it's perfectly sweetened without the cloying, thick syrup taste that comes from too much of the condensed milk... David Leibovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop offered up a recipe that takes these flavours and transforms them into a lovely ice cream. I love it because there's no cooking, no custard that needs to chill for hours and hours, and these are easy items to always have on hand...
Here is the recipe out of his book:
Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream
1 1/2 cups sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cups brewed espresso or strong coffee
1/2 cup half and half
a big pinch of ground dark roast coffee
Whisk together then chill. Once cold freeze in your ice cream maker. Enjoy!
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