by Lars.
We were extremely curious about trying a seaweed ice cream. While there is some precedence of using seaweeds in dessert applications, primarily in Asian cuisine, it features far more predominantly as a savory ingredient. After some tests, we settled on Palmaria Palmata (Dulse, or Søl) as the most likely candidate, for the often flowery aromatics and slight liquorish hints in can impart. We chose a cold infusion into milk, we were not looking for robust, deep sea flavors, but rather the gentler fragrant notes that makes this seaweed one of our favorites.
One liter of milk with 30g Søl, cold infused for eight hours. We chose a simple, light ice cream base that would not need to be cooked, possibly altering the gentle flavors we were looking for.
Søl Ice Cream
600g milk, cold infused with Søl, strained
100g cream
80g trimoline
35g sugar
24g thick and easy
Dissolve the sugar and the trimoline in the cream. When cool, combine all ingredients, thoroughly mixing and freeze in paco containers.
As an added experiment we took the reserved 30g of Søl from the infusion and incorporated into one half of our recipe; would the actual seaweed be beneficial? After we spun the two ices there was an obvious visual difference- the infused only version was white with only a hint of color acknowledging the flavor, while the other brightly celebrated it’s ingredient. On tasting however, the white, infused only ice was the clear victor. The flavor was light, round, and quite the delicate floral hints that we had been hoping for. It was also oddly reminiscent of green tea ice cream, in a pleasant way. The Søl incorporated version was murky, muddy in a more of a just damp seaweed sense.
Strained, cold infused the clear winner.
