In Good Taste #93: Kefir ice cream "Mivvileros"
Fruity, probiotic summer treats; some festival appearances; The Ballad of Wallis Island
Well, hello there! How are you?
Good I hope.
(Not up for the chitchat? Completely get it. Click the email title to go to a web-based version then jump straight to the recipe or Cultural Fun.)
Are you anywhere near Guildford? If so, I have some free tickets for this weekend’s Foodies Festival where I will be doing a sauerkraut demo. Improbably I am sharing a bill with early 2000s boyband favourites Blue. On very different stages but still…
I’m doing my thing at 1pm on the Chef’s Stage. Drop me a line if you want a ticket. I’ll also be appearing at future Foodies Festivals in Chelmsford (20th June), Cambridge (4th July) and Oxford (23rd August) but will remind you about those nearer the time.
In other festival news, I will be chatting gut health and showing people how delightfully easy it is to make kraut at the Wellnergy Team Day in Wimbledon Park next Friday. As a writer and language lover I can’t say that I am comfortable with the ugly portmanteau word Wellnergy. But I’m definitely pro the idea of improving one’s work life through nutrition, meditation etc. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to tell people about my fermentation workshops in a team building context.
Again, let me know as I also have tickets to to distribute. Looks like quite woo-woo vibes but hopefully in a fun way. Or - even better - if you already believe me that sauerkraut making would be a great team bonding activity then get in touch to book one for your workplace. Previous participants said things like:
“Clare’s fermentation workshop was fantastic! She brought amazing energy and kept the session fun and engaging from start to finish. Everything was so well-prepared and ran seamlessly, making it an enjoyable experience for the whole team. Plus, the kimchi and kraut we made tasted incredible. Highly recommend!”
Anyway. Enough self-promotion. Speaking of ugly compound words, the recipe I have for you today is a homemade take on a Mivvi/Solero style ice cream lolly. The recipe has been a loooong time in development but I haven’t put similar effort into the name. Mivvileros sounds like a Flamenco-influenced rock band, a la the Gypsy Kings. Alternative suggestions gratefully accepted…
Lolly day! Celebrate!
TL;DR: A lot of thought went into making the construction of these as easy as possible. Skip this bit if you not interested in my technical struggles…
Lollies and I have a bit of history. Obviously I loved them as a child (I still mourn the jokes on Walls’s sticks) but I’ve thought about them as a lot as a grown up too.
Back in 2014 I won a competition run by frozen food specialists COOK and gourmet lolly makers the Ice Kitchen* to invent a new lolly flavour. The prize was a copy of the Ice Kitchen book of lolly recipes and for my Rosé Wine & Basil lollies to be produced as a limited edition. Exciting times.
The book was full of interesting flavour ideas: Lychee & Lemongrass, Hibiscus & Peach, Mexican Chocolate etc. I bought my first set of lolly moulds and had a lot of fun. But then James asked if I could make a Mivvi-style lolly: vanilla ice cream inside a fruity shell. In my opinion, these type of things are the perfect summer treat. I like the luxury of a choc ice (especially a Mint Magnum) but they’re not refreshing. Nice on a warm day but chocolate is too cloying in real heat. And an ice lolly is refreshing but sometimes doesn’t feel indulgent enough. A Mivvi or Solero combines the best of both worlds.
However, like many childhood treats, the industrially-processed reality often fails to live up to the nostalgic ideal. Sadly neither of those things does it for me any more. I can taste the chemicals. So about 10 years ago I got obsessed with the idea of creating my own. It was easier said than done.
Industrial production of these Mivvi-style, icy-shelled lollies involves things like brine baths and the undelicous-sounding “suction evacuator”). You could attempt to recreate the lolly “shell” by partially freezing the fruit mixture then tipping out the still-liquid inside. But this would require relatively precise timing (or constantly checking the freezer) and also wastefulness.
The outside of a Solero is softer and more sorbet-like in texture. I haven’t been able to find any production-line videos but my suspicion is that they are made by dipping ice cream cores into the fruit coating at temperatures low enough that it freezes instantly, something else it would be difficult to achieve in a domestic freezer.
So. Without access to industrial processes, how can I achieve the structure I want? I think my ideal for beautiful presentation would be to have two sets of lolly moulds: one small and one standard, create an ice cream core in the first then freeze it surrounded by fruit purée in the second. But I already own three sets of lolly moulds and am loath to buy two more.
Back in 2015 (for a little-read and now-defunct blog) I ended up using some round, rocket (or er…) shaped moulds and creating “inner” moulds with carrots to slightly grotesque effect. The results were tasty but hardly beautiful and so much effort to produce.
I have returned to the project and arrived at a method that uses no moulds at all. We haven’t got a shell exactly but a kind of sandwich. The texture and flavour is right though and hopefully this is something that do-able for everyone with a blender and a freezer. It uses last year’s kefir ice cream recipe so you can legitimately claim they are good for you too.
*Cesar Roden (grandson of legendary food writer Claudia) has since pivoted away from lollies and into frozen spice pastes.
Recipe: Rhubarb & strawberry kefir ice cream Mivvileros
Makes 8 lollies
This is a little bit of a project but hopefully a fun one. If you’re after something less labour intensive may I recommend the preserved lemon frozen yoghurt from a couple of weeks back.
Ingredients
1 quantity of kefir ice cream
250g rhubarb, washed and cut into inch-long pieces
125ml water
175g sugar
250g strawberries, washed, hulled and halved
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Method
Make the ice cream mixture. Start by making the kefir ice cream as, even if you’re not going to “age” it overnight, it needs time to chill before churning.
Cook the fruit. Put the rhubarb, sugar and water in a pan and cook gently until the rhubarb is soft and starting to break down, about 10-15 mins. Take it off the heat, add the strawberries and lemon juice and mix well.
Freeze the fruit. Pour the rhubarb-strawberry mixture into a container with a lid, let it cool then freeze until solid.
Churn the ice cream. Put the chilled kefir custard in your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. This will probably take half an hour or so (see notes for a non-churn alternative).
Prepare a tray. Whilst the ice cream is churning, prepare a tray in which to freeze the mixtures. I used a 20x20cm brownie tray. You could go with two loaf tins instead or any similar-sized, freezer safe Tupperware. Carefully line the inside with cling film, making sure it’s tight to the walls. You might need to use two pieces in a cross shape to get good coverage.
Blitz the fruit. Once the ice cream is churned you’ll need to work fast to get things in the freezer before they melt. Turn the frozen fruit mixture out and chop it into chunks. Put these in a food processor or blender and blitz to smooth, sorbet-like consistency.
Construct the Mivvileros! Remove a couple of spoonfuls of the fruit mixture and add to the ice cream. Pour half the remaining fruit mixture into your cling filmed tray and spread it as evenly as possible. Swirl the ice cream to distribute the fruit mixture and then transfer it to the tin on to of the fruity layer. Spread it evenly and smoothly. Finish with the remaining fruit mixture. Make sure the top is even then cover with a layer of greaseproof paper and wrap the clingfilm over it. Freeze until solid, making sure the tray is horizontal in the freezer.
Add the sticks and serve. Unwrap the clingfilm from the Mivvilero tray and invert onto a chopping board. Remove the clingfilm and use a sharp knife to trim the edges (see notes) and slice into eight “bars” which should have a nice clean “sandwich” look to them - layer of ice cream between two pretty pink outer layers. Carefully jam a lolly stick into one end of each and serve. I found the best way to get a stick in without splitting the lolly in half was to warm a knife or skewer in a jug of hot water and make an initial hole before inserting the stick.
Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)
I like this when the strawberries aren’t cooked, just warmed through in the heat of the rhubarb’s syrup. I think it keeps the flavours brighter. But if your strawberries aren’t perfectly ripe then cook them with the rhubarb.
Sub the rhubarb-strawberry mixture for any sorbet recipe you fancy. I made an alternative fruit mixture of lacto blueberries blended with a couple of tablespoons of preserved lemon purée and some sugar which was delicious too although probably not a child-pleaser. They’re the darker coloured ones in the photo. I’m going to do a tropical, more Solero-y version too and will let you know how it goes.
A tablespoon of vodka in the fruit mixture helps keep it soft and stops it from turning icy in the freezer.
If you don’t have an ice cream maker you can freeze the kefir mixture then, once solid, chop into chunks and blitz to a soft-serve consistency in a food processor or blender. It will be slightly denser this way but fine.
For smoother results with the fruit purée you can blitz it before freezing and push through a sieve to remove the strawberry pips. You’ll still need to blitz again after freezing though to get the correct consistency. I’m just trying to limit the amount of washing up…
Eschew sticks altogether and just serve the ice cream bars in a wrapper of greaseproof paper like a choc ice. Or sandwich the sandwich between wafers of biscuits. I’d add the sticks just before eating so you can store any spare more easily.
Keep the offcuts and blend together for an extra little serving of fruity ice cream.
Cultural Fun
The Ballad of Wallis Island is as good as everyone says it is. Tim Key is equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking as the lottery winner who pays his favourite band to reunite for a private gig. Tom Basden and Carey Mulligan and great as the musicians and the music is lovely too.
We got cheap tickets for new musical Stiletto via “discreet” seat filling service Stage Audience and enjoyed it. It’s had some terrible reviews which seem unfair. There’s a little bit of the rhyming dictionary to the lyrics and the book could do with a polish but the music is rousing in a Les Mis way, the performances were good and the set is pretty.
We also went to a lunchtime concert at St Martins in the Field. Pianist Richard Saxel playing a selection of dreamy “lullabies and reveries”. It was wonderful and extremely good value. £20 for a ticket which includes a fish and chip lunch in Cafe in the Crypt (£10 without). If you’re able to do daytime things in London I really recommend seeing what else they have on.
Bye! See you next week!
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These look amazing, well done!
Nice idea. I forgot about the jokes on lolly sticks, thanks for the memory.
Have you tried MSK Ingredients? We used them for the restaurant, they supply various products which can give different textures to your ice creams and sorbets. We used a sorbet stabiliser to create a smooth result.