“Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum…”
– Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Even though that passage was written over 50 years ago, it is still fitting right now on these humid, sweltering, summer days.
A great way to cool off in this heat is with a bowl of home-made ice cream. I remember when I was about 11 years old, my granddaddy bought an electric ice-cream maker. He let me go to the store with him and choose the ingredients and flavors that we would need to make ice cream. I chose mint chocolate chip. We set to work making it for the whole family on his front porch. I remember my brother and younger cousins eating the rock salt, and I was worried that all of that salt would get down inside of the container that held the rich, creamy goodness. Thankfully, no salt got in the ice cream. When it was finally finished, all of the cousins gathered around the machine and watched as my granddaddy pried the top lose. We all held our breath in anticipation of the treat, and when the lid was finally off, it exposed a deep green ice cream (because I was a little heavy handed with the food coloring). The chocolate chips were too big and hard to eat because they were frozen, but that memory will live forever as the best ice cream that I ever tasted. When you are surrounded by all of your family and having a good time on your grandparent’s front porch, everything tastes good.
I’ve been experimenting with different flavors of ice- cream, and I think I have hit the mark with this one. It is flavored with cardamom, and the texture is more like the old fashioned Ice milk, instead of ice cream. Does anyone remember ice milk? That was my daddy’s favorite; haven’t seen it in years, but I digress. Cardamom is a spice that is used in Scandinavian and Indian cuisine. We also use it a lot here because I am nuts about the flavor.
To make Cardamom Ice Cream, you only need a few items.
2 quarts light cream
½ cup sugar
1 TBS freshly ground cardamom.
One fresh egg
8 x 8 metal baking dish
Mix first three ingredients together in a large saucepan and warm up. In a separate bowl, crack the egg and temper it ( add a little of the hot cream, a tablespoon at a time and stir. This prevents the egg from cooking in the hot liquid) When the egg mixture is tempered, add back to your pot of heated cream and mix well.
Pour mixture into baking dish and set it in your freezer for several hours. The shallower the pan, the faster the cream freezes. After the mixture is frozen, scoop out and enjoy. Cover with plastic wrap or convert to a lidded container and store in the freezer…that is if there is any left.
