Seattle is Really Awesome!

Guess who got a ‘Phenomenal Entry’ prize at the Annual Portland Iron Chef?

PNWJETAA did!

With the entry of Green Tea Sensei Sauce Ice Cream (renamed “Sensei Envy”), Seattle represented itself quite well this year, even with only two participants. Portland has challenged us to return next year with even MORE attendees, so keep this at the back of your mind for next year!

Curious what “Sensei Envy” is exactly? Sensei Sauce is a local product of Oregon and is available at local grocery stores or available online by bottle or case. This year’s judge was the creator of Sensei Sauce, and quite impressed by PNWJETAA’s submission.

Check the recipe below, that we adapted from this website.

Green Tea Sensei Sauce Ice Cream
Makes 4 Servings

– 3 Egg Yolks
– 1/2 Cup Granulated Sugar
– 4 Tsp Sensei Sauce
– 200 ml Whole Milk
– 100 ml Heavy Cream (the kind for whipping)
– 2 Tsp Granulated Sugar for heavy cream
– 1 Cup Strong Green Tea (You can use either loose-leaf tea or teabags. We used teabags for simplicity sake, though we ended up with about 5 teabags sitting in hot water. 1 1/2 Teaspoons green tea leaves, with 250 ml boiled, not boiling, hot water. Let this sit for at least an hour in the refrigerator; we left it in the freezer and literally had iced green tea.)

If you have an ice cream maker, great. If you don’t you’ll need the following items:

– 2 Gallon-size ziploc bags
– 2 plastic sandwich bags
– a good amount of salt (at least 2 cups)
– loose ice (enough to fill both gallon bags halfway)
– dishtowels
Steps:

Mix the egg yolks with sugar and soy sauce until it’s a thick paste.

Add milk to the egg mixture and strain. Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula until the mixture starts steaming and thickens slightly; we would recommend it be thick enough to coat the spatula.

Remove from heat and put pan in cold water. Let it sit for about twenty minutes to cool down and thicken. Mix in cold green tea.

Ice Cream Maker
Process mixture in an ice cream maker until partially frozen. Add heavy cream that has been whipped with sugar until soft peaks form. Continue processing until the mixture hardens.

Do-It-Yourself, Or, The-Little-House-On-the-Prairie-Way
If you need visual aids, this is a great website on the process! Mix in the heavy cream that has been whipped with sugar until soft peaks form.

Evenly divide the liquid into the 2 sandwich bags. Seal tightly; press each bag to make sure there aren’t any secret air holes where the liquid ice cream can leak our, or more importantly, where the salt water can seep in. Fill each of the gallon bags up 1/3 of the way with ice and add about a cup of salt to each bag. Seal and shake so the salt coats all the ice.

Seal up the ice bags with the ice cream sandwich bags inside and carefully, start kneading the sandwich bags inside. The ice cream will start to freeze within a few minutes, and the kneading will prevent ice crystals from forming (so it’ll end up less of a granita and more of an ice cream!). Keep kneading! You’ll notice a significant difference within ten minutes.

Now here’s the important part! In our first batch, we noticed a strong garlic taste to the ice cream; but if you leave the ice cream in the freezer over-night (as we did for our second and third batches), and take it out the next day, the garlic mellows away into a soft, salty-sweet accompaniment to the green tea. Quite tasty!

We’ll have pictures up soon!