Rose Parfait

Rose Parfait 

The truth is that, once you have had the superior variety of a dish its hard to go back to the other varieties even if you have grown up with the second non perfect variant. It started when I had put a spoonful of the glorious Movenpick ice-cream in my mouth. Smooth, silky decadent I was in 9th heaven if there is such a place and then I noticed that it had a little red symbol beside some flavours. I went back home and gathered as much information as possible about ice-creams over the internet and was surprised to know that eggs are a staple ingredient of most European ice-creams.

Ever since that time I  have made the most decadent of silky ice-creams thanks to the rich texture provided by this one simple ingredient but then again my grandmother is allergic to eggs which is sad, so she misses out on most desserts I make and I honestly feel bad. So when I bought a litre of double cream. I decided that I would use half of it for a decadent chocolate flavoured silky indulgence with eggs and a rose flavoured variant without eggs.

You see rose is something which has fascinated me from my childhood. My grandmother's huge roses in our garden which has been there for over 40 years has this sweet aroma which cheers me up instantly and then again there is something about this beautiful flower. And not only does it aesthetically please me but the flavouring in food makes me happy and so when I tasted this amazing rose flavoured ice-cream at Taj Bengal I was intrigued , fascinated and wanted to try my hands on it.

To be fair most Persian recipes , for those who do not know this delicacy that we all enjoy actually originated in Persia and there it is known as Bastani and most of the Iranian recipes have the full richness of eggs, so I basically developed this recipe but I have to admit that it did have ice-crystals even though I whippe dit every 1 hour for 6 hours while it was being frozen but then again on these days when the weather becomes unbearable it sure does taste deligthful and with my cosuin brother helping himself to a second scoop and declaring the flavoru to be 'perfect' I have to say I am calling it my rose parfait, the French invented this word which in the culinary sense means frozen .

What you need for 7 to 8 scoops

500ml whole milk
500ml double dairy cream
15gm of dried rose
Sugar as per taste ( I needed a total of 5 tbsp)
2 tsp rosewater
2 tbsp rose syrup
2 tbsp corn-flour
3 green cardamom

Start by making your rose syrup. Simply use the edible petals from 2 roses and steep it in 1 cup of boiled water covered for 5 minutes. Now bring this water to a boil with a little more than half the amount of sugar and when thickened add a drop of lemon or two so that crystals do not form. Dry roast your dried rose and then grind it smooth.

Now begin with the parfait by first taking 4 tbsp milk and makign a smooth paste with the cornflour and leaving it aside and then thickening the milk with the ground dried rose .Mid-way while reducing the milk add the sugar and seeds from 3 green cardamom and then add the cornflour paste. Reduce to 1/3rd of the original amount . Strain it well.

Once the milk has been reduced let it cool down completely and in the meantime whip the double cream to soft peaks. Be careful when using double cream , I use a non electrical whisk and even I have over whipped double cream at times where it becomes watery to the stage of making butter. Whip the reduced milk and add the rose water and rose syrup and then  fold in the cream and freeze in an air-tight container. Whip it after 1 hour when its half frozen and do this 6 times every hour and then let it get frozen for 4 hours or better overnight. Enjoy this frozen treat