Cantaloupe Ice Cream

Hi to all ya'll.

For my initial post here at CogBlog, I would like to start off by thanking Sir Charles, and Litbrit for their gracious invitation to start writing here.  I'm not going to go into the why's and wherefore's of my move, but, it was time.  That's all.  Just. Time.

I was at the Staples Center last night for the Western Conference Finals game.  It was a nail biter.  The invitation was from an old guitar playing buddy.  The phone conversation went kind of like this (I of course remember my side of the conversation as being witty and hilarious)

Him:  I have extras for the game tonight, wanna go with?

Me:  Hell Yeah!  I can be on the road in less than an hour.  How about we grab BBQ at Madame Zenobia's in Watts before the game?  My treat.

Him:  I've lived in L.A. for over eighteen years and I've never gone to that place.  I've heard about it, but never could muster the nerve to go that deep into Watts.

Me:  That's because you're a pussy.

Him:  I'm not a pussy and I'm not a racist.

Me:  If you have to keep explaining to people that you're not a pussy and you're not a racist you probably are both.

Him:  Why did I call you?

Me:  You were hoping that if you offered the game ticket I would take you to that place in Watts that your racist pussy ass was afraid to go to.  Better pick out a guitar to bring though, Madame will ask you to play and if you suck she has you thrown out.

Him:  No pressure there.  What should I play:?

Me:  Blues.

Him:  Like what?

Me:  I was thinking along The Reverend Gary Davis lines.  Madame loves the way I do "If I Had My Way" on the slide.  How about that one?

Him:  I almost never play acoustics, do they have something I can plug into?

Me:  Always.

Him:  Then, you take off, I'll follow.

Me:  'Bout 4?

So, we went, we played and were a big hit.  Dinner was complimentary.  It is if Madame Zenobia likes you.

Down on the border, where I live, the cantaloupe harvest is just beginning to come in.  By the fields there's always a little setup by the side of the road where the field workers sell the culls for beer money.  Culls are the melons that are too ripe, too full of flavor and stuff to ship.  I used to work those fields every summer to get money for clothes and books.  It's hard work, actually it's pretty nasty damn work, but, it served its purpose.

So, down to business. 

INGREDIENTS

2 large, very ripe canteloupes
2 lemons, juiced
2 1/2 cups sugar
6 large eggs
4 cups heavy cream
2 cups 1/2 & 1/2
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon almond extract

 

Cut, slice and cube the melons.  (Continued after the jump)

Then, puree.

Juice the lemons.  I always roll them on the cutting board before slicing and juicing, you get more juice.  I also pour the juice through a strainer, that way I don't have to waste a lot of time picking out the seeds.

 

Strain the cantalope puree to separate the juice.  Agitate gently with a spatula to get a good drain.  You're not trying to force it through though.  There will be a use for the pulp later.

 

For now, cover and put it in the fridge.

 

Set the juice aside.

 

Beat the eggs until lemon yellow, add in the sugar, beat until smooth.  While that's happening scald the cream and 1/2 & 1/2.

   

Add the extracts, and temper in the scalded cream.  (tempering means to add the hot liquid a little at a time, to avoid scrambling the eggs)

 

Pour into the freezer container, top off to the fill line with more cream.  Refrigerate overnight.

For freezing, use the standard layering of ice and rock salt.  When you hear the motor start to rumble a bit and slow down a little.  Stop and take off the lid, making sure to wipe everything down to avoid any contamination by ice and salt water.

 

Put in the reserved pulp and finish the freeze.

 

The finished product is ready to transfer to a freezer safe container and set for a couple of hours.  You can amuse yourself and any children around by scraping any excess off the dasher. 

 

There you have it.  This is exquisite stuff.  Come to think of it, this would be perfect served with Litbrit's pound cake.

There goes the afternoon.

Comments

[Sir Charles]

I am impressed.

Photos and everything.

[litbrit]

Welcome, Minstrel Boy! And thank you for this very timely and delicious recipe. We've got an ice-cream maker both here and at the apartment (people like to give us cooking stuff for Christmas, what can I say) and are planning to make lots and lots of the stuff this summer.

YAY! ICE CREAM! NO SCHOOL!

*Does silly summer dance and gets told by ten-year-old to Grow up, Mama.*

[edited by litbrit]

[oddjob]

You're posting here now?

COOL!!!!!!! :)

[oddjob]

Photos and everything.

Sir C., you've never read any of the posts on MB's own (now moribund) blog, have you?

I recommend you go snoop around there. You'll have to dig into the archives to really get what I'm talking about, but the stories and the recipes definitely make it worthwhile!

[litbrit]

oddjob, I know--cool indeed. We are very lucky. I predict an extremely interesting, amusing, and fattening summer for us all, ha!

[Corvus9]

Wait, is this minstrel hussein boy? I'm confused. The post definately reads like mhb.

If so, then yay! I would say "welcome," mhb, but that seems kind of odd, since you've been here forever.

Ehh, fuckit.

Welcome!

And uh, if it's not mhb, welcome!

[edited by litbrit]

[oddjob]

Yes, it's Minstrel Hussein Boy

[edited by litbrit]

[jeanne marie]

And he's the famous Jeopardy alum and chocolatier!

[kathy a.]

woot, mhb! that ice cream looks to die for.

[edited by litbrit]

[minstrel hussain boy]

i'll be working back under my psuedonym as soon as i can figure out how to change the typepud account...

agent says that it is death on gigs if they know that you blog.

[kathy a.]

oh, great story about madam zenobia's, too. LA's such a weird place -- i can say so because i grew up there.

[minstrel hussain boy]

i guess from now on it will use the nom-de-blogging...

already fielded one shit fit phone call from an agency underling.

[Corvus9]

Ooh, sorry. Feel free to edit my comment (if that possible), if you need to. I won't mind.

[beckya57]

What kind of music do you play?

I'm a bit of a foodie, but have very little kitchen talent, so I'm always impressed by others'. You and Ezra Klein should get together.

[oddjob]

Blog powers that be should also feel free to delete my comment above (and to delete this one as well if that seems best).

[litbrit]

All done. *phew*

oddjob, that's the first time in my life that anyone has ever referred to me as a "power"--thank you, darling. ;-)

(I always wondered what it felt like, ha!)

[kathy a.]

good work with the administrative super-powers, litbrit! use them only for the good. ;)

[Toast]

I would like to start off by thanking Sir Charles, and Litbrit

Inaugural post and we get a superfluous comma? Jesus. (shakes head)

[Toast]

(Kidding, btw. I'm in a snarky mood tonight.)

[oddjob]

use them only for the good.

Someone is a fan of X-Men, perhaps? :)

I'm in a snarky mood tonight.

Which is to say life this eve. at casa Toast is completely typical........... :)

[minstrel hussain boy]

l.a. is a very strange, and in many ways wonderful place.

madame zenobia's is a legendary watt's institution. it's a couple blocks from the towers and was near the flash point of several riots.

the BBQ is exquisite. she does a creole style, with a light, vinegary sauce. spicy but not painful. it's a family owned place. madame's kids, and extended family all work the place.

there's a stage there, and any musicians are expected to play. the audience is tough, but sophisticated. they don't have time for posers or pikers.

i was there the night obama clinched the nomination and the place was rocking out loud. there were folks dancing in the streets and more joy there than i've seen a long time.

as far as what kind of music i play it comes down to just about anything. my chops will take me into folk, rock'n'roll, jazz, blues, country, classical orjust about everything but heavy metal. not because i don't like it or anything, but because for a lunch pail kind of musician there aren't that many gigs out there in it.

people ask me what my favorite kind of music is i tell them:

what ever they're paying me for tonight. that's my favorite.

i'm busy packing to head over to arizona. it was only fair for me to reciprocate on the ticket thing.

[kathy a.]

oddjob, i've heard of X-men, but stole that line from someone in real life, who possibly might have stolen it from popular culture, but how would i know?

[litbrit]

I love vinegar-y barbeque. Mmm...as long as they can do fish or shrimp or veggies, though, which few true BBQ places do, so I wind up eating cornbread or plain bread dipped in the sauce, along with whatever greens are on offer.

I was in Memphis in '91, and Robert and I visited a fantastic BBQ place called the Interstate (among many, many other wonderful restaurants and, of course, BB's blues club on Beale Street.) Barbeque talent is something America should be very proud of--it's legendary around the world. The last time I was in England, for a design/landscape architecture conference (in the early 90's too), our Brit host and friend tried to throw a big outdoor BBQ party and couldn't seem to get it right; fortunately, one of the visiting architects was a Texan girl, and she took him shopping, showed him the ropes, and saved the day.

As Florida is home to such a wildly varied mix of "out-of-staters", we've been present at many a passionate argument as to who makes the best barbeque--Memphis, Chicago, various Texan cities, St. Louis, you name it.

Me, I like the tar-pit cookouts that spring up on the beaches in the islands. Those are mostly seafood. As they say, it's all good. (What a great weekend to discuss barbeque, by the way.)

[oddjob]

Interesting.

X-men is a comic book series about a world (this world, but an alternate version of it) where some people are born with mutations that give them superpowers, and the difficulties this creates for them and for society. I confess I haven't read the comic books/graphic novels, but I've watched two of the three movies recently created from those, and I must confess I love the way they bring up the difficulties presented by "the other" in your midst who is only "other" because of cultural constructs.

[kathy a.]

litbrit, this may be a step too far, but i accidentally ran across a website on food carts in portland. one is a vegan BBQ place! http://www.foodcartsportland.com/2010/05/15/homegrown-smoker-natural-barbecue/

when i lived in the south, there was a huge divide about mustard-based BBQ sauce and tomato based. i think that was a north/south carolina rivalry, with georgia weighing in about appropriate side dishes, but tennessee has some pretty darned good varieties.

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Actually, oddjob, that theme described, defined -- and made special the whole beginning of Marvel Comics. (Yes, I actually bought FANTASTIC FOUR #1 on the stands, and literally can remember where it was on the rack and where I was when I opened it after I got home. I knew I had something special then, something I'd never seen before. Not just seeing it actually set in New York City instead of Metropolis or Gotham City -- with a stereotypical brooklyn cabbie in an early scene -- but with characters that actually had real-life problems and interactions. (It was something like the fourth or fifth issue when the FF were in danger of being evicted from the Baxter Building.)

But that whole 'dealing with the difficulties of being other' was always a thread, most notably in the early Spiderman, but even in Fantastic Four. DC characters all were accepted, all got aslong with each other, with the only difficulty they faced was the villain of the issue. But with the FF and much more as the other characters like iron Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange and Thor were added, there was always as much danger of a fight breaking out between the characters as between the character and a villain. "The Marvel Intermurals" was a regular feature of the books and crossovers.

Spiderman was a neurotic teenager who became a superhero out of guilt -- and had the best reason for having a 'secret identity' in history, an aunt with a weak heart who couldn't be allowed to find out her nephew was Spiderman because she'd literally worry herself to death.

[Shut up, Prup, you've made your point and lost your readers by now.]

[oddjob]

I have never been a comics book fan, but I used to watch FF cartoons on Saturday mornings, and I totally get what you're saying, particularly with regards to the Thing.

[Corvus9]

Wow, Prup, you actually got to buy FF #1? That's so neat.

I uh, have upwards of five thousand comics, and a pretty decent portion of them are FF and X-Men stuff, not all of it good.

Odd fact. The co-creator of Spider-man, Steve Ditko, is actually an Objectivist. Which is funny, because amazing Fantasy #15 is probably the least Objectivist story of all time. (Stan Lee is one of my heroes.)

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Okay now I can't resist bragging. When I had a college radio show I was (technically) the first person to put Stan Lee on the air, beating carson by one night. ("Technically' because the show was first broadcast on the AM station -- supposedly heard in the dorms if the transmitter was working. The FM rebroadcast was the next night, but after the Carson show.)

I'll tell some stories tomorrow morning -- when I'm awake. (Is the reason the HULK is green generally known? He wasn't supposed to be.)

As for my own taste in Marvels -- I've gone decades without reading them, then gone into frantic purchasing of every 3 for $1.29 pack I could find, trying to fill in a 20 year jigsaw puzzle -- I was always more fond of the FF and the AVENGERS than the X-MEN, as well as DAREDEVIL -- a blind superhero who is also a lawyer, what's not to like? One recent fascination is with the medium-length SLEEPWALKER series, and who can't enjoy SHE-HULK's kidding of the whole field. But my real favorite have been the stories centering around Adam Warlock and the brilliant building of a weirdly consistent theology in it. (I even had --- not have -- the ending of the original series which ran in HULK and included a 'Last Supper' that was either the most reverent or the most blashphemous panel in the history of (aboveground) comics.)

[MR Bill]

Welcome, Minstrel H. If'n I cussed at you, it was all in the spirit of the discussion.
The cantaloupe icecream looks scrummy, and now I'm wonderin' about trying this with honeydews..

[minstrel hussain boy]

honeydew works just fine, although it benefits from easing up on the extracts a bit. the more delicate flavors have trouble standing up to the vanilla and almond flavors.

[litbrit]

Son Two is very jazzed about your Madame Zenobia story, MB. He can't wait to meet you. Jerry was sick this week, so he didn't have a lesson, but he and Robert jammed for a couple of hours last night. It's such a pleasure for me, hanging out with musicians! (Much better than attending conferences, ahem.)

Agreed on the honeydew--I'd almost skip the almond altogether and use just a whisper of vanilla. The lemon juice will brighten everything.

I have a recipe for watermelon granita lying around here somewhere, too. You don't even need a machine, just a couple of metal trays, which you remove from the freezer every so often in order to mash the semi-frozen goods with a fork.

[Corvus9]

The Hulk was supposed to be gray, as he was for the first couple of issues, but printing gray with the production methods of the time was really hard so they switched him to green, which was easier to get right. Correct?

That's awesome that you got to meet Stan Lee. Totally Jealous.

My favorites were probably Amazing Spider-man, right before the Clone Saga hit, with Venom and Carnage running around and Harry Osborn becoming the Green Goblin (Actually, I think that happened in Spectacular Spider-man. Oh Well.) That period right before the Clone Saga was really good, and would have been a good time to end the series, in a lot of ways, but then they
screwed up the character, and have been screwing him up ever since.

In terms of looking for old back issues, I haven't been collecting for the couple years, what with being poor and all, but I love trying to buy up John Byrne's run on Fantastic Four (probably the most mature output on the title), Miller's work on Daredevil, and I one time managed to buy up the entire Surtur Saga from Walt Simonsen's run on The Mighty Thor. Also, just of ton of X-Men comics from the nineties.

I am actually starting to think the 90s were better than the aughts in terms of comics, at least for Marvel. The eighties were probably even better, but I feel like all the bad trends that started during the 90s have just gotten worse over the last decade. I am sick and tired of crossovers!

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Nope. He was supposed to be gray, and was in the first issue. but what they discovered is that they had inadvertently used the exact same color they used in the (then rare case) that they showed a black person. And nobody caught it until the issue was at the printers. They realized how bad this would look, apologized for the printing error, and to make sure, made him green.

As for meeting him, he's just like he comes across, and I was smart enough to surround him with people -- rare at the time -- who both took comic books seriously and knew their history There was none of the 'freak show' aspect, 'Hey, here's somebody who actually is claiming he's trying to do something adult with *giggle* comic books. Meet Stan Lee...'

We had a couple of people who'd been reading them from the beginning, and Ted white, the Sf writer and editor and long time fan of both SF and comics (he was a semi-regular guest on the show), and we had a discussion that started from the idea that comic books could be serious, instead of trying to prove it.

(I even had somewhat tattered copies of FF#1 and AAF#15 signed by him and, idiot that i am, lost them.)

[Corvus9]

AAF #15?

Do you mean Amazing Fantasy #15?

[Prup (aka Jim Benton)]

Amazing ADULT Fantasy #15 to be precise. Yep. Both, and i lost them -- and you can't say anything worse to me than what i've said to myself.

[Corvus9]

I feel only pity, Prup. Only pity.

[big bad wolf]

Rev. Gary Davis's "samson and deliah" is one of my favorite songs, and, all too often, one that seems best suited for remedying the daily injustice "if i had my way, i would tear this whole building down."

davis's "lord i wish i could see again" and "death don't have no mercy in this land" are also powerful beyond anything i could possibly describe.