Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Fresh figs and my first ice cream


My birthday is in August. This year, on that day, to celebrate here at home I made fig ice cream. My first ice cream had to be with figs! I love figs, especially fresh. I cannot resist them and I end up eating almost always not two, not three but four or more, one after another.

This year, the production of figs in the backyard of my parents was not at its best and consequently, to my regret, I haven't picked as many figs as I did in other years. Here, at home, figs are usually used fresh in salads, sandwiches, cakes and jams. Fresh, grilled and even fried, they always turn out to be wonderfully delicious.

Last year I received an ice cream making machine as a gift from my in-laws. Time passed, moving from one house to another, packing up, tidying and and other higher priorities activities made me not putting my desire to make ice cream in practice.


Ingredients:
16 to 18 fresh figs ("pingo de mel" type)
125g sugar
125ml water
zest of one small lemon
600ml cream
4 tablespoons lemon juice


1. Remove the stems from figs and cut the remaining to pieces.

2. Place the figs in a saucepan with the sugar, water and the lemon zest. Bring to medium heat for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the figs and water is reduced. Let it cool.

3. Place the figs, the cream and lemon juice into a blender. Whiz until thoroughly mixed.

4. Place the mixture in the ice cream making machine according to manufacturer's instructions.


This fig ice cream recipe is from Gordon Ramsay and is published in The Times. The cream I used had only 35% fat but the original recipe suggested to use 48%, what the British call double cream. I am not sure if it was the reason that it didn't turn out to be as creamy as I was expecting. I think I was "ill accustomed" after going on a trip to Italy, where almost every ice cream was fabulous. But even so, in the end of the meal, there wasn't any ice cream left.

[ Originally published in Portuguese as Figos frescos e o meu primeiro gelado ]

2 comments :

  1. whoa, i've never eaten fig ice cream before, sounds yummy!
    i'll keep this in mind the next time i spot figs.
    greetings from germany!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jennifer,

    fig ice cream is very good. Try it.

    Greetings from Portugal.

    ReplyDelete