The Odd Fork

As named above, this frozen treat is definitely of ice and fire! The mingling of sweet and hot is common in sauces such as ketchup or barbecue sauce, so the Odd Fork thought it would be a good idea to add curry in the basic recipe of vanilla ice cream.

A summer dessert which is sweet, frozen and spicy! This ice cream is also egg-free and you don't even need to use full fat milk cream -important, if you watch your diet!

For about 900 ml of ice cream, you 'll need:

- 500 ml whole milk

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 1/2 tsp vanilla powder or vanilla extract 

- 1 & 1/2 Tbsp corn starch

- 250 g mix of evaporated milk and fresh, unsalted Greek Mizithra cheese*

- 1 to 2 Tbsp curry (depending how strong you want the flavor)

- 1 Tbsp good quality Greek honey

- a shot (or two) of dark rum

Whisk together 1/2 cup of the cold milk with the corn starch, making sure that there are no remaining lumps and set aside. In a pot, over medium to low heat add remaining milk, sugar, vanilla and corn starch - milk mixture. Boil whisking constantly for about a minute, until mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat and cover cream with plastic wrap, pressing it flat across the cream’s surface so no skin forms. Let it cool completely.

*For the milk cream substitute, just measure 125 grams of Greek Mizithra or Anthotiro cheese cut into pieces and 125 grams of evaporated milk and process in your food processor until the mixture is smooth and thick, like fresh milk cream. Add this mixture in the previous cold milk - corn starch mixture, mix well to combine and place in the freezer. If an ice cream machine is not available, you can remove the ice cream every hour to process it in your food processor. This will give a better, smooth texture. On the second to the last time (the Odd Fork did this process 8 times, so it was on the 6th time) add into the ice cream mixture curry, honey and rum. Process everything together to incorporate and the color turns from white to dark yellow.

On the next day, the Odd Fork tasted the ice cream. The flavor had a slight hint of coffee, at least according to the Odd's Fork taste buds. The Odd Fork served its hot, spicy ice cream with some extra Greek honey and it was lovely, a scoop of ice and fire indeed!
Even Khaleesi heard the news and asked for the recipe 😉

The Odd Fork created another unusual ice cream! It was about time since April is considered to be the first month of Spring, so what's better than a creamy, rich parfait? The combination of carrot with orange and ginger flavor is definitely a successful one!

For the carrot - ginger jam:

- 4 big carrots and a smaller one

- a lemon, zested and juiced

- 2 small oranges, zested and juiced

- a small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

- a whole star anise

- granulated sugar

For the ice cream:

- 500 ml milk cream, full-fat (35%), cold from the refrigerator

- a can of sweetened condensed milk (397 g)

- 380 g of the above carrot - ginger jam

- 1/4 cup of orange liqueur

- 1 tsp orange extract

- 1/4 tsp ground ginger

- 1/3 cup candied ginger finely chopped

Start with the carrot - ginger jam, as it should be totally cooled to use in the ice cream. Wash, peel and coarsely grate the carrots. Place in a bowl the grated carrots, orange and lemon zest and juices, ginger and anise and measure the mixture. If for example carrot mixture is 200 g, then you should add 150 g of sugar (not the same weigh, but the 3/4 of it). Boil carrot mixture and sugar for about 15 to 20 minutes or until most of the liquids evaporate and jam thickens. Set aside and let cool.

For the ice cream, add in the bowl of your mixer the cream and whisk on high speed until it resembles strained yogurt. Remove the bowl from mixer and by mixing softly with a spatula, add remaining ingredients and incorporate everything in a nice, thick and smooth cream. Empty this cream into a container suitable for the freezer, cover it and freeze for at least 6 hours or overnight before serving. 

On the next day, scoop ice cream into an ice cream bowl and enjoy! You can substitute candied ginger with ground nuts of choice or coarsely ground ginger cookies.

Since in the Odd Fork's country it's summer as well, a sweet beet ice cream paired with spicy ginger and dark chocolate, seemed perfect for the occasion!

For about a quart of ice cream, the odd fork used:

- 2 beetroots

- 1 cup of fresh milk

- 1 and 2/3 cups of milk cream

- 1 piece of fresh ginger peeled & grated 

- 4 egg yolks

- half a cup and 2 tablespoons of white sugar

- some sweet, red wine (Greek Mavrodaphne is the best)

- a package of black chocolate flakes (100 grams)

At first, the odd fork washed the beetroots very well, wiped them, pinched them well and wrapped them in aluminum foil. It baked them for about an hour in high oven (200°C) till they were soft, let them cool a bit, peeled them, cut them in chunks and made a nice and smooth pulp in the blender.

In a saucepan it added the above beet pulp, milk, cream and ginger and brought everything to a boil. It removed the saucepan from heat, covered with the lid and let the mixture steep for half an hour.

Then it beat the egg yolks with the sugar, added slowly the milk – beet mixture and returned this new mixture to the stove over low heat whisking constantly in order to make the custard. 

Odd Fork’s advice: It is better to make the custard over boiling water (bain-marie or hot water bath) to avoid it from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.

When the beet custard was nice, thick and ready, the odd fork strained with patience the whole thing and when totally cooled, it put it in a plastic ice cream container and in the freezer. 

Every once in a while the odd fork removed the ice cream and beat it in the blender (unfortunately not an ice cream maker available). The more the beating, the better!

The aromatic, rich, sweet red wine was added in the first beating and the chocolate pieces in the last one.

The following day the odd fork pinched finally the impressively colored ice cream, which had also an amazing taste!

Spinach pie in Greece is very, very popular (and the Odd's Fork favorite as well!). It is a savory pie of course, made with fresh spinach, dill and spring onions with the addition of feta cheese, however many people like also the vegan edition without cheese.
The Odd Fork trying to prove itself worthy of its name, created the first Greek spinach pie ice cream in history, using in the cream fresh spinach, dill and spring onions.
The oddest ice cream it has ever pinched for sure, end of story.-

For about a quart of ice cream, the Odd Fork used:

- half a kilo of fresh spinach
- half a bunch of fresh dill
- 3 fresh spring onions
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 cup fresh milk
- 1 and 2/3 cups milk cream
- 4 egg yolks
- zest of half a lemon
- some fresh fennel, optional (only the green leaves which look like dill, not the white root)
- 2 mini frozen puff pastries

Having gathered all the above, the Odd Fork washed and chopped the spinach, dill and onions. It put them into a large, heavy non-stick pot over medium heat without using any water or oil, stirring with a wooden spatula in order to reduce and have a quantity equal to a cup of tea.
Then it added the milk, cream and sugar to the pot and once this mixture began to boil it removed it from the stove, covered the pot and left it for about half an hour to steep. 

It blended this spinach - milk mixture to make it as smooth as possible and poured it slowly to the egg yolks whisking constantly, returning this new mixture to the stove over low heat in order to make the custard.
Odd Fork’s advice: It is better to make the custard over boiling water (bain-marie or hot water bath) to avoid it from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.
When the custard was nice, thick and ready, the Odd Fork removed it from heat and strained it very, very well and when it was completely cool, it put it in a plastic ice cream container and in the freezer.

Because the Odd Fork wanted its ice cream to have a soft and satisfying texture, and because it did not have an ice cream maker, it'd get it all out of the freezer, and little by little it blended the ice cream beating it in the blender to soften it. It believes that as many times as this process repeats, the better the ice cream will be.
For more flavor the Odd Fork added the lemon zest and a little fresh fennel it the first "beating". In the last "beating", it put the puff pastries after it had baked them and cut in small pieces when they cooled.

The next day the Odd Fork tasted the ice cream, was pleased and thought to share its recipe with other odd - or not - beings.