Last week, John and Kevin took off for a father/son trip to Silicon Valley, which is a computer geek's Mecca of sorts. While they were gone I was a little lost. How did I get to 42 years old and never be alone for a week, ever?
Soon I also realized that I had a fridge full of food that there was no hope of me consuming before it all went rotten so it was time to hit the kitchen. One of the best ways to use up a lot of food that you don't want to waste is to invite someone over for lunch, which is exactly what I did.
What was on the menu? Pizza (crust recipe here) topped with chipolte maple chicken, salad, and home made apricot ice cream.
Home made ice cream is amazing. I've written before about my love of my Cuisinart ice cream maker, but don't worry if you don't have one; David Lebovitz has a great article about making home made ice cream without a machine. Whether you make ice cream from scratch because someone in your family has allergies or you're trying to avoid processed food, we found that home made is really hard to beat. Throughout the summer, I try to always have a flavour in the freezer. With all the in season fresh produce it just seems logical to try almost everything in an ice cream!
So far my family's favourites are Guinness chocolate, mango sorbet, vanilla bean, strawberry buttermilk sherbet, and this one. Make sure you buy some really ripe apricots, because they will have the best flavour. This ice cream is not overly sweet, instead it has a little bite of tartness to it.
Ingredients:
1 pound ripe, fresh apricots
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
few drops lemon juice
Directions:
Pit the apricots and slice each one into about six pieces. My apricots were massive-so big, in fact, that I only needed three to make a pound, so I sliced them up a little more. Put the apricots in a non-reactive small pot and add the 1/2 cup water. Bring them to a simmer, then turn down the heat and cover. Simmer them for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Mine completely fell apart and created a sauce, pretty much. Stir in the sugar until it dissolves and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Once your sauce is cooled the rest is pretty much a no brainer; dig out your blender and pour in the apricots. Give it a whirl until it's all pureed. Now get a spoon and take a taste. You don't want any stringy pulp in your puree, so if there are some fibres you may want to pour your apricot mixture through a sieve to remove them. Mine was so well cooked that there weren't any.
Next, add the whipping cream, vanilla, and lemon juice to the blender with the apricot puree and give it a whirl until it's all blended. Put the mixture into the fridge and chill for a few hours until good and cold.
Process the mixture in your ice cream according to the instructions. Transfer the churned mixture to a sealed, airtight container and put in the freezer until it's firmed up.
Makes 1 liter
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop
