Pistachio, in other words the green gem, is my favourite ingredient to work with and simply to eat. It is perfect with both savoury dishes and delicate desserts or as a salted snack on the go.
Here in Turkey, pistachio is often used as a base for desserts, from baklavas to Turkish delights you can find it anywhere. Probably because we have the one of the best pistachios in the world, we try to use it everywhere; on top of a rice pudding, rolled in phyllo pastry, etc. It is dense, rich and has a sweet kick. As Nick Malgieri, a cookbook author, said "Turkish pistachios have a brilliant color that is entirely natural. The baklava is so bright and unusual people think, 'Eww, that has food colouring in it', but it doesn't"
Whenever I go to a bakery, I order pistachio macarons and a scoop of pistachio ice cream. Because nothing goes better with pistachio than pistachio itself. And I wanted to share an ice cream recipe before the winter cold starts to hit us in the face. Plus, I wanted to give my new Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Maker Attachment a try.
The Ice Cream maker is easy to use, if you learn how to use it. At first, I had a very hard time attaching it because I thought that I had to unscrew something in order to put the drive assembly in. But in fact I only had to slide it. Then I poured the mixture in to the freeze bowl before starting the mixer up. Then, the ice cream froze in the bottom and sides, the dasher did not move and I almost broke it. After scraping the sides and the bottom, cleaning the mixer, and refreezing I started the mixer and then poured the mixture in while it was working. Again my Turkish habit of not reading the manual did me no good. So, if I were you, I would read the manual before hand.
Also, I do not have a food processor so I used ground pistachios, a spatula and a mixing bowl. It was very hard to achieve the desired consistency because the syrup crystallised very quickly. But somehow I managed to prepare a beautiful ice cream. What I try to mean is that, if you have food processor, you are lucky. If you don't, get ready to work those arms like a turbo mixer and your cardio workout for the day would be done.
This is a Pistachio Ice Cream Recipe from my favourite cookbook Cafe Fernando. Yes it does take a lot of patience to prepare the ice cream, but I assure you will be amazed with the result. Also, the measurements I provided below are in grams and 480 g of milk is not equal to 480 ml. So you have to be careful and use your scale to its full potential. I hope you'll like this recipe,
