Labourious Love: Fresh Strawberry and Orange Ice-cream

I have been really lazy here on the blogging front! I delayed this valentine’s treat of laborious tale of love till 15^th Feb... But I have a valid point; I made it for my valentine’s special dinner. So, I am blogging about it right today, past the D-day!! And anyways, with v day falling on a week day, not a lot of couples were able to celebrate it together. So, this can be a wonderful smear-and-lick-project for the valentine’s weekend coming up.

An ice cream machine is a useless investment in my opinion. In the ever decreasing size of housing in this century, I find no space for a bulky machine which is to be used for just a day in a whole year. So I never really missed having it in my kitchen. And anyways, making it in the classic way, the way it was made in the earlier days when machines were a rarity, adds an adventurous fun to the whole episode. And moreover, divide the labour between both u guys, the men would be happy to do the heavy weight whisking, while women can happily chop away the dainty strawberries. This way or that way, this is the perfect way to celebrate the labour of love. The ingredients are super simple and you can add or subtract any of the flavouring fruits as per you wish!

Ingredients: 

 4 Egg Yolks

1/3 cup of Granulated Sugar
200gms of Light Cream (we get pretty much only one brand, and sadly that is all that I can use.)
Zest of 1 orange

500 gms fresh strawberries, chopped in small pieces.

Method:
Refrigerate the cream for a while to aid whipping.

Fill a saucepan with one inch of water and bring to a simmer over low heat.

In a metal or heat-proof glass bowl (one that fits over the saucepan), whisk together the egg yolks and sugar with a handheld whisk for about 3 minutes or until thick and pale in colour.

Place the bowl over the pan with the simmering water (very important that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water) and cook the custard while constantly whisking for about 10 minutes.

Once cooked, remove from simmering water and fold in the zest of an orange. Let it stand and cool on the counter.

In another bowl, put in the cut pieces of strawberries, and let it sweat out. We don’t want water in our ice cream, as that will make it frosty. In fact I had put in some raw pieces of strawberry and regretted it big time.

Now in a large bowl, add in the cream and whip it for about 10 minutes or until it develops slight stiff peaks.

Fold the heavy cream, custard mixture and strawberry compote together, taking precaution not to lose the fluff of whipping cream. Pour the batter in an air tight box, and place it in the freezer for 8 o 10 hours or until set.

Remove from the freezer and serve immediately!

Cheers!!