Artist’s Palate: Juergen Teller’s tobacco ice cream

The great thing about Juergen Teller’s photography is the intimacy he captures, even with the celebrities that, by rights, should be so distant from us. Whether it’s Victoria Beckham in a bag or Kate Moss in a wheelbarrow, Teller’s images tease us with the sense that they are our famous friends, too; larking about for our lens. But much of this is artifice. They are not his friends and nor is his favourite dish something he is likely to whip up chez Teller. Given the 26 egg yolks, liquorice extract and tobacco leaves, it seems much more likely that he has it made for him by chef Antonio Guida in the two Michelin-starred kitchen of Tuscan bolt-hole Il Pellicano, whose recipes just happen to be the subject of Teller’s latest book.

Ingredients

Coffee sauce
500g milk
300g double cream
100g Chikmagalur Karnataka coffee beans
9 large egg yolks
100g sugar

Liquorice parfait
17 large egg yolks
250g sugar
100g liquorice extract
3 sheets gelatin
1 litre double cream

Crystallised tobacco leaves
1kg sugar
12 tobacco leaves

Spiced pears
2tbs water
2tbs sugar
2 pears
½ vanilla bean
3 peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
mace
whole cloves

Method
For the coffee sauce, combine the milk, cream and coffee beans in a heavy saucepan and heat very gently. Do not boil. Meanwhile, combine the egg yolks and sugar and beat together until pale yellow and thick. Add the yolk mixture to the milk mixture and continue to cook over a low heat, never allowing the mixture to boil, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the mixture is thick and creamy. Remove the coffee beans and set aside to cool.

To prepare the parfait, make a pâte à bombe with the egg yolks and the sugar: place the egg yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk until very light and frothy. Meanwhile, make a syrup with the sugar and ½ cup of water. Bring the syrup to 121˚C. With the mixer running on medium speed, pour the syrup into the bowl in a steady stream until fully incorporated. Then whip until the mixture has cooled to just warm and doubled in volume. Whip in the liquorice extract and the gelatin. When the mixture has cooled, whip the cream to soft peaks and gently fold it in. Transfer the parfait to moulds and freeze.

For the tobacco leaves, make a syrup with the sugar and 2 litres of water. Add the tobacco leaves and simmer over a low heat for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 200˚C. Arrange the tobacco leaves in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 7 mins.

For the spiced pears, make a syrup with the water and the sugar. Peel the pears and transfer them to a sous-vide bag with the syrup and the spices. Steam for 40 mins.

To serve, slice the frozen parfait. Place a pool of the sauce on each individual serving plate. Cut the cooked pears in half, core them and place a pear half on each plate. Top with a tobacco leaf, a slice of parfait, another tobacco leaf, another slice of parfait and a tobacco leaf.