Vinegar and Ice Cream

It sounds as good as iced pepperoni cupcakes, doesn't it? Of course, it is dependent on the right vinegar. When I was a pastry chef we did a desert with sliced strawberries and a grocery-store balsamic vinegar over a cinnamon dough thing. It was an idea waiting for the right ingredients. Later, when I bought a $50.00 bottle of 15-year-old aged balsamic, I tried the strawberry and vinegar mixture again and spooned it over ice cream. The older a balsamic gets, the mellower and more complex it becomes. I was highly satisfied with the result. Then, on a trip to the Napa Valley, my parents discovered a black fig vinegar. This was darker and thicker and mellower than any balsamic I had tasted. Some recipes come to me in a flash. This one has been 10 years in the making.


Plate a mix of strawberries and any other berries you like. Above I have blackberries shown. Drizzle some black fig vinegar on the plate. Adorn with a few mint leaves and spoon some vanilla gelato or white chocolate ice cream somewhere in the crowd. What you end up with is this wonderful harmony of subtle opposites. Something happens between the vinegar and the ice cream that makes a combination that tastes more like a rare dark chocolate than anything. I have found this to be a lovely, surprising combination that everyone remembers. It is equally impressive without the guests and the praise. The mint is light and grassy. There is a range of mellow acids offset by rich cream. It is sweet but doesn't punish you with sugar. You feel satisfied, refreshed and surprised. A dessert that leaves you wanting more.

$2.50 per serving. Light. Surprising. The ice cream could be replaced with frozen yogurt for a week night treat. Good antioxidants. The acid ends up being an aid to digestion.