Today is our first day off in seven weeks. What that means is we have no guests, I could sleep in, and by noon today I was back in the kitchen working out ideas which have been lying dormant or at least buried for some time now. The first dish or base ingredient I began working with was an apple crisp ice cream. Not too far of a stretch there; apple crisp is often served with ice cream, so why not make it one? The stretch is this: the ice cream is going to be the base or medium for the wild char roe, which is now in season. We have made an apple crisp with aromatic spices and an oatmeal streusel topping. We baked off the crisp, I ate a bowlful, and the rest is cooked in heavy cream and milk. I pureed the mixture, chilled it down, and am going to churn it tomorrow. We will serve the ice cream with a large dollop of either the smoked or natural roe—that is the one variable—a young watercress salad and a spiced walnut brittle. A few other works in progress consist of biscuit ice cream, stuffing consommé, and roast chicken cotton candy. We shall see how they all work out.
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