Endomela ice cream shop in Akko, Israel, and a recipe for a wonderful apricot sorbet

 
You'll find the recipe for this wonderfully aromatic and flavoursome apricot sorbet at the end of this post.  

Endomela is a play of three Hebrew words, Ein-Dome-La. The meaning? "Similar to none" or "Unlike no other". This is the name of a small ice cream parlour in Akko (known as Acre in English), a small town in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel. Akko was first mentioned on the tribute-lists of pharaoh Thutmose III in the 16th century BC, and is considered to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in this part of the world. A place with history indeed.

We visited Akko in the midday heat in the middle of the hot Israeli summer, so it was hard to grasp that the city is a home to some 45 thousand inhabitants. I guess that most of them were hiding in the safety of their cool and possibly air-conditioned homes and not wandering around the streets.

We were in Akko for a reason, of course. As we were exploring the culinary delicacies Israel has to offer, we had arrived to have a light lunch at a famous seafood restaurant URI BURI, meet the man behind the restaurant, Uri (Jeremias) Buri (pictured just below), visit his ice cream shop and enjoy a private tour of his recently opened beautiful boutique hotel Efendi and finish with a "light" tapas-style lunch at the hotel restaurant. I'll write about the fish restaurant and the hotel another time, today I'll give you a peek into his ice cream shop, the smartly-named Endomela.



Here's Uri Jeremias aka Uri Buri and me in front of his ice cream shop in Akko. American journalist Eric Westervelt described Uri Jeremias in his article for NPR.org as having stepped out of a Tolkien novel, with "his thick, long, elfish beard, ample paunch and mischievous smile". My 3,5 year old daughter is convinced that I was served ice cream by Santa Claus/Father Christmas himself :)

Uri (Jeremias) Buri had been making and serving ice cream at this fish & seafood restaurant for years, but as the restaurant's kitchen is tiny, he had to move out his ice cream business into separate premises. He opened Endomela within a short walking distance from his restaurant just over a year ago. In addition to a number of sweet sorbets, ice creams and frozen yoghurts, he also makes some intriguing savoury combinations. We had a taste of this wasabi-sorbet, served with smoked salmon, as well of arak-flavoured sorbet destined as a palate-cleanser between various fish courses at his restaurant. 



Uri scooping some of his lovely ice cream for us. (Photo by Noa Magger). We got to sample pretty much all the available flavours.


Endomela's ice cream selection. (Photo by Noa Magger).

All ice cream is made at the premises and in small batches. At the time of our visit, they were churning a very refreshing pineapple sorbet. My very favourite one was Endomela's mint ice cream - so fresh and minty, definitely not your regular beach-front chocolate and mint concoction (you can see it on the right on the photo above). Uri told us he uses a combination of spearmint "Nana" (Mentha spicata, Israelis call it sweet mint or nana) and the highly aromatic Emperor's mint or Roman mint (Micromeria sp)  to achieve the immensely refreshing and bright minty flavour.

The runner-up was Endomela's apricot sorbet. Yet pretty much everything else we tried was wonderful as well - cardamom ice cream, passionfruit sorbet, halva ice cream, lime and poppyseed frozen yoghurt - you name it.

I've made apricot ice cream before, but not apricot sorbet, and that's what I decided to replicate at home first. As the reigning king of all things ice cream and sorbet, David Lebovitz, was also taking part in our trip to Endomela, I decided to use his recipe as a base. I know David provides his recipes both in Imperial and Metric, but his starting point is still the pound and not a kilo, so I did some minor revisions (if I'd ask for 900 grams of apricots or 110 grams of chocolate chips in a store, I'd get very weird looks. While these amounts would make perfect sense to someone who's grown up with pounds and ounces, then 900 grams (2 pounds) of apricots and 110 grams (1/4 of a pound) of chocolate would make perfect sense. For us, it's a weird 100 grams less than a kilo and a funny 10 grams more than 100 grams, if you know what I mean). I also reduced the amount of sugar just a tiny bit, as the apricots I was using were very sweet and very ripe (ripeness and the amount of fruit sugar are related, you see).


The Bergeron apricots @ Marche de Saint-Antoine, Lyon, France. August 2009
 
My favourite apricots for making all kinds of desserts are the French Bergeron ones. This time I used a lovely Spanish alternative - dark orange, very sweet and just a perfectly slightly acidic. You may add more sugar or a dash of lemon juice to the sorbet mix, depending on the type of apricots you're using.

Apricot Sorbet
Slightly adapted from David Lebovitz's excellent book The Perfect Scoop
Makes about 1 litre



1 kg very ripe apricots (that's just over 2 lbs)
250 ml/1 cup water
200 ml/170 grams caster sugar (that's 1 cup minus 3 level Tbsp)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Split the apricots in half, remove the stones, and cut each half into thirds.
Place the apricot pieces and water in a medium saucepan, cover. Cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apricots are softened and begin to fall apart.
Remove from the heat, stir in the sugar and let the mixture cool to room temperature.
Once cool, pureé the mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth. Season with vanilla. Cover and chill thoroughly in the refrigerator, preferably overnight.
Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Similar posts:
Erin Zimmer of Serious Eats writes about Endomela: Snapshots from Israel: Uri Buri and his ice cream.
Other posts about my trip to Israel.
Other ice cream and sorbet recipes here on Nami-Nami.
More ice cream and sorbet recipes on David Lebovitz's blog.

* Disclaimer: I spent six days in Israel in late June/early July as a guest of a non-profit social start-up Kinetis, more specifically their Vibe Israel programme. This particular trip hosted five international food bloggers and writers, introducing them to the multifaceted and pluralist Israeli culture and cuisine. Visit to Uri Buri restaurant, the Efendi Hotel and the adjacent ice cream parlour Endomela in Akko/Acre in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel was part of that trip.

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Maple and mascarpone ice cream

It was Canada day few weeks ago (July 1st, to be precise, which happened to be a very hot summer day), and out of the blue, I wanted to make something Canadian to mark the occasion. My wonderful *Canadian* apple cake was out of the questions, as the apples aren't ripe yet. All other dessert options seemed either much more suitable for cooler months or I didn't have the ingredients. And then it hit me. Why not make a Canada-inspired ice cream? I know, I know, there's much more to Canada than red maple leaves and sweet maple syrup, but I cannot help to put an equation mark beween Canada and maple syrup.

I had a tub of mascarpone on hand, as I had planned to make a lovely honeyed mascarpone ice cream. I swapped honey with maple syrup and served the ice cream with some candied walnuts (photo below). I made another batch last weekend - and finished it off yesterday, garnished with some sweet-as-honey cloudberries.

Summer and ice cream go hand in hand, so do enjoy both of them while you can. I certainly will, especially after it dawned upon me last night that over half of the summer is already gone :O

Maple syrup and mascarpone ice cream
(Vahtrasiirupine mascarpone-jäätis)
Serves six to eight



2 large eggs
85 g caster sugar (100 ml)
100 ml maple syrup
250 g mascarpone, at room temperature
200 ml single cream (or double cream, see notes below)

Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick and pale. Stir in the maple syrup, then whisk in the soft mascarpone cheese. Mix until thoroughly combined, then stir in the cream.
Cool, then churn into an ice cream according to the instructions of your ice cream machine.

Enjoy straight away or let it harden in the freezer for about an hour or two.



Notes: If you haven't got an ice cream machine, then use whipping or double cream instead. Whip it to the soft-peak stage, then gently fold into the rest of the ingredients. Pour into the lidded box and freeze for at least 24 hours.

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Strawberry and sour cream ice cream

Favourite in July 2011

Sour cream is a staple in every Estonian kitchen, and local strawberries are abundant just now. So it's no wonder that I've resorted to making this excellent ice cream from David Lebovitz excellent Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments whenever a) it's hot and b) I crave ice cream. Always a crowd-pleaser and always delicious. Mind you, only if you use good-tasting strawberries, of course!

Strawberry and sour cream ice cream
(Maasika-hapukoorejäätis)
Yields about 1.2 litres (2 pints)
Slightly adapted from David Lebovitz's recipe


Favourite in July 2008

500 gram fresh strawberries
150 gram sugar
1 Tbsp vodka (keeps the ice cream from hardening too much)
250 g sour cream
250 ml whipping cream
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Rinse, dry and hull the strawberries. Slice them and toss them in a bowl with sugar and vodka. Stir, until the sugar dissolves, then let them macerate at room temperature for an hour. Stir every now and then.
Place the strawberries (and ALL the liquid from the bowl) into the blender container, add sour cream, whipping cream and lemon juice. Blend until smooth.
Refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour.
Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

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Caramelized Rye Bread Ice Cream (Condensed Milk Ice Cream)

Here's a super-simple ice cream with an Estonian twist. The caramelized rye bread lends a lovely slightly gritty texture (and I mean it in a wholly positive way) to the otherwise super-creamy ice cream, as well as a slightly earthy-tangy flavour.

The recipe works both with ice cream machine and without one - I've given instructions for both ways. Most importantly, there's no tricky custard-making bit, as the ice cream uses condensed milk as its base (that also means there's no danger of curdling :))

Here in Estonia, I simply buy a bag of ready-grated rye bread and caramelize it with some sugar. You can obviously use stale rye bread (preferably naturally leavened type), and grind it yourself. Or perhaps even try with those rye crisp breads (knäckerbröd) that are pretty universally available, smashing them into fine powder before proceeding.

K. isn't a great fan of ice cream, but he asked for this one after every single meal we had last weekend :)

Rye Bread Condensed Milk Ice Cream
(Riivleivajäätis)
Serves 8 to 10



400 g tin sweetened condensed milk
600 ml whipping cream* (35% fat content)
100 g grated rye bread
2 Tbsp caster sugar

First, fry the grated bread and some sugar on a dry hot pan for a few minutes, stirring regularly, until caramelized. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

If using an ice cream machine: pour the condensed milk and cream into a measuring jug and stir thoroughly. (* You can use half whipping/double cream and half single cream, when churning the ice cream in a machine). Pour into your ice cream maker and churn into ice cream according to the instructions. When almost done, fold in the cool caramelized rye bread, stir thoroughly. Pour the ice cream into freezer-proof container and place into the freezer for an hour or two before serving.

If you're not using an ice cream machine: whip the cream until soft peaks form. Pour in the condensed milk and whisk for another minute or two, until thoroughly combined. Fold in the caramelized rye bread mixture. Pour into freezer-proof container and place into the freezer for about 4-6 hours, until the mixture is frozen. As you're using whipped cream, there's no need to stir the ice cream during the freezing process.

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Home-Made Rhubarb Ice Cream Recipe

It's been raining non-stop for the last two days (or is it three now?), and the temperatures have dropped below 10 Celsius. That's quite sad, as the kids have all began their summer vacations and just last weekend the weather was hot, sunny and truly summery. Full of promise. That's when I made this rhubarb ice cream, to keep us cool in the heat. I really loved the creaminess that wasn't cloying, as the acidity of the rhubarb came through. Plus it had a rather nice colour, don't you think?

It's very easy to make, as you only need to whisk the egg yolks, and not turn them into a custard base. You don't even need an ice cream machine to make it, even though it's a lot easier if you have got one. (If you haven't got one, then read the instructions further down on how to make the no-churn version of this.)

Home-Made Rhubarb Ice Cream
(Rabarbrijäätis)
Serves six to eight



300 g young rosy-pink rhubarb stalks
4 Tbsp water
85 g sugar
200 ml whipping cream (35%)
200 ml single/pouring cream (10%)
3 egg yolks
2 tsp icing sugar/confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cut the rhubarb into thin slices. Place in a small saucepan with water and sugar, bring into a boil and simmer gently for about 10 minutes, until the rhubarb has softened. Cool and blend into a purée. (Look at the pretty colour of the purée below!)
Whisk egg yolks with icing sugar until pale and frothy. Fold in the creams and cooled rhubarb purée.
Place into the fridge for 1-2 hours, to cool the mixture thoroughly.
Then churn in your ice cream machine according to the instructions. If necessary, place in a bowl with a lid into the freezer to harden.



PS! If you haven't got an ice cream machine, then you can still make this ice cream. Use 300-400 ml of whipping cream instead of 200 ml of single and 200 ml of double cream. Whisk until soft peaks form, then fold into the whisked egg yolks together with the rhubarb purée. Place in a container, cover and freeze. (You may stir it couple of times during the next few hours, but it's not necessarily necessary). Take out of the freezer to soften about 20 minutes before serving.

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