Sunday 26 August 2012

Fig and Marsala Ice-cream

Apologies for not blogging for a (very very very) long time! So hear is an especially tasty recipe.

I stayed in a region of Catalunia- near Perpignan, France- for two weeks during mid-August. Whilst  exploring a night time market in Céret, I came across a tiny stall selling figs and mini raspberries for a decent price of €2.50 a punnet. Unfortunately, the figs were relatively overripe, and a few already had slight alcoholic flavours in them, therefore I found it impertinent to use them and preserve their flavour as soon as possible.
As we were due to return to England only a few days later, we had various other items in the kitchen that needed to be used up. Essentially this recipe is just using bits and pieces from the fridge, so it is an ideal one to adapt to the ingredients you have available.

Recipe

an overripe punnet of figs
half a large tub of crème fraîche
a pot of crème Anglaise (French custard) 
a few spoonfuls of greek yoghurt
5 tablespoons of marsala wine

Cool your ice-cream maker, or put a tub in the freezer.
Blend the figs into a pulp (I find when you have bits, it can be quite nice).
Once the figs look like a coulis, add the marsala wine, and blend again to evenly mix.
In another bowl, cream the crème fraîche, crème Anglaise and greek yoghurt into a smooth consistency, and then dribble in the fig/marsala liquid. Stir together until you have a purple liquid.
Pour into the ice-cream maker and leave to churn, or into the chilled tub and stir every now and again.
Serve with figs or biscuits- I used a bit of loaf cake.

To create fig and marsala ripple ice-cream, do not stir the fig/marsala liquid into the cream mixture once it has been poured in.
Add fig jam for extra flavour.