Ice Cream!

.

I recently decided to make what we called a fruit salad ice cream in our house when we were growing up.  It’s really simple; here’s the recipe:

•    ripe mangoes (1 or 2).  Remove the skin with an apple-peeler (or a paring knife).  Slice off the two cheeks, then down the two remaining sides, and cube the pieces into half-inch cubes and set aside.
•    a ripe papaya.  Half a big papaya will do.  Cut in half, remove the seeds (it’s not easy, but keep at it, even if you feel sorry to see the guts of the fruit get removed), scoop out the flesh carefully, and cube into half-inch pieces;
•    a barely ripe tomato.  Cube into pieces of about the same size as the other fruits.
•    a handful of seedless grapes.  Cut each grape in half.
•    5 strawberries, just ripe.  Cut lengthwise into quarters, removing the green stem and end.
•    a ripe kiwi or two.  Clean off the hard stem and core, and slice.
•    A pint of softened vanilla ice cream.

A fruit salad salsa, similar in inspiration to mine.

Mix it all together just before serving.  You can vary the amount of ice cream; a little is good, but too much ice cream obscures the fruit flavor.

I’m embarrassed to admit that if the ice cream has just a tiny bit of salt in it, it will taste more buttery and creamy.  If you add your own salt, you’ll probably add too much.  If the ice cream is too sweet, it ruins the taste.

As you can see, just the perfect ice cream is important to have for this recipe.  First of all, it mustn't be too sweet.  Most people I know don't like ice cream that is too sweet, though they like ice cream too much to not eat it just because of excessive sweetness.

Secondly, the ice cream must have just the right degree of salt, to make it taste right.  Many recipes have too much salt, and that's not good.  Some folks just leave out the salt as a matter of principle either for reasons of health, or because they don't like the salt.  I don't want to get into a huge controversy about the matter; I figure if a tiny bit of salt improves the taste, that overrides the health consideration.

I have to avoid sugar for health reasons, so for my own recipe, I'm going to use an artificial sweetener.  Many purists would rather die than do this, and all I can say is, do what you think is best for you.

Well, I've been going through recipes for ice cream on the Internet, and I've been appalled.  I figured that home-made ice cream should be healthier and tastier than store-bought ice cream.  The best-tasting commercial ice cream I have eaten so far is Wegman's Vanilla Ice Cream.  Less sugar per serving [7 grams, I believe] ---actually 16 grams (corrected 2012/2/23) than another brand we often buy, but a little more fat.  But to my horror, I'm reading recipes that call for pudding mix and other means of making the mix creamier.

Commercial ice creams contain a certain amount of thickener, that is gelatine-like additives made of sea-weed and plant matter called cellulose gum and so on.  I recently read on the Internet some indignant questions about why the FDA allows these derivatives of cellulose (which is often derived from wood, actually) in common foods.

The traditional recipes for ice cream often contain things like egg yolks and so on, which, though perfectly natural, have been known to raise cholesterol levels.  I suppose it is a matter of personal taste, but I like to eat my eggs face to face, and not hidden away in ice cream, for heaven's sake.  I mean, how would you feel if processed bacon bits was a part of your ice cream recipe, say?  What a terrible waste of some perfectly good bacon, right?  So, in a nutshell, if cellulose gum makes my ice cream creamy and less full of cholesterol, I'm all for it.  Yes, you heard right.  Now where can I find some cellulose gum?

I have also recently discovered lactose-free milk.  The first time I had some lactose-free milk with my morning coffee, I though I remembered that it didn't taste right.  But I like it so much now that I don't think I'll go back to regular milk.  So I'm wondering: can I find an ice-cream recipe that uses lactose-free milk?

So don't fear; if like me, you too crave vanilla ice cream that's not too sweet, has no pudding in the mix, no eggs, but does have lactose-free milk and cellulose thickeners in it, and a tiny bit of salt, I'm on the job.  I shall find a recipe.

Arch