My Morning Chocolate

Tracy is not my favorite character, but I'm hoping she gets a good storyline this season.

This is the end of the Heroes meals, and we’re going out with my least favorite character: Tracy. Tracy came in to Heroes in Season 3 (before that, Ali Larter played Niki, Tracy’s twin sister who died trying to save someone in a fire).

Tracy can turn anything to ice. If she’s angry and grabs on to someone, they’ll die, freezing first and then cracking into shards of ice. The writers haven’t figured out what to do with Tracy yet. She was written out of Season 3 early: after saving her nephew Micah, Niki’s son, she is shot and supposedly dies.

At the end of Season 3 preview for Season 4, it looked like Tracy would be a bad guy this season, killing everyone who had wronged her in the past (check Tracy’s Heroes Wiki if you’re curious – the history would be too confusing to go into). However, her killing spree was resolved in Episode 1.

So it seems the writers still don’t know what to do with Tracy. But I think they are going in the right direction. She’s been paired with some interesting characters this season.

For Tracy, I made Chestnut Ice Cream with Chocolate Grand Marnier Sauce. Ice cream is an obvious choice for her (she does turn things into ice), but I picked chestnuts because I don’t think people know what to do with them anymore. They’re a lot of work, but they come out well in this ice cream. It’s a good storyline for the chestnut. I hope it’s the same for Tracy this season.

Roasting Chestnuts

Fresh chestnuts have a hard shell and a papery skin, both of which need to be removed.

Before you can make chestnut ice cream, you need to roast fresh chestnuts. This takes some time. Here is the process with my notes (visit epicurious.com for a more succinct description of roasting chesnuts):

1) Preheat oven to 350º.

2) Cut an X through the flat side of each chestnut. Make sure you pierce through the outer shell (this is not easy. I kept feeling like my knife was going to slide, piercing through my skin along with the chestnut skin).  Soak the chestnuts in a bowl of warm water for 15 minutes.

3) Place chestnuts in a single layer on a pan and roast for about 20 minutes. The shells will begin to curl in the oven, making them easier to peel off.

4) Cool and peel with a paring knife (I used my fingers and dug through the skin. If you go this route, you can wear protective gloves if you like. You can also slice the chestnut in half, making it easier to grab onto the skin. For this recipe, the chestnuts will be chopped up anyway).

Steps 2-4: Cut an X in the chestnut, roast them, pull off the outer shell

After blanching and cooling your chestnuts, remove the skins with a paper towel. Then you're ready to use the chestnuts.

Chestnut Ice Cream with Grand Marnier Sauce and Toasted Coconut

Once roasted, the chesnuts’ texture reminded me of an undercooked potato.  They also have a mild flavor, which won’t be overwhelming in the ice cream.  I made chestnut ice cream by combining a recipe for chestnut ice cream on epicurious.com (originally printed in Gourmet) and a recipe for gelato on pickyourown.com. But first, you need to roast the chestnuts.

1 cup chestnuts
1 ¼ cups skim milk
2 ¼ cups skim milk
1 cup sugar
¼ cup nonfat powdered milk
8 egg yolks
1 cup + 1 tbsp half-and-half
1 tsp vanilla extract

1) Finely chop chestnuts and cook with 1 ¼ cups milk at a bare simmer in a large heavy saucepan, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Purée in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids).

2) In a large pot with a heavy bottom, mix the milk, sugar, and powered nonfat dry milk. Bring the mix to a slow simmer over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar, then turn the heat down and just keep it warm.

3) Separate the egg yolks from 8 large eggs. Put the egg yolks in a medium bowl and whisk until they are thickened (it only takes about 2 minutes).

4) While constantly whisking, slowly add 1 cup of the milk mixture and whisk until it is blended (a few seconds).

5) Then pour the egg mixture and chestnut mixture back into the pot of hot milk and increase heat to medium. Stir the mixture constantly with a wooden or plastic spoon until the mixture is thickened (like gravy) and registers between 170ºF and 180ºF.

6) Here you might have some lumps of chestnuts that weren’t fully puréed in the blender. Pass the mixture through a strainer at this point.

7) Stir in the half-and-half and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

8) Process in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Chocolate Grand Marnier Sauce
Visit the epicurious.com website for the chocolate grand marnier sauce recipe. I used half-and-half instead of heavy cream.