Stir-fried ice cream

Stir-fried ice cream (Chinese: 炒雪糕), ice pan ice cream, rolled ice cream or ice cream rolls is a hand made ice cream dessert made with milk poured on an iced grill, mixed with fruit or different ingredients on the ice-pan. It is an East Asian method of ice cream production.

Background

Stir-fried ice cream, or "ice pan" ice cream, is an Asian dessert commonly made in Thailand [1] made on a teppan, or steel, grill, that is chilled to -35 °C. A choice of soy or dairy milk is poured onto the cold grill and mixed with fruit, green tea, coffee or other ingredients, the mixture is chopped and stirred while crystallizing, until creamy. In the U.S. there is one company that makes this, called Ice Pan in Harrah's Casino in Las Vegas. A modified version of the dessert was also a product of Cold Stone Creamery, an ice cream parlour chain in America, which involved combining their ice cream with different flavours into one dish on a frozen granite stone. In Pakistan it is also getting popular after the announcement of its launch by IyshCleem in Karachi.

Popularity in Hong Kong

Globalization of food

There are more and more dessert restaurants in Hong Kong selling stir-fried ice cream. One of the reasons for its popularity in Hong Kong may attribute to the food globalization. Those Hong Kong dessert chains may well be under the influence by other countries where stir-fried ice cream is rather popular, for example, Thailand. In Thailand, stir-fried ice cream is a popular dessert though it is different from the traditional local food culture there. It is a dessert commonly found in many Thai restaurants. Due to the result of food globalization, there is now a spread of popularity of stir-fried ice cream to Hong Kong. Based on the definition of food communication, globalization of food is ‘the multiple modes of interaction of the economic, political, social and cultural dimensions of globalization as the effect of food-related matters’.[2] Food markets around the globe are becoming more globally integrated, linking various food cultures of the world.[3] As stir-fried ice cream has created a furore in Thailand and also some other countries, some Hong Kong dessert restaurants then began to follow suit and started the production of stir-fried ice cream. In Hong Kong today, there are several shops selling stir-fried ice cream.

Ease in production

The ease in production of stir-fried ice cream contributes to its popularity in Hong Kong, where people with increasing workloads[4] and stress levels relatively higher compared to other places in Asia, find it hard to sit down and savour a meal [5][6] and stir-fried ice cream is an alternative. Most recipes involve only a few simple steps so that even beginners can make it, providing a rather easy and relaxing dessert for people to produce. More people willing to make it may be another factor leading to its increasing popularity.

Ingredients and recipe

Stir-fried ice cream is made with a milk base combined with various fresh ingredients and different toppings served with the ice cream. The main ingredients are the liquid base flavour which is commonly milk, or soy milk. Fresh fruit or other choices such as chocolate, green tea, red bean etc. are blended with the milk, while sometimes extract powder or syrups are used to create the flavour.[7] To make stir-fried ice cream, the mixture is first poured into an ultra-cold metal pan with a -18 to -35 degree Celsius. The ice cream masher uses two iron, or metal, spatulas to mix and stir the mixture, which freezes and solidifies. The masher will add and grind different toppings like nuts, chocolate chips, fruits etc. to increase the texture of the ice-cream. By continuously mixing and stirring in the cold pan, a scoop of stir-fried ice-cream is created. The stir-fried process has to be quick and instant with only 5–10 seconds used to create the texture of ice-cream. The ice cream can be piled for scooping or smoothed flat for scraping into curls and served in cups, cones or waffles.[8][9]

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, May 06, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.