Grow and Eat Locally in Melbourne Derbyshire UK: Blackcurrant ripple

Welcome

This is an attempt to document my efforts to grow and eat locally around Melbourne, Derbyshire. My family own a nine acre smallholding on which we grow fruit and vegetables and keep bees, and chickens, but that won't feed us alone, so the idea is to get to know our local produce and to see how easy/hard it is to follow a diet that is local to within 30 miles. The fun part is also trying some new (easy) recipes that use home-grown and local produce. Feel free to comment, send in recipes, and share your experiences of buying and eating locally.

Tuesday 17 July 2012

Blackcurrant ripple

This recipe was in this week's Observer food monthly, courtesy of Nigel Slater, so I thought I'd give it a go for the summer fruit evening as it looked so easy. I suppose you could do a raspberry or strawberry version too.

An easy ice cream terrine requiring no ice cream machine.

Serves 6

For the fruit

blackcurrants 250g
sugar 2 tbsp
water 2 tbsp

For the ice cream

eggs 3
caster sugar 80g
vanilla extract a few drops
double cream 300ml

Line a loaf tin approximately 22cm x 12cm with cling film.

Remove the blackcurrants from their stalks, drop into a small saucepan and add the sugar and water. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and continue cooking until the fruit has started to burst and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool.

Separate the eggs, put the yolks in the bowl of a food mixer with the sugar and whisk till thick and creamy. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Whisk cream till thick but not stiff. It should still be able to slide a little in the bowl. Whist the egg whites and fold into cream. Fold the cream gently into the egg and sugar. Transfer to the tin.

Lightly crush blackcurrants with a fork then, holding back the juice, spoon the currants into the tin and gently swirl them through the mixture. Take care not to overmix. Fold film over the top and freeze for a good 6 hours before turning out and slicing