I belong to a little cooking club here (read: wine drinking club). Our theme this month was Greek, and it was my turn to do dessert. Obviously, baklava immediately threw open the saloon doors in my mind and announce it was ready for action. But, dang it, I hate doing the obvious thing. So, I thought, "What else makes me think of Greek cooking?"
Feta cheese.
Viola! Feta cheese... oh wait, I'm dessert... Hm. That is a curveball.
Feta Cheese Ice Cream! (with orange/lemon/mint sauce)
Sure why not. I mean other than the fact that my mother and sister-in-law both threw up in their mouths when told them about the idea.
Turns out feta ice cream is amazing. Of course, I could probably mix tile grout with heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar and it would end up tasting fantastic.
The sour cream and feta give the ice cream a nice tang that keeps it from being as overwhelmingly sweet and velvety as it sounds. The whole effect is very much like cheesecake. I added a tart syrup to add a little punch.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup feta cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
2 cups light cream
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sugar
7 egg yolks
Put the feta, sour cream and half a cup of the light cream in a blender and beat the lumps out of the feta as best you can.
In a pot, simmer the rest of the light cream, heavy cream and half a cup of the sugar.
Mix together the yolks and the rest of the eggs in a separate bowl.
When the pot o' cream is simmering, splash a little on the egg/sugar mixture to get them ready for their swim. Then pour the egg/sugar mix into the pot and continue to cook on low heat until it gets a little thick. This will take about 15 minutes if you have it really low, or more like 7 if you turn it up a bit more (careful not to burn.)
Take the pot of the heat and add the feta mixture from the blender to it. Whisk it together, or use a spoon if you looked for your whisk which you KNOW you own but can NEVER find when you need it like me. Refrigerate until it turns into a custard. (few hours).
Pour this mixture into an ice cream maker and make ice cream out of it! Or just eat it as a pudding if you like - mine barely made it to the ice cream maker.
Orange Lemon Mint Sauce:
Boil 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add 1/2 cup freshly squeezed blood orange or tangerine juice if your stupid Giant doesn't have blood oranges and you refuse to drive to another store. Add a tablespoon or so of lemon juice. Add a tablespoon of fresh mint leaves and let continue to boil until thick. Cool and strain out the mint/pulp/seeds that sneaked in there
