Asian-flavored ice creams were foreign to most American palates when Chicago chef Sammy Lertpanichpun first brewed up Thai tea ice cream 16 years go.
“Nobody else was doing them,” said Lertpanichpun, owner of Thai Classic restaurant in Lakeview. “I thought it would be nice to make something different.”
Lertpanichpun still makes Thai tea ice cream, and she has expanded her rep-ertoire to include flavors such as coconut, litchi, pineapple, Thai coffee, lemon grass, basil and mint. But she is no longer the only one making these exotic desserts.
Chinese and Japanese restaurants from coast to coast routinely offer green tea and red bean ice cream, and creative chefs in fusion restaurants reach for Asian fruits, herbs and spices to produce combinations unheard of on the Pacific Rim. The results are intricately flavored ice creams in all the colors of the rainbow.
Clearly, this ice cream is not kid stuff. It appeals to diners with a taste for global flavors and a willingness to try something new.
Vong’s Thai Kitchen in Chicago has vanilla ice cream on its menu, but its fans tend to be the pre-teen set, according to chef Arnie Tellez. Grown-ups prefer raspberry chile sorbet with a slight hot pepper kick, or tangy passion fruit ice cream or coconut sorbet, which tastes as if it contains cream even though it doesn’t (a fact that makes it a good choice for those who are lactose-intolerant).
Nobu, the hip Japanese restaurant in New York City, sells 20 quarts of green tea ice cream a day, according to sous pastry chef Frederick Aquino, and the kitchen also dispenses healthy portions of ice creams made with yuzu, a tart Japanese citrus, and kabocha, a squash akin to pumpkin. In Santa Monica, Calif., chef Wolfgang Puck serves ice cream made with satsuma, a Japanese tangerine, at his long-running French-Asian fusion Chinois on Main.
Chris Hansen, pastry chef at Opera, a Chinese-fusion restaurant in Chicago’s South Loop, is among the local chefs blending flavors into Asian-style originals.
“There is nothing I would not try once,” he said.
A native of New Mexico, and a veteran of Morton’s steak-house, Spago and Marche (where he still heads the pastry team), Hansen knew little about Chinese cooking when he was named Opera’s pastry chef in late 2004. He set about learning the intricacies of the ancient cuisine and today offers a sizable array of sweets that possess a Chinese flair. Opera’s sorbets come in flavors that include strawberry-ginger, blackberry tea and Thai basil. Hansen does not claim these dishes are authentic.
“We are just putting the flavors of China together,” he said. “Traditional Chinese desserts are not what you find in a place like this.”
The fact is, you don’t find traditional desserts in China–or in most of Asia–at all.
Asian ice creams and sorbets originated in America to satisfy our cravings for something sweet at meal’s end, according to Merry White, an anthropologist at Boston University who specializes in East Asia and has written on the subject of “global gelati.”
According to White, red bean ice cream was created in the United States in the 1970s “because American menus have a category called dessert, and Chinese restaurants needed something to fill it that looked vaguely Oriental.” And though green tea ice cream was developed in Japan in the 1920s, it did not take off there until a half-century later, when Japanese and Chinese tourists discovered it, along with other Asian fusion ice creams, while visiting the United States.
“They took them home as exotic Western flavors,” White said.
“The stunning fact is that Asian-flavored ice creams are actually eaten more in Asian restaurants in the Western world than they are in Asia,” she added. “In China and Japan, the most popular flavors are vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.”
Do-it-yourself desserts
Most Americans first sample Asian ice creams in restaurants, but they are increasingly serving them at home.
The Irvine, Calif.-based Maedaen USA sells green tea, litchi, plum, mango and adzuki (red bean) ice creams throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
In Chicago, business has risen 30 percent in the past 12 years, said Carol Galuhn, sales and marketing manager for the Chicago branch of JFC International, which distributes the products to Jewel-Osco, Treasure Island and ethnic grocery stores including New Way Trading in Chicago, Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights and Tensuke in Elk Grove Village.
“Green tea is most popular because it was in the marketplace first,” Galuhn said. But adzuki is gaining fast, and the other flavors also are doing well.
Home cooks can easily make their own versions.
Bruce Weinstein included recipes for more than a dozen varieties in “The Ultimate Ice Cream Book,” ranging from the offbeat green fortune ice cream (made by stirring crushed fortune cookies into green tea ice cream) to the more standard flavors of red bean, ginger and lemon grass-plum.
“People e-mail me saying they have had them in Asian restaurants,” said Weinstein, whose electronic pen pals are probably not referring to his green fortune ice cream. “They tell me it’s great to be able to make them at home.”
There is no reason why they shouldn’t. Weinstein said most of the ingredients are readily available, and many of the flavors, like ginger, green tea and lemon grass, lend themselves to the simple process of infusion.
“Just steep them in warm cream,” he explained. “Then you can make a plain ice cream or use the flavored cream as a base for others, like ginger-peach or lemon grass-plum.
“Once you master the technique, use your own palate and imagination,” he added. “Whatever fruit you think might go nicely with an herb or spice, use it.”
Sammy Lertpanichpun of Thai Classic restaurant would agree.
It took her a year to perfect her Thai tea ice cream. Now she finds it “very easy to create new recipes.” Her latest: tomato ice cream. She says “it tastes just like peach or berry.”
Customers applaud her efforts. Almost all of the 1,000 or so people who dine at Thai Classic each week order ice cream. Half of them ask for coconut.
According to Lertpanichpun, they don’t consider it an Asian, or even a global, flavor. Instead, she said, “they say it is out of this world.”
–Virginia Gerst
Ice cream recipe comes out of the deep freeze
Sammy Lertpanichpun has a secret.
The owner/chef of Thai Classic restaurant is happy to share her recipe for litchi sorbet. And she has no problem revealing the ingredients in her pineapple sorbet.
But ask for the recipe for her crowd-pleasing coconut or lemon grass ice cream and her lips freeze shut.
“Other restaurants sell [such] ice creams, but theirs don’t have the same taste as mine,” she explains. “They aren’t as light or as good. They all would like to know how I make it, but I won’t tell them.”
She did, however, provide samples, and urged us to try and duplicate one of her creations.
In the Tribune test kitchen, our experts tasted, then set about trying to copy Lertpanichpun’s lemon grass ice cream. Obviously we needed lemon grass, plus we thought we detected a light honey flavor.
So we added those two ingredients to a basic egg-custard ice cream mixture. But it was too heavy. The next try, we took out the eggs. It also wasn’t green in color like Lertpanichpun’s.
So we added Thai basil for color and flavor. Our third frozen mixture came very close. Here’s what we came up with. What do you think, Sammy?
–V.G.
Lemon grass ice cream
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 18 minutes
Cooling/freezing time: 9 1/2 hours
Yield: 1 quart
2 1/2 cups milk
1 package (2 ounces) fresh lemon grass, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons minced Thai basil or 1 tablespoon each minced regular basil and cilantro
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 container (1/2 pint) whipping cream
1. Heat the milk, lemon grass and basil to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat; reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until slightly reduced, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Stir in the sugar and honey; transfer to a medium bowl. Set aside to cool at room temperature, about 30 minutes. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours.
2. Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer; stir in cream. Freeze in an ice cream maker following manufacturer’s instructions, about 30 minutes. Pour into a freezer-safe container; cover. Freeze until firm, about 30 minutes.
Nutrition information per 1/2 cup serving:
230 calories, 45% of calories from fat, 12 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 44 mg cholesterol, 30 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein, 35 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
Raspberry-chile sorbet
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Freezing time: Variable depending on manufacturer
Yield: 1 pint
Vong Thai Kitchen’s refreshing but spicy sorbet is adapted from “Simple to Spectacular,” by Jean Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman.
1 1/2 pounds raspberries
1 Thai or other hot chili, steamed, seeded, roughly chopped, see note
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
Juice of 2 lemons
Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor; pass through a fine strainer to remove any remaining seeds. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. Transfer to freezer; freeze until firm, about 2 hours.
Note: Thai chili peppers are available at ethnic markets, and some large supermarkets such as Whole Foods Market and Jewel-Osco stores.
Nutrition information per 1/2 cup serving:
196 calories, 5% of calories from fat, 1 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 48 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein, 3 mg sodium, 11 g fiber
Nobu’s green tea ice cream
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Chilling/freezing time: 2 hours, 18 minutes
Yield: 5 servings
Adapted from a recipe from Nobu restaurant in New York City.
1 1/3 cups each: whipping cream, milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons green tea leaves
6 egg yolks, beaten
1. Heat the cream, milk, sugar and tea leaves just to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer; cook, stirring occasionally, about 45 minutes.
2. Fill a large bowl with ice; set aside. Strain mixture through a sieve; return liquid to the pot. Whisk 2 tablespoons of the heated cream mixture into the eggs to temper mixture. Slowly pour egg mixture into cream mixture in the pot, stirring constantly. Cook over medium-low heat until the temperature measures 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, about 5 minutes.
3. Transfer the mixture to a bowl; place bowl in the ice to chill, about 10 minutes. Freeze in an ice cream machine, about 8 minutes. Transfer ice cream to a freezer-safe container; freeze at least 2 hours.
Nutrition information per serving:
392 calories, 68% of calories from fat, 30 g fat, 17 g saturated fat, 337 mg cholesterol, 26 g carbohydrates, 7 g protein, 66 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
Litchi sorbet
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Freezing time: Variable
Yield: 4 servings
Litchi is an Asian fruit with a distinctive flavor, which Sammy Lertpanichpun of Thai Classic describes as “bright and fresh.” Litchi comes canned, but in the summer you may find it fresh in Asian markets and some farmers markets.
1 can (15 ounces) litchis in syrup
1/2 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1. Drain off only 1/2 cup of the litchi syrup; transfer to a small bowl. Spoon gelatin over syrup; set aside 1 minute.
2. Meanwhile, heat the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-high heat until sugar melts; remove from heat. Whisk in the gelatin mixture until well blended; set aside.
3. Put litchis and remaining syrup in food processor; puree. Add gelatin mixture; process 30 seconds. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Or, pour into shallow container; freeze 24 hours, stirring often to keep crystals from forming.
Nutrition information per serving:
170 calories, 2% of calories from fat, 0.5 g fat, 0.1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 43 g carbohydrates, 2 g protein, 3 mg sodium, 1 g fiber
Sweet Thai basil ice cream
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Chilling/Freezing time: Variable depending on manufacturer
Yield: About 1 quart
Recipe from Chris Hansen, pastry chef at Opera
2 cups each: whipping cream, half-and-half
2 tablespoons minced Thai basil or regular basil leaves
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 8 teaspoon salt
7 egg yolks, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1. Fill a large bowl with ice; set aside. Heat the cream, half-and-half, 2 teaspoons of the basil, vanilla and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a simmer; cook about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, stir together the yolks and sugar in a medium bowl.
2. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of the heated cream mixture into the eggs to temper mixture. Slowly pour yolk mixture into cream mixture, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; strain the mixture through a sieve into a mixing bowl; place bowl in the ice to chill, about 10 minutes.
3. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Meanwhile, chop remaining basil into thin strips. Transfer ice cream to a freezer-safe container; fold in basil. Freeze at least 2 hours.
Nutrition information per 1/2 cup serving:
406 calories, 71% of calories from fat, 33 g fat, 19 g saturated fat, 283 mg cholesterol, 24 g carbohydrates, 5 g protein, 91 mg sodium, 0 g fiber
