Sheer yakh means cold milk, and in Kabul it was made in front of you. Through the summer, sheer yakh shops, tiled and bright, sold it to children on their way home from school. It is nothing but milk and sugar with a hint of cardamom, poured into a metal drum set in a bed of ice and salt and worked by hand, turned, scraped and whisked against the freezing walls until it thickens. So little air is beaten in that it comes out denser than Western ice cream, almost chewy. Serve it piled high and scattered with crushed almonds or pistachios.
Zone: Silk Road Table
INGREDIENTS
- 1 litre whole milk (well chilled)
- 200 g caster sugar
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- about 3kg ice
- 300 g coarse salt (for the ice)
- crushed almonds or pistachios (to serve)
METHOD
- Stir the sugar and cardamom into the cold milk until the sugar has dissolved. Chill again until very cold.
- Fill a large bowl with ice, sprinkle the salt through it and nestle a metal mixing bowl deep into the ice.
- Pour the milk into the metal bowl and whisk steadily, scraping the frozen layer from the sides and base and working it back in. Keep going, topping up the ice and salt as it melts, for 30 to 40 minutes, until the milk has thickened to a dense, stretchy ice cream.
- Serve straight away, piled into glasses and scattered with crushed nuts, or firm it up in the freezer for 30 minutes first.
NOTES
UK adaptation: Whole milk, the creamiest you can find; Jersey or Channel Island milk is ideal. A metal mixing bowl that sits inside a larger bowl. Plenty of ice and coarse cooking salt. Everything else widely available.
US adaptation: Whole milk, ideally non-homogenised from a local dairy. Rock salt and ice. Everything else widely available.
Cook’s note: Keep scraping the frozen layer off the sides and working it back in; that constant movement is what makes sheer yakh dense and elastic instead of icy. With an ice-cream maker: chill the sweetened milk overnight, churn it for 25 to 30 minutes until thick, then freeze for an hour before serving. A machine beats in more air, so the result is lighter than the hand-churned version.
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