Spiced Pumpkin Ice Cream

A couple of weekends ago I went down to our grocery store and saw some beautiful fresh pumpkin. It was lovely and plump and its ocher-orange color was so eye-catching. Pumpkin is one of my favorite veggies, so I couldn't resist buying a whole lot of it. 

I love pumpkin in just about any form- soups, salads, grilled with some garlic, salt and olive oil... the list goes on and on. But this time I thought... 'lets try something new...' And I decided on pumpkin ice cream. Something I have never tried. 

After some internet research I worked out a recipe and was quite happy with the results.

If you would like to try it out... here's the recipe

Pumpkin Puree

1 heaped cup of  chopped pumpkin

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 tsp pepper

Custard

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

1/4 tsp almond essence 

2 tsp corn flour

1/3 cup condensed milk

200 ml cream

200 ml whole milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp clove

1/2" piece of ginger (slightly crushed) or 1/2 tsp of ginger powder

In a bowl mix the pumpkin cubes with a drizzle of olive oil and salt salt. Warp the cubes in foil and bake in an oven preheated to 150 degrees Celsius till the pumpkin is soft and has started to brown very slightly. Remove from oven and cool. When the pumpkin is cool, puree in a blender with olive oil  and pepper until it forms a paste. 

In a bowl, beat the eggs yolks with the sugar until light and creamy. Add the golden syrup, almond essence and corn flour and beat once again. 

In a pan, heat the cream, milk and condensed milk with the ginger, cinnamon, clove until it is about to boil. Slowly add half of the hot milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture while constantly beating the mixture. Then pour this mixture into the remaining milk mixture and heat on a low flame until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Allow to cool to room temperature. Strain the mixture.

Combine the pumpkin puree with the custard and cool over night in the refrigerator. Churn cold custard in an ice cream maker as per manufacturer's instructions.

[Images- Shalini Pereira]