Beet Ice Cream

Recipe Courtesy of Chef Patrick Fahy

Blackbird Restaurant, Chicago

5-6 medium beets, peeled and cubed

438 g heavy cream

750 g whole milk

250 g granulated sugar

4 g salt

30 g nonfat milk powder

325 g egg yolks

• Juice the beets until you get about one cup of beet juice; set aside the pulp. (If you don't have a juicer, blend the beets in a blender with just enough water to get the blades going; strain and save the pulp.) Let the juice simmer in a shallow pot over medium-low heat until it reduces to approximately 1/4 cup. Strain the beet juice reduction and set aside.
• Meanwhile, gently heat the cream, milk, and sugar in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Add the beet pulp to the cream and continue to heat the cream mixture for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Put the egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and place it close to the cream mixture. Quickly whisk in 3-4 ladles of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolk to bring the temperature of the yolks closer to that of the cream. Pour the tempered yolk mixture back into the cream pot and continue to heat, whisking occasionally, until the temperature falls between 70 °C (156 °F) and 85 °C (185 °F).
• Take the ice cream base off the heat and strain.
• Since some of the liquid evaporates during heating, you need to add more milk to restore the original weight of 1.763 kilograms (1.438 g of cream-milk-sugar mixture + 325 g yolks). Once that is done, add the milk powder and salt to the ice cream base and mix well. Whisk in the strained beet juice reduction. Strain the mixture once more, if necessary. Then leave the mixture to cool in an ice bath.
• Churn the ice cream base in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Freeze.
• This recipe yields approximately 3 quarts of ice cream.