Ice-Cream Sunday

Ice-Cream Sunday 3: Gooseberry and Elderflower Ice-cream

1/06/2007 03:07:00 PM















I love gooseberries. They taste so good! Mini kiwi-fruits without the hairy exterior. A burst of delicious flavour in every bite. It just sucks that they're hardly in season here, and when they are, they're incredibly expensive! I needed 3 punnets for this ice-cream, at $5 each. Gasp! I actually made it a few weeks ago, during the short gooseberry season, and have had it in the freezer just waiting for a day like today.

I ate a bowl of it today in the afternoon, to try and get a respite from the oppressive heat and humidty that seems to have gripped Melbourne. It was very light, tart, and refreshing. A little too tart; I had to sprinkle castor sugar over the top to make it more palatable. It did, however, have a fabulous texture. I've found that fruited ice-creams tend to be a bit icier and harder than the creamy ice-creams, but this one had a good scooping texture. (I also managed to let it sit out on the bench for a good half hour before digging in, which helped).

The recipe is Nigella's, from Forever Summer. It is made of 3 parts. The first is a purée of gooseberries, elderflower cordial and water, which you cook on a low heat until the berries collapse; the second part is a custard made with single cream, caster sugar and egg yolks; and the third part is a tub of double cream. You just fold all the parts together (making sure they're nice and cold first), and then churn it in an ice-cream maker, before putting in the freezer to freeze completely. Just a little hint: the mixture tastes absolutely heavenly (even better than the finished product, in fact), so save yourself a decent amount for scraping out of the bowl, the saucepan, the spoon, the churn...

The recipe makes a generous litre.

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1 comments

  1. Sarah!

    Last night I had an eating epiphany, and I'm telling you because...well, I knew you would understand!

    I never ate pasta when i was growing up (too much revolting spag bol around) and I'e only just recenty got into it because some friends make some really nice homemade pasta.

    Until last night, the idea of eating 'plain' pasta made me sick, but forced with no other option, I had penne with olive oil, parmasan, chill flakes and oregano, all covered in sea salt. I also added your red onion dealy from a few weeks back.

    It was DEVINE!!!!!!!

    How could I have not known about this before??? I will now eat nothing but pasta in this fashion!

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