Miracle Fruit, and Foody Friday: Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream

Jul 11, 2009 by

You know it’s going to be good when the invitation to the party includes the phrase “I got these pills off a couple of Dutch blokes…”

No, it’s all perfectly legal (though the pills had to ordered online)! And it’s called Miraculin.

If you haven’t heard of Miracle Fruit before, it’s the berry of a West African plant first documented back in 1725 (though already well known to the locals). It binds to the sour and bitter tastebuds and stops them functioning for a short period of time (from experience about 15 minutes). This makes lemons and limes some of the delicious fruit imaginable. Well, until it wears off.

Vinegar was delicious too, as was sour dough bread, unsweetened yoghurt and feta cheese. Cheap strawberries were divine, but bitter chocolate was a little disappointing, since the removal of bitterness left it bereft of favour. It’s easy to forget, when devouring lemonade-flavour lemons that you’re not gaining sweetness, just removing sourness. Everyone develops a rather Cookie Monster-esque attitude to eating, grabbing food with crumbs flying everywhere and peel piling up rapidly. If you don’t get your whole mouth thoroughly coated you’ll find an odd spot where everything still tastes like normal, resulting in pulled faces, and it wears off a little strangely.

The pills were about a pound a piece, which is expensive for fifteen minutes of gorging yourself, and you risk pretty bad indigestion (and massive acid erosion on your teeth!) but it’s an absolutely brilliant experience. I completely recommend it, especially for dinner parties. It’s hilariously good fun.

And now, onto something that requires no help to be sweet: ice-cream. I’m going to start with the traditional flavours this week; Chocolate and Vanilla.

Chocolate Cream Ice

Ingredients

1/4 lb Chocolate or 2 teaspoons Cocoa
1/4 pint milk
1 pint ice-cream mix (see previous FF)

Equipment

Saucepan
Spoon
As for ice-cream mix

Instructions

If you’re using cocoa, add it straight to the ice-cream base, and follow the instructions in the previous post to make ice-cream.

If you’re using chocolate, break it into very small chunks, and melt into the milk over a low heat. Stir constantly to stop the milk burning to the bottom.

Take off the heat, allow to cool a little, and add the ice-cream base. Allow it to go completely cold (or, if you want to cheat a little, stick it in the fridge) and then follow the previos post’s instructions.

Vanilla Cream Ice

Ingredients

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
2 vanilla pods
1/4 pint whipped cream
1 pint ice-cream mix

Equipment

Bowl

Instructions

Slice the vanilla pods into fine strips. While making the ice-cream mix, throw them in at the boiling stage, putting a lid on the pan to stop any vapour escaping. Leave it to cool.

Whip your cream, until it and the muscles in your arm are very stiff.

Add the vanilla essence to the ice-cream mix (taste it to see how much you want). Add the whipped cream, and follow the last post’s instructions.

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