We make the yolk philosophy,
True beauty the albumen.
And then gum on a shell of form
To make the screed sound human.

Ice cream is our go-to dessert in this endless searing heat. Yet it’s a real challenge to make in this endless searing heat. One has to be fast when preparing it. One has to be fast when serving it. One has to be fast when eating it. But with locally-produced raw milk and cream infused with vanilla beans purchased on our recent trip to Zanzibar, whisked together with our fresh eggs and a little sugar, how can we not make it? In this instance I added a marbling of muchingachinga syrup which, with its zingy tartness, added a wild je ne sais quoi to the creamy vanilla ice cream. *Note: any sharp, colorful fruit will work well with this recipe.

Muchingachinga-marbled Ice Cream

Yield: about 6-8 servings

Ingredients:

Ice cream custard base (inspired by Skye Gyngell’s recipe)

• 450ml/ 2 cups cream
• 150ml/ 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1 vanilla bean
• 6 egg yolks
• 80g/1/2 cup caster sugar

Muchingachinga syrup

• 1 cup muchingachinga juice, extracted from about 2 cups fruit  
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 lemon, juiced

Method:

1. In a large saucepan cover the washed muchingachinga fruit with water, bring to the boil and cook until the fruit starts to fall apart. Remove from the heat, cool slightly, and transfer the cooked fruit into a sieve placed on top of a bowl. Using the back of a spoon, massage the cooked fruit in order to extract as much of the juice as possible. Discard the pulp and seeds and return the juice to the saucepan. Add the sugar and lemon juice and bring up to a boil, stirring regularly to dissolve the sugar. Once boiling, turn down the heat and simmer the mixture until it reduces into a thickened syrup consistency, about 45-60 minutes. Set aside and cool completely. (It’s a good idea to prepare the syrup a day ahead so it doesn’t delay your ice cream-making.)
2. Put the bowl from the ice cream-maker, a metal mixing bowl, and a container for the finished ice cream into the freezer.
3. Cut open the vanilla bean down its center lengthwise and scrape out all the seeds into a heavy-based saucepan. Mix in the cream, the milk and the bean itself, and place over a low to medium heat. Bring the mixture up to just below the boil and then remove from the heat. Discard the vanilla bean and set the mixture aside.
4. While heating the cream and milk, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and thickened. Pour the hot cream and milk over the egg mixture, beating while you do so.
5. Place the bowl with the custard over a saucepan of simmering water on the stovetop, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not sit in the hot water. Stir the custard in a figure of eight until it thickens, about 10 minutes depending on the heat (it should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon).
6. Take the mixing bowl out of the freezer. Remove the custard from the heat and pour into the bowl to cool, about 15 minutes. 
7. Pour the cooled custard into an ice cream machine and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you don’t have an ice cream maker, pour the cool custard into a container and freeze. After about an hour, check if it’s started to freeze around the edges, and if so, mash up the ice cream in order to break down the frozen bits. Return to the freezer, and continue to check the mixture on the hour. Keep mashing the ice cream as it’s freezing (an emulsion stick works well for this) until it’s frozen, about 2-3 hours depending on the efficiency of your freezer.
8. Remove the container from the freezer, and spoon about a third of the ice cream into it. Drizzle over half of the cooled muchingachinga syrup. Repeat the process until the container has three layers of ice cream and two layers of syrup. Using a blunt knife or skewer, lightly marble the ice cream. Cover the container and freeze for 3-4 hours, or until ready to serve.