Pistachio Ice Cream Nostalgia

Summer is officially over. It may not seem so in Brisbane (where the average is still in the high 20’s) but elsewhere in Australia the temperatures have started falling. As I write this post it’s actually 1C in sunny Canberra (lucky them!).

If you’re from one of the southern states you might think it’s a tad late to be posting about ice cream. But luckily I live in the ‘smart state’ of Queensland where we get to enjoy this icy treat any time of the year. Yes, even in the middle of winter.

Anyways, my dear wife (Cherry of Cherry’s Cakes) gave me an ice cream maker for our 14th anniversary. I immediately put it to good use always with the intention of writing a post about it. Well, 5 months and several tubs of ice cream later nada post. Unless you follow me (@thebeancounter) on Instagram there was no way you’ll know of my recent ice cream exploits. More on Instagram in a future post…I promise.

A caveat before you continue reading, making your own ice cream can be much more expensive than buying straight off the supermarket freezer..and it is very addictive. Procuring the essential ingredients without the benefit of economies of scale can be costly. But knowing exactly what goes in your ice cream makes it absolutely worth it. And it is addictive because it’s easy. It doesn’t take a genius..really.

I’ve always wanted to make my own pistachio ice cream. Not just for the challenge but more so for the nostalgia this particular flavour brings. Back in the days before Super Malls the Quiapo district of Manila was the place to be. There I go to Coney Island Ice Cream (American name but apparently 100% Filipino) to get my fill of this curious green coloured treat. Those carefree days...when my biggest worry was getting more of the ice cream in my mouth and less on my clothes.

Apparently, to create the ‘best’ possible pistachio ice cream one must source a particular pistachio paste from Bronte, Italy. In this day and age of online shopping I did not see that as a hurdle. Anything can be delivered downunder…or so I thought. I'm not sure if it's Australia's ‘strict to the point of ridiculousness’ quarantine rules that caused this but I could not get Bronte pistachios anywhere near my brand spanking new ice cream maker.

The next best thing was to make my own paste... I couldn’t be bothered.

I ditched the 'best' idea and looked for a simpler recipe. I went back to Cusinart’s recipe booklet. What I found didn’t excite me but I gave it a go… And much to my surprise the result was pretty impressive. I made some slight modifications to simplify it further and make sure I do not waste my ingredients and this is what I’m sharing with you below. By the way, you need an ice cream machine that can hold 2 litres. Read and follow your machine's manual. If you have a smaller version please adjust the measurements accordingly.

Pistachio Ice Cream

1 cup full cream milk chilled

1 ¼ cup caster sugar

2 x 300ml Thickened Cream

1 x 300ml Double Cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

1 ½ cups roughly chopped pistachios

1. In a bowl, combine the milk and the caster sugar until the sugar is fully dissolved.

2. Stir in the thickened cream, the double cream, vanilla and almond extracts.

3. Turn the machine own; pour the mixture into the freezer bowl and let it mix until thickened, about 20-25 minutes. Add the chopped pistachios in the last 5 minutes of churning.

4. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If you prefer a firmer consistency transfer the ice cream to an air tight container and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours.

7 days with HTC Touch Pro

It took me more than half a year to finally decide on what new phone to get. During that time a lot of new technology have been introduced including the new iPhone. If you've read a previous post you'll know I'm not a fan of Apple products. I was actually waiting for a new Nokia product but something better came up.

My Nokia N73 is still working fine. But with the amount of blogging that I do I need a phone that would be able to better support this new hobby of mine.

And so, after quite a long search, I finally decided on getting HTC's Touch Pro. It's got the TouchFLO 3D technology (that gives you touch control over the device) but the biggest attraction to me was the phone’s full QWERTY keyboard. As a matter of fact I am writing this post using my new phone! Even with this feature my N73 appears to be bulkier.

From time to time I would come up with an idea for a post when it is not convenient to turn on my laptop. It could be the beginning sentences of a post or a perfect ending to a post that would suddenly pop up in my head and disappear just as quickly. Writing down notes on paper is not one of my strengths. It was never an option. And because HTC Touch Pro is a Windows-Mobile device I could go straight into Word to jot down my thoughts for editing later. How cool is that? Well, I think it is!

It's only been seven days into our relationship and hopefully it would continue to work out between us (for the next 24 months at least!).

In praise of my N73

I was never an Apple fan. I think Apple is better at marketing rather than what it should be good at. And because of this, Apple has created a whole lot of zombies who are blindly devoted to the brand. You know what I’m talking about! It is just mind boggling. A documentary (macHEADS) has been made about it. They’ll defend it like their lives depend on it! Snap out of it macheads!

The release of the 3G iPhone is a good example of this “phenomenon”. Unless you’ve been living like a hermit in the past couple of months you wouldn’t have missed the news snippets from around the world showing throngs of people queuing (some for days) just to be the first owners of this Apple product. And it was a crap product at that! Just follow the link to find out more before you get duped by its shiny advertisement. It costs too much to acquire and it costs even more to maintain. And it has a lot of flaws. Why people want it beats me!

The same could not be said, though, about my Nokia N73. No, I am not a Nokia employee. Nor am I a Nokia devotee. I just think Nokia N73 is an excellent product.

My 24 month mobile phone contract is going to expire in a couple of week’s time. It is the perfect time for me to reflect on my two years with my trusted Nokia N73 before I replace it with hopefully a better product. And no, I am not getting an iPhone.

My Nokia N73 has serviced me well in the past two years. Apart from the normal mobile phone features, the Nokia N73 comes with a 3.2 mega pixel camera armed with the world famous Carl Zeiss optic lens. 99% of the photos on this blog were taken using my N73. They’re not great photos I know. They were never meant to be. They were taken using a phone, just in case you’ve forgotten.

I probably should invest in a good camera if I’m serious about blogging. But at the moment my N73 does the job!