Tickets, Ice cream and pancakes

Pay you parking tickets on time !! Oh do I know that now !! How do tickets, ice cream and pancakes all come together you may ask. In a very weird way, which I’ll share.

Let’s go back  a couple of months into the days of summer, which I’m not so much a fan of of. With construction of a new building going on at work, parking became harder than finding Bresaola in Baltimore. Both students, faculty and staff resorted to parking on the side streets, provoking the ire of the neighbors in the process.  I would too if I came home after a hard day’s work and couldn’t find parking. Let’s say, I incurred a couple of parking tickets over the course of the summer. I thought to myself, ” I’ll pay them in time”.  Fast forward to sometime last week. I was ready to head home, with a planned stop at the grocery store to figure out what to fix up for dinner. Unbeknownst to me, my car had been booted for non-payment of parking tickets. BAM !! U know that feeling you get when you discover your car has just been towed ? Same thing, just a little worse. Because now if you left the car there, it could be towed. Another fee !! Seeing that bright yellow boot on the right hand rear tire ( or is tyre ? I often get confused having had secondary education under the British system).

Along with boot, was a notice on how to get it removed emblazoned on the driver side window. There went my plans for the evening as well as the next couple of weeks.  Time to readjust all plans . I called and paid the bill. $4_ _+ poorer and feeling every inch of it. To add salt to the pain,  I had to return the boot by 6pm the next day or get charged a $25/day late fee. The ordeal to return the boot was another predicament entirely. I had to pay for parking yet again as there wasn’t any free parking at the location. Karma bank, where are you when I need to make a withdrawal.

Skint, broke, whatever other euphemisms you could think of,.. yeah that was me.  I had made plans to make some brioche and maybe some ice cream over the weekend, but it was only going to be one of those this time. A little bit of pleasurable food indulgence to counter balance the pain would be perfect. I ended deciding on trying a new flavor combination in my ice cream experiments. Vanilla bean and key limes. With the egg whites left over from the ice cream making, there were several options going through my head. Macarons, bite sized meringues or a pavlova ? I made the ice cream custard in the evening and let the flavors develop in the fridge overnight. I woke up in the morning and though pancakes. Let’s see how ‘healthier’ egg white pancakes would go with ice cream. One word….. Deliciousness  !! So that’s how they all came together.

(P.S: I might be doing a lil’ dinner party [Oct or Nov], haven’t decided ?)

Vanilla bean-Key lime Ice cream and pancakes

Ingredients:

For Vanilla bean key lime ice cream:

1 cup of milk
2 cups of heavy cream
2/3 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean, split
6 egg yolks
1 tsp of vanilla extract
2 tbs of key lime zest
1/8 -1/4 cup of key lime juice

For the egg white pancakes:

1 cup of milk
6 tsp of sugar
1/2 cup of buttermilk
2 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of baking powder
zest of 1 key lime
juice of 1 key lime
6 egg whites
4 tbs of butter, melted and cooled

Method

For ice cream:

1. Add sugar to cream mixture and heat over medium heat.
2. Scrape the vanilla beans flecks and add to cream mixture.
3. Let the mixture steep for about 30 minutes.
4. Add a little of the warm mixture to the egg yolks and whisk, don’t rush it.
5. Add the remaining warm cream mixture to the egg yolks.
6. Return the warmed egg yolks back into a pan.
7. Heat over medium heat and stir until the mixture thicken and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
8. Strain the custard mixture to remove any curdled egg yolks.
9. Add in the vanilla extract, vanilla bean, key lime juice and zest and stir together over a chilled ice bath.
10. Let the custard mixture cool for 3 hours or overnight.
11. Remove vanilla bean and churn in your ice cream maker.
12. After ice cream is churned, put in container and allow to firm up in the freezer.

For pancakes:

1. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and 3 tbs of sugar together.
2. Whisk milk and buttermilk together.
3. Add the flour mixture to the milk mixture and mix until it just comes together.
4. Add in in melted butter, key lime juice and zest, mix together.
5. Whisk the egg whites and remaining sugar together until you get stick peaks.
6. Gently fold in in the egg whites into the flour, until fully mixed together.
7. Cook pancakes using your regular method.
8. Plate several pancakes on a plate, top with ice cream and enjoy !!

Verdict: The ice cream taste like forzen key lime pie ! Don’t forget ! Pay your parking tickets on time or better yet, don’t get any !