Easiest ice cream

This evening involved yet more fun with rhubarb. (I am aware that this blog is turning into a rhubarb fest at the moment but that's all that's growing at the moment on our plot). However, it does also celebrate my first strawberries of the year. Not from the plot, but thanks to Waitrose, they are fairly local (just one county across).

The recipe is made super easy thanks to a simple no egg recipe, an ice cream maker and a mixer.

Now don't feel I'm already betraying my self defined thrifty ethos: we inherited the mixer from my lovely late mother-in-law, while the ice cream maker was payback from 15 years of American Express points. I originally hoped to have enough points to fly To New York and back by now, but as it is I think I have enough a one-way ticket to Belgium. So I decided to cash in and get the most fun thing I could have free with my points.

You could easily make this though by just freezing the mix in a tupperware box, and taking it out of freezer to stir at intervals.

Start by chopping the rhubarb into chunks and simmering it on low heat on the hob, with a splash of fruit juice (whatever you have to hand) and in the meantime hull half a carton or so of strawberries, chuck them into the mixer and give it a good whiz round. It makes a beautiful red purée.





Let the rhubarb cool, before it's added to the strawberry mixture. Then add 75 g of castor sugar, 200mls of double cream and whiz again.





Taste (mainly because it's delicious and you deserve a treat for all this effort!) and then simply pour into the running ice cream maker. Let the ice cream maker do the rest of the work about 20 min or so. The result is beautiful - the closest I've yet got to Sicilian strawberry ice cream (though Mr M will be final adjudicator of this). The rhubarb simply seems to heighten the strawberriness. In fact, if you live with a Rhubarb Rejector, you could possibly pretend it's just strawberry ice cream!



Eat immediately, or store in freezer.

Now I just need it to stop freezing outside and for the sun to come back out!

Stay sweet