With this recipe, you can make tempura-fried ice cream (and yes, you really want to try it)

Mister Wateetons can keep it brief: deep-frying is the best cooking technique on earth. And we completely agree, because even ice cream coated in tempura batter and deep-fried is delicious. The recipe comes from Mister’s new book Over frituren.

Mister Wateetons: “There are conflicting stories about the origin of this dessert. Some claim it was first served at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where the ice cream sundae was also invented; others claim that fried ice cream was invented by a Japanese tempura restaurant.

The basic idea is to coat an ice-cold scoop of ice cream with a coating of your choice, then briefly deep-fry it and serve it immediately: a crispy, warm exterior with a still-frozen interior of ice cream. The best of many worlds, Japanese or American. The important thing when preparing this is that the coating is thick enough and the ice cream is cold enough. Double-coat it and freeze it twice as cold, so to speak.”

How to make tempura-fried ice cream

• Scoop 4 balls of ice cream, place them on a plate covered with plastic wrap and put them in the freezer.
• Cut the omacake – typically Japanese, as everyone knows – lengthwise into four slices.
• Roll the slices flat between sheets of plastic wrap using a rolling pin.
• Wrap the ice cream balls in the omacake slices. It can be a thick layer of at least 1 cm. Make sure no ice cream is still visible.
• Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze again until the balls are frozen solid.
• Make a tempura batter.
• Dip your balls in the batter, not too thickly, then coat them in Mariakaakjes crunch and deep-fry at the maximum setting of your deep fryer (approximately 200 degrees) for 1 minute, until golden yellow.
• Serve immediately.

Tips and variations

• Serve with whipped cream and, optionally, a fruit sauce.
• You can also dip the balls in lightly beaten egg white. As long as it sticks, that’s what matters.
• If you can’t find these types of ice cream, simply use a scoop of any kind of ice cream. It just won’t be Japanese.
• There are endless possibilities for variation in terms of wrapping and coating. Consider wrapping it in a flattened slice of white bread, or coating it in cornflakes, finely chopped nuts, coconut, Bastogne cookies and panko.
• Instead of a scoop of ice cream, you can also serve ice cream on a stick this way, such as a Magnum. Preferably not a Cornetto. Or a Raket.
• This also pairs excellently with drinks. How about a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a nut coating with a glass of ice-cold limoncello? Or a scoop of hazelnut ice cream in a Bastogne-cookie coating with an Irish coffee?

Title: Over frituren
Author: Meneer Wateetons
Price: €32,-
Publisher: Fontaine Uitgevers

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