Comté Korea

Make the Comté ice-cream

1. Bring the milk and cream to the boil and remove from heat.
2. In a bowl, cream the egg yolk with the sugar and salt until pale and smooth, then pour over the warm milk and cream mixture, little by little, whisking as you go – gently at first, then more vigorously.
3. Tip the mixture into a clean saucepan and heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth custard which coats the spoon. (Be careful not to let the mixture boil; the temperature mustn’t rise above 83°C).
4. At this stage, remove the pan from the heat.
5. Add the grated Comté and let it melt completely. Cover with cling film and leave to cool.
6. When the mixture is completely cold, churn in an ice-cream maker.

Make the sujeonggwa foam

1. Peel the ginger and slice thinly.
2. Place in a saucepan and add 150 g water. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
3. Rinse the cinnamon, place the pieces in a separate saucepan and add 150 g water.
4. Bring to the boil and turn the heat down. Simmer gently for 40 minutes–1 hour. The colour of the water should change.
5. When the time is up, drain the ginger pieces, reserving the liquid in a bowl.
6. Repeat for the cinnamon.
7. Mix the two liquids together, in a saucepan, adding sugar according to taste, and heat for 10 minutes.
8. When the sugar has dissolved, reduce the sujeonggwa over a medium heat until you have around 30 g.
9. Cool in the fridge. Whisk the cream into the reduced sujeonggwa, pour into a siphon and close.
10. Charge with one or two cartridges depending how full your siphon is; tip upside down, shake and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours.

Make the pine nut crumble

1. Place the flour, sugar and ground pine nuts in a bowl.
2. Add the diced, chilled butter.
3. Working quickly before the butter becomes too soft, rub the butter into the other ingredients with your fingers until it has the texture of coarse sand.
4. Set aside in the fridge.
5. Preheat the oven to 170°C and bake for 10 minutes.

Make the French meringue

1. Preheat the oven to 83°C.
2. Place the egg white in a mixer bowl and whisk to soft peaks, adding a third of the caster sugar.
3. Add the rest of the caster sugar and continue to whisk for 1 minute.
4. Check that all of the sugar has dissolved.
5. When the egg whites are stiff and glossy, gently add the icing sugar and whisk again for 4–5 minutes.
6. The meringue should be smooth, very white and very dense.
7. Arrange the meringues on parchment paper and bake for 1½ hours.
8. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

To assemble

1. Release the foam from the siphon into a shallow bowl or plate and arrange a quenelle of ice-cream on top.
2. Sprinkle with pine nut crumble and a pinch of sea salt.
3. Grate the Comté over the ice-cream and top with the meringue.
4. Finish by sprinkling over the morel powder.