Journal

Blackcurrant and miso ice cream

It has been a good year for blackcurrants. I don’t even grow them and I have had a steady supply. Friends who have more than a couple of bushes are unable to keep up with the picking.

I love black currants, the sharp acidy fruitiness, the way they have almost too much flavour as though they are a concentrate - but they can be a bind to prepare. All those tiny bits of stem and flower to remove, the way they go mouldy if you don’t use them fast.

My solution was to try out this ice-cream, custard based for smoothness with a dollop of white miso added to the fruit pulp to round out the flavour.

It worked amazingly - a rich celebration of summer abundance. Like a frozen fruit fool and the most beautiful of colours.

You need

• 350g punnet of blackcurrants
• 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch salt
• 600g double cream
• 300g whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon white miso (to be honest all miso may work, I just happened to have white - I would add it in bit by bit and check the flavour)

Method

Step one

Gently heat the blackcurrants, sugar and salt so that the juice flows out and the fruit cooks but does not boil. Leave to cool. Either put the pulp through an old fashioned moulli legume or whizz it up and press through a sieve. Either way you just want the thick jelly like juice, without the skins and stems.

Step 2

Heat the cream, milk and sugar so that the sugar dissolves.

Beat the egg yolks and pour on the warm cream mixture, mix well and pour back into the pan.

Heat very, very gently - if you don’t have a controllable stove you might want to fashion a bain marie out of a pan and a bowl - stirring all the time until the mixture thickens and begins to coat the spoon. It should not curdle or clot. If it does don’t panic - just take it off the heat and pour through a sieve into a cool bowl, the curdled cream will stay in the sieve.

Mix in the tablespoon of miso and the fruit pulp and stir until it is completely combined.

Step 3

Churn in an ice cream maker or put into a tub and freeze, stirring vigorously every couple of hours until it is frozen.

You can get a downloadable PDF of the recipe here

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