A sweet treat full of flavours that will take you on a journey to my home country – Lebanon.
Story
October may seem like a strange time to talk about ice cream, but it’s definitely when I crave it the most. If you’re not able to whisk yourself away to colourful lands then I would recommend taking a visit to Festok in Marylebone. You may have spotted them in Harrods & Harvey Nichols serving flavours you may have never heard of such as Achta (is literally the ‘creme de le creme’ of pastries of the Middle East), Osmalieh (rose and orange syrup dessert), Halva (sesame candy), Meghli (rice pudding). Well here is my favourite one; Pistachio, inspired by the only Lebanese artisan ice cream parlour in London, and lucky me they’ve been in my neighbourhood since 2017.
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups milk (do not use low-fat or nonfat)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
4 large egg yolks
1 cup whipping cream
3/4 cup unsalted shelled pistachios, toasted, coarsely chopped
Method
- Finely grind 1 cup pistachios and 1/4 cup sugar in a processor. Bring milk and ground pistachio mixture to boil. Remove from heat. Mix in almond extract.
- Whisk egg yolks and remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a separate bowl. Gradually whisk in hot milk mixture. Return custard to saucepan. Cook over low heat until custard thickens and leaves path on back of spoon when finger is drawn across, stirring constantly, about 10 minutes (do not boil). Strain into large bowl. Chill until cold, about 2 hours.
- Stir 1 cup whipping cream and chopped pistachios into custard. Pop it into an ice cream maker and freeze.
