Recipe: Sous Vide Ice Cream

PID Controller and Rice Cooker courtesy Auber Instruments

One of our all-time favorite food hacks is the DIY sous vide setup--it takes a very trendy, seemingly complicated and intimidating device and brings it to your countertop with just a little bit of work.

Paul's post in 2010 outlined his method for turning an ordinary, inexpensive rice cooker into a tool for creating incredibly tender, delicious foods. After you've made your own sous vide setup (or won one in our contest, which is still going on!), you can make new weird stuff--like, say, Buckwheat-Rye Gelato.

INGREDIENTS

• 400 grams dry buckwheat, or kasha
• 750 ml cold milk and cream, in any proportion you like. I do 75 percent milk, 25 percent cream
• 5 egg yolks
• 200 grams white sugar
• 20 ml rye whiskey
• 0.75 gram xanthan gum

PROCEDURE

In a deep saucepan, toast the dry kasha until it is fragrant, being very careful not to scorch it.

Turn off the flame. Pour the milk/cream mixture over the kasha, stir, and let it sit for 30 minutes.

Strain the solids out and set them aside for another purpose.

In a blender, mix together the sugar and the xanthan first, then add the milk/cream, egg yolks, and whiskey, and blend until the sugar is dissolved.

Place the mixture in a mason jar (perhaps it's already in a mason jar!) and vacuum-seal lid onto it.

Place the jar in a sous-vide bath at 82°C (179°F) for 30 minutes, shaking it every few minutes.

Remove from bath and put in refrigerator.

After it's fully chilled, pour the custard into your ice cream- or gelato-maker of choice and freeze as usual.