Pistachio ice cream

Two things this week have convinced me I should trust my instincts more often.

I saw a teaser for “The Wrestler” many months ago and thought “this is my kind of film”. A director a deeply admire – Julia Roberts got all the awards that year, but they should have gone to Ellen Burstyn – working with an actor from one of Alan Parker’s finest moments (one of my all time favorites. Can’t tell you how much I love that movie).

All I can say is thank you, Mr. Aronofsky. Thank you for one of the greatest films I have ever seen. Thank you for 2 hours of drama, poetry and all sorts of emotions. And thank you for NOT letting Nicolas Cage get the part.

The other nice surprise I had was food related. When I saw Ana Elisa’s pistachio ice cream I knew I had to make it - it had my name written all over it.
I finally made her recipe early on this week and the result was an ice cream I simply cannot resist. Absurdly delicious.

Ana, thank you. Thanking you 100 times would not be enough. :D

Pistachio ice cream

1 ½ cups (200g) raw, shelled and unsalted pistachios
3 ¾ cups (900ml) whole milk*
4 egg yolks
¾ cup + 2 tablespoons (180g) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

Place pistachio and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil; reduce the heat and let it simmer for 3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon to keep the foam from overflowing. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 15 minutes.
Pour the pistachio-milk mixture into a blender. Cover with the larger lid and remove the central one. Place a folded kitchen tower over the remaining lid and blend the mixture until smooth – removing one of the lids will release excess steam from inside the blender and the towel will keep the mixture from splashing. Be careful when blending hot liquids.

Line a fine colander with fine muslin or cheesecloth and place over a large bowl. Pour the pistachio mixture over the cloth and set aside for about 10 minutes.
Gather the cloth ends and squeeze out over the colander until you get as much liquid as possible – you should get about 2 ½ cups (600ml) of pistachio milk.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy. Set aside.

Heat the pistachio milk once again until it almost comes to a boil. Remove from heat and pour about ¼ of the mixture over the egg yolks, whisking well until smooth. Pour the remaining liquid, whisk and then return it all to the pan.
Place it over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until custard is thick enough to coat back of spoon and registers 76 to 79ºC/170 to 175ºF on an instant-read thermometer (do not let boil).

Strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, add vanilla and salt and mix well. Refrigerate it half-covered for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Freeze custard in ice cream maker, transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer until firm, about 4 hours.

* I had some heavy cream in the fridge begging to be used (it was about to expire), so I replaced 1 cup milk for 1 cup cream.

Makes about 1 quart (950ml)