We had Father's Day at our house yesterday, with a barbecue in the warm summer afternoon -- we impulsively moved everything and ate outside, it was so lovely. I made a white barbecue sauce, mayonnaise-based, from a recipe in "Cook's Country" magazine, and David grilled chicken and corn on the cob, and we had a favorite salad of fresh spinach, sliced cucumber, chopped cilantro, and tomatoes with a light vinaigrette.
Afterwards, we made ice cream. When I first tasted this lemon buttermilk ice cream a couple of years ago, a recipe from I think "Cooking Light", I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. My father-in-law shuddered a bit when I said that there is buttermilk in it, but he conceded the point when he tried it. It has a wonderful tangy sweetness, and I love the way that the lemon stays in your mouth long afterwards, like a memory of summer. We all took turns cranking the freezer, the girls adding the ice and rock salt -- it seems that the ice cream is even better when you have to work for it a little.
Lemon Buttermilk Ice Cream
1 cup freshly-squeezed lemon juice (about 5 to 10 lemons)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups whole or 2% low-fat milk
2 cups half-and-half
2 cups buttermilk
Combine the lemon juice and sugar in a large bowl, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the milk, half-and-half, and buttermilk. (Refrigerate if necessary, until you are ready to make the ice cream.)
Prepare in a hand-cranked ice cream maker, or in an electric ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's directions. You may need to halve the recipe for some electric freezers.
Homemade ice cream is best on the day it is made; let leftovers soften a bit, at room temperature or on a very low microwave setting, and stir thoroughly to break up the ice crystals which develop.
Makes about 9 cups of ice cream. Preparation time, about 5 minutes; active work time, about 40 minutes.
Comments