Strawberry & Rhubarb Ice Cream

With the weather in England currently matching that of the Mediterranean I am rather enjoying lazing in the garden, reading a top selling novel (popular with most of the female population in England) recovering & looking back at what a fantastic week I have just had. 

Last week meant Graduation for many ... I think it is safe to say that Exeter does it in style. To start, we have Floella Benjamin as our Chancellor which means a hug, a kiss, (some face stroking for those lucky few!) & some vital words of inspiration at your graduation ... far more than your average handshake. I was impressed to learn that Floella was 62 years old. I was even more impressed when reading her accomplishments; firstly by the variety, secondly by her commitment to charity, the fact that she has run 10 London Marathons is no mean feat and thirdly by the fact that she appeared in 'Run Fat Boy Run', who'd of thought it. It appears that she really has acted on her own advice to graduates to "change the world." 'Changing' was one of the many words beginning with 'C' this week ... 

From Floella's inspirational four C's to live your life by:

Considerate, Content, Confident & Courageous. 

To the ones that Exeter provided this week on a daily basis: 

Ceremonies, Champagne, Canapés & Cupcakes

I don't know if any other universities have a week for their graduation but personally I don't think there is any other way to do it. A week to graduate, see your friends graduate, go out every night and explore what you haven't for three years in the day time. To sum it up, it was a week well spent with some of the greatest people I have met in my life. Oh, did I mention the incredible Graduation Ball at the end of the week ... it was for me a phenomenal night to finish of a extraordinary week and an even more extraordinary three years. 

So to strawberry & rhubarb ice cream, perfect for the summer weather, perfect to comfort the loss of university years & perfect to share with friends ...

Oh & I don't actually have an artsy farty photo of this bake as my family managed to demolish the lot before I had a chance to snap a shot. So thought the photo above was fairly topical of my rambles above ...

Makes roughly 1.5L

(will fill two carte d'or tubs roughly 3/4 full)

Freeze overnight

You will need the following:

Ice Cream Base

3 Eggs, separated

90g Caster Sugar

250ml Cream

1 drop of Vanilla Extract

Flavouring

200g Strawberries

4 inches of rhubarb finely sliced

2Tbsp Caster Sugar

Method:

In a pan boil the strawberries, sugar & add the rhubarb until reduced ... roughly 10 minutes

Until it looks a little like this. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in a bowl in the fridge

Whisk the egg whites until stiff

Continue to whisk with half of the sugar. Your mix should be able to hold in place off the beaters when tipped

 Add the other half of the sugar and eggs in a bowl

 Whisk until pale and fluffy

 Pour in your flavour to the egg & sugar mix. Leave to one side

 Using an electric whisk whip your cream

 Until it has a firm ribbon consistency ... do not over whip otherwise the cream will split

  Pour the yolk mix into the whipped cream

Stir in the flavoured yolk mixture to the whipped cream

 Gently fold in the egg white mixture to the flavoured yolk mixture

 Pour the ice cream into suitable freezer containers & freeze for one hour. After one hour fork through the ice cream mashing out all of the ice crystals

 Put the ice cream back in the freezer overnight & serve up on its own
or as an accompaniment to a summer pud ...

Enjoy ...