The perennial coolness of ice blocks
Peach and sour cream ice blocks, a mock mayo saga and textile designer Marta Buda's favourite eats in the capital.
Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter produced in partnership with Boring Oat Milk. Written by me, Charlotte Muru-Lanning. It’s lovely to have you here!
This week, something a little different. My colleague Shanti Mathias, who edits The Spinoff’s The Weekend newsletter, regularly torments me with pictures of the fantastically-flavoured ice cream she quite literally whips up at home. In lieu of being able to eat one (forgiven – it’s understandably difficult to transport frozen goods to the office successfully), Shanti has very kindly shared a recipe for her latest creation, a peach and sour cream ice block with all of us below – enjoy!/ CML
I have an affliction which causes me to sometimes not get to sleep because I am thinking of interesting flavour combinations for food, and that is how this recipe was born: late at night, wondering what to do with some peaches I had preserved during the summer. I’ve been obsessed with ice blocks since a flatmate gave me a mould she’d found at the op shop a few years ago. Since then, I’ve fallen deep into the world of ice blocks and ice cream, mostly because they helped me meet a core need of feeling special: this isn’t a lemonade popsicle, it’s a strawberry, ginger, and rosé ice block! This isn’t a jelly tip, it’s frozen horchata!
Even though it’s the middle of winter, cold treats never go out of season. Here, the sweetness of peaches combines with the sour creaminess of the sour cream. This is offset by the crunchy shell of chocolate, where the depth of flavour from the caramelisation enhances the peaches. And the pretzel coating is also crunchy and salty, but mostly is good for feeling smug about how impressive your creations are.
Ingredients
300 grams sour cream
1 can of peaches (or use home preserves if you have them)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon water
100 grams caramelised white chocolate (there are Cadbury and Whittaker’s versions – if you prefer dark or milk chocolate, they’d be delicious too)
Coconut or other neutral oil (I used avocado oil tbh but coconut would be better)
~ 20 small crunchy pretzels (save the rest of the packet to snack on!)
Bench and freezer space (very easy to overlook!)
Method
Drain the peaches, reserving the syrup. With a fork, slightly mash about half the peaches, and mix with the sour cream in a bowl. Stir in the sugar and half the syrup. (the rest of the peaches are yours to do with what you wish)
Decant the mixture into your ice block moulds, insert the sticks, and place in the freezer. Leave it there for at least 8 hours!
After 8 hours, chop up your chocolate and melt it in a shallow bowl with two-ish teaspoons of oil in the microwave. I did this in 30 second bursts, stopping to stir the chocolate in between. The oil is to make the melted chocolate a little runnier. Crush your pretzels – not to a powder, but they should be in lots of pieces – in a mortar and pestle. Put your pretzel crumbs on a plate.
Set yourself up a nice little workflow, with the melted chocolate, then the pretzel crumbs, then a tray that fits in your freezer with a sheet of baking paper (or that silicone reusable stuff) on top. Remove your moulds from the freezer, run them under some hot water to loosen, and slowly pull them out. Holding the stick, dip the ice block in the melted chocolate, using a spoon to coat the whole thing. Before the chocolate hardens, roll it in the pretzel pieces, then place it on the baking tray. This is a little bit fiddly but don’t panic! Repeat.
Leave the ice blocks in the freezer for at least 15 minutes to finish solidifying. Serve immediately, or whenever you like.
This worked out perfectly for my 8x60ml ice block moulds, but check the volume of yours – fill up one mould with water and pour it into a measuring container, then multiply to figure out your overall volume.
A note on texture: ice block texture can vary wildly depending on your freezer temperature and the ingredients you used. I’ve mostly learned by experimentation, but there’s a science to it, as explained in the Kitchen Projects newsletter here. /SM
The Boil Up is brought to you in partnership with Boring Oat Milk.
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Weekly bites
We have sustainability ticks and council-monitored food grading in hospitality, so I’ve wondered for a while why there’s no widespread accreditation for another important part of running a business: working conditions. Last week, the Restaurant Association announced their HospoCred scheme, which will give eateries the opportunity to apply for a certificate which will recognise that their business exceeds the current standards of employment and training. It’s an innovative idea that has certainly piqued my interest, especially with the rise of discussion around the treatment of workers in the industry throughout Covid-19, but I won’t lie, I do have a lot of questions – namely, is a business association best-tasked to certify work conditions?
“After all, like Coca Cola, McDonald’s, and disappointment, sweet and sour pork is everywhere,” remarks Sharon Lam in her love letter to sweet and sour pork. Her piece is more than just a love letter though, Lam takes us through the meandering history of the eternally-unifying, yet too-often undermined dish. Since reading, I’ve found a new dimension of appreciation for those red-coated deep-fried morsels – I’m also hungry.
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Lunchtime destination Carnivores opened in central Christchurch in 1995 and described itself as “the home of honey chicken”. Back then, queues would snake out the door of its signature emerald-tiled Manchester Street store and onto the street. Their crumbed chicken, roast beef, pork strip and more were served with sauces and salads in sandwiches, rolls or boxed meals to-go expanded to two suburban mall locations but all three outlets were closed by 2015. Now, it looks like a comeback could be on the cards. Stuff reported this week that the owner of the Carnivores brand Gary Doig is looking for a new business partner and new premises so he can reopen.
In response to the 20% price increase of Best Foods Mayo, Stuff food editor Emily Brookes took up the challenge to make New Zealand mock mayonnaise. In the 20th century, before mayonnaise was readily available, the condensed milk, malt vinegar and mustard combination, that I would describe (affectionately) as a beloved abomination, was kept in tupperware containers in fridges all across the country, ready to be poured onto lettuce and tomato salads. Brookes’ first-time engagement with the dressing sparked a flurry of comments, with readers astounded, and some annoyed, that she’d never eaten nor heard of the concoction. The saga, which Brookes responded to in an article, I reckon reflects some intriguing assumptions surrounding national identity, race and food in this country.
For fifty years, on a street corner in Bangkok, Yai Nang or “Grandma Yang” was a fixture with her stall “offering enormous plastic cups of super-sweet Thai coffee or orange-hued teas, filled to the brim with life-saving ice on hot afternoons,” writes Chawadee Nualkhair. After Yang’s death from Covid-19, Nualkhair’s gentle read on Popula observes more than half a century of change by way of this humble iced coffee stall: from the Thailand’s post-WWII modernization, the financial boom of the 1980s, the 1997 bust and baht devaluation, all the way to 2020, when Nang stopped selling her Thai tea and coffee, because “no one really had a taste for it anymore”.
Five places with textile designer Marta Buda
Textile designer and weaver Marta Buda lives in Wellington, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She also runs online store Best Wishes – an excellent option when you’re stuck for gift ideas. Personally, I can vouch for these aluminium clips which are a necessary addition to any snack eater’s collection and these jaunty shopping bags for the market-enthusiast in your life. Buda shared her favourite places for kai with The Boil Up this week:
Rita, Aro Valley, Wellington: My all-time favourite restaurant. I'm not good at making decisions when I'm given too many options so Rita’s chef's choice set menu is ideal for an indecisive person like me. The menu changes almost daily depending on what fresh produce is available and so it's always a surprise what you'll get – you just need to trust that it's going to be delicious.
Nature Vegetarian, Lower Hutt: Specifically their wonton soup, a super delicate and fragrant broth that has just the right amount of ginger with yummy house-made wontons. This is a tiny family-run vegetarian restaurant in Lower Hutt with all sorts of tofu and mock meat dishes that vegans and vegetarians go crazy for. Try not to be too hungry or in a rush when you get here, there are only two staff who do everything by themselves, but the wait is worth it.
Knedle z śliwkami at home: This dish, which translates to dumplings with plums, is my favourite comfort food. I came to Aotearoa when I was three years old from Poland. My mother is an incredible cook, but the longer we have lived here the less Polish food she cooks, so most of the time Polish dishes are reserved for special occasions. Knedle are a potato-based dough dumpling – boiled and mashed potatoes are mixed with flour and egg to make a dough, half a plum with some sugar and cinnamon is then encased in the dough, this is then boiled and served with cream, brown sugar and cinnamon. Delicious, doughy, dumpling goodness.
Vada pao at Bikaner, Petone: Vada pao are deep-fried potato dumplings served inside a soft white bun with tamarind and mint chutney. I had to add this because I think about it all the time, and wonder when I’ll have time to drive to Petone and get one of these next. A little hack for if you live in Wellington: order online and by the time you drive to Petone your vada pao will be ready for you.
Hazel Heaven from She Universe: Hazelnut and chocolate are one of my all-time favourite flavour combinations. I used to live off Nutella as a teenager, but since I don't eat dairy and I've learnt all the other bad stuff about it, I’ve been on a quest to find the perfect hazelnut praline alternative. These bars made by She Universe are better than any dairy chocolate version I have tried and they’re made with New Zealand-grown hazelnuts.
Talk next week!
Hei kōnā mai, Charlotte
