Genmaicha ice cream

Hi!

I was asked by a Caviar producer if I wanted to create a dessert using one of their caviars and obviously I had to say yes. Not just because, well, hello it’s caviar - but mostly because I genuinely love a recipe challenge. And while I certainly am not the first person to use caviar in a dessert, it was still a fun experience trying to make something new.

I wanted to play up the nutty, buttery flavour of the oscietra caviar and considered a whole bunch of different pairings: popcorn ice cream, pecan ice cream, watermelon sorbet, lemon ice cream - even calabran licorice ice cream!

In the end I settled for genmaicha, green tea with roasted brown rice. The earthiness of the green tea and the sweet, toasty popcorn notes of the rice were the perfect match for the caviar. A drizzle of hazelnut oil to finish was perfect.

Now I know caviar on ice cream is obscenely decadent! And to be honest the genmaicha ice cream is amazing just on its own. My 8 year old son swears this is his favourite flavour I’ve ever made (he chose this for dessert over the vanilla and milk chocolate ice creams in the freezer)! You can even fancy it up with a sprinkling of toasted hazelnuts and drizzle with salted caramel sauce for an epic sundae.