Something Nice for Afterwards
Saw this guy on the telly, who made lovely sugar baskets in a jiffy. Tried and failed (must think about it and try again), so the good wife was being served the following on a plate rather than within a delicate sugar bowl:
Tipsy Fruit Tumbler and the Best Ice Cream. Ever.
Goes like this:
Make a pint of real ice cream by cooking a very rich custard from 6 free range egg yolks, half a pint of double cream, one vanilla pod and 80g sugar. Whisk until it has the desired custard consistency, then whisk in a cold water bath until cold, then freeze for six hours, turning over every 40 minutes. Aim for a pint of ice cream per three eaters (if greedy and enjoying life), four (if polite company) or five (if weigh-conscious women only).
(Ice cream making details are here, but be sure to use the proportions listed above.)
Wash and clean some blueberries and strawberries. Cut the larger strawberries in halves or quarters. Other “forest fruit” will also do. Peel and cut a pear into finger-tip sized pieces. Similar fruit, or no pear at all, will also do. Aim for a total of 500..600gr per pint of ice cream. Heat a non-sticking frying pan. Add a split-open vanilla pod, three stars of aniseed, and a cinnamon stick. Briefly fry the fruit until you can smell that they begin to go. Douse with 150ml of Kirsch Schnaps. Quickly add 50g of sugar, stir gently, remove from the heat, put in a jar and leave alone for at least as long as the ice cream takes. Ideally you can prepare the fruit one day earlier.
For experimentation, replace Kirsch Schnaps with Rhum, or add fresh mint when serving, or hot red chilly when making. One could also see no alcohol added at all, as the fruit will produce plenty of juice. Not tipsy any more though.
Serve fruit with ice cream. If you can master a fragile little sugar bowl, but it inside that bowl.
P.S. Not quite sure what the frying of the fruit does. It does get them started, so I thing of it as a way to express the soaking process. It certainly looked good on the telly…