Beat the Heat with Buttermilk Popsicles?

A good and longtime friend shared recently about making buttermilk popsicles at home with family, using a recipe presumably which came from Steel City Pops, a trendy nouveau foodery in Birmingham, AL. And giving credit where credit is due, Alabama has some mighty fine eateries, and an amazing wealth in it’s diversity of food. As evidence of that fact, Chef Frank Stitt, owner of Birmingham restaurants Highlands Bar and Grill, Bottega Restaurant, and Chez Fonfon has been on the James Beard Foundation Award‘s radar for quite some time, and most recently, NPR recognized the excellent oysters produced by Murder Point Oysters using farming methods in that Bayou La Batre, Alabama Gulf Coast town, which were also feted by Chef Emeril Lagasse. Alabama food is a literal treasure of gastronomic proportion. And it’s not just limited to the holiest of holies… barbecue.
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Now, I confess an aversion to buttermilk except in cooking. And the reason, of course, is that I’ve tried it. And not just once. In fact, I recollect as a youth visiting with relatives in Mississippi one summer, and one of them – a kindly gentle adult male – was talking about how he’d like a bowl of cornbread mixed with buttermilk & some onion on the side. He was carrying on like it was the best thing since sliced bread and air conditioning in the sweltering Southern summer’s heated humidity.

Cornbread, crumbled up in a bowl of good, cool buttermilk, and an onion on the side. As I recollect, I was averse to buttermilk then, but listening to him describe it, and inquiring with him about it, I convinced myself to try it again… against my will, and better judgment.

He was, in retrospect, quite an understated and convincing salesman.

So, we went into Grandma’ Lilly’s trailer and Marvin reached into the oven, and pulled out a plate upon which a pone of her cornbread was placed. That’s how one stores cornbread, if it’s not all eaten at one meal. It just doesn’t do well in the refrigerator.

Marvin reached up into the cabinet and pulled down two bowls, into the drawer for two soup-sized spoons, into the pantry for an onion, and into the refrigerator for the buttermilk.

He peeled and sliced an onion, then placed it on a small plate along with a pepper, cut a piece of cornbread for himself, handed the knife to me, and said “cut as much as you want.” I watched as he then crumbled his cornbread into a bowl, poured buttermilk over it, roughly stirred the crumbled mixture, and then, after taking a piece of onion from the small plate, removed a heaping spoonful from the bowl and following a bite of onion, placed it into his mouth.

“Mmmm… mmm… mmm…” he mumbled though a mouthful as he approvingly shook his head side to side.

So, I followed suit.

So, I thoughtfully chewed it up, swallowed it, and maybe even took another bite, or two… just to confirm why I was I didn’t like it. After all, our tastes are subject to change, and first impressions aren’t always accurate. Don’t think I ran outside to throw up, nor did I rush to the sink to expectorate my mouth’s contents.

I hate buttermilk.

In my considered estimation, buttermilk is suitable exclusively for cooking purposes – none other.

Put another way, I hate drinking buttermilk.

It’s only good for cooking.

That being said…

Here are TWO recipe for popsicles using buttermilk.

Yeah, I know… bleargh!

BUT!

Look at these ingredients!

Tahini Buttermilk Popsicles

1 banana
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup Greek yogurt
7 Tablespoons agave nectar, divided
3/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

How to Make It

Blenderize banana, coconut milk, tahini, Greek yogurt, and 3 Tablespoons agave nectar on high speed until fully combined.
Whisk remaining ingredients until fully combined in a medium-sized bowl.
Pour alternating layers of tahini and buttermilk mixture into 3-ounce sized ice popsicle molds, starting and ending with tahini. Freeze until solid, at least 2 hours.
From: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/tahini-buttermilk-pops

Steel City Buttermilk Popsicles

Ingredients
2 cups buttermilk (I used Friendship 1% fat)
1 cup organic heavy cream
2 cups simple syrup (equal parts water and organic cane sugar)
1 vanilla bean, scraped
Dash of kosher salt

How to Make It

Make simple syrup by boiling together 2 cups water, 2 cups cane sugar, and vanilla bean for one minute.
Let cool. Syrup can be made hours or days ahead and kept in fridge.
Thoroughly mix buttermilk, simple syrup, heavy cream, and salt.
Pour mixture into popsicle molds.
Freeze at least 5 hours. (Your mileage may vary.)
From: http://www.familysavvy.com/gourmet-buttermilk-popsicles-steel-city-pops-copycat-recipe/