This is going to be a post about a green tea ice cream that I made a little while ago. Here is a picture as proof.
Okay, not really. But I'll put the recipe down below anyways because it is some really tasty ice cream.
After a week of running around Italy and France, I am now back in Switzerland and am also at a bit of a loss of what to do. I've been going shopping and eating and also just recovered from a bout of sickness that left me too weak to even stand up. Dear reader, I swear I cannot remember the last time I've ever been that sick. And oddly enough, the last time I was close to being that sick, I had just come back from a holiday. Which is strange because I fell sick right after I got back from Venice.
It's a sign. A sign that I should just go on holiday permanently.
Anyhoo, once having recovered, I proceeded to dye my entire head of hair red and buy clothes and also another cookbook and tidy up the room and study some French. All this in an effort to (1) make the most of my holidays and (2) fix the hole in my heart. I had my heart broken in Venice, you see.
I was alone in Venice for three days. And I loved every. Single. Second. I swear if I could, I'd just move there and become Italian. The streets are every bit as beautiful as I ever imagined and the canals are ridiculously blue. The gondolas are huge and decked with everything you could think of, from red plush chairs to gold figures on the prow. You get around by boat, not car. I just wandered into the Rialto market by myself and turned corners until I walked into a shop that sold solely chocolates. I must have stood at the door with my mouth hanging open for a solid ten minutes before grabbing the nearest jar of chocolate spread.
And the gelati, oh the gelati. There are stands and stalls and shops everywhere. They open as early as ten in the morning and have a myriad of flavours to choose from. I told myself to stick to vanilla and pistachio - I once heard that pistachio gelati is the test of a good gelateria, if it's yummy, you better believe the rest of the flavours are phenomenal - but then I discovered that there were flavours like tiramisu and chocolate and fiori de latte which I absolutely fell in love with. It's just milk, but it's milky tasting in the best possible way. I spent an entire morning dedicated to stuffing my face with gelati then some Sicilian cannoli (delicious !) and nougat after. And then I spent the rest of the day trying to walk off the sugar.
The people are really nice. The smile at you and wink and help you around and while there are no handsome men in expensive suits - ahemMilanahem - walking around, Venetians feel a little more accessible. While there were models in the streets of Milan and Paris, there were nonnas and jolly Italian men sitting in the cafés by the road, eating and talking and generally enjoying life. It made me want to join them even though I spoke like three words of Italian.
Venice is a romantic city, if not the most romantic in the world. Why did I go alone ? Simple. I didn't have anyone to bring with me. My friends who went with me to the aforementioned places were off gallivanting in London. I do not have a boyfriend. But I was - am - head over heels for a certain someone who knew - knows it. (What ?)
I talked about loving someone who doesn't love you back. Freaking sucks. Then I said, there was always hope. What the hell did I mean ?
Usually I refrain from typing all this, or even talking about it to anyone other than my closest friends. I don't like putting personal stuff in a place so public. It's too, um, personal. And typing, or writing about it makes it feels so real and solemn - it's been put down in a place where I can actually see the words, rather than me just saying them to a friend. And I didn't say much. The ones who travelled with me were in fact the only beings on earth, other than said offender, who knew about my predicament. Okay I admit, I might be dramatizing a little but I will write as I feel, and I felt it deeply. I've liked him for a long time. I finally got the guts to tell him - and while I wasn't exactly rejected, I wasn't exactly accepted either. It was fine. I just wanted to be acknowledged.
And then came a little glimmer of hope. I think I grasped it too tightly - you know how it is when you have a crush. You think too much, you want too much and when you get even the slightest nod in your direction, you start grabbing at straws that might not even be there. Well, that hope was sort of taken away when I was in Venice - not completely. He just wasn't ready. I completely understood, I might have rushed into telling him and all that.. But then I would have to see him after this. Every day. Could I cope ? I was wondering myself. He said I could stay away from him if I wanted, and we could talk less. If it made things easier for me.
See my problem is, I cannot move on unless I get rejected. Like a bitchslap in the face, I need a loud, resounding NO and the grief that follows after to be able to give up and get on. But he didn't say no. God, he didn't say no.
Does that mean I have a chance still ? I don't know. He said he wouldn't mind if we talked - he said he liked talking to me in fact - but then I did warn him that he'd have to put up with my silly affections for some time. He said he didn't mind. And this was after the crushing news. I got sad - then very confused. I spent the rest of the night watching youtube videos and eating candied pineapple to make myself feel somewhat normal again.
We've chatted online once since then. I don't know if I should find him again or leave him be. I want to talk to him, of course. But I don't want to seem overly eager - kind of like how a guy is supposed to wait a while after getting a girl's number before calling or something. Does that rule still apply ? Be cause now people text and all.. I digress. I don't know where the line between "don't care" and "pushy" is. I don't know how to be the one who cares less. In fact I don't know any medium - I don't know what gray is, I never did. Which is kind of stupid since most of my shirts are gray.
Phew.
I feel like the high school girl who has a crush on the most popular guy in school. Which is kind of annoying since I really hated those girls with those crushes, all they seemed to do was blink and blush and giggle and do absolutely nothing (which is also why I spent most of the movie yelling "Do something youwidiyot") and now ironically I am put in the same position. Oh, life.
So what did I do after that ? Well, sleep, for one, because I was exhausted then and I needed to catch a plane the next day. Before catching said plane, I also dragged my 12kg luggage through the streets of Venice and shopped my little heart out. I managed to get a souvenir for my sister though.. It'll be a year before she gets it. But that's beside the point. I bought a stupid amount of chocolate for myself - which I normally never do - and then flew back to Bouveret and proceeded to become ill.
And that brings us to today. With me sitting and typing out this really long diary of a post with no mention whatsoever of ice cream (wait, I did mention gelato. Ha.) and all the while thinking shoulditexthim woulditbeannoying ohmygodwoolissocomfy.
Okay. Okay. Thank you for listening. I hope you didn't pass out from boredom. Here is your ice cream.
Matcha Ice Cream
Ingredients (20 servings)
-Milk 1,920 ml
-Heavy cream 960ml
-Sugar 480g
-Green tea powder (Matcha) 30-40g
PREPARATION:
1. In a medium saucepan, whisk all the ingredients together except green tea powder.
2. Start cooking the mixture over medium heat, and add green tea powder. Stir often and cook until the mixture starts to foam and is very hot to the touch but not boiling.
3. Remove from the heat and transfer the mixture to a bowl sitting in an ice bath. When the mixture is cool, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
4. Once the mixture is thoroughly chilled, transfer to a pre-chilled ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacture's instructions (20-25 minutes). Transfer the soft ice cream into an airtight container and freeze for at least 3 hours before serving.
Sesame Tuiles
Ingredients(20 servings)
-Egg white 50g
-Brown sugar 60g
-Flour 60g
-Melted butter 40g
-White toasted sesame seeds 160g
-Black toasted sesame seeds 20g
PREPARATION:
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the whites till frothy. Add the sugar and beat till it dissolves. Stir in the melted butter.
3. Add the flour and mix till lump-free. Add the sesame seeds and fold in until well combined. The mixture should be dry and sticky.
4. Smear 1/2 tbsp of the mixture onto the tray into a circle. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown and crispy, rotating the trays if you have to. Remove from the oven, leave to cool and store in an airtight container.
Notes
The layer must be thin and even to make it crispy. Wet the fork lightly to avoid mixture sticking on it and easy spreading. Be careful not to over bake the crisps. If not, the sesame seeds will be burnt If the crisps turn soft, you can reheat them for 2-3 minutes at 160°C in a preheated oven.
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