I'm thankful for wasabi powder

It's been a while, hasn't it? Unfortunately, I haven't made much that was exciting or shareable until now. Sad, eh?

Whatever. Hooray for Thanksgiving 2009!

So for part of dessert tonight, I've made chocolate wasabi ice cream.

Yeah. You read that right. Chocolate wasabi ice cream. I got the idea after eating at Wagamama in Cambridge last June. They had this fantastic chocolate wasabi cake, and I loved the subtle zing of the wasabi with the smooth richness of the chocolate. It was a total winner of a combo. I mean, I like more traditional spicy chocolate flavor combos, too, but those are always a hot spice. Wasabi hits the top notes of the spicy spectrum, so you don't get the heated burn that exists with pepper-based spiced chocolate. And wasabi goes beautifully with a good chocolate. Trust me.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the recipe.

Chocolate Wasabi Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2/3 c sugar
1 3/4 c milk
2 c heavy whipping cream
12 oz. high-quality dark chocolate (62-70% is best), melted
1 tsp high-quality vanilla extract
3/4 to 1 tsp wasabi powder (I used Ninja Wasabi Powder; if you have a better source for wasabi, omg share!)


Directions:

1) Melt chocolate. Stir in sugar and wasabi powder. 3/4 tsp will be more subtle; 1 tsp will be stronger. If you use more than 1 tsp, though, your ice cream will taste weird, not interesting and delicious. And if you have a very sensitive palate, you could easily get away with 1/2 tsp of wasabi powder. After all, the zing shouldn't overpower the chocolate; it should complement it.

2) Add milk and eggs; mix thoroughly.

3) Add cream; stir.

4) Add vanilla. Stir some more.

5) Once mixture is completely cooled, pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to directions. Make certain to steal little spoonfuls as the ice cream begins to thicken and freeze. Feel free to make little happy noises as you taste-test.

6) Remove from ice cream maker and turn out into airtight containers. Finish freezing completely.

7) Serve. Enjoy. Serve some more. Enjoy some more. Makes one quart.