Finally I am in Greece for a little while. Before I get to start an exciting and very scary part in my life (nope, not getting married!) I decided to spend some relaxing time back home and get some rest. In all sincerity I wanted to taste again the sweetness of a ripe tomato and the freshness of a seedy watermelon. The flavours in vegetables and fruit is what I miss the most when I am away, but I've learned to adapt that to seasonal and local only produce in Zurich.
Whenever I travel to Athens, I make sure I load up on all the superfoods and adaptogens I use from a very good store downtown. This time I got myself some matcha powder as well, since I would like to reduce my coffee consumption by next month to one per day or zero, when possible. A hot cup of matcha mixed with some honey is a great start in the day for me. I can't tolerate matcha on its own, so I either mix it with some nut milk or some honey and coconut oil.
The great thing about matcha, apart from the antioxidant properties which I will not talk about in this post, is that you can incorporate it in almost any recipe you can think of. If you search the net a bit you will find matcha cheesecakes, doughnuts, waffles, energy balls and so many more. The heat in Athens got me thinking I haven't yet had a proper cream here. An immediate response was to create a matcha infused ice cream. However, our fridge was rather packed with things, so it was impossible to include an ice cream maker or a large bowl inside the fridge. Still, I needed that chilly taste in my mouth... Then, I had an idea to create a sort of affogato, with matcha!
Affogato is an italian inspired dessert made with ice cream and espresso. You can find a recipe I created a while back with it. In this recipe I used an infusion of matcha with ginger and honey as the hot liquid and then some delicious ice cream as the base. I find that it's a nice twist of the real thing and you can enjoy it if you don't like coffee that much.
Matcha, ginger & honey affogato
ingredients (for two persons)
1 teaspoon good quality matcha powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
1 teaspoon coconut oil
300 ml water
4 scoops of vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips (straciatella)
honey to drizzle
crushed peanuts or other nuts to garnish
How do I make it?
1. First thing is to prepare your matcha brew. In a pot, put together the matcha powder, honey, ginger & ginger powder, coconut oil and water. Boil the mixture in medium heat, mixing a bit once or twice. The water doesn't need a lot of boil, just when small bubbles start to appear remove from heat. Using a strain, pour the hot brew in a large cup or bowl. Let it cool a little bit before you start serving the ice cream.
2. When you're ready to serve, simply put two scoops of ice cream in two bowls and then pour some of the matcha brew on top. Quickly drizzle with some honey and peanuts. Enjoy as fast as you can!
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