Snow cones, shaved ice, slushies, raspa, kakigōri, patbingsu — a million names for it around
the world and a million variations, but the basic concept is some form of pulverized ice
that's flavored with some kind of syrup. Very easy and fun summertime dessert to make at
home, and I'm going to show you a few simple ways of doing it without buying a dedicated
ice shaving machine. I'm only using gear that I already had at home.
Fruit syrup. Whatever fruit you want into a pot. These are cherries. Strongly-flavored
fruits like berries or citrus usually work best. No need to pit or peel anything. Just
throw in a little water — at most enough to cover. Put the heat on high. And the water
is there just to keep the fruit from burning on the hot pan surface before it's had the
chance to release its own water. Then you just boil the fruit until it starts to fall
apart. A delicate berry might just take a coupe minutes. Cherries, like these, are more
robust — they took 20 minutes, but you can help things along by taking a masher and just
smushing things up a bit. If the pan ever starts looking too dry, too thick, stuff might
stick to the bottom and burn, so put in a little more water.
I think you want the fruit just soft enough that you can easily press all the juice out
of it. But if you cook it for way too long, it'll start to dull the flavor. So when it's
just soft, pull it off the heat. Get yourself a bowl of some kind and a fine sieve on top.
Pour everything in there, and this is why we didn't have to worry about pitting or peeling
anything. All the solids are going in the trash, though before they do, I'll grab a
stiff spoon and kinda grind them into the sieve. You'll be amazed how much more juice
you can get out this way.
Now, I'll take my little pot and rinse it out, just to get rid of any chunks I don't
want in my syrup. Back on the stove it goes, and in goes the juice. The quantity of sugar
you want is up to you and will depend on how sweet the fruit already was, how much water
you did or did not boil out — I think a roughly equal quantity of sugar is probably
the maximum of what you'd want, but be conservative. You can always just taste and adjust later.
Just bring that to a boil on high, get everything dissolved, and you'll know enough water has
evaporated and you've got about the right sugar concentration when the bubbles start
to stack on top of each other like that. That's a light syrup right there. Pull that off before
it bubbles over. When it's cooled a bit, you can very cautiously have a taste. That's got
enough sugar for me, but I think it needs more acid, so I'm gonna supplement the cherries
with lime juice.
Remember, we're using the syrup to flavor a completely flavorless substance — water
ice. So by itself it should taste way too sweet and way too tart. Mason jars are great
for storing this, but pour it in whatever. It probably should be covered and refrigerated
to be safe, and if you're in a hurry to use it, the fastest way to cool it down is in
a bowl of ice water. Just give it a stir every now and then.
Now, how do we make snow in our house? Let's try the food processor first. Dump in some
ice cubes from the freezer and pulse it a few times. Very loud. Look inside. As is typical
for food processors, there's a few large chunks that are just spinning around and not hitting
the blades. You could just toss those out, or keep pulsing it. But beware — eventually
the rest of the ice will start melting in there.
Put that into a little cup, and pour in some of our cherry syrup. It should look like not
quite enough syrup at first, because it'll keep slowly spreading through the ice as you
eat.
That's tasty, but the chunks are kinda big — like tiny pebbles.
Let's try the blender. Blenders are more narrow, they have smaller blades, and they often have
ice-crushing settings on them. See, that automatically pulses the blade. Very easy, and there's no
giant chunks escaping the blade. That's got a finer consistency, almost like natural snow.
That's definitely my favored of the two options. But what if you wanted something more like
Hawaiian shaved ice — wide, thin flakes? Well you could fill up a pan with water — the
wider the better. Throw that in the freezer for a few hours, and when it's good and solid,
you get it out and it's time to shave the ice, amirite?
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And I have tried many implements for shaving ice like this. But here's the clear winner
— a large steel chisel. Just remember whenever you cook with gear form the hardware store
to wash it thoroughly first. A tool like this comes coated in a non-food oil.
You just lightly scrape across the surface. Don't push too hard or you'll dig in and get
big chunks. It works even better as the ice starts to melt and the water serves as a lubricant
on the blade. Look at that. It's not as good as what you get from one of those ice shaving
machines you can buy, but those are still some pretty wide, delicate flakes. Lauren
was into it.
"The thing about it is, I always loved slush puppies as a kid, but they were so sweet that
they made your teeth hurt and made you feel kinda sick. And this is refreshing in the
same way, but way better."
OK, let me give you some ideas for other flavors you could do. Kumquats — delicious little
citrus fruit originally from China. A little more complex of a flavor than orange, and
more tart, which is good for this, and no need to peel or seed them or anything. Straight
in the pan.
Strawberries would be classic. They're delicate, so they'll cook soft really fast. But to make
their flavor a little more sophisticated I'll reach for rhubarb — looks like celery, tastes
like bitter citrus — classic complement to strawberries in dessert.
Blueberries — again, they'll cook real fast, and their pigment will be very intense in
a syrup. It might sound odd, but I think lemongrass is a fantastic compliment to blueberry. Chop
it up and in goes. And here's a fruit that I normally avoid: pomegranate. I avoid it
because it's just such a pain to eat. It's like the blue crab of the fruit world. You
gotta tear through so much structural matter to get to those juicy little jewels inside,
and even when you do, there's hardly anything edible on them. Like half the mass there is
a seed at the center of each one.
But if we're just making syrup with them, we don't have to worry about any of that.
That white stuff, the mesocarp, that can go in to. We'll just strain it out later with
all the seeds.
A little water in each pot just get them started, heat on high. Bring everything to a boil.
Those kumquats have a pretty robust skin on them, so they'll definitely need some help
from the potato masher. Go easy, they will squirt on you. Cutting them all in half before
you put them in would accomplish them same goal. Those blueberry skins are surprisingly
tough. A little mashy mash. Same deal with the pomegranates. And in contrast, the strawberries
turn to mush in just 5 minutes. They're done.
Strain and grind, return to the rinsed pan. Don't let any of those get too dry. If they
get too thick and concentrated, they'll stick to the bottom of the pan and burn in a flash.
Keep them topped off with water.
Blueberries — strain and grind, I swear that lemongrass works great with them. Return
to rinsed pan. Kumquats — give those a really good grind to make sure you squeeze all the
juice out of the skins. Back in the pan. Pomegranates — good lord, it's all seed. I don't know
how people eat these things. Poor yield.
Again, up to an equal quantity of sugar for each, but be conservative. You can always
add. Bring them all to a boil, get everything dissolved, and when the bubbles start to stack
up on themselves, you have syrup.
Give them all a taste. Remember that syrup can reach much higher temperatures than water,
so good lord, blow on that spoon first. The blueberry one really needs lime juice. The
strawberries need more acid too, but I'm gonna use balsamic vinegar. Might sound odd, but
that's a classic paring with berries. Really good.
By the way, if any of these colors aren't quite as vivid as you were hoping for, hey,
nobody has to know.
Pour them all into your glasses.
And into the snow we go. Notice the syrup is a little thicker — I refrigerated these
overnight. I find the colder syrup flows a little slower and therefore spreads more evenly,
instead of just falling to the bottom of the cup. It'll keep working its way down gradually
as you eat. I think the kumquat one is probably my favorite, but you know about me and acidity.
Once you have these syrups, you can do a lot of other things with them too. Mix them with
an equal quantity of club soda — easily convertible into a grown-up beverage. Drizzle
them on pancakes, dilute them with a bit of water and freeze them as popsicles, go nuts.
Or, don't make any syrup at all, and just pop open a can of sweetened condensed milk.
Some people pour this on water ice, some people use ice made of milk. I think it's great either
way, and I like the Korean way of doing it where they put lots of different garnishes
in the cup that you can dose out in different combinations. Sweet cream, cherries and snow.
That's a dessert a Roman Caesar would have eaten, and for us mere plebs in the 21st century,
a dessert like this is arguably a lot better suited to the home kitchen than, say, ice
cream.
Hey, have have fun, get creative, and have a great rest of your summer.