About two years ago I saw Nigella making strawberry ice cream on ‘Forever Summer’ and I’ve been waiting to do the same ever since. The recipe is available on her site here.
I set off for the PYO farm in glorious sunshine only to find that by the time I made it to the centre of the field it was lashing it down. After scavenging a few raspberries, I called it a day and bought some ready picked strawberries in a punnet from the farm shop.
Making ice-cream is not difficult but it is quite an involved process and you need to have some time to nurse it through each of the stages. You will be more than amply repaid for the investment of time because it is actually quite a sensuous experience. From the sweet strawberry aroma when you slice the berries and douse them in sugar to the smooth, glossy texture of the custard nothing could be more pleasurable to cook in the kitchen.
Once made, you need to allow the custard to cool thoroughly before you can begin the freezing process.
Strawberries and custard about to become one luscious pink swirl.
Then into the tub for freezing. Now on the show Nigella asserts that you’re just 3 whizzes in the processor away from strawberry heaven. I dutifully removed the ice-cream every hour for the next 3 hours and smashed it up in the Magimix, which was pretty tiresome and I did manage to cover quite a lot of the work surface in ice-cream but the result is fantastic. I dare say that an ice-cream maker would have improved the final texture and made life much easier, but the taste is unsurpassed.
Perfect for cooling down in the current wonderful spell of sweltering heat.
I am submitting this for the ‘Forever Nigella’ challenge this month, which I have been intending to enter since last year but never managed to get round to.
Details of this month’s challenge, hosted by Cooking, Cakes and Children are here : http://www.cookingcakesandchildren.com/2012/07/forever-nigella-17-sizzling-summer/
All about ‘Forever Nigella’ can be found here at http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/forever-nigella/
Hmm I have a load of strawbs that didn’t make it in to jam today. Perhaps they will be ice cream tomorrow instead…
Beautifully written! I’ve always meant to make strawberry ice cream but not managed it yet. I imagine it’s much better than bought stuff. Thanks for taking part in Forever Nigella!
Thank you both for your comments. As my blog is still quite ‘new’ it is lovely to receive feedback.
and you inspired me – after a trip to the PYO today, i picked up Forever Nigella (forgive me for adding my link here…) http://recipe-junkie.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/pick-your-own-and-make-ice-cream-jam.html