I think I’ve hit the ice-cream jackpot. I can’t tell you how fantastic this is, as weird as it might sound. However, it never sounded weird to me. I mean, there is nothing new about sweet-corn ice cream; I just wanted blueberry in it. Have you ever had a sweet-corn and blueberry salad? It’s amazing, just as I knew this ice cream would be. First of all, the ice cream turns a beautiful lavender color and is flecked with pieces of frozen corn and sweet blueberries. It’s almost savory-sweet, but it’s not. In fact, it’s the perfect amount of sweetness.
I started making this ice cream at 10 p.m. — which seems to be the only time these days when I have time to cook. For some crazy reason (oh, yeah, it’s summer), my boys were still awake. They asked what type of ice cream I was making, I purposefully told them “corn” ice cream, just to see their reaction. You should have seen the horror in their faces. Corn! They couldn’t believe it. I love scaring them.
This is a no-custard recipe but does require a few preliminary steps, like chilling your ingredients and cooking your corn and blueberry mixture. It really isn’t a big deal at all, and it’s all so worth it.
The ice cream is tangy and full of texture and so good I’m sure Ben and Jerry’s will be begging me to license the recipe.
Sweet-Corn-Blueberry Buttermilk Ice Cream
Recipe created by Noble Pig
Makes 1 1/2 quarts
Ingredients:
3 ears fresh corn, husks and silk removed
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup full-fat buttermilk
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk, cold
Directions:
Heat a large pan of water until boiling. Place shucked corn into water for 3 minutes. Remove to a plate until cool enough to handle. Holding one end of the corn, cut off all the kernels into the bowl. It’s OK to cut deep and keep all that corn milk that is falling into the pan. It will all go right into the ice cream. Repeat with other corn pieces. Place in the refrigerator to cool down.
In a small saucepan, add blueberries, sugar and lemon juice. Cook on medium until berries start to burst and sugar is melted. I ended up smashing many of them and leaving some whole. Place into another dish for cooling purposes. Once cooled down a bit, place in the refrigerator.
Once corn kernels and the blueberry mixture are cold, in a large bowl combine heavy cream, buttermilk, cold sweetened condensed milk and corn kernels (including any milk that may have accumulated from the bottom of the corn bowl). I do not like to do this in the bowl of the ice-cream maker, as it starts to freeze things before they are mixed. Once combined, pour into ice-cream-freezer bowl and start immediately. Freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. Once ice cream is frozen, pour in the blueberry mixture and incorporate/churn until just combined, about 1 minute.
Remove ice cream to a freezer-safe container and chill another 4 hours or overnight.
Cathy Pollak runs her own vineyard and winery in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. She shares her love of food and wine at noblepig.com. She also writes articles for One for the Table, Amy Ephron’s online magazine that specializes in food, politics and love at www.oneforthetable.com.