From Dish Amelia:
Dish Danielle and I just returned from a beautiful trip to Oaxaca, Mexico (the most southern state). This was no all-inclusive-lie-on-beach trip; we were in the capital Oaxaca City, and ventured out a couple times on day trips to rural village markets. As you can imagine we spent most of the time eating or considering our next meal. Oaxaca is famous for many special things: chiles, mezcal (a spirit made from agave), toasted grasshoppers (protein-rich crunchy-salty-leggy), chocolate (mostly for drinking), squeaky fresh and stringy cheese, unchanged ancient corn drinks, seven kinds of mole (a deep and complex sauce made of many, many ingredients), and nieves (“snow” in spanish, ice milks). We saw nieves stalls at the markets, and on the streets, and all of them have each flavor packed in a canister set in a barrel of salted ice, and the vendor must periodically spin the canisters to keep them icy.
Some of the nieves are sorbets, made with fruit and water, and some are made with milk, but none of them are made with cream and eggs, so they are light and icy in a good way. I remembered there was a church in the center (there are lots of churches) where there was a courtyard I went to with my dad to get nieves. Eventually, we found the church, and then the courtyard, but due to construction there were no vendors. Darn…man, its pretty hot. Oh, wait, there they are! They moved! Tucked along the outside wall facing the street, the stalls looked temporary with many tarps shielding them from traffic and sun, but also cozy, (cast iron tables, glassware and tv). All the stalls sell nieves, so you have to pick one based on how many people are in line (the more the better) or flavors they have, or in our case a totally arbitrary one. (But a winner!!) I tasted leche quemada (burned milk, hoping for it to be something akin to burnt caramel, but this was not so.) And then nuez (nuts, or pecan) and it was so wonderful I ordered that right away.
Danielle got nuez and cajeta (goat milk caramel, a slightly funky yummy flavor). I hadn’t realized I could get two flavors in my cup at once (duh) and the vendor offered to switch one out but I went tunnel vision at this point and all I could see and and taste and feel at this point was sweet, hydrating, pecan-city nieves de nuez. Later I wished I had tasted elote (corn) mamey (a seasonal fruit), the zapotes (more fruits), and beso oaxaqueno (oaxacan kiss..I have no idea what this could mean), but of course I didn’t regret my decision.
My frozen treat loving companion was adamant that we do. This. Every. Day. But there was so much to see we didn’t make it back. Danielle and I walked a bunch of blocks up Tinoco Y Palacios in the shade in a state of extreme bliss I will never forget.
Lucky for you and me I was able to recreate the product pretty dead on. Excepting for the fact that I used an ice cream maker, and for a slight difference in milk/terroir/exhaust fumes etc..
1/2 cup toasted pecans
3 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp sweet rice flour or cornstarch
pinch of kosher salt
Yields 1 quart.
Toast the pecans in a dry cast iron, let them cool, then rough chop. Be sure to gather up any fine pecan dust as well as the larger pieces. Put all ingredients in a sauce pot and heat gently for about 15-20 minutes. Dont let the milk boil and stir often so the starch thickens the mixture slightly, and it doesn’t get too hot. You want the sugar to dissolve and the pecans to impart their flavor to the milk.
Pour the mixture into a stainless bowl and set it in a ice bath, and stir until chilled enough to put in the fridge. After about an hour, run through an ice cream maker, store in a quart container, and fluff with a fork.
Leave a Reply