Don't ask me why the words of my posts have sort of bunched up on the left of the page. I've just started blogging from my new iPad and I have absolutely no idea how to center the words on the page. Oops.
Anyways one of my best friends has left for the states yesterday. I've known him since I was 12 (speaking of that, I'm almost 20 now. Omg.) and he's been my best friend since I was 16. We were in a gang of sorts with a few other dudes and dudettes but we were reaaally close with each other. I think it's because he sees me as some sort of counsellor for his love life. Which is, I must say, starting to take off now. Heh.
Let's call him C. C was the kind of guy who would carry my bags for me and open doors and patiently wait while I ran off to the toilet in between classes. He would stay back with me after school when I couldn't go home because my mom had meetings to attend (she was a teacher in my high school). He would inhale his food in two seconds flat (even plates of pasta or fried rice) and watch me eat mine very, very slowly. Then when I got my license, he would make me fetch him around or send him home after college even when I was dog tired and hungry, then he would buy me ice cream after. Then when he got his license, I never had to drive ever again. He would pick me up from home and drag me to watch movies and eat sushi. It's because of him that I'm obsessed with The Police Story 2013. Starring Jackie Chan (love him). I followed C rather non enthusiastically into the cinema and then I spent the entire length of the movie holding my breath and not wanting it to end. Now I'm looking for excuses and um, people to watch it with again. This is coming from someone who absolutely hates watching movies in the cinema. I don't know why. It's not that I don't like movies, I just don't like going to the cinema to watch them and I always feel so sad when they end. Regardless of whether the ending is sad or not.
Anyways back to C. He bugged me for years to complain about anything and everything. I guess I bugged him too. But I get affected really easily by the emotions of people I care about, and since I can say that I care about him a fair lot, his sadness or mopeyness always made me feel really down. And who likes feeling down ?
But he's still my best friend. And he did buy me ice cream and cake and talk me to my senses when I had locked myself in the bathroom to cry, once. That's not as weird as it sounds. We were on the phone, mind you.
And now he's gone. I'll see him again for sure and we'll be in touch, but it just isn't the same when he isn't here to ask me again for the bajilionth time, what he should eat for dinner.
On another note, my sister has been asking me to make black sesame idea cream for the longest time. Okay, not that long, but she does love it and since she is as decisive as a seesaw, I made up her mind for her that she wanted black sesame ice cream(she loves the stuff actually) and that I had to make it. Actually I was just looking for an excuse to try and make ice cream again. I made cookies and cream ice cream once and it turned out so well, I was sure it wouldn't work a second time. Since I didn't have a ice cream machine and all.. But I tried again. And it worked. AND I even managed to healthify it. Kinda.
Now I stopped eating ice cream after C stopped buying them for me. I had never even tried black sesame ice cream before, since it was my sister who would eat scoops of it after dinner. I much preferred noshing on candied fruit but that's just me. So when I made it, I popped it in the freezer and scooped some into a bowl and sprinkled some.. Sprinkles over it and snapped some photos. Then I put it back in the freezer and expected to forget about it.
Then one day I decided that I had to take a bite because well, I made it and it wouldn't make sense for me to not know how it tastes like. So I took a dainty bite.
Ever had one of those eureka moments ? When you do something for the first time and wonder why the hell haven't I done this before ? Yeah. That was what happened. I took my first bite and felt several light bulbs blink on in my head. There was a loud DING and then I proceeded to take many not-so-dainty bites out of the container.
Which is why, if you haven't tried black sesame ice cream before, or if you don't have an ice cream maker, you should make this. On the other hand, if you have tried black sesame ice cream before or you do have an ice cream maker..
I'm sure you know what to do.
Black sesame (goma) ice cream.
60g black sesame paste
180ml + 120ml milk, divided
2 egg yolks
70g + 2 tbsp sugar, divided
1 tbsp black sesame seeds (I omitted this because my sister said she preferred it smooth)
1. Whisk the 2 tbsp of sugar with the sesame paste until smooth.
2. Whisk the yolks and 70g of sugar until pale and thick. Heat 180ml of the milk in a saucepan until just below boiling point (don't let it actually boil, that's when things get messy) then pour a thin stream of the milk into the yolks, whisking all the while. This is to raise the temperature of the yolks slowly so you don't end up making scrambled eggs in milk.
3. When the yolks and milk are mixed, pour in the rest of the hot milk slowly, still whisking, until smooth. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Cook until it thickens enough so that it coats the back of the wooden spoon, and you can draw a line on the coating with your finger.
4. Strain the mixture into a bowl. Slowly mix the warm custard with the black sesame paste, adding it in small portions and stirring well (so it doesn't separate). When all of the custard had been mixed in, stir in the remaining 120ml of milk. Chill in the fridge until cold.
5. If you have an ice cream maker, process the mixture according to the manufacturer's directions. If not, just pour the mixture into a wide shallow container and pop it in the freezer until the edges start to freeze, maybe around 2 hours. Use a whisk to stir the frozen bits into the soft middle and freeze until the edges set. Repeat the whisking and freezing process at least twice more, then freeze until solid. If you want a smooooth ice cream (like I do) then after it had been whisked and frozen, chop it into pieces and give it a whizz in your food processor. It'll look like smooth, velvet soft serve. Eat immediately or put it back in the freezer to be eaten later.
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