Do this ice cream recipe only in early spring, or in the late winters where it is warm
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream
scant 2 cups milk
generous 1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
double handful of fresh oregano leaves, about 1/2 cup loosely placed in a measuring cup
black honey, preferably Greek — any really dark honey will do
sprigs of oregano from the very tips of the plants to garnish (Oops…I forgot!)
Method:
Make the crème anglaise. In a nonreactive pot, heat the milk, cream and sugar just barely to the boil. Turn off the heat, stir in the oregano, cover and let cool to room temperature, about 3 hours. Do not steep the herbs for more than 6 hours.
Strain the oregano out of the cream mixture and return to the heat. Lightly beat the egg yolks, and when the cream mixture is just at a boil, turn the heat down.
Add a small ladleful of the hot cream to the egg yolks to temper them, stirring the yolks constantly. Do this until you have several ladleful in the egg bowl. Now pour the contents of the egg bowl into the hot cream. Stir well, turn the heat up to medium, and when you see the faintest boil turn off the heat.
When the crème anglaise is cool, strain it again to get out any lumpy bits, then pour into your ice cream maker.
Only use the freshest oregano and the finest individual ingredients.
Hank’s Fig Syrup
Ingredients:
1-2 pounds ripe figs (I reduced this amount.)
zest and juice of 1 lemon
sugar to taste (I didn’t need any)
Method:
Chop the figs well, add the zest and juice of the lemons and simmer over medium-low heat for 2-3 hours. You want everything to break down and be a mush. (It didn’t take that long when I did it.)
Turn off the heat and push the fig mixture through the fine plate of a food mill. If you don’t have a food mill, you could use a drum sieve or a fine colander. But a food mill is best.
After everything is through the food mill, pour the fig mixture into a jelly bag if you have one — Hank didn’t, so he used a clean spare undershirt — and push everything through. (I ignored this and just pushed everything through a sieve. My syrup looks more like a sauce than Hank’s, but we loved it just the way it was.) You will leave a lot of good stuff in the bag, but it’s the price for a clear syrup.
Taste for sugar and add, if necessary.
By Moveable Feasts.
Thanks for inspiring us!
You can see the recipe here: moveablefeastscookbook.blogspot.com
