It is difficult not to become immersed in Japanese culture while playing Yakuza 4. From the setting, characters, and even the food options in the game you can’t avoid the feeling of being in Japan. A few times now, I’ve loaded up the game just to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere (also to play the hilarious karaoke mini game). I’ve also found myself walking from restaurant to restaurant to see all the delicious meal options from the game. There is a small ice cream shop found in Kamurocho that sells several flavors of ice cream. At the front of the shop there is a lovely poster of what appears to be green tea ice cream. Unfortunately, when you walk into the shop it isn’t one of the options. Sad at this point, I decided to fix the lack of it by making myself some green tea ice cream.
I love anything green tea flavored. I have not been disappointed by the flavor and try to include it in as many things as a I can. With the weather still being hot and humid here in Texas, ice cream has been my go-to dessert. After having green tea ice cream several times at Japanese restaurants I had to figure out how to make it for myself. After a bit of testing and lots of tasting I figured out a recipe that I’m very happy with. This ice cream taste intensely like green tea so if you aren’t huge on that flavor this isn’t the ice cream for you.
Required Equipment: sauce pan, bowl, whisk, ice cream maker, container to store ice cream
Ingredients:
– 1 ½ cups heavy cream
– 1 cup milk
– 3 ½ tbsp matcha (green tea powder)
– ½ cup sugar
– pinch salt
– ½ tsp vanilla extract
In a sauce pan, over medium heat, combine milk, heavy cream, sugar and salt. Stir together and bring to a light simmer. Add the matcha through a mesh strainer. This will make the matcha powder finer and it will avoid clumping as you whisk it in.
Stir the matcha in the liquid until completely mixed in. Once all the matcha has been added, place the liquid in a bowl and stir in the vanilla extract. Place in the refrigerator and chill for at least three hours.
Finally, follow the instructions on your ice cream maker and make some delicious green tea ice cream! This ice cream stores well in the freezer for about two weeks. Before serving, I recommend taking the ice cream out of the freezer for a half hour. The ice cream will soften up a little bit and be easier to scoop out.
